The Inspired Apple

Bossy R Giveaway!

2012-02-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

Hey, y'all! I'm late in posting (i.e. staff meeting went late, followed by Life Group meet-up at our house, then had to spend some time with Becks!), but I'm teaming up with the fabulous Jodi at Fun in First for a super Bossy R Giveaway!

The winners will win Jodi's fantastic resource Meet the Bossy R Triplets and a copy of my Learning "ar" with Pirate Mark.

All you have to do is be a follower of both of our blogs and both of our TpT stores. {Click on the links below.}

Abby's Blog

Abby's TpT Store

Jodi's Blog

Jodi's TpT Store

Then leave ONE comment on this post and head over and leave ONE comment on Jodi's blog. We will each be picking one winner from our comments next Tuesday, February 28th!

Math Tubs, Sweetheart Snatchin’ & Graphing!

2012-02-16T18:44:00.001-08:00

Lately…

…we’ve been *obsessing* over our centers time because my kids are crazy-in-love with all the place value activities we’ve been working on from Cara’s Place Value Packet of Fun. Seriously, a SUPER investment.

…we began reading The Borrowers after one of my pumpkins was thrilled to share that she’d seen the trailer to The Secret World of Arrietty.

…I’m still living a snowday-less school year, and subsequently enjoying every bit of crossing off each day that passes on my calendar. And really looking forward to April!

…we’ve been stalking that Sweetheart Snatcher! As soon as the first clue surfaced, they were all Not agaaaain!!!! It had to be the Candycorn Bandit! I might need to make the clues poster-sized next year because now that they’re getting to be more proficient readers, they ALL wanted to read the clues!

I love that pic! I sent three boys into the gym to locate the sweethearts, while the rest of the class peered in the gym doors. So cute!

…we’ve been organizing, recording, and interpreting data!

Us teachers were pulling hard for a snow day on Tuesday, and I’m blaming my students for the reason we didn’t get one. See graph above.

What we did with our snatched sweethearts…

…we learned about captions in Treasures this week while reading the story Cats in Art. Afterwards, I had the students “sculpt” cats from playdoh and then make a caption to accompany it. They turned out soooooo cute! Tell me that orange cat doesn’t look eerily realistic!

…using Kathleen’s Fun with Numbers Part 2 to supplement instruction on tally marks since my kiddos haven’t mastered it quite yet. Another GREAT, highly recommended resource!

I think that catches me up! I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming three-day weekend and PTL that tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!! I had my last formal evaluation of the year today (woo hoo!), so I’m absolutely deserving of an entire pint of Raspberry Chip from Graeter’s and a little GTL tonight.

In the meantime, it’s me, Katniss, and Peeta!!!! They’ve just headed to the Quarter Quell and I’m DYING to know what’s going to happen!!!!!

TGtomIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Moustache You To Be My Valentine {Art Activity}

2012-02-08T18:23:00.001-08:00

In the spirit of the moustache trend, I just couldn’t help but include my kiddos in on the fun.

I downloaded a handlebar moustache from HERE, and then enlarged them in a document so I could cut them out on construction paper and glue them to a popsicle stick.

Then, I took the *cutest* pictures of my little Valentines.

Developing them at Walmart was under $5, and I think our first grade families are going to love hanging them on the ol’ fridge when they’re out of our hallway.

Anyway, our Morning Mini today focused on adding quotation marks to speech in sentences, so after describing the play on words with the moustaches (_______ moustache you a question…) we wrote the question “Will you be my Valentine?” using our best sentence writing skills. To help them remember the quotation marks and capitalization at the beginning, I pointed out the “big” heart. To help them remember the quotation marks and question mark at the end, I pointed out the “little” heart. {Check out the doc to see what I’m talking about :)}

The resulting product:

They turned out so cute, and gave me a good use for those big doilies!

Click the moustache below for the documents.

Have a great day!

Valentine’s Day Dollar Delights!

2012-02-06T19:10:00.001-08:00

Who else is just eating up this season of loooooooove? I am!

No, literally, I am eating it up. Me and candy hearts? Thisclose.

First of all, I wanted to share a few center activities I’m adding this week.

First up, Be Mine Boxes:

{Click link or picture above to download for free!}

The heart boxes are everywhere right now, but I picked mine up at The Dollar Tree. Since we’re getting ready to work on numbers to 40 in Math in Focus, I’m filling the boxes full of different amounts of colored beads. The students then match the number on the heart box to the number on the recording sheet, dump and count the beads, and write the number in the center heart. Within the four squares of the box, the student represents the number in four different ways (i.e. addition/subtraction problems, tallies, written number, base 10, etc.). Cara also has a cute idea for these boxes! {If you have a post with ideas for these boxes, let me know and I’ll add you in!}

Literacy-wise, I’m reinforcing beginning blends with the center below because the pumpkins are having a little bit of trouble with these letter duos…

{Also a free download! Just click the link or pic above!}

And, now for some more dollar delights…

Um, yes, those are lip clips. And they’re magnetic. What a great visual for students to remember to get their mouths ready when reading! Love. {They’re from The Dollar Tree.}

I saw these foldable heart Valentines at Target and just had to have them to put my Sweetheart Snatcher clues in! They come 8-to-a-pack, so they would also be great stand-alone Valentines, perfect for a writing activity.

A pink Mystery Box!!! Y’all, I have been looking for mystery boxes for you ALL YEAR! I cannot, for the life of me, find the same cardboard one that I got around this time last year from Target, but this would be an okay substitute. It’s a Valentine’s Day Mailbox from The Dollar Tree, but does have slits in the top for cards to go in. I’m sure you could creatively cover them up, though.

And those are some monster-sized doilies up there, also from The Dollar Tree. Can’t wait to have fun with them!

Well, I hope your Monday wasn’t too Monday-ish. Mine started off with me letting my coffee pot run all over the sink, and then I had to yell at someone (from inside my car) who ran a stop sign and almost hit me. But, it’s going to end *great* because I’m all kinds of excited about watching Smash tonight! Then, I’m going to get all cozied up with more candy hearts and Katniss. Because I am just now jumping on that whole bandwagon and omiword: OBSESSED.

Have a great week!!!!

Love you ALL!

2012-02-05T19:35:00.001-08:00

Is that inspiring or what?!

I’m going to be all corny, and say that just thinking about yesterday, combined with seeing that picture brings tears to my eyes! I had *such* a fantastic time, and I’m all emotional over the inspiration, determination, compassion, and camaraderie that was present.

Highlights by The Number:

5 – States represented
39 – Educators present
38 – New friends I have :)
3 – Hours we gabbed
5 (or 6) – Diet Cokes I drank (…I think. I lost track and probably ended up drinking one that didn’t belong to me at some point.)
7 – Visits to the Ladies Room. See above.
3 – Questions concerning the unitard. I didn’t wear it due to the fact that I knew I would drink 5 or 6 Diet cokes and visit the Ladies Room 7 times. There’s no buttons or zippers down there, friends.
1/2 – Sandwich I ate because I was too busy talking. And now 38 other people totally get the “babbling” part. But at least I had leftovers for dinner!
2 – Sections we were divided into. The only Aw, man! part of the whole day. Next time, we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen!

And the best part – we’re such a small group in comparison to the many wonderful educators there are in this nation! Could you imagine if we really did do a teacher-blogger conference?! Holy moly!

I’m telling you, ladies, I’m game for a monthly meet-up!

Again, thank you ALL so much for coming! It made my weekend to chat with y’all.

Bloggy love and have a GREAT week!!!!!!

{PS. My favorite lens is on the fritz, so I’m stealing pics from Michelle!!!! }

{PSS. I believe Staci is compiling a list of all those who attended, and including blog and email addresses! Yay!}

The Sweetheart Snatcher {FINALLY!}

2012-02-01T18:46:00.001-08:00

The Sweetheart Snatcher is *finally* uploaded! Sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience!

While it definitely has some similarities to The Candy Corn Bandit, it’s not exactly the same. Be sure to read the description for all the details :)

Now that it’s uploaded, that means my TpT shop is still on sale for another 24 hours! The sale will end on February 2, 2012 at 11:59pm.

PS. I have 3 other Valentine-related activities for sale, including:

A Valentine’s Day Mini-Unit which you can read about HERE.

We Love Math! Center Activities for February (preview HERE)

Candy Caper (Triple Consonant Blends Game)

TGIHD!

{Thank Goodness It’s Hump Day!}

{Some fonts and/or graphics by www.misstiina.com}

TpT Anniversary Sale!

2012-01-29T12:14:00.001-08:00

ETA 1/29 8:00pm EST: Sale is currently running again!!!! If the prices don't show, PLEASE let me know!!!! Thanks for your patience :)

Today is my TpT-iversary! I’ve been a member for one whole year as of today, so I decided to celebrate with a 20% off sale! Yay! Click on the pic above or HERE to visit my shop!

{The sale will run today until 24 hours after I upload The Sweetheart Snatcher. Because it doesn’t look like it will be up today :( Sorry! The weekend just got in the way!}

And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU

to the many loyal customers that I have.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

{Some fonts and/or graphics by www.misstiina.com}

Venn with Friends!

2012-01-26T18:45:00.001-08:00

{Brace yourselves…it’s going to be random!}

Let’s just start this post by stating the obvious. Tomorrow is FRIDAY. Woop woop!

And, guess who I get to meet on Saturday morning?????

Sweet Michelle!!!

Ah! So excited! We’re getting together to gab, let our boys play, and gear up for the Tristate Bloggy Meet-up next weekend. Yay! {PS. Don’t forget to RSVP to the eVite!}

* * * * *

One of our skills this week was comparing and contrasting, so I brought out old Venny. First, we did a whole group activity where we used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two little kiddos that I drew.

Then, I had one of my teacher friends pop in for a few minutes so the kids could watch us model the activity they were getting ready to complete. {Also, LOVE my Smartboard. Love, love, love it. How did I EVER teach without it?!}

Next, I partnered the kididdles up so they could compare themselves to one another. They loved it!

Click HERE for your own copy of the activity.

* * * * *

And, just a couple of amazing bloggers I’ve been trolling lately…

Rebecca from Darlin’ in First is, well, just that: darlin’! She’s in my Life Group at church and I just love her. She’s all kinds of cute and just started her blog. Check her out:

And then there’s the also ah-mazing Amy Lemons! Holy cow of cuteness. Love. Her.

Lastly, I just can’t help but mention our friend, The Teacher Wife. Sister plays the ukulele, y’all. Yes, the UKULELE! I stand amazed. Not only at her ability to tolerate a classroom of kiddos strummin’ all at the same time (I can barely handle walking down the 5th grade hallway during recorder season), but of her talent! Sooooo cool!!!!!

* * * * *

Now, onto the rest of my evening. Which includes cutting out a mound of laminate for our February math centers that I’ll be starting next week…

…and Cherry Chip ice cream from Graeter’s while I spend time witih another Vinny. As in Jersey Shore Vinny. I am trash TV fool, y’all.

Oh, and one last quick thing. One of my precious littles ran up to me the other day and said, My mom showed me a picture of you on the internet! My first thought: Oh, lawd. Did she see me in a unitard?! HA!!!!!

TGtomorrowIF!!!!!!!

Valentines Math Centers {Freebie!}

2012-01-24T17:07:00.001-08:00

Spidey was a little under the web today. Up at 4:30am with a fever, which put me to school at 5:45am planning for a sub. Super fun. But, I did get to spend the day with a super hero, so I can’t complain too much :)

While sweet precious took a FOUR HOUR nap (!!!!!!!), I was able to wrap up my We Love Math! Valentines-themed math center activities. The activities are all First Grade Common Core Standards aligned, and many of the centers match up nicely with our direction in Math in Focus right now. There are 8 different centers included for $5.50. {PS. I think about 9 people got this for FREE! I accidently uploaded this pack instead of the center listed underneath the preview. Oh well! I hope y’all like it!!!!}

You can download a condensed version of one of the centers by clicking on the picture below!

And, lastly, introducing the sequel to The Candy Corn Bandit:

Hopefully, I’ll have the Sweetheart Snatcher uploaded sometime this weekend!

Have a great day, y’all!!!

{Some fonts and/or graphics by www.misstiina.com}

What’s in My Teacher’s Bag {Making Inferences}

2012-01-22T16:22:00.001-08:00

First of all, what is is about returning from Christmas break that just makes that lightbulb turn on in my firsties’ sweet little minds?! I don’t know if it’s them or me, but they came back from the holidays with their game faces on! I love it! We’re *finally* getting through almost everything in my lesson plans, which makes me feel like a super teacher (…for the first time in months!).

Anyway, when I introduced making inferences a couple weeks ago, I started with a little lesson involving the contents of the ridiculously large bag I tote back and forth to school every day. {This is not a new lesson - my teaching friend did this with her “trash” last year.}

After defining inferencing to my kiddos, I showed them my bag and began to pull out its contents. I explained that they were going to make inferences about me based on what was inside. This was a great way to kick off our weekly skill, and they did a great job with it.

Next, I gave my pumpkins a little follow-up writing activity where they drew 2 pictures of things I had in my bag, along with what they could infer about me.

Alternately, you can do this activity by letting your students sort through you “trash.” You can download copies of these inferencing activities by clicking the pictures below (both documents are included):

{ETA: Camille let me know that my lesson is an adaptation of an idea from Tanny MacGregor, the author of Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading. I haven't read this book before, but just wanted to make sure I acknowledged her creativity!}

A great follow-up to a week of learning about inferences is The Inferencing Investigation. I did this activity with my kiddos last year, so you can read all about it HERE. It also includes another free printable. Admittedly, we haven’t got to it yet this year, but I still plan to do it!

* * * * *

Unrelatedly, thanks so much for your sweet words on my last post. So. Not. Necessary! I know that bad teaching weeks are just par for the course, but it bears mentioning that they do happen. And when they do, you just have to do lots and lots of yoga breaths and maybe have a glass of wine. Or two ;) However, I’m one of those people that copes with my problems by talking through them (shocking, I know), so it’s difficult to have this blog and not talk about them! Anyway, y’all are the best. Hands down.

