Math Mats

 I love having my students use math mats to work out math problems.  

Here are a few pictures of my firsties working on comparing numbers.

I use math mats for lots of concepts.  Here is a number line mat for addition and subtraction.

I am going to try to put some of my math mats in my TpT store this school year as we do them, if you are interested.  

(I have most of them made, just not in nice little presentable TpT form yet :)

Right now, you can check out the two that I have already made and just in time for a TpT sale on 

Aug. 3-4.  Use code BTS21 for up to 25% off.

Click on the pictures to check them out.

Happy teaching friends!

TEKS Resource System High Frequency Words

Are you a first grade teacher in Texas using the high frequency words from the TEKS resource system?  I have a FREE resource you might find useful.  I created Rapid Response Sheets for all the HFW in Units 1-10 for first grade.

You can grab the resource by clicking on the picture below.

If you've followed my blog, then you know I love to use Rapid Response Sheets to practice sight words.  I use them daily at my guided reading table as a warm up.  As students come to the guided reading table, they grab a sight word sheet and start reading.  

I couldn't find a picture with students actually reading them, but I did find a picture that had the response sheets on the table.  Some info. about this picture:  the students read the sight words as a warm up, then they read out of their decodable reader, then they wrote sentences with sight words/phonics skills we were working on for the week.

(FYI, before using the rapid response sheets, I would have already introduced the words on Monday on the smart board, mapping out each word.)

I hope you find the resource useful for you and your students.

Happy Teaching Friends!

Sight Word: Because (or is it a sight word??)

 We are about to start our opinion writing and I wanted to make sure everyone in the class can spell the word "because" since we will be using it often.

"Because" is not what I consider a sight word since it can be spelled phonetically.  It is one of our syllable patterns:  VCV pattern.  I put the word on the board and we coded the word and sounded it out.

We then learned a song to help us remember how to spell it.

We put the word in big letters on our wall.

We've been practicing writing it during reading groups.

ALL my students can now spell "because" and it makes this teacher heart happy.

Happy Teaching friends!

Nonfiction Writing Research

 We recently wrote our nonfiction research papers and my kiddos did not disappoint!  This post seems long, but it's a fast read with lots of pictures.

I like to spread this out over a couple of weeks and I like the "I Do/We Do/You Do" approach when I teach writing.   I model what I want them to do, then we do it together, and then they do it independently.

I Do:

First, I read the story "Ladybugs" and modeled how to take notes as I read. 

Note:  Each box on the "note" page is a page of their book and it is listed on their  Table of Contents page.

Next,  I made an anchor chart to go over the nonfiction pages that I expected them to have in their book.  I showed them my nonfiction ladybug book pages that I had already drawn illustrations on (to save time) and I modeled using my "notes" sheet to write my sentences on each page.

We Do:

I  read the book "Sea Urchins" and while reading we filled out one "note" sheet together as a group.  

I gave them their blank nonfiction writing book and put our "notes" page under our document camera and they used the information to write their sentences.

"Looks Like" example pages:

"Eats" example pages:

"Habitat" example pages:

"Interesting Fact" example pages:

 

You Do:

I provided different books that I checked out from the library for the students to choose their topics.  I gave them a "note" sheet to take notes on while they read their book.  We then worked on one or two pages a day depending on how much time we had.  I love how they turned out.

Note sheet examples:

Finished Book examples:

Happy Teaching Friends!