Phonics and Turkeys?

Monday is always the day of the week that seems to be gone before it begins.  Is anyone else wondering where the time is going?  Yikes!  We did a great lesson that I adapted from Pinterest about the H Brothers.  I'm eager to add my little picture circles to add to our H-Brother Sort tomorrow.  It will be a great little activity to use with some of my mom volunteers. 

 

And I couldn't help but post by own 1st grader's disguised turkey.  My son, Jack loves the Don't Let the Pigeon...books.  So it seemed fitting to disguise his turkey as a pigeon.  ;)  Too fun!

 

 

Have a great day! 

~Jill

 

Giveaways!

Another giveaway from this fantastic gal!  Hop over to her super cute Growing Firsties blog. This is just one little pic of all that she is giving away.  ;)  Good luck to you!

Who doesn't love a good giveaway?!  Check out my friend, Lisa's Pete the Cat giveaway on her blog Growing Firsties.  I hope I win!  If not, then I hope you win!  :) 

Good Luck!

Honor, Pride, and FRIDAY!

This was one of those days that I love.  My mind was going a mile a minute BUT I was checking tasks off of my "to-do" list left and right.  Since Veteran's Day is on Sunday this year, we started working on some veteran themed work today and next week we will be writing our letters to the veterans to tell them why we are so thankful for them.  This ties in nicely with the presidental unit we just wrapped up.  Why you may ask?  Because we have been discussing our country and why we are so lucky to be able to choose our leader.  Discussing our veterans provides the how to our freedom discussions.  Check out the cute photos of my Firsties! *Disclaimer* I did not have spellcheck on my super fun smelly markers, so I am not completely sure every word was spelled right on my chart paper. ;)

 

 

AND....

 

Added some more skills to our our Reader's CAFE.  This is a process that I would have loved to have started much earlier in the year.  Life threw some major curve balls at me this year.  New assessments, new computer programs, new professional development, and the biggest life-changing event, my dad going home to be with Jesus.  (REALLY missing him tonight)  So, this is as far as we have gotten so far, but geez do my little ones LOVE this.  Makes me happy to meet with my little readers. 

 

 



Nutty kids = Review of Procedures

Time is just escaping me and I am dying to really dig deep with my kiddos.  All of the new assessments, additional assessments, professional development, and curriculum mapping can really get a girl down.  As much as I know that it is all necessary, I am so looking forward to tomorrow to pull more reading groups!  We had a review of the Literacy Stations of Daily 5 today.  Not the cutest chart, but it was what the Firsties came up with.  I will "jazz" it up to display and refer to in the classroom. 



I am also so happy to have FINALLY launched my Reading Cafe.  This was killing me!  By far, the start to this year was the craziest.  So happy to be pulling my kids and easing into the flow.  it's about time.  ;)

While waiting for the PTO meeting tonight, I put together some cute games that I got from Heather's Heart blog page.  So glad to add them to my phonics tub and my math tub!  Thank you!



Enjoy the day!  TGIF tomorrow.  :) 

 

Election Day

Yesterday was the Election Day and all of my Firsties were super excited to learn anything and everything about the candidates and the process.  We read Duck for President and that led into a discussion about character traits that a president would need to have.  Each child was then given a trait to relate to themselves.  We made the cover for our prompt, added the student's picture to make it personal, and hung them in the hallway.  It was such a fun day and I have all sorts of ideas for how I will do it different/better next time.  Now on to Thanksgiving ideas...

 

 

Birthday Freebie

Real Quick: This is a note I put together at the beginning of the year for the parents who need the addresses of their child's classmates, but can't get them from the school.  This is a way to have their permission to give out their home address and phone numbers.  This way the parents aren't forced into inviting every kid to the party and no invitations come to school AND no hurt feelings.  It has been great and as a mom too, I appreciate it.  Feel free to grab this up and send home with your kiddos.                                                        Birthday Note

 

 

Checking In

Whew! This was a nutty week and I got sick on top of it all. No wonder, this was on my to-do list from last week:

• Pre-Observation meeting (which meant I had to prepare the BEST lessons in the world for my principal to see during my Daily 5 90 minute block...plus, include Marzano's learning goal stuff.
• Halloween Party (always crazy super fun for the kids!)
• Observation (I don't care who you are, it's always nerve-racking)
• Report Cards (Plus helping the new teacher across the hall, which I don't mind AT ALL, just adds to the stress)
• PLUS 4 Master's work Assignments

So, I got sick and lost my voice, naturally.  Anyway, enough boo-hoo'ing, I created a quick "check-in" with my kiddos that I got from Pinterest and Marzano.  During Daily 5, especially when it's a bit too loud, I stop the class and have them rate themselves on their heart. 

For example, "Give yourself a 3 if you are on task and working well with a partner, give yourself a 2 it you are working well but are talking about something other than Daily 5, and give yourself a 1 if you are not working well-maybe arguing-or just totally off task."  The kids hold up their fingers and put them on their heart, kinda like saying the pledge of allegiance.  It's a quick way to get them to do some self-assessing.  I like it and I'm going to extend the rubric with our learning goals.

 

This is displayed in the class for the kids to reference.  :)

~Jill