Spring Into Graphing

First grade students always love graphing!  The students have been very busy learning how to collect data by taking survey, making tally marks to record their data, and creating picture and bar graphs to represent the data they collected.  It's always so much fun to see their excitement as they walk around the room asking their classmates their survey questions.  This year, we created a few new graphing activities for the students to use.  The survey packet was a great tool because the students were provided with several pre-made surveys, but also created their own survey question and tally chart.  If you are looking for a few new and fun graphing activities to use with your kiddos, check out these freebies in our TPT store!  Happy Spring Everyone!

Presidents, Shadows and a Freebie

Kindergarten talked a lot about being president today and decided that they would absolutely be up for the job!  The White House would be totally fun with a pool and bowling alley.  The president gets to eat whatever he wants and has a maid!  Making decisions for the country would be easy too.  The President just has to take care of the people and do his best. The President gets to be in charge of the whole United States and can make everyone be nice and friends.  Making sure that everyone has enough food seemed to be our biggest priority.  Wouldn't it be great if it was just that easy?

 Here are some presidential promises in their own words.  Thanks to a colorfulclassroom@blogspot.com for the template.

Hope that the store is well stocked!

This is one way to make sure everyone is nice!

We spent the beginning of the month discussing the groundhog and shadows.  We used this easy light experiment to learn about the scientific method and to learn about how shadows are created.

The class was able to make hypotheses about what light would and would not pass through and then after drawing their conclusion could explain how a shadow was created when light went around an object.  And who doesn't love to use a flashlight?!

I was impressed by the time they took to explore each object so they could make an "educated guess".

Thanks for checking in! You can pick up this fun Valentine's Freebie here!

Feeling Blessed!

There have been many changes for us this year and we have been quite busy, but I am finally at a point where I can sit down each week and blog.  As I am sitting here I am overwhelmed by how many ways I am thankful.

The first is that I am composing this post on our fabulous new blog design!  Yay!  Tenille at Designs by Tenille was terrific to work with and we are so happy with our final results!

The second, I have moved to kindergarten this year and although I miss working next to Erin and being with my first grade team, I am so happy with my move.  Kindergarten is truly a reminder of why I became a teacher.  My kiddos come in every morning with a smile on their face and a story to tell.  They are so excited to learn EVERYTHING and SO PROUD when they are able to share what they know with the class or do a project that looks kinda sorta like it is supposed to!  It just makes me smile sitting here.  I love that they feel so good about themselves and are so kind to each other.  It warms my heart.

I am also very blessed to have wonderful teachers working with my own children.  I just finished their parent teacher conferences and am so excited for them.  I know looking at their work that they are learning and growing academically, but after meeting their teachers, I know they are growing as little people too.  They know them.  They know what makes them happy.  They know their strengths and they are willing to take the time to help them where they need a little more help.   They are helping them be part of a learning community and teaching them that they are valued!  SO blessed!

AND finally... we have 560 followers to our TPT store!  We are so excited and want to share a special writing freebie with you! Just click the pick!

Hope you have a wonderful week! 
Check back here next week for some
Thanksgiving Fun in the classroom
 and a new freebie! 

Working With Words

If you are like us, you know how hard it is to fit everything in and how important it is to make use of the small bits of time in your day before transitioning to something new.  It is our goal this year to make those moments meaningful and fun.  One of the ways we are doing this is with independent word work activities that are quick and enjoyable for the students.

This week we are linking our real and nonsense short i word work with Manic Mondays at Classroom Freebies. This is a simple no prep activity that has students practicing short vowels and blending words.  We hope you can use it in your rooms! Click on the cover to give it a try. :) We will be posting the entire bundle of short vowels in our store soon.

One of the other activities that we have been using and found successful is our short vowel whiteboard mat activity.  If your first graders are like ours, they love to get out the dry erase markers and whiteboard to practice anything from handwriting to math facts.  This activity allows them to use the dry erase markers and practice their short vowel chunks in the process. They are so simple to prepare, just copy and laminate.  The pages wipe clean with a paper towel!  In this short a set, there are activities to practice writing the words and using them in sentences.  Our students love them!  You can check them out by clicking the cover.

We hope that you have a great week!  Don't forget to visit the Manic Monday linky for other great ideas to make learning fun and meaningful in your classrooms.

We would love to hear from you too.  Please take some time to leave a comment and tell us how you use those little blocks of time in your rooms.  We would love some more ideas to add to our tool kits!

Thanks!

Space Case!

Well, this week's class meetings are all about Space.  No, not the planets, but the need to have some room!  I have a little guy at home who loves to snuggle and cuddle so I do understand those little friends in our rooms that love to hold their best buddy's hand or have a need to whisper in someone's ear rather than just speak in a low voice.  This week is all about teaching these kiddos that not everyone feels comfortable with someone in their space.  It all ties in with our lessons on respect.  We need to be thoughtful and conscious of what other people need.  We have used this wonderful book for several years now and it is great for sparking discussion and coming up with ways to nicely tell a friend that they are in your space.  You can click the pic to find it on Amazon.