Have a great week! {I can’t believe tomorrow is already Monday!}

Not Always Unicorns and Rainbows.

2012-01-19T19:38:00.001-08:00

I had a rough week last week – hence the lack of posting. It involved a lot of stress that just exhausted me by the end of the day and I didn’t have it in me to post. And since I’m a public school teacher, as many of you are, you know that’s really all I can say. I wish I could elaborate and we could swap stories and experiences, and then I’d walk away feeling better about everything, but it’s just not something I feel like I can blog about.

{I totally feel like the girl at Bible study offering up the “unspoken” prayer, which of course, everyone’s like, Omigosh, what could it be?! I promise, it’s nothing that bad. Y’all are teachers, so just imagine up your worst day – worst week – and that was my life last week. And, dangit, I truly wish we all could openly share out, but…well, you know…we just can’t.}

So, despite all the sunshiney pictures I post and fun activities that I attempt to incorporate into my curriculum, life isn’t always unicorns and rainbows. Nor did I write this so that I could garner your sympathy. I’m just trying to keep it real and I want you to know that if there are times when you’re not feeling all sunshiney because of reasons x, y, or z, just know that I can relate. I can soooooooo relate.

Anyway…

Peeking through the clouds over this past week, there were a couple things that made me put on my happy pants.

Like, for instance, the fact that my secondhand personal laminator held up through the lamination of several centers I was making. It is ready to quit on me any day, but I just cross my fingers and think, Just one more page! Please! and that seems to do the trick! (PTL, btw, for Cara and Made for 1st Grade. I don’t know what I would do without them!) Also, Dave Matthews Dreaming Tree. And I’m not talking about the song ;)

…my kids working independently during center time. This is a recent development and it’s taken a long time for us to get to this point as a class.

{Someone plllllllleeeeeeeease tell me who made the center that I’m using above! I downloaded it for free from someone in December 2010 and I don’t know who it was! If it belongs to you, claim it!!!! ETA: Thanks, Kathleen! It's from the totally fab Julie Lee AND it's free!!!! Go grab ya a copy!!! }

Oh, yes, this:

That would be a handless wrestler that I confiscated today. My rule: put it away or I take it away. So, he’s on my desk until tomorrow when I return it to the offending student. You should also know that when I took it away it was because the student was chewing on it’s head. During math. Yeah.

And, lastly, the icing on the cake. The had-me-laughing-until-I-was-crying moment of the day, when a teacher friend showed me this little gem her student wrote:

You’re welcome.

{I’m sure you don’t need me to interpret, but it says I sit by the fire and drink hot steaming cocoa.}

One last thing, for those of you coming to the Tristate Bloggy Meet-Up, please be sure to RSVP to the eVite that was mailed within the past few days. If you didn’t get one, please let Michelle or I know so we can add to the invitation! We’re sooooooo excited about it!!!!! Can’t wait to meet y’all IN PERSON! Eeeeh!!!

TGtomorrowIF!!!!! PTL!!!!!

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?!

2012-01-09T19:24:00.001-08:00

Today, I’m teaming up with Kelly and Diane – the fantastic Made for 1st Grade duo – to bring you a *magical* giveaway! They’ve made a wonderful set of Wizard of Oz Math and Literacy Centers that pair perfectly with my We’re Off to See the Wizard Unit! I don’t know if you’ve ever checked out a Made for 1st Grade set of centers yet, but let me just tell you – they are phenomenal! Comprehensive, colorful, curriculum-oriented, and totally creative!

And, guess what? Not only am I giving away a set of these two resources to a commenter on this post, but Kelly and Diane are doing the same!

For one chance, leave a single comment on this post telling me whether or not you’ve been a good witch or a bad witch today!

I’ve been a bad witch – forgoing laundry to blog stalk and watch college football with my husband!

For a second chance, check out this post at Made for 1st Grade :)

{ Only 1 comment per person, please! Don’t forget to leave your name and email address. Contest ends on Tuesday at 11:59pm. The winner from this blog will be randomly selected, and will be notified by email sometime on Wednesday. }

Thanks for playing and happy, happy Monday!

KY - OH - IN Blogger Meet-Up!

2012-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Hey, y'all! Michelle and I decided it was time to head up a bloggy teacher meet-up for those of us in the tristate area! Our plans are to meet up somewhere in the Cincinnati area for super fabulous lunch date. Yay! {And, of course, you totally don't have to have a blog to come!}

If you'd like to attend, please email me or Michelle for details :)

Abby - babblingabby(at)gmail(dot)com

Michelle - fabulousinfirst(at)gmail(dot)com

Can't wait!!!!!

Hello, My Treasured Friends ;)

2012-01-04T19:50:00.001-08:00

Dang, that was corny.

But, Treasures! Wowza, there’s a lot going on in reading this week (but when isn’t there?! Treasures, as we’ve discussed before, is a leetle beet overwhelming in the amount of curriculum they consider “day” worthy. Maybe they mean day as in 8 hours? I don’t know, but there’s no way I can get through their daily expectations in a 90 minute lit block. Anyway. I’m off track now. What’s new?)

First off, *contractions.* I think we should all do jazz hands every time we say it. Try it. It will jazz up your instruction. (See, there I go with the corny again. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME TONIGHT?! Several days of indoor recess will do this to a person.)

So, I introduced an anchor chart similar to this one I used last year:

The kiddos came up and put the green tape over the o’s and then wrote the contraction. Afterwards, they used this as a resource when matching up to their “contraction kids.”

I also did this activity last year and it is probably my most emailed about resource! So, today – everything all in one place! I gave each kid a nametag that either contained a contraction or the words that make up the contraction. Then, the kids had to find their match, add the nametag to a cut-out kid, and color away. We post these in our room to use in our writing.

On to generating questions…

First of all, we went over this anchor chart that I made and discussed how asking questions while reading keeps us engaged in the story and betters our comprehension.

Next, we took a quick picture walk through our big book story, When I am Old with You. I gave each child a large sticky note and told them to write a question they had about the story based on the pictures. Since generating a question can be difficult, I encouraged them to start with the phrase, “I wonder if…” We did a turn-and-talk, shared our questions, and then posted them up around the chart.

{Though not shown above, I did eventually underline the words curious, predict, and clear to help the students understand why questioning is encouraged. The following day, I passed the sticky notes back to the students (after we reread the story) and they answered the question aloud to a neighbor.

Today, for our main selection, the students were encouraged to take an independent picture walk and then write a question on a little fold-over graphic organizer I made.

I didn’t take a picture of the inside, but it gives a student a place to answer the question and discuss what they know as a result of reading the story and answering the question.

Next, we read the story on the SmartBoard! SO COOL. We used Ms. Settle’s blog for this and – OMIWORD – if you’re a first grade Treasures teacher you are going to LOVE her site, Settle On In. One of my teacher friends from school found it and I’m addicted to it now, too. It works GREAT with an interactive whiteboard. LOVE.

After that, I did the most simplistic, non-creative thing ever – but the change in format was all my kiddos needed to be on task for 20 minutes, seriously discussing the story. In advance, I took smaller sheets of chart paper, labeled them with four different questions for the students to answer, and split them into five groups. I hand-selected one student to be the “writer” and the other 2-3 students were the “resource-ers” whose job was to help find the resources in the story for answering the questions. And, I kid you not, full-on class-wide engagement. Honestly, that doesn’t happen very often! I was so pumped!

Using a resource to spell fishing…

I don’t have it in my to also discuss triple-consonant blends tonight, so another day.

But, here are all the printables, in one place. Finally!

Click below for the Questioning Flip activity & the generic questions I used on the chart paper.

Click below for the Contraction Kid Cut Out & the Generic Nametags…

Alright, friends, probably going to fall asleep on the couch watching Revenge now. Have a great end of the week. Happy Hump Day!

Preview Pics and Some Recommendations!

2012-01-01T10:25:00.001-08:00

Hey, y’all! Did you have the happiest of New Years?

As expected, ours’ was low-key and uneventful. I ate a lot of barbecue meatballs, though.

Today, I’m delaying the inevitable: tomorrow I go back to school. I can’t explain why since it’s a nationally recognized holiday and everyone but us is off tomorrow, including: the post office, our church, banks, and surrounding counties. Grrrr. But, only two full weeks until we’re off for MLK day, right?! Geez, I’m bad!

Oh well, there’s lots of fun things going on in January in my classroom. This coming week is penguins! If you don’t own Deanna’s best-selling unit it is a MUST BUY. My kids and I loved it last year, and I know it will make our first week back a little more palatable. Made for First Grade also has a pretty incredible assortment of centers that would pair nicely with your penguin activities. Check out their Penguins on Parade Math and Literacy Centers!

The second week of January we will be doing snowmen! There are sooooo many excellent resources out right now for these fun guys, including: Deanna’s Snowmen Math and Literacy Fun, Kim’s Snowman Surprise, Kathleen’s Hats off to Snowmen! literacy center, and this oh-so-stinkin-adorable Let’s Make a Snowman! craftivity by First Grade Blue Skies!

I also put together an activity pack for snowmen that helps you celebrate the annual “birthday” of our wintery friends! Here’s a little sneak peak:

Since I can only wrap my mind around these next two weeks, I’m hesitant to say what will come after that! Plus, I’m hoping we’ll have a least a snow day or two ;)

However, we will be throwing in my hot chocolate activities either into the end of January or the beginning of February. Since it’s cold in Kentucky until at least March, there will be plenty of time get warm and toasty with a mug of hot cocoa during the school day!

{PS. It should say “MATH” center and not MatCH center above!}

Both activities are currently on sale in my TpT store for $5.95 (along with the rest of my shop) until 11:59pm tonight.

Happy, happy 2012 and enjoy the end of your holiday break!

A Happy New Year Sale..and Giveaway Winners ADDED!!!

2011-12-30T20:32:00.001-08:00

Thanks so much for playing along! That was fun!

Congrats to Ali Schepis, Rebecca Kuenzi, Kylie (Down Under Teacher), and Amy_146! Check your emails, ladies!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Omiword, it’s almost 2012! The year I’ll turn thirty and, well, other than that I’m not sure what 2012 will hold! It’s just about “12” kinds of exciting to think about, though (pun completely intended). It’s going to be a *great* year, I just know it!

Anyways, let’s kick the new year off with a sale that starts this very instant and runs until 11:59pm on January 1st. Everything in my TpT store is discounted 15%, including my latest wintery units: Teaching with Treats: Hot Chocolate & A Snowman Celebration!

More details to come when I’m not 12 kinds of exhausted. {In a state of utter craziness, I took Becks to the museum today and it wore me right out! It’s Christmas break – what was I thinking?!}

Oh, and for you night owls or west-coasters still blog stalking, let’s do a little giveaway of my newest units! I’ll give away both units to the 1st, 12th, 24th, and 36th commenters that tell me their New Year’s plans and leave me their email addresses. Since I approve my comments before posting, I won’t publish them all until the morning – just to keep you guessing :) The giveaway ends whenever I wake up and get to the blog in the morning. I’ll post the winners sometime tomorrow.

{PS. I gave up on planning something super exciting for New Years a long time ago. It’s always such a bust!!! So, for the past few years, we’ve headed to my in-laws for something very low-key and predictable. Plus, there’s pumpkin roll. Always a bonus! I hope you’re doing something fun, too!}

{Some fonts and/or graphics by www.misstiina.com}

TpT Customers, Please Read :)

2011-12-29T14:02:00.001-08:00

Hey, gals (and the occasional guy!). I have a small request. And I really even hate to ask. Because it’s awkward for me, and I am overwhelmed with gratitude for those of you who frequent my store. Seriously, I can’t thank you enough!

Anyway, I did a general google search of some of the items that I have for sale in my TpT store – namely, Fun with Firsties/Super in Second and The Candy Corn Bandit. Both have poems that were written by me, exclusively for sale on TpT. This search generated posts pertaining to my activities, along with many images that contain the poems (in part or whole). I am *thrilled* that you all love the activities and want to post about them on your blogs, and encourage you to continue to do so! {My Terms of Use – found in the back of each activity pack - requests that you do provide a link to either the activity on TpT or to The Inspired Apple.}

My request is this: please do not publish pictures of the poems (in part or whole), as this violates the copyright and the integrity of my work. Meaning that anyone could then copy my poem(s) from your site and either use them without purchasing them or redistribute them as their own. Sadly, this has happened, and I feel it must be addressed. {ETA: I do not think that anyone has posted the pictures with any ill intent!}

Again, I am so sorry that I had to write this post! I feel terrible about it!

I hope y’all are having an absolutely wonderful Christmas break! My teaching blog hiatus is about over, so I’ll talk to you soon :)

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T10:54:00.001-08:00

Hey, sweet friends!

While I’m on a teaching blog hiatus, I’m updating my family blog over at Babbling Abby. There’s pics of our bathroom remodel, our Christmas décor, and the quick, simple, and cheap gift I gave my kiddos this year!

{And, yes, I’m still working on my new TpT activities. They’ll be up real soon! Now, quit thinking about teaching and enjoy the holiday ;) Merry Christmas!}

The State of the Classroom Address: Take Two!

2011-12-13T19:06:00.001-08:00

Let me be honest. My classroom rarely ever looks like this:

Except for the first millisecond of the first day of school. When the desks are glue and crayon-free, the floors are freshly polished, every pocket chart hangs perfectly, and I have yet to realize that Student X needs a seat all. by. himself.

Once the school year is underway, it’s hard to find the time and/or motivation to maintain that squeaky clean look, as we all have many, many, many more important things to concentrate on. Like data binders, assessments, interventions, assessments, craftivities, assessments, new standards and timelines, etc. And, of course, just what we’re going to do with a half dozen Student X’s who all somehow managed to be in our classroom.

Right when you’re getting your groove on, Madame S.(martboard) moves in and shakes things up. In a good way, but a mid-year shake up can only add to the chaos of the pre-holiday crazies.

So, really, all of that to say that I’ve had to rearrange my room to accommodate Madame S – whom I love and dearly adore – but she’s presented quite the arrangement challenge in my room. I want her to be a central focus during our whole group time, so I spent the large part of yesterday after school and before school this morning attempting a new layout.

