Five For Friday 05.13.16

As the end of the year is drawing to a close, life seems busier than ever. Just glancing over at my May calendar stresses me out! The last day of school is going to be here before I know it.

Our week was totally packed full with tons of different activities in science, math, and reading - my kids had such a blast with them this week that I thought I'd link up with Kacey at Doodlebugs Teaching for this week's Five for Friday to share some of them!

We started on our shapes unit this week, which is always one of my favorites! There are so many amazing, hands-on, fun geometry activities to do with your students. Since my first graders already have a strong concept of the shape names, I just did a quick review and re-introduced the attributes of sides and vertices. I gave each student a flat plane shape and called out different sorting rules - it was then their job to go around the room and find their matching group. For example, I'd say, "Find everyone who has a shape with 4 sides"; or, "Find everyone who has a shape with curved edges". And then they scrambled around to find their grouping matches.

After we practiced sorting by different attributes, we did our own little shape sort by counting the number of sides!

The shape sort and tons of other activities can be found here (click the picture to see more!):

We just wrapped up a little mini-unit reading the book Frog and Toad are Friends! My kids absolutely LOVED it and could not get enough. At the end of it, they made this adorable Frog and Toad craft with opinion writing - they had to describe which character they thought was the best friend and why. So fun!

Click here to get this activity!

We've been learning all about the ways Earth change, including the four layers of the Earth. I've been using a ton of different strategies to teach them about the four layers including songs, movement/tableau activities, videos, and anchor charts (blog post coming soon with all the details!). I wanted to include another hands on activity for them to complete, so I created a layers of the Earth flip book to go with full-color anchor charts! My kids used the anchor charts to fill in the blank for each book page to tell about what the four layers of the Earth were made of. They loved it! You can click on the picture below to check out more of the details!

In keeping with our Earth changes unit, we've also been learning about things like volcanoes and earthquakes! My teammate had this great little experiment to show how volcanoes erupt - using old film canisters, you glue an Alka-Seltzer tablet inside the lid and then fill the canister half-full with water. Then you put the lid on, turn the canister upside down on the ground, and then BACK UP! After awhile, the pressure builds and it explodes, just like a volcano! My kids were SO excited! Here's a little video so you can see how it went!

I only have 7 1/2 days of school left! So crazy! In the meantime I'm going crazy trying to figure out how I'm going to complete all my assessments, fill out all my end of the year paperwork, practice for our first grade performance, finish up end of the year projects, attend multiple meetings, practice for a teacher talent show, etc. etc. etc.! Why does everything pile up SO much at the end of the year? I know y'all can relate, so this meme is all of us.

We can make it!

Five for Friday 10.16.15

Hey everyone! This has been a super odd week for me with a day off of school, parent teacher conferences, and two half days... but it didn't mean that we weren't just as busy in first grade! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share some of the fun I had this week.

We've been doing a big spider study for the last week and a half and my kids are SO into it. At conferences this week, so many parents were asking about our spider unit because their kids have been going home and telling them all they've learned. I love that! We kicked it off with a little spider graph that asked, "Do you think spiders are cool or creepy?" Note: I did not agree with the majority of my class. ;)

In keeping with our spider theme, we made this super cute Spider Sums to 8 craftivity from Wild About Firsties. We brainstormed all the ways to make 8 as a class and then each student picked one number sense they wanted to represent with their spider legs. 

I guest posted on my lovely friend Mrs. 3rd Grade's blog the other night as part of her 30 Amazing Teachers series and shared about a cute little Halloween gift I'm giving my first grade teammates this week! Click here to see how I put it all together (there's a link to the free gift tag I used from Eighteen25)!

Now that I'm teaching first grade, I'm teaching a lot of sounds, digraphs, vowel teams, etc. that I never had to teach in kindergarten before, so I was lacking a lot of resources to go with those phonics skills and struggling to find any printables that worked for my students. So, I did what any good teacher blogger does... I made my own! Included in this pack are 5 no-prep printables to go with the  -ck ending sound digraph (-ack, -eck, -ick, -ock, -uck). Students will read the words to practice fluency, highlight them in each word family, write and label pictures, read sentences, and write/illustrate their own sentences using -ck words. I tested these activity sheets out with my students and it really helped them with their spelling and fluency because they were interacting with the words in so many different ways. I just uploaded it to my TPT store... click on the picture to find out more!

One of my favorite things about fall is... hockey starts! Hockey is my absolute favorite sport and I root hard for my Coyotes! I got to go to the home opener earlier in the week and had a blast!

I'm so glad Friday has arrived! I am ready for a weekend! Hope you'll link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday fun!

Five for Friday {November 21st}

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

This week seemed to fly by! Can't wait till Thanksgiving break.

We've been busy learning all about the First Thanksgiving this week! We love using the Scholastic interactive Thanksgiving activities. Have you seen them? They have tons of great videos, online field trips, Mayflower explorations, compare/contrast activities, and more! My students love them and they are a great resource. 

Click here to go to the Scholastic Thanksgiving website!

Every year, my school has a huge Thanksgiving feast lunch the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Families are invited and come and go for lunch throughout the entire day. Our office staff always enlists the help of K-4 teachers to create decorations to hang up in the cafeteria, and every year my class makes coffee filter turkeys. They always turn out so cute! First, they color a coffee filter with markers and I spray it with a water bottle to make the colors run together:

Then, they create the turkey body and I glue it all together!

