[waves hi...]

What a roller coaster this year has been.

Feeling like I'm getting my "teacher legs" under me a bit again.

Still have moments where I get knocked flat with sadness, but those moments are gradually being replaced by the memories of the 12 1/2 years we had with Kenton.

I've been working (s.l.o.w.l.y) through my to do list...it's LONG.

I have "create a year long writing plan" as one of my goals this year.

Sigh. Yeah, need to get to work on that one.

Soon.

This month we've been learning how to take notes while listening, viewing, or reading, and how to organize those notes onto a graphic organizer (mostly tree maps or spider graphs), and then take those notes and move them into sentences and into a cohesive paragraph.  This week is the big test to see if my littles are understanding.  They have been given a non-fiction passage, a graphic organizer, and will have this week to create a paragraph. 

{shudder}

This could get really interesting really fast.

There are some great SHORT first grade non-fiction passages here: http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Decodable_passages

They're free (BONUS!) and they have about 80 words and come in several formats.

Helpful if you're needing to increase your littles' non-fiction reading selection on a budget.  ;)

One of my other goals this year is to better utilize the time I have scheduled for rotations (aka centers).  One part of my goal is to equally divide the time between math and literacy.  I do great with math, not so great with literacy.  I'm working on it...

If you teach Saxon Phonics and Spelling, here's a fun and free little UNO type game for Spelling List 16. 

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/68803494/Spelling/UNO.pdf

Sometimes I have my littles write the words they have in their stack after they finish.  What I've found is that recognition of the word, being able to know what it is and read it, helps so much with their ability to spell it.

Yeah, I'm slow.  I know.  LOL.

Graphics are from the one and only incredibly talented Dustin Pike.  Stop by and see what he has in his shop.  Seriously the cutest stuff.

And now, I have 45 minutes of silence here in my classroom while McKayslin is at Paige's house and Luke is home doing dishes and folding laundry (yes, I'm spoiled!).

Time to work on items 1, 2, 3, and maybe 4 of a bazillion things on my to do list.

Have a great week!

And, seriously, thanks for sticking with me through the past 8 1/2 months.

Seriously.

It means a lot.

[Emergency Sub Plans] [CureSearch]

A giant thanks heading out to those of you that have purchased items from my Teacher's Notebook shop over the past week!

Our family sincerely appreciates your support!

 

Today's item took a LOT longer than I had planned for it to take.

However, the finished product is exactly what I'd hoped!

 

There have been a few times in my career that I've seriously been too ill to go to school to make detailed sub plans.

I've sent e-mails to my colleagues asking them to print off my plans and copies and get everything ready for me.

They willingly ablige, but I feel guilty for the entire day (and most of the next week) knowing that I added stress to their morning.

 

And now, with everything that's going on with Kenton, I've felt for a while that I needed to have something that was sub ready just in case.

 

Introducing my first set of EMERGENCY SUB PLANS!  :)

 

This set is focused around the book My Friend is Sad, and Elephant and Piggie book by
Mo Willems.

 

  Emergency Sub Plans feature activities in math, fact discovery and recording, writing (with a rubric!), spelling, reading comprehension, and PE.

22 pages that you just need to print off, make copies for your class, purchase the book, and BAM! Sub Plans for the day ready to go.

$5.00 at Teacher's Notebook.

On sale at a 25% discount through November 15.

 

My heartfelt gratitude goes out to Steve and Debbie at Teacher's Notebook, who in their own time of need dealing with Superstorm Sandy, generously offered to match all purchases made in my shop with a donation to CureSearch in Kenton's name.

 

THANK YOU for sticking with me and my sporadic postings.

I'd promise to do better, but well, that's just a promise I am not able to make.

I'll be here when I can with new and fun stuff.

Have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend!!

[FRY 41-60] game

Last day to vote.

Then I won't bug you about it anymore.  :)

I hope you're loving these FRY game boards.  I realized that for this time of the year, they aren't super effective for most of us.  However, looking forward to August/September, they're going to be incredibly useful.

Here is the link for words 41-60 game board, rules, and cards.

It's my very last Monday with this group of littles.

To say it's been a rough year would be a bit of an understatement.

I certainly do love all of my littles.  This year there have been a few that have been extra tough behavior problems and have worn me right out.

This week is our math week - we divide all of our first graders into 4 groups and for 45 minutes each day, play math games by academic achievement level for 4 days and then as whole classes on Friday.  Lots of parents come in to help and the kids have a great time!  Our End of Level Assessment is due on Friday, so this gives us a good solid review and some sweet math fact fluency practice.  It's a great way to spend our last full week together.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

See you tomorrow!  ;)

[FRY 21-40] freebie

One day left to vote. . .if you'd like to help, please click the badge.

Thanks!

