Earth Day is April 22nd

Happy almost Earth Day!

I am hoping that the warm weather finds us up here in North Idaho.  I need to warm up my bones a bit.  Not much snow this winter, but since the official first day of spring we have had a storm every week that has dropped a few inches of white stuff on us.

Things are still freezing into the 20's at night and my bulbs are shaking in their leaves!  It looks like Earth Day might be more like what people traditionally consider the first day of Spring in these parts.  From today until Earth day, our temps are supposed to finally hit the low 70's during the day!  Yeah! But just to keep us on our toes, the nights will still drop down into the 30's...brrrr!

Earth Day is on Wednesday, April 22nd.  In our school it will probably be an Earth Week.  Monday is Art so that is when I will do my Art project.  Tuesday is when I do my whole class writing cuz that's one of the few days I have my whole class.  Wednesday we will plant something...not sure what yet. Thursday is supposed to be computer lab, but it turns into science day after spring break each year because the upper grades take over the computer labs for ISAT's. And then on Friday we have Garbage Pick-Up Day around our little town.  Each class takes gloves, big garbage bags and their hiking shoes, picks a street and starts walking and picking up trash.  They love being out of the classroom and so do I!

Here is the project that will encompass my writing and art this next week.  The kiddos love it!

You can find it on TPT...for only $3.  15 pages of fun :)

BubbleGum Ideas --Chewing and Learning

So we do Accelerated Reader at our elementary school.  We have school point goals each quarter.  The 1st graders work hard to do their part, but with their books only worth .5 per book...it's really a small part.  I create my own goal chart in my room with flowers that work their way up the vine -- to go along with the progress flower on the computer program.  The kids love it, I love the simple way of keeping track of their goals...it's a win-win.

But the school rewards are kind of odd sometimes.  This quarter the school reached the school-wide goal and so they get to chew bubblegum!  The principal delivers it to our rooms....the kids love it, but I want it to be a bit more fun and meaningful or rather memorable!

This year I decided to turn the bubblegum into a mini theme for the day.  Here are a few ideas and things I found to do that day.

Here is a fun math bump game with the bubblegum theme. I found it on TpT:

Here's the writing project I'm going to do....How to Blow A Bubble: 

Then of course I had to get this Opinion Writing Activity too....Should Bubblegum Be Allowed in School?  There is no such thing as too much writing...right?

This next one on TpT has a combination of math, science and art.   It's a clever approach to bubblegum chewing..

My 1st graders are going to have fun while they are learning on bubblegum reward day this year!  It might just make it fun for me too!  If you don't have a bubblegum reward day at your school...maybe these are good reasons to give it a chew and ponder it.

Kindergarten Connnections

This weekend I downloaded the greatest New Year's writing project and I just had to share it with you!  I can't wait to share it with my first graders this week!

I found it on this creative teacher blog:

Holly, from Kindergarten Connections, has a wonderful freebie that not only helps them practice their writing skills but also teaches them to think of others.  It's not your typical New Year's Resolution writing template.  It's a template for teaching your students to think about how they can make this year awesome for OTHER people.  I love it!  Download it now...I did :)

Are you ready for JANUARY!?

Start your New Year off in your classroom with this creative Art/Writing project about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are a couple great books to read to your primary classes to go along with the study of Martin Luther King's life, death and his legacy.

I love this series of historical books for my primary students.  My library has some of the titles, but I am growing my own collection as well.

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. by David Adler

 Happy Birthday Martin Luther King by Jean Marzollo.  

Beautiful artwork in this one along with the story of his life.

SALE DAY! Here's a little football fun!

Enjoy some great resources for your primary students.  And if you purchase them this afternoon, you can get them all on sale!  Everything in my store on TPT and TN are on sale for 12% off today!  It's a Seattle Seahawk day, so I am having a 12th Man Sale!

For 12 hours....from noon today through noon Monday, you can get 12% off your purchase of any item in my stores.  So head over to either of my shops and enjoy the deal....no, you don't have to root for the Seahawks...but it's ok if you do :)  UPDATE:  Neither site will let me choose 12%...so you will actually get 15% off! Woohoo...Lucky you!

Primary In IDaho on Teacher's Notebook    
or    
 Primary In IDaho on Teachers Pay Teachers

Here are some examples of what you can find....

My Ten Frame Math has been very popular.  I wasn't smart and fancy and put a link in them to the second one I created...

 But there is a Ten Frame Math #2.  It extends the first one in a nice progression for those that want to give your students a bit more practice with missing numbers.  It is a nice transition to getting them to think about subtraction.

And once they start to have a sense of numbers and what addition and subtraction are...then it's the perfect time to move into my new creation.   It's called Building Houses and Number Bonds.  I used them throughout 1st quarter with my 1st graders and it was a very helpful addition to the non-existent math curriculum we have right now.  It made for a wonderful transition into subtraction facts!

 At this time of the year, it would still be helpful for resource students, Kindergarten students, Homeschool students, or those who are still just a bit behind.  The number bond pages are great for homework or entry task pages as well!

Here are two other things I would like to highlight for the sale....

My Fun with Facts Coloring pages.  My first graders love doing these...they don't even consider it math because they get to color!  (I have an easy bunch this year that LOVE to learn!)

And besides math, my other true LOVE in teaching, is writing!  I love to have my first graders write.  They do it from day one in September and we write a couple times a week.  Our new Language Arts adoption has a writing component in it, but sometimes they have a difficult time drawing from personal knowledge to write on those topics.  So I fill in with things they know and love to talk about...here is a great winter one about Snowmen.

Day 70 Teacher Bits & Bobs

Happy Monday!  March is my favorite month...perhaps it's because it's my birthday month or that spring break is soon to come or that the hint of warmth is in the air or that everything is green (my favorite color) because of St. Patrick's day or that my husband will be making corn beef and cabbage soon or better yet...I find freebies!!!

There are lots of fun finds to be had this month...Teacher bits & bobs is a creation of two Kindergarten teachers, Kerri and Lindsay.

Today's post has two fun freebies that they created and shared.  The first one is themed writing paper.  It's great for a poetry starter.  Or just for sentence writing.

The second freebie is a skittles graphing activity.  I downloaded the Skittles activity and it was a great center!  I just bought a huge bag of Skittles and then put a share of them into different baggies.  Worked perfect...I do suggest you save this for centers in the afternoon though...you don't want them sugared up in the morning! :)

Day 62 Adventure of a Third Grade Teacher

Amber is a third grade teacher from North Carolina. Her blog is called The Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher.  Yes, teaching is definitely an adventure just like her blog. She is an enthusiastic new teacher with lots of great ideas.  I love the mini-lesson ideas she posted.  I do many similar ones with my 1st graders.  I am sure our 3rd grade teachers will be happy once they get my 1st graders in two years :)

Here is one of my favorites that she posted.  Her Mini Lesson on Precise Language...those horrible boring, and dreaded words:  nice, kind, good, bad

We don't call it precise language in my 1st grade classroom...they are Delicious Words.  You know, like Fancy Nancy Delicious.  My kiddos have so much fun adding sticky notes to our chart.  I keep the sticky pads all over the room.  And it not only helps with their enthusiasm for reading, but for their enthusiasm for writing as well.

One of the things that our district wants us to focus on is problem solving and math strategies.  Yup, we never did that before until this year.  {is there a key on my laptop for heavy sarcasm? I would be pressing it about now.}   If you aren't already teaching strategies or you need some fresh ideas to keep the kiddos on top of their game, then you need to check out this cool idea that Amber uses with her third grades.  It could easily be adapted up or down.  If we can write, we can solve.

She has her students solve word problems in these cute little books.

 But the best part of these little books is that all the word problems are made by the students in her class.  She puts them together and then the students solve each others problems.  Wow...my students would absolutely love that! And I'm sure they would be much more creative than I could be!

Keep digging on her blog...Adventure of a Third Grade Teacher...there are lots of great treasures to find!

Day 61 Teaching Fourth

Kelly teaches 4th in Alabama.  In her About Me section of her blog she says she teaches Reading, Writing and Language Arts.  This is the second 4th grade teacher that I've come across this week that doesn't have to teach all the subjects. Just the other day I posted about Elizabeth and her blog Fun in Room 4B.  She teaches just math to the 4th graders in her school.

I think that's neat because you can get really good at something and you can work with more students.   Lesson planning would be so much easier.  The down side is that you would want that person to be an awesome teacher if they are going to teach ALL your 4th graders to read.  At the school I was at last year the 6th grade teachers tried that.  There were three of them.  Unfortunately, there was a weak link on the team, and the other teachers had to make up for the deficits from that room.  (this meant more work for them in the long run and lots of unhappy parents - never a good thing!)

But what I am finding is...for the most part...the quality of what teachers are blogging is amazing.  I'm not sure if it's the chicken or the egg.  Good teachers blog...or blogging makes teachers better teachers. Maybe it's a combination of both.  I know I learn so much from all the bloggers I find.  I am inspired and it gets my creative juices flowing to see what other teachers are doing and creating and what their students are producing and learning.  That's what collaboration is about!  {Don't get me started on district collaboration - but perhaps some time cruising the internet for strategies and ideas would be a better use of our time!}

Sorry Kelly, back to your blog...Teaching Fourth.  Kelly has some great freebies.  

One is her Pirate Homophone: Their, There, They're activity.

She also has a wonderful informational text graphic organizer packet for sale on her TpT store.  But she has a freebie for you to check out from it.

It's always hard to just pick out one of two things to share.  Kelly is so creative in so many ways that it makes it hard to choose.  This past week our principal showed us a video about school climates.  How to keep your school from looking institutional.  One of the things she showed a lot of was PAINT on the walls!  Something that wasn't that institutional beige or cream!  If only they would let us paint our rooms!  I should show them some of the work that Kelly has done to her room!  It's so warm and comforting...

even with those ancient desks!  Goodness...what century are they from?

Those owls are sooo stinkin' cute aren't they?

Kelly also has some cute bulletin board ideas too...

Makes the wheels turning for what I want to do this coming summer in my classroom!!

1st I'm purging...then I'm painting.

If they won't let me do the walls, at least I can do my bookshelves!

Thanks for hopping by my blog...hope you were inspired to do something wonderful!

Day 14 First Grade Fever

So I don't get it...one of my teenage daughters has this love of these mustaches...

They are everywhere...and the marketing is genius...because they are on everything. And of course the kid wants to buy these needful things with mustaches on them.  I am trying to think of what fad like this there was when I was her age.  I guess there was the Izod alligator...we all had to have the shirt with the stiff little gator sewn onto it.  O.K....so not nearly as exciting as a mustache on your shirt, your wallet, your shoes, your pants, your backpack...everywhere!

So Christie decided to go with the flow.  She is from the blog First Grade Fever and she discovered sheets of these fun mustaches at the dollar store and decided to use the fad for good and not evil!

She made the most creative writing unit out of it!  She used them to re-teach her students the difference between an asking and a telling sentence.  If I can find those mustaches, then I am buying this one because it's so dang cute...and you know what happens when you teach cute things?  The parents love it, your co-workers ooo and aaah it, and the kids engage and remember it!  Win win all around!

Christie has a great preview of it on her blog.  You can buy it on her TpT store or from her Teacher's Notebook store.  It's only $2.50...which is a steal and maybe can add a few hours back to your prep time because you wont have to make it.

Welcome to my journey!

Have you been following my blog to find out who I discover on my 365 Blog Hop Challenge?

Who will I find next?

Day 13 Teaching with Love and Laughter

I found Lori Rosenberg's blog this morning and I can hardly tear myself away from it to blog about it.  She is amazing and her resources are amazing and her writing ideas are amazing and it looks like her school is amazing -- she gets to teach writing to k, 1 and 2.

Wow, what a concept, getting to teach something you really, really love A LOT and getting the quality time to do it!  I bet that school must have the most awesome writers.  In my school we have such a push on math and reading  that we just don't get as much time with writing as I would love to have -- and that I need to have to do it well.

Plus there is the planning time.  Planning every subject and teaching them is so time consuming -- at least right now with all the aligning to the common core standards now.  I am just starting to feel comfortable with knowing the standards...and it's January!  It's like a new pair of shoes that are a struggle to break in and you keep having to wear them to school! :-)

Back to Lori's blog:  Teaching with Love and Laughter

She has amazing writing ideas and she shares them on TpT as well as on her blog.  She also has some fun freebies.  She has a fun Winter Rebus Story on her blog and TpT store right now.  (Yet another Florida teacher with creative winter/snow themed activities -- ha ha!  Makes me think I should be doing tropical rain forest activities with my students -- It's warmed up to 11 degrees outside right now and it's 9:30 in the morning!)

The other thing Lori has are some great giveaways and contests.  Right now she is giving away a fun Learning Resource game called Sentence Buildings.  Head over to her blog and enter to win.  I know my firsties would love this for a center!

Here is what I'm drooling over right now!  Grammar Review Sheets for First Grade.  There are 30 review sheets and they cover Common Core skills.  The skills are the same on each day, but they get progressively harder.  I can't wait to download this one from her TpT store!

Day 8 2nd Grade Pad

Pad...now that is a word I haven't heard in awhile.  Then I saw the Frog on her blog and went...oooooooooh, now I get it!  I was having a 'duh' moment there.  Haven't had my morning mocha yet!

Cynthia is from Georgia and I'm betting even this time of year they can hear toads croaking and frogs going ribbet.  Here in North Idaho...they are all asleep for the long winter under a layer of ice and snow.  I woke up this morning and it is only 12 degrees! brrr

Cynthia is a second grade teacher (I know, obvious from the title huh?...remember, I haven't had my mocha yet) and she has over 90 great items in her TpT store.  I do have to chuckle...some of my best finds regarding winter and snowmen are from the southern teachers...because of all the snow y'all have down there? tee hee  Or is it because you wish you had snow??

Cynthia has a Linky happening that you should take part in...so hop on over and check it out.

Day 6 Teacher Idea Factory

Today's blog -- Teacher Idea Factory -- has creative artwork to go with the creative title!  I think this is my favorite blog header that I've found in my hopping!   Kelley has lots of creative and new ideas that she both sells and shares.

I've come across this blog before through my hopping ways, but her December freebie caught my eye.  She has over 50 freebies on her blog--click HERE for the link.  The Sweet Story Adjective writing was a cool idea!  And I still get to use it because we haven't had our Christmas party yet!  (loooong story)

The best snowman art project ever is HERE.  I plan to do it next Friday during our art time!  So easy, so cool, so calming...that was what sold it to me.  After a two week vacation and five full days of teaching...Friday needs to end on a calm note!  (for me and the kids!)

Day 5 the Seusstastic Classroom

So the official name of Mel's Blog is The Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations.   I found this blog last year when I was hunting up new ideas for Dr. Seuss, because I don't just have a Dr. Seuss day, I have a Dr. Seuss Month.  And you need lots of ideas to make it the whole month.  (March is all his...but we do take a tiny break long enough for the Leprechaun's to come out in the middle of the month.)

Hey, my birthday month is March...so I can do what I want...right?  lol Actually, the real reason is that I have seen Dr. Seuss books turn many a poor reader into a fluent one by the end of March.  He is some kind of magic to those struggling kids!

Well, anyway, when I stopped over to Mel's blog this week she had an amazing post about her Elf on the Shelf activity with her class.  It was Aaaa-Mazing!!!  I love how she makes learning fun!  You have to check out this post!  I am inspired to give it a try next year now that I will be settled into my new classroom.  (First year in a new building is always stressful--you spend half the time trying to find your feet and at the same time making sure you aren't stepping on any toes).

Day 4...It's Friday

What better blog to focus on for the first Friday of the New Year than T.G.I.F. !!

Thank God It's First Grade.

(That's what you were thinking wasn't it?  lol)

Susan teaches 1st grade in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Fortunately what she does in Vegas isn't staying in Vegas! (couldn't resist saying that).  Read through her blog and you will be delighted with her clever creations and you will be inspired with her fresh energy.

Sometimes, after teaching 17 years, I need a kick in the pants reminder to be excited about the little things.  Susan's blog does that for me.  Her blog and her writing just oozes enthusiasm -- for her students, her family, her creations and just life in general!

She has a TpT store with lots of great goodies she's created.  Head over and check some out.  There are some fun freebies as well.  Here is the Penguin Freebie I just downloaded!  Can't wait to add it to my centers this month!

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.