Sunday Grading

Anyone else out there find that Sunday is grading day?  We cleaned the house, did the laundry, and the kid's rooms are clean too.  My husband even went to the grocery store and stocked us up for the coming week.  Now, I have my typical giant stack of papers to grade.  The funny thing is, when I go to pass out the papers to the kid's mailboxes- it looks like only 3-5 pages going home to parents.

To those in older grades, this probably doesn't look like much.  It takes me about 2-3 hours.  I believe one of my awesome 5th grade friends/colleagues takes many more hours than that....I know, the older the grade, the more grading involved!  My brother is a college professor and he practically grades papers 24/7.

So, to give a little love out there to those Sunday graders- here is a freebie to help sweeten your grading adventures.  Think like a first grade teacher and don't forget the cute stickers on all the papers!!!

Click the picture below to download the freebie.  Enjoy!  If you wish to, show me a little love on my TpT sight by doing a little more "grading" and rating my freebie.  Thanks for your time and happy grading!!!

Amy

Clutter Free Wannabe- Week 2

My Week #2

So this post is supposed to be about my plan to create a clutter-free class environment.

  

Rules:

1.  If I haven't used it in 2 years, get rid of it.  This one might hurt, I am not good at letting go of stuff that I think "I might use another year, if I switch grades again."  I don't hoard, but I certainly can't stand when I start a different grade/return to a grade and I got rid of something I bought and I used other years happily.  BUT- I can do it!

2.  Go through 7-10 files a week to get rid of unwanted extra papers and re-file in a binder or another more manageable and/or attractive way.

3.  Be decisive about the management of each area in my room.  If it feels like the area doesn't work-change/fix it!

4.  If it is large and creates wasted space, get something smaller and  more effective.

5.  If it doesn't get used, get rid of it.. 

Well, there you have it.  I am officially ready to get organizing.  I will begin Monday!  Pictures of some reorganized areas of the room to come next week.

Amy

Friday Flashback and Five

Flashback and Five:

I'm linking up (late) again.  Here are the five things from the week I want to highlight.

1.  My daughters did an amazing job this week at a HUGE musical our school put together.  I also was proudly watching my 1st graders in it too!  My eyes were looking everywhere, ha!  Here is a pic of my own kids as I don't like posting my student pics.

2.  We had an extra short week as we not only missed Monday for MLK, we also had half of Thurs away from school for our dress rehearsal of the musical at a church.  So, we were cramming in all sorts of things in odd places of the day.  Right before dismissal, we were practicing our math facts with giant blow-up dice that have facts all over them.  They toss the cube, and when they catch it they solve the fact that is under their right thumb.  They did this in small groups.  We will be starting timed math fact tests on Tuesday.  

Sorry- forgot to take pictures.  I'll try to get a pic of the dice soon and post it.

3.  My plan book is almost empty for next week...so that's what I'll be doing this weekend.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get a few weeks ahead now that the musical is done.  

4.  In math, we have been working on Unit 4 in the Everyday Math program.  I have been using my math menu that I have posted in TpT to extend/support the unit.  I use it with the kids during small groups.  If you want to look at it, click on either of the pics below.

5.  We began our big winter writing project this week.  Our outline is finished and we will move onto the rough copy this coming week.  I will post a picture of some outlines and rough copies next week.  

Happy weekend,

Amy

Clutter Free week 1

Ok, here come the before pictures.... be warned...I didn't pick up before hand.
I guess that's the point- it's real.


Anyhooo-
Here is the computer/teacher desk/file cabinet area.

    

Here is the reading group/small group area.

Here is my main dry erase board area/front of the room/storage for my binders and curriculum used daily.

This is my craft closet... all other classroom closet areas have stayed neat- but this storage area is messy!  I "shove" my craft materials in here.  I will probably start with this area to clean up first.  

Finally, here is the math station.

There are other areas I could have taken pictures of, but these are the areas I will be working on as they are not as organized as I would like them to be.

Wish me luck in all this organizational effort I have signed myself up for!!!
Amy

I'm a Clutter Free- Wannabe!

I am a person who is fairly organized, but can get disorganized when extra busy.  I want to be able to find any papers for copying easily and have a better set up for keeping all my anecdotal notes/running

records/etc.  My files could use an overhaul as well!

As I stated in an earlier post, I would like to be more organized and here is my opportunity!!!

This will also be great for the students, as I would like to have more signs/how to's posted in the room about how they should be doing their jobs in each area.  I want to simplify/stream line a few areas of the room set up.  

Sooo, I was very excited to see this challenge and happily am jumping on board!  

I will post pics tomorrow and catch up to the current weeks challenges.  I found this challenge a bit late...so I will try to do several challenge catch up posts as well as lesson/idea posts.

Phew....

Amy

Fabulous Finds!

I'm joining another linky party this weekend.  This one is for fabulous finds this year so far.  Click on the button above to join the fun that Fluttering Through First Grade began. 

Fabulous Finds-

 

 

So, for Christmas my coworkers got these cups for my kids.  Both kids got one of each.  I really like them for our commute into school and a few times the kids have used the Disney one for their water bottle at school. 

