Olivia!

Happy Sunday and of course happy summer! It sure is hot here in Texas and I am cautiously watching Tropical Storm Debby. I would love the rain but that is about it. My house barely survived Ike 4 years ago... don't want to experience that ever again!

On to the important stuff... I actually touched the computer for work purposes today. Shocker! I have literally not done anything work related for almost 3 weeks. I was burnt out to say the least but I am slowly getting inspired to create.

Towards the end of the year I started working on this Olivia packet to go with my Texas Treasures Unit 6 week 1 activities. I have said it before that I love Treasures but still like to add a little flare of my own to their activities. Go on over to my store to pick up these Olivia supplemental activities.

First two to comment will get my packet for FREE!!

My boxes are packed...

The end has finally come! I was so ready for a break. I had a few boys that were really trying my patience and I think they needed a break just as much as I did. At the end of the year we are busy with awards, field day, and packing up our rooms.My favorite end of year event is the talent show. My teammates and I have been performing for years. We have done Thriller where we dressed up as zombies... even my principal did it with us! Last year we did our own version of the hit Youtube video Evolution of Dance. And this year we decided to Party Rock to Kidzbop's Party Rock Anthem. It's a little bittersweet as this will be our last year all together. One of our teammates is moving to teach Junior High (bless her heart)! Rumor has it that a few of us might be moved around to another grade also but final decisions haven't been made. I am crossing my heart that I am not moved. I love my first graders.

 We have to pack everything up and put it away because all the furniture is taken out of our rooms and the carpet is supposedly steam cleaned.  This year I had some extra stress while packing because it is my school's turn to host the summer school for the entire district. Yup. A stranger will be in my classroom for a whole month and will have access to all of my things. Nothing strikes fear in your heart like the thought of a stranger being in and around your stuff. I feel like my personal space is being invaded. I went and bought padlocks for most of my cabinets and then put chart paper around areas that I couldn't lock up. It is U-G-L-Y!

I see so many people posting about leaving their rooms as they are and not having to worry about summer school in their rooms. I am double jealous! 

I need to go to sleep now though because the bright person I am signed up for a 3 day math training for our new math TEKS. It sounded so great in April but now I am rethinking it!

Teacher Appreciation Week 2012

I just purchased several fun activities and am so glad to share them with you! I am really having fun with this post and seeing what other people are buying to finish out their school year. 19 days left for me by the way!! I have DRA testing going on this week so I am looking for stuff to keep my kiddos engaged. 

First up... Dinosaurs by Kacie at Doodle Bugs Teaching ( I tried to enter the pic here for the centers but I am having trouble. Argh! Sorry still learning!) I am in love with the dinosaur craftivitity. I can't wait to make them! 

Next up... Once Upon a Time by Teaching in High Heels. I love a good fairy tale and this is going to be so much fun!

And last but not least Candy Awards by Reagan Tunstall at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits. These are so fun and will make our last day of school very memorable. I am going to miss several of my kiddos this year! 

So those are what I chose to use my teacher appreciation code :TAD12 and earned points while getting useful items for my classroom. Don't forget to go check out my store also where I am throwing a sale through Tuesday, May 8th.

Also, I have linked up with Erica Bohrer to see what other great products that teachers bought.

Earth Day Poem Freebie!

I am having an Earth Day theme this week to teach my first graders about the importance of taking care of our Earth. I am also trying expose my first graders to more poetry this month in order to celebrate April's National Poetry Month.

In my pocket chart center, students will be using this activity. I found a poem online at this website. Students will use the poem and put the words in order to build a poem match. Once the poem has been put in order, students have a fill-in-the-blank recording sheet to find the missing words of the poem. I have done this activity several times over this school year and my students are becoming very good at it.

Hope you enjoy this freebie! I will take pics of my students using this activity this week and upload them to give you a better idea of how this center works.

Have a great week!

My TPT Store!

I am excited to say that I have officially sold my first item on TPT! I am soooo thrilled and excited! I have all these thoughts of things that I can create and hopefully people can use these items in their classrooms. That has been my goal since I started teaching. I have dreamed of either becoming a librarian or to go work for an education publishing company where I could write lesson plans and make activities all day. I love writing lesson plans. I am crazy. I love it even more this year since I have discovered Pinterest and teacher blogs. Who knew there was all this great stuff out there?!

I am currently working on synonyms and antonyms in my classroom. Last week to introduce these two concepts I used Cara Carroll's ideas over at the First Grade Parade.( I have to tell you... this woman inspires me so much.) We made Synonym Cinnamon rolls and really just had a blast. I so regret not taking pictures. I really have to remember to do that more. So now that we have worked on it together as a group I am going to put reinforcement activities in my literacy centers this week and maybe for the next couple of weeks depending on how well we do with this concept.

