Playing Scoot and A New Unit... Frog and Toad Together

If you haven't played Scoot in your classroom, you need to!  I introduced this game to my firsties last week and they love it.  They loved it so much they are ready to play everyday!  How to play Scoot:  I taped task cards (we used the task cards from my "Class Pet" unit) onto their desks and numbered each card. Then we numbered our papers 1-10 and grabbed a buddy.  I positioned each pair of students at a desk with a card.  They wrote the answer by the corresponding number on their paper.  After a minute or two I said, "Scoot" and they moved to the next number.  Easy peasy and so engaging!  Take a look at them playing Scoot!

I  created new activities for the Scott Foresman Reading Street Unit 3 story, Frog and Toad Together.  You can get the whole unit HERE.

If you want to just pick up the Frog and Toad craftivity you can grab it here: 

 Frog and Toad Craftivity

Happy MLK Day! A Freebie and New Activities for Reading Street

I have a freebie to celebrate MLK and our day off!  

Fact and Opinion Anchor Chart

I spent a portion of my weekend creating new literacy center activities and more for the Reading Street Unit 3 story, The Class Pet.  If you use the older version of Reading Street it would be Jan's New Home.  I think that the majority of the material could easily be used for the older version too.  Go check it out!

Teacher's Notebook or Teachers Pay Teachers

Hope everybody is enjoying their day off!  I know I am! ;0)

Firsties and Scootpad

Don't be jealous.....but I have Ipads for each firstie in my class.  :0)  So....today I finally put everyone on scootpad.  I had been using it with some of my kiddos but not all of them.    I love it because it is a great way to differentiate math and reading practice...plus it's FREE!  Even if you don't have ipads in the classroom you can still access it via your classroom computers. Scootpad would be a great option for a center.  I think starting tomorrow this will be our new morning work...no more copies and no more checking accuracy.  Scootpad scores it for you. Love it!  Take a peak Here.  

Rainy Days and Mondays.....

What a rainy day!!!!!  I was determined that today would be a great day....and it was!!!! Even though I spilled my entire glass of diet Dr. Pepper as I opened my classroom door first thing this morning! 

Daily Five has truly changed my way of thinking...If you haven't read the book go get it now. Our morning goes by so fast and we are so immersed in reading and writing.  I am following the model in the book where we meet several different times for whole group  and then break up for Daily Five after each whole group meeting.  My firsties are becoming such independent learners and it truly is amazing.  Here are a few pictures of them "writing the room."  It was one of our whole group meetings.  They were searching for verbs.

We also finished up our Tackylocks and the Three Bears craftivity.  They look so cute hanging in the hallway.  Just ignore the fire alarm in the middle...we just work around it. :0)

Kind of...Sort of...New Materials and a FREEBIE

I have decided to offer the materials in my penguin unit separately.  Here they are:

Fun With a Penguin Glyph

TEACHERS NOTEBOOK       TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

Tackylocks and the Three Bears Common Core Book Study

Teachers Notebook   Teachers Pay Teachers

An Emperor Penguin Scrapbook

Teachers Notebook    Teachers Pay Teachers

Last but absolutely not least...I have a great Freebie for you guys.  Here is a copy of my Grab Bag of Goodies for First Grade Reading.

Go HERE to get your copy. :0) Enjoy!

Test Prep, Test Prep and Oh Yea....Penguins!

I love days that are packed with all kinds of activities and today was one of those days.  We are preparing for our STAR reading and math assessments for next week so we have been busy, busy preparing for those.  We have been doing lots of mini lessons to help us do our best!!!  They are such troopers!  Not only are we preparing for STAR but we also had benchmark testing in DIBELS this week...whew....can you say worn out?  Anywho, we are also reading A Place to Play this week in Reading Street.  Here are a couple of pictures of some the activities we have done.

Note to self:  Take the picture before you laminate!!!  Anyway the anchor chart isn't wrinkled. :0(  Love the story, Mr. George Baker.  Read it today with my firsties and filled out this plot anchor chart.  Such a sweet, sweet book.  Would be great to read again on the 100th day when they do their "100 year old me" craftivity.  

The story board and sequence graphic organizer are works in progress but I wanted to share them with you guys.  

Both of these activities are included in my newest packets. The Reading Street version is HERE or HERE.  If you want a generic version that can be used at anytime for reading you can get it HERE or HERE.  

Later this afternoon....after lots of math....we squeezed in a page for our penguin scrapbook.  

It kind of blew their mind that I didn't give them patterns for their "mommy penguins."  I wanted to see what they could create and I must say I have quite a few budding artists in my class.  Love how these turned out!  We used the wegivebooks.org Emperor Penguins book to help find the facts.  Here is a picture of the page pulled up on my smart board.  

The penguin scrapbook can be found in my penguin unit HERE or HERE.  It also includes a penguin glyph and a book study based on Tackylocks and the Three Bears. 

