I got a little email from SDE back in December asking if I’d be interested in presenting at The Extraordinary Educators Conference this summer. Ummm. Let’s see. My first thought was, “ohmiword…bless their hearts. They emailed the wrong person.” Second thought…after realizing it was, indeed, addressed to me…was “ohmiword. Why would they POSSIBLY think I have anything to offer?!?!?” I had a range of other thoughts as well, but for brevity’s sake, I won’t share those with you ;) HA! Seriously though. Oh.MY.WORD. For real?!?! To be sitting in the same ballpark as some of these … [Read more...] about I’m Goin’ To Chicago…Who’s Comin’ With Me?! {& Some Math Tub Fun}
math tubs
Life Sized Subtraction
When I taught first grade, I remember my kids had a little difficulty understanding that the greater number had to come first in a number sentence when subtracting. I know that kids can memorize like nobody’s business, so I think it’s EXTREMELY important to get them to understand WHY so they know how to apply as the skill progressively becomes more challenging {how’s that for a long, grammatically incorrect sentence?!?!} We’ve talked about the symbol we use for subtraction and lots of key words, so it was time for some hands-on fun. To introduce the concept, we started with a fun…SUPER simple…hands-on, whole group activity that my kids … [Read more...] about Life Sized Subtraction
100th Day & Counting…and a couple of Freebies
I’m still in a little *shock* that the 100th day of school has come and gone. My kids were SO excited about the monumentous milestone that they just couldn’t contain themselves. My own little man talked about it for DAYS before it was time to celebrate! Just take a look at this little 100th day cutie and that insanely interesting pose… We started planning for the big day weeks in advance. First up…planning our 100th day t-shirts. Thanks to Pinterest, we had our mother/son idea in about 2.5 seconds. And let me just say that we weren’t the only ones who went for this look! HA! AND…let me tell … [Read more...] about 100th Day & Counting…and a couple of Freebies
Digging Through the Snow
After looking through my Facebook feed, I think it’s safe to say that MANY of you are digging your way through the snow this week! Well aren’t you lucky?! I was chipping away at the frost on my windshield this morning, but then it warmed up to the high 50’s and all was *almost* right in the world :) I’ve been a little MIA this week because we’re testing our Kbabies! Have I told y’all how much I LOVE mid-year testing?!?! Because I honestly really DO!! I LOVE seeing all the progress my kids are making!!! Sure…it’s definitely time consuming…but I LOVE the results! I’m SO unbelievably proud of my … [Read more...] about Digging Through the Snow
Going Batty
This week we’re goin’ batty in the classroom! In all fairness, we’re goin’ batty over spiders, too :) We started out the week reading fiction and non-fiction books about bats. After seeing a few illustrations and real pictures of bats, I was dying to know what my kids thought…do you think they’re cute?? or creepy?? I’ve seen one up close & in person and ohmiword…I hope I never see one again. My vote…CREEPY. Here’s what the kids thought… Can y’all believe that?! Most of my little sweeties thought they were cute!!!! We took this time to review the differences between picture … [Read more...] about Going Batty
Reading Strategies & First Week Highlights
HELLO my sweet friends! I’ve been without internet access since last week. Sad. But now it’s restored and I’m ready to share a few things with you!! Hard to believe I’ve been back in Kindergarten for 7 days. It’s like I never left! My babies are settled into a bit of a routine and I feel like things are running pretty well…so far :) I forgot how much I LOVE this age!!! EVERYTHING is new to them…books, centers, friends…it’s ALL new and I love seeing them *get it* for the first time! Last week was our first full week and it was jam packed full of SO much! I’ve been researching … [Read more...] about Reading Strategies & First Week Highlights
Our Week in Review
Real quick, I just wanted to say “thank you” to the sweet folks over at Teacher Certification Degrees for including The First Grade Parade on their list of the Top 50 Early Childhood Education Blogs. SO not deserving to be in that category with all the BEYOND amazing blogs they have listed. It should be named the Top 1,000 Early Childhood Education Blogs because every.single. one of y’all are inspiring beyond belief. My Google Reader is FILLED with hundreds of AMAZING early childhood education blogs and I’m forever grateful for the inspiration I’ve gotten from each one of you! I also want to say “thank you” to the sweet … [Read more...] about Our Week in Review
Winter Math Games
Happy first day back after a niiiiiiiiiice long break :) I know we’re all excited, right?! Just 10 short weeks ‘til the next vacation, but who’s counting?! Seriously though…I’m already missing my little boys during the day, but I’m SO happy the whole family is back in a routine! Since I’m currently raising the two wildest boys under the age of 4, I didn’t have much time to create a whole lot over the break. I had to spend all my *down time* {yeah right} being a mommy & tending to domestic duties. Thankfully I had lots of planning time today to try and get caught up! Here are a few little games I’ll be putting in our math tubs this … [Read more...] about Winter Math Games
Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town
I have a thing for Santas. I really do. I have a HUGE collection here at the house and I just can’t get enough of him! He’s so dang cute! SO…it would only stand to reason that I’d want to include a few Santa activities in the classroom as well :) I know that a lot of kids don’t celebrate Christmas, but this year EVERY single one of my kiddos does…so that makes planning a little bit easier for me. However, this hasn’t always been the case! I guess you could say I’m taking advantage of it this year :) I read a book about Santa the other day…can’t remember which one…and had the kids make these cute little scrapbook Santas after we read … [Read more...] about Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town
