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I'm a WHOLE LOTTA EXCITED! & FREEBIE *

If you can't tell from my header... I just got a whole lotta excited!! Since like March I have been slowly chipping away at a new phonics packet for ew and ue. I haven't really dove right into it because I just felt like wasn't anything special... not engaging enough and frankly... I just wasn't into it so it wasn't my best work (not to say that it's bad *ahem* ;) )

Anyway... searching through blogs...looking at clipart I bought forever ago but haven't decided what I was going to use it for I got an AHA moment!

 So... I am taking a little bit of what I learned in high school chemistry class and combining it with a new ew, ue unit! Sounds like fun already right?!! I think so!... We're also going to add blue paint, sticky stuff and some play dough?..blue of course!
 
I am also in the search for a children's book about "blue"... Do you know of a good one?!
 
Here is the cover for it & that's all I have done so far! :) I am so excited! I have a list full of ideas for this and I can't wait to post it for you (and just plain use it for my own room)! Kids are going to go crazy over this!
 
 
So... what's the whole point of this post?...to tell you how excited I am?.. yah, but also to give you what I was working on for UE/EW stuff. I swear it's not bad, but just wasn't exciting enough for me! :)
 
Click on the cute freebie picture below!
 
 

 
Stay tuned! I hope to have this up soon!
 
Also, the unit on how Native Americans use different types of buffalo is ALMOST complete! This one is so fun and can be used for grades 1-4. It is so versatile & fun!

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August/September Curriculum Map!

Heyyy buddies!! This curriculum map is a HUGE task to take on but I am going to stick with it for your & my benefit! I got the August/September part of it finished but I still need to find books to use to cover concepts. This curriculum map is free on Tpt right now and it will be updated each month! It is something  I am actually using so I am trying to make it as meaningful and useful for me and you as possible so next year we all can be ready to go!
 
Click the cover to check out Aug/Sept!
 
 
I hope to have October done and uploaded during the last week in October! I already kind of know what I'm doing but I have to make it perfect for you first! :)
 
Let me know what you think!! I love me some feedback!-- The good kind ha ha
 
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See a day in the life of ME!

I absolutely adore this "Day in the Life of a Teacher" linky! I think it is so much fun to get a peek into other teacher days!
 
 
 
Here is a peek into the life of me! This all took place yesterday!! (obviously)!!
 
Welp... I forgot to take pictures of my morning routine and honestly a lot of other stuff that took yesterday so we will just talk about the pictures!! :) I decided to snap one on my way to school!! :)
 
 
I got to school and basically yesterday was 'catch-up' day. I over-planned last week for the first week of school and with our two day week this week I just used those two days to finish up stuff we didn't get to! Here is my messy desk from yesterday morning! Getting ready for our first craft of the year before the kids arrive!


 
Here are one of my little kiddos working on their craft! They were so careful and did so great!
 
 
Here is their finished product!
 
 

Here are their cute crafts in the hallway! Can you tell I'm proud of this one?
 

 We learning about different feelings yesterday and did some role playing with the emotions you see on the board below. Then students worked with a partner to draw a picture of a 'scenario.' Woohoo new vocabulary!
 
 After that I introduced students to Sentence Scramblers. This took a good 40 minutes. I did it on the smart board first and then we walked through it together. I really want them to know how to do this successfully because when we begin literacy stations they will do 'Sentence Centers' to work on different sentence concepts.
 
 
In math they were introduced to their math notebooks! I think they did a pretty good job for their first entry! (I basically did it for them first on the smart board so they got the idea). I can't wait to see their growth this year!
 


 
We did a few other little things that I don't have pictures of but after school I came home and I hung out with my puppies and watched TV and.... went to bed! I have been sick all weekend and still up to this point (KID GERMS) so when I got home I was donezoe!
 

Yes... this is hard knocks! Bengals style!!
 
 
And now back to relaxing I go because...
 
 
Are you Jelly?
 
I am working on a new unit this week and hope to have it posted by Friday! It's a fun one! It's 'How Native Americans use Different Types of Buffalo." There will be a lot of fun activities that tie in with a Social Studies standards for many, many grades! I have this unit up already on Tpt but it needs a MAJOR TLC and I have a ton of activities I do with this in my classroom that I want to integrate into this packet. Stay tuned! :)
 
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It's Friday!! Here's my 5!

I made it through the first week of school and got well acquainted with all of my little cuties! I have such a great class with a few little boogers... but, I want those. Without those little stinkers teaching would be so boring. :) That's why we do it right? ANyWaY, for my 5 this week I am basically just going to walk you through my week. Not too many pictures because it was just so crazy! :)

1. This is what I spent my Sunday doing! I got my kids writing folders ready to go for our daily writing lessons. We just moved into a new house two weeks ago and let me tell you... it is so nice working in the quiet and calming sun room!

 
I put the all so famous, "i'm done" and "still working" labels on each side of their folders. We began using these folders on the first day of school and I LOVE it!
 
