It's That Time of Year Again: Testing {with a Freebie}, Balloons and Memory Books, Yee-Haw!

Wow! I have eight kiddo days left of school and a teacher workday after that. I can't believe how fast this year is FLYing!

Well, my goal is to be finished with end of the year testing by Wednesday. Then it's onto grades, report card narratives and end of the year awards.

Most of my class finished their MAP testing last week. MAP is a computer assessment that we take three times a year. MAP stands for Measure of Academic Progress. For more information on MAPS, click here! My kiddos LOVE taking "the fun test on the computer"! I have always done goal setting with my firsties but this year, I thought I would make it a little more exciting, so I created play doh goal setting cards for MAPS!

I printed them 1:2 sided and cut apart. On the front I added their names and on the back I added their EOY goal in the goal circle. The EOY goal is located on the website under the student goal setting worksheet tab. There is space to write both of their scores from both parts of the test and a spot to total the two tests.

                                                                 

My kiddos were so excited to see their score and their goal! It was great to hear comments like, "Whoa! I beat it by a lot!" and "Oh, I missed it by one. I need a little more grit."

Their favorite part was playing, creating and building with play doh after the test. Each student had a piece of wax paper and a little tub of play doh. It was the perfect end to some hard working testers!

Can you see the snowman?


You can pick up the MAPS goal setting cards for FREE in my TpT store! Remember to leave feedback if you download!

MAP Goal Setting Cards


This upcoming week, we are starting our first grade EOY memory books. This year we are creating cowboy and cowgirl memory books! It's called, "I'm Giving First Grade the Boot!" I made a total of 26 books and made the boy and girl versions with different colored card stock front and back pages. There is also a version for kindergarten and second grade! Check out the link to this memory book below!

I assembled the books last weekend and totally took over the binding machine in the staff workroom! Oops!

I bound the books with the binding at the top, so it will be a flip from top to bottom.

I can't wait to see their faces tomorrow when they get their memory book!

This is probably THE page that will be a huge hit! Boys can sign their names and draw a self-portrait in the boxes on the cowboy page and then the girls can sign their name and draw their self portrait on the cowgirl pages.

TIP: Students may not get autographs until they have finished the rest of their memory book. This helps to keep kiddos on track with completing work, EVEN during the last couple week of school!

Have your measuring tape handy! I'll spend a good part of tomorrow helping kiddos measure their heads to figure out their 'hat' size!

Yee-Haw!

End of the Year Memory Book for Cowboys and Cowgirls

So, one more EOY activity that has been ah-mazing is the balloon popping countdown! We started last week with 13 blown up balloons taped to the edge of our stairs. Inside I wrote up 13 different, fun low-prep activities on little notecards. Each day, I pick two kiddos: they must decide which balloon they want to pop and then how they want to pop it! It's been great so far! Activities include: 10 minutes of extra recess, 10 minutes of watercolor time, each person at the green table picks out a brain break for the day, everyone eats lunch in the classroom, etc. It's been fabulous and the kids love seeing what's inside the balloon!

Thanks for poking in! I hope your journey to the end of the year is filled with fun!

Until again, I wish you well!

Home to School Communication: Keeping Everyone in the Loop

I've linked up with Mrs. Olson's Lucky Little Learners and Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd for their monthly link up #2GETHERWEAREBETTER! Check out many more communication ideas at the links above. I hope you have a great takeaway and find something that you want to implement!

Parent communication, for me, is something that starts off really strong each year and then it gets harder and harder for me to maintain throughout the year, especially if I'm trying something new! Case in point. As I looked through old text messages, I realized the last time I sent a Remind text was in November {ugh}.  Now I really enjoyed sending these text reminders, but I had a hard time getting parents to sign up. {Parents/families have to enroll in the program to receive texts from me}. I found that after winter break, I didn't resume sending them because I only had 6 parents that were receiving them. For next year, I plan on starting it day one. I'm thinking a little business card to pass out as parents drop students off the first day, with important contact information, email, phone and Remind sign-up :-)  For more information on this tool, check out the REMIND website!

