Hey everyone! I have had my blog for almost 2 years and have never posted any kind of "classroom tour" pictures. As I was trying to straighten my desk, stash piles and clean up after a busy day - I realized this is why I don't post pictures! Forgive the mess - here goes!

Here is the view from the door.  (Keep in mind my school is about 25 years old) My teacher desk is in the upper right corner, the back cabinets are all storage and I use the area above the sink to display student work (I have more than 13 kids, I have only displayed the kids who have finished their project, the other 11 kids will finish tomorrow).
You will notice that the desks are in rows (GASP!!!!) I teach at a "traditional" school and the philosophy is that desks are to be placed in rows facing the front of the room. Not my preference :(
I have a BEE theme in my class. Our rules are displayed on poster on the cabinets, these posters were purchased from Oriental Trading and I LOVE THEM!

UGGGHHH! I try, I swear! My teacher area is always a mess but I swear I know exactly where everything is. 

Those colored storage containers from Lakeshore organize all my papers for the week. My cabinets don't quite latch, as I mentioned before - older school. I have three hanging organizers on the wall: Copy, File and Grade. This helps me stay somewhat organized, but more of this organization stuff in tomorrows post! 

This is my favorite area of the room. I love when we can get out of our rows and meet at the rug. Notice my super comfy rocker?! That was purchased for my first child's nursery and when she outgrew it I decided to take it to school because it is SO COMFY! You can see our station buckets behind the easel and our book boxes to the left of the rug. The flowers in the corner behind my chair are part of our classroom management plan that I will talk more about on Thursday.  

Here is our classroom library. In our class we love doing author studies so I choose to organize most of my books by author. We just finished reading a TON of Mo Willems books are we are now working with Todd Arnold's Fly Guy books. We have bean bags, reading buddies (the stuffed animals in the basket) comfy chairs and a small couch (sorry that got cut out of the picture) to make our classroom library feel homey. To the right of this picture is our horseshoe table for guided reading.

My final picture is of the front of the room. I display my BEEutiful Writing and Marzano Scale at the front. The door is to my neighbors room. It desperately needs to be repainted and I would cover it but we are not allowed to, thanks fire marshall. The whiteboard is BRAND NEW, MAGNETIC! We asked for years for a magnetic board and we just got one this year, the first thing I did was buy magnetic punctuation pieces from Lakeshore, LOVE THEM! If only I had a Smart Board :(

Well that is the tour of my home away from home! Thanks for coming to visit! I am looking forward to tomorrows post: Organizing for Instruction. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Teacher Week 2013 - Meet the Teacher!

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' to kick of Teacher Week 2013 with a linky party. Monday is the Let's Talk About Me Day, so here goes!

I am a teacher in sunny Arizona with a passion for making my first grade class a wonderful place to be. I have been teaching first grade for three years now and before that I taught kinder for 6 years. I love primary aged students, frankly the older kids scare me! I grew up in AZ and went to ASU! I have my Masters in Educational Technology and I LOVE creating resources and lessons that involve technology because students are so motivated by it. 

Over the last several years, I have spent a lot of time creating math curriculum. When I moved to first grade I was told by the current first grade teachers that the most frustrating part of their day is math. They explained that our curriculum is out-dated, it did not align to standards, and we would be teaching without the workbook due to budget cuts. So...I set out creating daily math lesson plans. That is where my TpT/blogging life began in 2010. I have since sold to districts around the country and even teachers in Australia and Thailand have reached out to me about the success of my curriculum in their classroom. I feel so incredibly blessed to have worked with some many teachers and each time I receive more positive feedback I feel so grateful and excited to be making a difference outside of my classroom. I have created math curriculum for kinder and first grade and I am slowly (see below) working on creating curriculum for second grade. 

My life outside of school is amazing. I have a very supportive and loving husband and 2 beautiful little girls. My oldest daughter is 5, and my youngest is 9 months. Everyday I struggle with the work/life balance. Being a working mom is so incredibly difficult, and I have so much respect to all the moms out there who manage to pull it off while still maintaining their sanity. When I am working at home on school stuff I feel guilty for not doing mom stuff. It is a very tricky balancing act that I still have not yet perfected. I have finally come the the realization that I can't do everything (that was a tough one) and I have had to begin giving myself permission to relax and enjoy my family because they are the most important thing in the world to me and frankly as teachers we work WAY TOO HARD and no matter how hard you work, there is still more to be done! 

