Five for Friday, Freebies and Only One More Week!!!

It is officially Friday and exactly One WEEK before I am rehearsing for MY WEDDING!!!  I'm so stankin' excited!  I've waited a really long time for this day - I feel like the happiest girl on Earth!  I have to say, I feel pretty calm and prepared for our shindig.  Now being prepared for a sub...that's another story!

In math we are continuing to compose shapes and I am slowly starting to introduce 3-D shapes into the mix.  Today, we did a 2-D and 3-D shape sort.

Once we were done sorting as a whole group, they completed an independent activity in their interactive notebooks.  

Next week we are going to look more closely at 3-D shapes.  A sweet parent came in and made a class set of cubes for one of the many fun activities I plan on doing - stay tuned!

After whole group we broke into centers.  I have this cute egg puzzle center that I made FOREVER ago.  

The pieces are really small...and let's face it, my firsties needed a little more rigor in their equations.

 They completed the task all too quickly.

So I redid the center, made the pieces a little larger and made it more "first grade friendly."

You can get it for free HERE!

We are also continuing to work on word problems.  We do one every day.

I redid those as well to make them a little more printer friendly.

These are also FREE and you can get them HERE!

Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!

Don't forget to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to talk about your Five for Friday!

Five for Friday, Wedding Belles, Composing Double Digit Numbers and Freebies - Oh MY!

This was the longest week!  Scott and I drove the 10 hours down to Florida last weekend for a Jack and Jill bridal shower and I'm still trying to catch up!

My future mother-in-laws sweet friends threw it for us...

Now we have only 2 MORE WEEKS!!!  AGHHH!!

(totally not freaking out...)

Sandy Welch from Kinder-Gardening mentioned to me that she has only boys and she is afraid she'll miss everything because she has no girls - NOT SO!

My future mother-in-law has been around for everything.  From picking out the wedding dress to help plan the wedding, she has been there.  

So have no fear, Sandy, you're not going to miss out on a THING! :)

It's been so much fun...I don't want it to end :(

Getting back in the swing of things...

We started on composing double digit numbers.  Now, I'm a newbie to first grade...I taught K for five years and first for two years before that.  When I taught first grade back in the day they didn't have double digit addition and subtraction.  So I needed something that was going to help me help them...if that makes sense.

If you follow my blog regularly, you probably already know about the SEVERE lack of copies provided to us.  SO, I had my teacher's assistant make the flaps to help my friends remember the order in which to add.  First, I had them record the two digit equation onto their recording sheets...

Then, they slide the equation under the flaps...

They lift the first flap and record the answer.  They lift the second flap and record the answer.  Repeat.

I have math groups that work together to I made sure each group got their own bucket of equations.

Now that I look back...I would have printed them on some fun colored paper...

If y'all want a copy of this, you can get it HERE..

It's not very fancy...but it does the trick!  

(Pssst...Print it on colored paper!)

We've also opened up a geometry unit.  My students needed a lot of review and I just happened to have a pack from when I taught kindergarten.

I have this sort for free.  If you want it, click HERE and go to the Preview...you'll find it in there!  Hurry - it's only for a limited time!

AAhhh...the sweet sound of Friday!

Have a great one friends!  and don't forget to link up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday!

Author's Purpose and a Freebie

Whooo forgot it was Picture Daaaayyy???

THIS GIRL!!

I usually try to look halfway decent for a picture day but it totally wasn't on my mind that morning.  And as per usual, I came to school with my hair lookin like a hot mess.

We were focusing on author's purpose this week and one of the other teachers gave me a cute idea.  I have a ton of those scholastic newspapers left over all the time and she said she saw on Pinterest where the students cut out the books and place them under whether they are persuasion, informational or entertainment.  So I decided to give it a try.

They folded a piece of construction paper in half and cut it into three different pieces.  Then they wrote persuade, inform and entertain on the front of the flaps.

Then they got to cutting...

It turned out pretty cute.  It was interesting because they said the books that come with the toys are persuasion because they are trying to get you to buy the book by USING the toy.  Made sense.

I made some anchor charts to hang up in my room so we can continue to refer to them as we read.  You can get them HERE for free :)

Hang on tight - it's almost FRIDAY!

