Christmas Center Packet

My Christmas center packet is FINALLY finished! WooHoo! I have a free preview available at my TPT store where you can also purchase the entire packet. 

Christmas Time - Math and Literacy Centers

A Week of Spider Fun

This week during Writer's Workshop, it was all about those creepy, crawly 8-legged arachnids. Spiders had my students going "spider crazy." This was our first "focused" informational writing. In other words, I didn't let my students choose what animal to write about like usual. I pretty much told them we were all going to write about spiders this week. While I was a little nervous about giving them only one topic, they did an amazing job! I read books about spiders, showed pictures of spiders, watched movies about spiders, etc... we were ALL about spiders! I just wanted to share a few pictures of the things we did.

I read the book Spiders by Gail Gibbons and filled out this fantastic chart with the students. I read over the questions first, and told the students to listen for the answers. As I was reading, they would raise their hands when they heard an answer. They used these charts while they were writing their books.

We also created a Can Have Are chart about spiders so the students could reference it while they were writing.

Please ignore my handwriting... 

Instead of using the chart idea, my amazing classroom neighbor, Mrs. Murdock, made a spider chart of a different fashion. It looks amazing! She gave each group of students a "leg" and had them write facts that they learned from one of the spider books. 

Our completed spider books and hallway display! They did an amazing job! 

We needed a bigger web!

Adorable! 

 (I traced a plain old paper plate to get the size of the spider I wanted, then I cut lined paper to fit inside.) 

I wish I would've taken a picture of some of my students' completed pages of their books. 

If you have not written about spiders yet, I suggest you write about them soon. The kiddos LOVED them!

Check out my Pinterest Halloween board for a few more spider ideas you can use.  

Have a fabulous weekend bloggie friends! 

Halloween Candy Corn

We made our candy corn sun catchers today and they turned out really cute! They look so good in my classroom windows.

Here's what we did...
1. I placed a sheet of contact paper and a black outline on each student's desk (see previous post for a link to Lindsey's blog).
2. I gave the students the orange, yellow, and white tissue paper squares and let them "go to town" creating their candy corn.
3. Students *carefully* cut out their candy corn.
4. Hung them in our windows and gawked at our new Halloween decorations.

Here are a few pictures.

The finished product (before he cut it out). 

I really wish I could show you his face because he is chEEEEsin' in this picture! 

He was so proud! 

The kiddos did a great job and they turned out really good. 

(Please ignore the dirty window and the awful view we have.)

Check out The Teacher Wife for the patterns and a tutorial for the way she completed this project. 

Have a great night,

TGIalmostF

Hallelujah that tomorrow is Friday! My school had Open House and PTO Tuesday night, so this week has seemed to drag by. Isn't that how it always goes?!!?

Since Fridays are usually easy-going days, I like to do a fun craft or activity with my students. Tomorrow we are going to create candy corn "sun catchers" like the ones on The Teacher Wife. 

However, after trying to make a sample to show my kids, I decided to make them a little differently. 

I'm going  to use Lindsey's templates, but use contact paper instead of wax paper and an iron.

Guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow. 

If it's not TOO crazy while we're making them tomorrow, I'll try to take some pictures and share them with you.

Have a fantastic night! 

Fall-Fabulous Giveaway

The ladies over at First Grade Fanatics are hosting a giveaway in celebration of their new items available on TPT. The packets are so stinkin' cute, I couldn't wait to enter the giveaway in hopes of winning them!
Go check them out!

So Honored!

I have been nominated for 2 awards by the lovely Tammy over at Klinger Cafe! I feel so honored (I'm new to the whole "blogging" thing and am just trying to keep my head above water!) I have been nominated for the Blog on Fire Award and the Versatile Blogger Award.

Being nominated means I get to share 7 things about myself and share 10 of my top blogs (most of which have already been nominated, but I have lots of choices due to all the "awesome-ness" in BlogLand!)
1. I have been trying to give up sugary drinks and just stick to water, but that's so hard when getting up at 5:30 every morning! Sometimes I just can't turn down my diet sunkist!
2. I live and teach in country singer Luke Bryan's  hometown of Leesburg, GA.
3. I have been dating the same guy for 5 years... still no ring. No hurry!
4. I cannot read a book during the school year. I fall asleep before finishing a paragraph! (Still not sure how I got my Master's last year with all the reading/writing I had to do!)
5. Fall is my favorite time of year. Cool weather, the smell of freshly dug peanuts (South Georgia girl here!), white cotton fields, bonfires, etc. How could you NOT love fall?!?!?!
6. I love crime dramas on TV. Law and Order:SVU, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Rizzoli and Isles, The Closer, etc. Can't get enough of them!
7. I am only 5 feet tall and have a younger sister that is taller than me. (She also tans more easily than me!) Not fair!

