I though y'all would appreciate this... :)

Today two of my girls were having a little disagreement. We're working a lot on problem solving in our classroom, so I decided to just sit back and watch them work it out. I could see that they were not making any progress, so I started moving in their direction to help them. When I got there, I could see that one of the girls was getting pretty angry.

She stomped her foot on the ground, crossed her arms and shouted,


"If you keep on being mean like this, when you grow up...you...you...YOU WON'T GET IN TO A GOOD COLLEGE!"

I died.

I l.o.v.e. first grade. :) :) :)

WOO HOO!

I signed my contract for 2011-2012 today and am thrilled to report that I will be spending another year in first grade! I love this age and am SO happy to be staying. :)

On a sadder note, 8 teachers from our school did not have their contracts renewed due to budget cuts. Please keep these teachers and their families in your prayers and keep your fingers crossed for employment opportunities for each of them!

MeasuremANTS

Hey ladies,

We're about to start non-standard measurement, and I put together these little activities to help us practice. Selfishly, I put it on TPT (but still for FREE!) because I want to know how many people are downloading. :) Hope this is something you can use!

 

Download by clicking here. :)

What's better than a giveaway?

A double giveaway! Head on over to KindergartenWorks for a fantastic double giveaway co-hosted with DeeDee Willis!

...or don't go because I really want to win this one. ;)

You know you teach first grade when...

Love this linky party at

You know you teach first grade when...

1. You find more plastic coins than actual money in your pockets at the end of the day.
2. You know that the "s word" is not actually the "s word."
3. That song you can't get out of your head is probably from a Dr. Jean CD.
4. Where most might insert a four letter word, you use "bummer", even with your "grown-up" friends.
5. A Diet Coke (or coffee, if that's your drug of choice) is a necessity. And you know what a "three Diet Coke day" means. :)
6. No matter what my college Foods and Nutrition professor taught us, you know that sugar DOES affect behavior (so you may or may not scrape a little bit of the icing off of those ridiculous cupcake cakes...).
7. Every "a ha" moment makes up for that pair of Louboutins that's not in your closet.
8. You spend more time choosing a font/clip art than actually creating the activity or newsletter. 
9. You have yet to find something a first grade WON'T do for one Skittle. 
10. The best purchase you've made all year is a School Pro pencil sharpener.
11. You get compliments like this one...

Here goes nothing...!

Ok, friends. I've put together a mini-unit for spring. It has a math (money) game, a fraction center and a couple of writing templates. I have been SO inspired by the things that others are posting, I just had to head over to Scrappin Doodles and share in the creativity. Since this is my first attempt, I would love any feedback you have to give. Hope some of you can use it! Click here to download.

 PS - I'll probably be adding things to this all week. I just couldn't wait to put it up! :)

It was a sad day in room 113

One of our class pets died today. :(

We started the year with our little tadpole, Jacob, and two guinea pigs, Bella and Alice. (Yes, we named our class pets after Twilight characters. The kids actually chose Jacob and Bella on their own. I may have encouraged them to choose Alice for guinea pig #2...)

This morning, Bella died.

Thankfully, it happened before the kids got to school. And what did I do?


I lied.

I told the kids that I had a friend who was a teacher without a class pet and that her class was learning about animals just like we were. We all agreed that the pets helped us learn a lot about how to take care of an animal and that it was a good thing to let Bella join their class so that they could learn, too.

Question - Was I wrong? I know that death is a part of life, but I also know how attached they were to this little creature and how devastated they would be to know she died. Would you have told the truth? Or would you have created a happier story, too?

It's been a while!

Just stopping in for a second to share tomorrow's morning work. We reviewed root/base words today, and it was obvious we need to do a little more reviewing. :)

I made this little activity for practice. Hopefully it will jog their memories! Click the link below to download.

What's the Root?

One day I will have fabulous units to share like the rest of you, but I'm happy to share what I'm doing for now. :)

This must be my lucky week!

I never win anything. Seriously. Never.

UNTIL this week! I won two give aways and wanted to make sure you knew about the wonderful teachers who hosted them!

Earlier this week I won a copy of Kinder Glynn's Dr. Seuss Unit (just in time for his birthday!) and it is fantastic! So many great K-1 Dr. Seuss activities! My kids loved them all!

