It's HERE! I sure hope this post finds you on relaxing and on summer break! Today kicks off a little Tuesday summer blog series called, Getting Ahead of the Game. You may remember it from last summer or follow my posts throughout the school year. Here is the truth: You can't ever get ahead if your always behind. I created this blog series in hope of getting you ahead before the school year ever starts. Trust me, I know that you need this summer to lay low and relax, ME TOO. So I promise that each task won't take long and leave you feeling like you got something accomplished without sacrificing anytime at the pool! Sound good? Let's go! This week's task ... Read More about Getting Ahead of the Game 2017: Week 1
Latest from the Blog
Editing Eggs Freebie
Let's be real, editing isn't the most fun thing to teach. This week,my students are writing about all of the things that make them EGGstra special and making this craft. Of course I want their final product to be polished and worthy of their parents keeping FOREVER...which means we have to edit! EVERYTHING is much more fun inside of an egg so I came up with the idea of creating editing eggs. Inside each egg, my students will find an additional little editing challenge to improve their writing like changing punctuation or varying their sentence structure. You can download this activity for FREE by clicking HERE. Be sure to follow my TPT store while you are ... Read More about Editing Eggs Freebie
Spring Break in Charleston
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and it also makes me a sad teacher! Every once in a while I like doing a non-teaching related post because we all need a little break! I had the most amazing Spring Break trip to Charleston and I wanted to share all of the details with you! Trust me, you will be wanting to plan a trip to Charlestons soon! We stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton in the Historic District and loved that everything was within walking distance! The location was perfect and the hotel was very nice. The first thing I had to see was the Pineapple Fountain! The sight seeing around the city was just amazing! Let's be ... Read More about Spring Break in Charleston
The 120th Day of School
It's the 120th Day of School! Why are we celebrating the 120th Day of School? Why not! Just kidding, our standards go up to the number 120, so that seemed like the number we should celebrate in First Grade! Plus, it makes things a little different from the 100th Day that most students celebrate in Kindergarten ! Although I do love the 100th Day of School! Here are some ideas for how we celebrated the 12th Day of School! 120th Day of School Homework Before the big day, students had some homework to do! They each brought a collection of 120 in a sandwich bag and attached this little bag topper. I printed the bag topper on my favorite paper and then we displayed the collections in the ... Read More about The 120th Day of School
EASY Animal Research Project
Kids LOVE learning about animals! An animal research project is always a great way to hit standards and engage students. With Open House coming up, I wanted my students to have a cute and meaningful research project to share with their parents! It turned out perfect! Let me take you through the process... This post contains affiliate links. Since we are in the middle of our Texas unit, I thought it would be fun to have my students choose an animal that lives in Texas to research. Each student had a different animal to research. My librarian had a great idea for helping students organize research! Glue together two file folders to create a divider. On the front, students can draw ... Read More about EASY Animal Research Project
Moon Log
We have been studying objects in the sky! Each year I put together this binder for my students to observe the moon. Each night a different student takes the binder home and draws a picture of what they see. Inside the binder I include a pencil pouch with white crayons, a book about the moon, hole punched black construction paper, and this letter. To print this letter and moon log cover for FREE, click HERE. We also use this flip book throughout the unit! Don't forget to order some astronaut food for your students to try! Ice cream is always a hit! ... Read More about Moon Log
Christmas Clean Up
Christmas has come and gone, which means it's time for the dreaded Christmas clean up. I love decorating my house for Christmas. but the clean up part is never as fun. Since I shared my home with you HERE, I thought I would share the clean up too! I have a few tips and ideas that might help you out too! This post contains affiliate links. First of all, let me go ahead and make a confession: I have an addiction to plastic storage containers. I had to get that off my chest. They just make storage so easy and they stack so nicely in the attic! I think it's really important NOT to to just cram as much stuff as you can in a plastic storage container for the sake of saving space. You ... Read More about Christmas Clean Up
Christmas Home Tour
Happy Christmas Break! *Insert happy dance here!* I hope you are giving yourself a much needed and deserved break! In the spirit of taking some time off, I have a non-teaching related post for you! I absolutely love Christmas time and I look forward to decorating my home for the holidays each year. So today I thought it would be fun to give you a little Christmas Tour of my home! So grab some hot chocolate, or some eggnog (perhaps spiked), and stay as long as you like! : ) This post contains affiliate links. My biggest Christmas tree is in the entryway, but can be seen from the den, kitchen and dining room! It has taken me years to collect everything on it! It is ... Read More about Christmas Home Tour
Reindeer Resources
* This post contains affiliate links. : ) It's reindeer time in my classroom! I love using reindeer to teach my students about non-fiction text features and tie in some other fun activities too! They are also really into reindeer this time of year especially since our Elf on the Shelf, Ellie brought us a pet reindeer! I always start my reindeer unit by discussing that there are two different types of reindeer: magic reindeer a.k.a. the type the pull Santa's sleigh and real reindeer a.k.a the kind that live in the wild. If you don't have this discussion, students will constantly be writing things like, "Reindeer fly and help Santa" which is only true of magic ... Read More about Reindeer Resources
The Buddy League by H-E-B
October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month and National Diversity Month! I have blogged about my love for H-E-B before, but I just had to share this amazing resource they have put together for teachers to promote diversity and kindness in the classroom. The H-E-B Buddy League is a new program for school-aged children that promotes kindness, respect and inclusion for all. This FREE kit includes great resources for teaching your students the importance of being a buddy, not a bully. The kit includes a program overview, posters, stickers and coloring pages. I absolutely love the precious posters about kindness, respect and courage. They ... Read More about The Buddy League by H-E-B
Fire Safety Activities for Fire Prevention Week
Fire Prevention Week happens every October. I think it's really important to talk about this without scaring students, which can be hard to do! This post will cover some age-appropriate ideas and activities for preschool, kindergarten and first grade students! Raise your hand if you teach reading and writing! ✋ Class books are one of my favorite tools for writing workshop time. They really help preschool and Kindergarten students get excited about learning to read and write. I’ve put together a set of my favorite printable class books totally free for you! These class books can be used throughout the school year and focus on skills like letter and number recognition, sight words, ... Read More about Fire Safety Activities for Fire Prevention Week
Constructing Sentences
Teaching sentence structure can be so boring, but not this year! I wanted to plan something fun and hands on to help my students learn sentence structure and help it stick! I turned my classroom into a construction zone and we spent the week constructing sentences! : ) All of the activities shown below (and much more!) are included in my Constructing Sentences Unit. This post also contains affiliate links. My kids were so excited to find our room like this. In the words of a first grader, "Well this wasn't what I expected!" The signs around my door are all included in the unit. I made this little sign with orange poster board ... Read More about Constructing Sentences