[Alphabet Recognition] LRC game

I discovered something incredibly interesting today during phonics.

My phonics time is in the afternoon.

After specials.

Today's special was PE.

My littles were exhausted.

Timed out.

I kept trying to engage them.

It wasn't working.

So. . .I asked them to follow the alphabet cards as I pointed and say the letters.

I started at "z" and worked backward.

Well, they were engaged.

But clueless.

The majority of my littles were unable to tell me the names of the letters when we were "reading" them in reverse order.

WHAT?!

Crazy talk.

Interesting.

I KNOW many of my littles are great readers.

But. . .there is a gap somewhere.

We'll be using this little game to help FILL that gap.

Letter Recognition Left Right Center.

Easy to play.

Perfect practice/review.

2 FULL sets of alphabet (upper and lower case in 2 different fonts) are included in the download.

It's free through Wednesday night only.

Then it's going in the shop.  :)

If you're in the same predicament I found myself in today, please consider giving this game a try in your home or in your class.  Let me know how it works for you.

Tomorrow is Wednesday.

Middle of the week.

Anyone else absolutely worn right out?!

[Back to School] Reading_Handwriting Fluency Pack

It's almost Monday.

First Monday of my school year.

Some of my friends have their very first day on Monday.

I'm really glad we have 2 days under our belts!

My new littles are AWESOME!

Don't get me wrong, I totally miss my littles from last year (and every other year, lol).

But. . .my new littles are lots of fun and really listen well (for the most part!).

We start formal reading groups the Tuesday after Labor Day.

I want to get a jump start on reading before then.

So this week, we'll be using one of these fluency pages to practice our reading and handwriting fluency.

There are 5 in this pack, enough to get us through September.

They're a fairly simple read.

Perfect for the start of the year.

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to practice reading and handwriting fluency, give these a shot.

Have a great week!

[POPPIN' INTO FIRST GRADE!]

T Minus 4 and counting. . .  ;)

School starts on THURSDAY!!!

This year I have a little one in my class that has a pretty high level of anxiety about "popping" sounds.  I learned this toward the end of the year last year and had been mulling around in my mind a way to help get past this fear.

I'd seen this idea floating around the blog world for an end of year countdown celebration.

I knew that it would be a fun way to start the year, and am HOPING it will help move my little one's fear of the loud "pop" into a level of tolerance.

Wishful thinking?
Perhaps.

But worth a shot.

And. . .it's going to be AWESOME for my 25 littles to have something fun to look forward to every day for the first 25 days of school!

If you're looking for a fun "welcome to first grade" kind of activity (or even a fun family celebration for the first 25 days of school - or as a Christmas countdown - or really anything!!), the image is linked.

PS:  I found super cute tiny bottles of bubbles at Target - 12 in a package for about $2.50.   And Play-Doh (the REAL stuff) - 15 little tubs in a package for about $5.

Have a great year!

[Super Sonic Subitizing]

Student ETA: 8 days and counting. . .

Every year I have a handful of students that are unable to instantly recognize numerical dot patterns.

Huge deal?
No.

Big deal?
A little bit, yes.

Subitizing is a critical skill in first grade.

Super Sonic Subitizing, well, that's just awesome!

Meet Dudley (you'll be seeing LOTS of him over the next few months!).

Super Sonic Subitizing is an easy to use game that will give your kiddos lots and lots of practice recognizing dot patterns and matching the dot pattern with the correct numeral.

And. . .it's only a buck at Teacher's Notebook!

Wednesday is a full day of work in my classroom.

I have sooooooo much to do (so much that when people ask how they can help, I honestly have to say, "Um. . .I don't know?!" because I really truly don't)!

Guess I'll figure all of that out tomorrow.

Right?

I think I'm going to be a hermit in my room - complete with a DO NOT DISTURB sign.

Not trying to be rude.

It's just survival at this point.

Get in. Get it done. Get out.

Happy Wednesday!

See you tomorrow!!

[Lucy Ladybug Learns About Numbers]

I know.  It's summer break.

And I'm working on materials for the first 2 weeks of school.

What's wrong with me?!  lol.

We have adopted Go Math in first grade for the upcoming school year.

Go Math is incredible!  Totally common core based.  Awesome!

But. . .chapter 1 is addition concepts.

Yikes!  We've built into our pacing guide 10 days for numeracy right at the start of the year.  I'm really excited about this Lucy Ladybug pack!

It's going to be a fun exploration of numbers 1-10 for the first 10 days of school.

Lucy Ladybug deals with one "number" each day (days 1-10).

Writing the number, reading the number word, determining even or odd, representing on a ten frame, simple model drawing (adding 1), and then the ways to create an addition equation with 2 addends and a sum of the "number of the day."

