Currently {November}

Currently:

Listening: To my wonderful hubby clean the kitchen. He made me breakfast this morning and then decided to clean up too. All while I’m cozied up on the couch blogging.

Loving; I’m loving this beautiful fall weather. Halloween night was wonderful. We didn’t sweat and the doors were opened in our house. Today is a bit cold 45 degrees and feels more like winter but tomorrow is going to be perfect just like Friday and Saturday. I love wearing pants and not sweating!

Thinking: I’m thinking of all the parent/teacher report card conferences I have this week. I have three tomorrow that I need to prepare for today. I have 15 conferences this week. 3 parents have yet to sign up after e-mails, notes, face-to-face talking, and phone calls. I don’t get it. Of course these are the parents I really need to conference with.

Wanting; I want to go to the mall today. We’ll see because this could be dangerous. I really want some new boots, booties, fall attire, and a new duvet cover.

Needing: I need to put all my grades on the computer. This is usually something I do Friday afternoon but since it was Halloween I came home right after work. I left in such a hurry I forgot to grab my graded work. We had a party at our house starting at 5 so I had that on my mind.

Reading: Adultery by Paulo Coelho

This is really not my typical kind of book to read. But I just joined a book club and this was the book they were reading. The book club meets on the first Wednesday of each month so we have our meeting this week. I think the book is depressing to read and wouldn’t recommend it to my friends. The book clubs previous books were all books I had read and enjoyed. That’s why I really wanted to be a part of this club. Have you ever had to read a book you didn’t enjoy for a book club?

Character Parade

Today my school had our character parade. We do not have it on Halloween so that it is not associated and parents can’t say we are celebrating Halloween. So we had our character parade today in our bus loop. Everyone dressed up as their favorite book character. The kids wear a costume and bring a book. Then the whole school goes to the bus loop. Each grade gets to parade around the bus loop one time to show off our costumes to all the other grade levels and parents. It’s such a fun morning! I love seeing all the creative costumes! The upper grades do book reports with their costumes but in first grade we just kept it simple this year.

My team dressed up as Camillia Cream from A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. We had striped socks on our legs and arms, thermometers on rainbow striped shoelaces, rainbow masks from Party City (only $1), and colored/striped lipstick. The Kindergarten team dressed up as Pinkalious, Second grade dressed up as Fancy Nancy and Some other grades dressed up as Rainbow Fish, The Wizard of Oz, and Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs.

In my class I had five princesses (surprisingly no Elsa’s but one Anna), Buzz from Fly Guy, an army man, a ninja turtle, two transformers, spider girl, a lion, a pirate, a ninja, and Fancy Nancy. The kids and teachers had a great time parading around in their costumes. We all look forward to this every year!

Hope you have a great week and Happy Halloween! 

Five for Friday {October 13-17th}

This week was another fabulous week in first grade.   

 We have our Boosterthon Fun Run this week. This is a fundraiser we do every year at our school. I like it because it builds character and gets the kids outside to run laps. The kids get donations for laps, just like an adult 5k. So if you pledge to donate a $1 a lap and the student runs 35 laps, you will donate $35. The track is small so most of the kids do run 35 laps or more! They have fun laps for kids like skip a lap, walk with a friend, march a lap, etc. The teachers mark the students shirts to count their laps. The parents/PTA make sure the kids get enough water at the water station tent. It is one of the most fun events of year! It is so well organized and the kids LOVE it! Teachers also love it because it builds character and raises money for our school. We are buying new technology with money raise.

    We worked on writing acrostic poem this week. This is our shared writing from Tuesday. My kids had to help me write an acrostic poem using my name. Hehe! I love my kids! This was the poem:
Joyful
Exciting
Silly
Smart
Interesting
Caring
Awesome

I had my informal observation this week. I’m not sure how this works in other schools, districts, and states. At my school, anyone from the admin team can just pops in your room to observe you for about fifteen minutes. They are required to do two informal observations a year and one formal (planned) observation for most teachers. If you are a new teacher, you have four informal observations and two formal observations. I had one of our instructional coaches observe me for around fifteen minutes in my whole group reading block. We read our morning message, worked on phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, and reading with fluency. I used my Smart Board that had interactive games and video clips. The observation went really well and my kids all behaved. I already received feedback on the observation too. Before she left the room she actually left me a nice note on a sticky with a piece of candy. Talk about thoughtful and encouraging after an observation. I think other administrators/observers need to take note. It can be super stressful to be observed!! I think observers needs to sandwich comments like we do for report cards (positive, what to work on, positive.) I’m so happy this one informal is done! One done….two more to go…probably more!

