My Favorite Picture

I know, I know I'm late to the party again!  This week's link up is all about my favorite picture and this has to be mine...

This little lady changed my world for the better and I cannot even imagine life without her.  This picture, to me, captures her sense of wonder and curiosity.  She is always busy and always up for the next adventure.  I can only imagine what life is going to be like when there are 2 of them - And she is super excited about the new addition!

Until next time, 

Learn Like A Pirate - Chapter #8 - Empowerment

Welcome to our last week chatting about the book Learn Like A Pirate.  This week we are thinking about empowerment.  How can we help our kids to feel empowered, take risks, and make learning relevant to them?

My favorite part of the chapter was the ending when Paul listed many of the elements that students gain when they are empowered in the classroom.  These included:  choice, community, disagreement, excitement, expertise, impact, leadership, passion, positive self-worth, reflection, relevance, resilience, self-assessment, success, voice, and wonder!  Don't you wish this for all of your students?

Paul spoke about "Passion Time" which is a time where kids can work through a research based project about something they care a lot about.  The procedure sounds great and would be something I would LOVE to try out (even though my firsties would need some giant modifications), but (and here we go back to chapter 2...) our district just keeps adding expectations and there isn't enough time in the day.  That said, I don't plan to leave it at this - I hope to have a conversation with my amazing boss about a way to make this work!  I will keep you updated!

Until then read what else some of my sweet friends had to say!

An InLinkz Link-up

Dear Future Teacher...Organization

Hi Again New Teachers!

This week we are talking about organization.  I will tell you something - I am known for being pretty well organized - I even get complimented on it regularly.  However, when I joined the world of Teacher Bloggers and TPT'ers I knew that I had a ton to learn!

Today I will share with you a few tricks I have learned that have helped me!

First thing - and don't say I'm crazy - PLEASE!

But I plan out the week over the weekend - "so do I" you say?  I actually plan for the following week (So on a Sunday I am already planned and prepped for the week starting on Monday, but I type my plans for the following Monday that day).  Then on Monday I print out the following Monday's plans and I copy, print, laminate, and cut what I need for that day.  This allows me time if I need to request or order a book from the library or find materials I don't always keep on hand.  I follow the same procedure for each day of the week - It cuts down on all of the things I usually have to take home on a Friday!

These are some bins I bought at Lakeshore a few years ago.  I keep everything I need in these until the day before.  Then I take everything out and make sure that everything is where it needs to be. 

 Another trick I have learned, is that I never (or as close to never as I can) leave school without being ready for the next school day.  This way no matter whether I over sleep (God forbid!!), or get stuck in traffic, or the plague sets in everything is out where I need it to be and that makes for easier sub planning.  

One final tip- teach the kids the routines at the beginning of the year.  Seriously as simple as how you expect them to use a pencil (where does it live?, what happens if one breaks?,  what about if it needs to be sharpened?).  Spending time on what we may thing of as BORING saves you so much time in the end!

Good luck setting up your room and stop back next week when we share some more about behavior management!

Made it Monday- Summer Fun!

Good Morning my friends!  Yes, I realize that it is Wednesday, but I am telling you this weekend away totally got away from me.  I made this project last week.  Took all of the pictures.  All I needed to do was write the post - Did that happen - NOPE!!  

Oh well!!  What are you going to do??  I loved this project and it was actually way easier than I anticipated, so I hope you love it too!!

I made a banner last week, but I love those block signs that are all over Etsy and Pinterest.  I thought that I would be able to make one.  

My little lady and I headed to Michael's to get the goods.  

I found wood in small and large blocks - I got 3 of each.  The HUBS was not thrilled that I spent $$$ on pre-cut wood as he could have done it cheaper - but he's been working a ton and I didn't feel like waiting.  It's nice to have options!

I picked up 6 sheets of scrapbook paper.  I am HORRIBLE about saving scraps, but summer or bright scrapbook paper scraps would have been PERFECT too!

I also bought some white vinyl to use in the Cricut, but ended up choosing to use some colored vinyl sheets I had purchased a LONG LONG time ago - I thought they would stand out better.  

It was so easy to put together - I traced the wood blocks and cut the paper to match.  Then mod podged the paper to the blocks.  Let it dry - of course.  Then I played around with the Cricut to make the letters.  I am not a Cricut expert, so it takes me some time to get the size just right.  Finally, I placed the letters on the blocks and it is ready to display!

So easy!!

I hope you like what you see - It was fun and cute and best of all easy!!

I have another made it Monday that I am working on for next week - and it's baby themed!  4 weeks til baby!!

Until then - I would love to hear from you.  What are you crafting this week??

Building Mathematical Comprehension - Chapter #6

Hi My Friends!

