Alphabet Letter Exchange Link-Up

I've been neglecting my little blog for a while. I'm so sorry. My class has been difficult and needed a lot of, shall we say, redirecting. I was sick for a while too which didn't help. And the sub that filled in for me... oh, my! From the stories I heard from the kids, one boy had my big bean bags (meant for Read to Self, not this purpose) piled on him and other students were jumping on him. I won't bother you with all the details, but suffice it to say the room was not pretty when I returned (from only 1day!). Even the little tabs that are on the front of each drawer in my cabinet to label what's in the drawer were gone. Why the kids would have taken those I have no idea. Things are better now and were back on track. And I'm making cute labels for my file cabinet drawers instead of the hand written ones I slid in there years ago.

I thought I'd post about the Alphabet Letter Exchange that started in September. 104 teachers from the US and Canada participated. Teachers were assigned a group and a letter to decorate and mail out to that group. Letters started being mailed in early September and continued into October as we all got back to school. I got so much feedback from teachers and their classes about how much fun everyone had. I'm so glad you all enjoyed it so much. Hope you'll be back next year! Look for the first post sometime in July to sign up. 

This is what my alphabet looks like today:

I know some group are missing a few letters. As you can see, I am too. My suggestion would be to maybe choose a few students who could decorate those missing letters at home if you want a finished alphabet. Unfortunately I think some teachers just get so busy they don't end up being able to make their letters. So I think that's how I'll finish mine off.

I was part of Group 1 and let me thank you for the incredibly creative letters! My students were so excited to see me coming with a manilla envelope in my hand. I really enjoyed reading the letters you sent about the areas you live in and your schools. They were so fun to share with my class!

A quick thanks to Brooke Perry who started this last year and was kind enough to let me run with it this year since she wasn't hosting it again. Please pop over and check out here fabulous blog if you have the chance!

Also, you'd like to link up and share photos of your Alphabet Exchange display, please do. I'll leave the link-up open until Nov. 15. Thanks so much to all who participated. I look forward to next year!

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Red Ribbon week is over!

I just feel the need to shout that from the rooftops. The message kids get during this week at school is very good, I know. But I dread it. Do you? Many of my students are knowledgeable about law enforcement procedures than I am. I used to hear storied about the neighbor who smokes marijuana, the dad who drinks to much and yells at the family, the parent who got stopped by the police and ran away from the car leaving the child and mom inside (nice!). A few years ago I stopped talking much about the purpose of Red Ribbon Week with my class. It's just too hard for me to hear those stories. My heart hurts just thinking about their lives sometimes. This time the only bad story I got was from one boy about his dad pulling his mom's hair and getting arrested and sent to jail. "But he's out now'" the son said happily. Oh, good. 

At our school we have the police come one day with the SWAT tank and a car. They do a really good presentation for the kids then let them go inside the vehicles. It's the part of the week I actually do like. The morning they were coming one boy told me that "I've meant a policeman and a fireman, but I've never meant an ambulancer." That made me laugh. It just so happened that one of the policeman at the presentation told the kids he'd been a paramedic before. That little boy was so excited!

That's all for now. Thanks for letting me share. I'll be back tomorrow with a link-up to Alphabet Letter Exchange photos. Hope you're having a nice weekend.

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Announcing.. the Thanksgiving Picture Book Linky Party

There has been such great response to the Holiday Picture Book Linky Parties! Thanks for participating. Today I'm starting one for Thanksgiving books. I wondered about it being early, but figured that it would allow time for purchasing books when you come across a "must have." These are my thoughts for other picture book link-ups: Christmas books, Patriotic Holidays(in January.), one for Valentines' Day (mid Jan.-Feb 14), Easter/Spring, and End of the Year. How does that sound to you? Too many? Should I add one for any other holiday? Let me know what you think. This has been so much fun!

Meanwhile, here are some books I use to teach about Thanksgiving:

This one is a simple, short board book. I like the simplicity of it especially for my EL students.

I like this for the beautiful photos instead of illustrations.

I read this one as a precursor to writing about what we're thankful for.

Some years my students have really identified with seeing the Little Bill cartoon on tv. All the things Little Bill is thankful for help to give my students some ideas.

These are some I enjoy reading "just for fun."

In this story Mr. Moose tries to find a turkey for Thanksgiving. The turkey he finds thinks they want to eat him for dinner, but he is actually the guest of honor.

Perhaps my favorite Thanksgiving story is

I used to check this out from my school library. I just love this sweet story about Maggie and her grandmother whose recipe for cranberry bread is famous. Maggie invites the rough-around-the-edges Mr. Whiskers to dinner. Grandma's guest attempts to steal her recipe. Grandma's recipe is in the back of the book. Sometimes after I read this story we do a cranberry taste test. I make cranberry bread, bring cranberry sauce, and raw cranberries. I have the kids taste the raw cranberry first (and I have to say that the faces they make crack me up! Some of them do like the sour taste, though.) then explain that most cranberry products have sugar added.

There's another Splat the Cat book I didn't know about. Yippee!!

If you're looking for an activity to go with this Splat book, my friend Barb at GradeONEderful has some cute papers she made for practicing story elements with the Splat stories. You can find them HERE.

I'd love it if you'd link up with some of your Thanksgiving faves! Please snag this button too.

