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!

Monday Made It on Tuesday

This is my first time joining in the Monday Made It Linky Party.  I know, I know.  It's Tuesday.  But, today is payday.  Enough said.

I posted a few days ago about wanting to use a color theme of gray, yellow, white and black.  With those colors in mind, I loaded up my boys and we went to Target.  And Walmart.  I think it is official that I'm crazy.  This shopping trip proves it!

I've seen on pinterest lots of wreaths using fabric rosettes.  I decided that I was going to try to create one.  I should probably stop here and share that both my mom and sister are FANTASTIC artists.  My sister was actually a studio art major in college.  I did not get any of the creativity/artistic genes that they have.  I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler.  But I decided to try anyway.

Here is the result.  I was pleasantly surprised!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I'm going to be hanging the wreath on my classroom door. 

Happy Tuesday!

First Days of School Picture Book Linky Party

DeAnne, author of First Grade and Fabulous, is starting a really awesome weekly linky party.  It is for picture books and each week will have a different theme.  Since I can't resist a good linky party, I am going to jump right in.

There are several "go to" books that I use during the first few days of school.  Up first, First Day Jitters.

I love this story because the students think the story is about a kid, but they see at the end it is really about the teacher!

Another book that I LOVE reading during the first few days of school is Chrysanthemum. 

It does such a nice job of teaching kindness and acceptance.

Head on over and link up!

Possible New Theme...Hip or Hideous?

Okay.  I think that we all know that I love owls, but my classroom is not covered in owl....stuff.  I have touches here and there.  I'm thinking about keeping my subtle owl hints, but using a new color theme.

I ordered some fabric from Hobby Lobby for "my" bulletin board.  You know, where I keep myself organized.  It came today, and I am THRILLED to pieces with it.  It is a gray and white chevron:

 
 I would like to use main colors of gray, white, yellow, and black.  I was thinking about having the other bulletin board backgrounds in the room be yellow and black.  How does this look?  Not the lemon, of course, but that color saturation.

 Now is where it could easily go to tacky town.  What would it look like to use main colors of gray, white, black, and yellow?  With hints of blue and green?  Here is my thinking.  Black, gray, and white are neutrals that go with anything (Thanks Stacy and Clinton!).  Blue and yellow make green, so they kinda go together?  Maybe?  Sorta?

The blue and green would come in as accents with library baskets, book boxes, maybe a couple of tissue paper pom-poms.  Oh, and the carpet is blue, so there's not much I can do about that!


I'm going for a soothing cohesive classroom.  Would this color train take me to an ahhhhh like room, or an overstimulated, tacky, AAUGH room?

Help me, my stylish bloggy friends!

Ten Pin Linky Week 2

It's time for the second installment of Ashley's Ten Pin Linky Parties!  I was soooo inspired by all the great ideas last week, and I can't wait to see what interesting tidbits will appear!

1.  I loved this idea and actually used it toward the end of the school year.  Groups earned points for good behavior.  Each member of the winning group picked a ping pong ball.  I had a pocket chart with corresponding numbers and prizes.

2.  I know I posted about this pin last week, but I REALLY like it!  Each time the class is doing a nice job, or receives a compliment from another teacher or adult, they get a warm fuzzy added to the jar.  Once the jar is filled, the class gets to vote on a prize.  My son's first grade teacher (who was FANTASTIC!!) used a similar method last year.  Luke LOVED it!

3.  One thing that drives me crazy to the point of pulling out my hair is the dreaded.....pencil!  I discovered The Wise Owl's Winning the Pencil War and am AMAZED at how BRILLIANT an idea this is!  It is a freebie on TPT.....run and look at it!  Go!  You won't be disappointed!

4.  You know how it is when you are in the middle of a project, and you hear, "My glue is dried up!" or "I can't find my scissors!" or "I need a pencil!"?  That's where the borrow bucket comes in!  This teacher has a caddy with extra supplies, all marked with a special kind of tape so everyone know that it belongs to the borrow bucket.  Genius!

5.  Again, I know that I had this in my Linky Party Post last week, but it's such a great idea that I had to share again.

6.  The next management pin deals with new students coming in the middle of the year.  It is a frazzling moment anyway, so it would be so nice to be able to just pull out a bag of everything that my new friend will need.

7.  Another thing that drives me crazy almost as much as pencils is editing student writing.  I ran across this the other day and thought, how smart!

8.  Part of my morning routine is AR (Accelerated Reader).  I love the idea of putting more responsibility on the students.  I usually check their O.W.L. books and see who is ready for a test.  This way, the students sign themselves up for a test.  When they are finished, they remove their number and the next child goes to take the test.

9. Our school focuses on word count with AR.  The goal is to have each child reach at least 10,000 words by the end of the year.  I love this idea for when they reach their 10,000 goal!

10.  My final pin is a book about blurting out in class.  That was a real problem for my classroom last year.  I plan on getting this book and reading it periodically through the year.

I'm excited to see what pins you want to share.  Go link up!

Happy Wednesday!

Ten Pin Linky Party

I am just a little obsessed with Pinterest.  How did I get ideas in the dark ages before Pinterest?  For all you other Pinterest lovers out there, Just Reed's Ashley is having a super fun linky party:

1.  I have just recently discovered her, but I love EVERYTHING about Mrs. Terhune's classroom!  She is SO organized.

 2.  How amazing is this classroom library?!

 3.  I love this classroom writing station.  It is so organized and visually appealing.

4.  I REALLY want a tree in my classroom library area!

5.  I so loved how Mrs. Terhune has her whole group area set up, that I just bought a music stand on ebay yesterday.

6.  It seems like my kiddos never have the right color crayon and we find them on the floor.  I think that this will help that problem:

7.  I am in love with these Adirondack chairs!  I've been on the look out for some cheap, plastic, kid-sized ones, so if you know of a good spot to find them, let me know!

8.  I am SO doing this!  Hot glue up clothes pins and have a spot for anchor charts!

9.  I love how each student signs the classroom constitution (rules).

10.  My last pin is for a warm fuzzy jar. 

Go link up and join the fun!  I can't wait to get some more great ideas!

Happy Friday!