5 for the Week

Yes, I know it's not Friday but I still want to show y'all what I was up to this week. I'm a little late on this because yesterday started my SPRING BREAK! I couldn't be happier! So here's my 5.

 

1. If you read last week's post I told you I was going to show you my learning scales on my students desks. This is a way they can monitor their learning of our goal for the week. The students just move the paper clip to where they feel they are based on the learning goal. I'll tell you what each number means:
 1. I don't get it and I need a lot of help.
2. I'm understanding with help.
3. I understand this.
4. I understanding this and can teach a friend.

That would be the generic scale but we have gold specific scales for each learning goal. Example:
Learning goal: We will be able to understand how to tell major differences between fiction and non-fiction.
1. I do not understand the major differences between fiction and non-fiction and need a lot of help.
2. I understand the major differences between fiction and non-fiction with help.
3. I understand the major differences between fiction and non-fiction.
4. I understand the major differences between fiction and non-fiction and could teach a friend.

2. Okay enough with this boring scale stuff. Here is all my testing data and data notebook that I lived with for 4 days this week. I tested my kids on their Houghton Mifflin leveled reading passage. This is just a running reading record. I'm happy to report that most of my class is ready for 2nd grade and all but 2 are on/above grade level in reading. I also STAR testing my kid which is a computer program that is linked to finding their just right level for Accelerated Reader. After collecting all this wonderful data I had to do report cards. I'm so happy I'll only have one more report card to do after this! EEK! Only 9 weeks left now to get these babies in gear for 2nd grade!

3. This week we read Flat Stanley and I gave my kids their Flat Stanley project for Spring Break. I know this sounds terrible mean to give homework over Spring Break and I thought this at first as well. It works at my school though because parents ask for homework and want their kids to continue working, they go on trips, and this is a two week long project so you don't actually have to do it over Spring Break. What they do is they take their cute laminated Stanley home with a notebook and write about their adventures with him. They have five pages to write on and they can draw the pictures or take photos and paste them in. The kids are actually really excited to take them on their family trips and around town. In the past Stanley has been to Sea World, Publix (grocery store), Chuck E Cheese, Disney, Universal Studios, the pool, the park, the beach...you get the idea you can pretty much have fun with him anywhere. This isn't due until April 2nd so they have two weeks to complete it. Many will take pictures on their vacation and the next week write about their adventures. 

                                               Before

After

4. We did some major spring cleaning! On Thursday the last day before my kids started Spring Break we did some major spring cleaning! My kids cheered when I told them we were cleaning. Obviously I've made them into organized and clean people this year. We empties out our material buckets, cleaned our desks, wiped down everything Lysol wipes, got new crayons and pencils, and organized the library. The room is now super clean and ready for our last 9 weeks. The kids felt a sense of pride after their hard work and were happy about their new materials.

5. We did some adorable chick writing curtsey of A Cupcake for the Teacher. I was going to use cute scrapbook paper like she did but thought I didn't have any. This is because my paper cabinet was a mess. The next day I found it. But I thought they came out super cute with their own designs for each egg. The kids loved doing this writing and of course making this craft. My kids know what in style to with those chevron stripes. 

Yesterday I worked a teacher workday and only had to be in for a half day because I had comp time. I got so much work done without the kids there it was amazing! In three hours I got the same amount of work in I would in 4 regular school days. I organized my cabinets, wrote lesson plans for April, got all my April centers for math and literacy ready to go,  reviewed my report card comments, got all copies made for April, homework packets, sight words, and reading logs ready for the return. It was a super productive day.

Here is one last picture of my room before I left for Spring Break. I have my laminator at school but I know I'll be needing it at home over the break. Buh bye class! See ya next week!

BIG News!!

I got an e-mail this morning with the subject line BIG News from our assistant principal today. I though oh this could be really good or really bad. Luckily it was good big news! 

First grade (all 11 of us) are getting Smart Boards in late April or early May!

Hopefully I can rock Smart Board lessons like this now!

I'm so unbelievably excited about getting a Smart Board! Eeek! I can't wait! I feel like it's a great time of the year to get one too. The kids  and I will be starting to thinking about summer and this will keep everyone engaged and excited for more learning!

 I had an Active Board a couple of years ago and it was pretty fantastic to use but our whole team didn't have them so it was hard to learn and collaborate. 

Our team is getting training in them as soon as they get installed. I can't wait to search around SmartExchange and TPT for awesome resources and lesson!

What is your favorite feature on the Smart Board? What are some good beginner tips?

A HUGE thank you to our PTA who paid for all of this with funds raised this school year!! They have now funded 1st-5th grade with Smart Boards! 

