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Sunday, September 23, 2012

A Little Peek at our Week

Here’s a little look at what we did this week. 

Math Stations to Introduce Addition

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Reviewing Beginning Sounds

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Comparing and Contrasting

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(This venn diagram is part of my Houghton Mifflin Theme 1 Resource Pack available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  Click here to check it out!)

Animal Sorting Center
Check it out here in my TPT store.

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Have a great week, friends!  Enjoy the fall weather!  Keep sparkling!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Fun with Color Words {Freebie!} + Giveaway

Happy Sunday! For the last few weeks we have been learning color words in my class.  This has been soooo much fun and surprisingly is helping to build a family atmosphere in our room.  Let me explain:

Each day, we focus on one color word.  The first color was red.  So, on red day everyone wore red, we had Hawaiian Punch as our red snack, we read Clifford, The Big Red Dog, we did the two red pages in our "Color Word Packet," and we drew a red food and wrote about it in our "Taste the Rainbow" mini-book.  We are following this pattern for each color, which lasts for 11 days. 
My students really love our color days.  On pink day, lots of them walked in asking, "What will our pink snack be today?"  Sadly, we are finishing this unit tomorrow and Tuesday.  I know my firsties will be sad to see it come to an end.  Another sad part of ending our color words is that some of the unity that comes with dressing alike will be lost.  It was so nice when other classes noticed we were all in the same color.  Even nicer was going to an assembly and knowing which kids were mine by the color of their shirt, lol!

Here are some pictures of what we did:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Click on the pictures below to head to Google docs and download your free copies of the parent letter telling parents what color their children should wear for each day.  Also included is a list of the books I use for each color as well as the snack I provide for each color.
 


Why not go all in and check out my color words packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers store?  For only 4 bucks, you'll have plenty of activities for each color of the rainbow!  Click on the picture below to head to my store and check it out.

 
In other news, I'm participating in yet one more giveaway!  You have another chance at winning Bushels of Learning {Math Centers to Practice Dot Patterns, Ten Frames, & MORE}.
 
 
 
To enter, click the picture below to head on over to Diving into Learning and check out the rest of the great prizes up for grabs!
 
 
Good luck, thanks for looking, and keep sparkling!
 

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Another Big Giveaway!

Happy Saturday!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend!  I'm spending it getting caught up on chores around the house, planning for next week, and spending much needing quality time with family.  I am also happy to announce that I am participating in Latoya's giveaway over at Flying into First Grade.  There are 13 teacher bloggers participating, so be sure to hop on over and enter, enter, enter.  I have donated my Bushels of Learning {Math Centers to Practice Dot Patterns, Ten Frames, & MORE} packet.  This packet is awesome to use at this time of year.  My kiddos are loving it.  
Click the picture below to hop on over to Flying into First Grade to enter the giveaway.
 
Click the picture below to check out my Bushels of Learning packet in my TPT store.
 
 
Good luck in the giveaway and keep sparkling!

                           

Thursday, September 13, 2012

A Huge Giveaway


Hurry, friends!  Heather at Peacocks and Penguins is having a HUGE giveaway! Click the picture above to head over to her blog and enter for your chance to win one of MANY prizes, including my set of 20 Spelling Printables to Use with Any Spelling Words.  Click on the picture below to check it out in my TPT store.
Keep sparkling!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Gearing Up for Another Week

Happy Sunday, friends.  Have the Sunday blues set in yet?  Hopefully you're enjoying your day and you have your lessons all planned for the week.

Do you use Houghton Mifflin for your core language arts program in your district?  It is what we use in my district.  This week, we will officially begin Theme 1.  Hopefully I won't offend anyone when I say that it can be a little dry without some creative supplementing.  While planning for the week, I was so glad I was able to pull ideas and materials from my Theme 1 Resource Pack for activities and ideas. 
 
 
This resource is packed with activities for high-frequency words, phonics skills, and comprehension activities.  It contains 2 centers as well as a fun game for your kiddos to play. 
 
 
All of this for only $5.00.  Check it out to make planning for Houghton Mifflin so much easier!  Just click on the picture above to head over to my TPT store. 
If you're not a Houghton Mifflin user, the centers contained within this packet are also available to purchase separately in my TPT store
 
Stay tuned this week for another freebie.  Keep sparkling!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Bushels of Math Fun and a {Freebie}


Here in PA, it is apple harvest season.  While the weather outside is still pretty muggy, before we know it we'll be enjoying apple festivals and feasting on locally grown gala apples, fugi apples, and lots, lots more.
Speaking of apples, I just so happen to have an apple-themed math center packet featured in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  It is packed with 5 math centers perfect for the skills our firsties are learning at this time of year.  Check them out:
 
This is our current math center.  We are practicing using ten-frames to count easily.
 
We definitely need to practice dot patterns!
 
 



 

 
Just looking at these pies makes me hungry!
 
 
Check out these tasty centers by clicking the picture below 
 

Onto the freebie:
This year I created my own center signs.  Here are some snapshot of a few:


 
If you'd like my center signs, bundled right along with mini-versions to use on your center work board, click below to download them from Google Docs.
 
Enjoy and Keep Sparkling!
 
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Fun with Chrysanthemum and Friends

This week has FLOWN by!  We have been having so much fun reading books by Kevin Henkes, learning color words, reviewing the alphabet, getting to know each other, using ten-frames and dot patterns, and the list goes on and on and on and on.
 
A big hit has been Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  My kiddos LOVE this book, which just melts my heart because of the important message it sends.  I am lucky enough to have both a SMARTboard in my classroom as well as a subscription to BookFlix.  My district is really emphasizing incorporating technology as much as possible, so......we read Chrysanthemum on BookFlix and used the SMARTboard for one of our follow-up activities. I have to say, the SMARTboard is simply awesome.  There is no other word to describe it. 
Here are some scenes from our 2 days with Chrysanthemum:
Deciding how many of the letters in our name are in the alphabet
 
 
Autograph Party and Letter Count
 
 Using a venn diagram to compare and contrast the letters in our names
I used the SMARTboard by pulling up this PDF and just using the SMART markers to complete the diagram.  We were able to compare/contrast LOTS of names.
 
Our homework assignment: Find out how you got your name
 
 
The Great Name Graph
 
 
If you haven't yet purchased my Chrysanthemum packet, check it by clicking on the picture below.
 
We also read Wemberly Worried and created a great craftivity I found at Mrs. T's blog.  Check it out here.
On Tuesday, we will be reading Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse as a part of our Fun with Color Words unit.  I'll blog about that unit next week.

Have a great weekend!  Stay posted because I have two great NEW freebies coming soon!

Keep sparkling!