Well, hello again...finally!

I'm blowing off the dust again on this little blog!  

Geesh!  What a year!  Like a GREAT year!  I had a super group of kiddos and got to teach with 2 amazing teachers and their students.  We departmentalized this past year again and it was a really good thing for our children.  Unfortunately we won't be able to departmentalize next year for a few reasons and I'm okay with that, but I'm already busy planning for next year.  I've been the Reading/Writing teacher for the past two years so I need to brush up on Math, Science and Social Studies for my first graders.

Our school used Fundations this year in Kindergarten and First Grade.  Second grade will start it this coming year.  The program was originally presented to us as a scripted program that you read directly from the manual to teach your class.  I am so not a scripted teacher...and I believe that there's not just one way to teach children as they aren't little robots either but...a year in and a few sessions and words of encouragement from a representative from Fundations, I feel a little more comfortable entering our second year in Fundations and tweaking it a little bit as needed.  

A few things I learned...

1. My children who didn't receive Fundations in Kindergarten were behind the 8-ball from day one.  I really think that there should be an intensive Kindergarten Review for those who didn't have Fundations prior to first grade.  There was a huge discrepancy in ability right from the get-go.

2. Some of the children who were new to our district and didn't have Fundations in Kindergarten at their previous school qualified for Title I/Special Reading.  They received a second dose of Fundations daily in a small group setting which helped, but by the end of the year, they were still the ones who were struggling.  Again, they made progress through the year but it wasn't enough to make them confident readers.

3. I wish there was a handwriting component for the first grade version of Fundations.  I feel like my new first graders (who had Fundations the previous year) came to me with impressive handwriting, but as the year continued, it regressed.

4. I wish there was a little more practice with the words introduced.  All of the words were on our word wall and in their notebooks, but I would still see them struggle reading and spelling them in their daily work.

5. The pace (as scripted in the manual) didn't meet the needs of all of my children.  My top readers had a hard time staying on task during the lessons because they were ready for more.  I also feel that the words learned weren't as intensive as years past.

So...I created a few packets to go along with Fundations this year and thought I'd share them with you.  I plan on using them with everyone at the beginning of the year but as the year continues, I might use them to help differentiate with my struggling students.  I've linked all of the the titles to the units in my TPT shop.

Handwriting Practice for Level 1: Trick Words and Words of the Day

We'll be using these all year to hopefully keep our handwriting neat and tidy.

Word of the Day Workout for Level 1

Trick Word Workout for Level 1

Each day a new Word of the Day or Trick Word is introduced, we'll use the complementing page from this packet for further practice.

Trick Words and Words of the Day Unit Review-Level 1

This packet includes word cards for each unit as well as a small assessment piece.  The word cards will be copied and sent home for extra practice throughout the year and the assessment piece will be used to help me document who is mastering the words and who is struggling.

If only I could learn how to code...I could develop a quality tech component to Fundations!  I would love some apps or software that would offer a "Fundations focused" practice for my children.

So, that's what I've been up to since school let out!  Hope your summers are off to a great start!

Start Filling Up Your TPT Carts!

Hello Friends!
I'm sure you've heard about the big Teachers Pay Teachers sale on February 27 and 28!  All you have to do is enter the code, TPT3 when you checkout and you'll get 28% off!  I just emptied my cart the other day because I needed a few things right away, but my wish list is always growing, so I'll be purchasing some things I've had my eye on for the spring and end of the year!

Thanks to Meredith Anderson for the sale button!

My little shop will be on sale too, so if you haven't stopped by, go and take a peek!  I don't have a ton in there, but thanks to our snow days the past few months, it has grown a bit!  Here's a link to my shop:

My TPT Shop

Have fun shopping!

Book Bargains!

Hello friends!

I'm sure you've seen this, but just in case you missed it, I found some $1 STEALS at Scholastic's Teacher Store recently!

Our school mascot is a pirate, so I picked up a class set of Corinne Demas's Pirates Go To School to use as my "Welcome to First Grade" treat for next year's class at my Open House.  Now I just have to make sure I don't lose them or forget I bought them between now and August!

Pirates Go to School

 For literature circles next year I purchased a set of Felicia Bond's The Day It Rained Hearts:

The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond

And, then I found Robert Munsch's The Sand Castle Contest:

The Sand Castle Contest by Robert Munsch

Don't tell, but this is going to be the book I'll give to my children at the end of this year.  We usually do a Beach Day and this will be a perfect gift!  I actually bought several more copies to have on hand to use as literature circle books at the end of the year too.

