A CouPle of ApPle ArT PRojEcTs!

We love to have apple and pumpkin projects hanging up in the fall. Here are a couple of apple projects that the kids made by folding paper in half and tracing half of an apple shape. I love how unique and different they turn out!

Apple Facts Cloze Activity

This is a cloze activity to use after the Apple Facts Power Point. We are going to glue them to a large cutout of an apple made from bulletin board paper. . .

Click here for Apple Facts Activity. . .

Here it is completed. . .

Apple Facts Power Point

 
Click here for Power Point-Revised

Anticipation Guide

In my classroom we have been learning how to activate our schema. Our class had already started a KWL for apples, so I knew they had some schema already. I did this anticipation guide for my class with an apple book I had. We read through the statements first and decided if it was true or false. I had the students show me a red card if they thought it was false, and the green card if they thought it was true. This helped me quickly assess, which students thought what. While we were reading we stopped to check our answers. Those that were incorrect we fixed. We also made the false statements true, by changing the wording.

LInky Party

So here is my cute thirty-one bag. My best friend sells this stuff and I had never heard of it before then. We live in a small bubble, in our little city. Polka dots is my favorite. So me...

I love this bag, most days it is bulging with books, and homework. I always tell myself I am not going to take anything home, but it is always filled to capacity when I walk out the door. Sometimes I wonder if it is going to break, but it holds strong.:)

Here is all the stuff I can't live without. My droid, my iPod touch, charger, thumb drives, and my fave lip gloss. I would absolutely die if I couldn't listen to Pandora everyday. The best invention ever...

Here is my yummy snack and my water bottle. Love that water bottle.

My school keys and yep another thumb drive... Gotta store all my crap somewhere. I also have a drop box account, which is almost full. My little bro gave me this lanyard when I graduated college, which was a while ago. It is getting a little shabby, but I can't seem to get rid of it.

The plethora of books that I am trying to use and read. A little bit of light reading, right? My cute husband has threatened to throw them in the toilet. I stay up way to late reading and blog hopping.

Gotta have these... These are my favorite pens to use. I use them late night to mark all the great ideas that I am going to try to implement into my classroom. I have such good intentions:)

Shapes...

So today in Math we were learning about shapes. We have already learned about the circle, square, and triangle. Today we were supposed to learn about the rectangle. We do Saxon Math at our school. We learn about angles, and compare and contrast shapes, blah, blah, blah. In our lesson the students are also supposed to look around the room and find examples of rectangles. Fun right... Well in the heat of the moment, I got this super idea to use the iPod touches to take pictures of all the shapes we have already learned. So much funner than looking around the room for examples, right??? I grouped the students into five groups of 3 to 4, gave them an iPod and sent them off to take pictures. They loved, loved, loved it!!! Here is our shape slide show. I threw this slide show together in ten minutes, using Smilebox while the kiddos were out at recess.

Make a free slideshow design

Daily Five Choice Cards-Read to Self, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, Word Work (clip art from Scrappin Doodles)

Here are the cards for the Daily 5 Pocket Chart system I am using for the children to track their choices for Daily 5 during the day. It is working out wonderfully! There is a picture on an earlier post of the pocket chart.

Click here for Read to Someone!

Click here for Word Work!

Click Here for Work on Writing!

Click here for Read to Self!

Click here for Listen to Reading!

DJ Inkers Community Bears Matching Activity

I love DJ Inkers clip art! They have a cute download of "Community Bears". I decided to make a  matching activity to go with them.
 Community Bear Cards
 Community Bear Job Descriptions

Backwards ABC song

I found this song on you tube to help my students keep their interest during our handwriting instruction. I told them that I had always wanted to learn how to sing the alphabet backwards. (Secretly, I'm a little embarrassed that I don't already know how. I do teach first grade you know!) They have really enjoyed it. I play it each Monday before we move on to the nitty gritty of correct pencil grip and letter formation. I am amazed at how quickly they have picked it up.


Enjoy!

Handwriting

Mrs. Wills has come up with a wonderful resource that I am going to hand to parents at our SEP conferences in a couple of weeks. We decided late last spring that we needed to make time to explicitly teach handwriting. We have discovered that so many of our students were struggling to write. Check out what Mrs. Willis has so graciously shared with us!

Visit Mrs. Willis Kindergarten for your copy.

Millions of Minutes

Our reading specialist this year has challenged our school to read 2,000,000 minutes. I was supposed to come up with a way to track how many minutes my class and I have read. Honestly, this fall was WAY crazier than it should have been. I just saw this posted at The Teacher Wife. It has got me thinking. I will keep you posted on what I come up with. SHHHHH! Don't tell my team members, they just might come up with something before I do!

End of the Year Morning Work

Late last year, I came upon this post from Mrs. Patton's Patch about how her team made good things bags, and I thought I would try it. My classroom was working on being torn down, the kids were ready for a change. They LOVED it. My team members were a little miffed that I didn't share the idea. I liked it well enough that I am planning on doing it again. Sorry, I didn't think to take any pictures or I would share. Check it out!

Text to Self Connections

We love OWEN! It is so easy for children to make Text to Self Connections. I asked them to bring their "connection" item from home and I am taking a picture while they are holding it. I am going to glue it to the box on this paper.

Click here for Owen!

More Daily 5 . . .

I liked Camille's idea for having the children play a role in keeping track of their own Daily 5 choices so much, that I decided to put my own spin on it using materials that I had on hand-

The pocket chart was originally a behavior chart (the type with the colored cards) from Lakeshore Learning, and I downloaded the clip art from Scrappin Doodles. The children choose and keep track of their Daily 5 choice by inserting the matching cards behind their name. They LoVe it!

Daily 5...

My first post... I am so excited to share with you my Daily 5 checkoff board. I just started using it today, and it was totally slick. When the students get to school as part of their morning routine, they pick their Daily 5 choices for that day. Right now we are only doing 2 rounds of Daily 5, because we are still building stamina. Every student in my class also does writing for the last Daily 5, so that is why they can only pick it once throughout the week. I like the board, because I have some control over their choices and the best part is they don't even know:) In years past, I always had students asking have I done read to self today or they would pick the same Daily 5 all the time. This way, they know what they have chosen and they have to pick certain ones more often throughout the week.

Lesson Plans

My Updated Lesson Plan Templates
The links should open in Word so they can be customized

About 3 years ago we started making our own plan books in Microsoft Word instead of buying a plan book. One day it just occurred to us-we were spending a lot of time filling in times and titles of things that never change. Now we can customize it to fit our schedule each year, and spend the time actually writing down the details of what we are doing, instead of having to fill in the other "stuff."

http://www.mediafire.com/?b7hjz71uxvbcqo4


http://www.mediafire.com/file/4ihrdgfmdalqvy0/Lesson%20Plans%20Side%20B%202011%20newest%20version.doc

Behavior Board

Behavior lotto board for whole class on task behavior. I am going to circle or place a sticky note to reinforce great behavior for the class as a unit. When the board is full, I am going to bring a treat.

Behavior Board

3 Kinds of Desk Totes

Here are 3 different solutions to keeping the children's supplies organized. . .

The top tote can be purchased at Home Depot.
The other two are available from Really Good Stuff.