Favorite Pins Friday - July 12

I am linking up again with Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade for Favorite Pins Friday.

 

Here are my favorites this week...

 

I love, love, love plastic storage bins.  I should buy stock in Sterilite with how many I buy.  I found this cute, easy way to decorate them with ducktape - simple and more fashionable.

 

Source: http://fifthgradefrenzies.blogspot.com/search/label/classroom%20organization

 

I found this great monthly calendar with lots of space for writing. I thought this would be perfect to lay out the weekly standards and use for planning. And the best part, it's free!

Source: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/2013-2014-School-Calendar-722168

 

 

I use the Clip Chart system in my classroom and stumbled upon this form the other day to explain poor behavior to parents. I had a form I've been using the last few years, but this one is a little easier for the kiddos to fill out and a half sheet so it saves paper!

Source: http://shop.atozteacherstuff.com/downloads/red-notes-to-parents-for-behavior-management-and-classroom-behavior-agreement-plan.html



 

This story looks adorable and is recommended to use for teaching persuasive writing and how to write letters. I'm always looking for new books for the classroom and I'll be adding this one to my list!

Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-day-the-crayons-quit-drew-daywalt/1113054468?ean=9780399255373

 

I'm looking forward to exploring data notebooks this year for students.  I found this awesome website with a number of great ideas of how to use them in the classroom.

 

Source: http://welcometofirstgraderoom5.blogspot.com/2012/06/data-folders.html

 

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!



 







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10 Pin Linky Party - Social Studies and Science Ideas

I've linked up with Ashley Reed over at Just Reed and joined in on her 10 Pin Linky Party. Check out her site for more info. 

 

Below are my Ten Favorite Science and Social Studies Pinterest Pins:

 

 

1. I love The Cloud Book as a way to talk about different clouds and Fun in First Grade has wonderful activities and ideas for teaching weather.

 

Source: http://fun-in-first.blogspot.com/search/label/Weather

 

 

2. Rain Experiment - using a clear cup, water, shaving cream, and food coloring. First, fill the cup with water and put shaving cream on the top. Then, squirt some drops of food coloring in and see how it moves through the cloud and as it gets heavier it looks like rain.

 

Source: http://mrskarensclass.blogspot.com/search/label/Squishy%20Art

 

 

3. Love this flip book to show the phases of the moon.

Source: http://mrsschmelzer.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-04-30T10:04:00-05:00&max-results=7

 

 

4. Love the science book lists on this site. Great way to tie in informational text with science experiments and lessons.

Source: http://gingersnapstreatsforteachers.blogspot.com/2011/09/favorite-science-books-science-week.html

 

 

5. Science Notebook - Love that kids can record thoughts and predictions while working on experiments.

 

Source: http://rockinteachermaterials.blogspot.com/search/label/science

 

6. Cute social studies book to talk about geography and the United States.

Source: http://misskingsechantedkingdom.blogspot.com/2013/06/mentor-text-linky-social-studies.html

 

 

7.  I use this page every President's Day. I love seeing the different answers the kiddos give for what they would do if they were President of the United States.

Source: http://growingkinders.blogspot.com/2011/02/presidents-day.html

 















 

8. Cute voting activities at this site. Great books and activities to introduce and explain Election Day.

Source: http://mrswilliamsonskinders.blogspot.com/2011/11/election-day.html

 

 

9. Constitution Day Lessons at kid level.

Source: http://kreativeinkinder.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-10-05T06:40:00-05:00&max-results=4

 

 

10. Me on the Map - I love using this book to introduce maps and Clutter-Free Classroom has great ideas and activities that go with the book.

Source: http://clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/09/take-peek-at-my-weekin-review.html

 

 

 Hope you enjoy these links and great ideas from Pinterest!







Smilebox

For years, I've wanted to make an end of the year slideshow as a gift for each student and for years, something has always gotten in the way.  Although this year I was leaving my school and AZ and was super busy, I decided this was the year I had to try to do it.  My colleagues recommended using the program Smilebox and there suggestion was spot on.  Smilebox is a free program.  Like any other program, the fancier you want to get, you can pay for the upgrades.  I found a cute school slideshow, imported my pictures from the school year, added captions, added music, and VOILA - instant slideshow.  When I was all done, I burned each student a DVD copy so they had one to take home with them.  The last day of school we watched it as a class and the kiddos loved it! They also were so excited that they could take a copy home and watch it on their own. I also got positive feedback from parents. I would definitely do this project again since it is a great way to wrap up a school year full of memories.

For more information on Smilebox - go here.

Favorite Pin Friday/Late Saturday Night

So, this is my first time joining a linky party, but what better party to join then one where you get to pick your five favorite pins from the week.  I linked up with The First Grade Parade and have five of my favorite pins from the week below.  See her link for info on joining in...

 

Favorite Teaching Pins:

 

I think this is a super cute gift to give kids at Meet the Teacher night and I'm hoping to make it for my kiddos this year.  This great idea comes from Gigglepotz.