That is a little about me, I am looking forward to this week of blogging. Come back tomorrow to go on a classroom tour with me! (I better clean my classroom a little)

Write Like A Rockstar!

Hi All! Just wanted to quickly stop by tonight to let you know that I have uploaded a new Writing Unit! I have had many requests for themes and tonight I created a "Writing Like a Rockstar!" unit. 

I posted my BEEutiful Writing Packet in a prior post and many teachers have reached out asking me to create themes to match their classrooms. (click on the link to check out the original post) I am also working on a zebra theme that should be posted early this week. Also on my list are frog, ocean and owl theme. Keep watching my blog they will be posted soon!

Here is a look at my BEE theme and Circus theme!

Ants In Our Pants

My word!

I had moments this weekend when I was wondering if Friday was ever going to be here! TGIF friends! Second week of school is over!

I wanted to link up with Doodle Bugs to share 5 moments from the week!

1. Our Harcourt Trophies story this week was Ants. We took this nonfiction topic and ran with it! We read several nonfiction ants books, my favorite being It's An Ants Life: My Story of Life in the Nest by Steve Parker. 

Great book with TONS of information presented in a fun diary format. We gathered lots of facts from this book then created a tree map and also wrote about the life cycle of ants. 

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2. We also read several fictional stories about ants, my favorite being I Saw An Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Price. BEST BOOK EVER to help kids understand how to make predictions when reading. The book builds up to a great climax, at that point I close the book and ask students to write a prediction about what they think is going to happen next. 

This year, the vast majority of my class was convinced that the poor little ant was squashed by the train. 

One student had an eye for detail in the pictures and noticed that Switchman Jack had a sandwich placed right next to the train track and she made that prediction that the ant would be saved because "Maybe the ant turned to the food." - LOVE that girl! 

(When I was googling a picture of this book I saw that Joshua Price has written another book called I Saw An Ant in a Parking Lot - I MUST have this book! I ordered it last night and I am so excited for it to arrive - I will let you know if it is as amazing as the first!)
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3. We also read Hey Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose and made a little craftivity inspired by Peace, Love and Kindergarten.

We wrote a letter to the Ant Bully asking him not to step on the ant and each student gave him a reason to let the ant live. TOO CUTE!

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4. We also created a Venn Diagram comparing ants and people then the kids created their own ant hill by  tearing brown paper and then gluing sand to create the tunnels.

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5. Finally, those of you who follow by blog know that one of my "New School Year's Resolution" is to do a better job teaching grammar this year. Well - what would go better this week than to focus on teaching ANTonyms! We learned all about antonyms and made a fun craftivity - "Our ANTonym Hill". Each child was given a word and they were asked to think of the antonym. They then wrote the word on the first line of their ant and the antonym on the second line of their ant. They turned out super cute and the kids were so excited to learn the "fancy" word for opposite. Click here to dowload the ant body template! 

Well that was our busy week in first grade, I am exhausted. Have a wonderful and relaxing weekend everyone! See you soon :) 

A Week in Rewind - July 26th

Hey All! I survived the first week! As always, it was a little crazy, mixed with some fun but totally and completely exhausting! I meant to get to this blog post earlier today but felt it was crucial to sneek a nap in before the madness begins again tomorrow. 

I wanted to highlight for you some of the fun we had this week. 

It would not be the first week without tons of time being devoted to the rules and procedures. There is no one better suited to teach your students how not to behave at school than David in the book David Goes to School! We spent lots of time discussing David's behavior and how it could be changed so that he would look like a "real first grader". The kids helped me brainstorm some rules that David must learn and follow. Then they choose three rules to write for David. Next we did this fun little craftivity that somehow always seems to resemble the child who created it! 

 This craftivity is a FREEBIE in my TpT store. Click here to get it! I also have the editable poster available for your class, click here to get it! 

We also worked on our "Back to School" book. I LOVE this book and so many parents appreciate it too! 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 the entire 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! (There is also a second grade version of this book!)

We also did several activities from Abby's Fun with Firsties packet. We enjoyed some Jitter Juice and her Find a Friend Icebreakers Activities.

The highlight of my week has been being able to take my daughter to school with me. We do not live in the school district I teach in but I decided to bring her to my school this year. I love being able to see her around school and check on her at lunch. Here we are in our matching school shirts on Friday. (forgive the horrible hair, pony tails are a MUST when it is 109 degrees!)

