Antonym Bingo (Easter Themed)

I took a break from working on my Easter Unit to make this Antonym Bingo game. My kiddos still tend to have a little trouble with antonyms, and I think this little activity will help them get it straight in their little minds :)

This game comes with 30 bingo cards, the Caller's Mat and Calling Cards, and I also included some seasonal Bingo Chips. I can't wait to play this with my kiddos when we start our Eastery Stuff! Click the picture below to grap your copy, and it will be on sale for the rest of the night in honor of leap day!

Annie and Melissa's Products on TPT- All are on sale in honor of Leap Day

Melissa and I have both just started our stores, but we have some great items. Remember they will be on sale all day tomorrow for Leap Day. I have just uploaded a St. Patrick's Day Math Center that is also on sale for 20% off. Click the pic below to check it out and snag a copy.

Below are Annie's other products that you will find in her store. Click the pics to take you to the item on TPT.

Melissa here :) We are finishing up our Fractions Unit this week, and we just did a "Fractions Pizzeria" activity today that the kiddos really enjoyed. I created 2 recording sheets to go along with this activity. I gave my "high level" kiddos the blank one, and they chose how much of the pizza to put each topping on. My other kiddos got one of the recipe cards to use, and they had to put the toppings on the correct amount of the pizza by looking at the recipe. Then they had to fill in the number of shares they put the toppings on (based on Common Core Math Standards). Click the pic below to check it out!

My St. Patrick's Day Unit is also 20% off. You can also grab it below.

TPT Linky Party Leap Year Sale

We have linked up with several other bloggers who are throwing a TPT Leap Year Sale! In honor of Leap Day, you can get 20 percent off at either of our TPT Stores! Click here to visit Annie's Store. Click Here to visit Melissa's store.

Click the banner below to see all the sellers who have linked up.

Classroom Management and Reading Street Freebies!!!

Good morning! As you can see we have changed our look.  Melissa is the mastermind behind that.  She did a great job! I am sad that my four day weekend is coming to a close, but I am super excited about "Read Across America" week.  we have dress up days each day school-wide.  Friday is book character day and this year our entire first grade has teamed up to do one theme.  It is going to be super cute.  I will post pictures Friday.

Anyways before everything becomes Seuss related.  I thought I would share about something I started in my room that the kiddos are loving for positive praise.  It is simple positive reward necklaces that I can give out daily to students such as:  stellar speller, wonderful worker, handwriting perfectionist, math magician, grammar guru, hallway hero, writing wizard, Punctuation Pro, Capitalization Captain, Fantastically Fluent, Comprehension Colonel, and Lovely Listener.  I printed the cards on cardstock, cut, and place in small plastic badge holders with yarn as a lanyard.  The back of the badge holder has a magnet on it so they are stored on the side of my black cabinet.  One of my students also figured out when we go to lunch they place their necklace on the side of their desk using the magnet.  Works Great! I have been calling these little necklaces. "Brag Tags".  At the end of the day my kiddos know without me even saying to go place their brag tag on the black cabinet.  See the picture below of my brag tags.

click the pics below to print out the necklace insert FREEBIE!

Click here to get the sign "Brag Tags"

Also for those of you doing Reading Street.  Here is a cute activity to go along with the story "I'm a Caterpillar".  Most of you have probably finished that story already, but you can file this away for next year.  I did this activity as a part of my formal observation.  The target skill that week was Fact and Opinion.  So using a butterfly template I found from a mailbox magazine (sorry template not included), I copied the words Facts and Opinions on the wings.  I typed out some facts from the story and made up some opinions.  And As my 2 year old would say TA-DA! We now have the Fact and Opinion Butterfly. 

Click here to get a copy of the Facts and Opinions to use.

Hope these are things you can use in your classroom! Feel free to leave us a comment.

Seussy *Freebies*!

