We Are Thankful!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend! Thanks to Leslie Ann at Life in First Grade for the idea for our Thankful Door!

Patterns

Today we started a short unit on patterns. Most of my students seem to already grasp the concept so we played a game today. In partner groups, one student created a pattern using unifix cubes and then put it inside a rolled up paper that I taped shut. Slowly revealing one cube at a time, the partner that created the pattern showed it to the other partner. The second partner had to guess what came next in the pattern.

Then each student had to choose three of the patterns they made and record them on a paper cube train.

It was fun to see them trying to make the patterns harder for their partner to guess! Tomorrow we will discuss the different types of patterns (AB, ABB, AAB, ABC, etc) and make patterns to go with each.

Orange Day

Oh my word, y'all! I can' believe how long it has been since I posted! We have been very busy, but I just wanted to update you on our fun day today. Inspired by First Grade a la Carte, we had "Orange" You Glad You Can Read Day! All my little ones dressed up in orange and brought in orange snacks.

Everyone had to have a taste of each and then we listed describing words about each snack.

My kids were so cute! And they had so much fun!

Meet the Teacher Monday!

Hi! It's Meet the Teacher Monday! I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin'...and excited to introduce myself to the blogging world! My name is Tanya and I teach first grade in Arizona. This is my 15th year teaching, and my third year teaching first grade. I taught 2nd grade for about 5 years and enjoyed it, but a few years ago I had the chance to move to Kinder, then I looped with my class to first. And I absolutely LOVE IT! So here are some things about me...

Things I Love!
1. My husband
2. Living in the desert. I love the heat...am not loving the humidity and rain right now, but we need it!
3. My bulldog
4. New markers...I bought a set of Mr. Sketch markers recently and I'm using them on everything! I'm finding lots of reasons to make anchor charts.
5. A quiet classroom in the morning. I like to get to school early and enjoy the classroom before everyone gets there...it's so relaxing!
6. A classroom full of children! I love the fact that we get a fresh start every morning!

Some interesting tidbits about me...
1. My first year of teaching was in first grade...I really thought I would not make it as a teacher after that year and I KNEW I would never teach first grade again...well, okay, I thought I would never teach first grade again. I am so glad I did not stick to that decision! At this point, I'm hoping I get to teach first the rest of my career!
2. I'm a mentor teacher for the first time ever...I'm hoping that I help my teaching partner, who's just out of school, not feel like I did after my first year of teaching. I want her to feel confident about her first year and excited that she chose teaching as a profession!

What I am hoping to accomplish this year...
1. I am implementing Daily 5/Cafe and Math Work Stations (Debbie Diller). I know, a lot in one year, but I am super excited and motivated so I have high hopes for myself...and my students!
2. Our school is starting to buy Mimio Interactive Whiteboards. Although I will be sharing with 5 other teachers, I get to figure out how to use it and help K-2 teachers (there's 6 of us) learn the basics. I am thankful that we are able to start using this technology and I have lots of ideas about how to incorporate it into my lessons!
3. I want a cute and fun blog! I love all the ideas I see out there...and I am just a little guilty of blog stalking...okay, a lot guilty! I oohhh and aaahhh over so many blogs and wonder if I'll be able to keep up, but got to try, right?

Thanks for letting me introduce myself! I am looking forward to meeting lots of you in the blogging world and hope you will stick around to see how our year progresses!

Learning about Shapes!

We've been reviewing the number of sides and vertices that different shapes have. We made this chart (got the idea from Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations) and then went on a walk around the school and found different objects for each shape. We had lots of fun finding things around our school!

Welcome to our Classroom!

Wow! It took me a long time to post these pictures! But here they are! This is our classroom:)

Our classroom library area...

Small group and guided reading area...

Our math work stations and math manipulatives...

This will be our writing area...this mural was painted by one of my parents a couple years ago, isn't it beautiful?

Thank Goodness for Smart Phones!

So...I'm not a big texter, I don't Facebook or Twitter, and I just got a smart phone about a month ago. It drives my friends crazy! 


Well, today I learned how valuable a smart phone can be. I got an email from Staples with the weekly ad and it had composition books on sale. So I got in the car and drove to Staple to buy a class set. When I got there, the sign for the composition books said $.15 for the first three and then $.40 for any after three. So I asked the cashier about it and told her about the ad I got and she informed me that the ad was for Tucson (our closest big city) and the sign was the right price and she could match the price but only if she had a copy of the ad. So I got on my little smart phone, signed into my email, pulled up the ad, and showed it to her. So guess how much I bought 30 of these little beauties for?

10 cents each, y'all!!!  That's 30 books for $3.00!!!

Gotta love a smart phone!

Coming Soon...pics of the classroom!

Hi, y'all! It's been awhile since I posted, but I have been enjoying the summer! I have been reading lots of blogs and getting lots of ideas for posts. I am excited to start posting a lot more often once the school year begins. So...on Tuesday I will have pictures of my classroom. I have been working on it this past week and it's almost finished! Stay tuned!

Math Work Stations Ch. 5

Wow! It's only Wednesday and I'm posting! I've been having fun learning how to blog...but boy is it more complex than I thought! Thanks to everyone out there that is posting...I'm inspired by your blogs and am finding things on your blogs that I want to learn how to do!

So, addition and subtraction work stations. We have the Investigations series and I think it is going to be a great resource for games and activities for my workstations.