Here’s the room all catawampus…

This morning the room was mostly functional. But I need to live in it a little longer before I decide if it’s going to work. And, yes, as many of you have noted: I have a *big* classroom. It was the old art room, so the space was originally meant to accommodate big, honkin’ art tables and benches. The space is a blessing and a curse, as I often don’t know what to do with it all! A great problem to have, I know :)

PS. Thanks for all the love and support for my presentation last week! It went well and the prof only asked questions I knew the answers to. Shoo! I researched the effect looping has on reading achievement.

PSS. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for the errors in the Short E packet on TpT. A corrected version is available now, so if you’ve already purchased it go back and redownload the new version. Sorry about that! And for the delay in getting the updates made!!!!!

PSSS. I’m so excited about January in my classroom! Watch for my newest TpT units to go up over the next week or so! Yay!!!!!

Keepin’ it real...

2011-12-05T18:55:00.001-08:00

Keepin’ it real DUSTY, that is!

Omiword, is this 12 kinds of embarrassing or what?!

I’m just going to throw a figure out here, and say that I haven’t dusted behind that TV set in approximately 18 months. You know, around the time I started grad school and life went cah-to-the-razy. Because who has time to dust when there’s research to be done?!

And now you’re probably seeing me in a new light…a dusty light…but a new light, nevertheless. Don’t for a second think I always have it altogether. Because I soooooo don’t. I’m negligent of dust bunnies and proper electrical cord storage (holy fire hazard!). I took care of the dust and the cord chaos this past weekend, but still haven’t written my last grad school paper. Dang.

My thesis/research presentation is TOMORROW. And, honestly, I’m all I really could care less because I just want to get it over with. Seriously, why does the university schedule these things from 4-7pm on a SCHOOL NIGHT?! I mean, we’re TEACHERS. So, needless to say, I’m probably going to be covered in some kind of craft material, and will have glue smeared on whatever I decide to wear tomorrow. Also, I’ll be very tired. Because reigning in 21 holiday crazed firsties is really wearing me down.

And, also in the spirit of keeping it realz…

I’m sorry I have nothing new for Christmas. I was working on two activities and then my husband had a pretty bad car accident on Tuesday morning (he’s fine PTL, his truck was not). And I said to heck with them. I couldn’t wrap my mind around all the what ifs and what could’ve beens, and so I clearly wasn’t thinking about the Christmas activities. So, I defer to my internet besties and the crazy amazing things they’ve made for the holidays – which I fully intend on doing a post about before the week is up.

So, have a great evening. And pray that I don’t talk at an ungodly fast pace tomorrow and that none of the professors actually find my research interesting enough to ask questions about. Thanks and amen :)

Fifteen school days until…

2011-11-27T17:07:00.001-08:00

…Christmas vacation! But, who’s counting?!

MEEEEEEEEE!

Goodness gracious I love my job, but it is time for a solid two weeks off. These past five days have been all kinds of wonderful, and times like these make me wonder how the general public works year round.

Our Thanksgiving was great, and we attempted another family Christmas card pic, but I’m just not feeling it. Whatevs.

This is really a very useless and non-educational post, but hey! I kept my word and posted more than once over the past week. Yay!

Also, I wanted to remind you that a gobzillion great sellers are having mammoth sales over a TpT starting tonight at midnight! Up to 30% off! Don’t forget to use the code CMS28 to get an additional 10% off :) Happy shopping!

Short & Long Vowels Literacy Center Activities

2011-11-26T07:11:00.001-08:00

Hey, y’all! I just wanted to let you know that all long vowel sounds are now posted to my TpT store. Regularly, they sell for $2.00, but they’re currently on sale for $1.60 a piece. The only pack of the long vowels that doesn’t follow the CVe pattern is the Long E pack, which includes ea words instead.

Click on the specific vowel sound that you want using the pic below, and you’ll be taken directly to the pack in my store. {Remember, the activities stay the same – only the spelling pattern changes!}

Also, I made literacy center packs for all the short vowel sounds using the cVc spelling pattern. Click on the pics below to go directly to the link where they’re sold in my store. They are also on sale for $1.60 right now, and are perfect for new readers and spellers!

If there is any specific spelling pattern (i.e. blends, diagraphs, etc.) that you would like me to add to my store, send me an email and I’ll try to have it loaded quickly :)

Have a great day!

The Sale of the Season!

2011-11-24T07:03:00.001-08:00

Are y’all ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?! And all the shopping in between?!

I’m teaming up with Cara, Kelly, and Diane for a *fantastic* sale! I’ve already got my eye on several things that are must-haves for the season and my TpT cart is just waiting to be filled!

Our sales begin tonight at midnight and will run through Tuesday at 11:59pm. We’re offering 20% off our entire stores! And, don’t forget to add your TpT code {CMS28} to your order on Monday for another 10% discount! Wahoo!!!!

Here’s direct links to our TpT stores…

Babbling Abby/The Inspired Apple

Diane & Kelly/Made for First Grade

Cara Carroll/The First Grade Parade

And, I just have to say, on this day of Thanksgiving, that I am oh so thankful for all of you! You continue to inspire and encourage me every day. I am a better teacher because of you and thankful for your support of The Inspired Apple and my TpT store. Y’all are beyond 12 kinds of amazing! And I truly, truly, truly mean that!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, sweet friends :)

All Gobbled Out!

2011-11-22T20:33:00.001-08:00

I am all gobbled out. In more ways than one! Seriously, today couldn’t get here quick enough. And if your kiddos are anything like mine, you would’ve thought it was the day before summer vacation. OhMAHword. Amen and praise the Lord for a five day break!

So, the other reason(s) I’m gobbled out?

Reason #1: Well, ye ol’ thesis that I’ve been working on since the dawn of the day {not to be confused with Breaking Dawn Part I which I fully intend on conning my husband into seeing with me…} was turned in today. I started my research back in the spring of 2010 and I am so glad that’s it’s done. Now, I just have to present it to the faculty at my college and I will wash my hands of this degree! SOOOOOO DONE.

Reason #2:

Behold…

The good news? She’s further along than the picture on the right shows. Drywall and the new subfloor are installed. Yahoo! Looooooove living with my parents (Becks thinks we’re on vacation), but we’re anxious to return home. I’m ready to decorate for the holidays. And I miss my kitchen. And bed. And everything else about our quaint little cracker box of a home.

Reason #3: Oh, it might be because we’ve been Thanksgiving-i-fied out. I think I’m just going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

{All of it? Totally Cara-inspired. God bless that girl!}

{The beard on the pilgrim man got a little out of control…}

Look what we have here… {Yay!!!!!}

And now to the 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza!!!!

We started the day with a little photo-op…

Continued with costume making…

Guest readers…

We also made turkey cookie glyphs. Some turkeys looked darling…

And, others, well…unique???

{I bet you could figure out what color icing boys used and what color girls used! Ha!}

In preparation for our big feast, the kids also hand-mashed potatoes and made babyfood jar butter. So fun! And, I do have to say, that the Extravaganza has probably been my favorite day of school so far. It seriously went off without a hitch! I love it when that happens (which is truly not very often!).

Sorry for the picture overload! It was truly a fantastic day and well worth the effort!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve-Eve, friends!!!!

Absence Excuse!

2011-11-20T18:23:00.000-08:00

Hey, y'all! I just wanted to bop in real quick to say a fast hello {hello!} and let you know that I'll be back with a vengance this week. Or at least more than one post. I might even pop up over on my pitiful and much-more-neglected blog, Babbling Abby! That, however, would be miraculous. So, I'll just promise to post over here :)

You see, this past week were parent-teacher conferences, my thesis/research paper is due in 36 hours, we're living at my parent's house while our one and only bathroom is being remodeled, and tomorrow is our 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza at school so I've been a leeetle beeet busy

Also, I am a mom and teacher. Me and crazy, we're like superclose. Like BFF times quadrillion. Because I must be crazy in order to deal with life sometimes. Plus, highly caffeinated. It's a shame ~~for my bank account~~ that Starbucks is on my way to school.

Hopefully, I'll have time to breathe with the upcoming 5 day break. And, I anticipate that with grad school over (I graduate in less than a month!!!!!), I'll be more successful at blogging in general in 2012.

Y'all are an amazing blog audience and thanks for continuing to read!

PS. Rachelle is having a super fun linky party that I'm completely going to participate in {sometime} this week! There's certainly *lots* to be thanksful for! Go play along!

It’s snood-a-licious!

2011-11-13T19:10:00.001-08:00

Gobble, gobble, teacher friends! I just *love* this time of year. Despite the fact that I have 21 conferences to attend this week, I’m so excited about teaching my firsties about Pilgrims and Native Americans I can’t stand it!

We started learning about turkeys last week. The feathers you see pictured below were designed by my kiddos and used in a measuring activity.

After the students decorated the feather templates with markers and stickers, I laminated them and we used them to measure each other and then searched for items around the room that were 1, 2, and 3 turkey feathers long.

We also read a nonfiction book about turkeys and completed a brace map depicting the body parts of a turkey…

Gotta love turkey parts: snood & caruncle were, by far, my kiddos’ favorites!!!

Then we made scrapbook paper turkeys and I forgot to take pictures of them!!!! They were oh-so-cute, though! {I’m pretty sure this was a Cara-inspired activity!}

{If you’re looking for more November activities, you can find the turkey feather measuring activity, the student turkey brace map, and much more in my Oh So Thankful Activity Pack, on SALE for $5.60 from now until Wednesday!}

We also completed more Long A activities to reinforce that Sneaky E!

{For those of you who asked, I will be posting two version for Long E – the “ee” pattern and the “ea” pattern. They should be up by Wednesday. Long A can be found HERE, Long I can be found HERE, and Long O can be found HERE. Remember, the activities are the same; only the spelling patterns differ :) }

In other news, the Smart Board I was promised last spring has been sitting on the loading dock since summertime. I know, right?! They were set to install it on Thursday. So, I fully arrived on Friday morning prepared to be graced by its presence. Not so much. Dang.

And, real quick, I just want to let you know that if you’ve emailed me in the past, oh, six months I’m sorry if I’ve not responded. I’m having a hard time keeping up with all the emails. While I read every single one, I’ve just gotten way behind at responding to them all and I’m sorry! I’ve decided to clean up my inbox a bit to make it a little more organized and a lot less intimidating.

So, if you’ve emailed me after October 1st I will respond to your email soon. If you’ve emailed me before that and I’ve not responded, please email me again. Again, I apologize for the long delay! I love all y’all and truly appreciate your kind words, questions, and suggestions. I value them all :)

Have a great week!!!

The Ugly Pumpkin & More Word Work Activities :)

2011-11-09T19:42:00.001-08:00

Since we only have a 3-day week this week {which is about 12 kinds of *awesome,* by the way!}, we’re reviewing, playing catch-up, and getting through our report card assessments. My conferences start next Monday, so I have about a gobzillion and two things to accomplish in the next five days, including report cards, 3 grad school papers and prepping our home for another remodel.

Abby = Crazy

Anyway, we’re reviewing the long a spelling pattern a_e this week, so we completed this little highlight-a-word activity. Let me just tell you, when you’re in first grade, a highlighter is the equivalent of a magic wand. Seriously, they *love* them!

If you’re interested in long a (a_e), long i (i_e), or long o (o_e) word work activities, be sure to check out my 2 buck printables by clicking on the pics below. {Please note, only the spelling pattern changes – the 6 activities are the same.}

We also read The Ugly Pumpkin, which is the cutest little book about a pitiful “pumpkin” who realizes he’s a squash after he doesn’t get picked from the patch on time for Halloween. After reading the book, we made a text-to-self connection about a time that we felt “squashed.” You can get a copy of this prompt by clicking on it below…

{PS. You can find more Ugly Pumpkin activities, including the ones pictured above and below, in my Oh So Thankful activity pack found HERE.}

After this writing activity, we completed a whole group chart about adjectives that described our squashy friend during the story and at the end of the story…

Because the story ended on a positive note and because we wanted the Ugly Pumpkin to be proud of who he was, the kiddos completed a similar graphic organizer using only positive adjectives. We followed that up with a little craftivity that turned out suuuuuper cute!

Since I always embrace my students’ artistic abilities, I just couldn’t help but love the feminine version of the Ugly Pumpkin. Not necessarily the character from the story, but oh well :) And the one sitting pretzel-leg? LOVE.

And, in totally unrelated news, my school scored a classroom set of iPads which I am seriously gaga over. I mean, LOVE THEM. I’m progress monitoring my students on Teach Me: First Grade and Teach Me: Kindergarten (for my sugars that need a little more support). They are all kinds of engaged for the hour that we have them each week. Also, I now want one for Christmas :)

Happy, happy midweek, bloggy friends!!!!! T-minus 9 teaching days until Thanksgiving Break!!! But who’s counting?!?!

Playing Catch-up & Long A Word Work Activities!

2011-11-05T21:20:00.001-07:00

Shoooooeeeeee, what a week!

I don’t remember if I told y’all or not – I very well could have – but I was observed on Halloween! Halloween!!!! What’s even more surprising? It was by choice. I just figured, What the heck? Might as well get it over with. Also, it was towards the end of the time frame I was given to schedule my observation :) Read: procrastinator.

Since our reading series was working on predictions this week and I’d already introduced this skill with The Candy Corn Bandit, I decided to press on with predicting for my observation…

We read the story Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg, which is a *super* book for using picture and text clues for making predictions, since the book is told from the POV of the ants. I made this super unimpressive chart to record our clues and predictions…

When we got to the fountain part of the book, I read about it but did not show the students the pictures. They had to use the text clues to illustrate what they predicted the “fountain” was. Aaaaand, no pictures. Boo. I used it as a formative assessment. Above all, the kids’ behavior was ah-mazing. Seriously, it was totally extra recess worthy. For it being Halloween, I couldn’t have asked for a better day!

After my observation, but continuing with the whole predicting theme I broke out the old Mystery Box!