Let's Get Acquainted Linky {Week 2}

I've recently started to blog more than I have this whole year so blogging friends let's get acquainted. I missed last weeks theme but this week's is 2 truths and a lie! This is obviously just for fun for you to get to know me a bit more and know other bloggers. If you want join on in!

You have to guess which out of the 3 is a lie. I'm terrible at lying so this should be pretty easy but we'll see.

1. I met my fiancé at a fraternity party in college.
2. I've lived in 3 different states.
3. I love using twitter, Facebook, and instagram.

Alright well one of these is a lie...try to guess. Go link up so I can know more about you!

Five for Friday

Yeah for Five for Friday! Really because I just LOVE Friday so darn much! I haven't done this link party yet but it just seem so great I couldn't resist. I love posting lists so here are my 5!

1.  My wedding invitation went out this Monday! I'm super excited about this because I absolutely love my invitations and I can't wait for everyone to get them. I also wanted to send them out earlier because I  would like to know my numbers soon so I can plan details.  This is the sample of what invitations look like but we didn't go with a ribbon. 

2.  Our fabulous PTA made us these adorable St. Patrick's Day snacks. They have M & M's and Rollos in them. I love a good treat! They say you are my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. How cute! They always spoil us!

3. I changed the front of my board to look like this: 

This is a teacher friends classroom. She has an adorable black, white, ladybug theme going on. Mine does not actually look as cute as this but it's the same concept. This is for our learning goal of the week and there is a scale under it that is specific to each goal. The B, M, E stands for beginning, middle, and end. We track their progress over the week during the beginning, middle, and end of the learning goal.

More pictures from my actually room to come next week! Hey give me a break it's my first 5 for Friday!

4. Yesterday I made my annual pilgrimage to Gatorland our first grade field trip! It was a beautiful sunny day to go since the temperature was in the 60's. The kids had a blast looking at all the alligators, snakes, reptiles, and birds. They are still talking about how awesome it was today. I wish you could see the excitement on their faces in this picture but I love my kids too much to expose their preciousness on the web. You can see some of them fist pumping with glee. I love taking this picture in the gators jaw every year with my students.

5.  Today I'm going out to sushi with friends. I'm going to get my favorite roll the Playboy roll: shrimp tempura, cream cheese, crab, avocado, tun, scallion, eel sauce, and spicy mayo. YUM! Yeah for the weekend!

Hope you had an awesome week! Can't wait to read all the about it!

Now link up blog friends!

Textbook Adoption for Reading

Our district wants to adopt new textbooks for the switch to Common Core Standards. We (first grade and kindergarten) have already started teaching the CCSS but our district wants to implement new curriculum for math and reading. 

Right now I want to focus on the textbook adoption for reading. So tonight I did a little research on the programs that have bids for our districts core reading program. I got some information but it is hard to really tell how it would be to teach the material just based on a small sample of the materials on their website. Our district gave us usernames and passwords to explore a little more than you can see on their site but it wasn't the full access that you get once you have the curriculum. 

Then I thought to myself who would know these programs better than the teachers out their actually teaching these programs?! 

Sooo please let me know teacher bloggers what are some pros and cons about these reading programs. I know there are pros and cons to every program. I want to know are you generally happy with the reading selections (trade books, interesting, on grade level) , leveled readers, and information taught. Do you feel their is enough support/materials for ELL learners and children with special needs? Is there one thing you LOVE about the program and use all the time? Do you hate the program and want to change?

I know the programs will be slightly different from the ones you are using now since they will be aligned to the CCSS and also geared towards the state Florida. 

Here are the programs our district is considering:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt- Florida Journeys 

We currently use Houghton Mifflin and it's okay. I would change a lot of the reading selections and make the advanced leveled readers harder. We just got Houghton Mifflin's new science series this year though and I love using thinkcentral.com their interactive  website. If the reading series were more up to date I might enjoy  teaching it more.

McGraw-Hill Education-Reading Wonders 

This is a new program aligned to CCSS but how do y'all like other McGraw Hill programs?

This one looks pretty neat. It comes with big books and anchor texts that look like literature I would actually choose.

Mondo Publishing-Bookshop

Not sure why our district is considering this program since it doesn't look linked to the Common Core. Any one every use the curriculum before though?

Pearson Education, Inc.- Reading Street

(I know bloggers out there use this I've seen it on your blogs! Let me know your thoughts!)

Zaner-Bloser-Strategies for Writers

I'm not sure how this fits in the with the reading core program or if this is a readers/writers workshop model. The district wasn't very clear on this since it's listed with the other reading programs.

