Navigation Menu

All rights reserved
We Heart 1st 2016

Using Dollar Spot Erasers in the Classroom

Using Dollar Spot Erasers in the Classroom


Hey there! We were so excited when we heard that we get to take over on of our FAVE Instagram accounts for the day: Target Teachers! If you don't already follow them, you need to get on it.
They post TONS of great ideas for using Target products in the classroom. (Note: Staging a photo shoot at Target with 4 kids is not easy...Especially with a baby and 2 toddlers! All 4th of July clothing is from TARGET!)


We absolutely LOVE using those cute mini erasers in the classroom, so thought we'd share some of the ways we use them.

Our students love playing math games during our guided math time. Erasers as counters make the games even more fun! A little novelty goes a long way.

 Most of our monthly math tubs include these "cover your number" games. We use the erasers to cover the numbers to practice addition, subtraction, skip counting by 10s, and telling time.




You wouldn't expect graphing to be a hot item, but these games go quickly because they love building the graphs with their themed erasers.
Addition and subtraction race games are always favorites.
We use the erasers as our little game pieces.





Another fun way to use mini erasers is on sight word mats. It's a fun way to change things up!
You can find these sight word maps as freebies in Jana's TPT store.



You can find these 1st grade Math Tubs in Ashley's TPT store: October, December, February, April & May. Find September (beach), September (football), November, January, & March in Jana's TPT store. 

 

You can find these 2nd grade Math Tubs in Jana's TPT: September, October, November, December, January, February, March, & May.



We also shared our closet organizer (also from Target) and got lots of questions about the labels. Grab these labels as a flash freebie HERE.


Another thing we found at Target that's great for the classroom is this plastic bin. It's a perfect size for lunch boxes, library books, etc. We cut out the vinyl letters on the Silhouette and added some navy washi tape.

Thanks so much for stopping by...now head to Target and grab some mini erasers from the Dollar Spot! Your students will be so happy that you did!!!  (Grab a new lunch basket and shoe organizer while you're there too!)
  

Read more »
We Heart Teaching
2 Comments
Character Rocks: An End of Year Student Gift

Character Rocks: An End of Year Student Gift



One of my favorite end of year traditions is passing out character rocks to my students. This school-wide tradition was started by my current principal (retiring this year- so sad!) Every year, each classroom teacher thinks of a word that they feel describes each student. We paint that word on a rock. If the child starts our school in kindergarten, they will have have 6 different rocks when they leave for middle school!

While it is very time-consuming and sometimes stressful (with all of the end-of-year craziness!), the kids LOVE it, and so do I! I posted some pics on our instagram account and received lots of questions. So I thought I'd blog about the process.

 (Everyone does their rocks differently. I like to paint mine so I'm sharing the steps for that. Scroll  to the end of this post to see examples of other teachers' rocks.)

1. Our booster club provides the rocks. I give them a quick rinse and then paint the backgrounds with acrylic paint. 

I like this brand which can be found at Michaels. 

2. Next, I paint the designs. I try to stick with simple designs with bright colors. You may need to do more than one coat for the lighter colors. Note: Stars are HARD!



 3. The next step is to write the words. I came up with the adjectives for each student before starting. I like to write the words big and bold. I used a sharpie paint pen. I'd be lying if I said I didn't paint over a few of my words for some re-dos!


4. On the back, I write the student's name, year, and my name.


5. Once it's all dry, I brushed on a clear glaze. I've used a spray glaze in the past and some of the words smeared. This year I used Triple Thick at the recommendation of a Michael's employee, 
and I think it was a little too thick. It worked though!

 


Our principal also gives us a character rock each year.
We always look forward to seeing what he picks. Here are some of our rocks from past years.



There you have it! Here are some examples of rocks created by other teachers.



These awesome super-hero rocks are by one of my teammates. He ends the year with a super-hero unit, and the kids think these are the coolest!

 Love the puff paint on these!

These are amazing with their very personalized touches.

These precious polka-dot rocks are created by our friend Jordan of Hey Hey First Grade! :)





Read more »
We Heart Teaching
13 Comments
Parts of a Plant

Parts of a Plant

It's that time of year when we're all excited about Spring! Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and we're learning about plants! This year my class did a fun and EASY activity while studying plant parts and functions. Best of all...you probably have everything you need in your classroom!



We first read several books and learned about the parts of a plant and their jobs throughout the week. As a culminating activity, we created our watercolor plants and added captions for each plant part.

For the first step, we started with a directed drawing of the ground, the stem, the roots, and the leaves. I illustrated this, and they drew what I drew.



I then let the kids look up photos of flowers in books or on EPIC (using their ipads.)
This way, we would have lots of original flowers!
They then drew their flower and outlined  the whole picture in black crayon.



 The next step is painting with watercolors. The black crayon helps keep the watercolors from spreading and also helps define the different spaces.



After the paint has completely dried,
we cut out the pictures and glued them on blue construction paper.

While some kids were painting, the other kids started writing their captions on labels. They first wrote the captions in pencil and then went over their words in black marker. They completely came up with their descriptions on their own. I love this because they're all different!



The final steps were to add the labels to the blue paper and add the title.





