The Mighty Red, White, and Blue

Hi there!  Thanks for joining me today as I share some quick ideas to use in your classroom for Flag Day.  Now don't go telling me that you don't have school when it's flag day because that doesn't make me feel better. ;)  I am well aware that many people are not in school during Flag Day, but unfortunately I am not one of them.  Here I am - still teaching away for another 8 days.  So if you happen to already be out of school and you're reading this....maybe you teach about American symbols or could use these ideas at other points in the year.  I hope so!

Here are few books I have read to my class this time of year. 

     

       

 The Flag We Love and Our American Flag give some historical background, but is still easy to get through with little ones.  F is for Flag is a great one to explain why our flag is so important and what it stands for.  And finally, The Pledge of Allegiance is just that - the words to the pledge.  I like to show this using our document camera so students can see what the real words are for the pledge.  We all know they have their own cute variations.  :)

I made this quick little freebie to complete after we read about and discuss the flag.  It doesn't take much time, and frankly at this time of the year, we don't have much time.  So if you click on the picture below you can grab this FREEBIE too.  

And what would any holiday be without a craft???

I've done many different flag crafts over the years and of course you know Pinterest has TONS of ideas out there.  This is just one that I love displaying in the hallway.  

We actually made this flag when it was Veterans Day so I have a Thank You Veterans sign to go with it from my Proud to be an American pack.  But this is a fun way to bring the class together on a craft.  Obviously they all traced their hands on red, white, and blue paper (many times).  I cut the stars out using an Ellison cutter.  Then we all worked together to complete the project with a large piece of bulletin board paper as the background.  We wanted to be sure it was as accurate as possible.  The kids really enjoyed this project and it looks great in the hallway.  

So again, if you are out of school for summer already - I am happy for you (really I am).  But maybe these ideas will find their way into your classroom for other reasons in your school year.

Thanks for stopping by today.
Happy Flag Day!!!

Mother's Day is on its way!

I have a special reason why I wanted to post about Mother's Day today.  Yesterday I announced on my blog that my husband and I are expecting our 3rd child this October.  We are very excited and so are my two daughters!  I shared some pictures on how we decided to reveal the big news to them.  Such great memories!!!  

I saw this cute quote and wanted to share!  I guess my heart will be walking around all over the place =)

I also found this top ten list (I'm a sucker for a top ten list about anything) and it made me think of my own mom and how I can only hope to be as wonderful to my own kids as she was to us.  

So in honor of this next step in my life, I wanted to take some time to talk about Mother's Day and share some of what I do in my classroom for this special holiday.   I made this little pack last year and I just LOVED how it all came out with my kids.  They had so much fun making these things for their moms (or for some of them grandmas, aunts, or whomever) and I had a lot of moms share how much they loved reading them.  

This pack includes this craftivity where the flowers flip up for students to write.

       

The pictures are a little blurry so here is what my kiddos wrote:

I love you because...

*We make Tie Dye together

*You take me to Denny's

*You cuddle with me

*You love me no matter what

There is also a flower shaped gift book with 3 different versions.

*After I go to bed my mom always tweets on Facebook.

*My mom loves when I change my sister.

*My mom does not like to do laundry.

*My mom is the best at cleaning.

*The best thing my mom cooks is bacon - Yay!  (Haha!)

*My mom loves when I give her breakfast in bed.

*My mom spends lots of time texting.

*My mom does not like when I spill my drink in the car.

*My mom's favorite thing to do on the weekend is to sit around the house.

And finally, there are some printables included too.

I love my mom more than I love...

*video games (that's saying a lot for some kids)

*my toys, because my mom gave birth to me.

*cousin Amy because she doesn't let me do anything.

*cookies because I love my mom and cookies, but I love my mom more.  

You can find this pack in my TpT Store by clicking HERE.  

It is also bundled together with my Father's Day pack

In this money saving bundle:

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have fun creating Mother's Day gifts with your students.  My oldest daughter is in kindergarten this year and I cannot wait to see what she comes home with this year.  

Get the Most Out of Your Planning Time

Hi there!  Melissa here again, from First Grade Smiles.  I hope you've been enjoying the many amazing ideas from my fellow superheroes of teaching.  This month I'm here to share a little something that took me 12 years of teaching to fine tune.  It's not something you would necessarily think would take 12 years to figure out, but some of us are a little slower than others.  ;)

So what I'm talking about is this:

In my 12 years of teaching I have ALWAYS brought home work to do.  Every. single. day.  It's not that I haven't been also working during my planning period, but somehow I would spend that time going from one thing to the next, really only accomplishing small tasks while the bigger ones would need to be taken home.  I can't be the only one who falls victim to this.  

So this year it got to the point that I just couldn't be bringing so much home anymore.  Mostly because I would inevitably not have enough time to do it all and have to bring it home again the next day.  My school bags were getting to go for some nice rides in the car.  

