My TpT Anniversary

Friday, October 12, 2012

Wow! It is my one-year TpT Anniversary!  I’ve been a member for one amazing year, so I decided to celebrate with a 20% off sale!

The sale will start tomorrow, October 13th and last until the 16th! Click on the image above or right here to link to my store.

And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to the many loyal, supportive and amazing customers that I have! 

US Symbols

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

We just finished learning all about the United States Symbols! I have updated my US Passport on TpT to include the following:
-Title Page
-Statue of Liberty
-White House
-Liberty Bell
-Washington Monument
-American Flag
AND
All blacklines to create the adorable torn-paper flag and person.
 
To help learn facts about the US symbols we used some really CHEAP but AMAZING books I purchased from Scholastic. These books are by Lloyd G. Douglas and they are easy readers packed with information.
We completed one writing page for each symbol. The "Fun Fact" was their favorite part! Here is a sample from one page in the book. 
 This was such a fun unit that helped prepare students for the upcoming election! If you feel there are any important symbols missing, please leave a comment and I would be happy to include them in the passport!

Christmas In July

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

On July 25, join me in celebrating "Christmas in July"!   Visit my TpT store to get 20% off all items in my store! Merry Christmas in July! 
(Thanks to Abby for the image)

Back To School

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Believe it or not, I go back to school this week! This week is a teacher week and the kids start next Monday. This summer went SO fast and I am going to really miss spending lazy days with my daughter! BUT I am excited to meet my new first graders and get them excited about this year. I try to keep them busy the first week and help them learn our routines by making a "Back to School" book. Parents have told me so many times how much they LOVE this book and consider it a first grade keepsake. You can check out the book here.
 This book takes us about a week to complete. (We do not do literacy stations the first week so this is a great activity for that time period.)
When the completed book goes home students/parents have reference to our specials schedule, daily classroom schedule, our school's VIP's, graphs with information about our classes boy/girl ratio, how many students are 5, 6 or 7 a class picture and much more!
Check back later this week, I will be posting some Meet Your Teacher Forms as freebies!

Kindergarten CORE Math Unit

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

I posted in June that my teammate and I would be working on creating CORE Math Units for KINDERGARTEN and we now have the first unit posted! We will be creating 4 units/quarter. 
 Each unit contains a teacher lesson plan with black line materials, a problem of the day workbook (pictured above), a guided practice page and a daily spiral designed review page and finally a unit assessment. 
  Units 1-4 are designed to be taught in 1st quarter.
Topics covered in this unit are:
-Number 1-10 identification/writing
-Ten Frame
-Counting objects to answers "How Many?"
-Comparing objects in a group to identify greater than/less than
The Kindergarten CORE standards addressed are:
K.CC.3, K.CC.4, K.CC.5, K.CC.6

I created these units for first grade last year and had AMAZING feedback, so many first grade teachers were so excited to use these materials in their class and I am so happy to be creating materials for kinder. If you know any kinder teachers spread the word! I will have Unit 2 posted this weekend! 

Happy Fourth of July!! 

First Grade CORE Math

Friday, June 15, 2012

Celebration Time!!!! It is 11:37 p.m. and I have FINALLY finished the last of the First Grade CORE Math Packet! YEAH!! They have been a major project this year and a lot of work but I so appreciate all of your support and encouragement. I have had just an outpouring of positive comments and words of appreciation from other first grade teachers! To celebrate this very exciting event I am having a 20% off sale! The sale will last until Monday so stop by this weekend. 

In case you do not know about my math units, there are 16 units, 4 units per quarter. Each unit contains everything you need for 10 days of instruction. Each unit targets specific CORE standards but the units are spirally reviewed so students don't lose previously mastered concepts.

All 16 units begin with a CORE Standards page, so you know exactly which standards are being taught during the unit. Some of the standards are new and some are review from prior units.
Next, you will find a problem of the day. Students use their Math Journal to collaboratively work out the problem of the day. 

Then it's on to calendar time! Before creating these math units I HATED calendar! I found myself rushing through it because the kids were not engaged and it was monotonous. With students all having their own Calendar Companions they are engaged and learning and I LOVE IT! There are many versions of Calendar Helpers and Notebooks but I was not able to find anything specifically geared to the new CORE standards, so I created this.
Then we move into our daily mini-lesson. These lessons usually take between 10-20 minutes and are engaging and interactive. The lessons vary, they may be games to practice previously learned concepts or lessons involving the use of manipulatives or technology to keep kids excited about math.
Finally I have created a daily Guided Practice/Review Page. This is a worksheet to be copied back-to-back. The front page we do together and students complete the back independently. The back of the worksheet is always review and this helps students retention of concepts. Here is a sample of a daily worksheet. 
Each unit has a Unit Assessment, so students are assessed every 10 days. 