Speaking of feasts, let me share my favorite someecards calendar page from last week:

Pretty much.

Over the weekend, I planted myself on the couch and watched as many Hallmark Christmas movies as I could... as cheesy as they are, I totally love them! They put me in the Christmas spirit and I created two new holiday freebies in my TPT shop! Here's the first one for you: Do You Want to Build a Snowman? {Writing Activity Prompt}. Your students can build and create their own snowman using the pieces provided and then use one of three writing templates to write about the details they used! So fun! Click on the picture below to download!

Here's the second freebie for you: Sprinkles and Sight Words! It's a sight word matching game with three different printables available for your students to use! Easy and fun! Click on the picture below to download!

We've almost made it to Thanksgiving break! Phew! Head on over to Doodlebugs Teaching and join in the linky fun to see what other teachers were up to this week!

Double Linky Duty! Five for Friday and Currently August

Phew! This week has been so busy in preparation for the first day of school! It is coming up fast (Wednesday for me). That's why I've been MIA for awhile... but today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been hard at work getting my classroom ready for my new batch of kinder kiddos. Is it just me, or does it always seem like you have all the time in the world, and then you look up and Meet the Teacher Night is staring you in the face? Well, that's my world right now. Here's what my classroom looked like when I first came back from summer break. I'll be doing a classroom reveal in a later blog post, so stay tuned!

I went to Lakeshore the other day (LOVE!) and, after two separate trips, this is the haul I came out of there with! Half chart paper, velcro squares, alphabet stickers, nametags, birthday pencils, 2 sets of alphabet stamps, labels, decorative cutouts for my students' cubbies, and (this was a splurge) magnetic display trays! I also picked up a couple of games I thought my students would love. How fun does the Launch and Learn Rhyming Words game look? The kids push a button and a disc comes flying out at them. Then they have to match it to the rhyming word on their game board. I can't wait to try it with them!

I decided my word wall needed a little revamping so I took to TPT in search of some printable letters and found these adorable chevron ones from a fellow Arizona blogger, I Heart My Kinder Kids! They are FREE in her TPT store! It made my word wall look much prettier. Confession: My letters before had Comic Sans font. Gasp.

If you're wondering what this is, it's a little SNEAK PEEK at a craftivity from my newest pack coming out on TPT... I am SO excited to share it with you! I have seriously worked all summer on this unit... I'll have it up this weekend for sure, so keep an eye out!

The blog world has had its mind blown today because two amazing things happened on the same day... Friday AND August 1st... which means I'm also linking up with Farley for her monthly currently fun! Ha!

{Listening}: This is one of my favorite songs ever. I think this was the first Florence and the Machine song I'd ever heard and I was hooked after hearing it!

{Loving}: Okay. Let me tell you about my favorite book series in the entire world: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. If you haven't read these books, please go RUN and get them!!! They are amazing. Myself and others I know who are great fans of the series are so excited because they are making it into a TV show - what an amazing thing to get to see your favorite book come to life! And every clip/trailer I've seen looks amazing. I can't wait to watch!

{Thinking}: I thought I was all ahead of myself cause I've been going in and out of my classroom for the past two weeks... but then an unexpected all day training the day of Meet the Teacher night derailed my plans somewhat! So now I have to go in on Saturday to finish up some stuff just so I won't stress about it the day of. It's actually kind of nice to go on the weekend every once in awhile because there are no other teachers around to chat with and distract me... you know how we are!!!

{Wanting}: Chocolate. I've been living at the gym all summer and watching what I eat with the My Fitness Pal app... but now that the first week of school is approaching I think I deserve a little chocolate to get me through it all. ;)

The rest of the stuff is all pretty self-explanatory! I hope you'll link up with both Kacey and Farley for both of their linky fun! Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday and a 4th of July Sale!

Happy 4th of July, friends! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

I signed up at the gym this summer because I am determined to tone up and lose a few pounds over summer break! The great thing about the gym I go to is that a bunch of friends go, too, so we are keeping each other motivated and going together! The photo below is from one of my favorite classes... we always end up using tons of different pieces of equipment so it keeps it fresh and fun!

One of my favorite things in life is hockey... specifically Phoenix Arizona Coyotes hockey! They threw a big NHL Draft Party at the arena and it was super fun! We all got to go on a behind the scenes locker room tour, sit on the benches, go in the penalty box, sit on the zamboni... etc! 

I was blessed to attend an Arizona teacher blogger meet-up this week! It was so great to meet all of these wonderful ladies. Callie from Teach-a-Roo made us all these adorable nametags and we went to the cutest little restaurant downtown! It was fun chatting and getting to know everyone!

I finally bundled all of my Sight Word Sentence Builder packs! Each pack includes monthly themed sentence building pocket chart centers, predictable sentence activities, multiple printables and recording sheets for both, and tons of Read It, Write It, Build It, Draw It printables for every sentence! It's a $54 value... but you can get it for just $30 right now - the price will go up gradually as I add the last 3 units, so grab it now for super cheap - I'm adding August/September this weekend!

To celebrate the 4th of July weekend, I'm throwing a big sale in my TPT shop! Everything is 20% off through tomorrow - including the sentence builders bundle! Just click on the picture below to go straight to my store. Everyone have a safe and fun Independence Day!