First WAS Fab...Second will be Super!

Thanks to all followers of this BLOG. I will be moving to second grade and will no longer post to this BLOG. I will, however, leave it active for viewing and for a resource to first grade teachers. I will also leave my TeacherPayTeachers store active and continue to post there, as well.Please visit me at http://www.superinsecond.blogspot.com to follow my second grade journey.

Technology and Curriculum

Tech Humor

I just returned from an amazing technology/education conference. This video was shared. It is too funny not to share with you...

Enjoy your summer!

Happy Summer...enjoy!

End of year wrap-up...

Working on report cards. My goodness, they take forever! So glad I am almost finished. We are going to have a 'star' STARBURST celebration in a couple of days with the following star printout that shows students recent VIP scores. Our end of the year class party will be a "we had a ball in first grade' celebration. The students will be divided into small groups and rotate to play cage ball, throw the ball in the hole game, enjoy round snacks, and decorate a picture frame with circle foam decorations. They will end by autographing beach balls that they will take home to enjoy. We HAVE had a ball in first grade!

On another note...someone had a printable of movement activities that you paste onto popsicle sticks and place in a can. They were activities like "do 10 jumping jacks." I can't remember where I saw this. Can anyone direct me?

Enjoy the end of your year!

Hip Hip Hooray!

I just got back my VIP results which tests the students on phoneme segmentation, nonsense word fluency and reading connected text and ALL of my students met goal in ALL three areas (Minus my 2 very new students for which I do not yet have scores and whom I have not taught for long.)!  In the 4 years I have been back to teaching, there has always been 1 or 2 students that did not meet benchmark in at least one area. So- I am beyond thrilled with these scores. These students have grown and grown! I think a big difference this year has been consistent parent communication, more fluency and word practice...as well as setting goals WITH the students. Celebrate good times!

Learning Celebration

Our big learning celebration is tomorrow with all of the parents coming. Kids are SO excited. They are performing the reader's theater below and reading their original poems. We will watch a Photo Story and the students will share learning strengths and goals through "student led conferences." We will end with a class poem and then I will surprise them with end of the year memory books to keep, that highlight their work throughout the year. Should be a great day.

Reader's Theater

We are busy, busy, busy getting ready for our end of the year learning celebration in which the students will each read an original poem and perform the following reader's theater that I am sharing with you! It has ten parts. I am assigning 2 students to each part. Enjoy!

readers theater true story of the three pigs -

And the winner is...

number 16: Nancy Wilson!!

Please e-mail me your snail mail address and I will get this in the mail to you!

I hope you enjoy your "daily SMILE!"

Thanks so much to those who follow!

It is a joy to collaborate and share with you.

GIVE AWAY...

A Magnetic Whiteboard SMILE Eraser!

It will put a smile on your face each day

as it smiles back at you. 

Will announce winner this Saturday. 

To enter...

1. Follow this BLOG.

2. Follow my TpT store-link at the upper right of this BLOG.

3. Share a teaching technique or idea that makes you and/or your students SMILE.  

Found this great looking tech resource. I can't wait to find the time to read it. I am posting it so I will read it!

Looks awesome! Hope you get a chance to read it as well.
If you click on it below it should open full screen.

Open publication - Free publishing - More macintosh

   LOVE this book...

This book is awesome! It has activities for 7 folktales/fairy tales. Each story has its own mini reproducible book for each child, sequencing activity, art and writing connections, etc. You make a pocket for each out of construction paper and the kids keep all the activities for each story in a different pocket. My kids are loving this! They will have a whole collection to take home and read and retell. Fun stuff! Here is the pocket we are working on this week...

Cause & Effect

Sometimes simple is best...

After a cause & effect unit where we learned about cause & effect in fiction and nonfiction texts, partners chose an "effect sentence starter" and worked together to come up with 3 or more causes. So simple, but powerful. The students thought of some really awesome "out of the box" causes. This is higher level thinking at its best!

Wow- I had a wonderful spring break in the mountains of North Carolina.  The weather was PERFECT! We cooked s'mores over a fire, relaxed in a hot tub every night, hiked 10 miles on the Appalachian Trail, played ball, lunched by a mountain stream, skipped rocks, read, watched t.v.- just plain good relaxin' family fun! I felt so refreshed today and had a wonderful day back with my kiddos. Will share what's happening in our classroom soon. 

Yippee! Spring break is finally here! I can't  believe it's almost the end of the year. Be back in a week refreshed and renewed. Meanwhile, I'm leaving you with a TpT sale April  19th April - 23rd on the old and the new!10 % off everything- cha-ching! See you soon friends.

  Nothing is off limits...even the ceiling. A cloud hovers over each group of student. This helps with classroom management. I call "Monday table, Tuesday table, etc."

The shape on each one correlates to a basket that holds math supplies for each table.

I LOVE step books- some call them flip books. They were the perfect follow-up after our field trip to practice writing using the words first, then, next and last.

Have you modeled today?

  

Click to see my post about "Being a Model" at...

Teaching Blog Addict 

I really excited to be a part of this new BLOG...

The host, Tamara, has done a fantastic thing...she is bringing BLOGGERS together in one place! Her BLOG will point you back to this BLOG and many, many more. So, it's kind of like a one-stop shop. Check it out!

Here is my introduction at "Teaching BLOG Addict."

 

My students made posters about "saving the trees" to protect forest animals after reading Fox, Beware from our reading series. I asked my parent volunteer to make a tree out of them and here it is... I thought it turned out so cute!

29 page SMARTboard unit to teach letter formation from A-Z. Includes a practice page after most teaching pages and virtual modeling at the click of a button. I used the recordable feature of the SMARTboard and when you press play, students will see the letters written "magically" on the SMARTboard. This feature could not be used with the curved letters, however. I use this every year to teach handwriting in a fun way. Also includes the words of a song to teach proper handwriting skills. Everything you need to teach handwriting in a fun and engaging way.

I would like a 'tester' for this unit so I would like to give one away so you can test it out and give any thoughts/suggestions and rate it on TeachersPayTeachers. Winner will need to email an email address in order for me to send the file via email.

To enter:

1. Follow this BLOG.

2. Follow on

3. Tell your best handwriting teaching tip.

Winner selected and announced on Saturday, April 9 at 10 a.m.