After the students recorded the clue cards and made their predictions, we met as a whole group to discuss…

Of course, inside the Mystery Box was…

This week, we also started learning about that sneaky silent E. That quiet guy gave my pumpkins a little trouble as we learned the a_e spelling pattern. So, needless to say, we’re going to be doing a lot of review during Word Work this week. I made up a week’s worth of independent word work activities that I feel confident my kiddos can complete by themselves during Daily 5 to reinforce this spelling pattern. If you’re interested in this supplemental activity pack, you can purchase it at my TpT store for $2.

Lastly, we worked on our Veteran’s Day writing pieces. The whole first grade had to write about how Veterans show bravery, and then we chose to make a little finger painted American flag to go with it. This was actually a very impromptu art project {one of those times where you’re like, Hmmmmm, I think we should totally do this idea I have RIGHT NOW.} This might not be the first time an art project like this has been done, but I just love the way they turned out!!!!

Well, that’s all I got. I’m off for the next 3 days (until Wednesday! gah!), and will be consumed by grad school garbage. However, you can’t beat a 4-day break regardless what you spend doing during it! Have a great rest of your weekend :)

Oh So Thankful November Activity Pack!

2011-10-30T14:29:00.001-07:00

Guess who came to visit our class last Thursday…

Stop the world, you would’ve thought there was a world class crook in our building! Nope, just The Candy Corn Bandit! The kids were *thrilled* with the mystery!

Now, I was on my feet dashing through the building like a mad woman, mostly trying to shush my excited firsties, so I barely had a change to focus my lens for a good shot. I managed to snap a few, though!

Seriously, they were tiptoeing into the cafeteria in search of the first clue. Crouching down and everything! It was totally precious. {PS. It was also PJ day for Red Ribbon Week, so that explains the jammies!}

And then there was the rush of find another clue!

If you’re looking for something fun to keep your pumpkins at bay during the chaos tomorrow, this would be a fun activity. You can purchase The Candy Corn Bandit in my TpT store HERE where it is currently on sale for $4.80 (regularly $6.00).

* * * * * * * * * * * *

So, in less than 48 hours it’s going to be – gasp! – November! I know!!!! I can’t believe it either. And neither can my waistband which can barely handle all the seasonal sweets I’ve consumed since the Fall Festival at school Friday night, let alone another 2 months of holiday food. Mmmmm.

Anyway, I’ve just uploaded my newest product to TpT - Oh So Thankful: An Activity Pack for November. It’s 50 pages full of great activities to supplement your current curriculum or add to your thematic units.

Some activities found within are:

The Ugly Pumpkin mini-unit (a great segue from Halloween to Thanksgiving!)…

A squash taste-test…

An edible twist on the traditional glyph…

A Turkey Can/Have/Are Booklet…

A Turkey in the Hay long-a/short-a word sort center…

And much, much, more! You can check out the full description HERE.

I hope y’all are having an excellent weekend! I know my little trick-or-treater is oh-so-ready to go haunting tomorrow night! The only question is what he will be, as he changes his mind every hour. Seriously. It might be one of those years where I let him go as a skeleton-pirate-witch-ghost-ninja. I’ll keep you posted!!!!

Pumpkin Seed Activities for First Grade

2011-10-26T18:20:00.001-07:00

We began our lesson today reading my favorite non-fiction text about pumpkins: Pumpkin Circle by George Levenson. Very poetic and informative. The pictures are absolutely wonderful, too!

Then, we tasted our toasted pumpkin seeds. Mmmmm! Then we did a little pumpkin seed pre-write as a whole class, and the kiddos completed an individual response sheet that when along with it…

Then it was time to graph whether or not we liked the taste of our toasted pumpkin seeds…

Next, the kiddos completed individual graphs, colored in a little pumpkin seed packet, and, and wrote about their pumpkin seed experience…

I wish I was a pumpkin seed because I want to see the inside of a pumpkin. Too. Stinkin. CUTE!

You can get copies of all the activity sheets by clicking on the pics below :)

I hope it’s not too late for y’all to use it! If not now, maybe next year!

Have a great night! Happy *almost* Thursday!!!!!

Stop it. A week before Halloween?!

2011-10-25T20:12:00.001-07:00

I mean, seriously, 2 months from today it’s Christmas. What. Is. Up.

?!?!?!?!?

The days seem to be dragging by, but then, when I really stop and think about it I’m all, Did most of 2011 already happen?! Totally crazy.

And when it comes to school, I start thinking, How am going to fit in all this fun seasonal stuff with only 4 more school days until Halloween?! But, I’m trying. Trying hard.

Last week, we wrapped up Chapter 3 in Math in Focus, and culminated our study of addition (1-10) with Halloweeny story problems. I’m still *loving* MIF, btw.

We’ve recently improved our ability to visualize, and the kiddos absolutely adored the cute Jack Prelutsky poem recommended by Amanda and Deanna, who’ve both completed similar visualization activities.

And, though I don’t have any pictures, we also listened to some spooky Halloween music (you can find free downloads here – just save to your computer), and the kiddos drew what they imagined in their minds as we listened to it. FYI, we listened to “Halloween Graveyard” approximately 497 times since it was only a little over 2 minutes long! Their pics turned out great!

Oops! How’d that get in there?! Yes, this is what Becks does while he waits for the babysitter to pick him up from me at school. And also takes out every small manipulative he can find. Or playdoh. Regardless, after he leaves, there’s always a mess to clean up!

Now to this week:

First, we completed some pumpkin observations and guessed how many seeds were inside our orange friend. The lowest guess was 4 and the highest guess was 4000! Then, we cut into him to reveal all of his pumpkin guts – the best part :)

Then, it was time to sort through the innards and group pumpkin seeds by 10. What. A. MESS!!! A fun mess, though! I was surprised to know that there were actually 689 seeds in there!

Lastly, we voted on how we should carve our pumpkin’s eyes, nose, and mouth. I am sooooo not a pumpkin carver, but B is! So, I’m totally brining good ol’ Jack home to let him carve him up before our Fall Festival. {PS. This idea is based off of Cara’s voting idea! Cara’s is about 12 times cuter than mine, though!!!}

And, right now, I can smell these roasting in the oven. YUMMO.

I’ll be back tomorrow with our pumpkin seed wrap up, and an itty-bitty mini-unit freebie to go along with it!

I hope you’re keeping your goblins at bay this week! What on Earth are we all going to do to get through the day on Monday?! Eeeeeee!!!!!! Just thinking about the anticipation of 21 first graders awaiting the end of school day on Monday makes me break into a cold sweat! Diet Coke, anyone?!

Happy Tuesday!

This is How We Do It: Weekly Literacy Assessment {and winners!!!}

2011-10-16T06:33:00.001-07:00

Happy Sunday, friends!

First thing’s first: the *winners* of the Candy Corn Bandit giveaway! Of 268 responses (holy guacamole!) there were FOUR correct responses, so I decided to give each of these ladies a copy of the activity. {FYI: There were 58 pieces of candy corn in my dish!}

The winners are…

Mrs. Martin from Peace, Love, and First Grade

Audrey Henderson

Laura from This is The Way I Live

Kim from Growing Up Teaching

Ladies, please contact me at babblingabby(at)gmail(dot)com for your copy :)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And, now for another edition of This is How We Do It! Previously, I’ve shared how we do homework and poetry journals. Today, I will show you how I assess literacy skills. I know, cue the boring sound effects: wop. wop. I don’t like assessments either, especially since we’re mandated to subject our poor pumpkins to district and state ones several times a year. But, it’s a necessity, and certainly helps me monitor progress and keep data on each student throughout the school year. About halfway into last school year, I became aware that I wasn’t do a great job at either, so I created a weekly packet that not only keeps me organized, but also provided the data I needed to show how the students were doing.

The whole packet is two, double-sided pages, stapled together. I keep it all week long, and hand it out to the students as needed. At the end of the week, after each component of the packet has been completed, scored, and recorded, I return it to the students to take home and share with their parents.

On Monday, as the students are arriving, I pull each student individually and complete the word automaticity check on the left. The words contain the spelling pattern(s) we are working on that week. They are given 1 minute to read the words to the best of their ability. I do this at my desk, using this online stopwatch. I record the number of successes, along with the time at the bottom. I also write notes to myself and/or the parents directly on the front (i.e. excellent blending, difficulty with ending blends, confusing /e/ and /i/, etc). While I am doing this, the rest of the class is arriving, unpacking, and working at their morning centers or on morning work. It usually takes me approximately 30 minutes from start to finish.

Throughout the week, I teach the spelling pattern and students are exposed to the same list in their homework and small groups. Then, I reassess on Friday. I would say that 99% of the time I notice improvement – either in # of words read and/or decrease in the time it takes them to read it. {Lightbulb moment: I probably should be scrambling the word list on Friday to avoid memorization. DUH.}

Also on Monday, I issue the spelling pre-test to the whole class. I score it and indicate which words are misspelled, but I do *not* put the correct spelling next to misspelled words. The spelling test is completed on Friday. I record the scores at the bottom.

Another page of the packet contains an on-level fluency check (I pull mine from the Treasures workbook). I complete this with each student on Friday morning, during arrival and Daily 5. Again, they have 1 minute to read to me to the best of their ability. I record errors, notes, etc., and do not complete the comprehension check at the bottom. {The passages could be differentiated to accommodate approaching level, on level, and beyond level, but I am not currently doing that.}

Lastly, I include a comprehension check (also from Treasures) based on the selection that we read that week. We complete this as a whole group (usually right after we take the spelling test on Friday), and I score it immediately afterwards.

I know this isn’t a perfect system, but I really like it. I record scores for each student in my gradebook, including their growth from the beginning of the week to the end of the week on the word automaticity and spelling tests. Overall, it keeps me organized, assesses lots of skills, and provides data for me, the students, and parents.

If this is something you’d be interested in using, you can download a free template for the spelling test and word automaticity checks on Teachers Pay Teachers for free HERE. It is completely editable Word document (.docx) and uses the free font “smiley monster” from Kevin and Amanda.

Have a great day!

The Candy Corn Bandit–A Making Predictions Activity!

2011-10-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

Do y’all love candy corn as much as I do? Those waxy little wedges make my mouth happy, and taste *amazing* when paired with slightly salted peanuts. Seriously, if you haven’t tried the ol’ candy corn/peanut combo, you need to hit up Wally World right now and getcha some. But only if you’re on the West Coast and it’s only 9pm instead of midnight like it is here. I need to go to bed.

Anyway!

Spurred on by my love of candy corn and the fact that making predictions is an excellent skill for improving comprehension and enhancing imagination, I made a little seasonal activity that incorporates both.

Meet: The Candy Corn Bandit.

“He’s climbin’ in yo’ windows. Snatchin’ your candy up. Tryin’ to hide it. So you better, hide yo’ Kit Kats, hide yo’ Whoppers. Hide yo’ Kit Kats, hide yo’ Whoppers. And hide your Snickers ‘cause he’s takin’ everthing up in here!” So sorry. I couldn’t resist. And, at midnight, this is ENORMOUSLY funny. Google “Bed Intruder Song” if you have no idea what I’m talking about!

And we’re back!

Okay, so this activity is a fun way to incorporate making predictions with a little scavenger-hunt-like lesson that leads your class throughout the school building in search of clues that will lead them to a missing treat. {I was careful to say “treat” for those of you who aren’t allowed to hand out sweets in school.} It doesn’t necessarily have to be candy corn, though that’s what I’m using.

The clues are all found in common places in school buildings, including your classroom, the gym, the lunchroom, the playground, and the library. Each clue is little poem {my very talented little sis helped me write them!}, and provides hints about where they Candy Corn Bandit may have taken the treat.

The activity comes complete with a detailed lesson plan, as well as extension activities – the craftivity pictured above, writing prompts, and sequencing (pictured below).

Also, let’s do a *GiVeAwAy*!!!! Check out the picture below, specifically the candy dish. Can you *PREDICT* how many pieces of candy corn it is holding?! I’ll give away 3 copies of this activity to the closest {or spot-on} guesses! Guessing ends at 11:59pm tonight, October 15th.

Happy, happy weekend to you and yours!

Groove-less and Going Batty!

2011-10-12T17:31:00.001-07:00

Hey, y’all! What?! Over a week since a post?! I . Am. Bad.

But mostly busy. At home and at school.

And, girls (and the occasional guy), I cannot get my groove on! I have this block of time in the afternoon where I had a lots of kididdles (i.e. EIGHT) pulled for reading support, and it was maaaaajorly throwing me off. What do you do when almost half of your class is missing? Well, I tried dealing. And that wasn’t working. So, I opted to move my recess time to later in the afternoon, which gave me a larger block of time to get through math (the subject that was suffering in the afternoon). So, now my little dumplins are trying to adjust to later recess time. As we all know, six-year-olds do *not* do well a change in schedule. Oy. Just pray for me :)

In other news, we diagrammed apples last week (an activity inspired by sweet Rachelle), and I just loved how they turned out.

This week, we’ve been learning about bats. The kids are just *batty* for this unit!

Since one of the skills we’re focusing on in reading this week is identifying main idea and supporting details, we completed a tree map about bats and then added them to a little craftivity.

If you would like a copy of the tree map, click the pic below.

I made a template for the bat, too, though I’m not sure how to-scale it is since I had to make it in Paint (my scanner doesn’t work! Grrr!). I copied a few tracers onto cardstock and then let the students trace them onto folded paper. Click HERE for the template.

FYI: I am *desperately* trying to get a fun little Halloween activity uploaded to TpT by Saturday. Hopefully, with a whole FOUR HOURS of me-time on Friday morning, I’ll meet my goal! AMEN AND HALLELUIA FOR FALL BREAK!!!!! This teacher/momma/wife needs it something awful!

Happy Hump Day!

This is How We Do It: Poetry Journals!

2011-10-02T18:43:00.001-07:00

Poetry journals are a great way encourage and model fluent reading in your classroom, as well as provide your students with a notebook full of age-appropriate text to add to and read throughout the school year. Naturally, it introduces the poetry genre, as well.

My students start out the year by decorating their poetry journals with lots and lots of stickers. Of course, the more the better!

