Help me with... A Sports Theme! :)

Our school chooses a new theme very year to base our State Assessment assemblies and whatnot around. This really helps the kids to get excited about learning, even down in the first grade level!

The winning theme for next year is all about Sports... so I want to hear some great ideas you've used that can be based around that theme - classroom decoration, welcome boards, management systems, language in the classroom, etc! I'll cal our class a "team" and let them know I'm their "coach," but I want to go further than that and have a lot of fun with the big idea!

I hope you're having a wonderful start to your weekend!! The end is in sight... only 16 1/2 more days for us! :-)

Great New Website!

Thank you for all of the great stories/comments regarding my latest crazy excuse - you gals were cracking me up!! So glad to be reminded I'm not the only one who deals with this *stuff* all day! :)

I've now seen this site (Tagxedo) mentioned twice on blogs in the past 2 days, so I knew I had to go try it out!!  Here's the end result of a quick product using my blog:

I do an end of the year Wordle with my kids each year as a way to let each other know what we think is really great about them - we go around and add to everyone's Wordle with some sort of super kind sentiment, and it's really neat to see them light up when they print off and take home all of these compliments from their friends. If I have enough time to explore Tagxedo, we may choose to do this instead... who knows! Thanks TBA and Mrs. Randall for sharing the idea. :)

Tomorrow is field trip day to the Play Hospital and then the Farmstead!! Stay tuned for pics of my cuties!!

Have you heard this excuse before???

No, no, not from a student! This excuse came from a parent in my room today... Please stick with me; it'll be worth it, I promise!!! It even involves the mafia... :)

We were asked to call families that hadn't filled out their Summer School enrollment papers yet, so I called my one little girl's house to talk to her mom.

(Background info that's important here: this mom has something wrong all the time... either hernias or breathing problems or allergies to things such as carpet and cockroaches. Also, the mom is on oxygen all of the time for her COPD, and she doesn't leave the house hardly ever. I had the older sister 5 years ago and never once met the parents, and that hasn't changed so far this year!)

Ok, back to my story... So I call Mom, and she tells me she had 6 teeth pulled this morning, so I tell her I'll keep it short and sweet b/c I'm sure her mouth hurts. I proceed with my schpeel about Summer School, and she tells me that she won't  be enrolling her daughter. When I repeat that it's FREE for them, including breakfast and lunch, she tells me that they will be going to Mexico. Apparently, her mother in law is in trouble with the mafia down there.

Yep, the MAFIA in Mexico has been coming to her house at night and destroying things. And... 3 days ago, her son was kidnapped by the MAFIA and held ransom for all of their money. Soooo, after school's over, they're traveling there to make sure she gets to a safer location. So, my student won't be going to Summer School.

*Just so you know, I'm not being mean here... this Mom has all sorts of excuses, and after confirming that this is not a true story with my principal, I've decided that it is instead the CRAZIEST excuse I've ever heard!!!*

Can you top it?? Please share your wildest excuses! :-)

Winner, Winner!!! :-)

Thank you ALL for the tremendous turnout during the giveaway! As much as I wish I could give each of you all a gift card, we all know that could take up my whole paycheck! Eek :) So, who won???

Mrs. Wheeler, you have 48 hours to email me and let me know your choice! Happy Monday, friend!!!

I -heart- Fonts!

Oh goodness... this totally made up for my puppy being super playful way too early this morning!! :)

While looking at various blog design sites (I'm asking for a new design for my birthday!), I came across this hilarious video about boring fonts!! You HAVE to check it out:

Font Conference

Now, did that have you laughing?!? Thanks for sharing in my love of fonts, fellow bloggers!!

PS - Be sure to visit here to enter my "choose your own" giveaway! You have until tomorrow night at 8:00 CST... Good luck!

Choose Your Own Giveaway!!

Alright, so Miss Indecisive over here can't make up her mind about what to give away! Sooo... the winner will get to choose from the following:

Rules of play are....

1) Become a follower of my blog or already be one!

2) Follow my TpT store
3) Blog about this giveaway on your own site and link back to mine!

4) Put my blog name in your blog roll on your blog

5) Bonus: Add my button to your site!

Be sure to leave a comment for each of the above options - you have 5 chances to win!! I will keep this open until Sunday evening, and then I'll make someone's Monday super happy by announcing the winner! :-)

Good luck and thanks for being amazing inspirations - you all make me want to be a better teacher!!

