Upcoming Themes for Reading

As we continue into the second half of our school year I wanted to let you know our upcoming themes for reading. These will all go with the CCSS and some will be studies over a couple of weeks. Here are the different topics I have for reading now.

Jan Brett author study

Martin Luther King biography study

Polar Animals non fiction study

Penguin non fiction study

Snowmen non fiction and fiction study

 

100th Day realistic fiction

Valentine's Day holiday study

President's Day biography study

Dental Health non fiction study

Weather non fiction study

St. Patrick's Day holiday study

Spring non fiction study

Laura Numeroff author study

Eggs/Bunnies non fiction/ holiday study

Plants non fiction study

Insects non fiction study

Animals and Habitats non fiction study

Back to School 2013

Tomorrow is my first day back with my first graders. It was a wonderful break and now I'm counting days until MLK weekend!  I've got reason though...I'm going to see my best friend in Boston. Yes, I'm aware it will be freezing in January but since she's a resident she has limited time off.

I'm excited about going back to school to see my kids! They are just so lovable! I'm so not excited to go back to long hours, tutoring every night, and paperwork though. I feel like this new year will be a fresh start for my class and I can't wait to see how they all will be now without our special friend.

Our "Happy Holidays" card! A little late on my blog but still super cute. I made this a card for each family in our class before break.

I can't wait to see how much my kids have learned....
Say what?! Oh yeah we have report cards due next week. So that means I have to do all of my assessment this week and next. The assessments are STAR, running reading records, FAIR our state test, a math test, a science test, and writing prompt. I will be extremely busy!


Here's to a new year full of first grade fun! Hope y'all have a great Monday!

New Year New Me!

I am counting my blessing this year because it has been such a big one for me! I got engaged to my best friend and we're getting married in June 2013. I just looked back on my goals from last year and feel pretty good about myself.

One of my personal goals were to continue to work out to tone my arms and build abs. I have toned my arms but my abs are still in need of lots of work.
Resolution #1 Continue working out at least 5/6 days a week and focus on abs.

This also brings me to my next resolution which I did a pretty good job of this year-eating less junk food! This past year I totally cute out all chips and ice cream. It has been super hard but I going to keep it up.
Resolution #2 Eat super healthy and try to forget how good desserts taste.

I kinda laughed when I read back on my third resolution last year which was to make more money. I didn't really think that would happen but I started tutoring this summer and those jobs continued this school year. I now tutor after school 4 days a week and I'm actually making more money. I have been saving  all  of it for our honeymoon! Don't know where we are going yet just know we'll need some extra cash!
Resolution #3 Keep on saving money and plan a honeymoon with my fiancé.

Last year my professional goal was to stay organized which I have done a great job of ever since I de cluttered my classroom last year. I know when I go back in the new year I'll want to rearrange and reorganize some things but I think I've done a wonderful job maintaining this goal. My other professional goal I reached was implementing guided math into my every day math curriculum. I have kept up with this goal and feel like my students have benefited greatly from guided math.  So my new goal will have nothing to do either one of these...
Resolution #4 Focus on learning more about implementing the Common Core Standards and making fun, exciting lessons for my kids.

My last professional goal was to do a better job with enrichment time in my classroom. I still have not found my niche with enrichment but it has gotten a little better. I really want to focus on my struggling readers more during this time but my time with them is so limited.
Resolution #5 Help my struggling readers more during guided reading and RTI time.

This new year brings a lot of changes to my classroom. My student who I was struggling with so much because of his behavior and other issues has now left our class. It was a very bittersweet ending as I put so much effort and love towards helping this child but for the rest of the class it will be so much better. I will now be able to focus more time on my other students and maintain a calm, nurturing environment in my room. I also have high hopes that since this child got adopted by his grandparents he is in a loving, caring environment.

2012 you were a great year full of many exciting, wonderful, new, and challenging opportunities! 2013 I look forward to our wedding, honeymoon, first year of marriage, changing my name, finishing up with a great class and teaching new ones!

I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Gingerbread stories and decorating for Christmas

Good evening!

I hope that everyone has had a restful and wonderful weekend. I wanted to share with you some of the awesome activities we did this week involving the gingerbread stories. This week we were focusing on the CCSS of parts of a story: characters, setting, major events (problem and solution).

We created a parts of a story anchor chart using The Gingerbread Man, compared and contrast The Gingerbread Girl and Boy books, wrote our own gingerbread stories, and voted on our favorite gingerbread story. 

I wish I thought to take a picture of the anchor chart and my student writing in their reading response journals. They really rocked it this week with the gingerbread stories. We used the writing prompt if I were a gingerbread... and they filled in man, girl, boy, or baby. The stories came out super cute!

Our classes favorite gingerbread story was a tie between The Gingerbread Girl and The Gingerbread Baby. My students of course loved these stories because the gingerbread cookies get away! One little boy mentioned that in all the man or boy stories we read the gingerbread cookies were eaten but the girl and the baby were smarter. I'm glad he catches on that girls think a little more ;) just kidding guys-chill.

Sadly this week we said goodbye to our principal. As a school family we made this past week very special for her and on Friday we had her retirement party. This was one of the gifts that my co-worker made. It has all of the staff's fingerprints with their names written inside. It was bittersweet to see her go...now we are just hoping that the new principal that comes in January can halfway fill her shoes.

This weekend I decorated for Christmas at my house. It was so fun picking out the tree (in the middle of the SEC championship game-come on that was an awesome game football fans!) and decorating after the game was over. As we were decorating I picked out this wonderful ornament my class made me last year with all their thumbprints and initials and it said love your little pirates because I had a pirate theme last year. I thought back on what a great class they all were and what an awesome year we had together. Then later on I broke the ornament into a million little pieces. I was so upset I cried. They were my first class to make me a gift all together like that and they were my kids. I can't explain it well but I'm sure you'll understand. My fiancé picked up the pieces while I wiped away my tears. He put it all off to the side so he could make a new ornament for me and put the pieces inside. He is so thoughtful! We had a delightful time decorating and getting in the Christmas spirit this weekend.

Hope you have a productive week in school and remember: