Fabulous 100th Day Packet!

I won?? Really? Seriously, I don't win things very often. But this time Tania was giving away her 100th packet and I won it! 

 It's jam-packed with tons of fun! There's a 100 favorite things book to make, math activities with dice probability, work with coins and the 100 chart, a glyph (I don't think I've ever actually done one of those with my class. Definitely next 100th day if not before!). There are 100th day book suggestions and certificates as well. If you're looking for some new ideas I encourage you to check this out!

You can find Tania's blog and link to her store by clicking on her button below.

Thanks again, Tania!

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My True Color is... (linky party)

It's been a busy week! We had Monday off (yippee!), President's Day activities, our first grade Patriotic Program Friday, a field trip to a senior residential facility to sing for them, and practices during the week. Phew! And now I'm fighting off the cold my students have had for the last month or so. I think I might have 1 student out of the 23 who hasn't been sick yet. Through all of this I haven't been spending too much time on my blog but this morning I came upon a fun linky party Tori over at Tori's Teacher Tips is hosting and thought I'd link up. Hope you will too! It's called

You take a short personality test and it tells you your color. I'm going to take it to school and see if my fellow first grade teachers will take it at our PLC. It would be really fun to see what color's we all are! I took my test and my color is....

A few of the things that stand out to me are:

"I believe that work comes before play, even if I must work overtime to complete the job." That happens often!

"I value home, family, (and friends, I had to add that part) and tradition." This is definitely true. I can be very sentimental too. I love spending time with my family and the traditions we have at Christmas and Thanksgiving are especially meaningful to me. I love the tradition my mom has of coming to help in my classroom and the beginning and end of the school too!

"I was the easiest of all types of children to adapt to the educational system." This is the first personality test I've taken that mentioned school. It was easy for me to get along with teachers and I enjoyed most of my classes and teachers.  This line made me think of some students I know who don't find the structure of school easy. I really feel for them.

This was really fun! I can't wait to see if my fellow teachers will take it with me. Have a great Saturday! I'm off to blogstalk some more!

Thanks, Tori!

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Valentine's Day Picture Book Linky Party (& a class book freebie)

Happy Valentine's Day (in advance)!

Looking at my books Friday afternoon made me think it was time for this linky party. Please join up! I enjoy the books I have, but I know you have some fabulous ones too and it's always fun to buy new books!!

Just copy this image to your blog, share some of your favorite books, and link up below.

Perhaps my personal Valentine favorite is this book

 It's such a sweet story about caring for other people. Here is the Amazon.com description:

"One wintry day, a postman delivers a mysterious package with a big pink bow to a lonely man named Mr. Hatch.
"Somebody loves you," the note says.
"Somebody loves me!" Mr. Hatch sings as he dusts his living room. "Somebody loves me!" Mr. Hatch whistles as he does his errands in town. "But who," Mr. Hatch wonders, "could that somebody be?"
After some time, Mr. Hatch discovers just who his secret admirer is and, in doing so, enjoys the biggest surprise of his life!"

 And I can't resist Diane DeGroat's books. My students get excited when they see Gilbert!
 Here's the Amazon.com description:
"When Gilbert writes two not-so-nice valentines to his classmates, his prank quickly turns into pandemonium. But there's always time for a change of heart on Valentine's Day." I love the rhymes. It would be fun to have older students write rhymes for their valentine's.

This book is nice, short read about giving valentines. I use it to introduce Valentine's Day and the idea of passing out valentines. Years ago another teacher gave me the idea to have my little firsties address their valentines by just wrtiting who the card is from, not who it is for. That way the kids can easily walk around and drop their valentines into whatever containers we've made.

Of course there's always Splat!

 

And I just bought a craftivity from Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher that I can't wait to use!

I thought I'd share a class book idea with you too. It's fun and simple but makes a cute bulletin board until I take it down and bind it into a book.The book is called "First It Was a Heart, Then It Was a _____." You can grab this freebie by clicking on the picture.

cute background papers are from Barbara @ rubyslippersblogdesigns.blogspot.com

Here are some of the pages my students created today. 

The cover and two different pages you can use are here as a freebie. Just click on the pic and leave me a sweet comment and it's all yours! I created each page version with the heart upside down and right side up so your students could use them either way.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I look forward to reading about your favorite Valentine's Day books!

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It's Currently February

February already? Yippee!! There are so many fun things I like to do with my class in February. It sure would be easier if two little kiddos were absent once in a while. That sounds bad, doesn't it? Just once in a while even would be nice, though. I'll be trying to fit in as much as a I can.

Before I get to my currently I just thought I'd share what my door looks like this month. I will add the kids names to the hearts on top. My class will like this on Monday. I remembered when I put this up today that my mom made the "We have heart" poster a long time ago. I can't believe it still looks like new!

And here's my currently:

Thanks, Farley! You've really outdone yourself with this beautiful design!

I should have my Valentine's Day Picture Book Linky Party up in the next couple of days. Hope you'll join in!

Have a wonderful weekend! 

P.S. I was contacted by my friend Jessica over at Tales of a First Grade Teacher about a student of hers with cancer. She's starting a fundraiser for childhood cancer. If you're interested, you can check it out here. Just click on the picture.

 

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Pajama Day (Class Book)

Hi, it's me!

 Last time I blogged, it was to ask for input about having a student teacher. I got so much good advice! I've been away from my blog for a bit for two reasons. First, I was told I was getting a student teacher (this wonderful woman who has been my aide. We were so excited!). However, between my district and her university somehow the contract couldn't be worked out. Disappoint and a little anger followed. I still can hardly believe that someone messed this up so badly! So, I'm not getting to have her as a student teacher after all. There is a lucky teacher in a neighboring district that will hopefully have a fabulous next 8 weeks with her new student teacher. I was so upset! Secondly, my class is difficult as I've said before. Most days lately I've wanted to come home and leave school behind. But...

today was Pajama Day!

A day of fun!

I decided to push math a little later in the day and start off with a fun pajama project since I knew my class would be excited. After school I finally got to go through and match pictures and writing and really enjoy reading what the kids wrote. Some of these just had to be shared!

Take a look at Spidey!

Happy pajamas! I laughed out loud. Guess my pajamas would be happy if they were this colorful too!

 I didn't realize until the end of the day that the color he wrote about wasn't reflected in his picture. Oops! He comes up with some really neat ideas to add to discussions or when he draws.

Little Miss Cupcake Pajamas!

I was quite impressed with this one! This little sweetie struggles to read CVC words. She puts forth great effort but is very low. I thought she did great!

I just love making class books with my students! And they love it too! I've never made this particular book before but it's a keeper. This was fun and just what we (me included) needed right about now.

I introduced it with this fabulous story

Do you make books with your class? If so, what are some of your favorite ones?

Thanks for stopping by!

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