We read one poem a week, usually taken from this Scholastic resource. I *love it* and have had a lot of success using it! I also add other seasonal poems, as well, but I mainly stick to poems that incorporate one of their weekly sight words so that they can practice reading the sight word in context. {I realize these poems aren’t necessarily “authentic,” but they’re perfect for my firsties! I used it when I taught K,too.}

We read the poem during our morning meeting, which I’ve rewritten on a large chart tablet that hangs from a rolling chart rack. Each day I read the poem (modeling), followed by an echo read and choral read. Towards the end of the week, the students get to come up and read the poem to their classmates with a pointer finger. The same poem is displayed all week and is visible at all times throughout the day so that the students can read it whenever it catches their eye.

On Friday, I give the students a copy of the poem and they fill in the sight word. They cut around the text so that it will fit in their notebook, and then glue it in. They’re allowed to color the poem and add drawings too it, also. If students finish early, I tell them to go back and reread the previous poems while they wait for everyone to finish.

So, there you have it! That’s how we do poetry journals in our room!

Do you have a great resource for poetry journals? I’d love to hear how you do it, too!

Have a great Monday, friends…9 teaching days until Fall Break for me! YAY!!!!!

Apple Activities for Spelling and Reading

2011-09-28T19:51:00.001-07:00

We’ve been doing some apple-themed activities this week, in celebration of Johnny Appleseed’s birthday. There are a gobzillion cutie activities about apples out there right now, including Cara’s, Rachelle’s, and Leslie Ann’s (those caramel apples are to die for!!!).

Our focus in Treasures this week is main idea and details, so after we read Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg, we identified the main idea and the students provided me with the details.

Then, the kiddos made a mini-Johnny that included the main idea and one supporting detail. Of course, they all chose either “He loved animals” or “He loved apples” as their detail!

If you’d like the templates for this activity, click HERE.

We also sorted our spelling words with the activity below, and then made an “apple monster,” as my kiddos call it.

The activity is adaptable for any spelling list, or could be supplemented to review previous spelling patterns. We’re working on short /o/o this week, so I had the kids write –op, –ot, and –og in each of the baskets. Then, I gave them a little formative assessment and had them write the spelling words in the apple cut-outs as I dictated them. Finally, they sorted them according to rime. Click the picture below to download the activity and the templates for the apple monster :)

Amen that tomorrow is Thursday! That means that 48 hours from now it’ll be Friday. And, oh my how I need a weekend!!!!! Have an apple-solutely great day ;) I couldn’t resist!

Blah, Blah, Brain Dump.

2011-09-27T18:41:00.001-07:00

Titling this brain dump *really* bothers me, because it's such an awful term, but that's what this post is going to be. Just because I need it today. So I'm going to roll with it.

So, my new class. Let's talk about them. They're different from any class I've had before. Really challenging. I know my teaching tenure is short, but this is a first for me - to have such extreme diversity in learners. And sometimes, like today, I am frustrated because I just feel like I cannot do enough to advance my sweet pumpkins. Grrrrr.

The Daily 5? I'm stuck at Day 11. And have been for a looooong time. I love what I've done with them so far, but I'm going to keep it real and say that I cannot get through material quick enough to move along efficiently in the program. Then, there's the other part of me that thinks...I functioned fine without the Daily 5 last year. My kids excelled, so why should I change it? I'm thinking of reverting back to my old ways. Feel free to convince me otherwise!!!

So excited to do holiday stuff with my kiddos! I have some cutie stuff to do with my dears leading up to Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! {PS. Only 88 days until Christmas! What?! Cah-razy!}

Random phone photos. Sorry about the quality. Nothing life changing. Just more anchor charts.

When we studied beginning, middle, and end…

Last week we talked about author’s purpose, but I felt like they would develop a better understanding if we first defined fiction and nonfiction. So, we spent the first part of the week distinguishing between the two, and then moved on to author’s purpose. {Does anyone who uses Treasures feel like it has waaaaaaay too many daily objectives? I do!!! I usually review the ELA standards, see what fits with our district timeline, and then pick and choose what skill I want to work on for the week based on what’s going on in Treasures. Totally exhausting when it comes to lesson planning, though!}

For fiction, after I introduced the definition, we discussed the students’ favorite fiction characters. Then, I handed them a small scrap of paper and they illustrated their favorite characters and we pasted them to our anchor chart.

Speaking of learning targets, here’s how I post mine in my room…

This is a bulletin board sized poster, and the sentence strips are laminated so I can change them out frequently with dry erase markers. It’s right by our whole group area, so we refer to our targets throughout the lesson and school day.

Would anyone be interested in Math in Focus activities (i.e. freebies, TpT units) to supplement the program? I *really* like it for my firsties, but am adding a lot of extra practice to ensure mastery. Let me know what you think! I just wanted to see if there would be any interest.

Hope y’all are having a great week. Tomorrow’s hump day! Yay!

What the Teacher Wants!

2011-09-22T04:04:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to Rachelle from over at What the Teacher Wants, who just opened a Teachers Pay Teachers store last week, and this product was #1 on the best seller list last week.

As a proud owner of this unit, it is all kinds of worth $8.00! But, the best part, it’s on sale right now for $7.20! Yay!!!

Stop by Rachelle’s store today and snatch this up this great product!

Inside My School Bag Linky Party!

2011-09-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

I’m fairly certain that most teachers possess the innate draw to bags. Not purses, but school bags. Bags to lug all our school stuff home and back. I’ve noticed that as I’ve progressed through my short 4-year teaching career, my selection of school bags has expanded in quantity and size.

During student teaching and my first year, I carried around this little number that my mom bought me before I even had a job. She was cute and served her purpose, but wasn’t roomy enough.

So then I upgraded to this darling bag – a bridesmaid’s gifts from one of my BFFs. I carried her for a long while, as she was a smidge roomier. Her main problem? She’s a sloucher and was constantly falling all over when she wasn’t stuffed to the brim.

That brings me to today’s go to bag - my large utility tote from a 31 party. Omiword. I love this chick. She’s made of sturdy fabric, wipes clean, and is enormous. Which is also her downfall because I bring home waaaaaay too much stuff from school. Also, she fits perfectly beneath my desk and maintains her shape. Love. My one regret? I didn’t get my name monogrammed on her. Dang.

Like I said, I use every square inch of this bag, often bringing home things I *think* I will get to and then do 400 other things besides school stuff once I’m at home. You know how that goes!

Here’s what I found inside my bag today…

My super boring, plain messenger style purse, essential for slinging across my chest for hands-free shopping. I really need to amp it up in the purse department, but practical trumps fashion when I’m wrangling a 3-year-old and a basketful of groceries. And, I loooooove my lunch bag (also from 31). I got it last year as a gift from a student. You should see our fridge in the teacher's lounge at school - no lie, these bags in every style are lined up inside! {PS. This totally isn’t an ad for 31 bags, I just genuinely like them! Ha!}

Ridiculously, I bring these books back and forth to school almost every day! Again, with the high hopes that I will have a spare second to work on lesson plans or activities for the classroom. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t, but I always have them there if the mood strikes ;)

I just ordered this CD, and I am so excited to use it in my room!

My Erin Condren Life Planner. Seriously love this. Even though it’s the size of a novel.

A large spiral notebook where I write notes and make to-do lists. I probably could lessen the weight of the bag if I just did this all in the place for notes in my Life Planner, but I like the texture of notebook paper better for writing to-do lists. Am I weird or what?!

Christmas erasers for the prize drawer in December and Halloween Dollar Spot finds for a number bond math game I’m working on for October. Both need to be left at school, but I keep forgetting to leave them there!

And, then, in the spirit of keeping it real, there’s a big old wad of receipts, a tattered course syllabus from one of the classes I’m taking this fall, a random US magazine, Beckham’s crayons, B’s pen, and an almost empty box of thermal laminating pouches. Because I like to laminate at home. On occasion.

Do y’all carry around a bunch of stuff or just have a cute school bag you want to show off? I’d love for you to link up with me today and show me what you’re toting around :) Just use the button below to link up to your own post about what's inside your bag! {Please Note: Any posts linked up that aren't pertinent to the topic will be removed. Thanks!}

FLASH SALE & Descriptive Writing Activity!

2011-09-18T10:52:00.001-07:00

Happy Weekend, Sweet Friends!

I am in a celebratory mood today because the Michigan Wolverines won {again!}, I went on a date with B {long overdue!} and I didn’t have to work at school once this weekend! I think I’m finally getting back into the swing of things. It’s about dang time :)

We ate at a fantastic local Chinese restaurant and couldn’t help but stop to pose for this pic! Ha!

Back to things school related…

This past week, our reading series focused on descriptive writing. It encouraged the students to write about a character from a story, and while that’s all fine and dandy, I really think 6-year-olds (and older!) really need to experience something before they can write about it. Thus, I created my own series of lessons to support descriptive writing.

So, I started out the first lesson by showing them a decorative gift bag, that they had to describe. We discussed descriptive words (words that tell more; adjectives) and charted our answers on a whole group graphic organizer.

The students then completed a follow-up activity where they decorated and described the bag…

And what was inside the bag, you ask?

Omiword, we had about 12 kinds of fun eating and experiencing Pop Rocks! Our lessons about descriptive writing continued all week long, culminating in the students writing descriptive sentences {with the help of sentence frames} and creating a darling little art project.

If you’d like to check out this activity and see the lesson plans, more pictures, and response sheets that we used to help guide our writing, check out Let’s Get Pop Rockin’ with Descriptive Writing! at my TpT store found HERE. The best part, it’s completely adaptable for grades K-5, and incorporates adjectives and similes, too :) Regularly, it sells for $4.50, however, since I’m in such a celebratory mood today and because this Facebookless girl had no idea about the one a few weeks ago, let’s have a…

From now until 9pm EST today, Sunday, September 18, everything in my store is on sale for $3.00!

Have a wonderful Sunday, root on your favorite Pro football team, and get your shop on!!!

Math in Focus Activities for First Grade

2011-09-13T20:07:00.001-07:00

One of my goals this year was to place an increased emphasis on math in my curriculum. This is difficult coming from a very very very literacy-oriented teacher. I like books and words and writing, and I know how to do books and words and writing. Doing math – not so much. I just don’t think like a mathematician. I think more in brightly colored Sharpies and/or Flair Pens that like to draw pictures and write stories and words.

But this year, my friends, with the adoption of Math in Focus (Singapore Math), I am changing my tune and trying to make our math block just as engaging as I make our literacy block.

So, here’s some “math things” we’ve done so far this year to support math in our classroom…

I couldn’t tell you who this idea was from, but someone out there in the the www made a chart similar to this that inspired me. We’ll be adding more strategies throughout the year.

We’re using Cara’s Calendar Companion this year and, *omiword* if you don’t own it, buy it! A great resource to help me connect writing to math, organize my calendar time, and add a little pizazz to my least favorite part of the day (sorry, calendar time drives me cah-razy). Anyway, to help ease my kiddos into the routine, I made a large laminated poster that I fill out as the kids are filling theirs’ out. We are not doing every component of this just yet. I just filled it out for the sake of the picture :)

This space on my whiteboard contains a number-writing poem I borrowed from Debbie Diller’s Math Work Stations book (*love*) and our math vocabulary terms. Let me just tell you, that poem has really helped my kiddos remember how to write their numbers! A parent even commented that her little girl was saying it while she was doing her homework.

I’ve just started introducing math work station activities. I used to get all bent out of shape over centers because they seemed sooooo time-intensive to come up with and create. However, now I just kind of go with what manipulatives I have on hand, and keep them simple. { I’m sure someone else in the wide world of teaching has come up with similar activities, so please know I don’t think I’m being innovative here!} The kids love the deviation from whole group activities, and they get 12 kinds of excited when they get to use – stop the world – buttons! connecting cubes! post-it notes! playing cards! This is why I love my firsties so – genuine excitement about the small things:)

Since we’ve worked a lot on identifying numbers 1-10, writing the words 1-10, and representing numbers 1-10, the first activity is very “kindergarten.” However, Math in Focus starts out with a big ol’ number review and I really appreciated the refresher for my kiddos.

Activity #1

This is a super quick activity that could also be used as a formative assessment, and will give you a good idea who’s still struggling with number identification/representation.

Give each child 10 sticky notes and a pile of manipulatives (we used buttons). Students should then label each note with a number 1-10. Then, beneath or on the note, have the student show that many objects.

Activity #2 & 3: More is Better & Less is Best

We’re also working on identifying more/less. So, I created a recording sheet that corresponds to a fun card game that my kids love. I feel like this might be an Everyday Math game, too, but I honestly don’t remember!

For this game, take a deck of cards (pkg of 2 for a $1 at Dollar Tree) and remove all the cards except 1-10. Students will then work in pairs to play a war-like game using the altered deck. Each student draws a card and records what they drew on the response sheet. The winner, depending on what skill you want to focus on, is the student whose card is “more” or “less.” The winner of the turn circles the number. Students play for 10 turns and then determine the winner as the student with the most circles (i.e. drew the larger or smaller number the majority of the turns).

You can download a copy of these recording sheet HERE.

Are you using Math in Focus? What do you think? We’re onto number bonds starting on Friday and I’m a wee little bit nervous!

Have a great day, friends :)

PS. If there are a gobzillion typos/errors/something that doesn’t make sense in this post, I’m going to blame it on the fact that I can’t keep my eyes open after 7:30pm. School is wearing me right out! Ha!

This is How We Do It: Homework!

2011-09-06T18:40:00.001-07:00

Raise your hand if Montel Jordan immediately began singing in your head when you read that title. Me, me, me! I used to rock out on the stair stepper to that very song on my fav Jock Jams CD circa 1998. And I could totally *still* bust out a verse or two. Ha! {The party’s here on the Westsiiiide! I couldn’t help myself.}

So, I hope not to bore you to tears with the way we do homework around these parts, but I figured that it could be helpful to new teachers or those mandated to enforce homework packets in their buildings.

Brace yourself, it’s detailed…

I have done homework as a packet since I taught kindergarten, and find it to be a great tool to connect school and home, and keep everyone organized. In K, I didn’t start homework until after Christmas. With my firsties, however, we start the week after we’ve had our first full week of school. I find that this allows me, my kids, and their parents adequate time to get the hang of our daily routine before I start sending it.