If you're a first grade teacher, this pack is a perfect start to your math year.  :)

Because it is a 21 page pack (2 pages for each "number"), the price is set at $5.

However. . .there is that 50% off sale that runs through Saturday the 16th.

$2.50 for 21 pages of number sense and mathematical reasoning.

Awesome.

But. . .you can win this pack!

All you have to do is leave a comment with your best BACK TO SCHOOL hint/tip/tradition.

You have until midnight tonight (June 12) to enter.

I'll choose 1 winner from all comments.

Good luck!

[Chocolate needed.STAT!]

2 days under my belt.

I'm exhausted.

Like go to bed at 8:32 pm and not feel a single bit guilty kind of exhausted.

Like take a 2 hour nap on Sunday afternoon kind of exhausted.

Like random episodes of crying exhausted.

Like my feet and legs hurt so bad I want to scream exhausted.

Yep.  It's that bad.

But it's going to get better.

I'm already loving my new little kiddos!

They're awesome.

And they're learning so fast!

By the end of next week, they'll be near professional first graders.

And then the real fun begins!

I can't wait!

With the first few days of school come exhaustion, and the need for comfort foods.

Porcupines. All Day Steak. Texas Sheet Cake.

YUM!

All are easy. Fast. Delicious.

Recipes are posted over on my other blog (www.rightbrainedreality.blogspot.com).

Best of luck this week!

I'm looking forward to a wonderful week of learning, laughing, and loving.

First grade is AWESOME!

[Exhausted]

First contract day today.

Last night we went over and painted 2 of my 4 bulletin boards.

LOVE the way they look!

Today was faculty meeting.

Lunch.

Lots of rearranging/organizing/purging in my classroom.

Had another student added to my class.

Puts me at 24.

3 less than last year.

2 peanut allergies.

1 possibly severe behavior problem.

24 firsties in my care for 180 days beginning on Thursday.

I'm worn out after today.

Tomorrow and Wednesday are more teacher prep days, back to school night, and then BAM! here they come!

I'm feeling a lot like Little Red in "Into the Woods" - excited and scared!

I'll be back soon with some fun new stuff.

Promise.

For now, however, I'm in survival mode.

After survival mode, however, comes I LOVE THIS mode!

That's what I'm looking forward to. . .

I LOVE BEING A TEACHER!
First grade pretty much rocks.  :)

[stomach ache]

I spent 4 hours in my classroom/at school yesterday.

Copying.

Laminating.

Cutting.

Organizing.

Tossing.

I cleared 6 drawers out.

Completely empty.

3 of my BIG cupboards are organized and accessible.

Here's my problem. . .

My classroom is part of the old media center from the "new part" of the "old part" of our school.  So, while the room itself is incredible (it's big and has an awesome area in the back perfect for those times when our first grade team wants to have all of our little munchkins together in the same place at the same time.  I have a piano.  Storage, however, is a bit of an oddity.  I have 4 big cupboards along the bottom of a really long shelf.  Along the bottom of that really long shelf, I also have 4 rows of small, shallow drawers.  6 drawers in each row.  Next to those are 2 rows of slightly larger, still very shallow drawers.  And 1 row of long (think posterboard size), but still very shallow drawers.  Above the shelf, I have 5 fairly good size cupboards.  In the back area, I have a row of bookshelves.  I have 3 pillars dividing the areas that have 4 "study areas" on each one.  I want to utilize those for stations.  Not just piling.  My piano and filing cabinets (2 that are next to the piano) have dangerous, treacherous, leaning towers of stuff on them that also needs to be dealt with.

Till now, I have had random treasures stored wherever they landed when I moved into this room.  I have treasures left from previous teachers stored in those shallow drawers.  I have piles of crap important stuff stored in cupboards with no rhyme or reason.

My goal for this week (to be finished by Saturday) is to clear the drawers, the cupboards, the counter, the pillars, the piano/filing cabinets and have everything sorted, organized, and labeled.  I have a lot to do.  And not a lot of time.  And it's giving me a stomach ache.

But it will be fabulous when I'm finished.  Perhaps I can bribe my children into helping?  They can certainly sort things?  Or maybe I'll just rent them unlimited movies and let them hang out in the back of the room watching movies all day.  For the next 3 days.  That would win me mom of the year awards for sure.  Uuuggghh.  Why did I wait so long to start this project?!

[first day read aloud favorite and a writing page]

Anyone who knows me personally or has been in my classroom knows that I LOVE to make class books with my monsters.  Some years we create a class book every.single.day of the school year.  When we get a good variety, we do a drawing and each child takes a book that we've made home.  If we are consistent, each student gets to take home a few of our class books during the year.  I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that these books are the most read books in the whole class library!