I also made each kiddo their own bag with their spelling and sight words. Each day this week the students read their words and gave their partner a spelling 'test.' We all aced our tests this week!! I only grade the phonics rules though... if I graded the sight words then it would have not looked so hot!
 
Here is a little freebie for you if you are wanting to do some writing folders for yourself!
 
Just click on these little cuties below to grab it!

 
2. Here is some of my kiddo's writing. The ability levels vary. I can't wait to get to the point where I can provide intervention to these little ones so I can really see their writing take off. It's always so fun! :)
 
 
This is a part of a little 'present' (book) they made for their parents to share with them about their first week of school. 
 
3. I am not just going to tell you a funny from the first day of school. :) I love new firsties because independence abilities are just not quite there yet and honestly... I kind of forgot about that :) So, on the first day I had a little guy go into the hallway (just right outside of the door) to ask a teacher where to turn in his paper.... as I am holding the bin and repeatedly told the kiddos where to put there paper. I got a good laugh out of that and then not 2 seconds later a little guy tied his shoes together! ha ha... I love my job! :) Do you have any funnies from your first week?
 
4. On Thursday we had a ton of fun reading "First Day Jitters" and reading a jitter juice poem! After that we made little cup labels and I dished out the JITTER JUICE! They LOVED it and wanted more, more, more!
 

 
 
5. Last but not least... this is completely random but as I was typing this blog post and I look outside and see the boyfriend mowing. I began laughing because the lawn mower is just so old and small!
 
 
Well, there is my 5 for Friday! I haven't done one of these in forever!!!
 
 
I also found this and thought this was a bit comical!
Funny Teacher Quotes | the kardashians # khloe # kourtney # kim
 
Enjoy & have a great weekend!!!!
 
 
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Keeping track of assessments with folders & notes

Last year I had a terrible time keeping track of all of the students assessments and an easy/quick way to write down the next steps. This year I came up with a simple solution to this problem. It is a bit hard for me to stay organized so I have to find easy ways to do things... and ways in which I will stick with! ha ha!! Am I the only one like this?!! :)

Anyway, this year I am keeping all important assessments in blue folders. Each student has a blue folder and will add assessments to folders as needed. Students will really only add some writing samples in the folder. Everything else will be added by me. Let me show you the folders before I explain.

These are the blue folders where I will progress monitor my students. Right now I have pink tabs on a few folders because I still have not assessed these students on their sight words from kindergarten. This is my way of keeping track of who I have and have not assessed. I am very visual so this makes it easy for me.

 
Here are the kinds of things I will keep in the folders. So far, we have completed an alphabet writing assessment of uppercase and lowercase letters. Beginning sounds assessment and pop corn words from kindergarten. Tomorrow I am assessing knowledge of medial sounds and this will be placed in their folder.

 
On the other side of the folder I am keeping math assessments. For my first assessment I asked students to write their numbers as high as they could. I assessed for correct number formation and how high they could write their numbers. I have also assessed number recognition. Tomorrow I will be assessing addition facts to see where we are there. I have already assessed number sense and all students did perfect so that one was sent home since no intervention is needed in that area.
 
 
Now, that you have seen the assessments I have I know want to show you how I will progress monitor. I am not a one and done assessment kind of girl!! :)
 
In one month I will begin assessing students on these concepts again to see if there is any growth. I will not assess students who did close to perfect, for those students I will use different and more advanced assessments.
 
When I assess students I also like to make notes so when I meet with them at intervention time I know exactly what I need to focus on. So, when I do intervention time each day I will ask students to bring their blue folder and inside I will have a form in which I have made notes on what our next steps are to improve on a particular concept. The form that I will be using is pictured below and yours for the taking! Just click on the picture and it will take you to google docs!
 
 
I will be using this form to write down the type of assessment, the score and any notes from the assessment. I will use my notes to guide my instruction during intervention time with my students.
 
I hope this post helped you! I thought it might be a useful one! :)
 
Trying to make these posts more meaningful and focused! :) Hope I succeeded with this one he he!
 
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First Day & My Visual Plans!

WHEW!! Today was a rough one... but I LOVE all of my new little sweeties! I have a few characters in my classroom this year and already had three little boogers on yellow!! Hopefully this strict thing works out for me this year! Last year I was WAY TOO easy on the kids so this year I am going to try to be more consistent with the behavior plan and hopefully it works out for me! I don't want you all to think I am a big meanie and on the first day of school I moved 3 kids to yellow just because! One was climbing on the bathroom stalls, one just wouldn't stop talking ha ha and another one carried his i-pad on his head after I JUST went over the rules. I know he was just testing me! So, there are my mini-stories from today and I am sure I will have more to share!

The boyfriend (ahem... fiancé soon?) took a picture of me this morning... starting to become kind of a tradition! :)... in my whole 2 years of teaching! ha ha
 
 
In case you want to know where I got my clothes: shirt is from Rue 21 (only 21 bucks!), pants from banana republic and jacket from forever 21. Oh, shoes from aldo!
 
