Parent Expectations for Teacher

So, on my 36 mile commute home, I was thinking about how to get parents more involved at school, and ways to have parents be a team with me and other teachers. I feel because of a few bad experiences on BOTH ends of situations, parents AND teachers DREAD getting a call, worried that it will be negative.

I've decided I may send homework for PARENTS next week. I want them to write a list of 5 explicit expectations they have for themselves to support their student and how they can carry it out. Also, I want them to write a list of 5 expectations from the teacher. Once I receive all of the papers back, I'm going to compile the lists and choose the top 5 expectations from both lists. I'll type these up and send them home, so the parents can put them up on their refrigerator.

What do you think?

Great Turnout at Parent Night!

There was an AMAZING turnout of Third Grade parents at our 9 weeks Parent Night! I was so thrilled to see so many parents/guardians there to support their students, and eager to learn about what their students will be learning! Apparently, this will be happening every 9-weeks, so I'd love to see even MORE next time!

Stone Fox

We just finished reading Stone Fox (thanks to the recommendation of Ms. Andrews, one of my fellow teammates!), and the kids LOVED it! It started of kind of slow, the first three chapters introducing the main characters. After Chapter 6, the kiddos BEGGED me to keep going! They didn't even want to go to recess!

 Stone Fox is set in the late 1800's on a farm in Wyoming near the Teton Mountains. The protagonist, Little Willy, learns his Grandfather has given up on life because of the amount of debt owed to the State in taxes. Little Willy decides to enter into a dogsled race with his dog Searchlight to win the prize money and pay of the debt. I focused on Characters and Character traits. Little Willy is a strong little boy, perfect for students to think of character traits for. Also, Grandfather's character changes as a result of certain events in the story, the making a perfect example of how characters may change in a story and how events influence it. I tried to focus on adjectives to describe the characters, but will eventually incorporate the likeliness of a character doing certain actions ( I can't recall what the term is right now, my brain is fried!) 

Also, to make text to media and text to world connections, I pulled up articles and videos from the annual Alaskan Iditarod. The kids LOVED watching stories about the different dogs, and reading about dogsledding! I believe there is a Disney movie called "Eight Below" that might be fun to watch as a wrap up to our Stone Fox.

 The book never mentions the outcome of the tax situation, Grandfather, etc. which was pointed out by one of my students, so tomorrow I'm going to have them write an "Afterword" as some authors include in their stories. I just love books that have students (and me!) begging to no more about the character and also not wanting the book to end! As a writing assignment as well, I had the students write an encouraging letter to Little Willy to try and offer condolences about his grandfather and possibilities of how he can raise money to pay off the debt. The kids came up with some great letters!

Parent Night 9/15 5:30-6:30 p.m.

The teachers will be hosting "Parent Night" on Thursday, September 15, from 5:30-6:30! This is a great chance to meet all third grade teachers, other parents in the grade level, find out student objectives for the next 9 weeks, information about agendas, "HomeFun," and much more! Please feel free to come. There is rumor PTO will be selling Papa John's Pizza slices for $1! So come and join the fun!

Objectives for 9/19-9/23

Parents! Hopefully every week I will post the objectives for Language Arts and Math for the following week. Please talk to your student about these objectives and help them if needed!

Reading: I can make connections between two texts (text to text). I can use and understand how prefixes (un-, non-, pre-, re-) and suffixes (-ful, -less) change the meaning of words.

Writing: I can read and spell words with the vowel pair "ea." I can produce a personal narrative by using the writing process. I can use, write, and understand verbs in the past, present, and future forms.

Math: I can measure temperature by reading and using a thermometer. I can read and tell the time on an analog and digital clock. I know and understand place value up to 9,999.



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Red Apples Pictures - Pictures
Next week, I will also be starting a 2-week apple theme in our classroom! We'll be studying plant and fruit adaptations, measuring the mass, comparing physical properties, making "glyphs," and practicing reading and interpreting data from student made graphs. We will also be studying capacity in 2 weeks, and will make homemade applesauce as a reinforcement activity! Lots of yummy and fun activities to learn with while studying apples.

New Camera!