Well, not anymore people!

This year I decided to make a schedule for myself in order to stay focused during my oh-so-short 40 minutes.  Here is how I decided to split up my week:

It's not groundbreaking - I know.  In fact, some first year teachers might have already figured this out.  But like I said, I tend to get distracted and really needed something to keep me focused.  

Here's a little more detail for my reasoning in my schedule.  

In my district we send out our copies to a copy center in the district and it takes about 2-3 days for them to come back.  I wanted to be sure they would be back in time so I send them out on Monday and then they are back by Thursday.  

Tuesdays is my day to grade papers.  I had to make one day for this because I really don't enjoy it and don't want to do it everyday.  

Wednesdays is my day for writing out my plans.  I can't do this too early in the week because I need to know how things are going in my current week to get a sense for what I can plan for the following week.  

Thursday is my day to catch up on parent contact or really any communication about students, whether it's paperwork or talking to service providers.  

And finally Friday I am ready to organize my papers and materials into my Monday through Friday bins for the following week.  I switch out my centers too.  

Don't get me wrong, I do still bring home work sometimes, especially when it's cutting out laminating, but this little schedule has helped so much.  

So now it's your turn to tell me how much smarter you are than me how you get the most out of your planning time.  What works for you?  I'd love to hear.  

Thanks for stopping by with me again.  Until next month :)

Animals in Winter

Sneezing.  Itchy eyes.  Scratchy throat.  Runny nose.

You guessed it --- I've been cleaning!

Haha!

I've been going through our basement trying to get it cleared out and ready to be remodeled by my lovely hubby and I am allergic to dust.  I always tell my husband that I'm allergic to cleaning, but he doesn't believe me.  It's the truth!

So now I'm taking a little break and stopping by here to tell you about one of my favorite units we are doing in my classroom right now - Animals in Winter.  It's pretty cold up here in my neck of the woods right now.  We had a couple days last week with -20 degree wind chills.  You know when it's so cold your face hurts...

So I just figure if it has to be sooooo cold outside, we might as well have a little fun with winter inside.    Here is a quick overview of what this unit looks like and if you stick around till the end you will find a little freebie too :)  

 First up in this unit is an Informational Mini-Book for shared reading.  There is a color copy for you to use as the teacher and a black and white copy to make for students to have their own.  I packed in a ton of important information in this book so your kiddos will be learning a lot.  Good time for an impromptu observation by your principal.  
Here's what it looks like in action:

Speaking of being observed. . . I'm sure your principals like to see the Common Core standards in action. So I included a bunch of practice to hit those reading for information standards.  You're welcome!

Included in those standards is learning new vocabulary, so that's in there too.  There's pieces to use when teaching the vocabulary and then a student book to fill in.  

Next up - writing.

There's papers for your students to write about what they learned and make their own book.  There's also templates for a class book about what kind of animal your kids would want to be in the winter and why.  

I also wrote a little fact filled song called Winter's Here.  

Finally, I included some center activities and printables to complete this thematic unit.   

Even if you are in a place where the air doesn't hurt your face, I hope you will find this a useful unit too.  Click on the cover below to check it out on TpT.  

And as I promised - here is a little sampler freebie for you.  To grab this freebie, just click on the picture below.

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for a little cleaning break.  

See you soon!!!

     

Not your normal KWL

Hi there!  This is Melissa from First Grade Smiles and I'm back this month to share something I do in my class when I begin a new nonfiction unit.  

I don’t know about you, but when I went to school I was told that the KWL chart was one of the best ways to begin learning about a new topic.  It accomplished the task of activating prior knowledge, had students asking questions and setting a purpose for learning, and then they recorded any new information that they learned.   I’m not saying that a KWL chart is bad or outdated by any means, but I have personally found a new way of beginning units and I won't go back - a Schema Chart.  

*The idea for this cutie penguin chart came from Cara Carroll*

Here’s why I love me some schema charts: When students share what they “know” about a topic on a KWL, sometimes they are not correct.  For example, Penguins can fly.  As a teacher, what do you do when that happens?  Do you tell them they are wrong or do you write the incorrect information on the KWL only to have to cross it off later?  I never liked that decision because I didn’t think either one was a good solution to the problem.  By using a Schema Chart you don’t have to make students feel bad anymore and you can let them DISCOVER their own misconceptions while learning.  

We begin each unit by sharing all of our schema about the topic we are about to study.  I use post-its so we can easily move them around later if we need to.  When I first introduce the terms SCHEMA and MISCONCEPTIONS I explain that schema is what we “think” we know about a topic. Sometimes we “know” something and then realize that we didn’t have all the facts.  This is called a misconception.  I’ll say something like: “Is it ok to be “wrong” when we really thought we knew something?  Of course - it happens to the best of us!  Is it fun to be wrong?  No, but in our classroom we don’t make anyone feel bad when they get an answer wrong.  It’s all part of learning.  None of us, including me, knows everything there is to know, so we won’t make anyone feel bad if they had a misconception.  We just move our ideas over to misconceptions and write down some of our new learning.”  Give them a quick explanation of how we will handle misconceptions and how that is all part of the process of learning.  Of course, it’s all in the way you, as the teacher, deliver it.  

The next two parts of a schema chart are the same as a KWL - QUESTIONS and NEW LEARNING. We think of questions we want answered and as we move through the unit we add new learning to our chart.  And again, we move misconceptions over as we discover our new learning.  

When I started using schema charts to begin my units I  really saw my 1st graders using the language of schema and misconceptions.  I heard them support each other when they learned they were wrong and say, “Oops, that was a misconception!  Now we have some new learning!”  It was a great thing!  

Now,  you can make your charts look cute and more engaging like my penguin or reindeer, which of course take a little longer.  

Or you can just use a piece of chart paper with columns for each part.  Personally I like the visual, but sometimes I don't have the time or might forget to prepare my charts ahead of time.  Here is one that I did on the fly about 5 minutes before we started learning about The First Thanksgiving.

The kids were eating snack while I was making it and it was actually so fun for them to see me put this together and talk about what they thought we would be doing next.  Bad teacher planning on my part, but it did spark curiosity.  

After I realized how much I really loved using schema charts to begin my units, I created a little pack called Be a Fact Finder that I could use with ANY nonfiction unit.  It includes chart pieces and a student component of the schema chart, as well as tons of other activities that can be used during whole group or guided reading and writing.  Click HERE if you want to check it out in more detail.  

I would love to hear any other ideas you have for sparking interest and activating prior knowledge when you begin a new unit.  Comment below and share :)

Have a wonderful holiday!!  See you next month!!

   

Melissa from First Grade Smiles

Hey, hey!!!!  We are almost done with our introductions and I hope you've been able to enjoy some good reading about some amazing bloggers and snagged your freebies along the way.  We are just trying to make this adventure as SUPER as we can for our fabulous readers.  If you haven't already, follow us here, on Facebook, and on Instagram to keep up with the fun!!!

Now for some quick deets about me:

I am Melissa Machan and I blog over at First Grade Smiles.

This is my 13th year teaching (Lucky 13, right??? - I hope).  I taught 4th grade for 2 years, 3rd grade for 8 years, and am in my 3rd year of 1st Grade and I am TOTALLY staying forever if they let me.  Man, I just love these little firsties - runny noses, untied shoes, and all!  Most of all, I LOVE feeling like such an important part of their education and seeing SO much growth by the end of the year.  I did love 3rd grade (4th - not quite as much), but I really knew I wanted to be able to help lay a great foundation for my little ones and first grade seemed like the best place for me to do that.  

Here is my quick Primary Powers Bio:

My SUPERPOWER is not necessarily that great, but boy am I good at it!!!  Just about every single night I sit down on the couch, grab my computer to do some work, and oh, about 2 1/2 minutes later I am drooling and snoring (I don't think I really snore ;).  I try SO hard to get my work done, but after a long day of teaching and tying shoes (I probably do both of these an equal amount throughout the day) and then coming home to my wonderful family and doing family stuff - I am just exhausted!  

My SUPER FOOD is Chicken Riggies and if you don't know what they are then you are seriously missing out and I'm sorry about that.  This dish is amaze-balls (in the words of my fellow Superhero Molly)!  I think it's an upstate NY thing, but it should be an everywhere thing - just sayin'!  

And I do get my SUPER STRENGTH from my family (first and foremost), but also lattes and wine.  So what I mean is my morning strength comes from lattes (or just coffee is fine too) and my evening strength from wine (not every night and please refrain from drawing the obvious conclusion between this and my super power here), then the rest of the day is filled with strength from family.  I mean, look at these 3 - who wouldn't find strength in them???

I should also add that I get so much strength from my friends as well.  Not just my blogging buddies of course, but now is a great time to give a shout out to some of my inspiring fellow superheroes because without them you wouldn't be reading about me right now (and I'm so happy that you are).  

Here's to some Vegas fun where this whole idea of a blog came about!  

Can you name the superheroes in these pictures????

And more recently some fun in NYC with these great ladies.

Of course there are the other superheroes that I haven't had the privilege of meeting in person, but gosh darnit I will one of these days!  This is one great group of gals and I am SUPER lucky to be joining forces with them (see what I did there) :-)

Now are you ready for my superhero themed freebie?  I thought so.  This is a snippet out of an upcoming pack of mine.  I hope you like it!

Soooooooo happy you joined me here today - in fact, one might say I am SUPER happy (I just can't stop myself)!!!  Hope to see you back again soon.  I'd love if you introduced yourself to me in the comments - you could even share what your super power is (all teachers have them, ya know!).