Patriotic Theme for classroom

I have been thinking that a patriotic theme would be perfect this year....  what, with the Olympics just wrapping up and the Election headed for us.  I am super excited and wanted to share a few links to some 'must haves' for your Patriotic or Americana themed room:




I am not working with these Etsy sellers, but just wanted to re-post their awesome items!

I will post some freebies once I have em!

By the way!  Where have I been you might be wondering (or probably not, if you just happened upon here for the first time ever):  I have been blogging at my Whole Brain Teaching Blog: www.adventuresinwholebrainteaching.blogspot.com
but plan to integrate the two this year HERE!

New Year, New Commitment to blogging!

So, typically, a New Year's Resolution comes in January.....  Right?  Well, for teachers, (in case you don't already know this), January means almost nothing - besides putting away the Holiday books & snowmen in place of snowflake crafts and units on hibernating...  It's September where the New Year really starts.  Or August for some of us!

So, I will officially call September, "Teacher New Year" and post my New Year's Resolutions:

1.  Blog about my experiences and activites far more regularly.
2.  Meet with each student about their goals and growth at least every other week.
3.  Go for a run at least 4-5 days a week (personal goal here, but while I'm at it, why not?)

Velveteen Rabbit, please hold

So, I got back from Spring Break.  And wouldn't you know it, I just didn't feel ready to start the Velveteen Rabbit.  Thank goodness I have a super-awesome partner (I think sometimes we share a brain) - who also felt completely NOT READY to start it either.  So, we did another week of our anthology, and we'll get onto VR next week.  I promise.  You can get a copy of my vocab book for the kiddos to go along with my 2-week version of The Velveteen Rabbit here.

Besides all that, I was so excited to get back to school this week.  I missed my kiddos.  They missed me.  We both missed school.  Well, they missed recess, and I missed teacher-room lunches.

Does anyone else really look forward to lunch in the teacher's lounge each day?  I love it!  I get to have lunch with my friends EVERY day!  How many people get to do that?!  You know, those people with 'real' jobs.  Like the ones who work in offices?  Something I know nothing about, other than I hear there is air conditioning, and I have heard of this thing they call 'casual friday'.  But they probably don't get a billion or so hugs and love notes every day, so I guess I can let them have their jeans.  AND, they don't have teacher's room lunches - too bad, so sad.

 

Spring Break! And a little lit study

Wo-hoo!  It's Spring Break.

2 weeks off!

Just a little excited over here.  Just a little.

Sometimes, as a teacher, you just need this time to catch up on the giant pile of grading that needs to be done re-group & put things in perspective. 

I am off for a little mid-west, family visit, then to the desert for some R&R.

Then, a week at home filled with, DISNEYLAND, DISNEYLAND, and maybe a little beach time.  It's hard to go away on vacation when you live where most people vacation.  Sort 'ups the ante' for expectations.  I can't even try to go for a beachy vay-cay (unless it's Hawaii).

When we get back we are starting a lit study on The Velveteen Rabbit.  Insert mixed emotions here, here, and here.

It's a 1st Grade tradition at my school.  One that I don't LOVE.  And with this class, I'm having a hard time believing I'm going to get them into it.  14 boys, remember, 14 full-of-energy, 'spirited' BOYS.  5 girls.

So, I've taken my 6 week lit study and paired it down to 2!

Have you ever read the Velveteen Rabbit?  It's HARD people.  It's HARD.  I totally see the value in it, BUT, there are so many amazing books out there that would encourage my peanuts to read over the summer and see that reading is a joy.  Which is why I'm teaching it super-duper fast. Then, we're on to a Magic Tree House book. We are doing Vacation Under the Volcano.

BTW, have you seen Ms. Winston's website?  She is a super amazing teacher with tons a free resources!  You know, I love to make my own stuff, but when you find something as amazing as this, why re-invent the wheel?!

I will post some Velveteen Rabbit stuff as soon as I finish it (re-vamping my unit to squeeze into 2 weeks take a LOT of work!).

first grade bullying

Yikes!

Ok, I have mentioned before that I have a crazy, rambunctious, errrr, SPIRITED class, right?

Well, one of the problems with this sweet bunch, is they can be not so sweet.  Downright stinkers sometimes!

I know, they're 6.  Or 7.  And I'm taller than ALL of them.  But they aren't bullying me.  They bully each other.

Now, in any normal class, you can expect to have that one squirrely little guy or gal that just doesn't quite know how to express themself nicely.  But, MAN-oh-MAN!  I have at least 4-5 of them at any one time.

Have I failed them as a teacher?  I have positive reward system after positive reward system.  I make flexibility my middle name if something doesn't work.  aye-aye-aye!  I am at a loss for this bunch.  I need a drastic makeover.

Like, extreme makeover, classroom edition.  YEP.

So tomorrow we'll go in and get back to basics.  We'll start with my favorite:  "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?"

I'm thinking every morning we'll be reading a 'how to treat people right' book and journaling and sharing.  I may catch some flak from my darling parents who want me to push these smart little bunnies to invent the next penecillin, this year.  But, if even one kid gets teased a bit less for my efforts, it'll be worth it in the end.Get a copy of my literature response sheet to go with it here :)

Review week(s) and Laura Numeroff

My firsties have finished a Theme!  Theme 4 to be exact.  We use Harcourt Trophies - I have a love/hate relationship with it right now.  An I am sooooooo excited, because now we get to have REVIEW WEEK!

I like really like love LOVE review week.  We get to go over ALL of the spelling words from the whole last theme, 8 weeks.  This is always so interesting to me because my kids almost always get ALL 100%s on their weekly 10 word tests.  But then, sneaky Mr. Review week comes along, and we have the kids practice with ALL of the words they already previously had, and they get closer to a 60% average.  What, the?????  But that's not what I love, in fact, I totally HATE that they don't do so good on the test.  I love review week because.....

REVIEW WEEK = AUTHOR STUDY = all kinds of fun stuff I never get to do because I don't have time

This week, we are going to use a Laura Numeroff Circle Story Unit from Made for First Grade.  See that here:
Laura Numeroff Circle Story Unit

So cute!  It has many fun centers (math & Language Arts) and writing activities.

I will get to pull my little firsties to work in a small group with me, which I hardly ever get to do, while the rest of 'em are working on these fun activities.

We have a short student week because of Parent-Teacher conferences (groan) on Friday and Monday.  And just in time, I have mostly lost my voice.  Perfect time to have to talk for hours and hours straight, right?

Oh, by the way, did you know I am totally WHOLE BRAIN GUNG-HO these days?  Separate blog.....  Check that out here:
My Whole Brain Teaching Blog