Well, my camera officially pooped out so it looks like I'm going to be investing in a new-to-me point and shoot camera. I figured I'd start looking in pawn shops and on ebay. Hopefully I don't have to spend more than $100! I just need it to take a picture or video, be able to upload it to my computer, and post it on my blog! I guess I'll see what I find! Oh....maybe garage sales too!

First Day of School!!!!!

Welcome to Ms. Riddle's Class! I am so excited to be working with a GREAT group of kids. I am so thankful and blessed that I have an AMAZING group of students this year! I'm so pumped up and coming back to my old self! When everyday I seriously could not WAIT for the kids to come to school and sad to see them leave! I hope they like me, too, because they don't switch and have lovely me all day! My kids are pretty cool, so I think they'll like me too.

I was so nervous about being in a new school and new grade level today! With all the new rules, procedures, etc. I kept feeling that I forgot to do something! I will get used to it, and so will the students! I got so lost today as well...geez I think they purposely made our school a maze to get us critical thinking subconsciously! Oh, little tid-bit and idea I want to incorporate in the classroom. I want to include a cross word puzzle or some logic puzzle that will only take a few minutes at the end of the day. Does anyone know of a good site with kid friendly cross-words?

Today I started teaching the kids how to count in French! They were SUPER excited! Hopefully they will motivate me to do my lessons more often! Even a student that was very sad, scared, and nervous all morning perked up, sat up, and was even pronouncing the numbers as well!!!! I'm so thankful for my class. I also learned that I have a class of writers and artists! SO awesome! With that thought, I asked the third grade teachers from my old school if they would like to participate in doing pen pals! I always dreamed of having one when I was growing up!! And eventually I would like to Skype and the kids will be able to finally meet with each other and interact with each other! Wouldn't that be totally fabulous?

So excited about this wonderful school year!

B.O.Y. Craziness!!!!!

Numbness. That's about all my brain keeps telling me. I am so excited to be starting in a new school and I love how proactive my administrators and amazing team members are! HOWEVER, it still doesn't mean that I'm not so overwhelmed that I am just sitting like a bump on a log talking in circles or not talking at all! Integrating the new programs and ways of teaching is the most overwhelming. Second in line is BRAND new curriculum, all subjects. Yikes. But, the sun will rise regardless and I will continue to do my best to take in as much information as possible and do the best I can do for my students.

So we're supposed to integrate a new philosophy of teaching called P.E.A.K. (Performing Excellence for All Kids). I think PEAK is a great tool for teaching and will help students reach their own potential much quicker than other forms of teaching. BUT, it takes ALOT of time, planning, and collecting of materials for the teacher. There are 5 levels of exposure to information (conveniently related to weather!). First is the CLOUD. So just as a Cloud starts to form foreshadowing an upcoming storm, the information of an upcoming unit or new information is posted somewhere in the classroom(2-4 weeks prior to scheduled unit). Just as it is in real life, the SPRINKLE is next. There are brief references, activities, or thoughts 2-4 minutes long presented 2 weeks before the new material is scheduled. Next comes the SHOWER of 3-5 minute activities that can be used as movie "previews" or "commercial breaks" during transitions 1 week before the scheduled unit. The GENTLE SOAK is during the actual scheduled unit which includes whole group lessons, activities, projects, discussions, etc about the unit. The final DRIP, DRIP, DRIP of PEAK are the reteach small group or mini lessons, or reviews that occur up to 2 or 3 weeks after the unit has been taught.

LOVE the idea. Dislike practically needing to plan my whole year in the next three days before school starts. However, it WILL make me a stronger teacher and stop me from procrastinating :) Wish me luck!!

Smilebox! First Day of School All About Me

I happened to stumble upon a most glorious, FREE photo sharing website called Smilebox! It's AMAZING!!!! and FREE!!!! You can create scrapbooks, slideshows, invitations, NEWSLETTERS, and much more! It is very easy to use and the newsletter formats are so cute! Perfect to implement on blogs or to share with parents. Possibly a great idea for a gift from each student to their parents on Christmas???? You can email it, post it on a website such as facebook, blogger, twitter, etc,  burn it on a DVD, or print it! SO much to do! for free! Enjoy :)

A free scrapbook design by Smilebox

I Got a Job!

