Feeling A Little Anxious...

Everytime I think about the last time I saw my classroom, I get a little bit anxious.  We had to take EVERYTHING down off our walls and the tops of our shelves had to be cleared off and packed away or put in boxes so it was easy to move.  Here are the images burned in my head...

It seems so wrong to have a classroom with NOTHING on the walls.  It looks so cold and empty.  I can't wait to decorate again this fall.  It usually takes me a couple weeks to get things exactly how I want it.  This year, my goal is to get a sitter for my girls for two or three days, shut my door, turn up the music and finish it.  I already have ideas in my head for what I want to do different and where I want to put my new Super Improvers Wall, but for the most part, I am going to keep it the same as last year.  A jungle print/monkey themed classroom.

Whole Brain Teaching

Holy cow, it is hard to believe that June is already halfway over.  Why oh why does summer have to go by so fast?  So far this summer I have spent A LOT of time outside with my girls.  They are fish and would spend all day, everyday in the pool. 

 



Over the past year, thanks in large part to pinterest, I have heard and seen a lot about whole brain teaching.  The little bits and pieces that I saw intrigued me and I want to learn and know more.  I love trying new things in the classroom and I am really stoked to try this out next year.  I got the book Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle.  I find it interesting that the little things they are suggesting you add to your routine can make such a big difference in motivating children and getting them to be productive.  I have to say, I am a bit skeptical as the author claims that this has been tested and worked in grades k-college.  I am not too far removed from college and I don't think that I would have bought in to this system.  But, I think it is perfect for elementary, especially first grade. 

 

 

Here is a seven minute video to show whole brain teaching in action.  A-MAZING!

 

I love how organized this teacher is.  She has everything planned out and ready to go and the kids are so focused. 

 

Blog Help & Ducks!

When I created this blog I spent HOURS figuring out how to make it cute without spending money. While it isn't as cute as some other blogs, I really like the blog. I am switching from teacherweb to a blog style website for my classroom next year and I am having a HORRIBLE time remembering how I did things. I am completely stumped on how I changed my title to the cute graphic I made! Do any of you have good websites that are helpful? 

 Our ducks are doing great! Here is Quackers with my oldest daughter Natalie.

 

(I left my camera at school, I will post more duck pictures tomorrow)

Here is a link to my classroom webpage with more pictures!
http://teacherweb.com/IL/PecatonicaElementary/Laue/apt4.aspx

Here are a few videos!

Quackers looking for Bob!

Swimming Ducks!

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day!

I spent mine with these cuties!

We Have Ducklings!

They are the best of friends!

I was lucky enough to be able to catch the duckling as he got his head out of the shell.  The first thirty seconds are the most important.  I didn't catch the rest of his adventure out of the shell on camera. 

Yes, Yes, Yaul!

Click on the book to be taken to Amazon!

 

Yes, Yes, Yaul is a fantastic book that my students adore.  It is about a turtle named Hip and a rabbit named Hop.  They love to rap.  They come across the porcupine named Yaul, who says no to everything.  They make it their mission to make him say yes to something. 

The best part about this book is that parts of it is written in rap.  When the writing is green, Hop is rapping and you should rap as fast as you can.  When the writing is red, Hip is rapping and you should rap as sloooooooooooooowly as possible.  The kids always enjoy hearing me rap the parts of this story.  Making a special appearance in the story is Moo Tang Clan, Kanye Pest, and Bee-Yonce.  

I use this story when I want to touch on fluency with my students and when they just need a good giggle.

 

Next week we are starting narrative writing.  I can't wait to share how my first lesson goes.  I am excited about it because I found a great packet on TPT on writing narratives AND I am getting observed during that lesson.  Updates to come soon!

Geometry, Fractions, and Books...Oh My!

We have been very busy in first grade.  I have a love/hate relationship with Spring,  I love the nice weather and being able to play outside with my girls.  (See below)  I HATE how antsy the students get this time of year.  They want nothing more than to be outside playing.  I try to take my lessons outdoors as much as possible this time of year. 

(As you can see, my oldest is a little sassy when she isn't in the mood for her picture to be taken!)

 

In school, the students have been busy learning about 3-Dimensional Shapes and let me tell you, Julie Gesin was a life saver, and she doesn't even know it.  She has this amazing packet on TPT.  Every single activity we did from her packet my students LOVED.  They were engaged and excited throughout the whole unit and ROCKED their end of unit test.  Not one of my kids scored below a 90%.  Amazing, right?!?!?!  So are you wondering what this wonderful, marvelous packet is???

(Sorry, I can't figure out how to make that picture bigger)

 

It is Fun with Shapes and it is in her TPT store for $8.25.  Well worth the money!

While you are at it, check out her blog!

Fun Fabulous Firsties

 

Julie...if you see this THANK YOU!

 

We are moving onto fractions next week and my girls have been healthy and life has slowed down a bit for me, so I decided I would create my own fraction mini unit.  I am really excited about using something I have created with my kids again.  It has been a while since I have had the time to sit down and work on stuff for school. 

 

Check it out at my TPT store!

 

Moving onto Reading...

This first one isn't necessarily a book that I love, but it is one my students fight over daily.  We had a book fair last week and I grabbed this book initially for my daughter, she loves looking at pictures of real animals.  I left it on my desk by accident and the next morning when the kids came in they were BEGGING me to read this.  It is now a book where there is a sign up for so the kids know who gets it when they are done... Are you ready for it...

I will admit, I read a few pages out loud to the class.  It is very informative but humorous at the same time.  Click on the picture to be taken to the book on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

Blackout by John Rocco is another great book.  I love when I get to use this in my class.  This year was extra fun because we had a day where shortly after school started we lost power.  The electric company kept telling us it would be back on shortly.  Well, it eventually came on 30 minutes before school was let out.  It ended up being a really fun day and the kids STILL talk about it. 

The day after our blackout we read this book and then the kids wrote about our blackout.  The illustrations in this book are phenomenal as well! 

 

My two little munchkins are BEGGING me to watch The Lorax with them!  Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

 

 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame....

While I am not a huge baseball fan (as in, I don't yell at the tv like I do during football season), I thought it would be fun to do some baseball themed stuff in honor of opening day.  I also wanted to ease back into school after Spring Break as we still aren't having the best spring weather and the kids are getting antsy.

 

Players in Pigtails is an adorable book about the women's baseball league.  It even talks about the Rockford Peaches, which my students thought was awesome since we are about 20 miles from Rockford. 



 

Testing the Ice is another great book to read about baseball.  It is about how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball and how his kids viewed him as a hero for many different reasons.  The kids really enjoyed this book.  They also did a great job of making connections to Martin Luther King Jr. and some of the other Black History things we learned about in February.

 

Casey at the Bat A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 probably would have been a better choice for older grades.  It was WAY over the first graders heads.  There was a lot of vocabulary in the book that was foreign to them.  While I tried to explain what some of the words meant, it was probably a bit too much!

They enjoyed this youtube version so much more!  It is much more first grade friendly that the book.

Click here for youtube version!

 

I had my kids play Popcorn Word Baseball.  I found it on teacherspayteachers a while back and kind of forgot about it.  I stumbled upon it in my files and the kids LOVED it!

 

It was a great way to get them up and moving around the classroom.  It costs three dollars, but it is three dollars well spent.  I think we are going to continue our baseball adventures next week as well.