Symmetry, Word Craftivity, PDAS & ME:)

Okay....so it has been a full, busy week and then some!!!  I'm not complaining...it makes summer come more quickly for me:)  We are on countdown ya know.....30 more days of 1st GRADE!!!

First of all, I turned a year older this week...insert sigh....oh well, we all do, right???  I had a great birthday and my 1st grade team surprised me with an AWESOME lunch in our conference room, my Firsties were super excited that it was my birthday, my honey sent me BEAUTIFUL flowers and I had a wonderful dinner with him to end the night!!!!!

I had my PDAS evaluation today....insert sigh....oh well, we all have to do it, right???? I did a Writer's Workshop lesson for my evaluation and I think it went SPECTACULAR:)  I used Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The focus of the lesson was how author's do different things with their sentences in their stories.  (The main objective was to notice that there are different amounts of words in each sentence of the author's piece.) I chose 2 pages to chart the author's thinking. I showed them on the smartboard and we counted each sentence to get the correct number of words.  They were amazed at the sentence that had 16 words in it:)  Firsties are so easily amused, that's why I love them!!! I then modeled a Mrs. Wallace and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on the smartboard using my own thinking.  LUCKILY for me.....I didn't have to make up anything!!!  I woke up late this morning, rushed to get ready, had NO time for coffee....insert GRRRR......walked out to the garage to leave and my BATTERY WAS DEAD!!!!!  Oh, yes, so I just wrote from the heart!!! I used lots of voice and expression in my story and the Firsties LOVED it:)

A YouTube Video showing a read aloud of

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Now....onto my Word Craftivity....our theme is Butterflies and Insects this week, so we made symmetrical butterflies and then added our weekly words to them for extra practice.  They were able to decorate their butterflies after that and we hung them in the hallway for everyone to enjoy! 

Here is a picture of the Symmetrical Butterfly Template that we used. Click HERE for a FREEBIE!

Take a chennille stick and connect it.  Then staple it to the backside of the butterfly like the pictures above show.

Here are some of the finished products:)

I hope that you enjoy this little FREEBIE:)  Feel free to download and leave me a ROCKIN' note....I LOVE them!!

Have a GREAT Thursday evening!!!

"My Spring Word's" FREEBIE and I'm Back:)

Well, well, well....it's been a while!!! Sorry blogger friends....I'm BACK!!! I took a tiny break during our Spring Break week and I'm just now catching my breath from a FANTASTIC time in NYC!!!! 

The pic above is of my sister, my daughter, my niece & I at the St. Patrick's Day Parade!!! Fun times!!!

I love visiting New York, but I always forget how exhausted it makes me when I return home:)  Oh well, I'd do it all over again, in a heartbeat!!!

Onto a more 'teacherly' topic.....My Flower Pot Spring Word Craftivity!!!

Here are some pics of the finished products!

The "Firsties" LOVE doing their Word Study Practice in fun ways!!!

You will need:

"My Spring Word's" template page

2 or more different colored papers

1 white piece of construction paper

pencil

crayons

markers

scissors

glue sticks

Weekly words or Word Wall Words

Have fun with my "SPRINGY" Craftivity!!! Be patient, it takes a while for them to complete!!!

Inspiring Crafts....SNOWMAN style:)

I have seen many cute paper snowflake snowman crafts out and about....SO....I decided to incorporate a little WHOLE group "Snowflake Snowman" making in Room 21!!! 

I had a couple of ground rules though!! You MUST with FIRST graders, otherwise-CHAOS ensues!!!!

1. Follow directions.
2. Make symmetrical folds:)  Getting a little math involved in the literacy activity! 
3. Make small cuts with careful hands and first grade scissors. (Incorporated a little SHAPE talk...triangles, circles, ovals, hearts, etc.  I also had them predict what they think would happen if they made a cut at the top of the snowflake craft. i.e. It makes the snowflake have a hole in the center. Some did this, others didn't.)
4. You MUST write your weekly Word Wall Words on the snowflake and any other words off of the Word Wall with a blue crayon. (After all, this is a Literacy Word Work activity:)

Here is our finished product!!! Great practice, great fun and the Firsties LOVED it!!!

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:) 

   

 

"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!!!

"Firsties" First Field Trip

In honor of the play, Charlotte's Web, that we will be seeing this week on our field trip, I am downloading my 

Wilbur's Word Game!

 I have been reading Charlotte's Web to my students for a couple of weeks now and should be finished with the book before we go on our field trip this week.  It will be fun to compare and contrast the play and the book when we get back.  I'm anxious to see their faces during the show!!! They are already very attached to the characters in the book and for them to get to see them in a different genre will be exciting!!! 

The game directions are listed on the game sheet. Enjoy!!

PS...check back for future card games with different themes....More to come!!!