If you'd like to read more about our plants unit, check out this previous blog post. Have a great week!
Read more »
We Heart Teaching
1 Comments
QR Codes in the Classroom

QR Codes in the Classroom

I remember the first QR code that I ever scanned several years ago. It was for a coupon to one of my favorite Austin restaurants, Fino (It's closed now! Boo!). I had no idea what it was or that I would be making them for my classroom for years to come. My students love QR codes and so do I!!!
Here are the top 5 reasons I use QR codes in my classroom:
1. Students get up and moving to scan the codes. We know that our little firsties can't sit still for too long. We place the codes around the classroom and sometimes even in the hallway. They enjoy the opportunity to walk around and move while learning!
We use QR Reader or Qrafter to scan QR codes.
2. Students can check their own work. Can I get an AMEN?!?! Several of our QR code activities have a problem or question on the card. The students then write their answer on the recording sheet. Next, they scan the code to check their work. This is such a fun way to practice math facts and spelling words. Talk about immediate feedback! 
3. It promotes collaboration. I love to see kids working together, sharing qr codes and taking turns. There have been a few lessons where I partner the kids up and they share one recording sheet. This provides a time for them to discuss the problem/answer and agree on one and then check their work.
4. Technology is engaging. For some reason practicing math facts, learning about fractions, or writing your spelling words just seems a lot more FUN with some technology in your hands. If you're up for trying something new, QR codes are a quick and easy solution. There isn't a lot of prep work on the teacher's part and your students will be instantly engaged with the novelty of scanning.
5. QR codes seem to make a "worksheet" come alive. There's something about scanning a QR code that makes my students forget they are doing a worksheet. I have to say my students are very focused and remain on task when they are working on a worksheet with QR codes. 
If you're interested in trying out QR codes in your classroom, we have several resources in our TPT stores (Jana Guerra & Ashley Krause.) Here are a few of our favorites.
CVC: Short Vowel QR Code BUNDLE
Customer Review: My class loved these! The incorporation of technology and movement made this one of their favorite centers. Thank you for your hard work! (This is my #2 best selling product!)
Spring Telling Time QR Scavenger Hunt: Hour and Half-Hour
Customer Review: Telling time is our next unit to tackle. I think this will be a great way to get my kids actively involved in learning how to tell time.
QR Code Scavenger Hunt: Long E
There are several vowel team QR code activities available here.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Comment below if you'd like to share your experience with QR codes.


Read more »
We Heart Teaching
0 Comments
A day in the life of 1st grade RTI...

A day in the life of 1st grade RTI...

Hi, it’s Ashley here! I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to blog about my NEW position this year. I am one of five RTI (Response to Intervention) teachers on our campus. I primarily work with K-3 reading intervention. I absolutely LOVE my job and could not be more grateful that this position became available! I love working with small groups and keeping a very close eye on their targeted intervention skills. I pull students out of their regular classroom during a designated time for each grade level.  

I’m going to give you a little overview of what I do with my 1st grade group.  First, we start off with a “Question of the Day.” It’s nice to give them each a chance to talk and share about something important to them in order to keep us focused for the rest of our lesson.  The second thing we do is some sort of quick phonemic awareness activity. This usually takes about 2-3 minutes and gets them moving. For example, I’ll have them stand up while I read a list of words. If the word has a short a sound they will hop and if the word has a short i sound they will squat down. I believe that my early readers need a little phonemic awareness practice everyday! Next we review our letter/sound cards and sight words. Once a week we’ll play a game with our sight word cards. My kids current favorite is “Beat the Teacher.” I show each student a word card. If they say if within 3 seconds they can keep the card. If it takes longer than that I get to keep the card. After we’ve gone through all of the cards we count to see who has more. Let’s just say I’ve never won and I’d like to keep it that way! ;) 
Swat It: We set out sight word cards or phonics skill cards. I say a word and the first one to "swat it" gets to keep it.
Next, we move into some decoding or fluency work. This portion of our lesson looks a little different each day and is normally when I introduce our new phonics skill for the week.  Some of the activities include orally reading a passage together, working on phrasing, reading phrase cards, Read Naturally, word sorts, or reading a leveled text together.  After we read together they have about 1-2 minutes of independent reading. I listen to them read and make some quick anecdotal records on a different child each day. They LOVE to show off so we always have a “Star Reader” who gets to read something aloud for the group after their independent practice! After the Star Reader has read aloud then the kids move on to one of my favorite things, the LA 5-a-Day. This is a resource that I created to review basic LA skills. The same skills are reviewed in 2-3 week chunks to help build mastery and independence. We wrap up our RTI lesson with a writing activity either responding to the book or a writing prompt. 
If this looks like something you'd like to try, you can grab the first two weeks for FREE in my TPT store. Here's a little break down of what to expect. This is just a sample of week 1 and week 9. The skills spiral and increase in difficulty as the year goes along.


5-a-Day LA: 1st Grade Weekly Spiraling Review (Full Year)
I'd love to know what you do during your reading groups or intervention lessons. Please share in the comments below! Thanks so much for stopping by!



Read more »
We Heart Teaching
1 Comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)