We will be Celebrating Dr. Seuss Week next week, and we are going to be doing TONS of fun Seussy activities (including Annie's Nonsense Words Bingo Game)! On Thursday, we will be making Oobleck! I made this sheet for students to use adjectives to describe the oobleck! Click here picture below to get your free copy! I also made several journal prompts and a few pages of seasonal writing paper, which you can also download for free! Just click here.

Read Across America Game and a Freebie

AW! We are officially out of school until Monday due to State Beta Convention.  I am so ready for a four day weekend! Then next week we will dive into all of the Read Across America fun!
One activity I will be doing with my intervention group will be playing Nonsense Word Bingo: Read Across America Style.  I created this game this week so we can have some fun with CVC and CVCe nonsense words next week.  I just uploaded this game to my TPT store and it is ON SALE in honor of my 4 day weekend until Sunday night when I get home from church. You can click the picture to pick it up at TPT.

AND I am giving away 3 copies of this game to the first three commenters. 

Since we adore all of our bloggy friends and followers.  I have a Read Across America freebie.  We just finished up Numbers to 40 in Math in Focus so this is a I have Who has Place Value game for numbers 20-40.  I will be back with another freebie for all of you Reading Street teachers sometime this long weekend.

The backgrounds used in both pics above are the work of Rache Urkal. Click here to go to her TPT store.

I am also running my Henry and Mudge in the Green Packet on sale until Sunday night as well.  You an click here to pick it up.

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

I don't feel like I have left my computer for the past 3 days (except for that brief break to go to school on President's Day!), but I have finally finished my very first unit! I can't wait to do this unit with my kiddos! They are going to LOVE it!

Here are a few of the things we will be doing:

**Making a Leprechaun Trap (this will be a home project. The letter explaining the project and a brainstorming organizer are included in the unit)

**A leprechaun named Patrick O'Riley will leave us a letter (included in the unit) telling us that he has left gold coins hidden in our classroom with Leprechaun SECRETS written on them! (OMG they are going to love finding these!)

**We will be using the secret messages to Draw Conclusions about Leprechauns, and complete a class anchor chart (example, materials, and instructions included).

**Leprechaun Adjectives Craftivity (pattern and instructions included)

**Our Math Center will be "Lucky Numbers", focusing on showing numbers different ways: numerals, tallies, number words, and place value (included in the unit)

**Our Grammar Center will be a Past, Present, and Future Sentence Sort (can you guess??? Yes! It is also included!)

**AND THERE'S MORE :) (also includes a Making Words activity, journal prompts, and seasonal writing paper!)Click HERE to check it out and get your copy on Teacher's Notebook! Click Here to get it on TpT! I am running this item on SALE until the 1st of March!

First 3 comments get a free copy!

You must be a follower and leave your email, please :)

Giveaway Winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and a Big Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW! We were not expecting this great big jump in followers, but we are very excited about it.  Thanks for being a follower and spreading the word to help us get more followers. With that being said the winner of the $20 TPT gift certificate is...............................................................................................

Number 18 ( Counting from left to right):   Kelly Brown AKA Queen Bee

Congrats Kelly! We will be sending you the info on your prize shortly.

Again thanks for following! Our next goal is 100! But don't worry we will have another givaway before then.  I do believe Melissa has a giveaway up her sleeve. Happy Sunday!

Henry and Mudge Giveaway, OOPS!, and announcement of another Giveaway!!!

My original post for Henry and Mudge was commented on by three awesome followers who now have a copy: Amy from the Resourceful Room, Jen R. from The Teachers Cauldron, and Miss Foote from Chickadee Jubilee.  Thanks for following!  I also had 4 other followers comment later on so since we appreciate them they will receive it as well: Kelly B. aka Queen Bee, Mrs. Richling, Miss S. from Just Teaching Kindergarten, and Barbara from Happy Teaching First.  Thanks girls from commenting and following.  You will be recieving the packet today via email.