Please link it back to this post. I'm trying to get the button with a grab box set up. I did it once but can't seem to make it work again. I've tried 2 tutorials and it's not working for me. Leave me a comment if you've found and are willing to share it with me. Thanks!

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I've been BOO-ed!

I've been BOO-ed! That sounds bad, but it's actually a good thing. I was BOO-ed by my friend Barb over at GradeONEderful. It's part of a new linky party started by Tori over at Tori's Teacher Tips.

Here are the rules:

I love Halloween! October and December might just be my two favorite months at school. Here's some of what we do:

* Every year my class enjoys painting pumpkins. You can read more about how we do this {here}

* I used the comprehension brochure and Splat art project from this packet last year and loved it! The kids did too. It's from Christie at First Grade Fever!

* Some years we do a jack-o-lantern coordinate graph I got from mathwire.com.  Here is page with that activity and others {pumpkin math}.

* We write about pumpkins, Write From the Beginning style,

        using a chart like this that I post on the board. We brainstorm in a circle to get some of the  
        vocabulary.

I'm passing the "BOO" on to these other fabulous bloggers:
Michelle from Inspired by Kindergarten
Kate from Second Grade Sparkle
Lori at Little Priorities
April at Chalk Talk
Cindy at Granny Goes to School

Do you have an October/Halloween pinboard yet? Mine is going to grow a lot as I check out all these great ideas! Have fun!

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Currently! and Progress Report freebie

A new month and a new Currently! Here's mine:

 

Thanks for hosting this fabulous party every month, Farley! Head on over if you'd like to link up too!

Do you have parent conferences coming up soon too? Ours are this next week. Last week was busy with fluency assessments, HM Theme Skills Test, and updating other assessments. Last year I posted about my October progress report. This year I thought I'd share it again (revised a little). I fill it out, copy it, keep one for myself and give one to the parent at the conference. If you'd like a copy, just click on the picture below. (Please leave a little *heart* note if you do.)I left it in Word format rather than a pdf so you could make changes if you need too. The lines on the second page didn't look right when I opened it from google docs, but when I downloaded it, they looked right. If that doesn't happen for you, I hope you can change it easily. Anyway, here it is if you'd like a copy.

I also found a terrific resource over at Primary Junction. Kayla put together this packet of handouts for parents about how to help their children with school work. Thanks so much, Kayla.

Have a great weekend!

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Painting Pumpkins and Giveaway

Happy Fall Y'all! Last Friday was pumpkin painting time in my room. I thought I blogged about this last year, but I just went back to check and it turns out I never did, at least not with pictures. When I clicked on last years blog entries I saw my New Year's Resolution to use fewer worksheet/pencil & paper curriculum and to more hand-on activities. I was successful last year, but fell back into a more strictly curriculum pattern this year with the pressure from our consultant and new principal. It's gotten to me, and it's BORING! Besides it's not Common Core. So I stayed home today to work on activities, spider and bat units, fun writing projects, etc. Ahhh, I needed this. Woke up at 6:00 so I got up and worked on a sorting activity to practice odd and even. Then I got blogging and.... I've been here since. I'll get back to the school projects in a little while.  Anyway.... I started out telling you about our pumpkins. I begin by showing the kids a bottle of yellow and a bottle of red paint and I say, "We're going to paint pumpkins." They look at me like "What- chu- talkin'- bout- Willis?" (Am I dating myself saying that? Did you watch Different Strokes too?) Then I read the book

 

which tells how primary colors mix to make other colors. We pass out paper, brushes, and paper plates with yellow paint on them. Then I start by showing how to paint a pumpkin shape (it can be round, tall, etc). I tell the kids not to spread the paint around too much. "Leave gobs of paint" I say.

 As the kids finish the yellow, they are to raise their hands so I can put more yellow on their paper if necessary and give them some red paint.

 Then I show them how a very small bit of red can be blended into the yellow to make orange.

I show them all these steps on my sample on the board then let them started.

What I love about this part is how all the oranges or different- just like real pumpkins!

I put them on our drying rack and have the kids add the stem the following day. I cut the pumpkins out and then put out pumpkin patch together. Ta-Da!

 In my class most painting is done whole class. I call kids over in small groups to add details like stems, or hats and scarves on our snowmen. But the main things are done whole class to save time. The "painting rule" that is most helpful to me is that "There is no talking while painting." I tell them that artists focus on their paintings when they paint so "we" will do the same thing. The first time we paint (which is the pumpkins) I do have to take a few brushes away (2 this year). But I tell the kids that I will take their brushes if they are talking and give them back when they can work quietly. So I keep the brushes for only about a minute then give them back. In future projects I rarely have to take away brushes. It just seems to keep the kids focused and they are more careful about handling their brushes so it doesn't end up a fun face painting activity! I love painting with my class and they love it too!

Well, I'm off to try to "Common Core" my curriculum. Wish me luck!

But before I go..... my friend Barbara over at Grade ONEderful is celebrating 500 follower! She's having an amazing giveaway including some items from other fabulous bloggers. If you haven't been over to Grade ONEderful yet, what are you waiting for? Hurry! Click on her button below. Don't miss out on her great blog.

I also update my Blogger Meet-Up post with photos if you want to take a look.

http://www.firstgradefoundme.blogspot.com/2012/09/fabulous-blogger-meet-up-today.html

Hopefully this all made sense. I didn't go back and read it. Thanks for sticking with me through this long post.

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