Fun With Contractions

My class is so, so crazy about everything Pete the Cat! I have several kids who wear "Pete the Cat" shoes all the time, and on the occasional day when I wear my red Converse, WATCH OUT! Their excitement cannot be contained!

So when I was putting together some goodies for working with contractions, I decided to use graphics that hint at the Pete the Cat theme. Most people will look at the word cards I've made and think, "Hmmm... shoes."

But my class completely freaked out! "Pete the Cat words!!!"

At any rate, reading and writing contractions are one of the skills that we've always taught, and they are on the Common Core State Standards (unlike some of those skills that have mysteriously disappeared!) My students use these cards over and over for matching and sorting.And they are available on TpT. Click below!

Some awesome things ...

Okay, so maybe I didn't JUST find them. Some of these things I found years and years ago, and they've been making my days brighter and happier all along. It's just that now I feel the need to share.

Old Navy Dress

This is a bargain if you ask me! I bought one, loved it, and went back for a second. When I wear this dress to school with a long cardigan or a denim jacket, plus a colorful scarf, I giggle to myself all day... because I keep thinking that I'm wearing pajamas! It's that comfortable. I'm not what you'd call tall, so it's a long dress on my for sure. Long. Loooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggg. It hits right about at the top of my foot.




One of my precious little first graders said to me once, "Is that dress too big for you?"

And I answered, "Oh, no. It's just right!"

Highlighter Tape

If you don't have some of this in your classroom, run to Lakeshore. Or better yet, call them right now and have them ship it RUSH! I use this for all kinds of things, but mostly for highlighting  high frequency words, blends and digraphs, or chunks of words on shared reading charts. The kids love it!



When I ask, "Who sees the word 'them' in this poem?" they go nuts because they know that one of them will get to stick a piece of that tape over the word... and a million hands go up in the air. Okay, maybe it just seems like a million.

Mosaic of Thought



Mosaic of Thought, Second Edition: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instruction Click on that title for a link to get a copy! I'm re-reading this for a book study group. It's such an excellent resource for teaching reading.

Toms

Well, they are the perfect thing to wear with my "pajama" dress...



Kind

This is the only variety I've found that is free of walnuts, which I affectionately call "death nuts." I'm allergic.



San Francisco

Last weekend, our family spend the day in San Francisco. We had such a great time that I think we're going back this weekend. It has been years since we've done some touristy things, and the kids all had a blast. It was a perfect San Francisco day... cold, windy, overcast. We bought sourdough and chocolate, walked around the wharf area and ate a delicious dinner. It felt like a mini-vacation, which is great since I'm on spring break but no one else is. And there will be no real vacationing.

Hand Sanitizer

I have two key chains. One for home and one for school. And I've been keeping one of these babies on my school key chain for months. I love my first graders, but they are filthy. No further explanation.



Organization

Yesterday I spotted this little item at Michael's. Actually, I've had my eye on in for what, years? It's always had that $39.99 pricetag, though, and I just couldn't convince myself.



But yesterday, it had a new price tag! CLEARANCE! $13.99!! Sold! Did I really need it? Probably not. But it's adorable and I'm going to use it at my reading table. It will hold writing tools and scissors and glue, yes... but also mini-pointers, post-its, fancy "reading glasses," etc. Can't wait to get it set up in my classroom!

Vowels

At the beginning of the year, I started talking with my first graders as we worked on an interactive writing activity. I said something like, "Which vowel should we use to show that sound?" ... and whoa! That question got my class all crazy!

I think one student had heard the term "vowel," but the rest of the class had no idea what I was talking about! I was surprised, because students usually hear that term in kindergarten. They may not remember exactly what "vowel" means, but usually first graders pretend they remember. This class seriously had never heard the word! Of course, that changed the course of the next few lessons a bit, and I created these posters to help them learn which letters are vowels. These vowel posters hang above our traditional alphabet and word wall for easy reference. And they are LARGE so they can be seen clearly from across the classroom.



I made each vowel a different color, and in my early lessons on vowels, I wrote the words with black consonants and the corresponding color for each vowel. A little extra reinforcement can't hurt, right?

I'm happy to say that 100% of my class now knows which letters are vowels, and their short and long sounds. Smarties! (Actually, they know lots more than that, thank goodness! Second grade is just around the corner for them!)

What are you waiting for? Go get these posters! Free! Free! Free!

 

Beanie Baby Reading Strategies

Who doesn't love one of those adorable little Beanie Babies?

Well... at one point, we had so many at our house that I couldn't keep track of which one belonged to which kid or where they all went or why they were invading the kitchen and the bathroom and the fireplace and the dog's bed. Gads! My own kids loved them!

So you can imagine how much I loved the idea of using Beanie Babies to teach reading (decoding) strategies. I loved it! Really!

For a few years, I've been teaching first graders each strategy and showing off the darling little Beanie Babies that go with each lesson. I'm trying to build my collection of Beanies through frequent trips to the thrift store, but for now I have one of each Baby. I decided it was time to create strategy posters, book marks and strategy rings for my students. So one rainy day, I got to work!



I made colorful, letter-sized posters showing each animal and the reading strategy. I couldn't decide if I liked a polka dot background or a chevron background, so I made both... mix and match!



