Least to Greatest

We have been working on ordering three numbers from least to greatest and since we are learning about apples and Johnny Appleseed, I decided to make a little math center combining the two.
The students made towers of cubes to help with the concept. 

 

The kids are really loving this center, so I whipped up another one with a fall leaf theme for next week.

 

 

Feel free to grab yourself a copy by clicking any of the pictures.

Happy Teaching!

 

Back to School and a Freebie

Oh. my. word. I am sooooo TIRED. But. . . I must say that I love my new group of firsties.  We learned rules, rules and more rules the first week and this week we tried our hands at centers {so I can work with reading groups} and so far so good.  This group catches on pretty quick.

I'll take you on a little tour of the classroom.  (It won't look this clean again until next school year :)

You see that door in the back of my room. {pictured below} 

 Drives me crazy -NEVER closes. 

 BTW - check out the shape of my student desks.   There is not a good way to arrange those things.  They are also very heavy. And - the silver legs at the bottom are always coming out.  These were not designed for wigglers and let's be honest, first graders are wigglers and movers and hummers and noise makers and talkers and well, you get the point but I seem to be digressing . . . 

 

 

 

I had parents help sort supplies at Meet the Teacher and on the first day of school.  I had a basket for all supplies:

 

 

 

I put all our specials on these cute little clocks and then stapled them on the wall by our clock.  Even though this looks like it helps the kids, it is really up there to help me remember. 

 

 

 

My calendar math area:

(I do calendar math on the promethean board now so I shrunk my huge math area down into this smaller area and just put the minimum basics here.)

 

 

 

My two student computers are pictured below.  My teacher desk is behind the student computers. 

 

I came up with a new way  to manage those who need to take an AR test. {pinterest inspired, of course}   Everyone has an owl and they will move it to the cookie sheet when they are ready to take a test.  I will train them to push the owls up and put theirs at the bottom of the list.

(I got the magnetic cookie sheet at the Dollar Tree)

 

You could also use this same idea for:

1)  Attendance - everyone who is present can move their owls to the cookie sheet

2)  Lunch count - put a picture of lunch box and school lunch tray at the top of the cookie sheet  and have students move their owl under their lunch choice  (I will post a picture of this soon - the pieces for this are included in the freebie below)

 

You can grab yourself a copy of the owls and titles for the three choices shown above:    HERE

 

If you think of something else that is super cute to do with these, I would love for you to share!

 

 

 

Vocabulary Books

I made these vocabulary books for my new little firsties.  We will be using them throughout the year when we run across words that I think my firsties need to know.   

I like that I can use these for ALL subjects.

You can grab yourself a copy by clicking on the pictures! 

Happy teaching, friends!

Random Freebies

I've been trying to get my room ready and here are a couple things I have been working on and I thought I would offer them as free downloads because there might be one or two people who could find some use for them.

Here is my discipline board:

  Clothespins will go on the first purple oval  (Yes, that is really purple!  It is showing up blue in this picture)  When students misbehave, they move to white as a warning.  Then on to yellow and then red.

(Thanks Tammy and kindergarten ladies for this idea! 

And, thank you Tammy, for making me one!!!)

If you use Whole Brain Teaching, then you might recognize the rules in the picture (or not, since there is an awful glare on them.)

Rule #1  Listen when your teacher is talking.

Rule #2  Follow directions quickly.

Rule #3 Make smart choices.

Rule #4  Raise your hand when you wish to speak.

Rule #5  Keep your dear teacher happy.

You can download the rules HERE. 

I also decided to change the center tags I had on my poster and on the center tables.

(see the cute little owls with 1-5 on them)

If you want to read about how I do centers, you can go Here.

If you would like a copy of the cute little owls, just click on the picture.

I also made these desk tags.  You can grab yourself a copy by clicking on the picture.

Hope you are all getting your rooms off to a great start!