Report Cards

Report cards are due on Friday! All of you Reading 3D givers, I know you feel the frustration of not having official 3D scores to report on report cards. Yes, we have been progress monitoring; but that does little to tell parents where their kids are right now and where they need to be. We have about 6 weeks left until EOY benchmarks...eeek! Is your class ready? Mine are close, but all of us aren't there yet. So....I made this sheet to go along with my students report cards. Thought I would share in case any of you feel like me and give as much information as I can to the parents of my students.

Click on the picture to get this for free!

 I also use colored pencils to color a circle around their score so parents know how great their child is doing or if they are close or really behind the goal. I'm visual, so colors help! I use lots of colors in data and assessment charts!

Let me know if this was useful for you!

Holiday Traditions

Before we begin studying different holiday traditions around the world, I always like to start with sharing our holiday traditions here in America with the students in my class. First we read "Night Tree." It's a story about a family who every year on Christmas Eve go out into the woods and find the same wild evergreen tree out in a big clearing. They decorate it with edible ornaments, spread out a big blanket and drink hot chocolate while singing Christmas carols. That way all creatures can enjoy a special treat for Christmas. It's so sweet, I just melt every time I read it.

 

 

After the book, we have a class discussion about holiday traditions. We turn and talk to a neighbor about one of our traditions and then I send this sheet home in their BEE book. Parents sit with their child and help them brainstorm all the traditions that their family does for the holidays.

 

 

 

The next day or following week, we use our graphic organizer to help us write a narrative about our family holiday traditions. As we share them, we can compare and contrast our traditions with others in our class. Then we are ready to explore the traditions of other countries and cultures around the world the following week.

 

 

I always love to hear the sweet traditions each kid does with their family.  

Back to School Freebies!

It's back to school time!!! Teachers in our county start back on Monday. Of course I'm going through the normal roller coaster of emotions that all of us go through at this time each year...excited, sad, excited, nervous, excited, overwhelmed...

 

 

I've been working on a few things that I want to share with you.

 

The first is a back to school gift that I  am using with my kids this year. I bought a big pack of suckers for cheap and made these SWEET labels.

 

Click on the pic to get these labels for free.

 

The next is a sign that I made for my classroom bathroom. I think I said this a thousand times last year so maybe a poster in the bathroom will help them remember. Here's hoping...

 

Click on the pic to get it free.

 

And last I made a power point presentation to run while students are in my room for meet the teacher. Sweet Aimee from Primarily Speaking created this little adorable power point template for free. Go to her blog to get yours too. Here is what I did with mine.

 

Don't you love the letter to the students? I got the idea from this pin.

The font I used is KG Lego House.

I also wrote a post last year about more meet the teacher and back to school ideas. Click here to read about it.

 

Good luck!

 

 



My New Blog Makeover with a Freebie

What do you think of my blog makeover? I think I'm in love! It's so bright and colorful and every time I look at it, it makes me so happy. Tessa from Tales of a Blog Designer was amazing to work with. I had no idea how hard this process can be. She has so much patience and just overall rocks.

Be sure to click on the "About Me" link at the top. I just filled it in with lots of pictures and facts about me. Let's get to know each other! I'm also working on a Facebook page too! So many exciting new changes and adventures.

It's normally about this time during the summer when I start thinking about how I am going to organize my year. With common core I definitely want to use more integration than I did last year so I think that I am going to start with my science and social studies units. From there I will plan on how I can integrate literature, writing, art, technology, music... along with it.  So to help me out I made this little graphic organizer to jot my ideas down. It's yours if you want it. Just click on the pictures to download. Happy 4th of July weekend friends!!

pssst... If you are an NC 1st grade teacher and want to know what I come up with, I'll post when I get it figured out. Wish me luck!

More Comprehension Ideas

Here are two more comprehension lesson that I came up with to go along with the Common Core Curriculum Maps ELA, Grade 1 Unit 2 (The Amazing Animal World).

 

Using this Common Core Standard:

 

RI.1.5 Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.

 

And these books:

 

 

 

First I began by reading Earthworms pointing out the headings, information, pictures, and captions on each page. I told the students to listen very carefully about earthworms because they would be writing about something they know or learned about earthworms today. After I read several pages of the book {definitely left out the mating page}, I told the students that they would be practicing writing nonfiction using headings, information, pictures and captions. I modeled first using the caption "Enemies of Worms" and I wrote about how moles like to find worms underground and eat as many as 30 a day. The students made me include the part where moles bite off a worms head and stores it in a burrow for later (yuck). I also wrote how birds like to eat worms too. On my picture I drew a picture of some worms in a moles burrow. On my caption I wrote "worms are stored in a moles burrow for him to eat later." Then I handed out this little sheet and asked the students to write about something that they know or learned about worms. They had to include a heading, information, picture and caption.