I also made some small cards. These quarter-page sheets are perfect for laminating and putting on binder rings. I have several sets in my classroom, and I encourage students to borrow a ring as needed to refer to while reading. This is especially useful for students who are reading in classroom areas where the posters are not visible, and for use outside or in another classroom. It could also be useful to make a set of ringed cards for each student to keep in his/her book box, or at home. The ring could have just one strategy at first, and they others could be added as they are taught. There are versions of these cards that are both colored and black and white.




And my students just love to use bookmarks lately, so I made some of those. I created tow versions: bookmarks with the animal name and the reading strategy, and bookmarks with just the animal name. I made colored and black and white versions of both, so that there would be options!



This set, with adorable graphics from Melonheadz, is available in my TpT Store.

I love my students, I really do. But I'm so happy to have  a few days to myself! Spring Break is finally here!

Snowman CVC Words

January is nearly done! Unreal... time is flying.

But it's still snowman time as far as I'm concerned...

Right after Christmas, I was at Dollar Tree picking up some plastic baskets. Because really! Can you ever have enough of those?! And they had these awesome red, blue, green and yellow transparent little organizer kind of things. And I love getting organized, and I love containers. I took everything out of my desk at school, re-sorted, re-organized, re-arranged and re-joiced! So fabulous!

But while I was there, I saw the Christmas candy on clearance. They had these little snowman containers that had bubble tape in them. And since, I HATE gum of any kind, I bought them!



In my classroom, I save all the snowman activities for January, so the timing was perfect for me! I debated about whether the little red hats are too Christmas-y or not, but I decided that the kids wouldn't care, and they would fit with my January themes.

I made up some letter tiles that I printed, cut out, and sorted. Each different color spells a CVC word, and I put one color (set of three letters) in each tiny snowman. The students choose a snowman, open it up, and unscramble the letters to make a real word. Then they write the word in their word work notebooks, and add a sentence or a picture.  Probably needless to say... my little first graders love it!

If you didn't stock up on snowman gum tape, that's okay! Dollar Tree has little heart containers right now, and they would work great for this activity, too. Or they also have little miniature Tupperware-type containers. Or you could just toss all the letters in a basket, and the students could first sort by color and then unscramble. Ah, the possibilities! Must be that hopefulness of a New Year and the promise of Spring!

Or maybe I'm just too tired and should get to bed before that 5:00 am alarm goes off. Hmm...

Snowman Unit

Many thanks to my wonderful teacher friend for the inspiration! She's a teacher genius!

I created a pack of Snowman Fun! and I just posted it on my TpT site. It includes some making words activities, an ABC book to make, an addition math game, some non-fiction and fiction reading response activities, and colorful letter and number cards.



Happy January!

Happy New Year!

2013? Are you even kidding? Remember all the worry over switching from 1999 to 2000, and the millions and trillions of ways that our lives could potentially be ruined? The predictions of mass hysteria? Well, I can barely remember that, because it was 13 years ago!! Crazy! Time is flying by. On New Year's Eve 1999, my oldest child was nine, and I had a sweet, little baby. Now? Well, you can do the math.

Each year on New Year's Eve, our family celebrates with some good friends... four adults, seven kids (or not so much kids, see above!), too much food, noisemakers, poppers, more food, streamers, hats, noise, and some more food. It is always a complete blast and we all look forward to it every year. Kids play games, watch movies, play video games,  eat, chase each other (I know, they're barely kids--but there are boys involved), eat, bake cookies... and the adults play cards. Good times.

So I was thinking about my class and the NEW YEAR. I teach at an inner city school. My families are struggling economically and emotionally. Life is hard, and the kids know it. I didn't know if any of them had celebrated the NEW YEAR or not, so I decided we would celebrate at school!

I am ridiculous. There, I said it. The day before the students came back, I put a hat and noisemaker on each child's desk. See? Ridiculous! Capital R! Bold print!

I met the students outside of the classroom, and told them that there was something special on their desks, but that if they touched it, they lost it. I was serious. And they knew it. When they were all sitting at their desks, I told them  that we'd be celebrating the new year all day. And it went like this...

Me: Put your hat on! (cheers, ooohs, aaaahs!)

Me: And whenever I wish you a Happy New Year, you can wish one back to me and blow your horn! Let's try... Happy New Year!

Students: Happy New Year! (lots of horn blowing!)

I taught them to blow ONE time and then put the horn back on their name tag. And then, here's the ridiculous part. At random times throughout the day, I'd just say, "Happy New Year!" and they would respond appropriately and then put the horns back on the name tags again. Every time someone came into the room, I did it again. Every time the mood struck me, I did it again.  Each time I did, the students said, "Happy New Year" and blew their horns and then went right back to their work. They wore their party hats to recess and lunch. And when they came back to the classroom, I said, "Happy New Year!" It was beyond adorable! I cracked myself up all day!



I took videos, too, and I wish I could show you. But I can't figure out how to edit their little faces for privacy. It is cuter than anything you've ever seen!

I did have to take away two horns that were blown at inappropriate times. But I gave them back at the end of the day. My little darlings were so thrilled to take home their hats and noisemakers. OMG. Fabulous, fun day! What a way to start 2013!

But the real reason for this post (finally! phew!) I made a little book for students to color and read, and I also created a "Happy New Year" unit with lots of math and language activities for primary students. It's not too late... it's still the new year!

The Unit:



And the little book:



Happy New Year, again! Hope you've had a great start to 2013!