Awards and Awesome Blogs:)

I just received the Liebster Blog Award from Jen at Hooked on Teaching. The Liebster Blog Award is for up and coming bloggers. Thanks Jen for honoring my blog with this awesome award. I LOVE the support!

Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Thank the giver and link back to them.

3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers!! 

Here are my top five picks for up and coming bloggers. I am sending them the Liebster Blog award. Be sure to check them out because they have FABULOUS ideas!!

First Grade Wizards

Fabulous Firsties

Dots-N-Spots

Heather's Heart

Sailing Through 1st Grade

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.....from my family to yours:)

Great finds from fellow Bloggers:)

A BIG "Shout Out" goes out to First Grade Blue Skies for this WONDERFUL craft that my Firsties made this week!!! They worked so very hard on them!! I even incorporated it into a practice for their Word Wall Words by having them write their words in each whisker of Santa's beard!! It started to become a competition on how many words/whisker's their Santa would have. They LOVED it!!! Thanks to First Grade Blue Skies for the inspiration:) 

   

 

Merry Christmas "Word Work" Freebie

Here is a great word work center activity that my students are loving!!!! I thought I would share this fun little Freebie!!!! I'm also loving that the theme is MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Feel free to download and use with your students....just please leave me a comment so I know what you thought of it!! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Words

Fun Friday "Fotos"

We have had another great week with Nicey, our classroom Elf on the Shelf!!! Here are just a few of the places that we found Nicey in our classroom. He's so silly!!!

One more week with Nicey to go!!! 

The BUSY Classroom Elf!

UPDATE on our classroom elf, Nicey!!! He has been very busy in our classroom taking good notes for Santa!  Take a look at all of the places he's found to watch my Firsties so far:)

High on the bookshelf....

Way up high on the windowsill....

Uh, Oh, Nicey got caught in our classroom snacks!!!

This was too funny...my kiddo's could not believe that Nicey did this!!!

Some of the comments were...

• "He must have been HUNGRY!!!"
• "I can't believe he stole our snack!"
• "He's gonna get in trouble by Santa!"
• "Great...now we can't go to writing center because if we accidentally touch him or knock him over, he'll lose his magic!"

We have also had a great time with Nicey this week during Writer's Workshop!!!  We've written about what reports that he has given to Santa so far, where we will find him watching the next day, etc.  He's been a great incentive for the kiddos to work hard and get along in class!!!

I have lots of ideas of how I will use our classroom Elf On The Shelf next week....can't wait to get creative:) We will be doing lots of interactive activities at the Elf On The Shelf site!!! Check it out....so fun:)  Can't wait to show my Firsties Monday the email that we got from Santa from that site. Merry Christmas...and be looking for updates to my classroom elf, Nicey:)

Loving our classroom "Elf on the Shelf"

Okay....so how many of you teachers out there LOVE "The Elf on the Shelf" at Christmas time??? I know I do!!! It has proven to be a fun and effective way to help with classroom management during the dreaded "school" holiday weeks!!!! My Firsties LOVE our "Elf on the Shelf", so I thought that it would be fun to do a Linky Party to find out how creative we teachers can be....as well as be an inspiration to me on where to display my classroom elf, Nicey:) (Appropriately chosen by my Firsties!!) Please feel free to post anything about your classroom elf!  All ideas are GREAT ideas! So here goes....this is a picture of Nicey perched high above my dry erase board in the front of my classroom.

Nicey...Mrs. Wallace's Classroom Elf!!

Play along with us!!!

Family Turkey Projects!!

This year, my Firsties have gone ALL out on the Family Turkey Projects!!! Out of the three years that we have done this activity, this is the first year that almost ALL of my students have done the project!!! I am so amazed....not only that they almost all have done it, but I'm amazed at the creativity that has been used in them!!! So neat!  Here are some of them that I snapped pics of!!! Way to go Room 21!!! You ROCK at Family Turkey Projects:)

"Barnyard Word Bingo" Literacy Game!!!

Okay...I'm on a roll.....:)  I am always looking to keep my "Firsties" actively engaged while they are in Literacy Centers....therefore, I am always coming up with new activities or games to keep them going!! Check out my latest literacy game that helps reinforce their knowledge of our basic sight words.

It's called "Barnyard Word Bingo" and it can be found in my TPT store! 

 

 

 

Let me know what you think:) Enjoy!!

"going nutty"

For a great Word Study Center activity, check out my newest "going nutty" game on TPT. 

"going nutty"

Have fun "going nutty"!!!

A little Pinterest...ing Sight Word Fun!!

Some of my favorite pinning while searching for "Sight Word Activities" this week on Pinterest:)  

A great letter recognition center to use during Guided Reading time!!!  The students will love it and it's easy to set up and reasonably priced:) This came from ....Mrs. Kelly's Kindergarten!

This is a fun way to practice sight words and also get more practice with sentence formation and word choice!  This great idea came from....http://moffattgirls.blogspot.com/!

Now, this next sight word center idea seems to be pretty popular!!! I've used it for many years in my own classroom....and now, I'm seeing it all over Pinterest and have heard that many teachers are using it along with other store bought games that have been educationally altered by their owners:)  Teachers are so creative.....aren't we???? Well, we kinda have to be!  LOL 

Anyway.....here's Sight Word Candy Land!!!!

I wrote sight words on my game board, but others have written them on the actual cards.  Either way...the kids LOVE it and it really gets them involved with learning sight words....in a fun way:)

Other games that I have used for sight word center activities are: Jenga, Memory Concentration games, Chutes and Ladders, Twister, Scrabble, etc.  The possibilities are endless!!!

Enjoy and Pinterest your heart out:) I know I will!!!

Pilgrim Hat & Bonnet Game

Here is a word study game for a Word Work Center!! Enjoy:)

Pilgrim Hat & Bonnet Game



Fall Fun

Ah....this time of the year is such fun for Firsties, but soooo tiring for teachers!!!! Competing with the wonderful "Candy" holiday for their attention is NOT easy!!!!  These resources have helped me  keep my  Firsties excitement about Fall while helping me determine where a reteach is needed!!! Maybe they can help you too!!!

5 Little Pumpkins Poetry Center

Calendar Sort Literacy Center

Pumpkin Concentration Game

The "-eat" Chunk!!

Okay, so I've been feeling creative lately.....here is another activity to do for the -eat chunk spelling pattern!!

-eat chunk

Have the student color the "treat" bag sheet and cut along the zigzag underneath the Halloween kitten.  Attach a plastic baggie with a staple on each side for the safe keeping of the "-eat" cards.

 They will be able to use these words to read to their friends, parents and siblings in an effort to become more familiar with the -eat chunk. Enjoy!!

It's all about the "_ay" Chunk!!!

This week on our Chunk Wall, we will be adding two new spelling pattern chunks.  One of them will be the "_ay" chunk!!! Here is an activity for a whole group Word Study lesson or to use in a literacy center for individual work and further practice.  I print it out on white tag paper and laminate for durability. I bought a simple, black BOO bucket at Target that I put my "Ghostly" letter cards in.  The students choose their "Ghostly _ay" or "Ghostly _ _ay" Mats and get to work:) Enjoy!!!

Here is the Symbol Chart and Product Sheet

for this activity, and here is the 

"Ghostly _ay" Mats and "Ghostly" letters!