New Journey's reading packs in Spanish - What???????

I think I heard crickets chirping when I logged into my blog today.  I really have been busy.  I taught 2 weeks of summer school which ended today.  (picture me doing a happy dance)

I have been working to translate my Journey's reading units into Spanish and the first book is nearly done.  I have had many requests to do this and finally had the time to do it.  (With MUCH help from Melissa Martinez - can't thank her enough!!!) Click on the picture below to check out the first story "What is a Pal?"

I also have some news.  My first grade team will be team teaching next year.  Two teachers will be considered a team. We have 6 teachers in all, so we will have 3 teams.  I am teaching the math and science.  My team teacher will be teaching ELA and social studies.  We will start the day with our home room and then switch and teach each other's home room.  It should be interesting.  We haven't figured out a schedule nor know exactly how this will work but I will be ready to dive in and figure it all out in August.

Hope everyone is having great, restful summer!!!

Owl Themed Activities Give Away and Freebies!

Hey Bloggy Friends!  Sorry I've neglected my blog for a bit.  Life happens.  I won't bore you with the details.  I'll just get on with this post.

We've been learning about owls and it has been FUN!  We dissected owl pellets and the students loved it!  

We did some math and literacy centers that were owl themed and I put them together in a packet that is in my TpT store.  Since I've been MIA for awhile, I have decided to give away 3 for free in hopes that I still have a few followers.  :) 
(Click on the picture to get a look at exactly what is in the packet)

Leave your email address in a comment and I will choose 3 winners on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I do have some other owl freebies for you.  Click on any of the pictures to grab yourself a copy.

ABC order:

Least to Greatest:

What Number Comes Before and After:

Missing Addend:

Happy Teaching!

Most Wishlisted Item Linky

I am joining a linky party today with Molly at Classroom Confections for The Most Wishlisted item in your Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

 

The most wishlisted item in my store is:

 

The following activities are included in this unit:
1. Story - "Aw! There's a Pain in My Jaw"
2. Two center activities sorting au and aw words
3.  "Open your mouth and say aw!" activity
4. Picture clue cards to go with au and aw
5. Write and illustrate a sentence with au and aw words
6. Sort au and aw words
7. Match the picture to the word center activity 

 

Click on the picture above to check it out and look around in my store for other fun, creative ideas to use in your classroom.

 

 

Inspector Hopper and TpT Sale

I love the story "A Boat Disappears" that we read last week in our basil.  I love all the humor in it and I love that my firsties actually got it!  Such a cute story.  Students had to decide what kind of detective they thought Insepector Hopper was and then they had to show evidence from the story to support their reasons.

This activity can be found in my Journeys® unit "A Boat Disappears" that can be purchased on TpT or TN.

 

All my units will be on sale for the

Teacher Appreciation Sales going on at TpT and TN.

 

Be sure and use the code TAD13 when checking out at TpT in order to get the addition 10% off.

 

Happy Shopping!

 

Character Traits

Happy Friday!!!  I thought it would never get here!  Due to the rain and cold, we missed recess most of the week and boy could you tell it.  Thank goodness the sun is starting to shine again in Texas!

We worked on character traits this week and I can honestly say that my kids got it!  I gave the end of story assessment and my lowest grade was an 80!  (Picture the clouds parting and angels singing.)

We started by discussing "outside" and "inside" charater traits.  Outside traits are the traits you can see.  Inside traits are traits you cannot see but you can prove by observing a characters dialogue and actions.  I made this pinterest inspired anchor chart as we discussed traits:

I then had my students write inside and outside traits about themselves:

They then had to choose two inside traits and show evidence using their actions or dialogue:

(I like how she used me in her evidence examples.)

We then moved on to story characters.  The story we were reading (The New Friend) is about a new boy moving to the neighborhood and 3 boys who become his friend.  I had the students choose a character and list two character traits about them and then provide evidence from the story that supports it.

With this same story, I had the students write sentences telling what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story.  They then had to illustrate their sentence.  I folded a 12x18 piece of manilla paper and made two cuts: 6 inches from the top 6 inches from the bottom.  I then had the students write beginning, middle, and end on the outside.  They opened the flap and wrote what happened and drew their picture.

Beginning:

This student wrote, "The three boys are curious because they want to know who is moving into the old house."

Middle: 

This student wrote, "They played soccer ball with Makoto.  They make a great team together.  They will be great friends.

End:

This student wrote, "The three boys were happy because Makoto was going to their school."

Happy Weekend Friends!

Journeys® "How Leopard Got His Spots" Freebies

 At the moment, I am obsessed with these:

Transparent Spinners

 

 

And so are the kids.  They think they are playing a game when I pull them out. 

 

You take the spinner and lay it on top of whatever worksheet you want to use and spin away.

On this particular worksheet, the students record their spin by coloring in the correct square on the graph.

 

 

The worksheet shown goes with the story How Leoporad Got His Spots that is in the Journeys® reading series or you could use them with a zoo or animal theme.

 

I also made an ABC order activity to go with this story:

 

You can get these two activities for free by clicking on the pictures above.

 

 

 

You can get 5 spinners at Nasco for $3.40.

You can also check out my whole unit "Journeys Literacy Activities for How Leopard Got His Spots - Grade 1"

by clicking on the picture below:

 

 

 

 



Literacy Activities for Journeys

Summer seems to be flying by.  I wish I had a "pause" button.  {sigh}

I've been working the past two days on two more packets for the Journeys reading series.  Here is a preview of both.

You can check them our in my TpT store  Here and Here

or

in my TN store Here or Here

 I hope you're enjoying every moment of your summer!!!

Idioms

Let's not beat around the bush.  My kids have spring fever.  Big time.  Teaching in my classroom is like pulling teeth.  But I refuse to throw in the towel.  I will bend over backwards to squeeze a few more drops of learning out of their little brains.

We are reading this story in our reading series:

It is a good story to use to teach idioms: 

We went over one of my old anchor charts. (not one of the best charts I ever made but you get the drift)

I was on cloud 9 after my students did this little writing activity. 

I wrote a list of idioms on the promethean board, we talked about their meanings and then the students chose one, used it in a sentence and then added their illustration.

This student wrote:  That ipad cost an arm and a leg. I wish I had $600 dollars.

This student wrote:  I took a cat nap on my bed.

This student wrote:  Man, that boy lost his head! 

You can grab yourself a copy by clicking HERE. 

Well friends, I'm calling it a day and hitting the road.  

I'm all idiomed out.

The Big Trip

Have you noticed how the Journeys series got really hard challenging all of a sudden?  But somehow we are plowing through it.  This week's story has tons of hard new words .  The skill with this story is compare/contrast so I whipped up a couple of things to go with this cute little story.
We completed this little Venn Diagram comparing/contrasting the two characters:

I don't have student samples of the next little activity but they turned out great too. (you'll have to take my word for it)

You can grab a copy HERE.