You know you're a teacher when...

Abby at the inspired apple is having a linky party. I've never been the kind of girl to pass up a good party. You know you're a teacher when: 1. You come home and call your spouse or pet by a student's name. 2. You enjoy doing activities that require coloring. 3. You ask a friend or family member if they are making good first grade decisions. 4. A bag full of school supplies will put a smile on your face all day. 5. You get called mom daily. 6. You don't have any children of your own, but you have 16 little people that tell you they love you all day long.

Book Club Packet

I try and expose all my students to a variety of books. I'm trying to expose my highest group to a variety of chapter books. The last book we did was a Cam Jansen book. Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the UFO. I'm including the link to the google document of the book club packet I made (I don't know if there is a nicer prettier way to do this). https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LB7-qD_LRy8H3zbRhb_cSuH-TMrBlaPmObS6R830D34/edit?hl=en#

Some pictures

Here are some pics from the past couple weeks.....in no certain order since blogger and I aren't friends! P.S. my room was a hot mess when I took these pics




A little leprechaun damage:

Some Classroom Pics---center table

classroom shot from the front of the room

View of my guided reading table

Manipulative store shelf

Back counter/book boxes/sink

We followed the first six weeks of school and made our hopes and dreams

Center chart and behavior card system

Cubbies

Word Wall/Cabinets

Computers

Wanted posters

Field trip writing...took these on my phone and they are blurry

What a day....

I went from 4 followers to 7 followers in like an hour! How in the world do I get more followers (i.e. more encouragement to write)?? I'm thinking about doing a giveaway when I get to 25 followers.....

Today was our third field trip of the year. We went to the life and science museum http://www.ncmls.org/ . It's an awesome museum, and the kids had a blast! My class definitely didn't have their listening ears on, I spent a lot of time raising my voice :( I am forever grateful to my two parent volunteers...they were amazingly helpful.

This afternoon we wrote about our field trip on the form I found on Kimberly's blog: http://funkyfirstgradefun.blogspot.com/ . I'll take some pictures of their writing tomorrow. I was very sad because under the I learned column I had one little boy write "I learned that going to a museum you've been to a hundred times is boring." Grrr...I think most of our kids had a blast.

We found out we have some extra money in the first grade account so we get to go on two more trips this year! Yea! It will only cost our kids $5/each. We are a high poverty school, so funding for field trips is usually pretty hard to come by!

Things I've learned this year....

I officially started teaching at the elementary level in February of 2010, so this is my first official year of teaching. This is my first year of first grade. I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I've learned.

1. No matter how many rules you create....you can't cure tattling.

2. Nose picking is contagious.

3. When a six year old says they feel like they are going to throw up....believe them!

4. Field trips will be a fun but exhausting experience.

5. You will get so attached to each child...and you will meet children with heartbreaking life experiences.

6. You can not please every parent.

7. You will go home crying on more than one occasion.

8. You can stay at work from 7am until 8pm and not accomplish everything on your to do list.

9. Six year olds will fight over anything and everything.

10. I love my job! :)

Books are so important

Some of the wonderful ladies in my bible study are going to Africa for a missions trip in June. They will be setting up a library for a school there. You can buy books online! Here's how:

Step 1: Go to this link: http://pcool.scholastic.com/parentordering/login.jsp?ESP=SBC/ib//acq/pcool_slimnav_Parents///nav/txtl////

Step 2: Enter the Username: books for Africa

Step 3: Enter the password Kenya

Step 4: SHOP! Scroll through the list of books they have selected. Your card won't be charged until they submit the order.

Feel free to repost this!

What's new this week....

I wanted to share a couple fun things we did last week.








The first one I can't take credit for because it's straight out of our reading curriculum (Reading Street). We worked on long e words with ea last week. I made this pyramid. Each student had to pick a card, read the word aloud, and if it has an ea they have to build the pyramid. We talked about why a pyramid has to be built from the bottom up. If the word didn't have an ea (there were some ee words thrown in) it was discarded into another pile. I also made a sheet for them to fill in with the ea words and ee words when they were complete.

