Today, In My Classroom: Egg-Cellent Graphing

Each day this week, I plan to do an Easter-themed activity with my first graders since we are approaching our Easter and Spring Break. (Sidenote: I am SOOO excited for Spring break…even more than my students!) Today, we did an activity that I just added to my TpT store called Egg-Cellent Graphing.

We practice graphing all year long so even though we haven’t reached the Go Math! unit on graphing, I knew my first graders could still complete this activity. First they colored their eggs.

Then, they cut their eggs out and sorted them by color.

Finally, the students colored in their graphs depending on how many eggs they had of each color. My kiddos really enjoyed this activity, and your students can too!

Egg-Cellent Graphing is only ONE BUCK in my store, so go grab your copy now! Also, don’t forget to join me this Thursday for Pin Up Thursdays!

Today, In My Classroom: Simple AR Tracking

OMG, where have I been? Sorry to take such a big hiatus from blogging. I’ve been in the midst of dealing with health issues, wrangling my active child, and trying to live this teacher life!

I have a quick post for today, and it is about AR or Accelerated Reader. I must admit, my school doesn’t push AR too much and as a result I don’t either. That’s my teacher confession of the day. I know that some teachers love it or hate it. I genuinely want my students to read more, especially considering that I am a first grade teacher. So, I’m going to keep better track of my  students’ progress. I know you may be thinking, “Why are you starting this so late in the year though?” Well…I figure better late than never.

I decided that I should take this slowly, and I am going to start by using a tracking sheet. You see, some of my students weren’t taking tests AT ALL during the week. (Again, bad teacher!) I create this simple, non-frilly, non-graphic-filled (is this a word?) tracking sheet. It literally took me 3 seconds to make but it is a great way to get started. Students simply fill in the circle that corresponds to their number (each student has a number in the classroom based on alphabetical order) after they take an AR test.

So by using this tracking sheet, I make sure that each student tests at least once each week. It also serves as a visual for my students. If they haven’t filled in a circle yet, they know that they need to test on a book. If they have filled in a circle, they know that they have taken a test. My next task is to create a visual for tracking the amount of points the students earn. Hopefully I will find a great system so that I can start the next school year off right.

Do you have any ideas for tracking when students take AR tests or tracking students’ points? Please share! I’m leaving the tracking chart that I created below in a Google Doc for you to grab for free. If you can’t get the imbedded file, just grab it here. Enjoy!

Today, In My Classroom: Who Knew Santa Was Silly?

 

Christmas is always the perfect time to do fun activities with your students. I recently created a new product for my store where my students wrote silly Santa stories. My kids just loved it!

I just uploaded my newest product, Who Knew Santa Was Silly? in my TpT store. It includes lesson plans for a week with activities for your students to brainstorm ideas, create their silly stories, and to compare real Santa and silly Santa. My students completed these activities last week.

We started by brainstorming ideas using the brainstorming sheet. I didn’t tell the students what they were writing about…this added to the fun! Next, we transferred our brainstorming ideas to the rough draft copy of the silly story. This is where the students could actually read their stories. They loved this part! We then revised our rough drafts (most spelling errors) and created our final drafts. These were the ones that I used on my bulletin board. You’ll notice in the picture above that I made a mistake in my initial creation of this product (I fixed it before it was posted in my store, of course). So, my kids had to scratch out and re-number their brainstorming sheet. Silly me!

After completing our final drafts of our silly Santa story. We used the comparing and contrasting sheet and Venn Diagram above to discuss real Santa and silly Santa. Again, another fun activity for them!

In my newest product, I also have an idea about how to turn your students’ writing activities into a bulletin board display. I started by finding this cute Santa template on Catching Fireflies. Then I created eyes and noses for Santa using construction paper.

I put all of the pieces together to create Santa!

I used the students’ final draft of their silly stories and their Santa craft and added them to my bulletin board.

Go check out my newest product in my store. It is half off until tomorrow afternoon! It will be a great activity for your last days of school before the Christmas break!

Today, In My Classroom: Calendar Math

This year, I wanted to re-vamp my calendar routine this year for my firsties. In the past, I have used a Promethean flipchart from Promethean Planet that I downloaded years ago. I still use it, but I use it in conjunction with my daily calendar math sheet.

The picture above shows what I project on my promethean board. This actually shows what it looks like after we have filled everything in. I let my students work with a partner to complete their calendar math. I usually set a timer so that they know that we don’t have time to play! (Also, they know that we have our Math Daily 5 centers following our math mini lesson, so they are pretty good about finishing).

After the timer goes off, we review our calendar. I honestly started this late this school year, but I plan to copy enough for each month and make a booklet out of it. I wish I could afford to run off enough for the entire year and bind them together! Maybe next year I can!

Feel free to grab my daily calendar math sheet below or just click here! Leave me a comment and tell me what you do for your calendar routine!

 

Today, In My Classroom: Semi-Classroom Reveal

If you follow me on Instagram you have seen that I am busy working in my classroom. The above picture is the disaster that I’ve been working with for the past few weeks. Last night, I finally finished my classroom and I have a few pictures to share.

 

Here’s my desk and in the back you can see the library with the crate seats that I adore. My mother is so much more crafty that I am. She made the seats and the curtains. She rocks!

   

Here’s where my students will put their booksacks. On top, I have the bins that will be their book bins for the Daily 5. I still need to make labels for the cubbies and the book bins.

Finally, I have my math and ELA word walls on the left and right. The middle will be where I display my students’ work.

Hope you enjoyed these pictures. I plan on doing a full preview of my classroom when everything is done. My kiddies start on Wednesday so I have a few more things to make, print, cut out, and laminate! Tomorrow I plan on posting a Monday Made It on my teacher tool box.