I have been looking for a job since January...and I FINALLY was offered a job last week!!!! I was very discouraged by all the cuts, but tried not to lose hope! I will now be teaching a self-contained 3rd Grade in a school MUCH larger than the one I first started in. My interview with the principal was more like a 2 hour awesome conversation with an amazing mentor teacher and long time friend! I cannot wait to start working for her because she is so excited and supportive of my abilities to teach ALL subjects in another new grade level! Hooray! I'm going to see my classroom today to get an idea of what I need to move from my old classroom. So excited to start the new school year!

Debbie Diller: Making the Most of Small Groups

I finally finished this book about a week ago...and loved it! I cannot wait to use her ideas, but mostly the lesson planning techniques I learned from the book.
5 Things I Learned from this Book:
1. Have an alphabetized box for anecdotal notes taken on students during small group to look back on.
2. Group students according to criteria chosen (Thankfully she provides criteria in an appendix!)
3. There are all kinds of lesson subjects you can choose to teach during small group (NOT just phonics...I know it seems obvious, but I just couldn't think of anything else to do with my kiddos in First Grade!)
4. Reflect on each small group lesson as soon as it's over! (So you don't forget!)
5. Actually write a lesson plan or guideline for a small group. Don't just wing it! (Is what you're doing REALLY driving mastery of the chosen objective?)

5 Things I LOVE About this Book:
1. She provides plenty of pictures to depict exactly what she means by a "small group folder" or "organized small group space."
2. A lesson plan template for each of the "five essential reading elements" is provided. (!!!!!!!!!!)
3. She has a table that has what to look for if a student needs support, prompts to ask students if they get hung up, and literacy work stations to help students apply their knowledge of a certain reading element. (Can it get any better or easier than that?????)
4. She provides research from SEVERAL sources of why each element is essential.
5. Very easy to read and understand, and LOVE the professional questions to think about at the end of each chapter!

I definitely would recommend this book to all teachers to refresh their memories or learn some new ideas to better educate their students!

NOW my dilemma: to read Debbie Miller's Reading with Meaning or Teaching with Intention. OR Debbie Diller's Literacy Work Stations...hmm....

The Daily 5

I'm dedicating the month of June to reading Professional Literature and going to LOTS of Workshops to get a base of how I want to run my classroom. In July, I'll start writing my lesson plans for the semester (since I already cleaned my room for the most part and arranged it the way I wanted the last 3 weeks of school!).  I just finished the book The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by the Sisters, and it was awesome!!! I definitely am going to implement this structure in my classroom next year.
My reflections on the book:

• Easy to read and follow
• Gives EXPLICIT instruction on how to implement, although reading the exact words of the teacher gets redundant, however, it's necessary!
• Is achievable ONLY IF you are committed to it.
• LOVE the Daily 5 components: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work, Work on Writing
• LOVE the table in the appendix which breaks down the first 5 weeks of implementing the Daily 5.
• When placing students around the room, what are the other students doing?
• When letting each child tell you what s/he wants to do first, how is bad behavior avoided?
• Do I HAVE to do all 5? I'm thinking three 20 minute sessions? Does that ruin the whole thing?
• Students choose where to sit in room, who to work with, when they want to do each component.
• I REALLY enjoy whole group teaching and grand discussions, still doable in the whole group time in between each session?

Some of the questions I'll think about as the summer moves on. Overall I really enjoyed the book and learned a WHOLE BUNCH of new information and management ideas I didn't know before!

Next book on the list,  Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All by Debbie Diller. After reflecting, I decided small groups and stations is where I need to gain more expertise! So here goes!

Professional Development

Last week I attended two really good workshops, "Differentiated Instruction with Guided Reading" and "Reader's Workshop: Making it Make Sense." I have been working to improve my small groups and what to do in small groups, so I took away the most helpful information from Differentiated Instruction.

I had SO many misconceptions about Guided Reading! I really didn't even know what it was! I thought it was choral or round-robin reading in a small group. WRONG! It's actually modeling in whole group, then in small group they read by themselves while the teacher walks around and monitors the reading, supporting where needed! So, here are some things I took away from the workshop about Guided Reading:

1. It is NOT choral or round-robin reading.

2. Reading groups are DYNAMIC, which means they change often.

3. A student will read new text EVERY TIME they read(a poem, the rest of an unfinished book, a new reading selection, etc.).

