Kid Friendly CC Focus Wall and CYBER MONDAY SALE!

Long time no post!  I have been busy finishing the last section of my writing unit.  You can find some of them here, here and here.  I soon will group all of them together and then have a giveaway.  :)

I paused to finish my long paused project of kid friendly skill cards which I finished a few days ago.

At my former district I used skill cards for my students.  I would add a date and a sticker to the back of  standards based skill cards.  My new district requires me to post my weekly focus.

I modified my skill cards to make a poster set written in kid friendly (I tried them out on my students to make sure that they understood the terms) so that I could hang them up on my bulletin board. 

The best part is that I added a number grid to the back of each card so that I can track class mastery of each standard.  It took me a while to figure out the best way to do this but finally I decided to laminate the cards and then just tape a paper number grid to the back.  This way I can easily remove it each year and tape down a new grid.  :)

Here is a peak at what I have been working on:

This describes the different ways that you can use the cards and has photos of how I display them.

This is a HORRIBLE snapshot but I have included a generic subject heading and the specific standards on 3 choices of borders.  I use generic names for the content studies, math and writing but use specific names for reading because I teach so many skills each week.

These are examples of skill cards from each skill heading.  Each set of skills has a different colored border.

These are the heading cards that I place above the ring of skills.

This is the chart that I tape on the back of the laminated cards.

These are Ohio first grade social studies and science skill cards.  I think that I will add an option soon where I make the content skills based on state.  I probably own all the clip art that I need to make them!  :)

WHEW!  I'm so glad that they are finally finished!  I have been working on them little at a time for about 8 months.

All of my TPT store items will be on a 20% off sale for cyber Monday.  :)  I can't wait to shop at TPT because I filled up my cart with TONS of goodies!  :)

GIVEAWAY of the first grade common core focus wall posters to the first 3 people who guess my favorite thanksgiving food correctly. Even if you don't teach first- you can win and gift it to a first grade friend! :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I am off to get some beauty rest so I can go to the OSU/ Michigan game tomorrow!  It sure will be cold but loads of fun!  :)

Have a great night!  :)

Parts of a Sentence GIVEAWAY

I have been working on updating my first grade common core unit for about 3 days nonstop!  I had a few TPT people ask for me to post some posters separately so I am posting these parts of a sentence posters separately.  I'll update the entire unit when I finish all the other updates like week at a glance lesson plans etc. (hopefully by next week)

Here is a peak at the Parts of a Sentence item:

I cannot believe that it is November already!  It is time for our annual feast, heritage projects, U.S. symbols, election stuff and a lot of thankful talk!

The first 5 people to leave a comment with WHAT THEY ARE THANKFUL FOR and their email will receive this for free!  :)


Have a wonderful election week!  :)

Candy Corn Sequencing

We had a surprise 2 hour delay today so I had to think of something to do with our short day and with the VERY excited first grade students!  A teammate of mine did a candy corn artwork with tearing up scraps of paper.  I did the same thing but turned mine into a sequencing activity.  I also had some left over candy from the Candy Corn Bandit so we did all kinds of math activities as well.

Here is the craft:

I decided to type everything that we did up and I might just always start completing it the day before or of Halloween. 

Here is a peak:

If any of you are looking for a last minute filler for tomorrow or even a filler for November, head on over to TPT and download a copy for FREE until I log back on probably this weekend.  :)

I'm crossing my fingers for a fun filled day for you tomorrow!  :)



Reading Level and Sight Word Communication FREEBIE

I send this form home each 9 weeks. 

I write their reading level.  Then I either check the, "Keep up the great work!" or "We will continue to work on the below items."  If I check the second portion- I circle areas that we need to work on.

I write how many sight words that they read correctly, and then check either of the boxes just like the reading level.  (I don't know my current district's quarterly expectation yet but typically the expectation boxes are filled in.)

I included a generic form with the title, "Reading Assessment" so that you can fill in the expectations regardless of the assessment instrument that you use.

You can download it for free here.
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I will also be giving these FREE handouts at P/T conferences:

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I also have these handy at conferences.  I typically have 4-5 parents ask how to determine leveling.

I also update my student expectation graphs.  I'm just working on filling out my conference forms and having my students complete their construction paper apple.   I give the apple with the student decorated file folder full of materials and a real apple to each set of parents at conferences. 

YIKES- they are next week!

Have a Terrific Thursday!  :)

Google it

I have had an area reserved on my dry erase board for a few years where I add students, "I wonder" questions that I am unable to answer.  I encourage them to ask questions and they seriously ask some pretty good ones too!  Some this year include: What is okra?, Can lightning be more than one color?

Whenever we finish something early or are waiting for dismissal, we will google one of their questions to find the answer.

I decided to finally upgrade my dry erase board to a paper version placed in a sheet protector. 

I tried my best (well with one hand because my dominant hand got in the way of a dog fight!) to make it look like google, even with the blue boxes.  I'd like to share this but google is one place that you don't want to copyright!  :-)

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Fall Party

I just completed Babbling Abby's Candy Corn Bandit activity last week. My kids just love it and I giggle all day long as they make predictions and use all kinds of suspect talk!

It got me thinking about the fall party being right around the corner. I'm still a newbie to Pinterest but just spent an hour pinning away!

Here is the link to my page:
http://m.pinterest.com/daniellelasota/cute-school-themed-crafts-and-snacks/

I'm blogging from my phone so ill have to format the pictures better later.

I was searching and searching for an activity or craft to do and lo and behold something that I do each year with teaching matter popped up!

Making "slime." But one creative person adds green food coloring and puts it in a plastic test tube with a halloweenish label. I found 25 plastic test tubes with caps on amazon for less than $9!

I also have a gluten free kiddo and 2 peanut free allergy kids this year. I think that I'll make the pumpkin rice Krispy treats but use something peanut free as the stem.

As the healthy snack I want to make the cute skeleton with veggies.

For the game... I'll probably make a version of toss spider rings into cans. To add some math- I might number the cans and the corresponding sum will determine their prize. Maybe if they.have an odd sum one prize and an even sum another. (That way if they don't make any- they get an even prize.)

So all in all they will have fun but practice math and science!!!

Matter Inquiry Giveaway!

I finished my matter inquiry unit!  :)


Here is a peak:

I start out by trying to get students to determine what the pictures have in common to introduce the states of matter.  Then I have a short first grade friendly book about matter to read to the students.  (There are a ton of matter books out there but they are often WAY beyond first grade understanding.)

I have scientific method posters to hang up.

There is a student experiment book that can be printed out for each experiment.  I also have scientific method posters to hang up for each of the experiments.  The sheet with 6 boxes is used to save time by having students cut and paste them into their books.

Here is a second experiment.

There is also a label it page and a matter non-fiction writing including pre-writing, drafting and publishing pages for matter.  There is also a student book that they illustrate just like the larger book.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

A trick that I learned a few weeks ago was to give out an unlimited amount of products for free as long as they blog about it and link their post to my blog.  (I followed the rules a few weeks ago but am super sad that I never received my free goodies.  :(  So- if you post back here on my blog- I will have record of it and not lose it in my email!)

So- if you blog about my scientific matter inquiry product and come back and leave a comment with the link to your blog from now until Sunday- I'll email it to you for FREE!  :)



Have a terrific Thursday! 
Happy last teaching day of the week central Ohio teachers. 
Ah-  I LOVE COTA day!  :-D