Two things that I DO maintain and have for several years, is a weekly newsletter {paper based} and a monthly homework calendar. My newsletter consists of the basics: what are we learning, a home-to-school connection piece with important announcements, and a section for upcoming dates/assemblies/field trips, etc. On the back of the newsletter is a break down of our reading series. That includes spelling words, high-frequency words and our reading comprehension skills and strategies. Oh, and I print them out on colored paper for extra fun!

The monthly homework calendar is something that my first grade team started a few years ago. The calendar breaks down all of the monthly homework into 4 columns; words to know, math, spelling, and vocabulary. It's a nice little EXCEL document that gives a monthly overview for me and parents. We align the calendar with our curriculum pacing calendar. To set up my homework folders, I use folders with the 3-prongs. I try to find the perfect, thickest, heaviest, I hope it will last all year long folders! At the front of the folder is a pencil pouch.

This is where students can store their necessary homework tools for the year. My parents have RAVED about these pouches! Behind the pouch is the homework calendar and then the homework for the rest of the MONTH! I know, I send home an entire month's homework at a time and it has been fabulous! On my end, I don't have to re-stuff homework folders every weekend and I only have to fight with the copier once a month for homework related materials. On the parents end, they have been excited to have all the materials they need to complete homework and they enjoy looking ahead to see what is coming in the curriculum. I also include a monthly calendar for all upcoming dates.

So to answer the question, I would say that the homework folder (aka my CAMP folder: Collecting And Managing Paperwork) is my most successful tool. It is definitely one that takes a great deal of time to get set up and then to prepare every month, but it feels well worth the time for me, my students and my parents.

Until again, I wish you well!

A Special Send-off!

For the last three months, I have had a little girl in a wheelchair. She had been ice skating and somehow fell on her leg. The fall caused enough damage that she was in a thigh high cast for 6 weeks and needed to have some accommodations to manage the school day. So since spring break, she has been using a walker around the classroom {when she started using it the hallway, we found the tennis balls were leaving marks on the floor, so some apologizing to the custodial staff was in order} and slowly not even using that to get around the room. When her dad picked her up from school, one day, I told him that she wasn't really using the wheelchair anymore, but it didn't look like she was ready to give it up yet. He agreed. Hence, the wheelchair good-bye party was formed!

This little girl was very excited to have a send-off party for her wheelchair! She dressed-up for school on Friday and her family brought in treats. The mom congratulated the class on being such great helpers and so supportive during this challenging time for her daughter. This party was the high-light of my week and I'm sure hers too.

Here are some pics that we had of the party!

 It was so great hearing the rest of the class talk about why they would miss having the wheelchair or why they wouldn't miss it.

There were a variety of cards that I didn't take pictures of, but they included  feeling sad because they didn't get to sit in the chair or feeling happy that she would be able to go outside and play again.

 It was great to help this little girl make sense of the changes that were taking place and offer closure to our whole class. I can't wait to see her running around the playground again!

Until again, I wish you well :-)

Regrouping? Is it the hardest concept ever to teach or does it just feel like it?

My firsties and I have been working on addition and subtraction to 100, with and without regrouping for about a week now. For the most part, addition is going well. It seems like the trickiest thing is keeping everything in line in the ones and tens column. Well, I take that back. Having students rewrite a horizontal problem, like 32+6, into a vertical format and actually write the 6 in the ones column, well that's a feat of it's own!

Then there is subtraction...with regrouping...to 100... Wow... I did a quick check on Monday to see how everyone was doing with that. I use my little baby whiteboards that the Mr. made for me for pretty regular math quick checks. Anyway, all but 3 students had the SAME incorrect answer! Here they were subtracting the tens first, first mistake, and then they were subtracting the top number from the bottom number! Yes, we had a big talk about NOT flip flopping in a subtraction problem.

I have a good chunk of firsties who have moved out of the concrete stage and into the pictorial stage...yay! But I didn't have a good way for them to practice. Then it hit ME! I needed to create math mats that had a little extra visual cue!

We introduced them today and WOW! They were so ecstatic to hold up their mat and show me that they solved the problem, without Base 10 Blocks and independently!