If you use one of these please provide some helpful feedback!

Thanks fellow bloggers!

Little Behind

Hey! So as usually I'm a little late on my blogging! I don't know why I can't keep it together this year! It has been such a busy school year though! Last week we had the Dr. Seuss week and our spring carnival and the week before we had dental health week and picture day. Mix into all that I had an informal observation.

During dental health week the kids learned all about teeth and why it is important to take care of them. When the dentist came to visit with her dental assistants they got to brush large teeth and a stuffed dinosaurs teeth. They were most excited about the awesome gift bags though. I wish I got a picture of the gift bags they were so cute! They were little bunny bags tied up in colorful ribbon with a toothbrush, toothpaste, stickers, and floss inside. I also get the Colgate Bright Smiles Classroom Kit for my class each year which includes books and toothbrushes for every kid in your class. There is just something about getting new toothbrush that makes kids smile. 

Later in the week I had an informal observation. It is the dreaded pop-in. At my teaching level I have two informals each year. One in the fall and one in the spring. Our assistant principal who is in charge of doing my observations (our admin team splits up who observes who) has been out on pregnancy leave since December. She did my other informal in October (awesome bat lesson) and then she told me she would do my other informal in March when she returned and my formal observation in April. 

Well that changed when we got a interim assistant principal. I've never heard of this before but he is a traveling assistant principal he covers people's maternity leaves and other long term leaves. So he came to our school for 9 weeks to cover for her leave. I was not under the impression he would do an observation on me because I don't have to have as many as some other teachers and I knew that he would be trying to get to all of those people. Let me just tell you I always felt really uncomfortable around him too because he came from a middle school and would never smile and isn't very friendly. So NOT elementary school. 

Anyways he popped in to my room one morning and came for our shared reading lesson on the story Lost! It's a fiction story about a bear who is lost in the city and a boy who tries to help him find his home. It's a cute story and my children did a fabulous job reading, asking questions, answer questions, participating, and doing their reading responses. It was a great lesson but I got applying level on my observation because my learning goal wasn't specific enough to my lesson. (Marazano stuff if you don't know it's cool you don't want too.) 

After the observation he sent me a very nice e-mail and ask me to meet with him the next morning. Now this does not usually happen at my school. We usually get an e-mail and just the observation form with comments. So I thought this is actually quiet nice or I'm in deep trouble. You know how it is when you're called in the principals office especially after an observation....oh the thoughts running through my mind. 

The meeting actually went well though and it turns out he is quiet the talker and a nice guy. It changed my whole perspective on him which was defiantly for the better. He actually did mention that I smile all the time and doesn't know how I keep my level of excitement while maintain a calm classroom environment with students who are engaged. (YEAH ME!) Sometimes you got be your own cheerleader! 

That all that has really been up with me! We have another big week coming up with St. Patrick's Day and our field trip to Gatorland! More to come about both! Have a lovely Sunday before you have to wake up extra early for school tomorrow!

Planning for Dr. Seuss

The week of March 3rd my firsties will be learning all about the wonderful author Dr. Seuss and doing some awesome activities with his books. I'm planning ahead and would like to share it with you.

Monday: Dr. Seuss

We will watch a Brain Pop Jr. video on the life of Dr. Seuss and read a non-fiction reader about him. Then we will pick some of our favorite Dr. Seuss books to read with a buddy and review them.

Tuesday: Oh the Places We'll Go

We will read Oh the Places You'll Go and write about where we would want to go and make a hot air balloon craft to go with.

Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday

We will read the story Wacky Wednesday and retell what happened in the story. Then we will write our own wacky Wednesday stories! I only heard about this story a few years back...if you haven't read it I highly recommend it if you love all things silly. Which I guessing if you like Dr. Seuss and kids you like silly!

Thursday: The Cat in the Hat

We will read The Cat in the Hat and sequence what happens in the story together. Then the students will sequence on their own writing at least four sentences and adding pictures.

Friday: Horton Hears A Who

A person's a person no matter how small! We will read Horton Hears a Who and talk about the message of the story. Students will then write Horton showed______when he_______ and make an elephant craft to go with. We might even get to watch the movie. It all depends on if I've had my informal observation already. My assistant principal will be coming for informal observations February 25-March 8th so I got to be on my toes!

Of course we'll be doing morning work, lots of word work activities, buddy reading, and writing that goes along with Dr. Seuss.

This week we'll be learning about dental health! Look for blog posts to come we're even having a dentist visit! I have continue to document and take pictures of what I've been doing just haven't had the time to post. Now I feel a little caught up on things I'll hopefully be posting more.