Cara Carroll

Education

Stellaluna Fun!

We had SO much fun learning about bats last week!  My kids are really into non-fiction this year and LOVE “fact gathering”.  Kinda precious if you ask me ;)  At the beginning of the week, we read Stellaluna & followed up the story with a Bats vs. Birds Venn Diagram and a story map.  My kids are really into story maps this year, too!  And I love having a visual to organize our thoughts.  Since there were a lot of little problems and characters in Stellaluna, this was the perfect time to talk about main character & main problem.  We starred those on the story map to remember the difference! I also had the kids make their own … [Read more...] about Stellaluna Fun!

Simple Math Fun

I was in search of an “extra” math station and one of the sweet girls on our team had this cute idea.  You guys have probably done something similar in your classrooms, but I’m always hesitant to use anything that could possibly be used as a weapon of mass destruction ;)  Seriously though, the kids were head over heels for this super simple activity! For this activity, I used the number cards from the previous week’s  Number Order activity.  The kids drew a card and then made 5 different designs using toothpicks.  For each of their designs, the kids had to make a corresponding number sentence.  I had them use a piece of plain white paper … [Read more...] about Simple Math Fun

Family Trees

I’m a little late to post this, but better late than never, right?!  We’re getting ready to take down our bulletin boards in the hallway so I had to snap a pic before I forgot!  One of our first units of study in Social Studies was an “in-depth” look at families.  We did some really neat activities, but one of my favorites was this darling family tree!  I LOVE!  We read the book, Who’s Who In My Family?, by Loreen Leedy.  It’s a great little book that does an awesome job of explaining the concept of genealogy & family trees.  After reading the book, the kids completed their own family trees using their … [Read more...] about Family Trees

Addition Games & Activities

I really love teaching addition.  There is SO much you can do to reinforce the concept!  Right now we’re knee deep in addition concepts so I wanted to share with you a few games and activities we’ve been working on in our classroom!   Here’s a little game I created to reinforce number sentences.  I got the original idea from Mailbox Magazine and just adjusted a few things to fit the needs of my classroom.  You can download a copy of the game and instructions, too!  Just click the link below the pic. click to download FIND THE SUMS The kids LOVED this activity.  It’ll just take a little prep work on your part.  I created student name cards … [Read more...] about Addition Games & Activities

Spidey Writing

We started out our spider themed week reading a few non-fiction books and filling out a KWL.  Not gonna lie…I learned A LOT of things about spiders this week!  It was amazing to hear my kids recalling facts of everything they had learned, too!  They were SO into it!  I set up a labeling activity for the kids to visit during transition time or when they were finished with their other station activities.  They also labeled a spider template I found on abcteach.com.  This little labeling activity includes a lot more words to use for labeling…not sure what happened to them?!   At the end of the week, we talked … [Read more...] about Spidey Writing

Seasonal Behavior Management

I saw this darling idea in one of the recent editions of The Mailbox Magazine and I loved it so much that I had to implement it into our classroom!!  Draw a pumpkin vine and stems on a sentence strip.  When your class goes above and beyond or does an awesome job working quietly, showing quality work, walking through the halls quietly, helping others, etc., use an orange bingo dotter to add a “pumpkin” to the vine.  Once the vine is full of pumpkins, treat your class to something special!  Our class is working towards a popsicle party!!  We just started, but so far they’re doing great! … [Read more...] about Seasonal Behavior Management

Stamp A Spider

I included a little stamping activity in our Word Work station this week that the kids just loved!  Stamp-a-Spider!  They used our chunks of the week to stamp short o words {-ot, –op, –og} onto strips of paper that became the spider’s legs.  I had a sweet mom pre-cut the spider body templates so that all the kids had to do were stamp the chunk words!  I think I’ll keep this activity out for the next few weeks as a choice for Word Work!! click to download STAMP A SPIDER … [Read more...] about Stamp A Spider

