In our class, literacy stations are a very important part of our routine. One of our stations is always focused on word families. I found this quote I wanted to share with you, this is why I believe it is so important to have one center focused on word families.

"Research shows that strong readers are able to decode new words by comparing them to known words rather than by sounding them out letter by letter. The best way to separate between good and poor readers is repeatedly found to be their knowledge of spelling patterns and their proficiency with spelling-sound translations. That is why reading lessons that include phonograms, also called word families and chunks, are a highly effective way to help young children acquire and implement these kinds of reading skills and strategies."

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/441165

I have been working on updating my Word Family station to make it less work for me. I decided to make a workbook that students will use throughout the entire year so all I will have to do is change the poster hanging at that station.

Here is a look at what the word family station looks like in our class: 

(Important Note: We do Literacy Stations 3 times/week)

 At the station I hang a "poster" with most of the words from that family. (We call it a poster, it is a normal size page, I can't afford to make these all poster size)

Day 1: Students practice reading the words from the poster and then they use their workbook to color the picture that goes with the family. They are given a list of real/nonsense words. Students read, cut, sort and glue the real words onto their picture. 

Day 2: Student practice reading the words from the poster then get their workbook out. Today students will write sentences for the words in the focus family. I vary the amount of sentences students need to write depending on where we are in the school year.

Day 3: Students finish their workbook if needed. Students read their sentences to a friend then they can play the word family game. My word family games vary each week sometimes they play word family tic-tac-toe, BANG, build the words with magnets, write the words with whiteboards, you get the idea. 

So I just posted the long and short a word families. I included the posters and work book pages for the following families: -at, -ab, -ad, -am, -ap, -ag, -an, -ack, -and, -all, -ay, -ail, -ake, -ame, -ar, -art, -ash, and -ate! 

Yep, that is 18 families! WHEW!

AND

I just posted the long and short e word families. I included the posters and work book pages for the following families: -et, -ed, -en, -ew, -est, -ell, -end, -eck, -eat, and -eck!

I am starting the long and short i family next. Stop by my store to check out this packet and if you think of any short or long families I missed let me know and I would be more than happy to add them :)

Sunday FUNday!

Hello All! I wanted to quick post a Sunday FUNday FREEBIE! Last week I uploaded a Hershey Kisses Addition Unit to TpT and here is a little game from that unit that you can download for free.

In this game your students will be given two different colored Hershey Kisses and use them to play Tic-Tac-Toe! FUN RIGHT!?! 

If your kids enjoy this game they would love the entire unit packed full of addition games with Hershey Kisses. Enjoy the freebie, be sure to stop by next week for another Sunday FUNday Freebie!

Linky Party

I wanted to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching Linky Party with 5 random things from this week. I am on maternity leave so I will do my best and try to throw in something academic related :)

1. Shawn T. from Insanity has become one of my best friends. I don't want to make everyone out there jealous but we hang out everyday! :) Seriously his work out program is tough and I am trying to lose this baby weight so Shawn T. and I spend a lot of time together. 

2. I just finished "The Memory Thief" by Emily Colins for our Book Club on Saturday. It was a quick read, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. 

 3. I posted 2 new units this week! I uploaded a Hershey Kisses Addition Unit and a 3D Shape Fun Unit. 

4. We took some pictures at the park this week, these are my BEAUTIFUL girls. My oldest is in kinder and my baby is 9 weeks old, aren't they precious?!

5. I stopped by school on Friday to pick up a few things from my classroom and my neighbor friend informed me that we now are required to take 15 more hours on Math CORE training AND 15 more hours of ELA CORE training before summer, WHAT?!?! So I just signed up for classes and I am trying to get myself to excited about it since they start next week! AAHHH!

Hershey Kisses Addition Unit

Its FINISHED! I just posted my Hershey Kisses Addition unit to TpT! I am so glad that I am done with this unit, it has not been good for my diet. As research :) for this unit, I bought several bags of Hershey Kisses and have quickly been devouring them as I have been working. For every few pages I finished I rewarded myself by eating a few kisses, I know it is so bad, but I could not help myself!