 

 

 

My next favorite pin is a take-off of something I already used in my classroom this year. This past year, we used composition books as math notebooks where the kids could solve various math problems during whole group and small group instruction.  I've seen this before, but this pin is a great reminder (from Schroeder's Blog) that office stores will cut those composition books in half, which would be an even better size for math notebooks.

 

 

 

This is one of my next summer Pinterest projects - a sign for the classroom to tell others where we are at.  I couldn't get the Pinterest link to work, but it said it's from Miss Kindergarten.

 

 

 

Another summer project to get started on - a new way to organize stations. I've used pocket charts the last two years and also magnetic signs, but I like this idea of being able to move kids from station to station with clothespins.  I couldn't find the link but it apparently came from some RTI website.

 

 

 

The next items is for sale on TPT.  I love the whole bucket filling system and used it last year for the first time.  Ashley Reed's TPT Store has some great scenarios for kiddos to figure out what a bucket filler would do and what a bucket dipper would do. What a great way to review bucket filling while also giving real world examples. I plan on purchasing this for my class!





 

I appreciate Cara Carroll over at First Grade Parade for coming up with this great idea!  And, I hope that I completed the linky party successfully since this was my first time joining in.

 

Hope everyone has a great night!







 

New Brain Breaks

I love, love, love using brain breaks in the classroom.  Anytime you notice a lull or a lack of participation a quick brain break is a great way to get students engaged again.  Brain breaks can be a variety of things from singing a song, doing 20 jumping jacks, or doing a little dance. My student teacher and I found these great Disney Just Dance Videos on YouTube. They have ones for "Under the Sea," "Bare Necessities," "Be Our Guest," and more.  Now, as a teacher, using YouTube videos can be a concern because you never know what ad could pop up.  Our district found this great site, that you might already know about, but if you don't I had to share.  It's called SafeShare.Tv.  It is a way to show YouTube videos in the classroom in a safe way.  You put the web address into the SafeShare website and it provides you with a safe link to use in the classroom - ad free.  The website is www.safeshare.tv.  Wonderful website and wonderful way to show some fun dance brain breaks on the Smart Board!

Student Teacher - End of Year Gift

I was lucky enough to work with a fabulous teacher candidate (student teacher) from ASU for the whole school year! She was fantastic! She was one of those student teachers who you could just tell had that natural teacher gene from the get-go.  I would not have survived this year without her and I'm so excited because she already has a job for the next school year! 

Since she was so wonderful, I wanted to do something extra special as a going away gift.  I collected donations from the students and was able to get her a very generous gift card to Lakeshore Learning so she could start working on getting items for her own classroom.  I also got her the book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." It was a class favorite so I had all of the kids sign a copy that she could have for her own classroom.  We also made her a memory book that had advice for her in her own classroom and also reasons why she was a great teacher.  Then, I wanted to do something as a thank you because she was seriously so helpful in keeping my classroom running this year. I remember how that first week or two of school with New Teacher Orientation and the first week can be incredibly rough.  I remember how I was at school until 8 most nights and the last thing I wanted to do was cook something for dinner. So, I made her a little gift card booklet to help her get through that first week.  See pictures below...

Our memory book binder...

My gift for her....

Teacher Love Notes

Every year I receive tons of sweet pictures and notes from the kiddos and of course they all want me to hang each one of them up. Well I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to make a Teacher's Love Notes binder.  Each time I got a sweet picture or note, it went into the binder.  Then, during independent reading time, kids were able to look through it and see all of their beautiful pieces of work.  The kiddos really enjoyed looking at it, it kept it organized so it wasn't all over the classroom, and it made them happy to know I had kept their work.  This is definitely an idea I will continue to use next year.

 I'm not sure where I got this cute cover, but I think I found it somewhere on Teacher's Pay Teachers. So, I apologize for not knowing who to give credit to, but thought this binder cover was super cute!

Some of the sweet notes for the binder...

 

 

I'm back!

Hi everyone!
As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have some big changes coming this summer.  I will be moving to Las Vegas and will also be moving grade levels.  After teaching first grade for five years, next year I'll be moving on up to second grade (and will need to rename my blog).  I'm finally out of my classroom and cleaning that out was quite a project.  I'm not sure how I collected that many things, but boy do I have a lot of school stuff.  And now that I'm avoiding packing up my apartment, I've decided to do a few blog updates.  Blog updating is way more fun than cleaning and packing more.  Anyways, I'm hoping to update a few times this summer and hoping to also have some great second grade ideas to be sharing next year. Thank you for your patience with me! I'm excited for this next step in the journey and excited for the busy, crazy summer I have ahead of me!  Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!

Sorry for the major delay in posts...

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the major delay and slow down in posting.  Within the last month or two, I decided to move to Henderson, Nevada and have been super busy with applying and getting ready to move.  I'm so lucky that I have already been offered a job and will be teaching 2nd grade in a Las Vegas area school.  Now, things are crazy with trying to finish up the school year, close out my current classroom, get ready for summer school, get ready to move, etc. I promise I'll get back to blogging in June when things slow down for a bit.

Hope everyone enjoys the end of the school year!