Lots of things in the works... :)

Hi!!

I am dropping in to say hi and hope all is well with everyone out there in blogger world :)

Things have been rather "blah" this week due to the oh so fun STAAR testing (boo)!

With that being said I have lots going on over here at my house!  Baby boy will be making his debut next week-oh.em.gee!!! I am looking forward to meeting him and getting to be his mama :)

Also, I have been collaborating with my sweet fourth grade friend for a new writing unit to help our kiddos get pumped up before taking the standardized test!  The fourth grade team at my campus tried it out last week and it was a huge success!!! I can't wait to finish it all up and share it with you all so... STAY TUNED!!

I have so many other little projects started so I hope to get them finished and uploaded soon, maybe during baby's nap time {insert giggles from non first time mamas here-ha}!  *sigh* LOTS to do, so little time!  I know...preaching to the choir!!

PS-I am loving all the e-mails from you guys with tips and appreciation!  Ya'll sure know how to make a girl feel special! :) 

OK!  Chat soon ya'll!!!!

Reading Restaurant

Hi friends! I hope you all have been well!!

We recently finished up our Reading Restaurant in 1st grade and it was such a SUCCESS!  I am excited to share the fun with all of you!

To begin, each student picks 3 good fit books from your classroom library to use for Reading Restaurant.  I would definitely have the kiddos get your approval prior to putting them in a baggie to practice everyday during independent reading.  You don't want the book to be too challenging or too long.  Each student in my class had a Ziploc baggie for their 3 Reading Restaurant books that lived inside their book bag. 

After securing 3 good fit books for each kiddo the fun begins! In my "Reading Restaurant-Cooking Up Good Books" unit you will find everything you would need to make your Reading Restaurant a total HIT!

This is how it looked in my classroom...

*After picking out their books we made a "menu."  Fold a piece of construction paper in half and use my tracer in the unit to make the menu. Here is a quick picture...*remember don't cut on the crease!*

*In my unit you can use a template for an outside cover for the menu and two options for the insert of the menu.  This year we did our Reading Restaurant during the day so I have provided you with an insert that says "Specials for the Day" where the children write their 3 book titles or if your grade level wants to do it in the evening, after work for parents, there is an insert that says "Specials for the Evening."

*Another activity in the unit is the "book report." Students complete this over their most favorite title out of the 3 books they chose.  These are a cute and fun item to hang on your bulletin board during the Reading Restaurant.  The parents love to read them after they are done listening to their child read their books.

Extra craftivity ideas:
*Flowers--In the unit you will find a page with flower tracers...*disclaimer* you may get a grey hair or two if you choose to make these BUT they are totally worth it! They come out so stinkin' cute and are a great "parting gift" for the parent or special visitor after they are done reading their books at the Reading Restaurant.  You can fold a piece of green construction paper in half (vertically-hotdog style) then students cut strips (starting a the open flap down to the crease).  Be sure to show students NOT to cut all the way to the crease...leave a little bit of space before the crease.  Then, trace small hearts on colored paper, construction paper, or scrapbook paper and glue on the top of the piece of green grass.  Students can roll up their grass and flowers and stick them inside a red cup as a "center piece" on their desk...makes for a very fancy restaurant ;)  Here are some pictures in case you are a visual learner like me ;)...

*Chef Hats--On a sentence strip write "Chef __{insert child's name}__" I always write the word chef and let the child write their name next to it.  Measure their head and staple the sentence strip.  Use tissue paper to make the top of the chef hat.  The fabulous Cara Carroll, over at the First Grade Parade, provides a GREAT how-to when making these... check it out here! We had some FABULOUS mamas that volunteered to make these for us--bless them!!

*Mints--As a great way to say goodbye to our visitors you can purchase some mints, use the thank you sign included in my unit, and set it up by the door on their way out!

I can't say enough good things about this event...it is fun for EVERYONE!!  The parents loved hearing their child read and shine, the students loved "performing" for their parents, and the teachers love watching their kiddos hard work pay off :)  Enjoy the pictures from the event in my classroom and stop by my TPT store to get your copy of this fun bundle!! And, as always, don't hesitate to e-mail me if you have any questions or need something additional for your classroom!!

Has it REALLY been 100 Days!?!

Happy 100th day of  School!

A lot of us are getting ready to celebrate the OH, ,SO FUN 100th day of School!  There are a bazillion fabulous different ideas out in the blogger, TPT world but I wanted to share some ideas I have used in the past...

First off, I send home a letter with my kiddos to encourage them to dress up as 100 year old ladies and gentlemen!  THIS has to be my FAVORITE dress up day of the entire year!  Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE a good dress up day, I don't play around ;) This picture of Erin, teammate & bestie, and me is from last year on the 100th day...only the best from Gladys and Gertrude :)

*FYI: Those wrinkles are drawn on...just felt like I needed to clarify lol*

 





I highly encourage you to go raid your closet, or pay a visit to your local thrift store, Wal Mart or Stein Mart...money well spent!!

If you are looking to change up your 100th day by getting "into character" then Click here for the 100th day of school letter I made that you can send home with your kiddos!!

One other way I love starting our day is by making a fun hat for the kiddos to work on as they come in that morning and wear for the day... you can download this fun FREEBIE here from Julie Lee.

