Top 10 Things I've Learned From Teaching...

Rowdy In First Grade
1. Field trips are not always fun.
2. Every year at conference time you never really know how it's going to go, even when you're experienced.
3. Student teachers are so eager and motivating.
4. I had a hard time coming up with a boy's name for my son!!
5. I will love little bins and organizational thingys.
6. If I find a cute letterhead I buy it knowing I have *something* I can use it for.
7. I still wait until the last minute to complete report cards sometimes.
8. The school librarian can be your BEST friend.
9. I don't *do* backpacks.
10. I never lose that feeling of YES when one of my Kindergartners finally figures it out.

"My" Kids

So many times I am talking about my class and I refer to them as "my kids" but here are my REAL kids...Hayley, age 11 and Hayden, age 8. Hayley is very independent, creative, headstrong. She is on a competitive diving team and they practice 8 hours a week!! Hayden is all about Legos and Star Wars. He loves to draw and be outside. He is still my "little boy" and will *sometimes* sit in my lap and let me read to him.

St. Patrick's Day and Potatoes

This is one of my all time favorite books by Tomie!

Making our own Mr. Potato head and practicing writing color words.

Playing with and drawing Potato Heads

Weighing, comparing, observing different potatoes.

We used this to record our potato graph data.

I got this idea from Mrs. Lee! Thanks for the printables.

I laminated these color word cards and made them into booklets so the kids could practice writing their color words.

Making a food list at the kitchen center.

Color words and learning about rainbows.

I just got this book this year. Very cute!!

Extension writing activity

On Monday I couldn't find my special pointer, on Tuesday the dry erase board eraser was missing, on Wednesday there was spilled cereal on the table and on Thursday there were footprints on our tables!

But he didn't get our cookies!!

Coloring/labeling a leprechaun

I typed up simple sentences and had the kids cut them into strips and  put them in this 'fry' box. For the more advanced readers/writers, I gave them blank strips of yellow paper and had them write their own sentences.

Roll 3 dice, add the dots together, write the number.

As a cooperative group project I had the kids in groups of 3 or 4 and they were assigned a different color of the rainbow. They had to find pictures from magazines. They did a GREAT job and had fun. I purposely paired them with kids they don't usually work with.

Rainbow/pot of gold watercolor painting.

Potato stamping.

Lion/Lamb/Dr.Seuss

We brainstormed lion/lamb weather. Each day of the month we are graphing if it is a lion or lamb day.

Roll 2 dice, write the double digit number on the lamb.

From makinglearningfun.com and I added the writing part where we brainstormed rhyming words.

Got this clip art from Mrs. Lee. Each bear dentist had a specific number of teeth and the kids had to x out boxes for each bear sheet.

Roll 3 dice and put them in order, smallest, middle, largest numeral

Rhyming pairs

After reading the ABC book by Dr. Seuss we did our own page for a class book. We used picture dictionaries to help with words.

I used all green Easter eggs and put a cut up high frequency word in each. The kids had to 'crack' the egg, fix the word then write.

Illustrating/labeling March words.

The kids found their favorite Dr. Seuss character and made a model out of play doh then drew a picture of what they  sculpted. Several of the kids wrote, too.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish math with colored goldfish crackers.

The kids had a choice with this center. They could find crazy Dr. Seuss characters and illustrate OR find nonsense words and write them.

My version of Green Eggs and Ham. NOT HEALTHY. Two pink wafer cookies for ham, a vanilla wafer covered in white frosting and a green skittle for the yolk.