This one is a bit random, but we found these airplane carry-on friendly luggage sets.  We toted these all over the U.K. this December.  They were extremely handy and cute!  They each come with the smaller bag that mine is shown with.  The fun part, the set of each 2 bags was $30 on Amazon.  They had a huge variety of different styles/patterns.


Happy Sunday!
Amy

5 Random Things- Linky

Ok, I am a day late and dollar short, but here are my 5 Random things!

1.  This week we played a version of the snowball fight game using measurement.  I created different line segments.  One on the inside of each snowball- 6 in or shorter.  The students had a bit of fun with the snowballs, then were asked to grab 1 and take it to their seat to measure.  They wrote the measurement on a post-it and sorted themselves into like groups based on segment size.  We then quickly graphed the post-its on the board and discussed it in detail.
Good fun!

2.  This week (as seen in the post before this one) we had a super fun day.  Please check out the post to learn about our fun day.

 

3.  I love Thirty-One!  Here is one of my newer bags that I love!!!!  My dear friend Nina Kessler has sold me my Thirty-One bags and accesories.  Thank you Nina!  You may click the picture to go to her store.

4.  I would love to be more organized and have one of those classroom set ups that makes people oooh and ahhh when they enter.  Right now, it is fine.  Cute even.  But not a stunner.  I am starting my plans now for next year and would love some ideas on set up.  I have lots of green things and frog themed stuff.  I am happy to continue this but need new inspiration and organizational ideas for it.  Anyone? 

5.  I am having a "Dream" Sale this weekend.  Click the link below to check it out!

 

Happy Weekend!

 

Albuquerque Amy

http://www.teachingmaddeness.com/2013/01/friday-flashback-linky-geometry.html

MLK Day- I have a dream!

Phew, what an interesting week.  I had my first day out of school this year- sick as can be.  We actually had a 2 hr delay for snow on another day....that is VERY rare for my school.  It does not snow in ABQ often, but it is the hight desert...so it is possible....sometimes. 

Back to the topic:
Well, we loved "I have a dream" day in first grade.  We always have a great time with this cute event.  All week long we have been talking, reading, writing, and learning about MLK Jr. and a few other people who have made big changes in our country.  We wrote about our dreams to make our community, country, and world a better place.  The children thought of all sorts of great ideas.  They had a fun time brain storming ideas.  My favorite one was "We could give people houses who don't have them."  We then discussed why this wasn't feasable, but it created the question- then how do we help?

After brainstorming our ideas we wrote rough copies of ideas for our dreams and how we would make them come true.  I find the the second part, the how, very important.  I feel it's important for the kiddos to know that no dream comes to fruition without hard work. 

We transfered those ideas onto very cute bubble shaped dream clouds.  We used a big blue poster board to place the dreams onto.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic of the bulletin board to show you.  I don't know where the page came from (so can't post).  So I made a new and different one to share with you. 

Friday we came to school in jammies (to dream).  I left the lights off, and we presented our dreams to each other.  The parents sent in all sorts of yummy breakfast items for us like breakfast burritos (this is a big thing in NM), doughnuts, juice, yogurt tubes, etc.  We had breakfast as a class and enjoyed a delicious and dreamy morning!  It's always wonderful.  See the spread of yummy food below!

I had requested the breakfast items from parents a few weeks in advance.  I am super lucky to have such supportive families who want to help as much as they do.  Below is the sheet I used to collect the "votes" on food/drinks.  Click on the link to "grab" it.  It is capable of being edited to suit your needs.  Although, it is my first time placing editable items on the blog, so please email me if there is a problem and I will try again.  :) 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5QtrbU8ICMwel9FRE9XbXVwYzg/edit

All of these great ideas for the Dream Day were created/started by my amazing colleagues.  I work with very creative, rock star teachers.  Thank you Caroline and Colette for being you!

Happy MLK day and have a super great 3 day weekend!
ABQ Amy

Math Menu #4

Well, I have been working on getting some items into my TpT store.  Here is one item that I have completed and uploaded.  It is a math menu that incorporates measurement, Base-10 blocks, time lines, time to the 1/4 hr, and thermometer reading.

Click on the image below to check out my math packet in my TpT store.

We are preparing for a special day in our first grade that we look forward to all year. MLK- I Have A Dream Day. We have a great time celebrating the life of MLK and all the fun activities that go hand and hand with his life mission.  I expect to post a few details about this special day. 

 



 

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well, I fell off the blog world for a bit there.  I was busy with all the holiday things going on around us and had a super neat trip to the U.K. and Paris.  My family had a lot of new experiences and great fun.  My favorite part of the trip was Scotland and a London tour of how the Harry Potter movies were made.  I'm a mega fan.  I would love to be a writer too, but in a different way than J.K. Rowling.  I want to be more like Lois Ehlert or Dr. Seuss.  Well, suppose you have to try to get published to be a writer.... maybe someday I'll put effort into that.  Below is a picture of the family inside the London Eye...which is a very tall and very cool ferris wheel.

Now that the big holidays are over and I'm back to reality, I am working on a few new TpT items.  I will have at least one posted by the end of this week.  I hope everyone is starting 2013 with renewed energy.  Happy New Year!