Another way to make the 100th day a memory for everyone is by doing rotations with the other teachers in your grade level some rotation ideas are:

My top two Math activities : (Click on the links for FREE downloads I made)

* Penny Toss-Students can work with a partner and a penny, take turns flipping it, writing a tally mark under the designated side.  This practices the coin recognition, tally marks, and at the end counting the tally marks.  You could even have them make a prediction before the begin and then confirming whether they were correct or not at the end.

*100 Steps Estimation-I love this activity because the kiddos always have such an *aha* moment!  We normally start at our classroom door and predict where 100 steps will take us and they ALWAYS think crazy places (parking lot, play ground, etc.) just because 100 is such a big number! :0)  Then we do our 100 steps and it takes us actually to the library..maybe! The giggles and "oh my gosh" comments are the best!  We come back to the classroom and fill out if we were right or wrong and where we actually ended up! 

My favorite Writing activity:

*You can download this FREEBIE from Dragonflies in First HERE! If you want this writing activity to be more of a CRAFTivity than you could use her fabulous planning sheet and writing paper, but allow the students to pick a piece of construction paper close to their skin color, trace and cut out a circle, draw their face, then the best part... CRUMPLE IT!!  Students think this is so fun because it's like their "wrinkles."  Then for hair, if you want, you can use cotton balls and students can glue them on the top and shred them to look like white curls or strands of hair...these always are a hit in the hallway!! :)

Making Words Activity:

*We love making words with our letter tiles and THIS activity from Primary Reading Party makes it so much more fun on the 100th day of school!

100th day Reading Response Activities:

There are so many cute 100th day of school books you can read with your kiddos on this day but one of my favorites is the 100th Day Worries by: Margery Cuyler {get your copy from Amazon HERE}.

You can read the book to your class then give them THIS response I made to work on! 

**Side note: If any of the links don't work when you click on them PLEASE let me know so I can fix it and help you!!**

I hope you and your kiddos have a memorable 100th day of school and enjoy all the fun learning that will take place that day!! :)

Sunday FUNday with Book Clubs

Happy Sunday friends!!

It is a BEAUTIFUL day here in Texas!!  We haven't seen the sun in quite some time, just gloomy skies and rain, so we spent our morning outside at brunch and then on a nice long walk around the lake with the pups :)

I hope this post finds you all well...I have been keeping busy getting baby boy's nursery ready, getting back in the swing of first grade life after a wonderful winter break, and working hard to complete my new "Book Club Bundle" being sold in my TPT show now! :)  Check it out!

We have been keeping busy in the classroom with book clubs!  We attempted book clubs in first grade for the first time last year, with some hesitation on my part to be honest, and it went well!  This year we did book clubs with non-fiction and the kiddos have LOVED it!! 

We built up to book clubs by learning how to "write long" on a post-it and how to appropriately respond to the non-fiction literature.  Students practiced writing a brief thought on their post it and then in their readers notebook they expanded or "wrote long" by giving examples/evidence and explaining.  This took a lot of modeling during our IRA {Interactive Read Aloud} but with practice they got better and better each day!

We then moved into our book clubs.  Students were divided up into groups, according to similar reading levels, and they were each assigned the same non fiction book.  The kiddos were able to come up with a "team name" for their book club before we really dove in.  These names were pretty awesome...ranging from "The Fabulous 4 Readers" to "The Fantastic Cheetos" to "The Wrecking Balls!"  HA!  I mean whatever gets them excited, right!?!?

After we had our team names picked out we made several anchor charts about what we wanted our room to look like/sound like during book club time.  Then, thanks to some AMAZINGLY AWESOME, 2nd grade teachers at our school we watched video clips of book clubs put on by none other than those 2nd grade teachers.  They videoed themselves doing a bad book club and then a good book club.  We watched both, compared, and then made an anchor chart about it :) PS I truly feel these video clips made all the difference in the success of our book clubs.  I was always able to reference back to it during a mid workshop teach and I even heard one little angel say "HEY!  You're acting like a bad book club reader...let's fix that!"  Woah, get em' kiddo!

After the videos and anchor charts, the groups met up and came up with a goal that they were going to focus on each time they met.  I decided to post these on our "book club" wall so not only was I able to reference them when I was meeting with each group, but also to help hold them accountable. Here is a picture of our book club wall with all the groups and their goals, as well as the different anchor charts we made...

I saw students referencing this wall all the time!  This was my first time to designate an entire area in our classroom to just book clubs, and I will definitely do it again.  The organization and "go to" of it made life a little easier for everyone :)

After a couple days of practicing the students were getting really good!  Look at "The 4 Cool Kids" below...SO prepared with their sticky notes...proud teacher moment!!

I mean really!?! COME ON!  My students blow me away!!!!

 

ACCOUNTABILITY IDEAS:

 

*if students need help staying on track with their conversation don't forget to go by my TPT shop and download my "Book Club Bundle."  In that bundle you will find prompt cards for books club in a fiction, non-fiction, or fairytale unit.  You can easily print these cards out on cardstock, laminate, then whole punch & put on a ring for students to keep with them during book club.  I let some of my groups use these and when they hit a dull point in conversation they pulled them out and it helped their conversation start flowing again... **if you download and need a specific card(s) made for your classroom don't hesitate to email me, I'd be happy to make it for you**

 

* if you need a way to hold students accountable while you are meeting with other groups, you can put an Ipad/tablet in the center of the group, just on the floor, and record.  I did this with a couple groups that needed a little help just staying on task and it helped! I told students I would only hear their voices, no faces, and if they are being silly the Ipad would tell me ;)

 

 

Enjoy your Sunday ladies & gents and thanks for stopping by!!!