Happy New Year Headbands!

Happy New Year all you super teachers out there! 

Re-entry has been a little difficult this week, huh? 

I know some of you lovelies out there had this week off as well.

 I hope you soaked up every last pajama wearing, 

binge tv watching moment of your vacation!

In order to ease the kids (and their poor teacher)
back into the reality of work and school we started off
our week with some big time fun!!
Of course there was learning, writing and math involved as well!
I'm sneaky like that {wink}.

We have this adorable front with 

this graphic that I am in love with by Educlips!

Another front shot because this girl did an amazing job!

Check out those outfits!

Then on each side of the hat we did a little writing about our resolutions.

One side we wrote about a home resolution and one side is a school resolution.

Depending on the age and level of your students 

you could have them draw instead of write their resolutions. 

On the back we have the numbers for the year!

On the template they are out of order 

so the student have to organize them correctly. 

Simply adhere all the pieces onto a piece of oaktag or a sentence strip.

 I had some old borders I used. 

And voila! You have a fun accessory to wear for the day.

I love primary grades because they are so easy to please!

Grab all the pieces for this project HERE!

I wish you all a wonderful and bright 2015!!

Maybe your resolution this year will be to read my blog A Burst of First!

hehehe....

Snowman Poetry: What's it all about? Plus a freebie!

Hello Primary Buddies! This is Chrissy from Buzzing with Ms. B and we're back!

Back to school, that is. I thoroughly enjoyed my break - family, delicious treats, and The Blacklist, 24/7. I probably gained nine pounds in two weeks due to excessive Reese's stuffed in my face and that apple pie the hubby demanded.

Oh, yes, I am now paying the price.
Anyway, I thought I'd share a poem freebie with you today and a handy strategy for teaching poetry!

I wrote this poem a couple of years ago because my students were struggling to differentiate possessive nouns from plural nouns. But it works for more than just that!

Grab it free on TPT

We frequently use poetry for word work, but we can get so much more mileage out of a poem if we take the time to do some comprehension work with it. One strategy my primary teachers have used is gathering evidence to decide what the poem is mostly about. Sounds simple, but how many kids would say the poem above is all about a snowman melting, when most of the poem is about building the snowman? They often remember the last lines they read!

1. On chart paper, the teacher creates a blank bubble map. Each student has a copy of the poem with the title whited out or cut off. 

2. Each pair of students receives a post-it to record one piece of evidence that shows what they think the poem is about. These are direct lines or phrases from the poem that they think are important.

3. The teacher collects these post-its and sticks them onto the map. Then she reads them all aloud and gives the partners one minute to decide what they think the poem is mostly about. We're looking for a sentence that encapsulates the topic or event of the poem. 

4. Then, the class creates a new title for the poem using what they think it's mostly about.

It's surprising what a challenge this can be for our struggling readers, but with practice, they are able to decide the topic of the poem using evidence. 

Be sure to grab your Snowman poem freebie above!

Have a Happy New Year!

New Year, New Goals!

Hello Super Friends, 

Happy New Year! I hope 2015 is treating you well so far and I wish you all happiness, health, love, and a little fun! Actually, a lot of fun! Let's make it the MOST fun you've ever had!

As many of us go back to work this week, we bring along personal and work resolutions we would like to implement in 2015. For me, it's all about taking a step back. 

It's time to TRY and worry less about work and go home earlier! 

My specific work goal is to fit in more guided reading time. I do meet with my students for guided reading and my resource teacher meets with my struggling readers quite often for GR, however, I want to make this a priority. Guided reading is an important practice that has AMAZING results and it is definitely worth the effort and time. 

In order to be ACCOUNTABLE for these resolutions I am taking my good friend Valerie's advice (All Students can Shine) and setting an alarm for a reasonable time to leave work. Even if I need five more minutes to finish something up, I must set it aside for the next day and get on out of there! She's a toughie, she'll be checking up on me! Great friends are good to have!

As for my guided reading goal, I have decided to track how many times I meet with groups and what books we read together during that block. Here is what it looks like.

We happened to be working on using our finger detective that week! 

I use this because sometimes a week can go buy and I haven't done any guided reading. This serves as a reminder that I need to get on that! It's also a great way to remember the books we've read AND a great way to measure progress from month to month.

You can grab a free copy of this basic chart right over HERE!

You can also check out my Goal Tracking freebie right HERE!

I use this to plan out specific goals that I am working towards. I'm a list person. Writing things down really helps me stay focused and on top of things. It also ensures that I don't completely forget! Let's face it, we have so much going on that it's easy to forget a lot of things!

I hope these little organization tools are helpful to you and don't be shy to let us know what some of your 2015 goals are in the classroom!

Until next time...

Celebrating Winter As We Head Back to School

So it's Monday.....

And not only is it Monday, but it is likely your first day of work in 2015. At least it is for me.

I have mixed emotions... don't get me wrong- hanging out in my PJs for most of the day will be missed... but I am excited to see my little friends today.

But I will be missing those PJs.....so clearly...I'm conflicted.