A Grab Bag of Goodies for First Grade Reading

I tweaked my activities that I am using this week for Reading Street.  It is now more general and can be used with any story you are teaching.  The unit includes the following:

• Plot anchor chart: print poster size or use it for mini anchor charts for the kids to make.
• Sequence Graphic Organizer
• Stamp a Word Recording Sheet
• Spelling and Sight Words List to post in Word Work area…laminate so lists can be changed weekly
• Write the Room – Open ended…you decide what you want the students to find
• Antonyms
• Synonyms
• Spelling Practice Tests…My firsties will choose a buddy and give each other the spelling test. They love this!!!
• Fluency Recording Sheet: Read with a buddy and the buddy records words read per minute
• Story Board for Writing
• Rough Draft Page for Writing
• Final Draft Page for Writing
• Illustration page for final draft

I am using some of the materials in my Daily Five Stations. I use the writing materials in Writing. Stamp a Word is in Word Work. The Spelling Practice Test and Fluency Recording Sheet are in Buddy Reading.  

Did I tell you that I LOVE DAILY FIVE?  Well, I do!!!!!  It is making a huge difference in my classroom.  Just today I was listening in on a couple of my firsties at Word Work...and they were quizzing each other on how to spell different sight words.  That'll make a teacher's heart swell with pride!!! :0)

Grab it HERE or HERE.

New Story in Reading Street

I know lots of us use Reading Street for reading instruction.  My district adopted the new 2012 version of Reading Street this year.  Until now I have been able to mesh the old with the new....well this week we have a new story...so I have created supplemental material to help out!  I thought that maybe some of you could use it also.  Here is a freebie from the unit.

You can get it HERE.

You can get the whole unit at TEACHERS NOTEBOOK

or at TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS.

 I hope this helps if you are transitioning to the new edition!  I am working on converting this unit into a generic unit that could be used with any reading series. Stay tuned if you don't use Reading Street.

Penguins and a Sale

Just a  quick note....the grocery is calling my name. :0(  Pretty sure my teenagers may waste away if I don't get some food into this house! :0) 

We started our penguin unit yesterday and their scrapbook book covers are delightful!!!  I tacked them up onto a bulletin board. Not only does it look good, but it keeps everything neat and organized.  Every day we will add a new page to the scrapbook.  I will just slip the paper into the cover and tack it back to the bulletin board.  No sorting papers!  When we finish the unit I will take the books down and bind them.  Easy peasy!

In honor of my firsties starting this fun unit I am putting it on sale starting today and ending on Tuesday.  Grab it HERE or HERE. 

Routine is Good....Right??????

Well that was a short break!!!!!  We went back to school today and I must admit it was good to get back into a routine.  We had a great day filled with lots of activities.  Since this week is only two days we didn't start a new story in Reading Street.  I really wanted to jump back into reading though because DIBELS testing starts next week.  I also wanted to get back into the Daily Five routine.  So......after the traditional writing about what they got for Christmas I had each firstie choose a good, fit book. We are currently using the literacy block model from the Daily Five book and I love it.  Basically you have whole group instruction for 3-7 minutes and then they go to Daily Five for 15-20 and you cycle through.  After choosing their books I  set the timer for ten minutes.  They chose a place in the room to sit and read.  When the timer went off they chose their first daily five.  When the daily five time is over I play a song and my kiddos immediately know to meet me in our group area.  For this meeting I gave each child a story elements foldable a.k.a a paper folded into four squares.  :0)  Their first assignment was to recreate the cover of their story.  When this was finished they chose their second daily five.  In our next group meeting the assignment was to draw the setting of their story.  They then chose their 3rd daily five. In the next group meeting I asked them to draw a character from the story.  When that assignment was finished they chose their 4th daily five.  For the last group assignment I asked them to write about the plot of their story.  Then off they went to their last daily five.  I LOVE THE WAY THIS WORKED THIS MORNING.....I may do more of these kind of assignments!  Here are a couple of pictures of the finished products.  Aren't they precious????

Well...next we had to create something for the new year....plus our hallway was looking a little bare!!!  I found the cutest writing activity and craftivity that the Glyph Girls created.  Take a look at our cute New Year's Kids.

You can get this activity HERE for FREE!   It looks great and my firsties love them!!

My teamies, Sayward and Marcia, were busy creating today too!  They started my penguin unit!  (We just didn't have time today in my classroom but I can't wait to start learning all about emperor penguins next week.)  I have pictures of how my besties are using the unit.  I love that each teacher can take a unit and make it their own.  It made my heart smile to see these penguins today!  I felt like a proud momma.  If you want to purchase Tackylocks, an Emperor Penguin in Disguise you can go to Teachers Notebook or to Teachers Pay Teachers.   Take a look at Mrs. Lowery's glyphs and Mrs. Sutton's penguins.

If you started back to school today I hope you and your firsties had as much fun as we did!!!