Awesome first week, glad it is over and we can get into our real routine. Next week we are getting busy with our Harcourt reading. I will be back to share some of our adventures next week! 

New SCHOOL Year Resolutions

My summer is quickly coming to an end! I return to work in just 2 days! 

With each new school year, I try to set a goal for myself, a RESOLUTION if you will :) I don't want to overwhelm myself by setting tons of goals or making lots of huge changes each year because I already know that next week when I walk into our professional development days, my principal will be waiting with a list of new changes and challenges.

SO...with that in mind, I have set only 2 New SCHOOL Year Resolutions for the 2013-14 school year:

Resolution 1: TEACH GRAMMAR - Let me be totally honest, when I think about teaching grammar to first graders I think UUUGGGHHHH! I have really neglected this in years past and I vow to do better this year. When filling out report cards I come to the dreaded grammar grade and always tell myself I need to do better but, finding extra teaching time and quality resources has always been my hiccup. SO...this summer I have worked on creating and finding resources to help.  I have created "Grammar Guide" reference posters to display in the classroom (picture of my Grammar Wall coming soon)

and I have purchased several grammar workbooks and TpT products to use. I am looking forward to evaluating the workbooks and resources I purchased and creating new resources to share with you throughout the year! 

Resolution 2: SOCIAL STUDIES - I stink at teaching Social Studies. I seems I am always trying to just quickly squeeze in Social Studies instead of creating purposeful, meaningful units of study. I became inspired late last school year by reading a few of the "Who Was..." books. 

 These books are awesome! This series includes: Johnny Appleseed, Lincoln, Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong, Helen Keller, Columbus and many more great American Heroes - perfect for first graders.  I purchased some of these books through Amazon but you can also find them at Really Good Stuff and I have even found a few of them at Target and Walmart! I have been creating book guides for each book so while we are digging into the informational text we can also work on writing.

 I plan to create a American Heroes Timeline to hang in the class for student reference. As we learn about each hero, we will add them to our timeline. (Pictures coming soon!)

For me personally, two goals seem obtainable. I am excited to create more resources to share with you. 

What are your New (School) Year Resolutions? Join me in sharing your Resolution(s). Just add your link below and don't forget to grab the button at the top!

Button Credits: Scrapping Doodles

An InLinkz Link-up

This is How We Do It...Journal Writing

Bellwork is a very important part of our daily morning routine. On the back of our bell work worksheet, I always copy a blank journal writing page and put a journal prompt on the board. 

Our prompts are often related to our social studies, science or reading topics. Students are expected to use our BEEutiful Writing Traits when completing their journal. I have the BEEutiful Writing poster and mini-posters displayed in the front of the room for students to reference. 

OR students can reference their bookmarks to recall the BEEutiful Writing Traits. 

The traits we focus on in our first grade class are: neatness, spelling, capitalization, punctuation and word choice. (Each mini-poster describes the trait in greater detail.) At the beginning of the year we spend a lot of time practicing each trait so students understand and are aware of our writing expectations. 

When students have finished journal writing, students peer edit each others writing using the bees at the bottom of the journal page. If the students paper is neat, the peer editor will color in the first bee at the bottom of the page with a red crayon. If the writer used correct spelling, the editor will color in the 2nd bee orange. If capital letters are used correctly, the editor will color in the third bee yellow. If the writer used punctuation, the  fourth bee will be colored green. Finally, we talk a lot about word choice and making sure our writing makes sense. The editor will give a blue bee if the writer has done a good job with word choice. 

Often times, I will grade students papers after peer editing is complete. If I grade it, I will attach a small rubric to their paper with a writing grade based on their BEEutiful Writing Rubric. 

I have my entire BEEutiful Writing Packet available for sale in my TpT store. The packet includes a large Beehive Poster with the 5 traits, (BTW you can print 16X20 colored posters at Costco for $5!) 5 mini-posters describing each traits in detail, bookmarks for student reference, Mini Writing Rubrics for teachers, 2 journal writing templates (with dotted lines and w/out), and a BEEutiful Writing Tree Map. Click on the pictures below to link to my store.

I have also created a CIRCUS theme writing packet for my neighbor called "Juggling Great Writing"

I have also created a "Write Like a Rockstar" theme for Debbie! Cute idea, thanks for asking Debbie!

