Birthday Week Giveaways!

Check out Miss Kindergarten's Birthday Celebration! I'm honored to be a part of the "awesome bloggers" asked to partake in the giveaway :) Click on her button to get your chance to win!!

Get Up, Rick! Lesson 4

Here's the Lesson 4 StoryTown pack - and final pack of the weekend! Thank you to everyone who have left kind comments, even if you don't use StoryTown... be sure to send colleagues who do my way! Time to enjoy a yummy steak & potato cookout :-)

Click on the picture to view more sample pages.

Lesson 3 - Big Rigs!

So, I didn't meet my goal of getting 4 packs finished yesterday, but I finished 2 1/2! :-) Today's the day to finish the other 1 1/2... and here's one of them!  Check out my activity pack for First Grade StoryTown's lesson 3 - Big Rigs! What a fun story :-) Found some great graphics to go along with it!

Click on the picture to view some samples:

Woohoo - #2!

As much as the couch is calling me to nap on it.... I finished the Lesson 2 StoryTown activity pack. Check it out if you're interested by clicking on the picture! :)

Now... 2 more to go this afternoon! First, I think a 30-45 minute cat-nap is needed!

New StoryTown pack!

So I finally got my tush in gear this morning and have started creating more activity packs to go along with the early StoryTown lessons!! Here is Lesson 1 - Let's Tap. Click on the picture for more images and information :-)

Check back later on for more! I'm hoping for 3 more this afternoon.... *crosses fingers that blogs won't distract me too much!!*

A Giveaway EVERYONE Wins!!

Check out The Lesson Plan Diva for a great freebie for everyone!

Click here to get yours!

Free fonts, graphics, and more!

If you aren't already a fan, be sure to "like" Lettering Delights on facebook to enjoy their freebie giveaway!! It's cute cute! :-)

Also, be sure to check out my Making Words All Year Long just below for a great activity for next school year!!

Making Words: Finished!!

Whew! What a weekend :) I've been a little pre-occupied by this adorable cutie:

My hubby and I babysat his 2 1/2 year-old niece, and we had one packed weekend-o-fun! :) We had a bubble bath in our jacuzzi tub, had a mani/pedi session with a crazy color of blue (her choice!), saw Kung Fu Panda 2, played in the pool out back, went to McD's to play in the Play Place... and let's just say that I slept from 10:00 last night to 9:30 this morning! That little girl wore me out :)

Thankfully, my lab puppy, Lucy, kept her boxer puppy, Jack, company all weekend, so I didn't have to worry TOO much about him.... Lucy kept him in line!!

Okay, on to Making Words: All Year Long! After my long sleep, I woke up energized and ready to finally finish this file. There are 12 Making Words activities, one for every month. There are thematic graphics involved, and I think these will make a great center or early finisher activity... check it out at my TpT store!!

I will be also creating an alphabet of each of these graphic sets, thanks to Little Miss Glamour's great idea! Keep your eyes posted for that file soon. :)

2011-2012 Schedule

Kathleen from Growing Kinders and Becca from Simply 2nd Resources are each hosting a linky party to share our schedules! Here's what mine currently looks like for first grade next year!

8:15 - Morning Work
8:25 - Tardy Bell rings/attendance/announcements
8:35 - Whole Group Math
9:05 - Math Work Stations
9:40 - StoryTown whole group
11:00 - Guided Reading
11:30 - Lunch
12:00 - Recess
12:30 - Writing
1:00 - Literacy Intervention Groups
1:30 - Author Study (read aloud)/Tier 3/Title 1 pull-out time
2:00 - Specials
3:00 - Science/SS
3:20 - Pack Up
3:25 - Dismissal

Link up to share how your day works - I'd love to see how you all "fit it all in"!! :-)

 

Now... off to FINALLY catch up on this week's Math Work Stations party!! I've been SO BUSY and haven't had a chance to read everyone's submissions!! Thank goodness my Master's class let out an hour early tonight! :)

*Free* StoryTown TpT Item!

I saw this fabulous idea earlier this year from Kathleen @ Growing Kinders... and I knew I HAD to adapt it to fit my first graders!! (Mine doesn't have all the cute graphics, tho, I kept it pretty basic this go 'round.)

Even if you don't have StoryTown, your firsties may very well still benefit from this practice. If you have kindergarten, I strongly recommend visiting Kathleen's TpT store to snag some that are appropriate for your kiddos!

If you download it, please leave me some positive feedback :-) Click the pic to get it!

GIveaway!

Head on over to Mrs. Randall's Learning Library for a great giveaway :)

Math Work Stations - Chapter 3!

I can't wait for this week's installment of the Math Work Stations blog party! It's being hosted by Mrs. Parker... be sure to check out her site this week for great ideas:




If you need to read up on the chapter, you can do so online by clicking here! :-)

New Storytown TpT Item!

One thing on my To-Do list is finished! :-) Only 73 more to go.... (it seems)

In order to make my planning of Storytown activities easier (at a glance), I created the following resource. It's a pack of 30 pages, one for each lesson. Each page has the lesson's phonics focus, spelling words, high frequency words, and vocab words! There's also an icon that coordinates with the week's Main Selection :-)

Here is a peek at a couple of pages... click on the first pic to vist my TpT store to purchase!

Now, onto the next item on the To-Do list! :-)

Help me with... 2 things!

I've got some quick questions for you guys!

1) When creating units/activities to offer to other people, how do you  get some pages to be 'landscape' and others 'portrait' in the same file?? I'm pretty computer savvy, but this has baffled me. I haven't googled it yet... I thought I'd ask some real experts first! ;)

2) I'm wanting to make my read aloud time purposeful next year, and I think that I want to do that by focusing on author studies. What are your favorite authors to study with first graders??? I'm looking forward to using my creative side to make some great activities to put out there in Blog-Land!

Thanks in advance for your advice... I admire you guys so much!

Math Party - Week 1!

My, oh my... this is just the type of party I needed this summer!! My first grade team is changing a lot (going from 3 teachers to 5... losing one due to a new baby, so 3/5 teachers will be new to the team!), and with that change, we're switching up our math block also! I'm SUPER PUMPED! I love reading and all, but math is what really gets me excited because I can see my firsties really start exploring and discovering truths for themselves!


Several fab blog ladies are hosting a math party all about Debbie Diller's new book on Math Work Stations, so this will be giving me all sorts of inspiration to get my tush in gear this summer!


Today's Day 1 of the party... head over to Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten to read all about it:







As for my own room, I have to hang my head in SHAME as I answer the following questions:

- Materials used by the teacher first, then placed in the station: no
- Materials do not change weekly, but rather changed to reflect the students learning objectives:  Umm... I put out centers/stations when I can. But we often don't have time.
- All students go to stations daily:  Once again....no :( Only when time allows.
- Materials are differentiated: Nope.
- The teacher observes work or meets with differentiated math groups: When we have extra time, I'll pull back the kiddos that need reinforcement.

Now do you see that I mean?? I have SO MUCH work to do! My team is full of a bunch of rule-followers, and I am the queen of following rules. When we're given a curriculum to follow (in our case, it's Growing with Math), I follow it with fidelity. Well.... no more, I say!! I am going to teach my kiddos what they need to know in a way that helps them learn it best and put their new knowledge into practice!

So... please please please keep posting your GREAT ideas about math stations - I have lots to learn! Currently, my materials are in big tubs hidden behind curtains that only I can get to:
  

I am looking forward to seeing how I can best serve my little learners next year... be sure to check out the PARTY so you can add your ideas, too!! :-)