New Carpet Opportunity

I recently discovered a fantastic new teaching blog and she has a giveaway for a new classroom rug. Any teacher can enter! I would love to win one. http://teachingwithloveandlaughter.blogspot.com/2014/05/classroom-carpet-giveaway.html Go to this link to enter. Good luck!

Election Day and a New School Year

This year there have been a lot of changes this year for me. My fiance Eric and I officially set our wedding date! We're getting married July 26, 2014. I was asked to be the maid of honor for my best friend Lindsay's wedding in May. I finally have my very own classroom. I have 7 students this year... yes I know it's a SMALL class. My old co-teacher is now the 2nd grade teacher. I am still teaching at the year-round private school in Washington. Manetta and I also are sharing an assistant, Mr. David. I haven't posted anything this year, because I've had a hard time finding free time. Our internet is spotty again this year. Our school hasn't moved to our new building yet so I have a very cluttered classroom right now. I'm quite embarrassed >.< Manetta's classroom is half the size of mine so a lot of her stuff is being stored in my room too. I will be very excited when I get my bigger room with cupboards and more shelves. Today was election day so my students voted on who they thought would be a better president. Yesterday after reading Grace for President and Duck for President we had a great discussion about the responsibilities of a president and discussed which character would be the best fit.

Today with our voting booths set up by the ballot box the students voted for a president. Suprisingly after all the discussion of how the boys wanted Duck and the girls wanted Grace, Grace won! This year I have implemented Math Workshop and my own version of Daily 5 into my classroom. Both are working wonderfully. I'll post later with what I used to get started and show you my rotation board.

"Summer Camp"

Okay I admit I've been M.I.A quite a bit. A lot has happened though, on June 8th was my class' promotion ceremony. They did a wonderful job when they presented their key to 1st grade advice tips. It was kind of a different experience for me though because it's not a have a good summer or I'll see you around the school next year at the end. Since our school is year round most of my students attend "summer camp." During the summer we get to choose the curriculum. So I have been creating a unit on Washington's National Parks and in math we focus on one particular topic each week that we covered in the 1st/2nd grade curriculum throughout the year. For example, this week we are focusing on addition and subtraction without regrouping and next week we will do regrouping. It's set up as centers some days and other days I have created different group and differentiated the worksheets for specific skill levels. I seem to like how this is working and am excited to try it next school year. In science we have been experimenting with plants and next week we will begin to learn about dinosaurs. We planted our beans after they sprouted inside their Ziploc baggies. We also have started a Diary of a plant where the students get to be a little creative and funny. One book we read this week was Plantzilla . It was my first time reading the book and boy did the students love it. I also just discovered there's a sequel so I will have to get my hands on that. On Monday, we went to see our pen pals at Kirkland's Merrill Gardens and boy were both parties excited to see each other. The activity coordinator there even gave my kiddos some Huckleberry ice cream. YUM! I admit to be a bit jealous of my other teacher friends who are on summer vacation at the moment. But I am happy none of my students will get the summer learning loss other students get. I've been working like crazy to make and find games for each math topic every week. The students seem to love them though so it makes the work worthwhile. On a personal note, I've decided to attend to start jogging. It's not going so well but I've never been able to run so I don't expect it will be easy. I'm starting with a couch to 5k program. I'm currently on week 1. My ultimate goal is hopefully to be able to run the Alki Beach 5K in August... since it's like 10 minutes from my apartment. This would also help me get back on track with my weight loss.

Official school year is wrapping up

I officially have about 98 days of school left in our school year. We just had our 180th day of school last week. Seattle has had gorgeous weather this week, with plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the mid to high 70's. My classroom got quite toasty today with our giant 2 story window.... 82 degrees Fahrenheit! So I moved my writing lesson to a hallway downstairs. The kids of course love going on "field trips" around the building so this didn't bother them at all. So with their spelling dictionaries, pencils, erasers and clipboards they were ready to write. Today I read the book Meanwhile to discuss transition words further. The kids loved the story. It is set up like a comic book so it was very appealing to my boys.

I actually got a bit of a sunburn yesterday out at recess. We now have to make sure to stop teaching about 10 minutes early to apply sunscreen before both recesses. I forgot how much time the rub-in kind takes to apply. Previously, we were using a spray on sunscreen which worked amazing.

The "school year" is ending in my classroom as we wrap up all of our mandatory curriculum. This Friday will be promotion day for my kiddos. I made cute Promotion Day certificates using a handy Microsoft made template since some of my students will not be enrolling for the new second grade next  year. I will be sad for them and their families to go, but I know they will do amazing in any public school second grade. I had to completely change the wording though. The black rectangles are my school's name. If you want the template just comment with your email address and I  can email it to you.

