rewind.

Do you ever feel like your life is in constant fast-forward mode? Today I’m rewinding a bit and taking a breather! We’ve been having all kinds of fun in first grade lately. These first graders (almost second graders - gasp!) are working hard and don’t even realize it. That’s the best kind of learning in my book!

Last week, we finished up our SUPER WEEK OF SUPERHERO FUN in our class! Each day a different superhero flew in for a visit to help review r-controlled vowels with my kiddos. I noticed a lot of my kids were still mixing up all of the different r-controlled vowels so these superheroes were SUPER helpful!

To prepare for their grand entry, we made superhero masks. These masks were worn all week. After each day of hard work, we hung up our masks so that they’d be all ready for the next day. We hung them on a yardstick so they wouldn’t get all tangled together. OCD, much?

On Monday, Smart Clark came by and helped us review /ar/.

On Tuesday, Stormy Norman stopped by to help us out with the /or/ sound.

On Wednesday, The Super Girls popped in for some er, ir, and ur fun!

And on Thursday and Friday, we reviewed all of the r-controlled vowel sounds!

Each day, we went on a different SUPER word hunt (sporting proper attire, of course!), played some SUPER r-controlled vowel bingo, and wrote our own SUPER stories! SO.MUCH.FUN.

All of these fun activities (along with the mask templates) can be found at my TPT shop. Just click on the covers below to take you to each one!

In math, we’ve been working on mastering comparing numbers. Phew! This is a TRICKY concept. I knew I’d have to bring in the greater than/less than alligator for this lesson! I found this cute little song here and changed it up a bit to make it into an anchor chart. Then, I made a huge pond out of construction paper and cut out two lily pads and placed them on top. I made a bunch of cards with numbers and tens/ones up to 100 and placed them face down around the pond. Then, I had my students sit around the pond. Of course, I forgot to snap pictures WHILE we were actually doing this activity!

I chose two students to come up and flip a card. First, they held up their card to show the class. Then, the whole class sang the song (each time we picked a different food for the “How Many ___________ Do You Chomp part?”). They LOVED talking like they were hungry alligators. Then, they placed their card on one of the lily pads and picked the correct alligator mouth to show which number was greater. If the class agreed, they gave a thumbs up!

You can find an alligator mouths below:

 

 

After we did a little whole group practice, we used this awesome spin it game from the sweet Anna. You can download this great resource (along with lots of other greater than/less than fun stuff!) over at her blog HERE.

Who else is STILL teaching? Please tell me I’m not alone. Haha!

teacher friends!!!

I don’t know what I would do without my teacher-friends. Seriously! Both of my parents are teachers and when I was a kid, I never understood how they could talk about school THAT MUCH. Now I totally get it and I just can’t GET ENOUGH! My non-teacher friends think I am CRAZY. Ha! I guess you just don’t understand unless you’re a teacher. I feel lucky that I have so many teacher-friends in my life that share the same passion and excitement towards teaching as me.

One of my dearest teacher-friends is Hope. Hope is another teacher in my county. She is INCREDIBLY talented, inspirational, and SWEET! We met through blogging last summer after discovering we lived so close to each other. What a small world, right? Now, we often meet up for coffee and gab for hours! I love this lady….and her PRECIOUS family! So, so sweet!

Hope just recently opened up a TPT shop and I am in LOVE with her work. This mega word work oi/oy packet will be SAVING MY LIFE this week. FOR REAL!!!

Isn’t it ADORABLE?

My favorite parts of the packet are the adorable oi/oy stories, the cute anchor charts, and all of the practice pages. My kids are going to love the pool theme. You can find this product HERE.

Thanks, Hope!

 

Go follow her HERE on TPT! Her work is awesome!!!

Do your non-teacher friends think you’re crazy for talking about school so much OR for spending so much time in your classroom?

a very sweet giveaway!

My Freebielicious friends and I are so excited to announce that we are teaming up with A+ Teacher Images (the greatest t-shirt company for teachers and more, in case you haven't heard of them!). We all received the fanciest custom designed t-shirt we've ever owned AND now we can give a 

t-shirt of the winner's choice from each of our individual blogs.

I love my t-shirt because it is so much more than just a shirt.  It represents friendships, fun, and business relations (oh wait and STYLE, of course!) all in one "blinging" design.  Where else could you get all that from one t-shirt?  A special thanks goes out to Doug from A+ Images.  He worked with us to make just the right shirt to represent our company and is still giving us a shirt to give one lucky winner for each of our blogs!

We have made this giveaway super easy for you to have almost 50 chances to win one of 23 t-shirts.  It is a blog hop, so you can enter as many or as few giveaways you would like!  The contest begins Saturday, May 18th, at 8:00 a.m. EST and ends on Sunday, May 19th, at 12:00 a.m. EST.  Winners will be announced on the following Monday.  Easy peasy, lemon-squeezy!  Start by entering my giveaway here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next, you will head over to my friend Maria's blog, Kinder-Craze and enter there. Then, you can keep going until your fingers are too tired to hit click (that is how simple we made it for you!).

{Just a Note: If you don't win one of the giveaways, but you see a shirt that you really just have to have, they are offering our Freebilicious followers 20% off orders of $20 or more by using the code: FREE20  Enjoy!!}

bravo behavior (FREEBIES!)