Noun Town
Oh…I’m SO lovin’ all these fun little Christmas activities! There’s just something about this time of year, don’tcha think?! I’ve gotten SO many WONDERFUL ideas from blogland that I can’t wait to implement in my own room! Y’all are too dang much! Here are a few more things we worked on this week… I was so inspired by Sarah Cooley’s Noun Town that we made one of our own, too! Since it’s the holiday season, we decided to make a Gingerbread Noun Town. We did some “city planning” before we got started. We talked about people, places, and things that we might see in our town and brainstormed a list of each. After city planning, I had each … [Read more...] about Noun Town
Gingerbread & Christmas Stuff
Okay…still SO behind…but here are just a couple of things we’ve been working on! We’re still going strong with fact families, so I had my kids make fact family gifts. They rolled dice to get the numbers to add together for the sum. I also had them roll the dice twice and add those numbers together to practice working with higher numbers. As you can see, they made their own bows…but real bows would have been a great “addition” too! ;) Speaking of gifts, this is one of my most FAVORITE writing activities. I started doing this my third year of teaching and have been doing it ever since! I think it’s so precious and sweet and really gets … [Read more...] about Gingerbread & Christmas Stuff
Anytime Math
Do you ever have those weeks where you feel like you’re just behind?! I had to jet outta school early on Friday because BOTH my sweet boys were sick with a 24 hour tummy bug…my oldest one {3 years old}, threw up for the first time. Poor baby!! ANYWAY…Mommy had to leave early and come to the rescue :) Then my sweet family came in town to celebrate Halloween with our little family of 4, so needless to say…I’m BEHIND this week!!! I knew this was the perfect week to pull out my “anytime math” stations!! I love the kind of activities you can just pull out when you’re in a bind! And thankfully, the kids … [Read more...] about Anytime Math
Math “Board” Games
When I taught Kindergarten, one of the girls on my team made these one-to-one correspondence math games for the kids. We kept them in our math tubs pretty much all year long because they were great for the kids to play when they were finished with their work, plus they were great for reinforcing rote counting and one-to-one correspondence. To kick it up a notch and make it “First Grade friendly”, I made a little addition/subtraction game out of similar game “boards”. The kids LOVE these games!! I have the kids play with a partner and both players get a matching game board, a set of {seasonal} counters, a stack of … [Read more...] about Math “Board” Games
A Couple of Math Things…
This is a CRAZY week!! Our schedule is a little off and we’re planning a FUN “Pumpkin Day” on Friday, so I set out a fewer number of math tubs this week. Here are just a couple of things that we’re working on… Greater than/less than candy jars. Each piece of candy is programmed with a number {1-50}. There is also a set of number cards {1-50}. The kids have to pick a number card and then sort the candy into the corresponding candy jars. This was just a little review that they’ve really loved! I’ll definitely keep this in my "when I’m finished…” tubs for them to revisit :) Here’s just … [Read more...] about A Couple of Math Things…
I Want Candy!
Since it’s so close to Halloween…and the kids are SO very crazy about candy right now…I popped this little activity into a math tub this week! The kids were SO excited to work with candy and immediately wanted to know if they could eat it ;) No shocker there. I glued these little signs onto 4-5 different paper bags and filled each with different amounts of candy. The kids reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of candy and recorded the # of pieces they grabbed onto a corresponding recording sheet. Then they reached in a second time and pulled out another handful of candy and recorded that amount as … [Read more...] about I Want Candy!
Jack O’Lantern Addition/Subtraction Sorting
I bought these darling little jack o’lanterns at Wal-Mart YEARS ago when I first started teaching Kindergarten. I used to have the kids do a little one-to-one correspondence activity with them. Since my 1st graders are knee deep in addition & subtraction right now, I knew these little guys would come in handy for the perfect sorting activity! I wrote a different number on each jack o’lantern {6-18}. Then I took popsicle sticks and wrote a different math fact on each….about 6 facts for each number…4 addition problems and 2 subtraction problems {subtraction is still pretty new to us}. The kids sort the math … [Read more...] about Jack O’Lantern Addition/Subtraction Sorting
Candy Corn Math
This week I set out a little candy corn math activity for my kids to use in their stations. Because I have such a sweet tooth, I ate the whole bag of candy corn, so the kids had to settle on the laminated cardstock version instead ;) Each candy corn is programmed with either an addition or subtraction problem. I cut off the bottom {yellow} portion of the candy corn and left the rest intact. The kids have to match the bottom {sum/difference} to the top {number sentence}. We’ve been working on vertical addition & subtraction, so this is a perfect reinforcement of this concept! The kids love … [Read more...] about Candy Corn Math
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
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
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!
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?!
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
