100's Day Fruit Loop Necklaces

We had the best time making our 100's Day necklaces this year.  To be honest, making the necklaces with excited little ones can be slightly stressful unless one is completely organized.  I have found two ideas that really help make the fun task a lot easier.  First of all, I always have the students organize 10 groups of 10 Fruit Loops to make sure they have 100 Fruit Loops.  We always use our Counting Mats to help with this.   When the students are ready to string the necklaces, I place a piece of tape on a piece of yarn and tape it to the desk so that the Fruit Loops will not fall off the other end.  I also tape the other end of the piece of yarn so the Fruit Loops will slide on easier.  After the student places one group of ten onto the yarn, they place a gummy Lifesaver to keep track of each group of ten.  The result is a colorful necklace that the kids are so proud of.  Hope everyone had a Happy 100's Day! 

Monkey Binders are the Best!

This Monkey Binder is the best organizational tool in my classroom.  It keeps all of us super organized (especially ME!)
Every student has one and everything that needs to be communicated between home and school is in one safe place. 

This Money and Note Pouch is the place where all money and important notes are placed.  No more lost money or searching for notes!

The students have learned that this pocket is for papers that can be taken home and left there.

This is the pocket where papers that need to be returned go.
Our Binders also keep our homework agendas too.  This tool has proven effective year after year to make life so much easier! By the way, all clipart is D.J. Inkers!  

Valentine Handprint Heart

This is such an easy craft to decorate the hallway with this time of year and then send home as a sentimental keepsake.  Simply paint the student's hands with a mini paint roller and then have the student press down inside a cut out heart.  Fingerprint dabs around the edge of the heart, some ribbon, and decorative scrapbook paper really coordinate the whole project.  

Love, Love, Love this time of year!

I went grocery shopping after school today and right in the middle of the cereal aisle I saw a display with these darling pink and white marshmallows.  Immediately, my mind thought of Valentine Smores!  I made this for my son tonight and he thought it was awesome.  That is why I just love this time of year!  It is a great time to indulge in chocolate and marshmallows:)

Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere!!!!

These were the covers of our Penguin Reports.   The students created  a penguin by drawing and cutting simple shapes such as ovals and circles.  I used several pages from Deanna Jump's Penguin unit for the report.  It is an awesome resource!

Our Penguin Vocabulary.  I love having the students  draw a visual to match our vocabulary words.  

Our Penguin diagram.  The students completed a page in their Penguin Reports which included a diagram.  We discussed how diagrams are often found in nonfiction books to show information.  

The pocket chart shows words we used in our writing.  We had a great time placing these words in ABC order too.

I LOVE this organizational strategy to organize our thoughts.    It helps us stay focused in our writing.

Our class library contains both nonfiction and fiction books.  The students just love the fictional stories about Tacky!
This week, we are each creating a Penguin character and writing fictional stories about our own penguin characters.  The stories are turning out really well.  Tacky has been such an inspiration!

Student Writing Checklist

We have been working very hard on our writing these past few weeks in first grade.  One chart that has been really helpful is our Student Writing Checklist which we keep in our Writing Folders.  After writing a piece of work, each student goes through the five part checklist to make sure they remembered all of the important stuff. This checklist has really cut down on my reminders and it has helped our writing time run smoother.

Be A Responsible Problem Solver!

We have been working very hard this year to be Responsible Problem Solvers!  This visual really helps us remember to stop, walk away, and tell a teacher if we are being bothered on the playground or in the classroom.  This visual also reminds the students that they have the power to react to issues in an appropriate manner instead of losing control.  We usually review the steps if we are having an off day and it helps to get us back on track.