Two for Tuesday #5

Woohoo!!! It's Two for Tuesday time again!!! Today I have a HUGE deal if you teach first grade Envision Math.  You can get all 16 focus walls 1/2 off!!!  

1st Grade Envision Math Focus Walls for the Year

And it's time to really start thinking about what your theme will be this school year.  Why not mustaches???

Take a peek at the cutie patootie mustache kids in my Mustache Theme Decor!!! They are 1/2 off!!!

Mustache Theme for the Classroom

Go here for more sales!

New Classroom Decor Set in the Works!!!

Okay teachers never turn off their teacher brains!!! Sayward and I were at the pool last week and from that visit came our idea to create a gnome theme classroom decor set!!! We couldn't find any on TPT so I am creating one for her and want to share it with you guys too!  It is not yet complete but you can win the classroom helper set!! Find the post about this set on Learning With Firsties facebook page...Share the post and comment on the post for a chance to win!!! I'll choose a winner tomorrow.  Good Luck!!!

Gnome Classroom Helpers

HUGE GIVEAWAY!!!

I've teamed up with the best of the best TpT sellers for what I'm sure will be an amazing giveaway! 10 winners will each win one of the prize packages listed below. Each package contains a $10 shopping spree to 10 different stores- that’s a $100 shopping spree and a total of $1000 in products in all!

You can enter right from my page. Best of luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday Featured Freebies #3

Here are this week's featured freebies:

• I created this opinion writing freebie to help our kiddos organize their ideas when writing.

• This next freebie is HUGE!  Looks like firsties would really be engaged when working on this state notebook!

• Kindergarten Boom Boom has a money flip book that you need to grab now!! Such a hard concept for some. 

• This non-fiction text features scavenger hunt would be so much fun!

If you have a freebie you want featured please leave a comment.  Happy Friday!!!

And the Winner Is....

Thanks for playing Pin It To Win It!!! 

The winner is....

I'll be sending your items via email.  Congrats!!!!

The items that were pinned will be 1/2 off for the next 24 hours.

   

Me in My New Classroom

Safari Animals Craftivity

Reading Street Unit 1 Bundle

Pig in a Wig Craftivity

Phonics Game Bundle

Community Workers Lapbook

Tackylocks, an Emperor Penguin in Disguise
Become a Research Tourist
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies
Gingerbread Friends Book Study
Happily Hopping

Pin It To Win It!

It's my birthday so I want to play a game with ya'll!!!

Let's play Pin It To Win It!!!

Here's how it works:

1. Go to my TPT store board on my pinterest page here. 
   
2. Choose 3 items you want to win and comment under the picture with your email address.  
3. Pin the 3 items to boards of your choice.
4. I will randomly select a winner tomorrow, June 27 @ 11:30 a.m. CST.  That gives you 24 hours to pin away!!!
5. Winner receives all 3 items that he/she pinned.

****Remember the winner must leave their email in the comments of the picture (so I can send the products to you) and pin the 3 items.

Good Luck!!!!!

Wednesday's Weekly Favorite Pins #3

Well at least it's still Wednesday...I spent the day at the pool with my bestie and almost forgot to post today.  Here are some of my favorite pins this week!!

If you know me then you already know that I am in love with anchor charts.  I created anchor charts for as many lessons as possible.  My firsties used them and helped to build them.  They even started creating their own anchor charts.  Around the Kampfire has an awesome post about using anchor charts and some great tips.

Show What You Know would be a great strategy to use instead of a worksheet!!!!

Using these number anchor charts would be fabulous visual cues for your kiddos.  I would also have my firsties recreate these for their math interactive notebooks.

In the past I have always used Elkonin boxes to help students decode and blend words.  But how fun would it be to pound a sound?

Hopefully something in today's pins have inspired you to try something new in your classroom.  If you have a favorite pin that you want to feature comment below. 

Book Study: Literacy Teacher's Playbook Analyzing Data

Whew!!! This chapter was a long one!  Here is what I came away with:

• Before reading this chapter I must admit that book logs really didn't hold value for me. However Serravallo walks you through how to analyze your book logs to get insight on your students.   
• She also gives great questions to ask yourself as you analyze both the book logs and reading interest inventory.  Example:  "Is the student able to name a genre, author, or type of book that is a good fit?"  
• It's important to know how deep a student's work is within a particular comprehension skill.  (I listed the skills in last week's post.)  Strategy you could use: Ask students to respond to a prompt you prepare for a read aloud on a post it. Sort the answers accordingly:  Basic in one pile, on target in another and more sophisticated in a third pile. This strategy would be easy to implement and allows you to see immediately who needs to go deeper.  
• When analyzing whole book comprehension you want to look for a student's understanding of main idea, key details, vocabulary, and text features.  Serravallo gives several examples of questions to ask for each and what the ideal answer.
• Fluency cannot be overlooked.  It is directly linked to comprehension. Example Question:  Does the student read with automaticity?
• Don't be afraid to infer when analyzing miscues.  Be careful not to look for deficits, but for a strength. Example Question:  When a student self corrects what cueing system is he using?
• Analyzing Conversation:  I had an epiphany in this section....use those iPads, iPhone, etc to record student conversation so you can go back and analyze.  I will be encouraging my teachers to start doing this.  LOVE it!!
• Analyzing Narrative writing....FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!!!  Is the student staying focused in his or her writing.  Our little ones have a tendency to veer off course when writing sometimes or at least mine did. :0)
• Studying Writing Engagement:  A 1st grader should be able to write 2-3 short stories in a week.  Wow!  Let's start them writing as soon as possible!  It is so important.
• Informational Writing:  Is there structure?  An introduction, elaboration with facts and closure
• Opinion Writing:  When you have your firsties write an opinion piece they should begin with  stating their opinion,  then give a reason for that opinion and finally a end with a closing sentence.  I included a freebie template below that might help with this piece of writing.

Opinion Writing Freebie

Read what other bloggers had to say about this chapter.

An InLinkz Link-up

6 Months 'til Christmas Sale

Christmas is always such a busy, busy time. Wouldn't it be great to go ahead and find some awesome lessons for your kiddos while you have some down time? I've linked up with some terrific bloggers to offer up our products at a discount for the next 2 days. My entire TPT store is discounted 20% but my Christmas products are 50% off! My bloggy friends and I have also created a giveaway.  

My "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies" Common Core Book Study is one of the goodies you will get if you win the giveaway. 

Engage your students with this fun common core based unit.  My firsties loved all of the activities!!!

Another fun book study to do at Christmas:

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell

All teachers of firsties know how difficult engaging your kiddos before Christmas can be!! Three weeks before Christmas I would begin teaching book studies and they loved the change from our regular routine. The pictures above are just some of the fun activities in this study.

I love Jan Brett's books so I created this next book study based on her book, Gingerbread Friends.

All of my book studies include a craftivity.  Craftivities were always a huge hit with my firsties!  This gingerbread craftivity is simple to make and was a fave!

I combined all 3 book studies in this unit if you would like to purchase them all.

Christmas Common Core Book Studies

Won't it be nice to have everything planned and ready to go at Christmas?  

Go HERE to register for the mega Christmas Giveaway!!!