President's Day

Whew! Ya'll I'm tired!  We had school today. I know, I know who goes to school on President's Day?  Well we did and we had a blast!  My teamies and I planned a whole day of President Day Centers for our firsties to rotate through.  We set the centers up in the hallway and all three classrooms.  We had a total of 16 centers for them to rotate through!  Some of the centers included:  Several craftivities (George Washington, Yankee Doodle Kids, Pretzel Log Cabin, George and Abe characters & more), Book browsing with lots of presidential books to read, iPads, If I Were President (We took their pics at a podium.  I'll post later. Adorable!!!!), & so much more!  Some of the comments from the firsties today:  "This was the best day of school ever!" & "You are the best teacher!"  How can you go wrong with that?  If you are looking for a different way to engage your students try a center day.  It is incredible!

 Here are a few of our sweeties working hard in the hallway.

Reading, Ruby and Caterpillars

We had such a great week!  We finished our unit on Ruby Bridges and my firsties can tell you all about her!     Take a look at one of the finished lap books.  Adorable!

You can go HERE OR HERE to get the unit.

Our reading story this week was I'm a Caterpillar.  We made a caterpillar with the life cycle of the butterfly.   We also worked on writing captions.  Take a look at both.  So Cute!

If you use Scott Foresman Reading Street you can get the unit HERE.

Finally I promised a picture of our reading bags. Below you can see the bag with the books chosen by a student.  I am working to create independent learners and they are really beginning to blossom!

You can pick up cheap tote bags at Hobby Lobby.  I had my name embroidered on the bag so if the bag is  accidentally left somewhere it can be returned.  :0)

Have a Fabulous Week!

What Readers Look Like

Last week my teamies and I decided to implement some silent reading time in our classroom.  According to the National Panel on Reading children who spend time reading independently grow in fluency.  With all of the reading programs in our schools we sometimes forget to teach our kiddos to LOVE reading!  Well it is our mission to teach these firsties to love reading.  So now each firstie has their own reading pillow and reading bag filled with books they choose. (I forgot to take a picture of their reading bag, but will try to get one up tomorrow.)  Who doesn't like to be comfy when they read a good book?  Take a look at these guys reading and loving it!

When  my reading coach saw the picture she said,  "That is what readers should look like."  

We continued with our Ruby Bridges study today and finished our anchor chart and craftivity.  Take a look at them.  They are precious!

You can go HERE or HERE to get Ruby.

Hope you guys had a fabulous day and that tomorrow is even more fabulous!!

Ruby the Brave

I have created a fun Social Studies unit and wanted to share with you guys.  I love The Story of Ruby Bridges and decided I would spend this whole week on Ruby.  I read the book to my kiddos today and they were so involved with the story.  It bothered them terribly that Ruby wasn't allowed to go to school with white children.  They made some great text to text connections with The Story Book of Martin Luther King and with The Ugly Duckling. I knew the obvious connection with MLK but was blown away by the ugly duckling connection.  One of my students said, " This story reminds me of The Ugly Duckling because others didn't like him because of how he looked on the outside and they did that to Ruby too."  WOW!  Out of the mouths of babes!  Go HERE to get your copy. 2020 update!  See pics below.

Super Sunday Sale

Don't miss my Super Sunday Sale!!!!! All of my products are 28% off at Teachers Pay Teachers with promo code SUPER and 50% off at Teachers Notebook (promo code not needed)!!!!!  It ends tomorrow so take a look today and grab a bargain!