The packet goes home every Monday and expect it back to school on Friday morning. The front page lists the assignments for each day, Monday – Thursday. No homework over the weekend, of course :)

Each night lists nightly activities for math, spelling, and reading. I also include our spelling list right on the front. The math and reading homework changes as we progress through the curriculum, while the spelling activities stay the same (the words obviously change each week). Besides having to bring home their reading anthology (Treasures) each night, all other assignments are expected to be completed within the packet pages. The whole packet is double-sided, stapled and hole-punched, so students can slide it right into their binder and keep it there throughout the week. This prevents squishing/ripping and lost homework, of course.

The second page is a word list that students are expected to read to their parent(s) each night along with their reading anthology story. Becoming familiar with spelling patterns and sounds helps build word automaticity, thereby assisting in fluency. This list is also used during the weekly assessment that I complete with each student during the week.

The next two pages (double-sided) are where students complete their spelling homework.

Monday – Write words 3x

Tuesday – Spell words aloud to an adult

Wednesday – Write a story or sentences using at least 5 spelling words (that’s what the lined paper you see below is for)

Thursday – Complete a practice spelling test

The pages that remain support our math curriculum (Math in Focus) and are considered “Extra Practice” to go along with whatever we’re learning in the classroom.

If you’d like to see a PDF of this document (not editable), click HERE.

If you’d like to use this document and edit it to suit your needs, click HERE where it is free on TpT. Please note that the font I used is CK Handprint (free for download HERE) and I made the document in Word 2010, so it is a .docx. Thus, it may download/appear differently depending on the version of Word that you own.

{Sidenote: photographing worksheets is just plain booooring! Sorry I couldn’t make this more exciting!}

Let me know if you have any questions :)

Creating a Text Rich Environment: Charts & Poems

2011-09-05T19:18:00.001-07:00

Well, let’s just start off with the bad news. It was 60 degrees today. Brrrrr! The good news? The skinny jeans from last year still fit. I may have been pants-dancin’ around my bedroom, but, hot dang, whatever works!

That’s not educational-related or anything, but of course means that recess duty won’t require sunblock and a mister anymore. Seriously, it’s been near 100 every day this past week. {I should probably clarify that “mister” is of the water sprayin’ variety. NOT a “Mr.” as in, Mr. Cabana Boy, could you please grab me a Diet Coke while you wrangle those kids off the teeter totter variety. In case there was any confusion.}

Anyway. Back to the topic at hand.

I love a classroom rich with print. Since my kiddos spend quite a bit of time in our room, I want to make sure it is full of things to read. Things that expose them to text at all times, that catch their eyes, and ground their thinking to our learning. Things they see while they’re standing in line, starring at from their desk, or intentionally reading with a purpose.

One way I do this, is to display our weekly poem at all times from a rolling chart rack. Currently, I’ve been using sight word poems. We read these poems all week and then add them to our poetry journal at the end of the week.

We also use a “Chit Chat” chart inspired by our friends in Mrs. Jumps’ Class.

Of course, Daily 5 is absolutely chockfull of I-Charts, so these bad boys are displayed in our whole group area…

Inspired by my darling friend, Cara, here’s our What can I write about? anchor chart…

I also chart a lot of the skill/strategies/text features for reading suggested by Treasures. We refer back to them during the week and then post them around the room as reminders.

Sorry about the lighting!

I also think that adding these type of charts to your room personalizes it for your specific class. If you’re making them while your students are present and then refer to them with purpose during instruction, your students will remember them and hopefully internalize the concepts. Obviously, I play a large part in constructing them, but I usually allow students to help me glue pictures on, contribute ideas that I then write down, or actually write on certain parts (i.e. the labeling chart above).

I hope y’all enjoyed your long weekend, and for those of you going back this week I wish you much luck!!! Have a great week, bloggy BFFs :)

Week One DOWN. Shoo!

2011-08-29T20:00:00.001-07:00

According to my calendar wall, tomorrow is the 10th day of school. Already?! What?!

I know I’ll be singing a different tune in, say, February, but I feel like the year is already flying. I’ve been over planned every day, and my new kiddos are wonderful, so I’m sure that helps :)

Of course, much of the past 10 days have been spent drilling routine. Then I throw in a little procedure for good measure. And then I drill some more. Despite the monotonous repetition, I really think it’s worth the investment. I’m constantly reminding my firsties to train their minds to think like a first grader and their bodies to act like a first grader. I’m glad most of them choose not to model themselves after Junie B. when thinking of the ideal first grader, though!

Our first day together, I introduced the three main rules of our classroom, adopted from a teaching partner of mine. I painted these three simple phrases on long paper (from IKEA) and let the students work in groups to decorate them with markers and stickers. A fun BBB (brain and body break), and a good way to facilitate new friendships.

We also made Jitter Juice !(The same unit that includes Jitter Juice adapted for second grade can be found HERE) It was twelve kinds of fun and I received a few sweet notes from parents telling me how much their children enjoyed it. Always a good feeling for a teacher :)

While it pleased the 6-year-old palette quite well, it didn’t look the prettiest!

Also, I had to use a pointer finger to stir it because, naturally, I left the wooden stirring stick at home! Oops!

We also bedazzled our poetry journals with lots and lots of stickers. The first grade mindset = the more stickers, the better!

Our first addition was Jitter Juice! We still can’t get it out of our heads!

Our major focus last week was launching the Daily 5/CAFÉ. Which is a post for an entirely different day. I’ve been taking lots of pictures, and plan to share about our launch soon. In the meantime, I’m celebrating the fact that my kids read for 9 minutes and 52 seconds today, and admitting that I was totally embarrassed of my feet today during the I-PICK lesson since my tootsies have been all kinds of neglected since school started! {FYI: The I-PICK lesson compares choosing a book to choosing appropriate shoes, and required me to change shoes in front of my students.}

The good news, fellow Treasurers, is that I feel that I’ve successfully incorporated Treasures into Daily 5/CAFÉ so far…and that Deanna’s Pete the Cat unit is an *excellent* addition to your first unit of study (short a/a/ family)! We loooooooooved it!

I hope your first week of school goes/went well, too!

And, just remember…

Keep walking along, singing your song…because it’s all good :)

For All You Pete the Cat Lovers :)

2011-08-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

Let me just tell you that I am *obsessed* with Pete the Cat {thanks, Deanna!}, and my love for this wide-eyed kitty has transferred to Becks, who was "singing his song" in the sandbox this morning. I had to ask for a repeat performance in order to make the video :)

So, here's a little Sunday morning funny for ya...

Three for Thursday!

2011-08-25T18:49:00.001-07:00

Omiword, I am exhausted tonight. My first full week back has been crazy busy, and I can hardly believe that tomorrow is Friday. I mean, I’m not complaining, but dang that was a fast! Before I settle in to watch my guilty pleasure (coughjerseyshorecough), and consume the remnants of a chocolate chip cookie dough bowl (yum), I’m linking up at Blog Hoppin’ to participate in Day 4 of Teacher Week!

Some of my favs…

{Favorite Font}

Currently, anyway. I went through a big Smiley Monster, CK Handprint, and Wish I Were Taller phase, and though I still *heart* them and use them all the time, Doodle Basic is currently my font BFF.

{Favorite Blog}

Im-to-the-possible. I love all of y’all. So, I’m going to plead the fifth and copy off of Cara and post the teaching blog that inspired me to start one of my own and spur me to be a better teacher. I’ve said it before, my teaching life would be entirely different without this gal behind this blog…

In my former free time, I regularly stalked several non-teacher blogs, but my fav is probably Girl’s Gone Child. Sister keeps it real, has an incredible writing style, and is getting ready to birth her 3rd and 4th child. Also, Young House Love. Because I love a good DIY :)

{Favorite Online Resource}

Teachers Pay Teachers.

I hope you’ll link up, too! And, TGIalmostF!!!!! Tomorrow’s my first payday! YIPEEEEEEE! It’s totally going to be a Venti Skinny Latte day ;)

Where It All Goes Down Wednesday!

2011-08-24T19:19:00.001-07:00

Also known as: Work in Progress Wednesday!

Y’all, my classroom is always evolving, to put it nicely, and it’s partly your fault! I find some of the most inspiring ideas while blogstalking, and think: I *must* do that! Like, today, while scoping out some of your darling rooms, I saw the most presh Fancy Nancy word wall at Gluesticks, Games and Giggles. I die. Totally doing it. Soon-ish.

Anyway. Welcome to my space!

This is the door to my room, where I display my ceiling tile art welcome sign and my autograph wall. I’m telling you, a cheapo way to encourage good behavior is to promise your pumpkins that they can sign your door (black poster board) with a – stop the world – silver Sharpie. The border, in case you wonder, is zebra print duck tape. Totally rockin.’

When you walk in, this is what you see. It probably goes without saying, but I love color :)

Here is a close up of the wall…

The empty bulletin board/whiteboard space on the left is for my future SmartBoard! Yay! I didn’t want to waste my time prettying it, only to take it down so soon. And, in the spirit of keeping it real, I have yet to organize my classroom library. And I feel really bad about it. Fortunately, though, I have one more weekend since I won’t hit the I-Pick focus lesson in Daily 5 until Monday. {Which, by the way, I LOVE so far!} To the right is our whole group meeting “stage” (bordered with tape) and you’ll also notice our book boxes on the shelves for easy access during Read to Self. The empty bins will be used for the library.

Our cubbies, cabinets, and hula hoops on display! My students’ first-day-of-school artwork is on the cubbies right now.

This is the wall to the left when you enter my room.

This is my favorite space in my room. It’s a little cove where we meet as a class (left) and where my little readers and writers do their thang (right).

Very different from last year…

A close up of both spaces, divided by shelving and storage…

And my sad, sad little desk space! It needs a makeover something awful, and compared to the rest of my room, is very minimalistic. Mostly because I desire easy access to records, documents, and lesson plans and hate a cluttered desk! However, that’s not to say that it’s not cluttered 98% of the time. But, I try :)

{PS. Loooooove my Erin Condren Life Planner!!!!}

Here are some random shots from different angles in the room…

So, there you have it! I hope you’re linking up at Blog Hoppin’ today so I can creep your room, too!

Happy Hump Day, teacher friends :)

Teacher Talk Tuesday

2011-08-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

I'm totally late to the party today, but I made it!

Today, on Blog Hoppin', the focus of Teacher Week is providing advice to new teachers. Which is a little difficult for me because I still feel like a new teacher! Just like I'll always feel perpetually 22ish, you know?

So. Advice. Hmmm.

1. Be a good sharer. Admittedly, I had a hard time with this when I first started teaching. Give someone else *my* good idea?! However, I changed this superfast because working as a team is absolutely imperative to being a successful teacher. There's no "I" in team, right?! Share out and you'll find that good ideas about from everyone.

2. Make friends with those who've gone before you. Good teachers with experience are absolute gems! There's a teacher on my team who's taught for close to 30 years and she's absolutely amazing. She's calm when I'm harried. She's diplomatic when I'm biased. She's understanding and a good listener. I should have to pay her every time I walk in her room with a question (or complaint!).

3. Don't feel like you have to do it all. Especially with the blessed invention of blogging, it is soooo easy to get inspired and overwhelmed all at one time. The hours in your day are limited, your resources only go so far, your kiddos' attention span lasts only so long, and you can only do so much! It's all kinds of impossible (and frustrating) to attempt to complete a to-do list a mile long, so pick a few good ideas and run with them.

4. If you're a brand spankin' new teacher, prepare yourself for the germies!!!! I've had strep almost every year since student teaching and always get a killer cold by September. I don't really have a solution for this, but just be aware! Ha!

5. Make your classroom your home away from home. Organize it. Keep it clean. Add your own personal touches. You're going to spend a lot of time there, and it's so much more comfortable when you make it your's! In my case, this includes the 12 pack of Diet Coke that I keep under my desk :)

I'm all kinds of tired, so that all I've got for tonight. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be back tomorrow with classroom pics, but it still needs some finishing touches that I just can't promise will be complete! Happy Teacher Week, friends!

{ Teacher Week 2011 }

2011-08-20T10:50:00.001-07:00

So excited to bring you Teacher Week 2011! Yay!

Check out all the details at Blog Hoppin’. I hope you’ll join in!!!

Taking Attendance–Rockstar Style!

2011-08-16T04:19:00.001-07:00

When my students arrive in the morning, this is where they make their first stop…

It’s where they’re drop of their R.O.C.K.S. binder, find their morning work, and take their attendance. I have let students take their attendance since I started teaching, though it’s taken on various forms…

When I taught kindergarten, as students arrived they moved their “attendance star” to the green section of our “star behavior” chart. This was actually a great behavior management system, and students with exceptional behavior got to move their star from green to our “star jar” and then get a special treat at the end of the day.

However, when I looped from kindergarten to first last year, I decided my kiddos needed a change – just to keep things fresh – so I created our Whooooo’s Here? bulletin board. Students then moved a magnetic square featuring their name to our question of the day located on the white board to the right. These are adhered with a velcro dot below the “Our Class” heading. This was not affiliated with our behavior management system (color flip chart), but instead allowed the students to practice their reading skills and graphing skills. We would then discuss their responses to the question during calendar math or morning meeting.

Here’s the squares (magnetic photo holders) that I purchased last year from Christmas Tree Shops for 30 cents a piece. They held up really well last year, so I’m able to use them again this year.

This year, students will take their attendance the same way, only they’ll remove their squares from the guitar shaped cut-out. The graph looks rough (I can’t find my laminated Daily Graph sign!), but you get the idea! This also provides a great visual for who is or isn’t in attendance, and I can always ask a student sitting near the board to let me know who isn’t at school that day.

Also, I make an end-of-the-day chore for a student to move all of the attendance squares back to their velcro dots on the board – always a popular job!

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Organizational Binder & Behavior Management Clip Chart

2011-08-14T19:40:00.001-07:00

Omiword, y’all. I have to be honest. I had *no* idea how much work goes into putting together an organizational binder for my kiddos! Though I’ve created a take-home folder before, this is the first time I’ve ever used such an organizational binder, and it seriously took some energy to produce! However, now that all is said and done, and they’re all neatly stacked on each of my firsties’ desks, I am all kinds of excited about using them!