Our story this week was The Dot. In the story the main character Vashti makes art by just painting dots. The theme of the story is that anyone can make a special treasure. I threw in an art center this week where the students made their own dot art. We didn't paint though, we used markers. I then hung our masterpieces in the hallway.

**Blogger is not letting me add any more pictures for some reason....so those will be added later.**

Awesome Giveaways I entered....

I just entered two giveaways! Teacher blogs are my new addiction.

I entered this awesome giveway for a $10 Barnes and Noble Giveaway on Lindsey's blog: http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/

I also entered a giveaway for Dr. Jean CD (I heart Dr. Jean) on Ms. Van Orman's blog: http://www.msv1stgrade.blogspot.com/


I hope I win one I never have before!

Pets Linky Party

So this is my first linky party haha! Ladybug's Teacher Files http://ladybugsteacherfiles.blogspot.com/ started it! Head over to join in.

I have three fur babies!

Noel is my dogther (pronounced dog-ter). She is 10 sweet years old (11 in August). She's my best friend.

Our next born is Matty Cat...he's a Maine Coon

He's not very photogenic and apparently this is the only pic I have on my computer...he's huge!

Our baby is Valentina...she was born the day after we got married...she has definitely taken on the role of the baby of the family.

Another book club packet

My awesome hubby happens to work for a copy that sells copy machines and office supplies. One of his job perks is that he gets to play with the machines so that he knows how to use them to show customers. I typed up the packet and my husband made them into awesome bound booklets!

I only have two kids in the my highest group. One is male, one is female. I decided to go with a Magic Tree House book this time. We are doing book #1 Dinosaurs Before Dark. I got all my vocab and comprehension questions from this website: http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading4/dinosaurs_before_dark.htm

Here is the packet: (Once again I need some help in figuring out how to do this!)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17aRZcWtlHrlhBUyiNkn46RyA5Uo0Z9Er8hvT_99EtDY/edit?hl=en#

My Newest Literacy Endeavors

As any first grade teacher knows, so much growth is expected out of first graders. Here in NC they are suppose to come in on a level 6 and go out on a 20. I am ALWAYS looking for ways to encourage my lovies to keep reading! My addiction to teacher blogs is paying off with some cute ideas. I figured I share them here in case you haven't seen them yet:



1. I know I saw this on a blog, but I can't find it again. Feel free to leave me a message and I will give credit where credit is due. I bought some of those $1.00 reading glasses at the Dollar Tree (I LOVE that place!). I popped the lenses out and they are now magic reading glasses. I am taking them to school tomorrow to try out. I know they will be a hit during independent reading center.

2. Book club Packets! I got this fantastic idea from Ms. Van Ormen's blog http://www.msv1stgrade.blogspot.com/ and I decided it was the perfect idea for my highest readers. I made packets of comprehension questions for a Junie B. Jones book. They I assigned due dates for groups of three chapters at a time. They should have the entire book done by this coming Monday. This has freed up time for me to meet with lower groups, and I'm only meeting with this group once per week. They are given time daily to work on these either alone or together, so it is not expected to be extra homework. So far they are enjoying being "big kid readers" and doing a great job with their work. I'm going to try and include links to the two packets I've made when I figure out how!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12iasYsx_L6X1CNxcoqd9bpdcUBTQglYqQUPkNiELa6k/edit?hl=en# <~~~Junie B. Jones and that Meanie Jim's Birthday (how do I rename the link?)

Blogging Newbie

I am virtually a newbie to blogging. Not to say that I haven't blogged before, but not to the extent that some people do. I am OBSESSED with reading teacher blogs, specifically first grade blog. I however can't seem to keep up with any blog that I have. This is my fourth attempt I think. I do have one blog that I update regularly ourmarriageproject.blogspot.com . It's something new that the hubby and I are trying this year.

I am not the most creative person ever, but I decided to try this.....compared to most of the blogs I read...it won't be very exciting, but I'll try!

Some of my fave blogs:

http://firstisafairytale.blogspot.com/
http://ericabohrer.blogspot.com/
http://first-grade-teachers.blogspot.com/
http://oneextradegree.blogspot.com/ ---Amanda is having a great Deanna Jump giveaway on her blog..check it out!