I've Got Mail!

When my hubby brought in the mail tonight, he handed me a package! I tore it open, and here is what I found:

I won a giveaway from Leslie at Fab in First, and my stuff arrived today! I can't wait to take my kids through this new Walk It and Talk It tomorrow morning! What a perfect activity for when I'm being observed ;) Thanks, Leslie!!

Egg-Hunt Surprise: A Springy Fact Family Activity

I don't know about you, but my kids can't ever get enough fact family practice. It's great for my high kiddos who need an easy-on-the-teacher early finisher activity, but it's also wonderful reinforcement for my friends that struggle with the addition/subtraction relationship. Here's a simple cutesy activity that I hope you can implement in your own room! :) Yay Spring!

You Know You Teach First Grade When...

I love lists like these! Reading other peoples' lists just make me smile and think, "I'm so glad I'm not the only one that happens to!" After reading my list, head on over to The Inspired Apple to join in the linky fun!

You Know You Teach First Grade When...

- Everything you own suddenly seems to be color-coded... even at home.

- Your holiday "wish lists" consist of organizational containers and resource books. Plus some new markers.

- You find yourself telling your HUSBAND, "I'll be happy to cook you dinner when you ask me politely."

- The sound of children you don't know sounding out words and reading a book while waiting for a table at a restaurant makes you smile really big.

- You have a kiddo tell you "I've been waiting three whole years for science like this... preschool, kindergarten, and now first grade! I'm so excited it's finally here!"

- You check your lovely bloggy friends' blogs NIGHTLY for any new and fun idea that you know will make your kiddos squeal with delight! :-)

- You wake up every morning ready to go, and you can't wait to see those smiling faces greet you at the door!

Egg-citing News!! And a miracle. :)

This is one of our FAVORITE times of year in first grade... it's time to hatch real, live chicks!! :)



My team and I traveled to the farm today to pick up our 18 or so eggs that were freshly laid this morning. We put them in the waiting incubator and now we cross our fingers! In 21 days, we should hear a whole lotta peeping coming from our end of the hallway. It's always a great Kindergarten "field trip" to walk through the room and watch the newly hatched chicks waddle about. They're just so darn cute, it's hard to resist!

Here is the journal that we're going to be filling out as we go through this unit, along with a certificate for the "egg-sperts" when they've completed their studying! Use if you're able to :-) And stay tuned for chicky updates!

Chick Journal (here is the website that you'll use with this journal: http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/explore/embryology)

On an un-related note, check out the cuuuute story from my room today!
     We were doing a word bulding activity where the kiddos cut out their own letter cards, and one of my sweet girlies lost her letter O. She was worried about it, but we made due and went on. After the activity was over and they were picking up, I hear her voice again say, "I found my missing O! I guess miracles really DO happen!"  I love their innocence :-)

I Don't Do Literacy Centers...


Okay, are you over the initial shock of the title yet? If not, don't read on until you are :) This is my post to add to Patton's Patch's linky party for today!

It's true - we don't do centers. In my school, we tried centers and guided reading the traditional way, but it just wasn't working for our kiddos, and our scores were showing that. So, our principal and reading guru headed out on the road to visit different schools to see how they do it. We are a Title 1 building with an ELL center, as well. We have a pretty diverse community and we have several families who move in and out over the course of their K-4 education. When looking for a fix to our problem, it was important to find a school that was similar in demographics to ours so we'd be comparing apples to apples. Long story short, we found the fix! We've been doing reading this way for several years now, and we are performing in the top 5% of all Kansas schools, so I'd say it's working! :-)

Here's what our literacy looks like:
*1.5 hours of Storytown Reading Series (whole class)

*30 minutes of writing (Storytown writing mixed with a district written curriculum - whole class)

*30 minutes of Storytown Guided Reading (small groups)
             Each student sees a teacher for this time, and we have 10 adults available during this time (3 first grade teachers, 2 reading teachers + their 2 paras, 1 SpEd teacher, 1 ELL teacher, 1 teacher aide), so the groups average about 5 kiddos each. We use the Fountas & Pinnell leveling system, so all of our kiddos are in groups with peers on the same reading level. These are flexible and kids move as their abilities change. The whole grade level moves kids at the same time for this, so, for instance, I only have 1 of my homeroom kids in my group along with 2 from each of the other first grade classes.

*30 minutes of Intervention Groups (small groups)
             Here's where all kiddos see an adult for another type of reading group! Once again, the kids are all shuffled and are grouped with like-ability peers. However, we don't do more guided reading at this time. This group works on a specific part of literacy that the kids need a boost in (phon. awareness, phonics, fluency, etc.). The teacher plans lessons based on the kids' needs and uses DIBELS to monitor progress to see if the kids need to move to another group!

*30 minutes of Tier 3/Title 1 time (small group, some students only)
            While most of the first graders head back to class for a read aloud and snack, the kids who struggle the most see our reading specialists for another dose of reading instruction and snack.

While it took some getting used to, we have found that the results FAR outweigh any uncomfort on the teachers' parts to get rid of centers. Our kids are getting instruction all day tailored to their needs. My strugglers aren't floundering out there in center time clueless and lost. It's great! :-)

Hope that all made sense!!

More Linky Fun... Daily Organization

Mrs. Patton has invited us all to share our Daily Organization Tips as part of her Organization Week! I've posted a little about this before, but I've tweaked a couple things.

I sort my daily materials into these tubs - activity sheets, manipulatives, read alouds... it all fits!

However, I have made new labels for the bins (those were handwritten very quickly a few years back).

Daily Materials Labels

Also, I put the "Next Week" label on the purple bin for all those things I'm ahead of the game on! :) I want to add file folders to the Next Week bin with Mon-Fri labels so I can easily sort the pages into the correct day. Each Friday before I leave, I make sure that everything's in its proper place for the following week! So far, it's worked out like a charm!

Your turn! Head over to Patton's Patch to join in the fun!

Great Giveaway!

Michelle over at Fabulous in First  is teaming up with two other ladies and hosting one tremendous giveaway!!

The winner will receive Abby's ever famous Clipboard Classroom Activities, 

Deanna's Writing Templates and Michelle's Reader's Workshop Graphic Organizers.  

You'll have Reader's/Writer's Workshop, centers or Daily 5 covered for quite some time! 

Head on over to see how to enter :-)