Next Monday we start the summer camp portion of the school year. For those of you who don't know. I teach at a year-round school. So like other schools we finish up our curriculum in the beginning one June and then can sort of teach what we want to an extent. Manetta made up this summer's science curriculum. About every two weeks we are talking about a different subject. Subjects include: sharks, plants, dinosaurs and nutrition. I will also be coordinating writing to go with it. Math will be a focused review of topics from the curriculum we just finished up. Next week I will start my review of time. I found a great I have, who has for telling time at http://shenanigansinsecond.blogspot.com/search/label/Time 

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Back to Work after Memorial Day

 It was great having a 3-day weekend. My fiance, Eric and I went backpacking at North Cascades National Park over the weekend for his birthday. We went down a portion of Thunder Creek trail. The trail was a beautiful hike along the Thunder Creek. We camped at McCallister on Sunday night after hiking a little over 6.2 miles to the camp site.






 
Monday morning we then had to hike out the same route. My legs feel like Jello today. Then to totally erase all calories earned from hiking, Eric and I met up with his cousin/my coworker Tracy and her fiance Brett to eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Eric and I split Fettucine and each got a slice of cheesecake. >.< YUM! My stomach was really full afterwards.


I was so happy to see my kiddos this morning. They were all so excited to see me and their friends. I found an adorable summer writing project. The students are going to write their favorite thing to do during the summer and explain why. Then they will color and cut out their sunglasses and glue them down. Lastly, they will draw a self portrait of themselves in wearing the sunglasses. I totally plan to tack these up to the green bulletin board! I found the idea on one of my new blogs I'm following! Elementary My Dear: Back to Bloggy Business!

Another site I stumbled across is http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/ They made all the common core standards for K-5 into I CAN statements for all subjects. There's a checklist for students and a checklist for teachers. I might decorate them a bit but I totally love this free resource! There are also a bunch of other really great resources.

 In math, I nervously started a lesson on using parentheses in number sentences today... I can gladly say they totally ran with the concept.  I even threw in a x2 multiplication problem in with one.

Place Value Adventures

This week went by pretty quickly. Manetta was out sick on Tuesday and boy did the kids notice. On a different note though, I can honestly say my first graders have officially mastered place value and all the 1st and 2nd grade standards that go with it. We took our assessments today and everyone of them aced the test! I'm so proud of them. I had so much fun making all the different things to teach place value. I made a huge packet with tic tac toe for place value and an I have, Who Has?  and many other worksheets. I also created a place value scoot because my students love math centers and Scoot.

I found a few board games on TPT. Practicing place value game, this one is meant for third graders but I downloaded to challenge a few of my kids. I hope to post my place value files later today. This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and both my students and I are excited for the extended weekend. My fiance, Eric and I are going away for the weekend but as to where is still a mystery. Two of my students left early for vacation and another one moved to India in April, so today I had five students! I've begun to start collecting more data on how my students are doing in math but I'm going to need to consult Eric to help teach me how to use Excel a bit more.

I've found some other freebie to use for teaching place value. I'm excited to use these this summer:

• Dinosaur 2 digit place value game
• Mystery Place Value
• 2 Digit Mystery Place Value
• 2 Digit Place Value Match Up Cards

I can't use these for my kiddos, but someone with 3rd-5th graders could:

•  5,6,7 digit mystery place value

It's Been One Busy Week

Boy has it been a busy week! My students have been rehearsing for their Japanese play about a giant turnip. They were so excited. We started our unit on place value. I find that thanks to doing place value during calendar they have pretty much mastered this skill at the first grade level so I have started to introduce them to 2nd and 3rd grade place value skills. I pretty much totally revamped the the book's suggested place value lessons and I have made my own unit out of things I've made and a few things I've found.

Acrostic Poems, Capacity and Weight

Last week I was flying solo in our classroom with the help of an aid. It was kind of nice. Don't get me wrong I love working with my co-teacher, she's awesome but it was nice to know "I've still got it!" We had a shortened week with school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We published our 5 W poems and they are now up on display. This week is a full week again. Yesterday was a fun day we made gallon men in math and tested how many macaroni noodles could fit in different sized cylinders. In social studies, we went on a walk around Kirkland to look at different businesses. The students had to decide if they provided a good or service and if so what. They got a little confused at the library though. They then had to pick one out of the 11 we visited and will have to make a page about that business for our Kirkland Directory we're making. Last but not least, we also created our very own acrostic poems. First the students made one about spring and then they had to create one using their names. Some of the poems were quite clever!

Today we started to practice weighing items. We started using a food scale and a spring scale with a sandwich baggie to try to find out how many pennies equal an ounce. We found out it's between 11 and 13 depending on the scale. The students seemed to really like this.

ITBS Testing Continues

So the ITBS testing is still going on. We are almost done! Tomorrow will be our last day. I felt bad for the kiddos today though because this morning we had 2 portions and then we have to do the computation portion this afternoon. My students have been doing pretty well behaviorally and I'm pretty proud of them. This is their first standardized test. Yesterday we took the kids on a picnic to David E. Brink park just down the street from our school. It was a nice lunch break away from the test. We did have a little visitor who bravely came very close to our table cloth!I thought the little duck was going to attack me for my sandwich, because she got so close. T

My students also discovered that they could roll down the hill at the park and this preceded to entertain them for about ten minutes. Ahhh the power of self entertainment.