4. Guided Reading is a gradual release type of teaching. It is more STUDENT centered in small groups.

5. Small group time is NOT for phonics activities (whoops, that was a golden nugget to me!)

6. When student is stuck, prompt first, "What do you remember from our lessons that will help you figure this word out?" Then, "What have you already tried?"

7. Figure out reading groups from Reading Records, Word Tests, Letter Identification, Hearing and Recording Sounds. NOT TPRI and STAR tests (whoops again, but hey! I'm learning right?!)

8. Small groups should last no more than 20 minutes.

9. There is a difference between Reading Skills (TEKS/Curriculum) and Reading Strategies (HOW to read).

10. The RAN Chart. I LOVE it! It allows for mistakes and to be able to correct them! WAY better than KWL chart!

Four Days Left of School!

There are four days left of school and I'm so excited! I can't WAIT to be able to read books, work out whenever I like, take time to PLAN lessons and find materials for them, and travel! I really enjoyed teaching through themes this year, so this summer I plan on making folders that have all the lessons, materials, and pre-made examples in them. LAST summer I had done this for all the novels I had hoped to teach to the Fourth Graders, but that all changed 4 days before school started, right? I suppose if I ever teach Fourth Grade again I can use them!

On another note, I LOVE teaching a small group! During the day I catch myself smiling from ear to ear while observing the students working so quietly, every single student engaged and lost in their work. Just imagine how much more students can learn and reach their potential in classrooms with smaller numbers of students. But, we just continue to get more and more students in the classroom. Oh well! More love to be spread! Have a wonderful day!

Professional Development

I LOVE going to professional development and can't wait for the summer so I can go to some workshops and learn so much stuff! So far I've signed up for a Reader's Workshop and Differentiated Reading Instruction. At our local teacher supply store, Jacque's, they're offering a whole bunch of development opportunities in July for a cheap price! Does anyone know of any other workshops that are worth it that's offered in Texas?

Classroom Clean-up!

I FINALLY bought Debbie Diller's Spaces & Places and have been moved to TAKE DOWN MY CRAZINESS on my walls! A parent from another class walked in and said, "Woa! This classroom is busy!" (and she wasn't commenting about the kids per say) So I started taking stuff down. At the beginning of the year when I was informed I would no longer be teaching 4th grade, I had less than 24 hours to move and set up a whole new classroom so I LITERALLY THREW things up and stuffed things in different nooks and crannies. SO, it's safe to say that I needed to give my classroom a serious cleaning and take the time to PLAN it out for effective student learning. All year I've wanted a wordwall that didn't look cluttered and was interactive. So, I moved it to an old chalkboard in the classroom, bought all new sight words, painfully cut every single word, and put magnet tape on the back! And now.....

IT's AWESOME! The kids were SO excited to be able to take the words down and use them during journal time!

Next book: The Daily 5 by The Sisters...which I've already started implementing during FYP!

I Got an IPAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got an IPAD for my CLASROOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited about it!!!!!!!!! OHHHHH dear! I've been praying to be able to use one for a year! And I LOVE it! We're doing a dinosaur unit for FYP and the kids have been playing dinosaur themed games! Also, I taught them how to record themselves reading because YES! Ipad 2 has a camera!!!!!!! And the kids understand everything to do and how to use it! Oh so much fun! They can watch themselves read and realize that they need to read with more expression or a little bit louder or even which words they miss every time! They love it! Here are some pics.

It's Been Way Too Long!

Whew! I've almost made it to the end of my first year in First Grade!!!!! Looking back, the year FLEW by! Although the next week seems to be coming very slowly! I haven't been posting because my class and I have been working our tails off getting our fluency up and preparing for Second Grade! Bryan ISD has an extended year for those students who did not pass some subjects. So, I have six students staying an extra to weeks and it's been GLORIOUS!!!! I'm SO SAD when the school bell rings and they have to leave! And believe me, these are some of the students that made me run out of the room with a scared look on my face! Their demeanor is different, they're willing to SIT and Listen, and it's amazing! Much more posts to come with pictures of more activities we've been doing for the past 2 months!