Oftentimes the writing page is linked to a read aloud.  We talk about vocabulary, generate ideas, and then I turn the kiddos loose to create their page.  It's an easy start up activity for writing with first graders.  This is the read aloud and writing page that I use for the first day of school.  If you haven't read this book, you really should.  It's great fun!

If you download the writing sheet, please leave a little thank you in the comments section.  I'd really apreciate it. 

[horizontal schedule] love? or hate?

I'm frantically trying to do the "grunt" work that needs to be finished before school starts.  Part of that is setting my schedule up to work in my classroom and then formatting it to be useful to me.  I've always had a 1 page vertical schedule - days of the week at the top, times down the side.  It really wasn't my favorite.  It worked, but it felt scrunchy and messy after I finished filling in the spaces.

So I adapted it to be a 2 page horizontal spread with room to include the CCSS information since I fully intend to be more certain of why I'm teaching what I'm teaching.

However, I'm not sure I love it.  I think it might confuse me, lol.  I'm going to give it a couple of weeks starting at the first of the year to see if I love it or not.  I think I might.  Think and Might being the key words there.

How do you set up your schedule?  1 page?  2 page?  Horizontal?  Vertical?  Am I making this too hard?  I might be.  I have a tendency to do that. . .
Anyway. . .if this might be useful to you, it's in excel format so it's editable (is that a word?!) to fit your needs.

Big gasp, 15 days. . .

[Back to School Time? Yes, it is! My Top 10!]

1. You stock up on Diet Coke, Excedrin, Tums, and Emergen-C Immune Defense.

2. Your menu plan for the next 2 weeks includes 2 meals of breakfast, 2 trips to McDonald's, 4 meals of mac and cheese, and 2 meals of cold cereal.

3. You purchase gift cards to every restaurant within 20 minutes of your home so when your family asks what's for dinner in the 2 weeks after that, you can offer something besides mac and cheese, breakfast, McDonald's, or cold cereal.

4. You walk through EVERY AISLE of EVERY SCHOOL SECTION in EVERY STORE every.single.time you go.  Just in case.

5. You start having school dreams.  You know.  The ones where you lose your class.  Or you're 3 days late for the first day of school.  Or my newest favorite from this year, you're conducting parent teacher conferences in fluent Spanish.  And the parents you're conferencing with don't speak Spanish.  And neither do you.

6. Your summer tv time is no longer mindless tv with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a diet coke in the other.  It's now mindless tv with a stack of laminated materials in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other.

7. You figure out your school schedule and then only allow yourself to go to the bathroom at recess and lunchtime.

8. You purchase approximately 121 baskets/bins/tubs/buckets to organize your classroom.  Again.

9. You start wearing shoes that aren't flip flops.  And cry about it.

10. You can't decide if you're more excited or sad about summer ending and the new school year beginning. 

Linking up with Reagan at http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-ten-reasons-you-know-it-is-back-to.html

[August Welcome to First Grade Postcards]

Wow. Summer has flown by.  Just took my own munchkins shopping for their first day of school outfits, wardrobe necessities to complete their wardrobes, and school supplies. That really made me realize that we are on the downhill side of summer break!  I can't decide if I'm more sad about summer coming to an end or more excited about a new school year starting!

Anyway. . .these are the little postcards I'll be sending to my new little first grade friends in just a couple of short weeks. 

These are meant to be printed front to back on heavy cardstock and mailed as postcards.

Alphagraphics does a great job of printing at a very reasonable price.

Images on the front of the cards are used courtesy of Sprouting Seeds Studio.

Image on the back of the card is a ScreenBeans image.

Curly font on the front is "Cupcake" (Miss Tiina - link is on the sidebar).

Please respect copyright.  Don't share the file.  Direct your friends here to download their own copy.  Please consider a kind word of thanks when you download these.

Have a great day!

[Counting Crocodiles] ordering numbers math activity

For the first 10 or so days of school, I begin my math lesson with a read-aloud counting book.  I have many favorites, but this one is my very most favorite!

And, now, I have a fun little ordering numbers game for my class to play after we've read the book.  :)
This game requires students to put a set of number cards in chronological order from 1-10.  However, students may choose to receive as many cards as they'd like on each turn, and there are a couple of sneaky little monkey cards, a super snail card, and a fantastic fox card to make this a little more of an adventure.
Directions are included in the download.  I would recommend printing a minimum of one complete set of cards for each student that will be playing.  My groups generally have 4-6 students in each group, so I would make 6 sets of cards.  I realize that's a lot of cards, but it really will help the students have a higher chance of success. 