I just am going to share what I will be using to get me and my littles back into action this week.

The contents of this puppy will be my main focus for the week...meaning, I don't have to search around - it is all there for me in one place as I slowly am able to get back in the crazy and fun routine of kindergarten.

It is 4 language arts and 4 math activities rolled into one little unit!
Language Arts:
*The Snowman Emergent Reader
*Winter Word Practice
*Winter Stories
*Brrr! Sight Word Game

Math:
*Winter Counting {practicing teen numbers}
*Button Sorting
*Button Equations {addition to 10}
*Snowman Subtraction

Here is a glimpse at the reader:

It is 14 pages long and covers 11 colors. You can use all 14 pages or just a few. I like to make these types of books different lengths for different groups of kids.

This book will be something that they color and "be a word detective" {searching for sight words} independently. I have no problem differentiating when the little ones are at the reading table with me... or even when working with other adults. I find it is hardest to differentiate their independent time and the length will help me out with this.

I won't show you everything...you can click HERE to see the whole preview, but I want to share just ONE more thing from this unit....

Button Sorting mats in color or black and white...with 2 categories or 3..... Some are ever pre-programmed and tell the student what to sort by:

And if you are thinking....hmm, it would be nice to win that unit....well, let me help you out.

I am giving away a copy over at my friend- and fellow Primary Powers author- Aimee at Primarily Speaking.

She's celebrating her blog makeover and giving away lots and lots of goodies.

So on that note I will leave you... I hope we all make it to Friday.

Ringin' in the New Year!

I hope you all are squeezing out every single minute of relaxation from this long Winter Break! Oh how I love vacation!

I wanted to share a quick activity you can use tomorrow morning while you're waiting for your morning coffee to kick in {and scrambling to find something to fill the time!}

To start, read Squirrels' New Year's Resolution. 

Or, you can also show the quick YouTube video!

Then, share this easy to complete worksheet! It's a great place to start the conversation for new beginnings! 

Just before the New Year, I asked my sister's kids to sit down and write their own resolutions! 

I'm cracking up over SB's paper - he plans to stop "yelling!" Note his stash of Flair Pens {obviously, he's related to teachers!}

 My niece is taking another stab at beating her nail biting!

Cheers to 2015 & new beginnings! 

Hope you'll come over and visit me sometime soon over at Lucky to Be in First! Good luck tomorrow!

They're Coming!!

Oh my goodness...this break has been INCREDIBLE. I am not ready for Monday...like at all. We have a work day which is the best thing ever! I can spend the whole day prepping and organizing...which will be SOO helpful. It gave me the freedom to enjoy my break and not go in!! :) 

I always try to have LOTS of extra things planned for our first few days back...I never know which way the babies will go. They can come in super tired and kinda whiney...OR they can come in totally spazzed out after all that rest and 2 weeks off. You just never know with these firsties, hahah!! 

To help with that, last year I created this little writing packet for our first few days back. Over half of my babies don't celebrate Christmas so it doesn't focus on that...just winter break. :) There are several drafting and writing pages, a few graphic organizers, and a Find a Friend game. Be sure to check it out!! :) 

If you made a New Year's Resolution to be more organized, you might wanna check out my blog post! :) I'm highlighting one of my lifesavers!! My teacher binder!! Check it out by clicking on the picture. :) 

I hope you have a fabulous first week back! We can do this friends!! :) 

Happy New Year All Around!

Hey guys! It's Ashley from Flying High in First Grade!

I can't believe another year has come and gone! 2014 is a faint memory and 2015 is sitting in front of us ready to be taken by the horns! I don't know about you, but I always have the best intentions of doing so much with my new year's resolutions. I'm hoping I can keep up with some of the things I want to do this year!

As 2015 revs up, it also means it's time to go back to school and tackle the 2nd half of the year. When I think of January, 2 holidays come to mind. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Chinese New Year. I love celebrating both in my classroom, but especially the Chinese New Year because it isn't a holiday that much time is spent on. We spend 1 week learning about the Chinese New Year, and let me tell you, my kids love it!

I always check out some books from the library and do daily read alouds or we will watch a clip from either Discovery Education or Brain Pop Jr. both of these sights my district has subscriptions to and they are a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom! And let's face it, sometimes Moby can teach way better than I can!

One of my students' favorite activities are poems! So I of course have to do a poem for Chinese New Year! We read the poem and look for words we know, words we don't know, and words that rhyme. We color words we know yellow, words we don't know orange, and words that rhyme blue. Then the students get a chance to draw a picture of what the poem makes them think of. Great visualizing activity!

A great way to get some comparing and contrasting practice is to read a book and then talk about how the Chinese New Year and our new year are the same and different. This activity can be done as a whole group or individually depending on your students ability.

I also love to teach about the "Year of the _______" The kids find it so interesting that their calendar year is different than ours!

We of course have to cover where China is on the map and where it is in relation to the USA. They can't believe how far away it is from us.

All of these fun activities can be found in my "Chinese New Year" mini unit. I promise your students will love the fun activities and will be talking about them for weeks!