We Are Laughing So Hard...and a Freebie :-)

Hey there! Kristi and I are actually together right now. We haven't seen each other since Christmas break, and we are having such a good time. It seems that we just pick up right where we left off...which, of course, explains why we are teaching besties.

What brings us together? 

Other than spring break, I mean.

Well, we actually reached a TPT milestone recently. We can hardly believe it! THANK YOU to those of you who have supported our store. We are humbled to think that there are teachers who enjoy our resources as much as we do.

So...we have a FREEBIE for you! Hooray! 

This is one we have been thinking about for awhile. We always introduce sounds one at a time and love the targeted practice that our games offer. However, this year I've been working with Kindergarten and they are now ready for something that covers all of the short vowel sounds in one game. Kristi thought this was a great idea and plans to use it at the beginning of first grade for review.

Click on the picture to grab this forever freebie!

We hope you are enjoying a wonderful Saturday! 

 

Sight Word Practice

We have been spending some extra time on our sight words each week and I'm excited to say that the kids are knowing them when I test them on the words at the end of the week.  YAY!  We begin our week by introducing the sight words and talking to our shoulder buddy about what they mean and they try to use them in a sentence.  If we can act out the word, we do that as well.  Then the practice is on!  Here is what we have been doing to master those sight words:

1.  Quiz Quiz Trade-This is a Kagan strategy that is very simple.  I make the flashcards of our sight words and give each kid a sight word.  They walk around the room and find someone to read their sight word.  Once they both have read the sight word, they switch cards and move on to someone else. 

  

2.  Around the World-The kids never get tired of doing this one.  They form 2 lines and see who can read the sight word first.

3.  Tic Tac Toe-They get a tic tac toe board with their words on it.  To put an X or O down they have to say the word first. 

 4.  Connect Four-They always love playing the connect four game that we have several on TPT.  If they say the word correctly then they get to mark it.  Whoever gets 4 in a row wins.  

5.  I Have Who Has-they always love playing I Have Who Has.  I time them and they try so hard to beat their time.  (sorry I didn't get a picture of this one).

They love practicing the sight words with all of these and the best thing about it is that they are starting to master the words!

Have a great day!

Fun with Telling Time!

We have been spending a lot of time working on telling time and the kids have gotten really good at the hour and half hour.  

When we first looked at the clock, we talked about the hands and I did this neat way of teaching the hands to the kids that came from teachertipster.com

Then we learned this cute little rhyme by teachertipster.com.

After learning the rhyme and practicing with some clocks, we moved to our desks and drew the clock.  Then we used licorice to show various times.  They were excited to do this because they knew that if they worked hard and followed directions, they would get to eat some licorice at the end. 

Next, we played our connect four game to practice telling time.  

Then, we played our I Have Who Has Game to practice telling time.

Finally, we used played scoot to practice telling time.

The kids are now doing great at telling time and we had fun learning how to tell the time!

Have a great week!

Valentine's Day and some extras!

The kids had their Valentine's Party this last week and had a blast!  I'm not sure what it is about the Valentine's Day parties, but it seems like every year this is the one that the kids tend to get the most excited about.  Here they are:

We decorated bags in class the day before our party.

At the party, they got to decorate sugar cookies.

Lots of treats that included pizza!

They got to make a Valentine's card.

For our extra fun thing, we made fake snow and played with it!

Finally, we practiced our long i words by playing connect four.

Have a great weekend!

Sight Word and Phonics Practice

This week we practiced our sight words with a beach ball and a connect four game.  I taped our sight words onto a beach ball and we passed it around until the music stopped.  When it stopped, whatever words the student's hands were on, they had to read the words.  We also played our sight word connect four game.  I'm excited to report that all the students could read their sight words by the end of the week!  YAY!

To practice our phonics skill, we used one of our connect four games from TPT.  The kids always get excited when we play one of these games.  I love that they have fun with it, it is easy to get ready and they are learning all at the same time!  

Have a great week!

Beginning of the Year!!

It is hard to believe that I have already been in school with kids for 13 days now.  Wow-it has gone by fast already.  I thought I'd share a little bit of what we have been working on in class these last 13 days (besides all the routines and rules).