I have had several teachers ask me if I know anyone who creates these types of math units for kinder or second. GOOD NEWS! I am teaming with my former teammate and friend to begin working on these packets for kinder. I taught kinder for 7 years and my colleague has been teaching kinder for the past 14 years, together I think we can create something amazing! If you have colleagues that teach kinder and you think they may be interested, spread the word!

The Winners Are...

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Thank you for all of those who responded to the "David Learns School Rules" personalized poster giveaway! WOW!

The winners are Mrs. Gompah, Mrs. Papesh, Mrs. Christian, Mrs. Young, Mrs. Chidester, Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Rosenberg, Mrs. Norman and Mrs. Larkin! If you are a winner I have emailed you your personalized poster!

Didn't win??? THAT'S OKAY!!
  I have uploaded the poster to TPT. I put it in a PowerPoint Presentation. If you would like to personalize this poster simply download it from TPT, open the PowerPoint file. Insert a text box, type in your name and save the poster as a jpg file. From there you can put it on a jumpdrive and bring it to your nearest Staples, OfficeMax, Kinkos and have it printed. 

The poster is a 16"X20" poster! 

Again thank you to all who participated!


David Learns School Rules!

I have been asked several times about blacklines for the David's we make while learning school rules, and it's here! AND IT IS FREE!!!  Stop by my TpT store to download it! 
This packet includes the blackline masters to make David and a "First Grade Rules!" writing page, don't worry for those of you who don't teach first I included a generic "School Rules!" template as well :)
I have also created a "David Learns the School Rules" poster that is displayed with the kids David's pictures. Here is a picture of what the poster in my room looks like.
I put the jpg image on my jumpdrive and brought it to Staples and they printed my poster in color in a 16X20. I made the poster in photoshop but then imported the image into PowerPoint so I could share it with you.

BECOME A FOLLOWER!!

I will give a personalized poster away as a FREEBIE to the first 10 people who follow my blog and TpT store. All I need is for you to leave a comment letting me know you follow me, your email address and what you would like the name on the poster to say. Good luck! 

BEE Folder

Monday, June 4, 2012

I am back! My poor blog has been so neglected the last couple months. Life has been CRAZY, particularly my life at work! We have had tons of changes are our school in the last month and I am slightly overwhelmed.  As I go through Spaulding training this summer and prepare to make some major curriculum changes next year I have decided to instead focus on what I CAN prepare for next year. 
The theme in our first grade class is bees, so my students have a B.E.E. Folder (Bring Everything Everyday). It is a white three ring binder. This is the front cover of the folder and the back contains directions. 
  Inside the left pocket is labeled with "Take Home Papers". Students put a hole-punched homework packet and newsletter in their folders each Monday and their homework packet is due on Friday. 

We also use this folder to communicate daily behavior. This a picture of what we use as our behavior chart in class. Every student begins on green for the day. If necessary they move to yellow or red. The blue flower is for students who make great choices.  

Students color their "BEE-havior Chart" each day to represent the color they earned. I sign each chart at the end of the day when students are packing up. If a child earns a yellow or red I attach an "Uh-Oh" note to the parents explaining the incident.  I require students to have a parent sign the behavior chart daily. 

I ask parents to provide a zipper pouch in the BEE folder to hold students "Buzz Bucks". If students earn a green light for the day, they earn one Buzz Buck. If a students earns a blue light they get $2. (Red or yellow earns no money) Students are responsible for keeping their money safe, I do not replace lost money. Every Friday I open treasure box and students can choose to shop for $5, $10 and $20 prizes. 
The final item in the BEE folder is each students current word list. I use the Frye high frequency word list. Each list has 50 words on it, when a student can read the entire list their parent must sign it. When it is returned to school they read the list to me and I give them $5 in Buzz Bucks (this is MAJOR motivation), and provide them with the next list. There are 20 lists total to take students through 1000 words. I find it very useful to have so many lists to challenge the higher level students. 

