My First Linky Party! Back-to-School Books

One of my sweet bloggy friends recently said I was very honest in some comments I wrote. Well, it's time for some honesty again. I've wanted to host a linky party for a while, but I was afraid. Would anyone like my idea for the party? Could I do it (code, etc.)? So today I took the plunge and decided to give it a try.
My idea is a series of linky parties called "Holiday Picture Books." The first one will be "Back to School" books. I know this isn't really a holiday, but it seems so fit for me since it's such a significant time of year. Hopefully it makes sense to you too. After this Back-to-School party I was thinking of doing another one about Halloween books, then Thanksgiving books... you get the idea, right? There are so many books I enjoy reading to my first graders at these times of the year and I know you must have your favorites too so why don't we share?

border from KPM Doodles, clipart from Scrappindoodles.com

Here are some of my favorites:

Maybe it's because I raised rabbits, but I love these books! The bunnies are so cute! But more importantly there a fun way to kick off our beginning of the year review of colors, shapes, and letters. Students can also join in by naming the shapes in the pictures and the letters that come next. In the color book, the rabbit jumps in yellow then in red and students can try to guess what color the rabbit will be. My students always ask me to read these multiple times. And I'm happy to do it!

These are two more of my favorite alphabet books:

 Don't you just love the Tack the Penguin books? When I saw Helen Lester's name on this book, I had to have it! It's a hilarious story about a little pig named Pinkerton who, of course, HAS to be first. He's first on the slide, first to read the book everyone wants, and first on the school bus, shoving others out of the way. Pinkerton learns his lesson, and I'm able to have a nice discussion with my class about taking turns.

 Helen Lester again! How many times have we all heard "I didn't do it. I wasn't my fault?" I read this book in the first few days of school but am thinking I should probably keep it handy and read it several times throughout the year.

I found this in a local book store a few years ago. I wasn't sure my students would like it, but they really do. I read a section a day and the children usually ask for it as soon as we go to the rug. It's basically about how to be happy and have people want to be around you. I wish I could remember all the topics it covers, but I haven't read it in almost a year and it's at school. Honesty and Strength are the two I do remember. I like how it explains the difference between physically strong and morally strong. The stick figures are adorable! And it's by the author of The Story of Ferdinand which I also like.

If you've got some favorite books you'd like to share, please link up! Be sure to add this button and link up with the url of your blog post.

If you're looking for some new books to add to your library for the start of the year, please take a look through these linked up blogs.

<a href="http://firstgradefoundme.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-firsts-linky-party-back-to-school.html" target="_blank"><img src=http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m504/ChrissyH76/backtoschool.jpg></a>

I can't wait to find some new fabulous book ideas! This linky party will be open until September 31. If this goes well, keep an eye out for the 2nd in the series, "Halloween Picture Books," to start in September.
(Shhhh... can I tell you... I'm nervous to click "publish." I hope this works and someone links up.)

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She's having a giveaway!

Hello, my bloggy friends! I'm loving all the pictures people are posting of their classrooms. It's really making me wish I could get into mine. 

Today I want to let you know about Jessica's "Help Me Get to 100 Followers Before School Starts" giveaway. She's giving away some items from her TPT. I really want the Mystery Word packet. It looks like fun! Please hop over and visit Jessica at Tales-of-a-First-Grade-Teacher and let's help her reach her goal of 100 followers!

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"First Day of School" LInky Party and Award

Happy Monday! I love that it's not a Monday at school yet. Although I am excited to get back and fix up my room, get projects ready, and meet my new little kiddos. Last year's class was SO wonderful. I hope this year will be as much fun. So since I'm thinking about the start of the year, I thought I'd link up with Michelle at

for her "First Day of School" linky party.

She asked what teachers do in their first 1/2 hour or so while kids are coming in, parents want to talk/ask questions, and there's just so much going on. Oh my, that's a crazy time, isn't it?

At our school a supply list is sent home in June, so kids come with sometimes with a bug bag of stuff. So I need something for them to do without me for a while. I put a small container of playdoh on their desk with a coloring sheet and their new crayons. This way they have a choice of activities and the kids have something easy to do while they chit-chat. Meanwhile, I write their name on the bag of stuff they bring, ask parents if they're supposed to get school lunch or if they brought a lunch, and who is picking them up. And I make sure they know what time to come back for their little ones! I write their name on their supplies the best I can because there are some things they bring that I don't need so I send them back home or give them to another teacher. Like pencil boxes. I bought a class set of these

so I send home the type that closes up and tell the kids they can use them when they do their homework. Storage space in my students' desks is really small, so these fit better anyway. I just bring them home at Christmas and in June and run them through the dishwasher to get them clean again.

When I take the kids to the rug, we go over a few rules, I introduce myself with my "ME bag" and show them some photos of me, my family, my pets, and tell them about my hobbies. I explain that they'll take home a bag with this poem attached

This poem comes from Mrs. Bonzer's First Grade Friends. Click on picture.

They'll put up to 3 items in the bag and bring them to school to share. Then they get a little time to decorate their bags.

We usually go over rules again and talk about a few more of them, do calendar and take a school tour after that.

That's pretty much how the first little while goes.  I hope you'll link up and share some of what you do!

Yesterday I was very sweetly awarded the Versatile Blogger award by Maggie from First Grade and Fearless. Thanks so much, Maggie! To accept this award the rules are to:

1. thank the blogger who gave it to you (check, done)

2. include a link to their site (here it is)

3. include the award image in your post

4. give 7 random facts about yourself (This is so hard. I don't think I'm that interesting. I'll try to think of something.)

5. nominate 5-10 other bloggers and tell them about it.

Here are my nominees:

She's also having a "50 followers" giveaway. It's an Amazon gift card....... Betcha want one!

Tales-of-a-First-Grade-Teacher.

My 7 random facts (this really is hard and I'll try not to share things I've shared before. If I do hopefully you'd forgotten and they'll sound new to you):

1. I used to do counted cross-stitch and really enjoyed it. It's a hobby I should pick up again.

2. I included the Ramblings of a Deaf Ed Teacher's Mind blog because it made me think of all the deaf/hard of hearing kids I've had in my class for inclusion.  They were all such great kids! And I learned so much from their teacher about hearing loss, too!

3. I love to read mysteries. Right now I'm reading Todd Borg's series that take place in Lake Tahoe.

4. It turns out that I like 1950's sci-fi movies. I just learned that this summer. There's a summer outdoor movie shown every Friday during the summer in a park not too far away. This summer their playing sci-fi movies. We saw The Day the World Stood Still. Right now I'm watching/listening to The Blob. The movies are a little corny by today's standards, but they're fun. It surprises me that I like them!

5. I raised rabbits in 4-H for about 11 years. 

6. Every year my mom and I organize the rabbit show at our county fair. We do all the paperwork, get the judges, etc. The rabbit show was last Friday. Here are a few pictures:

Aren't they cute?

7. My blog turned 1-year old on July 15th. I can't believe it! Here's my first post if your interested in reading it.  

http://www.firstgradefoundme.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-first-blog-ever.html

I've had fun going back to some of those earliest posts. I've learned so much since then.  

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I really wasn't sure anyone would want to read it when I started. Now it's just been so wonderful to meet all of you and share/get so many ideas!

PS- there's still an opportunity to get in on a Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom Letter Exchange. Carole is looking for participants for hers. You can check out her blog here.

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Letter Exchange Update, Giveaways, and More

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom Alphabet Letter Exchange UPDATE:

Things are going well so far. I sent out an email to about 100 teachers this morning to get everyone's addresses. I've heard from about 40 of them already! Once I get all this information, I'll make the groups, send out the list and letters, and then the decorating and mailing can begin as soon as school starts. If you did not get the email but think you should be on my list, please email or leave a comment and let me know. There are just a few people whose email's have come back as "undeliverable." If you're one of those few, I replied to your original comment about joining the project. Please get back to me- I don't want to have to leave you out. Thanks, everyone! What do you think about linking up with pictures once the project is finished?

Earlier today I got an email from Cathy over at Mrs. I's Class (she's participating in the exchange) and told her about how I got lost in blogland. I went over to check out here blog, which is great! by the way, and found that she's having a giveaway (she's got over 500 followers!) with lots of chances to win. Soooo, in checking out the blogs she listed, I got WAY sidetracked and found so many great things going on that I had to share them with you. 

First of all there's Cathy's giveaway. You can check it out here

And then there's Janis' Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop where "new" bloggers can link up together. I consider myself new since I just started blogging last summer. And I feel like a newbie because I know there's lots more to learn. So I thought I'd jump in.
First question
What state are you in? 
I live in California.
Your current teaching position?
I'm teaching 1st grade and having so much fun doin' it!
Your teaching experience?
I've taught it more than any other grade. But I also spent 2 years in 2nd grade and 3 in Kindergarten.
When did you start blogging?
I started last summer. Actually my little blog turned 1 year old about a week ago.
Can you share a blogging tip/resource?
Check out Virtual Teaching Expo's Blogging 101. It helped me so much! One night very early in my blog I was trying to post pictures. It took about 3 hours and I knew there had to be a better way or else no one would be doing it! I purchased Blogging 101 the next day and it answered all my questions plus much, much more.

Thanks for organizing this, Janis! If you're new, please link up too!

Along my journey through blogland this morning I also discovered some things you may want to check out:
Deanna Jump's Common Core Standards Posters for Kinder and 1st grade. Thanks for including 1st, Deanna!
Ashley's giveaway of an Erin Condren plan book!
Barbara's great Brown Bear, Brown Bear inspired class book!
Decoding tips for Parents! from Finally in First. I'm printing these for Back to School night!
A fantastic number/color word Elmer freebie from Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives. I teach these words right at the start of the year and know my kiddos will love this!

I hope you're having a pleasant Sunday!

 

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A Good Kind of Drama

Happy... what day is it? Thursday, I think. It's summertime and one of my favorite things is not having to keep much of a schedule. 

Today I decided to link up to Barbara's first linky party- woohoo!!! She picked a very interesting topic and one I've never seen a linky party for. It's drama lessons! To be honest, teaching drama scares me. I have wanted to do a play with my class for a few years now. Really wanted to do it with my super class last year. But I'm just afraid. A few years ago I bought the play Goldilocks and the Three Bears from Bad Wolf Press. Their slogan is "musical plays for musically timid teachers." (Here I am, raising my hand!) Another teacher at my school told me about it. The play is funny because it involves characters from other well-known stories and isn't just a straight retelling of the story. I played the music for my class and they adored it and sang along after hearing it a few times. But that's as far as I got. So I'm taking the lead from Barbara, sharing this idea of where to get a play, and hoping I get braver next year. "I think I can, I think I can."

 They have plays for all grades spanning all curriculum areas.

I hope this helps you get started with drama for your students or helps you find something new. 

Thanks for getting this started, Barbara!

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Favorite Picture Books, Alphabet Letter Exchange News, and New Blog on the Block

I started this post yesterday morning looking for my favorite picture books on Amazon so I could link up with Lindsey's "must have picture books" party. But you know how some days just don't end up like you thought they would? Yesterday was one of those days. I was on my computer when my mom called from work. She just wanted to let me know that she was going to the emergency room because she has some shortness of breath and unusually high blood pressure. Yikes! She said I didn't need to come, but I'm only 1 1/2 hours away so of course I went. By the time I got there she felt better. Of course any emergency room visit takes hours, so we sat and talked till the doctor came back and said she was okay. Whew! So I drove her home and we visited for the afternoon and had dinner before I came back home. Today she said she feels fine. Thank goodness!!!! I love you mom! (She reads my blog so that's for her. I hope she's not upset that I told this story.)

So today is a better day for getting to my blog.

I'm linking up with Lindsey's (from The Teacher Wife) terrific idea

to share 5 of my favorite picture books with you. Wait! Only 5? Seriously, how can I choose? Picture books are one of my favorite things ever! I know I can't choose my favorite 5, so I'll choose 5 favorites instead. Well, sort of. I'm going to cheat a bit and include some collections of books by a favorite author. Here goes:

1. Books by Chris Van Allsburg. These are 2 of my favorites. The Garden of Abdul Gasazi is about a little boy who is asked to take care of Fritz, Miss Hester's dog. Fritz runs away into the Garden where a sign warns that no one should enter. The boy meets Mr. Gasazi, a former magician, who turns the dog into a duck. Or does he? That's what I like best about Chris Van Allsburg's books. They all have a point where the story could end, but then Chris puts a special twist on the story. It leads to a fun discussion with my students about what they think really happened.
In The Wreck of the Zephyr a young boy meets an old man next to a sailboat at the top of a cliff. He's confused about how the boat got there so the old man proceeds to tell him the story. The boy in his story wants to be the best sailor ever and learns to pilot a boat that soars through the sky.  It ends up crashing atop the cliff and the boy's leg gets hurt. As the old man finishes telling the story, he walks away with a limp.
After reading this book with my class, I have the watercolor a piece of white paper with blue and a little black and purple so the water/sky look stormy. Then they color and cut out a sailboat and glue it into the picture. I wish I had an example to show you, but it's at school. The kids love the project!

2. I wish I'd read Patricia Polacco a long time ago. I'd heard about her books but didn't read them until a few years ago when I taught 2nd grade and Thundercakes was in the reading anthology. I went to our school library and checked out most of her books to read to my class. If you know Thank You Mr. Falker, then you know her books can be tear jerkers. This is no different. It was one of the last of her books that I read and apparently the kids could tell when I was going to cry. In this book a young, new teacher gets a kitten. The kitten goes missing for 2 weeks (if I remember right). At this point one of the boys in my class said, "She's gonna cry!" And he was right. I couldn't help it. I thought of my pets and got all choked up. In the end the teacher gets her cat back. I love this book. Maybe you can read it without crying. Good luck!

3. I love the simplicity of this story! And it's great for starting an art lesson about mixing colors. It's about Little Blue who goes out searching for a friend. He meets up with Little Yellow. They hug, turn green and go back home where no one recognizes them. They are sad and cry, causing the two colors to separate. They form back into themselves again and ... ready?... live happily ever after. It's really very sweet. I read that this was Leo Lionni's first book. He came up with the story while riding home from work on the train with his grandchildren. They were bored so he took out some paper and made up a story. It sounds so easy.......

4. Books by Virginia Lee Burton. Some of my very favorites. Especially The Little House. Another story that makes me cry, actually. I believe it was written in the 1940's. "It was written about the time your grandma or great-grandma was born," I tell them. And they turn and look at each other, astonished. This little house sits int he country and is very well loved. As time goes by the city gets nearer and nearer until she is almost swallowed up by the skyscrapers. The subway runs right past her and she gets neglected. One day a woman passes by who recognizes the house from when she was a child. Her grandfather built it. She has the house moved back out the country where it is happy again. My students always enjoy the final picture where the house looks like she's smiling. I find the story very touching. Mike Mulligan and Katy and the Big Snow are 2 other books of hers that I really enjoy reading to my first graders.

5. This book is special to me. It was written by a local winery owner that my husband and I became friends with. It's called Mambo's Tail. Mambo was the winery owners dog- a big, super-sweet black lab. Jodi (the author) and her husband loved Mambo so much and this story tells of the adventures and trouble Mambo got into in his life. He passed away a while ago and is deeply missed. I got this book a few months ago and read it to my class. They really enjoyed it to. The book is also quite a family project. Jodi wrote it, her mom illustrated it, and her brother helped with layout or publishing (I can't remember which). If you love dogs you'll identify with this book.
You can purchase it at Consilience  and Tre Anelli Winery. Just click HERE.

Well, those are some of my favorites. I have enjoyed reading other people's choices. My wishlist is much longer now! Oh, by the way, the rest of the books are available through most major bookstores and probably through

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! There's a new blog on the block.

Her blog is really cute! But the best part is that she's hosting an Alphabet Exchange too. So if you're still looking to join up, she'd love to have you on board. Please hop over there and check out her blog. She's love to have you visit!

Well that's my rambling for now. I'm glad today was a much calmer day than yesterday. I'm off to work on my spread sheet for the alphabet exchange. I should it out to all participants in the next few days. Have a great night!

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Awards and Daily 5 and Homework freebies!

Thank you to all the teachers who signed up to be part of the Alphabet Letter Exchange. You'll get an email from me next week. I know my class will have so much fun with this!

Thanks so much also to Gayla from Teach On for awarding me the Versatile Blogger and the One Lovely Blog Award. It brought a smile to my face! It's amazing to me how supportive and wonderful you all are. I just love it and appreciate you all!

Today I started thinking that I want some new Daily 5 posters for next year. So I found cute clip art and used Angelia's tutorial on how to change a border into a frame. This is what I came up with.

Designing things like this is new to me but it's really fun! My district has had so much curriculum and put so much pressure on us to have tight schedules that I didn't feel I had room for much else. But as I've gone along and thanks to all of you teacher bloggers out there, I have found ways and reasons to create slightly different ways of working with the curriculum. And I discovered Daily 5 and Math Work Stations to add to what I've been doing. I'll tell you, I'm envious of those of you who still have music and art at your schools. And to have a PE teacher- Wow! That would be a first for me. In our district they've told us the amounts of time we should be teaching language arts, math, and PE, lang. arts intervention, math intervention, and ELD and once it's added up I think we have about 15 minutes left. Keep in mind, that's 15 minutes for students to come in and out from recess, lunch, the start and end of the day, music, art, social studies, and science, not to mention just talking to the kids. Whew! I'm tired just typing that! And a bit aggravated too.
Luckily I discovered blogs and creative ways to teach the curriculum and have been re-energized. I love creating things like these posters and other activities. And sharing them with you!
I also made some homework folder covers to go with my jungle/animal print theme for next year. The pink border will be for the girls and the blue for the boys. You're welcome to them if you can use them.

I'm off to find something to fix for dinner!

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