1. Daily 5-I love doing daily 5, so we have already started to build our stamina in Read to Self and have been working on Read to Someone as well.  The kids are starting to get the hang of it!  :-)

2.  The kids were so excited to see the solar eclipse. Our PTO purchased glasses for all the students and teachers so we could go out and look at it.  We did an eclipse art project and enjoyed a treat for the eclipse as well!

3.  In math, we have worked on tally marks and did sidewalk tally marks and used a pool noodle to do human tally marks.  The kids were also excited to practice writing tally marks on their desks.  They had a lot of fun with these activities.  

We also worked on 2D shapes and drew a picture with shapes and labeled the shapes.

4.  We started working on our vowel sounds in reading and have introduced them to some of our connect four games that we have on TPT to practice these skills.  The kids are asking me daily if they get to play them again.  

  

5.  Finally, you know that the first weeks are a lot of going over routines and rules.  I was so excited when the class lined up like this, I had to take a picture and every now and then I pull it up to show them and remind them of what an awesome line they have!  :-)

I hope that all of you back to school are having a great year so far!  If you are back to school, I know that you are probably as tired as I am.........

I'm thinking, I'm on my second week and still feeling like this little kitten.  

Have a great day!

Our Week at a Glance!

Here is a look at what went on this week in our classroom:

1.  The kids had a fun time practicing their spelling words in shaving cream!  The other good thing about it was that it made the room smell good too!  :-)

2.  We practiced our sight words by having a snowball fight!  The kids loved this one and they were able to tell me their sight words for this week quickly.  Each student wrote down a sight word on a piece of paper and crumbled it up.  I told them to throw the paper in the room and then they had to go pick one up.  When I came to them they had 3 seconds to tell me what the sight word was on their paper.  Then they crumbled it up and we continued playing.

3.  Find Someone Who-This was something we played when we first came back from Christmas Break (we didn't do this one this week).  I made up a page of the Kagan Strategy of Find Someone Who.  For example, one box says find someone who can show you how we line up.  So they had to find someone in the classroom who could show them that and then have that student sign his/her name in the box.  It was a quick and fun way for us to review our rules after our Christmas Break.

    

4.  We worked a lot on our nonsense words playing the nonsense words connect four games on TPT.

Have a great weekend!

Monday Madness!

Happy Monday!  I had to title this one Monday Madness because I have random things that I am posting about so hang on for this madness.  :-)

1.  Connect Four Game-my kids love playing connect four games.  Here they are practicing their sight words with the connect four game.

2.  Dice solution!  I'm not sure why it took me so long to figure this one out.....but it did.  I personally have a hard time listening to dice rolling around in the room on the floor or tables.  I finally realized that if the kids had a folder to roll it on, it would be a lot less noise.  I also told them that if their dice goes off the folder then they lose a turn.  Boy are they really careful when they roll their dice now.

3.  Sight Word Prize-In one of my earlier posts, I told you how my co-teacher and I had given a pinwheel to the students that practiced and learned their 1st nine weeks sight words.  I'm excited to say that this second nine weeks they are trying to earn these pencils.  I love how first graders think things are the best.  When I showed them the pencil that they could earn if they practiced and learned their second nine weeks sight words, they were so excited.  

4.  Finally, I had a student come in to the classroom in the morning and hand me this note.  He told me that he had written the note to me the night before because he knew he had to leave for an appointment early and that I was going to miss him.  He said that he hoped the note would make me feel better since he had to leave early.  I love these notes!

Have a great day!

Nonsense Words Games-Discounted!!

It is getting close to school time so we decided to offer our new Connect Four Nonsense Words Game Set 1 for $1 and our 

I Have..Who Has...? Nonsense Words Game Set 1 for $1!!  You can get them for this discounted price today only for #bhbdollardeals!!  The Connect Four Game set includes 4 games and the I Have...Who Has...? Game set includes 2 games.  

We work a lot the first semester on nonsense words and I'm always hunting for ways to practice them.  I don't know why it took me so long to think of making connect four games with them and I have who has games.  My kids love these games and Crystal and I have made several of these.  So, I couldn't figure out why I didn't think of it before.  But, I finally thought of it and finished up with them the other day!  

Have a great day!