If you are interested in using the BEE folder in your classroom you can get it here. If you have any questions please email me at angielneal@gmail.com. Also, if you have a different theme in your room and would like me to create materials for your theme, contact me, I may be able to help :)

Teacher Appreciation Sale

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Stop by my store for big savings! I have put EVERYTHING in my store on sale for 20% off and you can save even more by entering the promo code. Happy shopping and have a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week, you so deserve it! 

Student Treasures

Friday, March 30, 2012

Wow! We finished in time for our publishing date, whew! 
Our class just mailed our Student Treasures Class Book! We based our book on Todd Parr's book "The Peace Book" (I LOVE TODD PARR!!) 
I read Todd's book to the kids and asked them to think of what peace is to them and they came up with such inspiring and cute ideas. Each child then gets their own page to draw a picture on and their own writing page. I took a couple pictures of some of their pages to share with you. 
The cover of our book, I drew this.
"Peace is thinking about someone you love."
"Peace is taking a nap."
"Peace is giving your mom and dad a hug."
"Peace is helping someone who needs help."
"Peace is living in the United States."
"Peace is being happy being me."
"Peace is riding bikes with my brother."
My page..."Peace is watching your first graders
blossom like beautiful flowers."
Too cute, right! My students amaze me! 
(Sorry I had to blur their picture in the bottom left hand corner.) 
Once every child has finished their page, you send an order form home and if every parent returns the order form the class gets their book bound FOR FREE! Parents do not have to purchase a book to get a free book for the class, parents just need to check "yes" and include payment or "no" and sign it and return it. (The books cost parents about $19 but they are amazing, they are beautiful hardbound full color books, so worth it!)
ALSO...Student Treasures chooses a few books each year and gives teachers scholarships! Two years ago our class won a $100 scholarship! It was so exciting! 

When I taught kindergarten we did Todd Parr's book "It's Okay to Be Different". I will dig that out and post some pictures of what my kinder kiddos did. That book is AMAZING too! 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Its BACK to Work I Go...

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Its official Spring Break is OVER :( Time to return for the last quarter of school and I am so looking forward to keeping my little firsties super busy. 
We are jumping right into a math unit on measurement and the finale of this ten day unit will be the Measurement Olympics! I am so excited, I will be sure to post pictures soon. This measurement unit is part of my Unit 13 CORE Math Standards for First Grade. 
 Next we will be learning all about fractions. I just posted a Fun with Fractions Unit on TpT! I love food so I themed the entire 2 week unit on PIZZA, so we can have a pizza party after finishing the unit! I am sure I will somehow tie good behavior into earning this pizza party because lets face it, fourth quarter gets a little hairy. 
Here is a little sneak peak at some of the activities in the unit. 
 If you purchase my Math Units, 
these activities will be part of Unit 14 that is COMING SOON!!!

Busy Buzzy Bee

Thursday, March 22, 2012


I LOVE BEES! 
The theme of our classroom is bees, so I had a great time creating a Literacy Packet to go with our next Harcourt Trophies story "Busy Buzzy Bees"

The packet includes lots of great stuff so stop by my store and check it out! 

I don't ever want to leave out those of you who don't have Harcourt so I also posted a FREE"BEE" activity with tree map. 


Little Bear's Friend

 I just posted a Harcourt Trophies Literacy Packet for "Little Bear's Friend". The packet has a reading response sheet for each of the four level readers, seven literacy stations, a sight word/spelling word memory game and this cute bear craftivity with blank writing page. 
These packets include everything you need for the Harcourt story of the week. I even threw in a math graphing activity since Gummy Bear graphing would go so great with this story.
Click here to check it out! 

Don't use Harcourt but like the bear craft? Get it here FREE!

Coming soon.....Busy Buzzy Bees!

Animal Reports

Monday, March 19, 2012



 
I promised in my last post that I would post some information about the Animal Reports we just completed so...here goes!
Our reports took about two weeks to complete and we had them on display for our student-led conference night. The kids were so excited to share with their parents there wonderful reports so I thought I would share with you! 
While shopping I found some amazing ZooPals plates made by Hefty, they came in a pack of 20 and were super cheap. There were 10 different animals in each pack and there were a TON of animals to choose from. 
I picked the plates that I was able to find easy-read nonfiction books for and made a list on the board so the kids could choose which animal they wanted. I had them write me a letter to tell me their top three choices. I put the kids in groups of 2 and we got busy. I have provided step-by-step instructions and all black lines in my Animal Research Report Packet on TpT. Here is a couple pictures of what one students report looked like. 
09 10