I had to have a little self control (which is not my best quality when it comes to children's books)!  I picked up a few more $1 books for our classroom library too...the books are only priced like this until February 28 so go and take a peek!

Have a great day!

Valentine's Day Recap and a Freebie!

Hello Friends!

Well...we're home with another snow day today!  I believe this is #9 for my district.  We haven't had a normal full week of school since before Christmas!  It's hard to believe, but it's true!  No wonder we're all a little "off" lately!  Hopefully winter is just about done and we can try to get back to normal.  There's so much to do before our year end assessments (which are scheduled for the first week of April...)

I know it's late, but go ahead and file this for next year...I did Valentine's Day in my classroom a little different this year...and it was fun for all of us!

The first thing I found was Natasha Wing's The Night Before Valentine's Day for $1.00 at a discount store in my town called Ollie's.  I thought, why not and purchased a book for each of my kiddos.  They were so excited!  There's something about giving everyone the same book...it's their own, but they can still work with a friend and not have to argue over who holds the book or turns the pages.  :)

 I then decided to make up a few activities to go along with the story.  To be honest, I had fluency checks and progress monitoring to do and needed a few things that my children could work on quietly while I was doing 1:1 assessments.  Even though I developed these activities for my children to do with their own copy of the book, they would work well as a whole group activity too.

 

At the end of the book, the principal arrives to the classroom dressed as Cupid with a surprise for the class.  I made up a worksheet that the children could create a Cupid costume for our principal and draw what kind of surprise they would want from her.  Their drawings were super cute!

If you're interested, I uploaded a FREEBIE in my TPT shop that includes all of the activities we used to go along with The Night Before Valentine's Day!

A Little Fun with Natasha Wing's The Night Before Valentine's Day!

I also found some fun "Minute To Win It" games with a little Valentine flair on Pinterest!  These were so much fun!  You can just search for "Valentine Games" and a ton come up.

Heart-a-Stack...we used the Heart Marshmallows to see how many we could stack.  Definitely harder than what we thought!

Valentine Shoot-Out...We used the Heart Marshmallows and tried to toss as many as we could into a small bowl.  (I love this first picture...true teamwork...if you could have only heard them helping each other.)

The Cookie Shimmy...the children had to start with a cookie on their foreheads and shimmy it down to their mouths without using their hands...too fun!

And of course, our Valentines...I love watching them open their Valentines.

Hope you all survived your Valentine's Day!
Take care!

Pirate Literacy Centers and Snowy Ice Cream

Hi Friends!
We're in another deep freeze in my neck of the woods.  School was canceled again this past Friday and the weather isn't looking too promising for the beginning of this week.  I like snow, I love a white Christmas but I'm kind of over it…bring on the spring!  A nice warm spring!

A few weeks ago I posted my Pirate Literacy Centers in my TPT shop.  I was in need of some simple activities that my children could do in small groups while I was testing so I whipped a few up for us.  We were supposed to work on them this past week, but we only had 1 3/4 days of school…so they're now laminated and ready to go for this week.  I thought I'd give you a close up look at them so you know what we'll be working on.

Pirate Punctuation
The children will match the sentence to the correct punctuation.

Pirate Contractions
The children will match the cards to build contractions.

Pirate ABC Order
The children will will use the three sets of cards and put them in ABC order.

A Treasure of Compound Words
The children will match the cards to build compound words.

Pirate Rhymes
The children will match the words that rhyme.

Noun and Verb Sort
The children will sort the cards by nouns and verbs.

 They're pretty basic because I wanted the children to be able complete them with little help from me since I'll be testing each of them 1:1.  Each activity has a worksheet for the children to record their answers…and I can hold them accountable for their work.  
Click here to find my Pirate Literacy Centers in my TPT shop.

Being snowed in, has given my plenty of time to get lost on Pinterest…did you see this one?

I thought I better try it out on my own first...

and it's pretty tasty!  

The recipe above made about 2 cups of ice cream.  If we ever get back to school, I think I want to make this with my first graders.  They'll love making their own snow ice ream!

Keep warm!

Well, hello!

I know…I've been missing in action again!  I'd love to promise you that I'll be more consistent…but I think I just get so wrapped up in school life that my little blog gets put on the back burner.  I've not even had time to blog stalk like I used to…ugh! 

I'll try to be a better blogger though…I'll really, really try!

I have been creating a few things for my little old TPT shop in the past few weeks.  If you follow me there, you've probably "felt" me blowing the dust off of it recently and opening up the doors again.

