Winding down

I just love Friday's!  Not just because it's the start of the weekend but also because it means it's time for another Doodlebugs: Five for Frday.  I love checking through everyone's blog posts over the weekend from Five for Friday's linky party.  And I do read....every one.

We are winding down the school year.  We have 15 days left!  :)

The kiddos are very excited to be finishing up their Everyday Math journals.  Truth is, I can't say I blame them!

Finishing up our math journals means we have more time to review with our Interactive Math Notebooks.  I posted about this last week.  I can't say it enough....my kids LOVE these!

I bought these interactive math notebooks from Blair Turner on TPT.

I find it helpful to project the product on my SMARTboard so the kiddos can see what it looks like prior to cutting and gluing.

  After reading the book

we practiced using sound effects in our writing.  I modeled writing a story using words as sound effects and I called student volunteers up to find and underline these words in my writing.  We also identified and underlined "sparkle words"- words that make our writing interesting.  Words like cool and crisp, as we discussed, really helped us picture how cold the water was in our minds.

Our word wall is really filling up with high frequency words.  We add four words a week, based on our district's spelling program.  Each day, students complete one of these worksheets in which they identify how many vowels and consonants are in the word, use the word in a telling sentence, and write the word in an asking sentence.

I finally finished up my American Symbols unit that I have been working on all week!  I love how it came out and it has become one of my favorite products.  Click on the picture below if you are interested in checking it out.

I hope ya'll had a great week!

Interactive math notebooks

It's Wednesday!  Time to link up with Sugar and Spice for....

 

Here's my question for all of you:

Do you use interactive math notebooks?

Another week...

Just when we thought it would never get here!  Umm...hello peeps!  It's the Friday before a long weekend!  Can I get a woot?!  Woot!  Since it's Friday- it's also time for ...

Five for Friday is a weekly linky party run by Doodlebugs

Here's a snapshot of this past week in my first grade classroom:

We are continuing to learn about habitats.  This week, we watched a Brainpop,Jr. video on rainforests.

We also read and discussed some nonfiction books about habitats.

We then used these books, and the information we learned from various texts and class discussions on habitats, to do some informational writing.

I  modeled how to write an informative writing piece with a good topic sentence, at least two details and a closing sentence.  We talked about some good topic sentences, details, and closing sentences that we could use in our writing.  Student volunteers identified the topic sentence in my writing example by underlining it with a purple marker.  We also underlined my details in blue, and my closing sentence in red.

I have learned that modeling your expectations for student writing makes all the difference!

We have also been enjoying using my habitats unit

 I love this time of year because the kiddos' writing is showing so much growth and progress!  One of our favorite writing activities is sticker stories.

Students choose a sticker,

 

create a scene that would be appropriate for the sticker, and then write about it.  I love the creativity!

'Tis the season for assessments.  We have been working hard so we have been using lots of brain breaks!  It is great bribery positive reinforcement!  We start each day with 3 brain breaks (unless we lose one for poor behavior).  Do you use Go Noodle?  I think every teacher I know loves it!  We sure do!

We use Everyday Math and we finished up our math curriculum this week so I began supplementing with interactive math notebooks.  Ya'll let me me just tell you....these kiddos are loving it!  All I heard this morning was "I like this math so much better than the other math!"  "Can we do this everyday?"  "This is the most funnest work I have ever done!"  Seriously....I will never end my school year with anything else!  They were having so much fun they didn't even know they were learning!

 You can find these interactive math notebooks by Blair Turner here on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Last but certainly not least....we got a dog this week. I have been wanting a dog for like....forever and ever and my husband finally relented agreed.  Meet Bentley. We rescued him from an animal shelter and I am absolutely nuts over this little guy.  Well...look at this face.  How could you not be?

Some blogging buddies and I are sponsoring a rafflecopter for a chance to win $100 Visa gift card.  Wouldn't that be a nice way to start the summer with a little extra spending cash?

Splash into Summer

Wouldn't it be nice to start the summer off with a little extra spending cash?  Some blogging buddies and I have teamed up with a great offer!  Enter the rafflecopter below for your chance to win a $100 Visa gift card!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Tables or Desks?

This is my first grade classroom.

Do you have tables or desks in your classroom?

Link up at Second grade Sugar and Spice and let us know.

 

Narrative Writing, Place Value, and Similes

It's time for....

   After reading....

we made this adorableness which I found on Pinterest by The First Grade Parade.  It's free. 

We also read....

We learned about similies and we created our own book based on the language of Quick as a Cricket

We also used another picture prompt from my Write on! resource (available on Teachers Pay Teachers).

We reviewed what narrative writing is, and its features.

After watching our teacher model a writing sample using the prompt, we started writing!

 

We are also continuing to work on place value.  We played "Roll, Make, and Expand."  We rolled a dice, wrote that number in the ones place and repeated the same procedure for tens and ones.  Next, we drew the blocks to show our work and then wrote it in expanded from (200 + 30 + 6= 236)

And of course, the DRA's. 

 I have to say I am soooo proud of my kiddo's.  I performed these reading assessments on all but 5 of my kiddos and they have all made or surpassed benchmark!  My cup runneth over!

How was your week?