  

 I’m so excited to have a mini fall break next week! We are only working 3 days next week! I have to finish report cards before I leave on Wednesday. I get four-day weekend though and I’m going to the beach! We are going to Jupiter/Palm Beach for the weekend to see family and friends. I’m going to our cousin’s baby shower and I get to see a friend who is newly pregnant! I’m so happy for these ladies that will be wonderful mommies!

Now I'm off to a movie date with my man. We're going to see Gone Girl. I've read the book and can't wait to see the movie.

Fall Writing

Hey there bloggers! Happy hump day! I sure hope you are having a great week.We have being doing some fall writing in first grade and I wanted to share with you.

First up we wrote about the season fall and what you can wear, see, and pick in fall. We made a bubble map together the first day. Next the kids took the words from their bubble map and put them in a tree map. Then they took the information from their tree map and wrote sentences in their “Authors at Work” journal or writing journals. I made corrections in their journals. Finally they wrote their final copy on this adorable paper Anna Brantley and made this craft from All Student’s Can Shine.

This week we’ve been working on acrostic poem writing. The first day we discussed poems, watched a brain pop video, and I showed them a sample of an acrostic poem. Then yesterday and today we wrote acrostic poems. The first poem was all about fall. The poems today were with our names. I thought the kids did a great job! I forgot to snap a picture of the acrostic poem with my name that we wrote together. It was humorous and will have to go on blog this Friday! 

Charlie put he is cool, handsome, awesome, regretful (he explained he regrets when he gets in trouble and moves his clip), lazy (he said it not me!), interesting, and exciting. I thought it was a great! He illustrated a picture of himself outside with an airplane. 

Next up we have the fall poems. In case you can't read them this is your translations. Fall is falling leaves off trees, apples red and green, little pumpkins ready to be picked, and leaves crumbling on the floor. Then we have Fall is falling leaves, apples start to fall down, live animals, and little pumpkins in the patch. This next one is a little bonus from a cutie who wrote during work on writing in centers. 

        

He wrote school: soaring (our mascot is eagles and we soar!), caring, happy, organized, amazing (which begins with an o for him), and learning. I love how he feels about school!

Have a great rest of your week. Tomorrow we are participating in the Fun Run! I’m going to be one tired teacher!

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Five for Friday {October 6-10}

1. I am one tired teacher! There is just something about a field trip that just takes energy out of you.

We went on a field trip today! We went to the Orlando Repertory Theatre to see the play Click, Clack, Boo! A trick treat1 It was such a fun play to see. We had a nice picnic under some trees before seeing the play. It was a great trip, enjoyed by my kids.

2. Speaking of Halloween, we got Booed this week. This is a neighborhood treat basket that goes around during October. We got a treat basket on our porch with these two signs. We put the “We’ve been booed!” sign on our front door so the neighbors know not to give us a basket. Then I made baskets for two of our neighbors to pass on the fun. I loved, loved, loved the baskets I made for our neighbors but forgot to take a picture. L I realized the minute we got back to our house from dropping them off that I didn’t take a picture. My husband said just go back and take a picture…um weird on someone’s front porch when you’re trying to be sneaky. Anyways we have a great time getting ready for Halloween with this neighborhood activity.

3. I got the MOST adorable pumpkin for my front door! This makes me so happy! I’m loving the burlap bow and chevron. I got this from Etsy.

4 .This week in reading we worked on main ideas and supporting details. My co-worker made this beautiful anchor charts to support learning. My class made this anchor chart about bats after reading several bat books. The main idea was bats and the facts and examples from the book were supporting details. I made this sample and then in the writing center they made they own bubble map.

5. Boosterthon Fun Run started this week. The theme this year is Rockin’ Town Live. We had our pep rally and they made these cut outs of our admin team. Our principal is Elvis. SO FUNNY! We also came up with a band name for our class: “Fabulous 1^st Graders.”

I’m off to watch a movie in my PJ’s and get some rest! Have a wonderful weekend!