Our Student-Led Conferences will be in a few short weeks and I wanted a book study that my children could complete on their own and then share it with their families at conferences.  A few years ago I purchased a class set of Jan Brett's The Mitten from Scholastic.  They were like $1 a piece at the time…wish I could find that deal again!  We'll use this book for a whole class read aloud and then the children will each have their own copy to use to help them complete the book study.

Click here to see this unit in my TPT shop!

We're in need of a little extra help with contractions, so I created a simple matching activity for the children to use to practice on their own or with a friend or two.

Click here to see this unit in my TPT shop!

Our school mascot is a pirate and it's our annual Pride Week this week.  It's a week that we celebrate the pride we have in our school, district-wide. We've been reading Peter Pan but we're also going to be reading a few more fun pirate stories.  One of my favorites is Tough Boris by Mem Fox.  I like to use this book to introduce adjectives to my children so I whipped up a little activity for us to complete together.

Click here to see this unit in my TPT shop!

It's also "testing season" for us and I'm in need of some literacy activities that the children can complete independently while I'm doing one-on-one assessments.  There are 6 literacy centers in this packet that will serve as a review and/or extra practice for us!

Click here to see this unit in my TPT shop!

And since I've been MIA for several months, I'm going to hold a quick flash sale in my shop for today, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!  Everything is 20% off for the rest of today!

Here's hoping your 2014 is off to a wonderful start and that hopefully,  I can get back into the swing of things again in blogland!

Take care!

September Currently

Confession...
I actually typed this up yesterday morning, but because I already posted about my color activities, I decided to save this post until today.  AND...because it's already done, all I had to do was publish it this morning before I left for school!

So, I'm joining in on the fun of Farley's September Currently!

I don't know if I really have to explain too much, but here it goes....

Pirates of the Carribbean was on TBS and I couldn't help but wish there was a G-Rated Pirates movie made by Disney (that wasn't animated).  Jake and the Neverland Pirates is too young for us but I think they would like Peter Pan...but remember Blackbeard's Ghost?  I wonder if that's still available somewhere??

I'm loving my extra day off this week!  A full week of school for the first week can be a bit of a shock to our systems...especially with the heat and humidity.  Several grade levels in our district have staggered starts which would really help, but whenever we ask for First Grade to have a staggered start, we're denied.  It would be so much easier to get all of those assessments done if I only worried about 6 or so kiddos a day!

We're doing "After Hours Social Hour" this year for our families.  We're inviting our families into our classrooms just once a month to showcase the learning that's happening.  Our first one has a Superhero theme so I'm reading some books and trying to sketch out some ideas.  (Is Super Hero one or two words?  Every time I type it, I think differently.)

Due to this...I am wanting some superpowers (again...a compound word?) to help me get everything done...or maybe just the power to clone myself to be in more than one place at a time.

I'm needing this humid weather to depart for good!  I'm really tired of feeling the drips of sweat down my back and trying not to stick to my new kiddos when they come in for a hug!

Things I would love to accomplish this month...

• I need to get myself back to where/what I was before summer.  I'm feeling funky...and I know what I need to do to fix it...I'm just lacking that motivation.
• I need to start running again...we've been walking, but I think I've secretly been craving my early morning runs with my sister...although she's always ahead of me.  And...it's not pretty at. all. I'm definitely not the one that jumps out of bed @ 5:30 to go and run.  I have to sometimes talk myself through those three miles..."Okay Jenn, go to the next stop sign, okay, the next light post, the next mailbox, the next driveway, one more step..." but when I'm done I do feel kind of proud of myself and my head is always more in "the game".  
• I'm feeling a little uncertain about everything lately...I'm needing to pick myself up and really be an advocate for my students...and myself.

Ready to bring on this 4 day week?

Have a good one!

Colorful Week Ahead!

Happy Labor Day!

Hope you're enjoying your 3-day weekend!  We're back at it tomorrow...and it's full steam ahead!  I always feel like that first week back to school is the honeymoon period of our year!  My three classes are pretty amazing and I think we're going to have a great year!  I don't really plan a lot because so much of that week is spent on rules and procedures and getting my new kiddos acclimated to life as a First Grader.  Now it's time to get down to business!  :)

This week we'll be reviewing our color words with a few activities that I've found while catching up on my blog stalking this weekend!  I'll share them as we do them...there will be a little of Pete, some naked crayons, and some opportunities to get my kiddos working together in a splash of color!

I wanted to create a few activities that my kiddos could work on with their friends at their tables...because we're still establishing our community!  I uploaded them as FREEBIES to my TPT shop last night.  Feel free to click on the links below to download them!

Free Download @ TPT

  

Free Download @ TPT

Free Download @ TPT

Enjoy your day!