Great Teacher Find!!!

Shopping today, minding my own business...and guess what popped out at me???? You guessed it...Scotch Brite Whiteboard Erasers!!!!  I'm gonna LOVE them this year in my classroom!!! Just thought that I would share this wonderful TEACHER find:)

"ZERO 1st Grade Day's Left!!"

On Thursday, my Firsties and I celebrated our last day together!!! We had half of a day to tie up the loose end's on our Calendar Wall....which they LOVED!!!  Every day we charted our "Growing Number" and determined what color of day it would be according to the weather.  This helped them understand the thermometer and the effect the weather/seasons had on our temperature.  We were at day #180!!!  With that number, they were able to make $1.80 in change using quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  (Counting coins can be very tricky for First Graders, but since we had this practice as part of our routine from day #1, my students had a pretty good grasp on adding money.)  With the number 180, we also built our Base Ten Blocks with flats, longs and units.  This practice helps them to learn place value and number relations.  We then would chart how many days we had left in First Grade....this was a BIG HIT with my Firsties!!!  At the beginning of the year, we started with 180 and of course, on Thursday, we ended up with ZERO!!!  We always wrote the written date, the digital date and we would locate the correct place on the calendar to write the number.  (Yesterday was Wednesday the 1st, so today must be ?????, the ????)  And of course, we couldn't end our Calendar Wall activity without doing a very "Third Grade" way of writing our Growing Number....180.  It would look something like this.....100 + 79 + 2 - 1 = 180 OR 7 quarters and 1 nickel = $1.80 OR 180 x 1 = 180!!! My student's love to try to think like a Third Grader and be the one with "out of the box" way to make that number!!!

I enjoy this time with them....it starts our day....sets the tone and gets us off to a great LEARNING start!!!  I'm going to miss them....but I'm going to LOVE my summer:)  After all, I have to get ready for Growing Number ONE!!!

WooHoo.....my LAST Friday with my Firsties....

I see summer coming!!!  I am so excited!  Today is my last Friday with my Firsties:)  They have been an awesome group and I am going to miss them so much!  I hope the day goes by quickly with lots of learning and laughter!!!

...really....it's the end of the year??? already....

I cannot believe how very S.L.O.W. and how very fast this year has been!!! It's hard to believe that we have less than two weeks of school left and Summer 2011 is on!!!! Although, I am extremely happy and looking forward to a nice summer break, this time of year is always bittersweet to me as a teacher.   I love my little "firsties" so much and they have come so far that it is hard to see them move on!!!  I just hope that next year's group is as special and fun as this years!!!

Word Wall Concentration Game for Week 11...

Concentration Game

Try this Concentration Game as an added activity to help your 1st grade students become more successful with their weekly word wall words.  Just print out a copy for each student in your classroom and have them cut the cards apart, image and word together, to have a set of cards to play with.  Each student should have 8 cards in total.  It is played the same as the traditional concentration game is played.  Players combine their concentration cards together and place them face down on a table or the group rug and take turns turning over two cards to find a match.  If a player finds a match, they may go again until they turn over two cards that are not a match.  The player with the most matches wins the game!! 


**Note: You must model the correct way to play the game for your students to ensure that they are getting the full educational value out of the game.  For example,  I have my students spell the words as they turn over the matching set.  They may not keep it if they cannot tell their partner what the word is or if they cannot spell the word.


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"1st" Blog Post

Welcome to my first "1st Grade Blog" post!!!  For some time, I have "blogged" as a form of expression and in hopes of keeping a family journal.  I love doing it and it allows me to reflect on my life, which is never a bad thing!!!  But....I've have wanted to start a "school/teacher" blog also in hopes of sharing ideas with other teachers.  Teaching is a wonderful profession that gets at times, a bad wrap!  If you are a teacher that teaches because you are passionate about the education of children and you want to get ideas from other passionate teachers, then you are in the right place!!!  Only positive comments about teaching will be represented here! In fact, my goal is to share ideas and activities...not ideological views on teaching!  The best way to teach children is from your heart...and my heart has been in it since I was in the 1st grade!!!  Thank you Mrs. Palmer for fostering the desire in me!!!