Throwback Thursday Plot Twist!

Hey friends,

So, I’m going to be tech free for two whole days this weekend as I lay at a lake with my friends (PTL- this girl needs less stress and a tan), so I’m going to try to fit everything into one post. Please bear with me.

I’m trying really hard to get a few products finished that I’m really excited about, but heaven help me with 2 little boys, working before 10 pm. is almost impossible. But I wouldn’t trade my time with them for anything, so I guess I’ll have to deal with the black circles below my eyes and let MAC Cosmetics take care of the rest.

Here’s our little craft for the week.

Works of Art

And here is our fun in the sun.

I also just finished a little mini-unit on behavior.

Two things I think our kiddos need to learn are:

1. How to be good listeners

2. That we don’t always get what we want.

So this unit suggests 3 books and includes activities for each book. Including whole group anchor chart activities, crafts, bulletin boards and printables.

Here is sample craft in the unit. These are my kids from last year.

Today is also the final day of the 12 Day’s of Christmas in July!

So today I picked my 12 favorite products in my store.

You can click below to grab any of the units.

I also have a new freebie for first grade teachers. It’s only for my Facebook Fans, so just hit like, then hit the FREE button and you can download this:

Now I’m onto Throwback Thursday! Love me some Cara Linky Parties.

This post has little bit of everything…GO figure! From me??? No way.

I promise I’m organized in most every way…except… when writing my blog.

So here is a post of all sorts from last January.

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Yes, I said it. Random. This post is a whole smorgasbord of stuff. So hold onto your hat’s folks.

I found pictures I hadn’t shared and thought I would.

Last week, we had a blast with winter centers and our discussion on what animals do in the winter to survive.

Here are two of my sweet friends using our 120’s chart to figure out the problems in this center. I absolutely love these boys. They were so serious about this center.

Praise the Lord for the good old Target dollar spot. Their stamps make sight words so much better!

I’ve talked about doing better with vocabulary and let me just tell you how much I love this! I can’t believe that I neglected it for this long. My kiddos are so into vocabulary words. They are using these words in excess, but it’s so dang cute. The minute one student uses a word, the whole class breaks out in vocabulary verbiage. I hear a lot of, “There is a lot of commotion right now Mrs. Oakes.” and “I really admire you.” “I believe that I need to investigate this.” When they use the words they become a word wizard and get a star on the wall. It’s the little things.

We’ve also been talking lots about schema. In fact, we learned about animals in the winter last week and one of my little guys commented, “I get to add this to my schema.”

Again, another reason why I love my first grade people.

We also love a good “search and write the room activity.” I made mittens and my kids walked around the room searching for short vowel words and sorting them on the recording sheet. This was a great activity to review the short vowels and hearing sounds in words.

This coming week our spelling words are moving onto long vowel sounds.

We also did a little opinion writing. My kids chose between the three animals below after learning about animals in the winter. Squirrels adapt, butterflies migrate, and snakes hibernate. They had to form an opinion as to which animal would be the best to be during the winter, based on facts they’ve learned about their survival. We’ll attach these photos to the writing for a class book.

I also wanted to share a little about my morning menu. When I made these I wanted a fun way to start our day and hit the Common Core. As I made them, I realized these can be used in many different ways. They can be used for fast finishers, morning work, or quick whole class activities that will ensure you are hitting all of the standards in a cyclical manner. As I make the sets, I have created them with increasing difficulty. I love that they are easy for you to prepare and engaging.

Here are my kiddos working hard on the tasks.

I thought I’d take pictures of the tasks in my newest set.

Here are some of the activity sheets that are needed for a few of the tasks.

I also just finished 5 Literacy Centers that will be fun for your kiddos as the Super Bowl nears.

These are all Common Core aligned and football themed. My friend Katie is making their math companion pack as we speak. Umm, she was too busy shopping this weekend and didn’t quite finish. But I promise they are coming. Love you, Katie King! I tried to include some activities that might have standards that we tend to neglect to practice, such as verb tense and language skills.