Anyway, the unit is packed full of addition materials. I did not make it Valentine related at all so that it can be used throughout the year but I did include a cute little craft and I have to say this little guy would make a perfect Valentine bag for your kiddos. Simply glue him onto the front of a paper bag and DONE!

Some activities that are included in this addition unit are:
The adorable craft mentioned above
Ten Frame math mats, manipulatives and practice pages
Number Bond math mats and practice pages
Number line poster, math mats, practice pages, mystery messages
Kiss Hunt Addition Game
Sums of 5-9 printables
Sums of 10 Mini-Book
Grab and Graph Game
Roll and Color Game
10 page Kisses Addition Math Journal
Concentration Game
and a few fun extras!

Time to have a giveaway! Follow my blog and TpT store and you could be a winner! Simply leave me a comment right here telling your favorite type of chocolate :) and don't forget to leave me an email address! I will randomly pick three winners and announce them on Wednesday! 

The winners are Pauline, Lori and Bridget! Thanks for following my blog I just emailed you the unit! 

Hershey Kisses Unit! - COMING SOON!

Hello All! Yes, I re-designed my blog AGAIN! I can't help it, I go to others blogs are they are just so cute and then I get inspired to make mine better so...truth be told, I have decorators ADHD and I am constantly re-doing and changing things, ask my husband! 

I was just taking a break from creating my next unit, I am so thrilled about it and wanted to share! I should have it finished and posted Sunday, follow my store and you will be notified as soon as it is ready! 

I just finished creating the clip art images, I am so thrilled to be taking a leap into creating clip art, its just another way to keep those creative juices flowing! I still have so much to learn, but it is fun!

Have a wonderful Friday all! 

3D Shape Fun!

As promised I am back to share my newest 3D shape product. WOW! I feel like I have been working on this packet FOREVER! One reason this took so long to create was because I took my first leap into creating clip art because I was not able to find any cute 3D shape clip art. This resource has TONS of cute stuff and I am so excited to share it with you!

This 36 page 3D Shape Fun packet includes 6 posters to teach 3D shapes and one 3D shape attribute poster to help students with the vocabulary terms.

A 3D Shape/Color BINGO game with calling cards and 7 different BINGO boards.

 A student book to learn about the 6 3D shapes, concentration game, 3D Shape Sort with Data Analysis and an "I Have, Who Has 3D Shape Game" WHEW! Stop by my shop to check out this fun packet!

Getting Ready for February

Hello All! I apologize for my blogging hiatus, I was super busy HAVING A BABY! We welcomed our new baby girl into the world on November 18th and she has been all consuming. I am so in love! Now that we are on somewhat of a schedule, I have been able to get some work done during nap times. So it's back to work!

So I had a huge desire to create this packet, let me explain...Our school is very old and it is an outside school so when we walk out our doors we walk around these grassy courtyards to go everywhere. Well, these courtyards are home to MANY gophers and the kids are just convinced they are groundhogs! Many times as we are walking to specials the gophers will come out of their holes and the kids, as you can imagine, go WILD. We have had to convince them that they are going to "scare away the groundhogs" if they don't be quiet, so then we have a class tiptoeing down the hall, whatever works, right! I am sure the groundskeepers don't appreciate our little "groundhog" friends but it works for the teachers :)  
 So in honor of the upcoming holiday and all the little "groundhog" critters at my school, I have created a Groundhog Day Fun Packet with math, literacy and art activities. Some of the activities included are

• Mystery Messages from Punxsutawney Phil
• Graphing and Data Analysis
• Groundhog Probability
• Groundhog Ten Frame
• Roll and Cover Addition Game
• Groundhog Vocabulary
• Tree Map and Circle Map
• Word Search
• BINGO 

  AND 

This really fun Groundhog Art project and Fact Book! WHEW! That should keep our little kiddos busy! 

 

  I just bought the book "Groundhog Weather School" so cute! Full of factual information about groundhogs while still having a fun story.

 

I began an new adventure of creating some clip art because I was not able to find any cute 3D shape clip art so I will be back soon to share some more with you!

Happy Groundhog Day!

My TpT Anniversary

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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!