This year we are also using this great graphic organizer that Erin made.  Very simple, but a great way to check for understanding.  You can click on the pic for your own copy.  We are also linking up with Manic Mondays at Classroom Freebies so after you grab your Personal Space freebie you can visit there and find some other great freebies! 

We hope you all have a great week!

Begin Again!

Hello Friends!

We are going to try this blogging thing again.  We both had some difficulties last year that kept us from our blog, but the start of a new school year has inspired us to give blogging another chance.  We are back to work and feeling inspired and excited to begin again in so many more ways than just our little blog and school.  We are hoping to share that excitement and our eagerness for new beginnings with you in future posts!

This year, we are beginning a new structure for our reading groups and are concentrating on making some great easy activities to practice skills that don't require a lot of prep time.  We don't know about you, but our school requires A LOT of testing and data during these first weeks of school so we have come up with these fun little activities to keep the kiddos busy and engaged while we do some individualized assessing.

The first are Erin's roll and color sight words.  Now, we don't know a first grader that doesn't love dice and if you are brave enough to hand them a set of markers, they are happy as clams. :)
You can click the pic to give it a try in your room.  We have linked this freebie up with Manic Mondays and encourage you to check out all the great activities there!

You can pick up our complete set of Roll and Color Sight Words here.

Hope you all have a great week!
Jo and Erin

Plenty of Place Value!

      After what has seemed like nothing but snow days, we finally had a full day of school and a regular schedule.  It has been CRAZY 'round here.  Our kiddos don't know if they are coming or going.  "Will there be reading today?" or "Are we starting at writing time" and "Should I go to math or are we staying here."  We are soooo tired of snow and snowdays and delays!  AHHHHHHH!  At this rate we will be here until July! (We are already pretty close!)  Our one hundredth day won't be celebrated until February 19th... crazy 
      Anyway, as I said, we did have a full day today and we spent a good part of it on place value.  With so many interruptions to our schedule our kiddos are taking a little longer getting place value skills down so we have been supplementing instruction with lots of fun game and activities to keep them interested and learning.   Friday we both used Erin's Ally the Alligator Packet.  The classes loved alligator war!  Here are some pics of the fun!

 You can pick up this packet and our other place value activies by clicking any of the pics below.

You can find this freebie and many more at Classroom Freebies Manic Monday Linky!

 Hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Favorite Christmas Stories and Our First Sale!

Hi Everyone!

We hope you had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving. We can hardly believe that December is here! We got to hang our lights and our spunky holiday penguins up outside our rooms while we had a break during conferences.  It looks so colorful and festive! We are excited to return to school and see all of the other wonderful hallway decorations and all the smiling faces.  Everyone just seems to have a little more swing in their step during the holidays.  This is our favorite time of year.  We just love the magical feeling in first grade as the students are anxiously waiting for Santa's arrival AND we get to enjoy some of our favorite stories! 

This year we are able to read some of our favorite books as part of our LA curriculum and have been putting together some fun retelling packets to help our students with their reading skills.  You can find them all in our store.  I am sure we will be adding more as we go along!  We are so enjoying making them and can't wait to share them with our kiddos! 

And now, our BIG NEWS!  We are joining with TPT for the Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale.  We are so excited to throw our first sale and equally excited to shop!!!!  You can go to our store by clicking on the sale button below created by the amazing Krista Wallden at Creative Clips.  

Happy Shopping!

WHooooo's Been Busy in First Grade and a freebie!

We have been busy in first grade finishing up our Nocturnal Animal Unit while beginning our Circle Story Unit and squeezing some Native Americans and Pilgrims in when we get the chance.  I don't know about you, but I am ready for some Thanksgiving Break.  Time to relax and get my shopping on!

Anyway, I wanted to share with you the owl anchor chart we used.  I got the general idea for the anchor chart over at The First Grade Parade.  Cara made the cutest bat with her kiddos and I adapted it for our owl discussion.  You can find her chart here.

This is how our owl turned out.  Note that some of us had more schema coming in than others.  One of my little girls was so proud to tell me that "Owls can't cook!  It true!"  :-)   I just LOVE first grade!  Well after reading Owls by Gail Gibbons, we know everything there is to know about owls.  You can find the packet we used to accompany the book below.

 When we were finished with our owl, the class wanted to make little mice running away from the owl before he made them dinner!  While we were busy learning about owls in our reading classes, our art teacher was teaching the first graders about warm and cool colors and making beautiful owls to add to our hallway display.  They turned out so cool!  Don't you love them!

Circle stories were introduced this week with If you Give a Dog a Donut.  We retold the story in words and then we illustrated what happened and labeled our donut with the pictures to show us that a circle story never ends.  They loved it! (I got this idea from a colleague who made a very neat retelling cookie for her mouse!)  We then got to do Erin's  packet and they got to get into the cause and effect reading skills in other Laura Numeroff books. 

Erin's packet can be found here.

And now the freebie. This is a math freebie we used this week to review related addition and subtraction.  It really was telling when I corrected them.  This a great way to determine who really has a solid grasp on the related facts and who doesn't.  Enjoy!
 

click on the pic for your freebie!

We have linked up with Manic Monday at classroom freebie this week. Don't forget to check all the other great ideas linked up here! Have a great week!