Behavior Management and a FREEBIE

I've been implementing the "clip chart" for several years now.  I first heard about it from an RTI training YEARS ago and the idea just grew from then.  I got this wonderful chart from another fabulous blogger but for the life of me I can't remember who.  

My students love to make every attempt to reach the Hall of Fame!  It works like a charm - for most of them.  You see, I have one little friend who is a little more challenging than the others.  He either makes it to yellow and thinks it's end all be all and there's no coming back from it or he forgets 2 minutes later and goes back to doing what he wasn't supposed to be doing in the first place!  He just needs a little something extra - but I wanted to keep the same color system with him.  

Enter the stick system!

Some girls I worked with last year did something similar so I just revamped it to make it work for me.  Every day my little friend starts out with 10 sticks.  

If he is not following directions or I have to redirect him, etc, I take a stick (rather than moving his color directly to yellow.)  But if he is making good choices and going above and beyond his "call of duty," I give him a stick.  So, it basically works just like the color chart only with sticks.  So here's what his chart looks like...

The kicker is that he is still able to maintain a green unless he gets down to 5, then at that point he's on yellow, and so forth.  And, he can also get colors beyond green when he has more than 10 at the end of the day.  In all honesty, it has worked REALLY well with him - and for me!  Even when I take a stick, he looks at his chart and sees that there is still hope for him at the end of the day!  Before when I used his clip and he went directly to yellow, his behavior would almost go into overdrive!  I was going NUTS!  But now, he sees he has more of a chance, and somehow (by the grace of God) he calms down.  He just needs a little more redirection than the others :) 

And lastly, my friends have been asking about a new Stone Scoop!

What was I thinking??

I found the green pail and the shamrock stickers at Michael's at 40% off.  The stones were $3 I think.  I've been so impressed with the way my students are using their minds and creating words that I included blends, digraphs and bonus letters.  If y'all want a copy you are more than welcome to get it HERE.

Let me know if y'all have any good ideas for behavior management!  I'd love to hear about it!

  

Five for Friday!

I'm liking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday!

I feel like things have been such a whirl-wind!  I flew out to Florida last weekend to celebrate my upcoming wedding with my favorite ladies!  In other words, they threw me a Bachelorette Party.  They pulled out all the stops y'all!  They really went above and beyond to make me feel so special!  And when my sister dropped me off the the airport on Sunday, I just BooHooed the WHOLE.  WAY.  HOME.  I'm serious.  A sweet lady sitting next to me on the flight handed me a box of tissues and told me to keep them!  But then she started asking me questions and talking to me and believe it or not, I stopped crying and started to feel a little better.  I found out that she was a retired school teacher coming back from vacation with her husband - go figure!

But the weekend wasn't all about a crazy party.  I got to spend quality time with my favorite people.  I've been so homesick!!! 

I got to go to my nephew's soccer game and spend time with my niece.  Isn't she presh???

My girls threw a monogram and margarita party for me and they all brought me the most adorable things with my new monogram on them!

We went to the beach.  The sun felt so good!  It was the running joke that I was so pale!  I think one of the girls wrote #snowflake on facebook!  We had such a fun time.

My crazy cousin that I've rolled with since birth...

My sweet sister who pulled the whole weekend together (yes we have the same mother and father) and my two besties I've been friends with for over 10 years...

My wonderful, lovely ladies...

Of course I didn't tell my students where I was going (what kind of teacher would I be :)  So I had them write where they thought I was.  I thought this was so stankin cute!

I like how she said we were going to see the sunset!

Then I got a sweet surprise this week from the future MR.

How could I NOT want to marry a man like this??  One of my students looks at me and says, "Mr. Scott is SO SWEET!"  I would agree.

I blogged about these a while ago and wanted them SO BAD for my bridesmaids but couldn't find them at an affordable price.  My girl Carrie at Ink and Thread HOOKED.ME.UP.  Not only did she give me a discount on the cups, but she also didn't charge me for the monogram!!  Thanks Carrie!

I'm off to Florida again next weekend for another shower!  Oh how I miss Florida!  The sun is FINALLY out up here in North Carolina so a friend and I are taking advantage and going hiking.  Don't forget to link up and talk about your week!

Have a fabulous weekend my friends!