If you'd like to add your vote (which I'd super much appreciate!), follow this link: http://www.accelerated-degree.com/2012-fascination-awards-elementary-teacher-blogs/ , scroll down to where it says "Click Here" in blue lettering, click on that, click on the blue lettering "159 comments" and scroll through the blogs until you find mine (MrsReynoldsFirstGradeAdventures). Click on the G+1 button next to my blog name.

Here's a fun freebie for FRY words 21-40.

2 options to play.

Same directions and game board as words 1-20.

Using the same game boards decreases teaching time and increases learning time.  :)

Be watching for sets for all of the first grade words, 20 at a time.

These will be easy to use for differentiation.

I'm excited to get them done!

Image is linked.

Have a great week!!

[Roll and Spell] the SUPER SILENT edition. . .

. . .also known as the Teacher has a headache and needs a break edition.

{wink}

Image is linked to the pdf download.

A little love in the form of a comment or a vote would be awesome.

Roll and Spell is the whole reason I was nominated for the Fascination Award (which if you haven't yet voted, please click on the badge and vote - if not for me, then for another deserving blog - you have to upgrade to google+ and can only vote once), so. . .what better way to CeLEbRatE than with another version?!

We have 11 1/2 days left (counting today) and my littles are chomping at the bit.

They seem to have forgotten the class rules and expectations.

Hmmmm. . .it's going to be a quick reminder this morning and then Miss Viola Swamp may be in residence in my classroom if that doesn't work.

I'd sure hate to play it that way, but after yesterday. . .

Hope you're having a great week!

[Chickity Chick Brainiac Pack] 20 page kit and a freebie

Looking for some early bird work? Or maybe some fast finisher work? Or maybe some whole class review pages that cover a bunch of first grade common core topics all at the same time?

This Chickity Chick Brainiac Pack does just that! 20 pages of concept review covers core areas in math and language arts. Each week the math concept changes. Your kiddos will be reviewing sentence editing, comprehension, spelling, number bonds, counting by 2, counting on and back by 10, comparing 2 two digit numbers, and adding 3 digits.

I can't wait to practice with Chickity Chick for the next 4 weeks.  :)

You can purchase the entire pack (20 pages!) on Teacher's Notebook for only $5!

Seriously a heck of a good deal!

Combine the preview below with all of the previews on TN and you'll see each week's work.

Here's the LINK for the Teacher's Notebook whole Chickity Chick Brainiac Pack.

Not sure how this will work for you?

Here's a freebie sample. . .clip art is Alice Smith for DigiWebStudio.

Have a great weekend!

[oi, oy] The "Piggy" Diphthong Game

In our classroom, we call diphthong oi and diphthong oy the "piggy" diphthongs.

You know, because they make the same sound as OINK?!  ;)

These dipthongs tend to be tricky for my early readers (and some of my more advanced readers, too).  So. . .I came up with this little gamboard which only requires a copy of the game, a die, and something to use as a marker for each player.

The "bonus" pathways ask the player to actually tell the rule (oi comes at the beginning or in the middle, oy comes at the end).  I realize this is a generality, but it's what we teach.

Hope you can use this in your classroom.

Image is linked.

You have my permission to PIN this activity.  :)

Please leave a little thanks if you pin and/or download.

Happy Wednesday!

[Roll and Spell] the Rainbow Edition

This version is a class favorite because it's one of the few times my littles get to use the markers!  They LOVE markers!  :)

Roll and Spell - the Rainbow Edition!

So many people are LOVING these Roll and Spell cards.

If you're one of those, please leave a little thanks!

Original Roll and Spell.

Roll and Spell the OUT LOUD edition.

Have a great week!

[roll and spell] OUT LOUD edition

Roll and Spell is not only one of the most popular activities in MY classroom, it's kind of exploded all over Pinterest, too.  :)

With 969 downloads logged at box, I'd say this one is a keeper.

So. . .here's another version of Roll and Spell.

I call this the OUT LOUD version.

This one comes out VERY infrequently in my classroom.

VERY infrequently.

Because it's loud.

But it's also very fun!

Click the image to head over to box for your free download.

A little thanks would be appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

[roll and spell]

Anyone else feeling overwhelmed/swamped/behind?!

We have parent conferences next week and I'm freaking out just a little.

With recess duty this week, ILPs tomorrow during prep, 4 piano lessons to teach tonight, math class tomorrow night (with an assignment due that I haven't started yet), and a district PLC on Friday that I get to lead, I'm kind of in a "Piglet" state - you know, where every.little.thing makes me stutter and twitch?!

Clearly I need to plan better.  :)

I'm also concerned with about 6 of my little monsters' spelling skills.

They are not passing their weekly spelling tests.

They struggle with daily writing because their spelling skills are so undeveloped.

While we work every day on phonics and spelling skills, these little monkeys need more repetition.