Anyway, here are the pics from todays rocking regrouping lesson!

First up, addition with regrouping to 100! {Pics were taken of the television, while we worked out the problems during whole group. Gotta love the document camera!}

Next up, subtraction with regrouping to 100!

After our group instruction using these math mats, I told my firsties that I had a surprise for them! They were elated to see that they each had their own double-sided board (addition on one side and subtraction on the other) and dry erase markers with the pom-pom glued on erasers! It's so exciting to hear their cheers for math!

Do you see that bottom photo? I messed up and gave them a problem slightly bigger than 100 and you know what? More than half of my firsties figured it out correctly and wrote it correctly! When it comes to math this year, I am on cloud nine :-)

These math mats and more are available in my TpT store. Thank you for 'poking' in!

All Sorts of Math Mats

Happy Regrouping!

Until again, I wish you well!

Tape Art, Multiple Meanings, and Vegas Baby!

Wow, it's hard to believe that spring break is almost over for me! I am definitely using today as a day to catch-up on a few things. Let me rewind a bit....

At the beginning of March, my class completed a really cool masking tape art project. I found the idea on Pinterest (isn't that the best site EvEr?!) a few years ago and I've incorporated it into my class ever since. Check out the original pin here: HERE. Unfortunately, the link is dead but I want to give credit where credit is due! Anyway, they turned out fabulous! This year my kiddos were really able to identify what ring they wanted on the top, bottom, etc. They could figure out what lines to erase to create the linking rings! Oh and yeah, I took pictures!

Prep: a piece of white paper or any light colored paper, any size for each child, pencils, erasers, Sharpies, crayons, and a roll of masking tape for each student. These pieces will be proudly displayed at our school-wide art show on the 26th of the month.

We worked on a new product before spring break too! As part of our Reading Wonders curriculum, we were focusing on multiple meaning words. I wanted to create a booktivity to go along with multiple meaning words; hence the mini and mega book of multiple meaning words was born! Once assembled, students look at the picture and read the definitions. Then they circled the correct definition (2 were given) and write a sentence using the correct definition for each picture. My kiddos really enjoyed the activity. I think they enjoyed coloring when they were done even more! Oh and I took pictures of their books in action too!

This is the newest addition to my TpT store! As always, all my new products are 1/2 off for the first 48 hours. You can pick it up for $1 through March 21st. Click HERE to check it out!

So, enough about school! Let's talk Vegas! I had a super girls weekend to Vegas. What a way to kick off spring break! Our first big thrill was seeing the Hoover Dam! Hot 'dam' that was mammoth! We had a tour of the PowerPlant, rubbed the feet of the angels (a local legend for good luck) and finished off with some super ice cream! That was an extraordinary sight to see. If you've never been, check it out the next time you head to Vegas!

We also went to the Cirque Du Soleil show "Zarkana". That was truly breathtaking! It was set in an abandoned theater where a forgotten world has come back to life. Oh and one of the most amazing things was that you COULD take photos!!! They didn't turn out the best, but it was still AwEsOmE!

We also spent time in the sun, shopping, eating, walking, slot machining, people watching and riding the city bus. Now that bus is entertainment in itself! Oh and a 24 hour pass for $8.00! There was a bargain to be found in sin city after all!

Thank you for following along on my latest adventures!
Until again, I wish you well!

Think Aloud Cards {Freebie} for the First Grade Reading Wonders Program

If you are using the Reading Wonders program for first grade, I hope that you can find this freebie useful! I created the think aloud cards after learning that they are only available on the McGraw-Hill website.

I wanted something that I could have handy to refer back to with students as we were practicing the comprehension skills and strategies. So I printed mine 2 to a page so they are about a 1/2 sheet, laminated and cut apart and then put on a ring. I am fortunate to have a document camera in my classroom, so I can put the stack up on the TV for everyone to refer to during the read aloud. I especially use these during those read aloud cards. Please share how you use the think aloud cards in your classroom! Open the link below to grab the cards. Until again, I wish you well!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-ryCXrS9WLoOEhITjd5ZGdraFU/view?usp=sharing

Clipart: