We have finally finished up our Measurement Unit! The kiddos went crazy for measuring and after grading there tests last night, they really understood it! All the activities can be found in my Measure, Yeah, Measure Unit on TpT!
Here is a little peek into what my Measuring Maniacs have been up to!
Monster Measurement! The kiddos loved using cubes to measure the length of the monsters. Before we started, they insisted that we name the monsters! Oh so creative!
To end our Measurement Unit, we had a crazy visit from our new friend "Finchy!" He came to tell us that the "Measurement Maniac" stole all of his best friends. Finchy sent us on a scavenger hunt all around the building look for his friends. We finally found them and after we measured we got to enjoy his yummy gummy friends!
Reading the first clue!
Finding the clues and determining how to solve the measurement riddle!
Measuring books the Measurement Maniac left at the library.
Here's a sneak peek at what other goodies are in the unit!
I'm going to leave you today with our favorite measurement song. We had to play this atleast twice each day and the kiddos were so excited to get measuring! How would we teach without the Biebs?!?
Happy Election Day! Is anyone else glued to the news like I am? We had the day off today and it was nice to have a random Tuesday off to be productive! I couldn't sleep in due to this awful cold I've been trying to kick so Nick and I perked up early and walked to the church up the street to cast our votes! Then I actually had time to fill out November's Currently with the one and only Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade! I love being "nosy rosy" (as I call my little nuggets) and reading about everyone else's exciting lives!
So I got an awesome coupon for buy 2 get 2 free Yankee Candles. I know they are crazzzy expensive but I just LOVE them so much. My new flavor is Autumn Wreath that is the perfect fall scent. I also stocked up on Peppermint flavor for our First Annual Christmas party and some others that are great just to have like Mandarin Cranberry!
I had a blast this weekend! It was full of some good old fashioned karaoke and watching my Tigers kick some Duke booty! I love a good Clemson win (plus it puts everyone in a MUCH better mood!!)
Hurricane Sandy did so much damage and one of my best friends grew up in New Jersey near the shore. Her house is ok, but the restaurant she grew up working in was destroyed. She had so many wonderful memories there and it's so sad to see the heartbreak for everyone in the northeast.
Well what I want is coming true! Nick and I are headed to the beach for a long, relaxing weekend. Our house has been what seems like a hotel on the weekends for our friends headed to the Clemon games and the week is filled with grad class, girl's nights, homework, and work! We are exhausted and need a weekend away to just catch up with each other before the craziness of the holidsays rolls in. We are hosting our first Thanksgiving at our house this year and I'm a bucket of nerves!
NEEDING to plan our holiday party! We are hosting our first annual Tacky Sweater Christmas Party! We even bought Rudy the cutest little ugly sweater. He HATES it but he looks so adorable in it! I'll have to post a pic later! I have found some great ideas on pinterest including some delicious cookies and beverages to make!
Finally, I'm a country music fanatic! The CMT's were great and I love live music. How cute was that little Hunter Hayes!
Time to get back to the election...I hope everyone could get out and vote today!
Well hello long lost friends! I think I am finally caught up on life! The house is organized, my classroom is organzied, my kiddos are in a routine, I finished all my parent conferences (shout out to my awesome parents who came on time for their appointment! yay!!), Rudy is almost trained and my favorite holiday is this month! Needless to say, I am a happy camper these days! Now it's time to catch you sweet peeps up on all the giggles that have been happening in Miss Lane's first grade classroom! I thought I would like up with Amanda over at Teaching Maddeness to rewind our crazy week!
First Up...Bat Research!
Between blogs and pinterest, I feel like bats have been all the rage lately. I did bat research for the first time last year and was amazed at how much my nuggets loved it. It engaged all my boys like nothing I've ever seen and even my sweet little girls loved learning about these interesting creatures! To get them excited we talked about how bats hibernate in caves and when researchers study bats they have to wear a head lamp inside the caves, so we made our own "headlamps" that the nuggets wore while we researched. Kids love hats, so anything we can turn into a hat, we do!
I smell a freebie! Well since you are probably over bats and well on your way to Election lessons, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving, you can file this in your "For Next Year" folder! We used this thinking map (pictured above) to create our sentences and then the kids published their writings in their "Going Batty" book. We even made adorable bats from their handprints and some googly eyes!
Next Up...Main Idea and Details
I love teaching reading. I could teach reading ALL DAY LONG. EVERYDAY. This week we were working on finding the main idea with supporting details. In reading groups, we read some great non-fiction books from Reading A-Z. If you don't have a subscription, I HIGHLY recommend it! (It's a little pricey, but well worth it!!!) This group was working on our table whiteboards (best 12.99 I have ever spent)! This kiddos LOVE thinking they are writing on the table and even though they do it every day the love it with their WHOLE hearts and act like they've never done it before each time!
Finally...PUMPKIN carving 101!!!
Our class decorated our class pumpkin as our favorite book character. We voted and our favorite was sweet Arthur! After our fall festival we decided that we wanted to carve Arthur's face out of our pumpkin. We explored our pumpkin, documented our steps in carving, and wrote "How to Carve a Pumpkin" flipbooks. Such fun! I loved seeing their expressions as they explored the inside of our gooey pumpkin guts!
HALLOWEEN!
We spent our Halloween Wednesday dressed in our comfy jammies and rotating around classrooms with our kindergarten friends! The nuggets loved going back to see their "old" teachers and the little kindergarten friends loved coming and acting like first graders! The teachers partnered up and choose one book and one craftivity to go along with their book for the kiddos. We spent Halloween in Miss Lane's class reading Franklin's Halloween. (I love that book but after the 6th time reading it I was WORN out and had it memorized...I'm not sure how high school teachers do it!)
Warning: Ignore the falling letters and silly faces! It's pretty hard to get 16 kids to smile at the same time!
I hope everyone has a wonderful SHORT week and don't forget to VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!! If you need help deciding check out this amazing video from the sweet friends at Ron Clark Academy!!!
I will be back tomorrow to show how we are going crazy with Measurement this week with my new unit Measure, Yeah, Measure!
Well I have been M.I.A. from this little bloggy project I started over the summer. Moving schools, going back to grad school, working with a completely different population has been crazy. Crazy in a great way though! I absolutely adore my new school and all the wonderful new friends I have made. I adore, I mean ADORE my new little nuggets! However, with so much going on, this little blog of mine has been neglected. I am trying to get back on track but by the time I get home all I want to do is SLEEP!
Thankfully, Jessica Stanford from Mrs. Stanford's Class is doing another wonderful product SWAP! When I read about the first one I knew I had to get in on this!
I was paired up with Brittany from Keeping Up With First Grade. (Love the blog name!!) I browsed through her awesome TpT Shop...STOP and go check it out NOW! She has some great writing printables and an adorable zebra themed organizational printables to help you organize all your teacher files!
I found what I wanted the minute I saw it...Monthly Writing Prompt Cards! YES! We are in full swing with Daily 5 and these will work perfectly with Work on Writing! I am beyond excited to use these! I printed them out and let the kiddos get started with them this week! This was great for a few of my sweeties that say "Miss Lane I don't know what to write today..." Now instead of running through the usual list of ideas I can just point and say PICK A CARD, ANY CARD! She has these cards with Owls (if this was last year they would have been PERFECT for my camping theme) but I went with the crayons! They match any primary classroom!!!
This week some of the kiddos wrote from her cards about what they would get on Halloween instead of candy! It was hilarious! Some nuggets said they would rather get stuffed animals, some would rather get PIZZA and one adorable little one said he would rather get APPS for our iPad. Can't ya tell we use that thing all the time!!!
Brittany was so sweet and I wanted my Super Sam Short A Pack. You can head on over to her blog to check out her review! I hope she liked it!
Now for a giveaway! If you like Brittany's Blog, TpT Store, my blog and TpT store enter below to win the Super Sam Short A Pack!
Whew! The past three weeks have been a whirlwind! I thought changing schools but staying in the same grade level would be a breeze. Boy was I wrong! I have been staying at school until 6 (or later) like I was a first year teacher all over again!
We have been BUSY. And just when I thought we were in an awesome routine I had a new nugget show up at my door on Wednesday. Then GUESS what?!? His sweet cousin showed up on Thursday. So it's the 11th day of school and I already had two new nuggets. My motto: THE MORE THE MERRIER! (I can't complain because with my new nuggets I still only have 17 kiddos.)
We have iPads this year and let me tell you the kiddos are OBSESSED. I have incorporated "Golden Tags" from Kristen over at a Teeny Tiny Teacher and iPad is a Fun Friday Center. What an incentive. Maybe it's the iPad, maybe it's the honeymoon period. Whatever it is...it's WORKING! (I will be back later this week with my fave apps that are amazing!)
Tonight, I wanted to share our theme song with you. Our Title 1 Facilitator e-mailed this to us last week and it went perfectly with my Essential for the day. Be the BEST person you can be! (I adapted Ron Clark's Essentials into my firstie room!)
We sing this song EVERY morning. The kids love it! When I taught our essential we discussed how each person is special, just like they sing in the song. The kids LOVED that "The Black Eyed Peas" sang a song. (I may have fibbed a little and told them he made it for our school...oops!) My teammate and I are going to teach them hand motions once they learn the lyrics and perform at our Reading Night!
WARNING: This song will NOT leave your head. I find myself dancing around making dinner to it...I have gotten some strange looks from Nick (and Rudy) this week!
Before I leave you this Sunday I wanted to share my new vowel unit! Maybe it's my love of Big Bang Theory or the adorable Super Hero digital clip art floating around but I just had to find a use for them! So I am introducing Super Sam! He is a Short A Superhero. I am working on finishing up the rest of the "Vowel League" this week!
Stop by my TpT store to check it out! Well, Nick and I finally took the plunge (and bought a flat screen plasma TV...goodbye box tv!) so we are going to watch our first movie on it!
As much as I L.O.V.E vacation time and being away from home, there is something about coming home that is so comforting! Nick and I had a great time at the beach eating enough steamed shrimp and crab legs to satisfy me until our next trip! Then a wonderful family wedding in upstate New York. It was gorgeous and it is always fun to be with family! Now it's time to catch up!
Since I was flying and away from a computer/internet/etc. I missed one day of the major TpT sale. Well mine is up and running for the ENTIRE week to make up for lost time! You can only use the TpT code to get 28% off today but I will be having a 20% off sale all week! It's my last week of summer so I'm feeling generous!
Over at Blog Hoppin' you can check out the rest of the major sales going on. As soon as I finish posting, I'm going on a shopping spree! I can't wait to grab some great goodies from some of my favorite teacher-authors! Thanks to Amy Lemons for an adorable little sale sign!
Here are some great Back to School products you can grab in my store!
Start a mentoring program with your classroom!
First Grade Family Economy! Great for teaching first grade economics!
The Handwriting Zoo helps students learn the correct letter formation!
Personal Spelling Dictionaries for students to keep all their important words!
Next up...Classroom Progress!
Here's a few pictures to share what I have been working on! I will finish up this week and show you more pictures as I finish up!
Now some projects I've been working on...
App Worthy behavior was inspired by all the cute "Brownie Points" I've seen on Pinterest. Since we are doing a technology theme in my school I have adapted it to make different apps. I created different apps with positive sayings like "Great Job!" or "Awesome!" Each time my class receives a compliment, does something correctly the first time, etc. they will earn an app. After we fill up the cookie sheet (iPad if you will...) they class will earn a reward. You can pick it up here at my TpT store!
I finished my birthday board that was inspired by Erica Bohrer's birthday bulletin board! I created these labels and threw them up on a hideous cabinet. They are just waiting for my sweet little nuggets faces to brighten it up! You can also grab these from my TpT store!
LEVELING BOOKS!
We all HAVING leveled books in our classroom libraries but who really likes to actually level them!?! (Ok, maybe I do a little bit because then I read them all and find some old favorites or discover new ones!)
Well maybe a year or two ago I found this great site from Scholastic. It's a Scholastic Book Wizard! All you have to do is type in the title and BOOM! you have Guided Reading Level, DRA Level, Lexile Level, etc.
So, after you finish shopping, go on over to Scholastic and finish leveling your books! That's what Rudy and I will be doing all afternoon!
It's that time of the month again. Thanks Farley! As much as I want to rewind to July, or even June..it's time to get it together because the nuggets are coming so soon!! =)
I love to read a Ron Clark book each year before the new school year begins. He pumps me up like no other! I LOVE my job but he just puts it over the edge and gets me so excited to help mold some new minds and make a difference for our sweet little ones that will grace our presence for the next 180 days!
So I only had the past two days to put together an entire classroom. August 1st was the first day we could get into our rooms (it was really the 6th but I had a MAJOR panic attack and they felt sorry for me so they let me in early!) Nick and I have had a beach week planned for just the two of us (we realized we have NEVER just taken a vacay by ourselves, we are always accompanied by family and/or friends) and then this weekend we fly up to New York for a family wedding. Needless to say these trips have been planned before I moved schools. Worst timing EVER. I didn't think I would have to wait so long to get into my room. So I headed in at 7:30 Wednesday and finally called it quits when I was kicked out around 5. Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday. I even packed lunches for those days so I could keep working. I have these great before/after shots that I wanted to show you but...my wonderful camera is locked inside my new classroom. Seriously? I would leave it. No vacay pics either. To make you feel even more sorry for me, I dropped my iPhone and shattered the glass. I went to the Apple Store today and since it's Tax Free weekend they are not doing replacements. So no camera or phone for the next week. Actually it may be nice to be without a phone! Spend some quality time with the BF!
With open house coming up, I wanted to share with you some resources I have put together. (Shout out to Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade for such great ideas!) These are the info papers I will give to parents at our Open House. I used to give an entire handbook (think college syllabus) but I'm pretty sure that got tossed in the trash as soon as it got home (if it made it there). I condensed into the most important things that parents want to know and need to know. Click here to download them in GoogleDocs. (Graphics are from the one and only Scrappin' Doodles.)
Thanks to Kristen at A Teeny, Tiny Teacher for this awesome behavior management plan!
Ok, the BF says it is TIME! I'm just praying I can RELAX and not think about the million and one things I will have to do next week...
I am so happy that Amanda over at Teaching Maddeness is having a New School Year Resolutions linky party! With moving to a new school and starting a new year has really allowed me some reflection time! (All I can think of when I say reflection are all those reflection papers in Grad School!) So after careful thought here are my resolutions...
Resolution 1: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Ok, sometimes it is NOT that serious. I tend to take things way to personal and care about what others think. So as long as I'm doing what is best for my little nuggets and giving it 110% then I will be happy and won't stress!
Resolution 2: Use my time more wisely (aka QUIT CHIT CHATTING!)
Y'all...I could talk to a brick wall. Seriously, I love to talk. Sometimes if I'm home alone with Rudy I will talk to him (embarrassing I know...). I love getting to know people I work with and chit chatting with them before school, during planning, recess, and even after school. I have stayed at school until at least 5 or 6 just chatting with others! As much as I love talking to more co-workers I need to work hard this year on getting comfortable in my school and being able to go home at a reasonable hour! I have a puppy I need to take care of now, oh, and Nick, too! I want to be able to spend quality time at home with them, not working on school work =).
Resolution 3: Work Ahead of Schedule
This was something my teammate really helped me with last year. I was the QUEEN of procrastination. I think I've worked my way down to "Princess Procrastinator." I have already started on lesson plans (which usually I was throwing together like a day before school started!) and finished my long range plans.
I think I'm going to keep it at three reasonable, very do-able resolutions. I'll let ya know in November how these are working out! =)
TOMORROW I can finally get into my NEW classroom and get to work! I have a stockpile of things that I need to take in to the hot mess that is my room right now and tackle it! I'm hoping that 3 straight days of 8-5 with no break will get it done and allow me to enjoy my week away with Nick at the beach. He's been planning this for awhile and his job is stressful so he's in need of some serious R&R. Let's hope I can relax, too!
I wanted to share some pictures from "Camp Lane." I was so sad to pack up all my camping gear (NOTE: I DESPISE actually camping but I love the cuteness of it in the classroom!) and say goodbye to that classroom!
A Few Extra Pics...
Reading Tent and Math Manipulatives
One of my best friends painted the Totally Terrific Work Pond and Word Woods Tree!
My desk area next to Camp Reading Tent and Vocabulary Picnic Bulletin Board
Ok, time to get everything together to and relax before I turn into "Hurrican Sarah" tomorrow!
Don't forget to stop by my TpT store today. It's the last day of July and the last day of 20% off EVERYTHING!
