Safari Time and a bunch of freebies~!

So we are kicking off our two week safari unit! I started by pulling all of my safari animal books out and borrowing some from the library. Here are a few of my favorites:

After we read "The Giraffe Who Was Afraid Of Heights", we did a story sequence activity.

You can get your copy your freebie HERE for Sequencing !

Then, we did a writing activity.

We turned our safari theme into a mini research unit . The students each had one of the nonfiction books that we read aloud in class. I was lucky to find several copies of the Pebbles Plus African Animals Collection. I had a set as well as the library and other teachers. First, they brainstormed all of their thoughts on scratch paper. I let them draw circles and inside the circles they had to write one fact. Then they

wrote a mini research paper. And a little animal to color and cut out, and viola! They really enjoyed this activity!

Next, we put it all together in an official "research packet"!

For literacy centers this week, I used my Safari-Literacy-Math-and-Writing-Packet. It includes:

Literacy (8) Centers

Monkey Memory

Literacy Activities/Centers

Elephant Word Sort nouns, verbs ,adjectives

Safari True/ False

Giraffe, Zebra, & Elephant Writing Activity

Writing Prompts

Safari Word Sort IE & IGH

Safari ABC Order

Noun Word Sort ( Pronoun, Proper, Noun)

Math (2 Centers)

Zebra Addition

Zebra Number Match

Writing Research Packet

Fun Facts:

Giraffes, Elephants, & Zebras

Of Course I have to tie in some freebies :)

Safari Sight Word Freebie

Writing Freebie

This week we are finishing up with Elephants, Lions and Zebras!

I think we have 8 Mondays left of school! I am kinda of sad, though, as I am still unsure if I will be at my school or in a whole new state. God always has a plan :)

Happy Teaching!



Does anything ever go as planned??!

We finally have our house listed on the market! It has been one thing after the next trying to find the time to finish all of our little "projects" but...we are done :)


This week was a busy week, both in the classroom and in real life :) First and foremost! My husband Re-Enlisted in the Navy for 6 more years. This will finish up his career. It was a such a beautiful ceremony and I am so very proud of him!


                                 

Now to the stuff ya'll came to see :)

This week we were supposed to start our camping unit. The back bone of my plans came from Cara From The First Grade Parade. However, I ordered a bunch of books to go a long with the unit, and they didn't come in time. So I had to come up with other ideas as the kids were pumped about starting this unit.

First we started off with Amelia Bedelia! You can never go wrong with Amelia Bedelia!  We read Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping. The kids loved this book! 

This week, we can start out camping unit as I originally planned. The kids are so excited about this unit.

Last week we started  Long O words. 

I am used Made For First Grade's Long-Vowel-FUN Packet!  I love this packet! I needed more station activities though, so we started using my Long O Packet. The kids really love these cute rock stars! They thought it was such a blast.  Check out my LONG O Packet on TpT! It's on sale! Long-O-Rock-Stars



And Since I had such a WONDERFUL Week, My Circus Literacy Packet, is FREE :) Go over and get your copy of my  Circus-Literacy-Packet and rate my products!

Another GREAT TpT Find this week---Fun-in-the-Sun-Literacy-and-Math-Center-Game-Packet This packet is soooo adorable and I can't wait to put it to use soon!

Must Have Spring Centers!

So this week we have the ever so lovely SPRING BREAK! I am trying to fit in some relaxation time..but it's not looking good! My hubby is in the Navy and we are preparing to transfer to a new command. This means selling our house in....THREE MONTHS! So we are frantically trying to finish the last few projects around the house to get it ready to go on the market. Hopefully this week!

In the mean time, I am also working on my Spring Literacy Centers :) I like to everything in order for when I go back to school. My Spring Literacy Packet contains 10 literacy centers! Super cute! This is just a little preview :)

 This packet includes 10 literacy centers to be used in Spring! Get your copy at My TpT Store


*Vowel Digraphs Word Sort- Ai, Ay

*Rainbow Sight Word Memory

*Spring Rhyme Time with Long Vowels ( One Game for each vowel)

*Hoppy ABC Order

*Spring Synonym Match


I also am preparing a few other teacher made products. First,I went alittle crazy at  Cara Carroll's store from The First Grade Parade. When we go back to school, we will start our camping unit. I am using several of Cara's ideas plus her Camping-Capers-Math-Literacy-Science-Activities. This packet is AMAZING!!

For my "Spring" themed centers, I am using my spring literacy packet, plus a few others. Using Cara's March-Madness-Mega-Pack-Seasonal-Math-Literacy-Activities, Anna Brantley's Birds-Bugs-and-Butterflies-Math-and-Literacy-Center-Packet,Hippity-Hoppity-Math-and-Literacy-Centers and Made For 1st Grade's Egg-Cited-About-Easter-Literacy-Centers and Sandy Mac's First-Grade-Hi-Frequency-Words-and-Phonics-for-Spring

Sandy Mac is new to TpT and I just LOVE her products :) I am a huge fan already and hope she keeps up the amazing work! Go check out her TpT Store!!



We just finished Long A Words, so I went over and got Cara's Long-A-Kids-Stories-Sorts-Activities, and that will be incorporated as well as a review.

We will start Long O words, so I am starting on my own Long vowel packet this week.

That's all for now, I am waiting for my e-mail to come up to e-mail the winners for the BINGO Giveaway. You had to follow my stores as well as comment :)

Have a great day guys :)

Giveaways

Well, Congrats to Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies and Kim at Growing up teaching for the Didax Puzzle Winners! Thanks to everyone for participating! This Week, I am going to give away TWO Trend Bingo Games! All you have to do is 1.) follow my blog,2.) comment below with your Name, Grade Level & E-Mail address! 3.)Follow My Teacher's Notebook and TpT Store! If you already follow, please comment that you do :)

So now to our classroom! For 5 weeks, yes, FIVE, we've been working on R Controlled Vowels! So I've had to throw in some other things because the kiddos are darn tired of it! We've amped up our sight words, and practiced inflectional endings. Pronouns gave us a little bit of trouble a few weeks ago, so we did a little bit of "reteaching" and I found the cutest song on Pintrest check it out here! The kids love it!

Where have I been?!?!

Luck would have it that as soon as I start  a new project, sickness would run through my family! In the first two weeks of February, my family has had Strep, the flu, uveitis, viral meningitis, and now my youngest child has a full body post viral rash! We are all on the mend and everyone will be okay. It's just been a long two weeks!

So, we are all recovering from illnesses around our house, but I have so much to share with ya'll!! I want to give away a few of the Didax Puzzles to random  followers of my blog and Teacher's Notebook Store.*** All you have to do is follow my blog, AND My Teacher's Notebook Store and comment below with your e-mail address to verify that you have followed! ***Once everyone in my household is back to 100% I'll update ya'll on all of my adventures in the classroom for the last two weeks :) Thanks for hanging on until then!

<3
Ash

Baseball and R Controlled Vowels!

Well it's that time of year again! We've spent the last two Saturdays working Little League Registration. How is it that I'm already worn out from Baseball and it hasn't even started! This year will be my youngest son's first year for Tee Ball..he is SO excited! My oldest is excited to "show him the ropes" and help him learn to play baseball! They are really close in age and best buddies (well, most of the time ;) )



This week we are starting R Controlled Vowels. I did my room in a Pirate Theme,  using Babbling Abby's Unit. It is the CUTEST thing. She did an amazing job with this unit. You can check it out here. I don't know about all of you, but we are juggling incorporating a new curriculum ( C-Scope) into Journeys, and it's quite difficult. C- Scope calls for skills in first grade that we typically do not teach until second. So it's fun trying to pull everything together. Between C-Scope, Journeys and using Babbling Abby's unit, I still wanted a little extra. So I created a few work stations and whole class games.  Here is a few pictures from the packet. It has four word sorts, four ABC Order activites and a bingo set. My students love FROGS and I figured I could still use it even after we finished our pirate themed. You can get your copy right here HERE

This week is another busy week around our house with Baseball registration finishing up, so until next time!

~Ashley~

Where does the time go?

Let me  start off by saying I really, REALLY, thought this would be a little bit easier to keep up with! I really do enjoy sharing my experiences in the classroom and reading about all of yours! Now that I've discovered blogland..I do not know how I ever taught without it! But keeping a blog is a lot harder than reading them ;)

This week we've been working super hard on our sight words! After Christmas, I tested my students, and it seemed as if we had forgotten every..single..sight word we've ever learned :) So, since then, I've made sure, to get all of that extra practice in! One of my favorite ways is to "Line Whisper". In the halls, I carry a little set of flash cards. When we are waiting to enter specials, or our destination, I show them the card, they whisper the word. They love it!

Of course, work stations is the best time to get our practice! I've been working on work stations for the past two weeks non stop. Just when I feel like I have every skill they need, I discover another area that we need help! I do not think I will EVER have enough work stations/centers..you know? Seems like we always need something!

Their favorite work station was the "Sweet Sight Word Memory". This came out of my Valentine's Day Packet. You can check it out  Here. ANDDDD

Another favorite--Sight Words Tic Tac Toe

I am running a little sale to help my fellow teachers :)

I'm also coming up with extra ideas for Main Idea. So till next time....

~Ashley~