Since I was a newbie to this craze, I relied on my sweet friend, Michelle, at Fabulous in First to guide me through the process. She uses a “GO” Book, which you can watch her talk about in THIS little how-to. I also based the description of my “R.O.C.K.S.” binder on her description. Seriously, if want a professional’s take on all of this, go visit Michelle!

Anyway, when you open the binder, the first thing you see is the left-hand pocket labeled “to be left at home” and a zipper pouch. Right now, the pocket contains my introductory letter that I send home with my students on the first day of school, and will eventually contain other documents that the students can keep at home. The letter contains all kinds of important information that parents will want to know concerning first grade. Though it’s not universal or editable, if you’re interested in reading the letter, click HERE. The zipper pouch will be used to store money for lunch, book fairs, fund raising, field trips, etc.

The next part of the binder contains the school-issued spiral bound planner. I *love* these things! Not only is it a great place for students to jot down their assignments, but I also use it as a communication tool between school and home. It’s where I inform the parents about their students’ behavior, add important date stickers, and write notes home. It truly serves as a big ol’ running record of important things throughout the entire school year.

After the planner is a clear pocket that holds a description of the R.O.C.K.S. binder. If you’d like to read this document, click HERE. Feel free to use it or alter it to fit your classroom management system!

The next clear pocket contains a copy of our weekly specials schedule. Our schedule stays the same all year long (PTL!), and I constantly have students (and parents) asking for reminders. I did not, however, include a copy of our daily schedule as it changes all the time!!!

Opposite of the special’s schedule is the lunch menu. The next clear pocket holds a description of our Rockin’ Behavior Clip Chart classroom management system. I’ve had lots of questions about this, so if you’re interested in reading more, click HERE.

Opposite of the clip chart description is a quick reference guide that mimics the clip chart found in our classroom. I figured this would provide a visual that parents and students would understand when discussing daily behavior. You can get a copy of this quick reference guide by clicking HERE. {Btw, I indicate the color of the chart that the student ends the day on by marking a similarly colored star in the student’s planner each day. Parents are expected to initial it daily. I did this same thing when I “flipped colors” and it’s a great way to keep data on students’ behavior and communicate it to parents on a daily basis.} Next is a “homework” labeled divider (made from colored cardstock that I hole-punched). Students will keep their weekly homework packet behind it.

The final component of the binder is the right-hand binder pocket labeled “bring right back.” This is where I put important forms and documents that parents usually need to sign/fill-out and return. I used the left and right labels in take-home folders in the past and they work great!

So, that’s my R.O.C.K.S. binder! A true labor of love!

Let me know if you have any questions :)

{PS. Tomorrow is the first day for teachers in my district! Eeeeh!!!! And, though I’m pokey, Teacher Week is still on! Thanks for being patient while I transition into the new school year!}

{PSS. Don’t forget, you can download R.O.C.K.S. binder covers HERE and Rockin’ Behavior Clip Chart signs HERE.}

{PSSS. Thanks so much for your responses to the blog conference! Cara and I are in the midst of reading through each comment, clarifying ideas, and combining suggestions. We’ll post about it soon!}

Teachers Gone Viral!

2011-08-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

If you couldn't view the video, check out the link here:

http://youtu.be/ha_NxRvqXMs

If you'd be interested in attending a teaching-blog conference, please leave me a comment that includes the following information...

- Name/Blog

- Grade level

- Your location

- Price point (things to consider: conference fee, transportation, hotel accommodations, etc.)

- Suggestions for conference (i.e. location, dates, workshops you'd like to attend, speakers you'd like to hear, etc.)

Can't wait to hear back from y'all! I am *super* excited about this!!!

PS. Go check out just how sweet Cara is over at The First Grade Parade - just remember, only comment on one of our blogs! Thanks so much!!!!

Keepin' it Realz.

2011-08-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

So, we have no AC in our building right now, and it conveniently went out during an all-day professional development in the library. Twelve kinds of not fun. And working in our classrooms hasn't been easy either because when the outdoor temp is spiking in the nineties, it's like you're working in an oven.

So, I've resorted to drinking very large coke Icees to keep cool, while I attempt to focus on last minute decor details and readying myself for this week's Readifest where I'll meet my new class. Which seriously blows my mind. I just can't believe that its here! The end of summer! The start of a new school year! Ahhh!

Also, I'm going to go ahead and add coke Icees to my list of required teacher staples, because you just can't get more satisfying for 89 whopping cents. 'Scuse the fact that I look all kinds of a hot mess in the pictures because, well, let's be honest I was a hot mess.

More importantly, I now own two hoola hoops for my class, courtesy of Crayons to Computers. (C2C is a non-profit organization that lets teachers "shop" for classroom goodies for free! Read all about it on Michelle's blog HERE!).

Yes, I *am* that gangly and awkward in person...

Unbeknownst to us teachers who just thought we were getting hula hoops for our kiddos to enjoy at recess, look what else was inside the box:

Stop the world. Oh, yes, that is what you're thinking it is. A Marisa Tomei Hulabody Workout. And now you know what we'll be doing during "organized physical activity."

Lastly, my Math in Focus materials have arrived...

I'm really looking forward to this program. Our PD was very informative, and I have lots of ideas making it work in my room. I also can't wait to get these books and workbooks into desks because they're driving me a little crazy hanging out on all that sink space :)

That's all I've got tonight, friends!

{But, there is *exciting* news in the teacher bloggy world...to be announced soon!!!! I can't wait!!!}

Second Grade is Super! {First Day of School Activities for 2nd Grade}

2011-08-05T05:06:00.000-07:00

Hi, Second Grade Teachers! This one's for you!

After several requests to alter my "Fun with Firsties" pack to be more suited for your super second graders, I was able to make a few alterations and change some wording to make an activity pack just for y'all! Though I don't teach 2nd grade, I remember right where my first graders left off and feel confident that these activities are suitable for your aspiring learners :) I also had sweet Patti, a 2nd grade teacher over at Primary Practice, take a look at it to make sure it matched up. Here's a preview (which you can view larger from TpT):

Super in Second! includes many activities that will be perfect for the first few weeks of school. I hope you enjoy it, and be sure to take advantage of the 10% discount TpT is offering: B1T1S.

Have a great day, friends!

Liar! Liar!

2011-08-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Y'all, some of your comments cracked me right up! Thanks so much for playing along :)

Soooo, which one is the big fat lie?

A. I just joined the whole text messaging fad after being text-free for five years!

TRUE. I know, I know! Someone with the nickname "Babbling Abby" didn't have text?! Soooo true! It drove our friends and family all kinds of crazy, but we finally caved and upgraded our standard flip phones to Smart Phones about three weeks ago. And dang! these things are so cool! Becks really likes that Talking Tom Cat app or whatever it is. Ha!

B. My husband just started an *unplanned* new job this week, and I'm spending the morning interviewing a nanny.

TRUE. This is a post I'll probably talk about more on Babbling Abby, but, in brief, a great opportunity came along and B jumped at the chance to accept it. Prior to this past Friday, he was rockin' the stay-at-home dad gig while attending school. So, when school starts in 16 days, we're going to need childcare and I opted to look for someone who could watch him at our house (it'll just be twice a week - he goes to preschool/his nana's house the other days). Sooooo, the sitter hunt has begun. And it's not fun :( Believe me, I wish it were the lie.

C. I'm in a wedding the weekend before school starts and fly home 12 hours before the first day of school starts! Ah!

FALSE! Last year was the "year of the weddings" for me, and I married off the last of my besties in October 2010. And, omiword, I couldn't imagine *not* being here the day before school starts! We actually have PDs the two days prior to the first day, so I'm definitely here :)

D. I read Daily 5 and CAFE in less than 36 hours. I couldn't put them down! It's official. I'm a teaching NERD!

TRUE. Teacher Nerd and Fast Reader: guilty as charged! I *loved* these books and found them to be quick reads. I read CAFE first, and felt like I really needed to read Daily 5 to get a full understanding of the whole system. And, for those who've asked, I haven't quite determined how or if I'm going to incorporate our reading series (Treasures) into them. I feel like I need to make a script so I don't miss anything! I'll keep y'all posted on how it all goes down :)

And the winners are...

Ms. Simoneaux, Leann, & Deb!

Congrats, ladies, and thanks to everyone for playing along :)

{Ready to Read! Giveaway & More!}

2011-08-02T05:41:00.000-07:00

So how on Earth is it AUGUST?! What?! That means 16 days until school starts for me! Gah! We've have some major crazy things going on at our house, so I'm all kinds of busy getting things in order before the school year kicks off. {No, I'm *not* pregnant! Promise!}

Anyway...

Despite my freaking out over the fact that my summer is screeching to a halt, I am feeling pretty confident about the start of the school year. I read both Daily Five and CAFE {looooooved them, btw!}, have our first two themed units read to roll, my classroom is looking pretty spiffy, and we have our Math in Focus training this Thursday. Now if I could just put it all in lesson plan formation, life would be good!

For the first month of school, I'll focus a lot on team-building and encouraging classroom community. I'm planning to do lots of the activities found in my Fun with Firsties activity pack. I'll also be incorporating a lot of reading activities, too. I really think it's important to drive home the idea that reading is exciting and opens up so many opportunities for our kiddos - from understanding their environment, to making sense of printed text in literature, to improving writing, to the *ultimate*: READING CHAPTER BOOKS! {I only say that because firsties think that chapter books are the bee's kness!}

To generate excitement about reading and attempt to instill the intrinsic motivation within my kiddos to want to learn to read, I created many activities to do just that. I just uploaded my Ready to Read! activity pack to TpT, and am really excited about doing many of the activities with my firsties. It's probably an ideal supplement for grades K-2 to add to your current reading repertoire.

Here's a little preview:

Right now, it's on sale in my TpT shop for $5.60 and will remain so through August 4th. Don't forget to use TpT's code B1T1S to get an *additional* 10% off!

Below is a free printable for a class book activity (not found in my Ready to Read! pack) to use with the story Maybe a Bear Ate It! by Robie H. Harris. This is a super cute, quick little book about a little critter who loses his favorite book. He imagines that many different animals may have taken it, until he eventually finds it under his bed. It's a great story for discussing book care, too!

{Click the pic below for the download}

* * * * *

I'd love to give three readers a copy of my Ready to Read pack! I'll send the first three people to correctly figure out which of the following statements is a lie a free copy. Be sure to indicate by letter which statement you think is *so not true* along with your email address in the comments section.

Three Truths & a LIE!

A. I just joined the whole text messaging fad after being text-free for five years!

B. My husband just started an *unplanned* new job this week, and I'm spending the morning interviewing a nanny.

C. I'm in a wedding the weekend before school starts and fly home 12 hours before the first day of school starts! Ah!

D. I read Daily 5 and CAFE in less than 36 hours. I couldn't put them down! It's official. I'm a teaching NERD!

Have a great day friends!!!

Back to School Sale!

2011-07-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to put in the code into TpT! It's B1T1S.

Happy Shopping!

Flying My Control Freak Flag...

2011-07-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

I'm slightly type-A. And when I say "slightly" what I really mean is 98.5%. Not to the extent that I hover or micromanage (only my husband), but I'm the girl who's known to rewrite a list if my handwriting doesn't look...you know...nice.

This is always a good quality to throw out at a job interview - disguised as "uber organized" or "perfectionist," of course. However, we all know that the "A" in type-A can also stand for a really disenchanting quality: annoying. And when it comes to being a teacher, students are truly the best medicine for curing type-A mannerisms.

I say all of this because as I've prepared my classroom for my upcoming firsties, I've noticed a big difference in the way I organize the layout of my room and display materials for students compared with the first classroom I readied for the school year three years ago.

My first room was very "Abby-oriented." I taught kindergarten and wanted everything to look beautiful all the time, space and materials alike. Everything was stored out of reach of the kids, with the exception of a few things that I was sure they couldn't mess up. Like paper and pencils. {I know, I was totally blah.} I remember packing up my room at the end of the school year, shocked to find manipulatives and games that I forgot I owned because I was too busy trying to keep them "safe" rather than let my students explore them. Not good. Further, I would imagine that my personal space alone took up a fourth of the room! My desk, computer, bookshelf, file bins, bulletin board were all "my" space. Looking back, it was a *major* waste of my room and completely not kid-friendly.

Each year since has been a stepping stone for me, as I've relinquished control and desired to have a "student-centered" classroom instead. I still like things to be eye-catching and neat, but I plan spaces according to how my students will learn best and feel most comfortable, rather than strive for a tidy space that is rarely used. In fact, my personal space now only holds my desk. I mean, how often am I actually at my desk during the school day anyway? Not very much.

Sure, my pointer fingers are scuffed from student-use, there's probably a few pieces missing from Candyland, and I'm prone to finding several stray Legos long into the summer - but all of that is only because my students are using them for what they're meant for. And that makes my heart happy :)

My room is coming along and I've spent hours blogstalking y'alls posts for room pictures. As you've noticed, I do have a BIG room. I love it. It was formerly the art room, so I have a sink, counter top, and drawer space to boot....BUT, sometimes - if you can believe it- it's too much space! I just don't know what to do with it all! The grass is always greener, right?!

If you'd like to see some great space and arrangement ideas, be sure to check out Clutter-Free Classroom. Jodi does a great job of maintaining an amazingly organized student-centered space, and compiling pics of classrooms from throughout the blogosphere. Carve out a chunk of time, you'll spend a while there!

I usually like to end Thursday posts with TGIalmostF, but that would appear that I'm celebrating that another day of our fleeting summer vacation is over. So, instead, I'll just say: I hope you're at a pool with a cabana boy dishing up chocolate and Diet Cokes :) Happy Thursday!

Let's Make Ceiling Tile Art!

