Classroom Timeline

Every conference I go to, it seems that everyone wants us to do exit slips.  As a first grade teacher, it can be fairly difficult to have students do exit slips of any kind.  We are still learning to write simple sentences.  It is too difficult for them to write what they learned that day.  I have a different plan....I cannot actually take credit for this.  I found it on someone's blog and now cannot remember who it was.  I loved it and decided to make it my own (that is what we teachers do best right?)!

One of our standards in first grade is learning about past, present, and future and reading a timeline.  So throughout our school year we are creating our own timeline.  At the end of each month, we discuss all of the things that we have learned that month in each of our subjects.  We make a list on a piece of construction paper (as a shared writing).  We title it with the month that we are writing about and hang it on the wall.  At the end of the year, we will have created a timeline for the entire year of all the things that we have learned in first grade.  Quite an exit slip, don't ya think?  I can't wait to see the finished project, as this is the first year I have tried it, but we are just over halfway through and I think it looks great so far!  Perhaps at the end of the year, I can give each kid a picture of their first grade timeline so that they can see everything that they have learned!

(I apologize for the glare in the picture.  The timeline is located above the closets and I am short! lol)

Addition/Subtraction Word Problem Games

 I created these addition and subtraction games to help my students with word problems.  This seems to be such a difficult concept for my little firsties!  We are going to start with a word problem sort.  I am going to have the kids practice searching for key words and underline them in either green for addition or red for subtraction.  This way the strategy that they need to use will be more visible.  This will go with our previous Gus the Plus and Linus the Minus activities that we did.  Then the students can sort the word problems by addition or subtraction and solve the equations!

After practice with several sorts, there is a word problem scoot game that I created.  My kiddos love playing scoot and I hope that they will love this one.  I love that with this game I can get them to do 20 math problems without griping because they get to sit in one another's seats!

Enjoy!

Springtime Money Games

I just finished making some new money games that I would love to share with you.  This pack includes Money Bump and Roll and Cover to practice counting pennies, nickels, and dimes.  It includes 12 different spring themed boards for each game and black and white versions for each.  There are boards for Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Earth day, with butterflies, kites, and more!

You can get this game pack here:

To play, you need money dice with pennies, nickels, and dimes.  I also made these and you can get them for free at my store!  There are two versions: a cut and fold paper one and labels that can be added to small blocks!  If you don't want to play with dice, you can also put the coins into a bag and have students draw two coins at a time.

 You can get the dice here             and here!   

Hope you enjoy!

Skippy The Frog Decoding

I feel like it has been so long since I have last posted and so much has happened!

Since my last post:
1.  My hubs took me to Las Vegas for my 30th birthday!  I know...you can be jealous!  I had never been there before and it was such a great way to spend such a big birthday!


2.  I turned the big 3-0!  That in itself is a huge accomplishment (and a bit scary).

3.  I sold my 100th product on TPT!  Woo Hoo!!  I wasn't sure if it would even take off and look at me now.

4.  I now have over 2,000 page views on my blog.  So cool!

5.  I am very close to 15 followers!  I am hoping that I reach 20 soon so that I can finally do a give away!

6.  I gave my blog a make-over and created a button for it.  I am loving the new look...definitely is more "me."  Feel free to add my button to your blog!

7. I am a bit intimidated since my last faculty meeting... we learned about new testing questions on the state tests (we are not common core in Virginia) and they are intense!  I don't even teach a testing year and I am nervous.  I feel like I have to do so much more and I am not sure how my little firsties are going to handle it all!  Most of the questions are now open ended; some have more than one correct answer and the kids have to get all of the correct answers or the entire question is wrong; for many of the questions, the kids have to utilize many different skills and strategies just to get one answer.  So, as a result, I am in the process of creating some new activities (especially for math) that will challenge my kids a little more.


In the meantime....I have my newest decoding strategy, Skippy the Frog, and an updated version of Chunky Monkey! Yay!

Skippy the Frog reminds students that if they are unsure of a word, they can skip it and keep reading until they get to a period.  Then they can use their context clues to infer what the word is.  This activity is a cloze reading activity that has been turned into a fun literacy center.  In this center, there are many different stories with missing words.  Skippy the Frog is where the words should be.  Students have to match up the words to the right place in the story by using their context clues.

You can get a copy of this poster and activity set here!

I also updated my Chunky Monkey strategy with some new graphics.  The old one had some fuzzy graphics and really just were not that cute.  This one is definitely improved!  All of the activities are the same though.  Chunky Monkey reminds kids to chunk their words into chunks of sounds and to find smaller words inside of bigger words.  This set includes a Chunky Monkey poster and many activities in which kids can practice chunking their words!

You can check it out here!

Enjoy!!