My New Year Challenge

Happy New Year to all 12 people who have visited my blog.  LOL...yes, I know there have been more than that, but sometimes blogging without comments makes it like talking to yourself.  And ask my teenage daughters, I do enough of that already.

My blog is a fairly new blog...just a fun little thing I'm trying to get started.  I love blogging.  I have been doing it for about 5 or 6 years now.  Ever since we got real internet in our last house.  Most of my blogging time has been about our life in the Inland Northwest.  If you want to learn about life in North Idaho...you can read my other blog: Life in Idaho

This blog is my teaching blog....ergo...Primary in Idaho.  Kind of catchy I think in a first grade sort of way.  I have lots of ideas to post and very little time to do it.  I guess I could stop trolling through the 'net and actually spend some time drafting my stuff...but there are so many really cool teachers out there that already have there teacher 'stuff' together and apparently have lots more time on their hands somehow.  I think they must have one of those time turner necklaces.  You know the one Hermione had in the Potter movie?

Until I can get one of those awesome necklaces...I am hobbling my way along in the teacher blog world.

Ah...but then I got to thinking there must be other teachers out there in the same proverbial boat.  Perhaps there is a way I can help them out as well as making a great resource for myself as well.  So I won't always be looking for the biggies in the teacher blog world...but instead I am looking for the 'little guy' out there.

So my Project for the new year is to post a blog a day.  That's 365 blogs to find.  They will be primary of course...because those are the ones I stalk for ideas and freebies.

So, if you subscribe to my blog you can discover what I've found.  Maybe you will find a new favorite.  If you are an active teacher blogger and you want to be linked up on my blog, just let me know...I'm happy to add your blog as one of my 365 in 2013.

If I link your blog....I will send you this blog button

Martin Luther King Day Ideas

Here are some links to ideas to use when studying about Martin Luther King...

You have to start with a good book.  Here are a couple good ones I've used:

Martin's Big Words

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr

My First Biography: Martin Luther King, Jr

Then after you've read a good book or two to build schema...then you can move on to planning and plotting and writing and interpreting.

Here is a freebie I made...this is a sample of what the finished product could look like.  It is on my TpT store with the writing template.  Feel free to use it :)  Click HERE to download.

Here are some other teachers with some fun and clever ideas...plus some other sites too:

Classroom Freebies

Free coloring page on TeacherVision

Kinder Alphabet 

Flying into First Grade

This is a good video on Brain Pop (I had never found this site before.  It's cool!)

Crazy for First Grade

Check out this Fingerprint Peace Dove art project.  It's amazing!

Free Kids Crafts.com

Poem Freebie

Word Search

This site has a historical narrative for you to read if you are rusty on the details of Martin Luther King Jr's life.  

Well, that should get just about anybody started.  If you still haven't found what you need, then pop over to TpT and search for free Martin Luther King stuff.  There is quite a bit more on the site.

Giveaway on Second Grade Nest's Blog

Hurry on over to the Second Grade Nest Blog.  She is having a big giveaway in honor of 500 followers to her TpT store.  (Ahhh....maybe that will be me someday)

I would love to win...but if I don't, maybe you will.

Actually, there are going to be 5 winners!  So my odds are increasing already :) So head on over and maybe you can win with me!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Early Happy New Year!

Our disrict has a weird schedule this year.  We don't go back until January 7th.  New Year's will seem to be done and gone by then.  Then to make things even more complicated, we will be having our "Christmas" parties on January 11th.

It seems that some very naughty kids decided to spread rumors about shootings and bomb threats at some of our local schools.  They posted and spread rumors on some of the social networks locally and so we had school cancelled in the three largest districts here in North Idaho.

So we will come back to school in January enjoying some Christmas/New Year activities...combined with the end of the quarter assessments of course.  Piece of cake.

So, optimistically, I've come across some fun things to celebrate the New year with--in a perfect world of course.  Perhaps some of these ideas will be useful for you too.

I thought this poster would be a good start!  This poster was made by +Sarah Winchell.  She posted it on her blog: I Dream of First Grade.  

Fun in First has a fun poem she posted last January.  She also included a goals worksheet that you could adapt for your class and the new year.

Here is a great time matching game to start the New Year.  The First Grade Parade (one of my favorite blogs to visit because she has wonderful freebies!) created this one.

Jennifer Drake's TpT store has a lot of fun, low cost activities for the New Year.  This coloring page is a freebie in her store.  It will be great for the end of the first day back when my first graders burn out and are ready to go home :)

And here are an assortment of freebies on TpT related to the New Year.

New Year's Resolution Friendly Letter

New Year's Writing and Craft project (perfect for hanging in the hall!)

New Year's Creative Writing Stationery

New Year's ABC Order

New Year's Clip Art

Explaining what a resolution is can be difficult with young children.  They haven't had time to make all those mistakes that we resolve to fix each year :)  But here is a fun book that puts it in terms that kids can understand.

Squirrel's New Year's Resolution

I am certain that this is more than I could ever complete in a week.  But it's a fun list to choose from just the same!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Math Coach's Corner Blog

So I am always on the lookout for someone else who has already created what I am looking for...saves time that way.  I don't know about you, but I have to admit I purchase more on TpT than I have ever made in actual sales.

So when I find cool things that are free...I am in teacher heaven!  And my husband is happier too :)

As I swim, barely keeping afloat, through my school year,  I am trying hard to make Saxon fit in with our math standards with the Common Core.  I feel like I am doing more filling in with materials I make or find, than actually doing the lesson they include each day.

Our district is on a shoe string again this year, but if you had the money, then this is what every school needs...a Math Coach...and I just found an awesome one this morning.  Her name is +Donna Boucher and she has lots of amazing fun stuff on her blog:

I found a post on her blog that lists all her free stuff on TpT!  I have already downloaded three of them to use with my 1st graders!  Visit and see what you can find for your class :)

Jumping and Hopping

So teaching is tough and I am tough.

Meetings, new curriculum adoptions, standards that change, puking students, soggy shoelaces, boogers, parents who don't read newsletters, piles of papers to correct...and more.

But there is one thing that has me quaking in my shoes.  Or rather, itching in them....

LICE!

Just the mention of those little critters makes my skin crawl...or rather itch.

and itch...and itch.

Man all day I kept scratching my head and checking my shoulders to see if anything was crawling down my arm!

This is so not fun.  Fortunately the school nurse was in our building and tackled the situation head on...so to speak! 

I think I need one of these shields in class tomorrow...think the kids will notice?