I will be doing a quick butterfly theme this week, mostly done in centers, (since there are only 4 days this week.... who had a 4 day weekend this weekend? This girl sure did!). I created a pocket chart matching activity (told you previously... complete pocket chart junkie) that will be requiring students to look at word pairs and decide if they are an antonym or a synonym pair. Then students will be recording their answers on a recording sheet. It really melts my heart when students refer to their work as a recording sheet. (They do listen to me. Score!) So... if you would like to take a look at my little activity please click HERE to check it out on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I also uploaded a sequencing activity that I used with my students during my Laura Numeroff author study. First off I used Erica Borher's If You Give Author Study packet (which was fabulous! Loved the cupcake word problem craftivity!) for most of my center activities for the week along with my group activities. I also created a pocket chart sequencing activity where students read the big book If You Take a Mouse to School. This book actually came with our reading adoption and was meant to be read a few weeks ago according to my Treasures curriculum but I like to save it for my author study week. This activity was loved by my students. They had fun pretending to be the teacher and read the big book to the other students (or group members) then sort the story together and finally independently. I always try to have an independent practice with all my centers to make sure they know what they are doing... and to hold them accountable for that time. Please take a look HERE for this activity.

As always.... please share my information and Pin anything you like. I would love to have my followers on my blog and at my TPT store.  Happy Easter!

Good Luck Smarties!

Here in Texas it is STAAR  testing season. We just had our first round this week of 4th grade writing tests and 5th grade math and reading tests. Let me just say that even though I teach first grade... testing days are stressful for us too. The air is just stressful. We have to keep the students absolutely silent in the hallway. Lunch has to be quiet in the cafeteria (yeah right!). No recess and no specials and did I mention absolutely no break from the kids at all? Long. Days. The first day flies by and you get so much done since you have no break... but the second day drags and you think it will never end. I was not pulled to test a small group this time... Praise the Lord. I would much rather be in my own room teaching then staring down a 4th grader taking a test and counting ceiling tiles while I actively monitor.

At my school, the younger grades adopt one of the older grades classrooms and we made them encouraging posters and incentives. In years past I have had my first graders make the older kids a fun little postcard that says you are going to do a great job or something to that effect. I will be doing that the next round of testing.  But this year I was inspired by Pinterest yet again to create something a little more fun.

First I made these (My first edition to TPT!! Go download it is free!) little cards by using Kevin and Amanda fonts and Graphics From the Pond. (Both were free!). Then I took 3 smarties candies and put them in a cellophane bag, tied it with some twine, and Voila! I had a little bag of encouragement for my 4th grade smarties.

 

 We also make little posters to hang outside in the hallways and I went with my smarties theme.... Here is my little creation...

 In the past I have made posters with an elephant "stomping" the TAKS. (We no longer have the TAKS test in Texas. It is now the STAAR test. WHATEVER) I have also seen football fields where students were "scoring on the test!" 

I hope you enjoyed my first ever freebie on TPT. Please pass on the word and follow my store here.

Yee-Haw!

Sorry for being MIA lately... I got hit with the flu and then was put in charge of the school dance... my son started playing soccer... and life just got busy. But I am back and eager to share that I am on Spring Break and it is raining outside. I love yucky, rainy days. They are the best... but back on to our topic...

It is Rodeo time here in Houston. During this time of year, my district's scope and sequence states that we are to be learning all things about Texas. I personally love this time. I like pulling out the southern Texan twang with a few fun read alouds.

The reading skill of the week was Plot. I pulled out 2 of my favorite Western Cinderella stories.

 

I always have so much fun with these stories. The kids enjoy them too! The boys especially love Bubba's version. We started out the week by reading Cindy Ellen first. We charted the plot of the story by using the "Somebody Wanted But So" method inside of a boot pattern that I found in my files and traced. (I am not the best at drawing on my own but I am an excellent tracer!) 

 

 The next day, we read about Bubba and charted his plot also on a cowboy hat (but I forgot to take a pic of it). After charting the plot of both stories, my students on their own (so proud) began making connections on how the stories were the same and how they are different. I then pulled out my Venn Diagram pocket chart and we wrote ideas on boots from Carson Dellosa.

 

 Then the students used a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two stories. I highly recommend purchasing this book from Scholastic .

In my writing center, students traced a cowboy and created their own cowboy. They then had to fill in the answers to sentence stems that were available in a pocket chart by the writing area. (I am a pocket chart junkie.) 

Thanks again for reading my blog! Please pin and share to your heart's desire. Also, please tell people about my blog. I would love to have more followers. :) I hope to post more ideas this week and hopefully a few freebies! 

Happy Spring Break!