 

 

The next day I read Diary of a Worm and we compared the two stories together using a Venn Diagram. Make sure you use words like: tells a story, gives information, has headings, pictures, captions, fantasy, real, fiction, nonfiction...etc. If you are feeling ambitious you could give this sheet to partners first to see what they can do, then summarize together on a large Venn Diagram on chart paper.

 

 

Click the picture to download. {sorry, it keeps messing up a little at the bottom on google docs...send me a comment if you know how to fix or what I'm doing wrong.}

 

When I think of and teach more lessons to go along with the unit I'll share. Let me know what you think.

 



 

 

How We Get Home Labels! {Freebie}

Who doesn't get confused and sometimes frusturated with the constant changes of how your student(s) get home each day. For me the most terrifying part of a changing schedule is sending the student home the wrong way. Scary! So I got some inspiration from pintrest {of course} and made these little tags. Click on the picture to download yours for free!

I have mounted them to my wall with ribbon and will have a clip for each student. After I check agendas each day or when my secretary calls me throughout the day with a change, I can go over to this display and move that child's clip in the appropriate place. Then when it is time to line up and go home, I have everyone organized where they need to be. Here is the general idea {without student names yet}.

This idea came from  tattling to the teacher and you can see her blog post and labels here!

Visit Tara at 4th Grade Frolics to see what other ideas teachers have made this week!

 

Don't forget, today is the last day for the teachers pay teachers back to school sale. Be sure to check out my Constitution Day Packet!



Let me know what you think!

Love to all!!



Recycling Labels {Freebie}

Does your school recycle??? Ours does and I'm so thankful that we do. Of course teaching Earth Day and all about trees, animals, insects, etc gives me a major soft heart about the planet.

I have two bins in my classroom for recycling but I never had them labeled so we just guessed what each one was for after it was collected each week. The summer is a great time to complete all of those little things that you never have time for so I have labels for them. And I figured if I wanted labels for my bins, surely someone else would want them too!

I have several different ones that I made to fit your recycling needs. I am also putting them on my bins at home because I am the recycling queen at our house. It's nice because our county lets you mix plastic, glass, and aluminum all together and I guess they sort it out at the recycling center. This may be applicable to you to so I included everything. You can print in color or print on colored cardstock. Just make sure you laminate for durability!

 

Click on any of the pictures to download. Hope these can help ya!

Behavior Management- The Clip System {Freebie}

One of the most important parts of running a successful classroom is having a solid classroom management system that works for you. I have tried lots, but this one that I started using last year is my absolute favorite. Its called the clip-system! Here is what it looks like:

At the beginning of the day everyone starts on green. I number the clips instead of using their names. It's nice for when we have visitors.

Students are able to move their clip up to blue, purple, or pink for good behavior...such as sitting on the carpet quietly, cleaning up a center quickly or apologizing for an accident to another student. Basically anytime that you notice someone doing the right thing that is setting an example for others, move their clip up.  The same goes for if they break a class rule.

Now for the meaning of each color:

Yellow- Warning...no consequence

Orange- Teacher Choice...walk during part of recess, silent lunch, or time out during an activity

Red- Parent Contact...call, email, or send a note home.

Throughout the day the student can move their clip back up by demonstrating good behavior.

{sorry, my walls and door are a little bare...its all boring because it's summer}

Blue- earn a sticker on their sticker chart

I purchased these sticker charts from a teacher catalog but you can get them at the dollar tree. Last year my student kept their sticker charts in their desk but they kept losing them and the stickers would fall off so this year I have made pocket chart to keep their sticker charts in.When they fill up their sticker charts they get to choose a reward from the behavior catalog. This idea came from the fabulous Sarah Cooley at First Grader...at last and can be found here.

This is my version. I have two title pages...one is based on a pirate theme (Treasured Behavior) I used last year and the second one is based on a bug theme (best bee-havior). Here is what it looks like.

You can get your free copy here...just click on the image!

Purple: Earn a falcon feather

Ok, let me explain this one. At our school students can earn falcon feathers {our mascot is a falcon btw} for good behavior. Any teacher can give any student a falcon feather. Students take their falcon feathers to the library to enter their name in to win one of four prizes. They choose which prize they want and put their falcon feathers in the jar to win. Each Friday names are drawn and students receive their prize. If your school doesn't do this then you can do it yourself if your room. I added a picture of what this could look like in your room.

Pink: Earn a jewel for your clip
Ya'll, this is huge. Even the boys love this, in fact this past year the two students with the most jewels were boys. I got the jewels from Wal-Mart in the scrapbook sticker section. Sorry I don't have a better picture. I need to buy some more for next year.

And that's my behavior management. It works great and its affordable. You can adjust this system to fit your comfort level.