In that same give away, I also got to choose something from Erica Bohrer's TPT store! I chose her Laura Numeroff Author Study packet and it looks so great! Laura Numeroff is going to be my April author of the month, and I can't wait to use this resource!


Today I woke up to a comment from Janine over at Faithful in First telling me that I won a copy of Love, Pinkalicious! I adore the Pinkalicious books and can't wait to read this one!

Thanks for hosting these give aways, ladies! I'm a lucky teacher this week! :)))

I wish my camera was working!

Hey bloggy friends! I wanted to share my new Dollar Spot find with you, but something is wrong with my SD card. :( It's a good thing we have Winter Break this week so I can run out and get a new one! Anyway, photo or no photo, I found some adorable* fly swatters in the dollar section at Target this weekend. They're brightly colored and have big flowers on the back of the "swatter" part. They will be perfect to brighten up my "Read the Room" center for spring! Things don't last long in the $ section around here, so run out and get one (or three!) before they're gone!

Hopefully I'll have my camera working soon so that I can add a photo of how cute they are.

*Seriously? Only a teacher would look at a FLY SWATTER and think, "Isn't this adorable?!"

Give away!

Fabulous in First is hosting a fabulous give away! Check it out!

http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com/

Accessory Swap!

Need some new accessories for spring? Join me over at Elisabeth's blog for an accessory swap! Who doesn't love new necklaces, earrings, and scarves and getting mail that's not a bill?!












Check it out!

I love Kohls.

I went to Kohls today to pick up the Eric Carle books and stuffed animals. You really can't beat $5 for a hardback book by an author you love. Plus, I'm pretty sure the caterpillar is the cutest stuffed animal I've ever seen.

The only reason I do NOT <3 Kohls? I went in there with the intention of buying the books. $160 later, I have a new spring wardrobe. It's like Target. I swear these stores have a secret cover charge. I never just buy what's on my list. Impossible.

Shapes!

I love our math series. I really do. I think it builds a strong mathematical foundation for my students and they really seem to be grasping the concepts well. The only thing I dislike? I felt like all we did the first half of the year was add and subtract. Now, this isn't true. We graphed and interpreted data, we learned about place value and comparing numbers, but it seemed like every other chapter was addition and subtraction. SO, I was VERY happy to turn the page and find we were finally doing something else! My kids and I really enjoyed our geometry unit, and I thought I'd share a couple of the activities they enjoyed the most.

Shapes All Around Us

Picture Perfect Shapes

I or Me?

My firsties have been having a little bit of trouble deciding whether to use "I" or "me" in their sentences, so I made them a little practice. Just have the kids cut out the I's and me's and the bottom of the page and glue the correct pronoun into the blank. Nothing fancy or exciting, but it was useful for us. :)

I or Me

Groupon!

Check out the link below to get today's great Groupon - $10 for $20 at Barnes and Noble! I wish I'd found this yesterday! I was just there! I guess I'll just have to go buy some more books. ;)

50% off at Barnes and Noble!

This link takes you to the main Atlanta page. Look on the right side under "More Great Deals Nearby".

Happy shopping! :)

If you'll be my Valentine...

I love Valentine's Day in first grade. I found this adorable book today and couldn't resist picking it up for the 14th.

If You'll Be My Valentine is written by Cynthia Rylant and is a book of valentine poems written by a little boy to different loves in his life. I created a writing activity as a response to literature and I can't wait to see who my kiddos decide to write to!

If youll be my valentine writing connection

I'm going to have them draw a picture of the person they're writing to in the heart frame and write their poems on the lines below.

I put the hearts on the end of the second and fourth lines to remind my students that the last words in those lines should rhyme. :)

Sources of Light

I'm new to the teacher blogging world, but I've found so many great resources on other blogs that I thought I'd share a couple of the things I'm creating.

One of our Georgia standards is to understand light and shadows. We started this unit with a lesson on the different sources of light. I created this little book for the kids to make to read to their parents about the different sources of light.

Here's a copy of my book. Note - Staple it from the top. This is the first time I've tried creating my own book and I didn't leave enough space on the sides for it to staple nicely. Live and learn!

Light Book

Welcome!

Hello Readers!

I have been so inspired by the teacher blogs I've been reading recently that I decided to start my own. Look for ideas and activities to be posted here soon. Happy blogging!