Ten Pin Linky Party: Reading Pins

It's that time again!  Ashley's Ten Pin Linky Party!  This week is all about reading.

1.  I think that this is such a cute idea:

http://crisscrossapplesauceinfirstgrade.blogspot.com/2011/10/teaching-decoding-strategies.html

2.  How fun are these?

http://myteachingspirit.blogspot.com/2011/07/crafty-bookmark-idea.html

3.  This is a great anchor chart for what fluent readers do.

http://www.teachingwithamountainview.com/2013/04/top-10-tips-for-building-fluent-readers.html

4.  Often in the beginning of first grade, students confuse fiction and nonfiction.  Check out this nonfiction anchor chart.

I'm not sure of the source for this chart.  If it's yours, please let me know!

5.  The Sight Word Parking Lot Game.  My son's first grade teacher used this last year and he loved it!

http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2011/10/sight-word-parking-lot.html?showComment=1319571243034#c5501857452008954589

6.  I love this anchor chart.  It will be in my classroom this year.

http://lifeinfirstgrade1.blogspot.com/2011/07/classroom-decorating-day-ten.html

7.  I love the idea of a focus board.  Leslie Ann's is so well organized.

http://lifeinfirstgrade1.blogspot.ch/2011/07/classroom-decorating-day-four.html

8.  This pin leads you to a great site to find mentor books to teach different reading strategies!  I'm so glad that I discovered it!

http://www.cleverschoolteacher.com/Categories/CSK2Connecting/tabid/129/List/1/ProductID/892519/Default.aspx

9.  The following pin is for a whole You Tube channel where classic children's stories are read aloud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=QV_Kg8TKEQE

10.  My last pin is for a place to find neat snacks and projects to go along with picture books.

http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/05/childrens-book-week-share-your-favorite.html

I hope that you got some great ideas!  

Happy Wednesday!

Prayer Help

I need some help bloggy friends.  I have a friend that I teach with whose husband was diagnosed with Leukemia in January.  He has a rare genetic issue that will never allow him to be in remission.  He is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant toward the end of January.

Over the weekend, he developed a fever (his last round of chemo was a week or so ago, so he has no immune system to speak of right now).  Along with the fever, he developed pneumonia and has some sort of staph infection.  Thankfully, they sent him to Wake Forest, which is where he receives all of his chemo treatments.

Last night, however, his heart rate soared to over 200bpm and then his blood pressure bottomed out.  They rushed him to ICU and with medication have gotten his heart rate down and his blood pressure up.

I absolutely believe in the power of prayer.  Please keep this family in your prayers.  Their daughter, an upcoming seventh grader, is understandably having a lot of trouble processing and accepting what is happening to her Daddy.

Thank you so much, my bloggy friends.

Flash Freebie!

I am going to be changing a lot in my classroom for next year.  One thing that I had to tweak was my word wall.  The only space that I have available near my writing work station is a long, narrow piece of wall.  So, I created a word wall to fit is that area.  The word wall uses yellow consonant headers and blue vowel headers.  The actual words are Dolch:  preprimer, primer, first grade and second grade.  Right now, it is a flash freebie!!  CLICK HERE to go download a free copy!

Hurry!  It won't be free for long!

Happy Monday!

P.S.  If you like the idea of the word wall, but would like a different color scheme, let me know - I might be able to have the color combos you would like!

Picture Book Linky Party #2

I am so excited for the second installment of First Grade and Fabulous' picture book linky party!  Last week I pinned so many that I thought my board was going to explode! 

The theme for this week is math!

I love to use picture books to introduce math concepts.  The first one that I would like to share is Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday.

I really love this book.  Alexander's grandmother gives him some money.  He spends some, loses some, and my students really get into it.  I always start with the amount of money he gets and then subtract what he spends.  I hear lots of "uh-oh"s and "I bet he won't have any left!"  A lot of times they will say that Alexander is wasting his money.





When we adopted our new math series (EnVision), we also received several math books written by Stuart J. Murphy.  Here are some of my faves:

Head on over and link up!  I can't wait to get some new math titles!

Happy Sunday!

Thank You KaSandra!!

I mentioned in my post yesterday that KaSandra from Memories Made in First shared with me that I could find cheap kids' Adirondack chairs from Walmart.  I bought them earlier in the week.  Here they are:

Here they are again with a couple of models.

Aren't they cute?  Parker is my youngest and Luke will be a second grader!




I started spray painting and of course, I RAN OUT OF PAINT!  But I was able to finish one and it turned out pretty well.  I think they will be the perfect addition to my classroom library.

Happy Saturday!

New Look!!

WooHoo!!

I finally, finally, finally figured out how to pretty up this little blog!  I know, I know.  I'm slow.  What can I say?  It looks a tad more pulled together, don't you think?

I have also created a facebook page.  Click here and you can come on over and show me some FB love!

I want to say thank you to KaSandra, over at Memories Made in First.  She told me that Walmart has cute kids Adirondack chairs that are cheap.  While I was on my shopping adventure with my boys on Tuesday, I  picked up two...for $3.75 each!!  The ones that I had seen at a local grocery store were ten dollars apiece!

I went back to Walmart today and bought some spray paint (yellow)...hopefully the weather tomorrow will cooperate and I can show you how they look.

What type of seating do you use in your classroom library?

Happy, Happy Friday!

Ten Pin Linky Party: Math Style

I can't tell you how many ideas that I have gotten as a result of Ashley's Ten Pin Linky Parties.  This week, it's all about math!

1.  I LOVE this anchor chart that can be used during our money unit:

2.  This anchor chart is fabulous for 3D shapes.

3.  My next math pin goes along with Cara Carroll's Calendar Companion.  I made one last summer and used it this past year.  I love, love, love it!

4.  The following anchor chart is a great poem for teaching subtraction with regrouping.

5. and 6.  The next two pins are for fractions.

7.  This pin shows an easy way to do daily graphing.  I like how it doesn't take up too much space.

8.  I love using literature to introduce math concepts.

9.  This past year, while working on things like one more, one less, ten more, ten less, I had several little friends that really struggled with that concept.  This would be a perfect tool to help those kiddos understand:

10.  I saved the last pin for the one that I am most excited about this summer.  I'm sure that a lot of you have seen Reagan Tunstall's A Teacher's Math Resources.  The first one is free on TPT!  I love how she has organized the essential questions and big ideas to be in sequential order and uses spiraling review. 

Those are my top ten.  Head on over and link up with Ashley at Just Reed.  

Happy Wednesday!