2011 in Review

Well, as you may have figured blogging isn't really my thing even though I can spend HOURS looking at all the amazing blogs out there. Maybe that will be apart of my New Years Resolution to update this more than once a year. I will leave you with some pictures from "around the room" and some activities we have done so far this school year.

 Needs & Wants. We discussed things we needed to survive versus the things we wanted. This student got very creative :)

\

Nouns: We discussed what they were and separated them into categories. We also discussed proper nouns and why they are capitalized. 

We use papa, mama, and baby bear to describe the relationships between the numbers. It helps them when it comes to making fact families. 

  We discuss how Papa bear is always first in subtraction and last in addition. Mama bear and baby bear say " I don't care" and they can be in either spot. I love to year them chant this followed by .. "it's a turnaround!"

 We did so much with Sink and Float. We made predictions. We tested our predictions. Each child had an object to predict, test, and then graph. After we finished our HUGE graph we took some time in whole group to discuss our observations. These were some of the things they came up with.

Well, that's it. But I thought I would share. Here's hoping 2012 brings about more blogging and fun times.

Hello Summer!

I said goodbye to my 17 precious babies and said hello summer. I wish that I could have kept this class forever. Now I have lots of summer reading and planning to do. I just purchased my Deb Diller math workstation book. I can't wait to link up and reflect on my math stations. Now odd to enjoy my first week of summer!

Workin' On It

Well it has been busy in our classroom lately. I having been reading all sorts of blogs and really feel like it motivates me to be a better teacher for those 17 kiddos that i adore.

We have kept busy and working hard. Teacher appreciation came and went. Although my school isn't really known for the extravagent gifts given for the occasion- I got some pretty awesome cards and lots of sticky notes. Who doesn't love those!! 

The bottom two pictures kind of give you an idea of how my guided reading area is layed out. Each student has a chair pocket and their magnetic paper and letters (as well as other tools) are in there. I have to separate their GR books by groups. It can so easily become a mess. They are all starting to read around the same level so we swap books a lot!

My team and I are already thinking about next year. We are planning and preparing. I am trying to survive the rest of this year too!

We are going to a Deb Diller training that I am beyond thrilled about in June - so hopefully that will help me be productive this summer and get lots of things done!

Adios!

Water Cycle Fun!

 

Well, I absolutely LOVE teaching the Water Cycle. It's one of my favorite science units. It always starts off a little shaky (imagine 17 Spanish speakers trying to say words like Evaporation,Condensation, and Precipitation). We song songs, did some Smart Board work, and created models.

They made these headbands to for the water cycle. They had a lot of fun making them, then singing their song, and pointing to the different parts of the cycle. 

 Excuse the misspellings :)

We did the Water Cycle Boogie. The different colors represent different parts of the water cycle to help them have another visual. 

 

They helped me write down the different parts of the water cycle and what color should represent each part. It goes with the Water Cycle Boogie bracelet & song. :) 

Well, there it is my first real teaching post!

Well, I have truly discovered the world of Teacher Blogs. I have enjoyed them so much that I have decided to join in the fun. A little bit about myself. I am a bilingual 1st grade teacher and I love my job. I feel truly blessed to have pretty much the most amazing 17 first graders in my classroom. My goal for this blog (If I ever keep with it) is to put some ideas out there that I have incorporated with the help of my team and my adventures with my "spanglish" class. 

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
              - Mother Teresa