A few of my Top 10 Blogs: (I only have 124 blogs on my Google Reader!)
Fabulous in First
Pirates Life for Us
Castles and Crayons
Schoolgirl Style
Schroeder Page
The Adventures of Miss Elisabeth
Plug and Plan
Sailing Through First Grade
Ms. Preppy
Persnickety Pickles

Thanks so much for the honor Tammy!

I Did It!

I have finally opened my Teachers Pay Teachers store that I've been talking about forever. Check it out here!

I hope to add more items over the weekend. My goal is to create a Christmas-themed set of stations available for download closer to Christmas. Hope you can use the things I have created!

Welcome to Pirate's Cove!

Classroom photos linky party? Yes please! TBA is having a party here and I couldn't wait to join in.

Open House was tonight, therefore my classroom looks the best it will look this year RIGHT now. Not that I don't love having my students in the classroom, but we all know they can wreck havoc on a neatly organized classroom at times.  Lots of pictures follow...

My classroom library (the zebra print rug was leftover from my jungle theme I had the past three years).

Close-up of the sign and the "netting" in the "cove" created by my sister.

Our behavior cards (and our pirate book by the lovely Deanna Jump). Ignore the ugly white boxes. Had to cover up my kiddos names. 

Classroom view from the front of my room (ignore the "snails" on the desks.) 

The students' bag of gold and "homework."

Books for the first day/week of school.

Work Board

 View from the other side of the room. 

Hall passes and Writing area (notice the cute bottle of sanitizer... I got that as a gift today from one of my new sweeties).

My teacher area. Got rid of my desk that collected junk and took up space. I think I'm going to love this set up... and yes I have a binder issue. I love them.... and no, they will not stand up on my shelves. It drives me CRAZY!

A few framed posters I found online. 

Station board and Math Wall. The baskets on the table were for Open House and the multiple forms parents have to fill out before they can leave.  (Random tidbit - After the first 15 minutes of Open House tonight, our power went off for about 15-20 minutes. Thank goodness my classroom has windows so were weren't completely in the dark!)

The outside wall and sign-in table. 

My banner in the hallway. The first grade hall is called "Frog Freeway," hence the frog on my banner. 

I met my kids tonight and love them already. I just know it's going to be a great year :o) 

Classroom Pictures

Today was the first day back to school for teachers. Can't believe my summer is over! When I got to school this morning, I swear I walked in circles for about 15 minutes because I didn't know where to start! I snapped a few pictures of the completed areas of my room, but left out the areas that were in complete chaos when I left today. We have Open House Thursday afternoon and the first day of school is on Friday.

My class rules.

Pocket Chart Station and Welcome banner

Work Station Board

Math Wall

I also got my class list today so I was able to start labeling the 4,000 things that need names on them. I am hoping to get my classroom library (Pirate's Cove) fixed up tomorrow, but I am NOT looking forward to sorting my books!

My first Linky Party

Oh Boy Fourth Grade is having a Linky Party about what you are doing "currently".  This is the first linky party I've participated in and I am so excited. Let's hope I do this right....

Google Docs isn't cooperating with me so this JPEG will have to do for now. Guess my first Linky Party wasn't a success. Oh well, better luck next time! :o) 

Oops

So I know two days have passed since I said I would upload photos of my classroom, but I forgot my camera when I went up to the school. The insane heat in South Georgia is melting my brain, I swear! I promise that I will get pictures taken and loaded as soon as possible (like next week, because I vowed to stay away from the school during the last few days of summer vacation!) I plan to do absolutely nothing for the next four days in order to prepare myself for the upcoming 180 days.

Here We Go

This is going to be my first attempt at a blog where I can share my experiences as a first grade teacher. After "blog-stalking" for about 6 months, I figured it was about time I give having my own blog a try. Please bear with me as I do my best to make this blog 1/4 of the "amazing-ness" of the blogs I "stalk."  


I hope to soon have pictures of my classroom. I'm heading in tomorrow to do a few more things. School starts on August 12th. Only a few more days to go!