On another note I found a mistake in the "Oh the Punctuation you will use" Dr. Seuss grammar center.  So please click the pic below to redownload.  Sorry about that!

Now for the next giveaway.  We are on a mission to get to 50 followers.  We are almost there!!!!!! Thanks to all of our followers and those who have blogged about our blog.  If you are a follower you are already entered into the giveaway.  We will be watching closely to see when we have 52 followers because don't laugh, but we followed our own blog so we are not going to count ourselves.  When we have 50 excluding ourselves our first 50 followers will have the chance of winning a $20 TPT gift certificate.  So spread the word! We would love to hit 50 very soon! Have a great day!

Freebie and Update on the Giveaway!

I just posted a freebie on TPT.  It is a Dr. Suess Grammar Center called "Oh the Punctuation we will use".  We are gearing up for Dr. Suess's B-day! Click the pic below to head over to TPT and download it for FREE and while you are there you can follow me on TPT if you like.  I have just started, but I would love to feel the TPT love!

The background paper used above is created by Jen R. from The Teachers Cauldron

Also yesterday I posted about my first product that I will be soon posting to TPT.  You can enter to win one of three copies that will be given away.  Each of the following counts as an entry:

• Follow our blog and comment on the original post
• Follow my TPT store and comment that you follow it on the original post
• Blog about the giveaway and comment that you did so on the original post with the link  (Please spread the word!!! We are trying to get to 50 followers then we will have an AWESOME giveaway.).

Annie's First Product and our First Giveaway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally! I have created my first product.  We are using alot of Henry and Mudge books for our enrichment groups in the last few months.  We have a 30 minute RTI time during the day where our kiddos are split into 6 different groups based on their needs of either enrichment, extra practice, or intervention.  I created this for our enrichment groups.  They are reading so well and are in need of chapter books and a way to respond to the books that will promote higher level thinking and incorporate writing reponses to literacture.  So with that being said my first product is a Reader Reponse Packet for the book Henry and Mudge in the Green Time. 

The packet focuses on the following:

• Vocabulary organizer for each chapter that includes the use of Dictionary Skills
• Chapter Comprehension questions with varying degrees of knowledge level
• Writer Response journals including a text to self prompt, how to prompt, friendly letter prompt, genre prompt, and write your own story prompt
• Book Reveiw writers response page

The packet also gets students ready to take an Accelerated Reader Vocabulary Quiz and Reading Quiz.
It is 18 pages that you can use for your kiddos to respond to this book.

So since this is my first ever product, I will be having a giveaway to 3 lucky followers.  To enter the giveaway make sure you are a follower of our blog and leave a comment to be officially entered.  I will announce the winners on Wednesday night at 6:00 using a random number generator.  Have a great week and Happy Valentine's Day!

13 Colonies to Independence FREEBIE!

We just finished a unit on the 13 colonies! I made several worksheets throughout the unit. The unit consists of worksheets for:

The 13 Colonies

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Franklin

American Symbols: The flag and the Eagle

Washington, D.C.

Click the picture below to download your copy!

Don't Miss out on this Giveaway!!!!!!!

Heather at Heather's Heart is having an AWESOME giveaway if you have not already entered for your chance to win.  She is giving away one of these cutesy shirts (I want one!).

 

She is also giving away a Conscious Discipline CD, 5 items from her TPT store, and 2 items from What the Teacher Wants TPT store.

Make sure you are in it so you can win it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click her button below to go to her blog.

I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have tried a few times to win give aways on other blogs.  Never had any luck!! That is UNTIL TONIGHT! I won A President's Day mini uint from Ms. Leslie Ann at Life in First Grade. It looks wonderful!!!!!!!! I can't wait to use this with my students.  My husband is wondering why I have went SO CRAZY over winning!! Men just don't understand LOL!
Click here to head on over the Ms. Leslie Ann's post about her new unit.  Have a great rest of the week!