Cheesy, yes.

True?? You bet!!!

OMGoodness, you amaze me!

Wowee!!! Just 2 nights ago, I was stuck at 91 followers, so I put a little incentive out there for more friends... and you came out of the woodwork! :)  Last night I was in class all evening, and tonight I'm meeting my MIL for dinner - so stay tuned for the giveaway to come VERY soon!

In the meantime, leave me a comment telling me which would be a better gift card/certificate to receive: Target, Dollar Tree, Teachers Pay Teachers, or something else I'm not thinking of! I'll take your thoughts into account when making my decision!!

Thank you all very much for your support - you provide me with more inspiration than you know!

only NINE (9) more followers needed...

... until I host my first giveaway - FINALLY! I'm thinking of doing something related to a gift certificate to a teacher favorite. Maybe Dollar Tree? Maybe Target? Maybe TpT?? Who knows! But, I do know that once I hit the elusive (for me, anyway) 100 followers milestone, there will be something that I'll send to one of you for FREE! :-)

Spread the word - and grab my button on the side -------> if you choose to!

End of Year Poem and Picture Card

Here's another end of the year idea! I got this wonderful idea from my co-worker, and I can't wait to do it with my kiddos.

First, create a template (I used Power Point and my graphics) that you just love! Add the student's name and the poem (see the end of this post). Take an up-close pic of you with your kiddo, and put this picture into your template. If you save the whole shebang as a .jpg, you can upload it to Walmart.com or the like and get your poem cards printed off like a 4x6 picture that's nice and shiny! What a wonderful way to send your first graders off with a great memory of the two of you!

This is my template for this year:

This is the poem used (just found online in a simple search):

You’re a very special person,

And I wanted you to know,

How much I enjoyed being your teacher;

How fast the year did go!

Please come back to visit me

As through the grades you grow.

Try hard to learn all that you can,

There is so much to know!

The one thing I tried to teach you,

To last your whole life through,

Is to know that you are SPECIAL -

There is no one like you!

Book of Months *FREE* download!

Happy Sunday Evening, all! I hope your weekend was relaxing :-) As we wind down the year, I'll start posting some fun, yet still educational, activities that are easy to implement during those times where the Spring Fever/Summer Bug gets the better of the kids (or you!!).

First off, here is a Book of Months for download. Each month gets its own page and on each page, there's a place for holidays and birthdays, as well as a spot for describing words. Have fun!

(Cut out around the border, leaving a strip on the left for the staples! The pages are numbered in the bottom corner for ease!) :) 

PS... if this looks familiar, it's because I recreated it from a resource book I saw once. I can't remember the original source, so if you know, please let me know!!

Blast Off!

Our Storytown lesson this week focuses on Long I words and is centered around a story called Blast Off! Here is the printable I've made for this lesson... check it out! :-)



Happy Weekend, everyone!!

New Storytown printable + Musical Picture!

As promised last night, here is a quick pic of my kiddos all ready for their dress rehearsal! Check out my cast of characters in the previous post! You can see Sleeping Beauty, Little Boy Blue, one of the 3 Little Pigs, Little Miss Muffett (with the curls), and Mother Goose (in the "Grandma" crochet sweater, according to her!). I love them :-)

**TpT freebie alert!!**
Here is the beginning stage of a project I'm working on. I'm putting together information sheets for parents/planning purposes for each Storytown lesson. So far, I have lessons 26-30 complete. I'll work on the rest as time magically appears! :-) These pages have the phonics focus, spelling words, high frequency words, and vocabulary words so that parents know what we're learning. They also have a clip art image corresponding to the lesson's Main Selection. Enjoy!

Lemonade!!

(I have to say Sorry in advance... my camera is still at school, so some pics will have to come later! I know, boooooring!)

Tonight was our First Grade Musical, LEMONADE! My kiddos transformed into various characters, such as:
* 2 of the 3 Little Pigs (they had to wear pink shirts, and one of my tiny boys walked in wearing his little sister's size 3T bright pink shirt! When asked about his shirt, his response was to shake his pink corkscrew tail and say, "It's not the shirt that makes the man!" haha! LOVE!)
* Little Miss Muffett (complete with frilly dress, ringlet curls, and a high pitched scream!)
* Miss Muffett's Spider friend (who caused the above scream...)
* Little Boy Blue (with his trumpet to blow!)
* Sleeping Beauty (whose jeans were poking out from underneath her too-itchy dress... cute!!)
* A Billy Goat Gruff with drawn on beard
* Jack's Mom (of jack and the Beanstalk fame)
* and Mother Goose, herself!!!