Keep Your Chin Up!

During a really hard period of my teenage years, one of my best friends told me to, "keep my chin up." Such a simple phrase that has helped me through ups and downs. I was blog-stalking and found this AWESOME little anecdote about teachers that gave me goose bumps and reminded me WHY I chose TEACHING over Petroleum Engineering. Have you ever been told that people become teachers because they are not capable of doing anything else? Or that the people who are intellectually incapable of doing different fields of work, such as engineering or business, teach? Does it make anybody else angry too??  Looking around at all the cuts and hardships the education system is going through, I noticed how high some friends' salaries were for them. And I became slightly jealous. The majority of the working world leaves their jobs at 5 o'clock and that's it. They leave. When teaching, we take home papers to grade, go to EXTRA meetings and trainings outside of our work day, prepare for lessons, call parents and lend an empathetic, listening ear. And we get paid....well I get paid enough to live :) This anecdote helped warm my heart!

What do Teachers Make?

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.

He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.'

To emphasize his point he said to another guest; 'You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest, what do you make?'

(She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.

I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an IPod, Game Cube, or movie rental.

You want to know what I make?" (She paused again and looked at each person at the table.)

"I make kids wonder.

I make them question.

I make them apologize and mean it.

I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.

I teach them to write and then I make them write... Keyboarding isn't everything.

I make them read, read, read.

I make them show all their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America.

I make them understand that if they use the gives they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."

(Bonnie paused one last time, then continued.)

"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant... You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

What do you make Mr. CEO?"

His jaw dropped, and he went silent.

Morning Message

Every morning, I start my morning meeting by writing a morning message. Normally I'll let the kids know what we're doing that day or week. I'll start it with a greeting in a foreign language, normally followed by a cute name for the students using alliteration. At the very end I'll write a yes or no question. I read it to the students to model and go over any tricky words, then have the kids read it by themselves with LOTS of expression! For every capital letter, they do firework flashes with their hands, every comma they click their tongue and make a hooking motion with a finger, every period is one clap, exclamation point is two claps, and for a question mark, the students raise their shoulders and hands as if saying, "I don't know." A chosen student will ask the rest of the class the question, take a poll, and write the numbers by practicing writing tally marks. Another student will correct any misspelled words, another uses editing marks to underline capital letters and punctuation marks.

Normally I write on chart paper, and once I've used all the pages I'll put it in the Brain Bags Center so the kids can read it. However, I've run out of chart paper. But, the kids love using the dry erase markers on my teacher board because they feel special like the teacher!

Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday Celebration

We celebrated Pancake Day by reading a wordless picture book by Tomie dePaulo and Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle. We compared both books and I modeled on the board how to write a recipe. The students recalled the ingredients from the books as I wrote them on the board. Then I called on different students to tell me the steps of how to make pancakes. I wrote these on the board. Then the students read each step to me as I acted them out (Unfortunately I'm allergic to milk so I had to nix the butter and milk and use water!). The kids were AMAZED! Especially when the pancakes started bubbling. We had a delicious snack while we did our morning seatwork!

Cat in the Hat Game

I know it's late! But, I made this Cat in the Hat "Hat" out of an oatmeal container and paper plate so we can play a "beanbag throw" game. We had practice spelling tests, math facts tests, sight word practice, etc. When a student answered a question correctly, he/she received one point and a chance to throw the beanbag in the hat. If he made it, then he earned an extra 5 points for his team. The kids had a lot of fun! I got this idea from an old Mailbox :) gosh I love those magazines!

It's Spring, So Let's Go Outside!!

It was too much of a beautiful day to pass up not spending it outside! So, we took the afternoon to FINGERPAINT! Woohoo! Everyone loves getting they're hands slimy and painting on 15 foot sheets of paper! I used clothes pins to hang the paper on the chain-link fence around or playground. The kids LOVED it! Unfortunately it was a bit breezy so the kids got a bit of paint on them (sorry parents!) but that's precisely why I got Washable Paint! TGI Spring!