Standardized Testing

Today was our first day of ITBS testing in the first grade. I arrived extra early to make sure all the students had two new sharped #2 pencils on their desks. This was my students' first time taking a standardized test. I could feel their jitters in the air when they first walked in. I am curious to see the results when they come back.

I think giving the standardized test and seeing how they are doing as I walk around is perhaps the hardest part. I want to scream yell, "We learned that! They are just asking you that in a different way than I do!" We did the first math portion and the language portion today. Overall the kids did really well and I am proud of them. They were most excited about having 3 snacks today. It also probably helped that the 3rd snack was provided by someone else's parent. Tomorrow is day 2 of THE TEST! I

Sidewalk Measuring

Today was another rousing day! In math we went outside to practice measuring in DM, CM, IN and FT.

I assigned the students into pairs and they were each assigned two different squares, one from the sidewalk and one from the patio area. The front of the building has various sizes of cement squares and then a large sidewalk which runs along State St. Oh course the students though measuring in feet was easy. At first a few were stumped on how to add the inches since their rulers weren't quite long enough, but after some investigation and reflection they remembered how to use their finger to make the last point they stopped and THEN MOVE THE RULER! I enjoyed watching the students do this assignment and it was great to get out an enjoy the abnormally nice sunshine we've had this week. It's actually supposed to be almost 70 degrees on Sunday!

 A couple students amazed me with their mental math skills when they realized for inches it was repeated addition with plus 12 most of the time. 

Metersticks

Today we began our measurement unit today. We started by discussing what measuring tools we've used so far...standard rulers for inches and centimeters. We have also practiced a bit of non-standard measurement. Today we measured with first graders. We decided to see how many first graders it would take to go from each end of our classroom.

As one student explained, "It took 7 first graders and a little teacher." One of our students was absent this morning, so Ms. Manetta filled in as a first grader.
The students had a blast doing this. We then used metersticks to measure various distances across our classroom and I taught the students how to use their finger to mark where they last stopped and to then lay the meter stick out again to keep measuring. This is a new concept for them and they did fantastic!

An Exciting Day in the First Grade Today

Today was a fantastic day in our classroom! We started off our day with our reading groups and then the excitement began with math. For math today, I planned a fraction egg scavenger hunt. Each student had to find two easter eggs out on the playground. After finding two eggs the students then had to return to the picnic table to wait for the rest of the class. Once all the students found two eggs they then had to take their "treats" out of the eggs and set their halves on the table. They then had to match their fraction to someone elses' half that had the correct picture drawn on it. I think it went really well.

After our scavenger hunt we came back up to our classroom to try out a Fraction Scoot Game. This was our first time doing a Scoot activity before and I was so proud of my students. They handed the transitions very well and actually are becoming little fraction masters. I think they are all going to kick our fraction test's butt tomorrow! My TPT store is slowly getting more traffic too so I'm pretty excited. I just added a new product! 2-digit subtraction Monster Scoot!

 Another exciting moment of our day was when the Mayor of Kirkland arrived. She pleasantly suprised Ms. Manetta and me by being very friendly and down to Earth. She even sat on the floor with the kids. She joked with us and told funny stories. She even taught me a couple things. For example, I didn't know Mayor's have javels. It was exciting for me to see the students making text to world connections. Last week we read two books on mayors. One of which was My Grandma is the Mayor. We learned that the mayor really does get to use giant scissors to cut ribbons and she gets to be in parades.

Fraction Pizza and Snow

This morning, I saw my first snow flurries in the Northwest. I forgot how much I missed the snow from Michigan. It only snowed a little bit, but of course people have no idea how to drive when it snows out here. It didn't even stick and people still managed to cause accidents on the way to work.

The excitement of it being Friday could be felt in full force today. We had literacy centers for reading today taught by Manetta. The students love when we switch up what we do. Then the excitement continued to build when they realized we also had math centers today. For math centers today, we had Fraction War, a math box from our Everyday Math, my Follow the Cupcake Fraction game and Fraction Pizza.  I'm going to edit my lessons for Fraction Pizza so it's only sixths and not eighths. With eighths it was too many pizza slices for my 1st graders. The pizzas that are finished turned out well. Above is my example with my center directions in case the students forgot what to do.

We put our finishing touches on our rough drafts and finished writing our questions for the mayor. I have to proof read the questions this weekend and then retype the ones the students will actually ask Mayor McBride.

We had buddy reading today and the students were able to bring a book of their choice to read to the kindergarteners. The Super K friends brought Fly Guy books.

Creating a Blog Button and Other Blog Design Stuff

I successfully greated my very own blog link button. Boo Ya. I am so totally doing my happy dance after fiddling with this for 40 minutes I got it to work. I owe it all to this website http://www.musingsofahousewife.com/2009/05/how-to-create-a-button-code.html She has two very helpful tutorials on how to create the button and how to create the link. Now it's just time to test the link and see if I can make it a widget. :)

I also have this great blog template and headline from Leelou Blogs. They offer free templates or they make custom ones.

I also started to use picmonkey.com to edit and crop my photos.