However, this is the same group where more repetition = mass revolt.

Unless. . .there is variety in the repetition.

This game hits that every time!  Thank Heavens!

It's easy to use and they get to practice each and every word, sometimes twice depending on the time allotted.

This definitely is NOT my original idea.  I've seen variations floating around and so many teachers use something like this.  This is just my take on a super great activity that my monsters love.

These print 2 to a page.  I print them on cardstock, cut and laminate, and have them available in our manipulatives cubbies.  Some of my little monkeys will choose this as a free choice activity.  :)

Image is linked to the PDF download.

A simple thanks in the comments section

goes a long way to brighten my day.  :)

I'm working on developing a recording sheet for the Roll and Spell activity where they will have to write the word in the matching column and then read the words back to me (or the grown-up that is in charge of that small group during rotations).  I think that will add one more level of accountability.  At least that's my hope!

{Reduce, Reuse, Recycle WORDBUILDER}

My little word detectives LOVE these pages!

Here is one using the three Rs of Earth Day.  :)

Image is linked to the download.

{Earth Day word builder}

It's always fun to watch the kids make words.  They are great little word detectives!

Image is linked to the pdf download.  :)

{super speedy speller}

{aka: the coolest, best, most awesome spelling practice EVER according to my firsties!}

This is one of those on the fly activities that I came up with one day a few years back.

It's a class favorite year after year and really does help kids not only practice their spelling, but their quick handwriting, and their ability/willingness to be in front of a group.  Seriously.  Even my most anxious children LOVE this activity. 

My kiddos beg to play for spelling practice and ask to play whenever we have a few extra minutes in our day.

Super easy.  Low maintenance.  Fun.  Doesn't get better than that!

Here's how we play Super Speedy Speller! (said in your best game show host voice of course!)

1. Send three children to the board.

2. Give them a spelling word.

3. The first student with the word spelled correctly (AND legibly!) gets to stay.  The other two return to their seats.

4. Send two new students to the board to compete against the winner from the previous round.

5. Continue until every student has had a chance (or five!) and/or the spelling list has been practiced thoroughly.

Today's best laugh out loud moment was when I had three of my most popular boys at the board, and the next word on the list was "girls."  Bwah-hah-hah.  The boys turned 15 shades of red while everyone else in the room hooted and hollered.  It was awesome!

{a little spelling, a little math, practice made fun}

Today we're going to have a new list of spelling words.

We're starting a brand new unit in math (my kiddos are absolute ROCKSTARS! when it comes to addition facts to 18 already which means we get to have lots of fun with this topic!!).

What that means is it's time for new math games, new spelling activities, and it's Monday.  The week before Spring Break.  And it snowed.  Again.  This has the potential to be quite the crazy day.  Anyway. . .I am [hopefully] super planned for the day so we get a lot done, have some fun doing it, and everyone stays sane.  ;)

This spelling activity has been around for a while.

I just made it into a workmat.  I'll copy these and have my firsties slide one into the sheet protector with their schedules so they can "text me" their spelling words (I have a feeling I'll be getting a lot of "texts" over the next few days, lol).

They'll simply use their spelling list and their "keyboard" to "text" me their spelling words.

We haven't done this yet this year, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they like it.

When I have a bit more time, I'll find a keyboard that will print clearly, this one is a little fuzzy.  :(

Next up is a math game, adding 3 digits, with a twist.

I love this one because it really gets them looking at the numbers and thinking about the strategies used to add 3 digits.  My emergent learners will use regular 6 sided dice.  My advanced learners get to use the 10 sided dice (numbered 0-9).

Directions are on the mat.

Downloads are linked.

Lots of you are accessing these files.  I hope that you are finding them useful.

A simple comment to say thank you would be appreciated.

Happy Monday!

{Spelling Favorites}

These spelling activities are favorites in my classroom!

The students especially enjoy the Horse Race game!!

Click on an image to download the file.
Happy Spelling!

For Spelling Bingo, because we have 12 words on our spelling lists, the students write each word in two different boxes.  I have the words on sticks in a can (each word on 2 sticks).  We draw the sticks out and cover the words with Unifix cubes.  Students get bingo by covering 5 in a row (up and down, side to side, or on a diagonal).  We play three rounds when we play.

Round 1: I draw the sticks from the can, spell the word out loud, and the students respond by saying the word out loud as they cover that word with a cube.

Round 2: I draw the sticks from the can, say the word, and the students respond by spelling the word out loud as they cover it with a cube.

Round 3: SPEED ROUND! I draw the sticks out of the can fairly quickly, alternating spelling/saying the chosen word.  This can get pretty crazy, but they LOVE it!

Individual file downloads are linked through the pictures.

Clip art used on these worksheets is used courtesy of http://www.djinkers.com/.