 

I’ve found that the most effective way to keep things calm (yet still fun!) in my classroom is to constantly mix up my reward system! My expectations always stay the same, but how I reward positive behavior is constantly changing (maybe I get bored easily? I don’t know!).

So, in order to keep things fresh and fun, we started using this motivating Bravo Behavior Board I made up in our classroom. It has been working like a CHARM!

Click on the picture below to download it for free!

How to Use:

-Laminate a Bravo Behavior Board (click here to download)
-Each time you witness an entire table showing "Bravo Behavior," choose ONE “table captain”  to shade in/check a space on the board using a dry erase marker.
-If a table group shades in three boxes, they earn a prize.

You could also have students try to fill all spaces (black out) before earning a prize. It’s up to you!

Prior to giving each table group a board, I suggest making a little chart of what “Bravo Behavior” looks like and sounds like. I know that it’s the end of the year and that students already know your expectations, but doing this extra little step really helps hold them accountable. We all need a little extra reminder sometimes, right? 

Our little extra reminder chart included: working cooperatively, remaining responsible for our own learning, allowing others to learn, creating a safe school, being respectful to peers and teachers, etc.

In addition to whole class behavior incentives, I’ve also started implementing individual behavior boards for certain students who need something more than the table group incentive.

I saw this SUPER CUTE superhero behavior chart on Pinterest and thought it was perfect for a couple of my little friends. This idea originally came from Pocket Full of Posies. This blogger uses it with her own children, but it also works wonderfully in the classroom. I’m using this board in lieu of a traditional behavior chart, but I’m sure you could use both if you wanted. When I presented this behavior board to one of my students, he was THRILLED to see his actual picture. So motivating!

(FYI: This is a photo of my nephew - not a student in my class!)

This is what it looks like without a child’s face over top. Still super cute!

I know some students aren’t thrilled with superheroes, so I used the same boards with different themes. I plan on using these in future years!

Here’s a PAW-FECT puppy behavior board for the puppy lovers:

Here’s one for the popcorn/movie lovers:

Here’s one for the rock stars:

And, I couldn’t forget the cat lovers!

Click on the collage below to download everything above for free. Thanks again to  Pockets Full of Posies for the inspiration!

 

What are you doing to keep things rolling in your classroom?

family fun!

I spent the day at my parent’s house for some much overdue shenanigans. We celebrated Mother’s Day and my dad’s birthday. I loved every minute of it.

We played “family fun” games, ate LOTS of yummy food, caught frogs (not my idea…ha!), relaxed in the garden, swung from the tree swing, and LAUGHED, LAUGHED, LAUGHED!

I brought my camera and took lots of pictures! Below is a picture of my sister, Faith, my sweet mom, my niece, Abby, and my sister, Jessi. I swear, my precious mama doesn’t age! I also snapped a few of my nephew, Topher, on the tree swing. This boy CRACKS  ME UP! He is going into the first grade next year. Where did the time go? And, look at those flowers from my mom’s garden! I wish I had a quarter of a green thumb. Beautiful!!!

Here are more of my niece and nephew and a picture of these yummy mini-cupcakes my talented chef-sister, Jessi, made! I love that girl, but I’d be in trouble if we lived any closer. Not kidding!

 

Happy Mother’s Day! Hope your day was as special as ours!

teachers - you rule!

Who doesn’t love a sale? I do!!!

Be sure to stock up on some awesome resources you have on your wish list on May 7-8th! Two days to shop? Yes, please!  I know I’ll be feeding my clip art addiction tomorrow (and on Wednesday).

28% off is a MEGA deal. Just make sure you type TAD13 at checkout.

My entire shop will be on sale!!!! Click HERE to visit my shop.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, my dear friends!

Ready Made for Second Grade!

Hi Friends!

The end of the year is just around the corner. Can you believe it? One of the biggest questions I get asked by parents during this time of year is, “What can I do during the summer to make sure my child retains everything he/she has learned this school year?”

Well, Hadar, also known as Miss Kindergarten and I collaborated together and created two versions of a summer review packet to answer just that question! I created one for students about to enter second grade, which focus on skills students should have mastered in first grade. Hadar created one for students who are about to enter first. You can read all about her packet here. 

I created practice activities that I thought would be beneficial for students to work on over the summer in order for my students to be ready made for second grade!

Included in this packet is a letter to parents/guardians explaining the importance of working on reading, writing, and math skills over the summer.

I broke down each component of the packet so that parents have a full understanding of what each activity was intended for.

This packet also includes a list of suggested books that are age-appropriate for students about to enter second grade. All of these books can be checked out at the library! I always encourage my parents to have their child sign up for their very own library card. This gives them some independence and makes reading even more exciting!

You’ll also find a fun reading incentive reward system and a summer bingo activity reward system (which includes a cute coupon book).

Some other fun components of the packet are these Common Core aligned review pages (which focus on reading foundational skills, writing, and mathematics).

There are 18 review pages in all.

And, these fun summer journals (with writing prompts):

You’ll also find two math fluency booklets (one for addition and one for subtraction):

 

And, lots of reading organizers (with reading question cards) that will pair perfectly with any book:

I plan on making a baggy full of these resources for each of my students! I LOVE gallon-sized bags. They are so useful!

You can find all of these resources (plus lots more) at my TPT Shop.

Click on the cover below to go grab this on sale!

Also, like always, the first two people who leave me a comment with their e-mail address will get this packet for free!