Valentine's Center Freebies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Valentine's is just around the corner and what better way to celebrate than with Valentine's themed literacy centers.  All of my centers this round I have created myself. I am so proud of myself.  So here goes!

First up in the Word Work Center students will will be choosing hearts with compound words on them and then record them on the recording sheet broken up into the two words.  Click the pic below to pick up your set of the heart cards and the recording sheet.



For the Sight Word Center, I kept with the conversation hear theme and made a page of conversation hearts with Reading Street high frequency words that I laminated.  Students will choose words off the heart page and write a sentence with each choosen word on the recording sheet.

Click here for the recording sheet

The math center is up next.  Students will choose two number word cards to add or subtract.  This way they have to read the number word to create their number sentence.  Then record each number sentence in either the addition heart or subtraction heart of their recording sheet.  Click the pic to download the center.

Click here for the recording sheet

Another V-day center is the grammar center.  We have been working on identifying past and future tense.  Students will cut out the sentences and paste them under past or future tense. Click the pic to snag your copy.

Last but certainly not least is the writing center.  This round it will be a squiggle writing.  Students use the squiggle, in this case half of a heart, to create a picture.  Then they write about it.  It is amazing how each child's is so unique. Click below to get your copy.

Hope you can use these in your classroom.  I am definitely not An inspired Apple or a Life in First yet.  But I am aspiring to be. A big shout out to Jen R. for the free dot frames and backgrounds.  She created the red and white polka dot backgrounds I used above.  You can visit her blog here.  Also the heart graphics were created at the following awesome website: http://www.cryptogram.com/hearts/

Please leave me a comment if you are able to use these centers.  And as always follow us or tell someone else about us.  We are waiting for 50 followers to host a give-away. Have a great week!

Classroom Management on my Mind!

With this being my first year teaching, I have done a lot of blog surfing to try to get my Classroom Management techniques down. I have stolen a lot of great ideas from a lot of great people! Some in my building and some from the web. I thought I would share one thing that I have started doing that has really worked great for me!

I use these absolutely adorable little behavior coupons I got from an awesome blog by Mel D called Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations (If you don't know it, you should check it out!) You can click the picture below to go and print the coupons!

She has a great idea using "Warm Fuzzies" to go along with these coupons which I am considering using next year! But right now, this is how I use these coupons:

Each Monday, I choose a table captain. This person is Table Captain all week! Their name also goes on the board to identify their table (Ex: Lucy's Table). I give points all week for various things. I give points to the first table to get their table clean after an activity, the first table to follow directions, the first table to have everyone on the carpet for calendar, the table with everyone working the hardest, the quietest table, the table working together the best, etc. Sometimes I will also use it to get 1 table back on task by giving all 3 other tables a point! This really gets their attention. Most of the time, I can just go to the board and pick up the marker and it is like MAGIC! They all get busy and on task! (It has a lot to do with peer pressure... no one wants to be the reason the table didn't get a point!) I never take away points, I only use it as a positive (although, like I said, I sometimes give all tables but 1 a point which is kind of the same concept without being negative about it.)

On Friday afternoon, the table with the most points gets to go "Coupon Shopping" at my desk! They always have the option of choosing a popsicle or their choice of coupon (no one EVER chooses a popsicle since the coupons have been introduced!) Coupons can only be redeemed on Fridays (this keeps me from having to deal with it every day), and it is the student's responsibility to keep up with their coupon. I never reimburse lost coupons. So, this actually only ends up being around 5 students per week getting this reward. In my experience, the fewer students who recieve a reward- the more special it is to them. And, let me tell you-- they WORK HARD to get these coupons! It has been such a success for me. I was afraid it would be too much of a distraction or a hassle and take away class time. But using the table points system has really helped me gain SO much instructional time by allowing me to keep students on task and get through transitions quickly. I hope this will help someone else in their own classroom, and if you have any questions or suggestions I would love to hear them!! Leave me a comment and share what you have found to be successful in your classroom :)