Did you know?...Investigations has math games online. Many of these games will fit in perfectly with the math station activities. You should check it out..Just click here. Let me know if they will be helpful to you in class. I sure hope so!!!

I'm making this a short post...I want to start reading the next chapter. Thanks soooo much for everyone who is posting such great ideas. You have all been so inspiring and you are really helping me get excited about teaching again!

Math Work Stations: Ch. 4

I never imagined that when I started reading this book, that I would feel like I would be in the midst of totally revamping my math time! But, I am so excited, and completely busy!

Chapter 4 has really gotten me thinking about the beginning of the school year. Although this chapter has many ideas for a Kindergarten class, it will be a great place to start the beginning of the year for my firsties!

1.  How do you support math vocabulary (math talk) at Beginning Number Concepts stations? In my last post, I expressed that I have not done a great job with this. Every year, I have struggled with what to do because I don't hear a lot of math words when my students have been completing center activities. I am looking forward to using the math talk cards and I think that I will be much better about encouraging my students to use more math talk in our stations.
2. How do your students read, write, order, represent, or compare numbers? What activities support that? This past year, I bought a book titled "Magical Math Centers" available at www.helps4teachers.com/. This book has many activities I used that students can complete individually. There are activites for greater than/less than, place value, making numbers, etc. Many of the activities are presented in a game format so students really enjoy using them. There is also an accompanying book titled "Alfie the Alligator" that shows students how to compare numbers.
3. What is your students' favorite number concepts work station/activity? My students have always enjoyed activities that are treated like games.

If you haven't yet, check out all the freebies in the various posts...I have found lots of great ideas! Thanks to everyone who has posted...you all are giving me such great ideas!

On another note, please keep Arizona in your prayers! A wildfire is at the southern edge of our town and is growing. We are having wind gusts up to 50 mph and they have grounded all air support while the wind is up. It started last Sunday and has burned 21,000 acres. 47 homes have been lost. We have not had to evacuate, thank goodness, but there are many families that have had to leave their homes. There is no rain in the forecast...and no timeline as to when they will have it out. We are praying that it doesn't come into town any further than it has. if you are interested, it's called the Monument Fire. Thanks for your prayers!

Math Work Stations Ch. 3

Wow! After reading this chapter, I can see that I have a lot to think about in the next 8 weeks. In implementing work stations, I'm going to have to really rework my math time. How scary and exciting at the same time!


There were a lot of great points I took from this chapter:
1. Model, Model, Model! This is something I have not been great about in the past. Reading the examples of management problems in the book sound like Debbie Diller might have been spying on my classroom:) In a rush to get to the next thing we have to do, I have shown students once what to do in a center and then have been frustrated when they haven't followed directions. I must slow down and model a lot more!
2. I Can... lists: It will be so tempting to write these before-hand, but she makes a good point that the students will get more out of them if they help make them. I like how she says to show them the materials in the work station to "plant the seed" and let them help create the activities. 
3. Math Talk Cards: What a great idea! I have been thinking about how I am going to move my math area into a corner of the room. I am planning on using the wall to create a math wall...what a great area to post math talk cards after they have been created! On p. 54, she really hooked me when she says "By adding supports like the "I Can" list and math talk cards at stations, you'll find that children's work will by more productive and focused."  Love it!!
4. Start slow. The biggest a-ha I've gotten out of this chapter is to slow down. I tend to panic and feel like I'm not doing enough, so then I try to do too much and it always backfires. She really emphasized that you have to take the time to teach procedures and expectations early-on so that as the year goes on, the problems are not overwhelming!


Well, I have a lot to think about in planning for the upcoming year! I'm excited though! I am looking forward to math being fun, productive, and to borrow a word, rigorous! I will keep you all updated to my plans!!!


P. S.: Did you see all the dust in the picture in my last post? How embarassing! Oh well, welcome to teaching in the desert:)

Math Work Stations: Ch. 1 and 2

Hi! I'm glad to be joining up with the Math Work Stations Blog Party! I am excited to be thinking about how I "do" math in my first grade classroom. I'm looking forward to having the chance to make math more meaningful to my little ones!


Chapter 1
Unfortunately, I have not been doing work stations at all. I have had math centers but even they were only visited when we had time.


1. Materials used by the teacher first, then placed in the station: No
2. Materials do not change weekly, but rather changed to reflect the students learning objectives: No...not really...I don't change the materials weekly, but I have a mix of review of skills and math games we have learned. I definately need to work on the planning of this. 
3. All students go to stations daily: No
4. Materials are differentiated: Nope
5. The teacher observes work or meets with differentiated math groups: No, but I am going to start this coming school year! And I'm excited to learn how!


Chapter 2: Organize


I have just recently sorted and purged my math materials. So my next step is going to be to organize them into concepts and figure out how I am going to store them.

Here's my before picture. The wooden shelves are usually full of clear plastic containers with manipulatives. (They are currently being used for summer school.) But the containers are not labeled. So that is one of the things I will have to do. The colorful shelves are where my centers have been. My plan is to buy drawers and change these to work stations. 


So... I am excited for a couple of reasons. I am looking forward to having a clearer focus for math. I feel like I've been doing well, my kids learn...but I know I can do better and I sure would like for it to be fun! Also, this is technically my first blog post, so YAY!

My First Post!

I am so excited to be writing my first post on my new blog! I have been inspired by all the first grades blogs I've been following and decided it's time to get in on the fun! I look forward to sharing all the fun things my firsties are learning!