Need a theme to match your classroom? JUST ASK!

First Grade CORE Math Units

Have you re-downloaded the REVISED first grade CORE math units?! I am so excited about how they turned out! I had several teachers ask me to change the font from D'Nealian to a more traditional font AND... I got a little carried away making a few improvements. These units have been totally revamped and renewed!

These first grade CORE math units include:

A daily math journal with word problems (perfect for math warm-up time)

 A daily lesson plans with all printables (flashcards, math mats, gamecards,etc...)

A daily guided practice page and independent practice page

Vocabulary Cards for your math word wall

 and unit ASSESSMENTS! 

For the first grade units, I have also created a quarterly pre-assessment so parents, students, administrators and teachers are able to see the amazing growth that students are making!

Not sure if this product will work in your class? Here are a few comments from teachers who use these CORE math units in their class: (quotes taken from TpT)

"Angie, you are spot on with the common core! Thank you for sharing all of your activities!"

"Thank you for putting the lessons together to match up with the CCS. Your time and efforts are so appreciated."

"My kids and parents love it- thank you!"

"Have purchased all the first grade units and couldn't be more pleased! Loving that our expectations are higher and that curriculum mapping is a breeze!"

"I have purchased all of the Common Core packets that are posted and they have been wonderful. These packets are WELL worth the price!"

"My MAP test scores were through the roof - thanks!:

"My kids are really enjoying your units. The hands on activities are perfect and I love the review on the practice pages."

"You make me smile! Thank you!"

"Super thanks for working hard so I can reap the rewards!"

"Excellent! Professional quality! You are very talented! Thanks!"

Read more comments by visiting my TpT store. Download the preview to see a yearly Scope and Sequence.  If your school is interested in purchasing multiple licenses please contact me (fallintofirst@gmail.com), I offer discounts on large purchases!

Teacher Appreciation Sale

It is time to shop! I have my wishlist ready and I am so excited for the Teacher Appreciation Sale on TpT. Everything in my store will be 20% off + 10% off from TpT! 

In totally unrelated news, my daughter is in kinder and she brought home her Writing Journal this weekend. I almost DIED when I saw this last journal entry about what she wants to be when she grows up!

"When I grow up I want to be a dentist because if you are a teacher you don't get that much money."

Oh babe, how true that is!! After sending her kinder teacher an apology email I died laughing. I am always telling my daughter she should become a dentist and take over my father in-laws dental practice! I guess she was listening...who knew?!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Kindergarten CORE Math Units

 

YEAH I AM FINISHED!

I just finished uploading Unit 16 Kindergarten CORE math to TpT! These 16 units cover ALL the kindergarten CORE math standards. Creating these units has taken me all year and has been a huge task and I am so happy they are finished!

The only thing that kept me motivated to create these units was the positive feedback I kept receiving from all you amazing kinder teachers out there! Here is a few comments from TpT:

"Thanks for taking the time to create something so much better than any company could ever! :)"

"Absolutely love this my school has no curriculum and I have an hour and 15 minutes a week for a break. This is a life saver. I just found it so I will be starting it in the middle of the year. No more staying up until 3am. And no more 10hrs of weekend time at school."

 "I love this program! My kids are doing better than ever this year!"

"A++++++ Excellent product!"

"I am so thrilled to have yet another math unit that is incredibly organized and age appropriate and useful!" 

"These are great, it is amazing the difference I have seen in my students since starting to use these. I will continue to buy them all, thanks for all the hard work:)"

"This is such an outstanding addition to my core math curriculum. Truth be told, I actually rely on it more than my out-dated curriculum. This meets the common core better. Thank you for all your hard work!!!"

"Thank you so much! I would be floundering without your help!"

  Wanna know what all the fuss is about? 

Each unit has a Math Journal with 10 days of word problems. (Sample from Unit 15) The word problems address addition, subtraction, comparing numbers, measurement and decomposing numbers.

Each unit has 10 days of lesson plans with materials and printables. 

(Sample lesson from unit 16)

Each unit has 10 days of guided practice and independent practice pages. 

(Sample page from Unit 16) The independent practice is a spiral review so students are continuously reviewing all the kinder CORE standards.

 Finally, each unit has an assessment! 

I have created a Scope and Sequence for all 16 units, just download the preview on TpT to have a look. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask! I also have first grade units and I am now going to begin working on SECOND GRADE!