If you've never read this book, you should.  Really.  You'll love it.  And so will your kiddos.  It's hilarious.  One spunky little monkey stuck eating sour lemons all day and all night till she spies a delectable banana tree on the other side of the Sillabobble Sea which just so happens to be filled with crocodiles.  Not very bright crocodiles, I might add, but the crocodiles are very entertaining (I LOVE the page where the crocs are dressed like Goldilocks!  My kiddos crack up every.single.time we read that page!)! 
(*The link above is an affiliate link through Amazon.  Your order will help me continue to offer free downloads.  Thank you!)

Anyway. . .

The preview picture below is linked to the ordering game.

Please leave a comment before you click to download.
If you have friends that may like their own copy of this game, please direct them here to download their own copy.

Thanks much!

[Order Up!] ordering numbers 0-20

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to my "baby boy" who turns 11 today!

Happy Birthday, Bubs!

Here is a fun new math group idea called "Order Up!"

The idea of the game is for students to practice and begin to visualize numerical order.

Students must fill each space on their workmat and are not allowed to move the game pieces after they initially place them.  This encourages higher level thinking as students become familiar with numerical order, strategically placing their numbers where they will fit the very best.  Because students may not move their cards after placing, they really have to think about numerical order (counting up AND down from the given number) to find the best space for that card.

This is a HUGE download (20 pages).

Preview image is linked to the pdf download.

PLEASE do not claim ownership of this game.  Give credit where credit is due.
Elements for this activity come from the Digital Scrapbooking Kit Milk and Cookies by Sprouting Seeds Studio.

Please do not share the downloaded file.

You may direct your friends to my blog to download their own copy.

If you plan to download this activity, please leave a comment BEFORE you click the link.

Thank you!

The first page is instructions, Common Core standards, and credits.

Following that are 6 workmats. Although the workmats are optional, it gives the students a good visual to work with.  Other games using these same workmats will be created, so printing/laminating costs will be shared among numerous games.

There are 6 cards for each number 0-20.  This is a good range of numbers at the start of the year for first graders.  Possibly too large for some, but you could focus on 0-11 and then add in the other cards when your students were ready.

These cards can be used for so many different activities. I'll share some of my favorites at a later date.

These pages print at 12x12.  Most copy shops are set up to print at that size for a minimal charge.  If you have an Alphagraphics near you, they will be able to print these.

My brain is on overdrive with ideas for math groups this fall.  I have started a list and am working like crazy to get the ideas worked up before the inspiration dries up.  :)

Have a great day!

(I'm still trying to figure out how I have an ELEVEN year old?!)

[Getting Ready for First Grade] July Postcards

As soon as I can acquire the addresses of my new firsties, these little cards (printed front to back on heavy white cardstock) will go out in the mail.  Kiddos LOVE getting mail addressed just to them, and these will give my new little monsters (and their parents) an idea of some of the things that need to be common knowledge for first grade.  I'll have another to send out in a couple of weeks with some new skills for them to work on. 

Can't believe that in a couple of weeks, it will be August. . .

If you download these, please leave a comment.

Please do not post these on your blog, instead, please direct visitors here to download their own copy.

Thanks!

All elements used on these cards are from Sprouting Seeds Studio's School Days Collection FREE digital scrapbooking kit.

[badges]

Super cutesy didn't quite work.

Cute did though.

And I'm pleased with these!

Name and school obviously blurred for privacy.  :)

8 on a page.  Pretty cost effective.

Yep.  I think this is a keeper!

(And look at those super cute kiddos coming my way this fall!!!)

[thinking forward to August]

August is on my mind.

Already.

And it's not even July.

However, today is the first day that really feels like summer vacation.

I have a few projects simmering, but this is one that is ready to go.

It's also one that I'm pretty excited about!

I am always scrambling to get name tags made for my firsties when we have grade level rotations, or a special guest, or head off on a field trip.

Today I picked up a couple of packages of vertical badge holders (12 for $1.88) and a couple of packages of badge id clips (12 for $1.88) in the office supply section at the walmart.

Once home, I opened trusty Photoshop Elements and went to work creating a name badge that each of my students will have when we start school in August.  (I took photos on Meet the Teacher Day, and am only missing 2 of my new little monsters plus any move ins and those will be easy to do up after the first day).

On the first day of school, the kiddos will get to choose from an assortment of beads to create a beaded lanyard for their badges.  For the first week or so, they will wear their badges everywhere (using the clip instead of hanging the lanyard around their necks during gym and recess).  This will help all of us get to know each other, and provide the specialists with the names of my students (as well as the recess aides if a student can't remember where class is for those first few days!).

Anyway. . .(clearly needing some adult interaction around here!), here is the finished product (papers are from Steadfast and Immovable's Table Teacher digi kit, apple is from Scholastic):

If you're interested in making these for your own classroom, leave me a comment with your e-mail and I'll send you the layered pse file.  You will need a program that supports layered pse files in order to use this. 

Can't wait to get my little firsties all geared up for a fantastic year!