Reader’s Response – A Chair For My Mother

We’ve been discussing Wants vs. Needs this week and used the book A Chair For My Mother, by Vera Williams to talk about the topic. After reading the book, the kids really led their own discussion about buying things they need rather than what they want. They were so precious and sweet talking about what they thought they needed. I might’ve heard one of them say “Rip Stick”, so I was quick to interrupt and remind them how needs are different than wants :) Here’s a little peek at their entry… As usual, the kids wrote the title & author and completed the sentence prompt, “I will use my coins to buy…” This sweet little love said that she … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response – A Chair For My Mother

Chunk Sorts

Each week we give our kids 3 chunks to learn and *hopefully* master.  We introduce the chunks on Mondays and we have a “spell check” on Fridays.  Spell checks are like spelling tests, but NO grade is given.  They’re responsible for spelling each chunk along with three chunk words.  They’re also responsible for spelling 3 popcorn words.  I like for my kids to work with chunks throughout the week so that they’re getting a lot of hands-on practice with each word family.  When we were working with spiders, I created some spider themed chunk sorts along with a recording sheet...     Here are several … [Read more...] about Chunk Sorts

The Very Busy Spider

I love starting the month of October learning about spiders.  We read several non-fiction books that the kids adored, but they also LOVED this Eric Carle classic…The Very Busy Spider. After we read the story, I gave the kids a writing prompt to complete… “I am very busy____________________________________ in First Grade!”  Their responses were cute and some of them were downright hilarious!!  Apparently we spend our time running away from girls and coloring all day?!  Hmmmm… I cut out a class set of large black circles and a class set of smaller white circles to fit on top of the black {for a spider body}.  I also … [Read more...] about The Very Busy Spider

Morning Meeting

I LOVE our morning meetings! This seems to be the kids’ favorite way to start the day, too! Although this part of our day is quick, the kids get so much out of it…and they are totally responsible for doing everything on their own {with my guidance, of course ;)} Here’s just a little peek into our calendar/morning meeting area. I’d LOVE more suggestions of things I can add!!   Before starting our calendar time, I pull sticks to see who my calendar helpers will be. I usually choose 8 kids. The calendar jobs are as follows: *Change the “Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow…Last Month/This Month/Next Month” chart *Add the date to the calendar *Write the … [Read more...] about Morning Meeting

Skip Counting

My kids are really getting the hang of skip counting!  At least, I think they are ;)  Here are just a few little activities/ideas that I’ve incorporated to help reinforce this concept!   I requested that the parents send in {labeled} socks with the kids.  I hung these on a clothesline to reinforce skip counting by 2’s.   The week that we introduced skip counting, we had the kids help us create these skip counting “anchor charts” to hang in the room as a visual.  I guess I missed the 10’s chart!  Ooops!  The 10’s chart used pairs of feet for counting by 10’s.     I created this little … [Read more...] about Skip Counting

Apples, Apples, Everywhere!

My kids this year are SO very much into non-fiction stories. I LOVE IT!!! We started our week of apples with a KWL. I set out this little KWL and fill it out with the kids as we go along… After reading a few short non-fiction books about apples, we filled out the “What You LEARNED” apple and had the kids complete their own KWL to keep in their Reader’s Response Journals. They LOVED this activity! I told them to choose 1 thing from each apple to write down.KWL Printable: APPLE KWL And we labeled the parts of an apple… I also had the kids fill out their own version.  I found it on Mrs. Nelson’s Apple Unit Page. We also start out the week … [Read more...] about Apples, Apples, Everywhere!

Word Helper Strategies

I originally saw these darling Word Helper strategy cards on the First Grader At Last blog and knew I had to have them!!!  My kids are seriously OBSESSED with word strategies now!  Every time they get stuck on a word, I’ll hear someone say, “think Stretchy Snake!”  OR, “don’t forget Fly Eye!”  I changed up a few little things to fit the needs of my kids and to go along with the clip art I had available :)  I also created bookmarks that I laminated and cut out for each student to keep.  They have a “keep at home” bookmark and one to keep at their desks.  They love these little guys!  I have the large … [Read more...] about Word Helper Strategies

Reader’s Response ~ The Big Orange Splot

What a random little book find! Have you ever read The Big Orange Splot by D. Manus Pinkwater?! I never had until one of the girls on our team was telling us about it a few weeks ago. It’s a cute little story about people who live on a street where ALL the houses look EXACTLY the same until one day a guy spills orange paint on his roof. SO…he decides not to “fix” it, but paint the rest of his house instead. Everyone tries to get the guy to change his house back to being “normal”, but he encourage people to embrace the differences! SUCH a cute little message! After we read the story, I passed out a little house template and had the kids … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response ~ The Big Orange Splot

Growing or Repeating?!

