It's magnetizing!

Just last Friday my 1st grade kiddos finished up a unit on magnets.  I love teaching science at this age because they are so curious about everything!  This magnet unit was a great way to bring in some hands on science practice.  None of these lessons are super intense--all I'm looking for is a way to teach the content, but still keep the main focus on learning English.  So anyways, enjoy these magnet lesson plans and please let me know if you use them!  :]



I hope you've all had a pleasant Monday.  My Mondays are never that bad...Tuesday is when the weekend hits me and I feel exhausted all of the sudden.  Am I the only one, or do any of you guys deal with that Tuesday sleepiness, too?

Random notes:

1) I bought a Kindle Fire a couple weeks ago and I really like it.  So far I've read three different books on it.  For a long time I thought I'd never get one, but I like that it's an eReader and a tablet.  Anyone else biting the bullet and jumping on the eReader bandwagon?

2) Today and tomorrow are parent/teacher conferences!  My first ones ever...can you sense the little bit of nervousness?  :] 

3) Moe's Monday is the bomb.com.  Five dollars for a burrito, chips, and a drink?  Score!

Ok, enough randomness.  Have a marevelous rest of your Monday!  :]



Learnin' Letters

I have one small group of Kindergarteners that I serve each day after lunch.  They are quite a fun bunch, but WOW, they have a ton of energy!  *Side note: I'd like a little dose of their energy each morning!*

Anyways, with getting them after lunch, we barely have 30 minutes together before I have to take them back to class.  I had these grand ideas of doing all of these activities with them, but the reality is, if it can't be completed in less than 30 minutes, we probably won't do it. 

The main thing I'm working on with my littlest ones is letter recognition.  Each week we work on a different letter: we've just recently finished Q, R, and S, so on Monday we will start with T.  I've found some really good letter resources on the 'net and I'd love to share them with you.  :]  Enjoy, and let me know if you have any great resources you use!  I'm including stuff from when we did R last week.

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Day 1: Watch Starfall video about the letter R and then talk about it using our pocket chart in the classroom.  Then we will go to our seats and do the writing worksheet from the Starfall website.  These are all great worksheets!  Once they finish the front, I have them "read" it to me...all very simple sight words (is, for) and pictures.  I find being able to read a page to me, even if it's mainly pictures, is a great confidence boost for my kiddos. 



Day 2: Start class by remembering the sound the letter R makes.  Watch YouTube video from "Have Fun Teaching."  In all honesty, these videos are super annoying--but since it's so repetitive the kids can sing along and they really start remembering the sound of R and words that begin with that letter.  Then we brainstorm words that start with R and make chart to go with it.  Each kid them picks some of the words to write and illustrate. 

Day 3: I like to start each class with a super short clip, so normally on day 3 I'll start it off with a short Sesame Street song (this week we watched a song about "Sammy the Snake").  Then we finish writing our words and illustrating them.

Day 4: Picture scavenger hunt!  We find a pictures in a magazine that start with the letter R and make a collage.  Very fun, and then we get to see it hanging up in the classroom!

Day 5: On day 5 I like to finish off the week with some games.  We play a version of Mother May I about letter sounds/words.  I call a kid, and they have to say a word that begins with a certain letter.  We can either just do "R" words, or we can go through the alphabet.  If they get it wrong or can't think of one, they go back to the beginning.  They love this game!

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So, those are my Kindergarten plans that I tweak each week.  This particular week we only had four days, so I'm not doing the day 5 lesson.  We're going to finish off the week with our picture collage, instead.  These lessons are very simple, but the letter practice is so beneficial for my little Kinders.  Does anyone else have any favorite ways to teach letters?

Happy weekend!  :]



SUPER Teacher Brain

So yesterday one of my groups finished their work early.  I definitely was not planning on that.  Normally we're rushing to get all of the work done in our little 40 minute timeslot.  And I know, "always plan more than you can get done," but then I get all worked up because I want to get everything done.  So I normally try to plan just enough.

But anways, enough rambling about that.  Long story short, one of my groups finished early.  I have to brag on my teacher brain for a second, because at that moment I had a serious "lightbulb moment."  I mean, it was like a 100 watt bulb going off in my head.  We all know that kiddos looooove games--call any activity a game and they're all over it.  I decided to take an old game and put a new twist on it AND THEY ATE IT UP. 

Did anyone ever play "never have I ever"?  We used to play it all the time in youth group (you know, a million years ago when I was in HS).  This game is loosely based on the concept.  My kids had picked four important facts about George Washington Carver and written/illustrated them on a piece of paper.  We all sat in a circle, and one at a time I let them stand up and share a fact they wrote.  If you wrote the same fact as the "sharer," then you stood up, too.  All the kids that were standing then had to switch spots with someone else.  SO SIMPLE, but they loved it!  I couldn't believe it! 

Needless to say, I was super proud of my teacher brain yesterday.  It seems that my brain is getting good at being sneaky about getting kiddos to learn and like it, too.  They had no idea that while they were playing the game, they were actually getting a great review. 

Two random things, because I hate uploading a post with zero pictures:

I invented a prize for the best partners.  I simply printed "Awesome Partners Award!" onto some return address labels and then gave it to the kids who worked together the best.  A very effective but simple reward!

Last Friday we did a science experiment and then filled out a worksheet about it.  If they finished early, they were supposed to write a sentence on the back about what we did.  I'm just glad this kiddo was honest.  :]

Sorry to rub it in, but today is my Friday!  We have a four day weekend!  WAHOO!  :]  I hope you guys have a fantastic Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend!  I'm gonna go live it up!



You Might Be a Teacher If...

Who else out there loves a good "you might be a redneck if..." joke?  Well, in the same style of Foxworthy's hilarious one-liners, now we can all laugh about the little quirks that make us teachers.  I'm linking up with Jeannie over at Kindergarten Lifestyle for this fun linky party...go check it out! 

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you all survived with minimal damage done.  :]

Hallelujah!

Testing is over!!!

Hallelujah!

That song was most definitely playing through my head this afternoon.  I am so ready to see my kiddos tomorrow.  These have been a loooong three weeks.


Until next year--see ya, testing!

See, I told you I was excited.  :]



Actually...I'll be doing more testing when the CRCT rolls around in April.  At least that's only five half-days.  Whew.

Cha-ching!

Hey everyone!

Today I have a very unique problem: I have too much money to spend.

Yikes--never thought I'd have the problem of too much money!  ;]  Actually, this isn't really my money.  This is the money allotted to me from the school to spend on stuff for my classroom.  But I'm having issues deciding what to get. 

See, I've only seen my students three times back in the third week of January.  So I'm not really sure what I'll need once I start really teaching.  This is where you guys come in!  :]  If you could get something for your classroom that would be super useful, what would you get?  I'm afraid that I'm going to end up spending my money on stuff I don't really need, and then in a month or so I think, "MAN I wish I'd known that ___ would be so useful!" 

Anyways...I officially have the problem of too much money and not knowing what to spend it on.  I don't think this will ever happen to me again--I'd better soak the feeling up.  :]

Please share your best advice...and I'll be sure to let you know what I end up purchasing. 

Have a tremendous Tuesday!



February Currently

Hi, everyone! 

This morning I'm linking up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her Currently linky party.  Head over there to join in the fun!  :]



Have a marvelous Monday!  (yay, alliteration!)