2011-07-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

I know y'all are probably swamped with back-to-school activity, but if you have time to squeeze in a little DIY project, make yourself a cheap and easy piece of ceiling tile art for your classroom! They add a personal touch to your room and are completely customizeable to your theme or color scheme :)

First off, gather yourself the following supplies - many of which, I promise, you have in your supply closet or at home :) Also, my pictures are awful, as most were shot at night with my point-and-shoot, so bear with me!

Supplies:

Ceiling tile (I bought mine at Home Depot for around $6, though I bet if you asked the manager and dropped the "I'm a teacher..." card, they'd totally spot you one for free! B picked mine up for me and he can't quite bat his eyes like I can ;) Ha!
Paint (I used black Tempera paint for the stripes on mine and acrylic for the other colors)
Paint Brushes
Painters Tape (if you want to make stripes or straight lines)
Pencil
Measuring Tape or Ruler
Ribbon optional
Glue Gun optional

Tell me you're not completely jealous of my *signed* Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Sharpie. My dad got it for free at a Nascar race and thought of me when they were passing them out. What a dad!

If you want to do stripes, do a few quick measures to space them evenly and apply the painters' tape. If you want to leave the background white, add polkadots or paint it a solid color, just skip this step and do your thing.

Next, I applied the black Tempera paint with a flat foam brush, leaving the ledge around the perimeter white...

I'm impatient so I removed the painters' tape pretty quickly after I finished painting, and was left with this...

It's totally not perfect, but I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to art. I choose to adopt The Nester's philosophy that "It doesn't have to be perfecet to be beautiful," instead :) Also, ceiling tiles are bumpy and grooved, so the amount of "bleeding" beneath the tape is expected.

After it dried overnight, I decided to lightly sketch my design over top with pencil and then fill it in with acrylic paint using a smaller brush. I also learned that painting over black is not easy!

After the paint completely dried, it was time to embellish! I hotglued a decorative ribbon border to the perimeter and then added the ribbon hanger.

To make the holes for the ribbon hanger, grab a plastic pencil or pen which is perfect for poking and is, incidentally, the perfect diameter for the hole size. It will be easy to push through with a little muscle, and will leave some "ceiling tile crumbs."

I cut a length of ribbon about 4ft to make the hanger. You'll want a decent size length so you can double knot it and adjust it accordingly. I like the knots to show, but I guess you could always pull it through the opposite way if you want.

Now, double knot each side to create a big, thick knot that won't pull through the holes...

Aaaaaaand, voila! You have yourself a cute hanging sign for your classroom :)

They hang up easily with 3M Command Adhesive Hooks onto cement block walls.

Here are the first two I ever made...

If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section and I'll respond there :)

If anyone makes one, I'd love to see your finished product!!!

"Word Tour" Word Wall {Among Other Things}

2011-07-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

So, about that July 31st classroom completion deadline...

Hmmm.

I really want to keep it because I have about 497 things to accomplish in August. However, there are a gobzillion of things to do in the next five days, too, that don't involve me holed up in my room. Like an impending cut and highlight on Friday morning that will undoubtedly take up at least two hours of my morning - though time well-spent because my roots are reaching the beyond noticeable level, and therefore adversely affecting my self-esteem. {Think "black with a little bit of yellow," as a student once told me.} And I need a good therapy session with my stylist (aren't they the best listeners?!).

Anyway. Back to school-related fare. My latest labor of love was my word wall, which took an immeasurable amount of time, assistance from my husband (who I call B), and an absurd amount of hot glue to hold it all together. Also, there were Jenga pieces, found in my block bin, creatively bound to the wall to make it stand out. Shhh, don't tell!

It's lacking. I'm aware. And looks more like a tour bus than the VW Vanagon I was hoping for.

How sweet is this thing?! My sister and I always said when we were little that we were going to tour the country in one of these someday!!!

I'm thinking I'm going to embellish it with some peace signs or other psychedelic details to make it look more rock-n-rollish.

I made the cut-out from foam board and my favorite brand of markers: Mr. Sketch. I don't know how many of you get a thrill out of a nice, thick marker line, but omiword these are the *best* markers I have every used. I buy several packages each year and my kids looooooove when I buy a new box because I donate the drying up ones to our shared marker collection. Seriously, I get a lot of "So-and-so's not sharing the smelly markers!!!!" pleas during the school year. Also, they smell almost edible, so it's less like working and more like coloring in a field of cherry popsicles every time you use them.

And, to answer a few questions about the "First Grade Rocks!" sign I made...

- I have a thing (i.e. obsession) for fonts and handwriting, so I just freehand everything while looking at a font style I want to mimic. I usually sketch it all out lightly in pencil first.

- I use Tempera paints and flat foam paint brushes.

- It was made on three, huge foam boards (a donation from my dad!)

Have a great day! A fun DIY project coming tomorrow!

Rockstar Font!

2011-07-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

After numerous requests, here's the info for the rockstar font! Actually, it's a combination of two different fonts...

Jumpin' Jack is what most of the letters are. You can find it HERE. You will find a bunch of other *amazing* and *free* fonts on this site, too, so spend some time looking around!!!

The other font is Rock Electric, and I just substituted it randomly in words. You can find it HERE.

Glad y'all like it! Happy Sunday :)

Keepin' it light and random.

2011-07-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hey, y'all!

I just have random things to post about toady. Today, rather. {I type like I talk. Fast.}

First off, a little room update. Though I really thought I left my classroom completely organized at the end of the school year, I'm beginning to think otherwise. I cannot - for the life of me - find my dang rolls of velcro dots. And those things are expensive! I don't know what I'd do without them, but holy moly, $7.49 for a box of 80? Crazy. If you buy them in bulk or know where they're warehoused cheaply, please help a sister out and do tell!

I'm starting to get the feeling that my room is never going to be complete! There is still stuff everywhere and nothing looks "official" yet. Hopefully, I'll still make my July 31st deadline. Today, I worked on the completion of my "Opening Act" (i.e. Morning Work) bulletin board and painted a sign. You would have thought I was part of a Ke$ha music video with all the glitter in my room.

Since I'm doing my room rockstar style, most of my room labels coordinate with something rockstar-ish. Though the kids might not "get" them, I believe in a text-rich classroom, so they do serve an educational purpose. Plus, I'm really going to enjoying saying Rockstars, please report to the Main Stage for read-aloud! (i.e. Join me on the floor!).

You can click the pic below to download your own copy of room labels if you're interested...

{FYI: Main Stage = Whole Group Meeting Area; Tour Dates = Daily Special/Calendar of Activities; Opening Act = Morning Work Activities; Setlist = Daily Schedule; Backstage Passes = Incentives (I'll explain at a later date)}

I realize these are ink-intensive, but I figure it's cheaper to print them and cut them out, than it is to buy those punch-out letters (which drive me all kinds of crazy, btw!). I've actually been going to Staples to print some of mine because the quality of the printing and the truness of the colors is sooooooo much better than my home or school printer. Use your Staples Rewards to make them less expensive :)

Also, because I know y'all adore sticky notes as much as I do, look what I found at Target...

Look closely - those are 12"x12" sticky notes!!!! HUGE!!!!

I mean, could you imagine the possibilities? He he he :)

Me + Laminator = LOVE.

2011-07-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Tell me you don't just love a freshly laminated paper product. The smoothness. The ability to preserve your hard work in shiny plastic. I get a thrill just watching it roll off the press!

Which brings me to the fact that I did a lot of laminating today, and will therefore have a lot of cutting to do tonight. So, in addition to dust, my house will now be blanketed with pesky laminate scraps that stick to everything through the magic of static electricity. I'll be finding them until Christmas.

My very mommish station wagon loaded up with classroom supplies! Yippee! {Also, it should be noted that when I come home with X amount of bags from Target, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, etc. - all filled with school stuff, of course - B doesn't even ask about them or how much I've spent. I'm glad we've finally come to this point in our relationship ;) The expensive luxury of being married to a teacher, right?!

Overall, Day One in my classroom was a success in the sense that a) I laminated a lot and b) I made an enormous mess of just about everything. It's all part of the process, I guess - moving furniture, rearranging shelves, and pulling out an abundance of stuff from every container in my room.

Also, there was this:

When they cleaned my room at the end of the school year they pretty much unplugged everything from the wall and left it in a massive heap on my desk for me to sort through and re-plug in. Thank goodness for my husband, who made it his personal duty to unplug everything, untangle and sort every cord, and then zip tie them all neatly back in place. Best of all, my computer and printer are fully functional again. Amen.

Ahhhhhhhhh. It's like a breath of fresh air...

My bulletin boards are all covered in decorative fabric and bordered with ribbon, and I also worked on my new behavior chart for the "clip-up/clip-down" management system I'm employing this year.

If you'd like to use this idea (which could really be incorporated into any room), you can download the labels by clicking Rockin' Behavior! below:

I'm planning to add "Mrs. Mullins' Class ROCKS!" or, something to that effect, to the base of the guitar, but didn't realize it needed something there until I'd pieced it together. I will also have an explanation of the system via a document that will go in their "R.O.C.K.S" folder. I'll post it when I make it :)

Going back tomorrow for Round Two!

PS. The child playing camera-shy above, is totally not shy when it comes to destroying my classroom! I mean, Matchbox cars were E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E!

School ROCKS!

2011-07-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

I have never really had a "themed" classroom before. I've always decorated with fabrics and colors and the occasional patterned bulletin board border, but never with a cohesiveness that continued through everything from the bulletin boards to labels to my classroom management system. This year, with a gobzillion sparks of inspiration lighting a fire in my teaching heart, I found that theming my room was going to be not only useful but ALL. KINDS. OF. FUN!

However, it took me awhile to find the perfect fit. I first thought I'd go Hollywood like Cara, and then I thought I'd be all piratey like Deanna. Then, I nixed both of those idea and recruited my family members to help me dream up the right one. My mom suggested The Wizard of Oz since I already had a unit prepared for it and my future class is going to see it at the theatre in October. I really couldn't come to terms with "Mullins' Munchkins," though. So, sitting on the porch at my parents' house, my sister, Aubrea, suggested School House Rock.

Um, hello, I LOVE IT.

Totally smitten with Beth Newingham's classroom, I knew I could add my personal touch to make it a great fit for my firsties. And it was born:

I'm aware I'm not reinventing the wheel or discovering fire here, but there was just something about this theme that spoke to me. Possibly the fact that the feather extensions I'm planning to get put in at my next hair appointment will fit in seamlessly. Steven Tyler, anyone?

Anyway, I've spent a great deal of time crafting labels, bulletin board ideas, take-home folder covers, etc. over the past several days, and I want to make them all available to you here. I have no intention of selling them for profit, so if you'd like to jump in on a rockstar classroom theme, help yourself. Borrow as much or as little as you'd like. They'll all be available over the next few weeks as I put my classroom together. Which, as a matter of fact, I am starting tomorrow. {Eeeeeeh!}

Click on the image below to view or download the take-home folder binder insert I'll be using. Also, it's not specific to 1st grade - the document contains the same insert for kindergarten through 5th :)

Are you rockin' out in your classroom this year? I'd love to see your ideas, too!

Rock on, friends!!!

{PS. Teacher Week is in the works! If you're unfamiliar, this was a week long teaching extravaganza that I hosted on my other blog, Babbling Abby, before The Inspired Apple came to be. If you go back and review the mid-to-late August archives from 2010, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Due to the fact that the blogging world has absolutely *exploded* with educators in the past year, I'm a little concerned about linkies taking up bandwidth and overloading my generic Blogger server or making it desperately slow. If anyone has any suggestions about this, please email me at babblingabby(at)gmail(dot)com.}

Blog Love

2011-07-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Sweet little bloggy friends, I have to tell you something.

I really, really, really {heart} you all. A whole biggety bunch.

And let me tell you why...

A year ago I was stressed and concerned about the new direction my life was getting ready to take. I was going to work full-time (after spending a blissful two years at home with my son, teaching only half-day kindergarten), my husband was quitting his job to go back to school full time, I was taking 2 grad school classes, and Becks was going to preschool 2 days a week and to his Nana's the other days, putting his "mothering" completely out of my hands during most of his waking hours. I was freaking the heck out. And tired. To put it mildly.

School started and I. WAS. MISERABLE. I spent the first eight weeks in tears. Literally. I missed Becks desperately, my house was a constant disaster, laundry was hardly ever done, and I felt consumed by school work.

I may not have alluded to it much, but I began to wonder if teaching was what I really wanted to do. Testing, monotony, behavior management, standards, etc. were driving me up the wall. I felt like I was drowning beneath the pressure.

And then November came. Blogstalking one night I came across a sweet little blogger named Cara. I think y'all know her well :) I about died reading through all her posts til the wee hours of the morning, reveling in the *fun* she was having in first grade and still maintaining curriculum connections. She was all kinds of the teacher I wanted to be, but I had somehow lost sight of in the kerfuffle of taking on new roles and responsibilities.

I'm sure many of you already read about our get-together on her blog, but I was totally *geeking out* about meeting this girl! I bet I texted my mom and B a gobzillion times how nervous I was!!!! Seriously though, she's a gem - and funny as all get out. The talking and laughing never stopped. Can't wait until we do it again!

So, I decided, that very night, that it was time to bring sexy back. {That's a Justin Timerberlake reference, Mom.} Sexy meaning I was going to bust out my cute handwriting, inspiring art projects, fun activities, and engaging read-alouds to make my job worth working. Because if I was going to teach it, I needed to be just as engaged as the students were. And I know it's not all about rainbows and unicorns and glitter, and that meeting the standards and teaching my kids is what is most important. But, I wanted to have both.

Then, I met lots and lots and lots of you. Your blogs provide twelve kinds of inspiration and motivation to me. I happily shuffle through them as often as I can, scribbling down ideas in notebooks and adding them to my favorites. You all are *amazing.*

So, this silly little post is really just a big ol' thank you! Because as I head into this school year, I feel so much more at ease. Ready to start anew, try innovative things, and turn the proverbial new leaf. And if you're ever feeling downtrodden about school life, just remember you're not alone - there's a great big blogosphere of educators out there who can relate :)

Happy Monday :)

{ETA @7:55am: Y'all are killing me with the comments! Thanks for being so sweet. I wish we all could just have a big ol' cup of coffee together this morning. How fun would that be?!}