When we talk about skip counting with our kids, we explain how the numbers “grow”.  Before we get too deep into “growing numbers”, we illustrate this concept by talking about growing patterns.  Since my kids were having a little trouble understanding the difference between growing and repeating, we practiced the concept every morning {quickly} during our morning meeting and then completed this fun little activity the following week in their math tubs.  I gave them a tub full of cardstock pattern blocks and instructed them to create two repeating patterns and two growing patterns.  Then we hung them up in the classroom as a … [Read more...] about Growing or Repeating?!

Brag Tags

I mentioned Brag Tags in an earlier post and received a few questions asking about them.  The Brag Tags are sponsored by our AWESOME PTA and organized by our school counselor.  Every student in the school gets brag tags.  They all start the year out with a grade level tag.  Here’s First Grade’s first brag tag…   Darling, right?!  I write their names on the back of each tag so that we know which tags belong to each kiddo.  As the year goes on, they can earn lots of different tags.  There are some for reading, honor roll, attendance, field day, variety show, summer reading, birthday, etc.  … [Read more...] about Brag Tags

Draft Book Publishing

My kids write in their draft books almost every day during our Writer’s Workshop block.  Every Tuesday, I have publishing moms that come in and take the kids one-by-one to help them publish one of their writing pieces into a little book they can keep in their book baskets to read at different times.  Hopefully by the end of the year the kids will have  quite a collection of published books to take home and read to their families.  The kids look forward to Tuesday because they absolutely LOVE having their hard work published!   The publishing basket contains pencils, markers, a stapler, plain white paper {cut}, construction paper … [Read more...] about Draft Book Publishing

Reader’s Response – The Napping House

We’ve been talking about families this week one of our favorite books to read is The Napping House, by Audrey Wood.  After reading the story, we talked about different things that we like to sleep with.  CLEARLY, we’re not sleeping with a snoozing granny and a wakeful flea…well, I hope we’re not…so we talked about different things that we take to bed, or things we took to bed with us when we were "little”.  I told them how my son sleeps with 5 Mickey Mouse dolls and they thought that was the funniest thing!  HA!  Here’s a little peek at their entry.     One of the teacher’s on our team had this cute little … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response – The Napping House

Goodbye Poems

My kids have fallen in love with our goodbye poems. The kids have actually taken charge now and request to have a “leader” recite them every day as they all repeat! Depending on the day, I’ll ask the kids to give me a set of rhyming words before they can leave to go home. I still have some sweet friends who are having trouble understanding the concept, so it’s great reinforcement for those babies and fun for the whole group! I wanted to hang these in a pocket chart, but the space around my door is limited, so I stapled these to the wall. They’re the perfect size. I created them to fit in a scheduling pocket chart, but the chart was still too … [Read more...] about Goodbye Poems

Have You Filled A Bucket?

I started bucket filling in my class last year and my kids loved it!  It was such a success that I decided to keep at it this year and it goes PERFECTLY with the schoolwide kindness initiative that’s being put into effect this year…Rachel’s Challenge.  The first thing we do is read the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.   If you haven’t read this book, it’s a story that encourages positive behavior and it illustrates how rewarding it is to show kindness, appreciation, and love toward others.  The story talks about how we each carry around an invisible bucket and when we use kind words and actions, we … [Read more...] about Have You Filled A Bucket?

Estimation Station

My kids visit the estimation station once a week. For the first 6-8 weeks, I fill the jar with various objects. Once we start our “Celebrity of the Week” {star student}, I let the kids bring in their own items to add to the estimation jar. I’ll send the estimation jar home with my Celebrity of the Week with instructions to fill the estimation jar with their choice of items WITHOUT counting what they put inside. The jar stays in the estimation station for the week and each day a different set of kids visits it to make their guesses. When they visit the estimation station, they write their name on a post it note along with the number of … [Read more...] about Estimation Station

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