The musical was absolutely adorable, save for the screaming baby that was not taken out of the gym, so the poor kids had to sing/speak SUPER loudly... I think I was more bothered by it than they were! Buuuut, they were fantastic and I loved every second of their performance!! :-)

Amazing Animals (take 2...)

So, when I got to school this morning and started cutting out the activities I made last night to go with our Storytown lesson, I realized - I added the WRONG spelling/high frequency words to the papers!!! Sigh. Sooo, they are now fixed, and I've re-posted the activity to my TpT. Please take a peek!

Also, be sure to read my stance on my TpT products to the right... and email  me if you need to! :-) I'll be working on Lesson 26 later on tonight, and I'll post that, as well.

I'm an Addict! (plus a working button)

I got a very great email this evening! I am lucky teacher blog #50 to join Teaching Blog Addict! :) Head on over to check out my introductory post... as well as some other great stuff!


 

In the process of getting myself set up with this great new blog, I found out my own blog button was not working (go figure, right??). So, I made a new and improved and working button! Check it out below, and grab it for yourself if you feel so inclined! :)

<center><a href="http://www.firstgradefundamentals.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/sNZU7.jpg"/></a></center>

  

Have a great Monday everyone!

New TpT Item!

Hello all! I hope your weekend is going swell... the weather is SO beautiful here in Kansas, and I am very thankful for that! I've just uploaded my first item for sale onto TpT (I have freebies up, but so far, that was it!). Check it out to see if it's something that strikes your fancy. :)

I had this up about a week ago for a free download, but tweaked it a tad. Take a peek!

Also, don't forget to look at the post from yesterday about my need for Homework HELP!!

Help Me with Homework! (A Linky Party)



Alright, I knew I'd have to start one of these for myself one of these days.... why not today? No one peed on the playground. No one threw a hissy fit tantrum. No one brought pickles for snack! There was a boy, however, who informed me while taking his DIBELS nonsense word fluency probe that he "knows about all sorts of nonsense, Mrs. Scoma." Ha! :) 

So, the idea: since we got a new reading series this year mid-year (Storytown), we are wanting to create homework that is meaningful and helps the kiddos transfer their new knowledge. So... what do YOU do for homework? Is it weekly? Is it daily? Many subjects? Just literacy? Do you tie it into your reading series? I want to get a good head start on this project of mine so that when August rolls around I'm all set and ready to go. Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated!

Please join in on the party below... and tell your friends that they're invited, too!! :-)
(to the lovely person/people who left me 2 ideas already... I realized I set up the wrong kind of Linky!! oops!)

One of THOSE days...

Well, hello, bloggie friends! I'm so glad I get to come home and check in with you all at night. I know you will never do any of the following to me:

- have the big D on your pants.

- throw yourself on the floor in a full-out screaming fit. Twice.

- Pee in the corner of the playground. (and have a parent driving by see you do it and call the office)

- Fib about peeing on the playground.

- Forget what EVERY coin is called and what it's worth.

- Bring jarred dill pickle spears for class snack... messy. And may have contributed to #1.

Yep! This is the kind of day that the first grade team at our school had today.
TG(tomorrow)IF!!! :-)

Flood Drill: April Fool's Day 2011

I'm just as bad as the kids when it comes to having fun on April Fool's Day :-) First off, my team all switched classrooms for the morning greeting time; THAT really threw some of our kiddos off!! Then, later on in the morning, we had our Flood Drill!

Since April is quite rainy here in Kansas, we have to be prepared for floods, you know. ;) So, we take off our shoes and socks, roll up our pants, and stand on our chairs, all lickety-split quick! I had the camera out b/c "our principal needed proof that we practiced the drill." I got some doozies of pictures! Enjoy!

(This last pic is my FAVORITE! Check out Mr. B in the back, with the red pants all the way hiked up! HE was SERIOUS about keeping them out of water's way!)

When finished, I told my kiddos that they passed the Drill, and "Oh, yeah... APRIL FOOL'S!!" They cracked up laughing and couldn't believe they fell for it! What a great time of laughter and fun in my room; I sure do love these kids!