Have any of you gotten lost in summer vacation yet?  This weekend I totally did - beach weekend with the little family before we become a little bit bigger next month!  And I totally spaced that yesterday was Monday - and the day to blog about this week's chapter - EEK.  So I apologize - I am late, but hopefully I can make it up to all of you :)

This week we are talking about making predictions and inferences.  Making predictions is something my firsties can do pretty well (in reading anyway) by the end of the year, but I can't say we do too much predicting in math.  And inferring is something that is on my teacher goals list for this year - I need to get my readers and mathematicians more comfortable with this strategy - So this chapter gave me some great ideas!

One of the first things I took away from reading this chapter was that the more traditional way math has been taught is not a great way to encourage predicting and inferring - Helping kids to realize that there can be many different ways to answer a problem is the key. 

This is why I love the math stretch ideas that came up in this chapter:

What's the Question?

In this stretch you give students a math number story and you leave off the question.  The key here would be to make sure that the number story is complex enough for students to be able to come up with multiple questions that could be asked and answered.  

Facts or Inferences?

This stretch is similar to the one above, but in this case the teacher also adds statements that are facts or inferences from the story.  Kids need to label each statement and explain why it is a fact or an inference.  

This chapter reminded me why I LOVE math stretches - be ready for some new and updated math stretch packs coming from me in the near future!

See you next week when we chat all about determining importance!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Learn Like A Pirate - Chapter #7 - Twenty First Century Skills

Can you believe another week has flown by?  I cannot even believe that summer is half over for me - though I can't really complain because I won't be heading back to school until December!  That will be really wonderful once I get everything set up for the sub!

Until then however, I have been spending some time reading our awesome book!  This week we are talking about 21st century skills - some really important things that kids need to know but they are hard to teach skills. 

Most of these skills need to be taught while kids are learning other concepts and while they are working together with their peers.  

Paul broke up the skills into some main categories - which I think would be a great start as I begin to think about finding ways to incorporate these skills into my daily curriculum.  

-  Communication and collaboration (communicate clearly, collaborate with others, think interdependently)
-  Creativity and Innovation ( think creatively, work creatively with others, implement innovations, apply past knowledge to new situations)
-  Critical Thinking and Problem Solving (think critically, make judgements and decisions, ask questions, solve problems)
-  Reflection and Awareness (metacognition, reflect and synthesize)
-  Flexibility and Adaptability (Adapt to change, think and learn flexibly, demonstrate learning through all intelligence pathways)
-  Initiative and Self-Direction (manage goals and time, be a risk taker, be self-directed learners, persist despite setbacks, be curious, learn continuously)
-  Social and Cross-Cultural Skills (interact effectively with others, work effectively in diverse teams, find humor)
-  Productivity and Accountability (manage assigned tasks, produce results)
-  Leadership and Responsibility (guide and lead others, be responsible to yourself and others)
-  Information Literacy (access and evaluate information, use and manage information)
-  Media Literacy (analyze media, create media products, apply technology effectively)

These big ideas are going to help me launch my first graders into a world that is ready and waiting for 21st Century skills.  They are going to need more instruction and more time on learning these skills, but I hope it will be a great beginning to their journey.

Keep reading for more thoughts about 21st Century Skills and don't forget to come back next Thursday when we chat about Chapter 8 - Empowerment!

An InLinkz Link-up

Oh Snap! It's Almost August - Product Preview

Happy Summer!  Can you believe that August is almost here!  I know for many of you that means back-to-school and because of that I have put together a preview of some goodies that you may want to grab for your classroom to start the year.  All of the products below are 20% off today and tomorrow so you can stock up!  

Once you have checked out my goodies - make sure you keep checking out more deals and ideas from other Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals bloggers!

This pack includes 31 spelling lists and homework or practice pages to practice of the test on Friday.  The skills are sequential, so they will match or closely match the scope and sequence of your phonics program!  The lists also include weekly "trick" word practice for words that cannot be sounded out!

First Grade Spelling Bundle - 20% off

 This pack is great for getting to know more about kids, but can also be great for tracking academic and personal growth throughout the year!

Getting To Know You Throughout the Year - 20% off

 Here is a fun way to set up your birthday board!  This pack comes in primary colors and jungle theme - I also offer special orders if you have a different theme- email me ateachermom1@gmail.com

Here is a year long set of Kinder phonics practice pages!  This set covers a typical scope and sequence of K (starting with letters and sounds moving into basic sentence reading and writing).

Kindergarten Phonics Year-Long Set

I start the year by teaching routines and rules, but one of my favorite ways to teach kids how to behave in the classroom is through this unit on the core values of responsibility. cooperation, respect, learning, and friendship.  This pack includes posters, book ideas, and activities.  

Core Values Pack

Finally, if you know me you know I LOVE games.  I zipped together all of the phonics games we made for 2nd grade into one MEGA file that will help your kids have fun learning vowel teams, tricky glued sounds, and different syllable types!

Grade 2 Year-Long Phonics Game Set

Find More ideas HERE!!

What was your favorite item you saw?  What do I need to put into my cart ASAP?? Leave your ideas in the comments!

An InLinkz Link-up