Happy Mardi Gras/Fasternacht/Carnival/Shrove Tuesday!!!

Happy Mardi Gras! I greeted my students with a mask on, throwing beads at them, and loud Zydeco Music! They were SHOCKED. Haha, they had no idea what was going on. Sad that so many kids aren't as cultured as they used to be! But, in my class we WILL celebrate holidays and my students WILL be cultured! Even if I have to act silly and dress up in funny clothes!

We made masks and, as an art project, we used tissue paper and liquid starch to decorate a fleur de lis (I'll cut them out when they dry!).

Have a great Fat Tuesday!

Oh, the Joys of Teaching First Grade!

As a first grade teacher, you start creating a ridiculous collection of......JUNK! Kids bring in the most RIDICULOUS stuff! Today, for example, I see one of my lovely students with "claws" on his fingers. Then I took a double-take and told him to, "Come here right now!"

Surprise! BWAHAHAHAHA! Does anybody else think that this is as funny as I do? He was even pulling them in and out to make the claws "extend." He found them in the bathroom at his house (note to self: When I have kids, hide the TAMPONS!).

There's a Wocket in my Pocket!

There's a wocket in my pocket and this is the school we live for! We LOVE this book! I had to read it 3 times they loved to hear the silly names of the animals. The kids did a great job thinking of silly words and items found around the classroom. Once they stepped away, everything was forgotten! Someone let the plug out of the bathtub because all their good thoughts left them :( So I decided to go to each student and help them proofread their sentences, and as a reward I gave them googley eyes. Some turned out really cute!

President's Day Activities and Sticker Stories

One of my teaching teammates did a drawing lesson with the kids on Abe Lincoln and George Washington and had them fill out a Graphic Organizer to help the kids remember facts! Some turned out really cute!

Also, We like to write sticker stories! I use them for my brain bags. These are Ms. Piatt's students' stories, however, I have the students use the stickers to replace some words in their stories.

Class Books!

As soon as the kids walk in the classroom, there is a journal prompt on the board ready for them to answer. Sometimes when the kids come up with really creative and thoughtful answers, we'll rewrite their journal entry and illustrate it on a large piece of construction paper. The kids LOVE reading them, especially because they have their own featured page! It takes some time, but it's well worth it! The students are able to take them home, and the parents are able to make comments on the last page of each book. Pretty neat!

Rainbow Fish!

We did a Marcus Pfister author study in January, early February. We LOVE the Rainbow Fish series! It has such a good moral to the story, and brings up great friendship topics! We used a web graphic organizer to help us write what friendship means and examples of what a good friend does. For an art project, I used an outline of a fish and asked the kids to draw scales and color them as hard as they could with crayon to get a lot of wax on the paper. Then, we went over the crayon with watery blue paint and let it dry. We cut a holographic gift bag to make individual rainbow scales. Some of the fish came out so good!

Center Activities!

Since I've been looking through Mailboxes lately, I've been finding awesome and simple center activities.

Cupcake Compound Eggs

I bought plastic eggs from the Dollar Tree and wrote the words on the eggs. The kids saw a glimpse of them and got excited. Of course, they thought there was candy inside and not a learning tool, but that's ok :)

Addition/Subtraction Clothespin Manipulatives

I wrapped a hanger in yarn to make it look cuter. The kids will clip on the amount of each addend to find the sum. Same for subtraction. Just something different for the kids to play around with and help them add or subtract!

Calendar Stories

I LOVE finding calendars for $.50 and buying tons of them to use for writing activities for the kids. When I taught the older kids, I loved using pictures and props to spur on their creative juices. It's a little more difficult to get the little ones to start thinking of ideas on their own, but I guess it's a perfect time to model, model, model!

Games

A fun idea and game that I played in my class is a student to student interactive game. Give students a question, or problem, etc. Count them off by 1's and 2's. Ask the ones to form a tight circle in the middle and the twos to form a circle on the outside. Have the students walk around in the circle (going opposite ways) while you play music. When you stop the music, the students will stop and ask their question or problem to the person standing in front of them. Well, the person that was supposed to be in front of them. Oh ya! I'm teaching FIRST grade and not FIFTH grade. They didn't understand how to scoot down and fix themselves so each person who had a partner. OH! So, every time I stopped the music I told them to freeze, fixed everyone, and then we shared! They loved it!