KKKKK and now something cute from today! I began the first lesson in Unit 1 of the writing through the year from Deanna Jump and Dee Dee Wills and this was the result! :)
 
 
This is me writing here but I had my kids help me with all of the spelling. I think they did pretty well. The dogs labeled have names... Duke and Bella not BLA he he.
Then the second sentence says Bella likes to play fetch. We were really trying to recognize our sounds here! The kids had such cute little writings today too! I will have to take pictures of them and post them later in the week!
 
Andd dun, dun dunnnn... here are my plans for the week! My goal this year: STAY ON SCHEDULE! Am I the only one that has a problem with this?... :) I did good today!!
 
Click on the pictures to go to my plans!
 

 
Head on over to Mrs. Wills Kindergarten to see more visual plans!
 
 
 
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My Classroom!!!

I always love getting a peak into other teachers classrooms and I am so excited to share mine with you! I have a teeny classroom but it is MUCH bigger than what I had last year so NO complaining going on here!! :) Now, to start the show!! ;)

My pictures are from meet the teacher night so just so you know... I don't always have balloons! :)
 
This is the view from the hallway and the kiddos lockers!






Here is the kid's welcome/informational packet! I want to post this packet on my blog for you to browse through !!.. but, I still need to take kids names off so keep an eye on a different post.
 
I filled their green bags with a special 'gift' and candy. The balloons made it easy for the kids to find their seats & was so cute. All I did was put tape on the table and placed the balloons on top of the tape and wala! It stayed!!
 
 
Here is a view of the desk!
 
 
The view from a corner of the room.
 
 
The view from the door.
 
 
Student book bins! Owl themed numbers are from my owl décor kit in my tpt store... along with the rest of the owl stuff you will see! :)
 
Click on the picture to check out the décor pack!
 
 
Months and Days of the week! Love!
 
 
Classroom rules! I think I've got everything covered!!
 
 
Number anchor charts! I put these close to the ground so students can access them easily during math workshop time.
 
 
The magnetic word wall! I used fry's first 100 words.
 
If you want these words click on the picture!
 
 
My behavior chart. Notice there is no pink! I am really bad at moving kids up so I took pink out this year and we will be having 'purple Fridays!' The only day kids can get on purple is Friday (keep em' focused)!! I will be able to manage this much better! Beside are coupons students buy with 'owls' that they earn through moving up. When students are on blue they earn one 'owl' buck and purple they earn two. They can 'purchase' classroom privileges with their owl bucks!
 
You can get the clip chart & coupons from my tpt store. Just click on the picture.
 
 
This is another behavior management 'thing' that I use in my room. Each week I place one picture in the owl's belly and the students only see the back of the picture so they don't know 'who the mystery person is.' If the mystery person did not get on yellow or below for the week then they get a prize! If they did then I tell students that the mystery person have been on yellow & they cannot be revealed. The class goes crazy of this! They love it! (I reveal the mystery person every Friday)
 
 
This is my stations and buddy reading board. I do assign partners for read to parter or (buddy reading) because I can't stand it when little ones are left out and feeling sad so I take the drama right on out.
 
The big blank squares will have students pictures and those students are in a group. We have 30 minutes for literacy stations so the students in the group will go to the station (the first card) then when they are finished they go to the next station (the second card). The students have to complete their first station before they can move onto the next one. The next day I rotate the cards and students have 2 new stations to complete for the day. During this time I am pulling students or working with students are a particular station. I take many of my stations for a grade because they are on concepts I have already taught them.
 
 
These are the station cards. I got some of them from a free daily 5 packet on Tpt and then the rest I added my owl melonheadz kids to customize my stations since I do more content based stations. I can't share the ones I made with you because I used someone else's template. Sorry. :( I can't find the packet either that I got all of this from. If anyone knows please let me know!
 
 
This is my guided reading groups board. I will use student pictures again! From Lesson Plan SOS!
Click to check out!
 
 
 
This is my writing station! I love it because I only have to change it 1x a month! It is from Deedee Wills!!
Click on the picture to get it!
 
This is my math workshop rotation board! I can't wait to start this! This is from Lesson Plan SOS!
Click on the picture and it'll take you to where you can get this!
 
 

 
 These are my I can statements! I thought of a super easy way to switch these out! You need a gallon sized bag. Cut off the zipper part. Put colored construction paper inside (tape it so it stays). Tape the bag to the board/wall. Then, slide in your statements each time! SO easy to do! I love quick and easy!
 

 
 
Alrighty! That is enough for right now! I didn't take a picture of my meeting area for you because I am waiting on my kidney table to arrive!!! YAYYY!!!!
 
 
Now, join in on the fun and link up with flying high in first grade to show off your room!
 
Upcoming posts:
 
The welcome/informational packet will be posted
 
 
Have a great day!
 
 

 

 

 

 


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