My favorite part was listening to them sing at the top of their lungs, "Baby you're a firework!" and watching their AWESOME dance moves! (We dance ALL the time and do lots of kinesthetic movements to help us learn!) And miraculously enough, they ACTUALLY asked each other the questions and weren't silly when I stopped the music. They FROZE! I guess I'm used to the fifth graders who always start gossiping.

Mailbox Ideas

I really enjoy looking through old Mailboxes! There are so many great ideas and little classroom management tips that get me excited to try something new! However, now I've bookmarked so many pages in about 10 of the books that I feel totally overwhelmed! I'll be posting some pics and ideas that I got from the Mailboxes as I create them! I made compound word Easter eggs today! Pictures to come!

Also, I feel like tons of great ideas come to mind when I'm in the shower, and of course I'll forget them by the time I get out because I have to jump back into my busy life. I just now remembered back to my college days around finals time, when my best friend gave me these AWESOME crayons that you can WRITE ON THE WALL!!!! I need to find these crayons and use them to write my ideas down! Also, I think that it would be a cool prize for kids to take home and practice their spelling words!

President's Day Activities!

Another President's Day activity! I got the idea from one of the other teacher blogs I've been following. The kids traced their hands to make the wings.

They turned out with their own personalities!

Challenging Question of the Day

You know those questions that a kid asks randomly that stops you in your tracks and leaves you speechless? I had one of those thrown at me today!

We're all working nicely on the carpet, practicing writing in a Venn Diagram comparing Abe Lincoln and George Washington, when suddenly out of the scritch-scratching of pencils comes a high pitched voice, "Ms. Riddle, are humans part animal?"

Ummm? What do you say to that? I could talk about evolution, but then I would have to talk about creation and that would ruin the awesome concentration of the class. That's some deep thinking right there.

I resorted in saying, "We are all living things. Just like plants are living, animals are living, so are we. Now get back to work :)" With a great big smile on my face.

What do you say to that?

Graphic Organizers

I finally finished some of the graphic organizers I planned to make! I decided to do themed shapes that can be used in all different ways!

Here is the Heart Web.

Egg-cellent Summary!

Bee Organized! Story Honeycomb

Happy Birthday, George Washington! President's Day Activities

Happy Birthday, George Washington! So many fun activities! Ms. Piatt (from iluvrecess.blogspot.com) and I mixed classes to do an activity that requires the children to listen to verbal directions. Cutting the paper requires lots of time, (thank you Mr. Piatt!) but the kids really enjoy it and the projects turn out so cute!

Spelling Patterns Cups

I totally got this idea from the Mailbox, so I can't take ANY credit! Basically, you will write the spelling patterns on cups with letters that will create words. The students will twist the cups to make real words or nonsense words. I have a little white board that the students will write the words on. They LOVE it! Just make sure to explain how to treat the cups...because holes were poked in mine!

Brain Bags!

So, this is my first year ever working with the little ones. At the beginning of the year, I tried several different ways to do "center time." I felt that nothing would work for me, and I didn't have the classroom management skills yet to handle it either (I had never seen a first grade room function). I didn't like having to stop my small group to tell the kids to switch, or keep up with who was in what center (I got lots of arguing and whining from the kids, argh!) However, I came up with a solution! Brain Bags! Basically Brain Bags are made up of activities that the students can do BY THEMSELVES! Hooray!

I use a tic-tac-toe organizer to fill out and let the kids know what they are allowed to do.

This way I can DIFFERENTIATE for each child, depending on where they are at in each subject. They mark off the number when they are finished with the activity. I explain new activities during our morning meeting, so that when they finish their work, they can walk over quietly to the brain bags, choose one, and work quietly without asking me, "What do I do now?" They have plenty to do! I found these books at Dollar tree, which are for my low, low kiddos and they love it!

And this is a cute felt barn I found in the dollar section at Target! I haven't decided if I should make it, "The Word Farm" where the kids will create words based on the patterns we're learning in LA. Or, if I should leave it for Bossy-R Practice. I'll figure it out by tomorrow!