Halloween Exchange

Thanks to my sweet friend over at

I was able to get in on a fun Halloween Treat Swap!


Melissa connected me to another blogger in a state fairly far away...Jamie in Louisiana!  I was excited to send Jamie a package, and she sent one to me as well.  Oh my, hers is much cooler than mine!  I sent some fall scarves, nail polish, and spider rings for her class.  She sent a whole slew of stuff!!  I had to take a super fast pic in the car, as my kids couldn't wait to help me dive into all the candy!  They LITERALLY were yelling at me, "Mom, hurry up!  I want to eat it!"

Here are some of the things she sent:

My kids also confiscated a cat stacking tower that was very spooky.
Seriously, no idea how she found it all for our $15 price range!
Thanks so much Melissa for organizing this fun time.

Thank you to Jamie for the fun surprises.  It was like getting a party in a box!
Go check out her blog over at Teaching Tidbits and More.
Happy Tuesday!

New Threads

Well, the time had come.  I had a cool green/frog design for a year that I had made myself, along with Scrappin' Doodles clipart.  I needed something different though.  Something NOT green.  It's my favorite color, but I wanted a change.  So, I went to Dreamlike Magic Designs.  I looked up a template I loved, filled out the online order, paid a very reasonable price...very reasonable, and they installed it for me within 2 or 3 days.
I am super excited and absolutely pleased with the outcome.  You may notice a title change too.  I decided to take out the grade specific title.  Never know, in our teaching world, things change so quickly.  While I was changing the color/theme, I wanted to change my name to use the generic "Academics" instead of specifically 1st.  That leaves me open for new adventures down the unknown road of teaching!

Check out Dreamlike Magic.  I think you'll find it cute too.  Click the link below to check it out!  FYI, they did not ask me to review them...I just love it and am gabbing about it!!

http://dreamlikemagic.com/ 

On to other news!  I have a sale of my entire TpT store going on right now, until Halloween day.
Happy Monday everyone!

K-5 Learning

I am super excited to tell you about an invitation I just received in my email inbox!!!

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students.  I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program.  If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program. 
See more {HERE} or click on the picture above.

I already know the student I want to use this with/for.  I am excited to see what the student, parents, and I can accomplish with this program.  

Amy

Yuck, sniffle

Booo!  Being sick stinks.  I went to the doctors and learned I have bronchitis.  I was given a giant bag full of meds to take!  I barely take Tylenol, so I am not ecstatic.  Oh well.
While I was home and unable to do anything, I made some head way with getting our 1st grade ready for 50's day and the NM Fiesta we have coming up.  I made fliers to be used year after year for the fiesta.  Below is an example of just one.  I chose this one as the picture didn't show the kiddos face. The font is called Copper Doodle.  Thought it was cute.

The 50's flier I made uses font called Charlie Smiley.  The pics are from the net.  

Well, off to do more resting,

Amy

Oh Yeah!!!

I am actually on time for the 5!!!



Although, I'm in a hurry to go veg on the couch, sooo.....

No cute numbers today.

1

This is an example of what my kiddos did with their 4th grade buddies.  They wrote a poem together, created a balloon of their own, or a fave from the ABQ Balloon Fiesta.  Then they had cute balloon shaped cookie and some juice together.  I love, love, love our buddy time together.  It doesn't hurt that I think the teacher I'm paired with is a super cool lady.  :)  Technically, we did not do this, this week....but I just took it down from our bulletin board this week...counts, right?

2

As we are doing the NM unit study now, I also take a little time to discuss bats.  Why?  We have pretty cool bats here.  Down south in the Carlsbad area there is a well known cavern that has a nightly showing of a bat "tornado" exiting the caves.  It's pretty amazing.

3

We are almost totally finished with our expository fall writing.  First we did major brainstorms.  Then we worked together on the outline (each child has a different outline- this is just my ex).  Then we work step by step to form sentences for each example and detail.  It takes a LOOOONNNNNGG time to do this job and we only have a day or so left to wrap it up.

4

This is a pic of my kids rereading a basal story to each other.  They took turns to do "Read to Someone"- so far, they are doing a fabulous job with this.  We have not built a lot of stamina yet, but every little bit counts!

5

I created a few puppets for word work and put them into use this week.  I got all the balls from a tennis club- they had tons of old/flat tennis balls they were ecstatic to give to me.  I had my hubby cut the mouths (I was scared I'd cut a thumb off, knowing me) and then decorated the balls.  They kids use Bananagrams with the puppets.  The steps are:  spell voc word, say it, place letter tile (one by one) into the puppet, puppet says word, then pukes it all out- sound effects and all.  Then they respell, say and put away the tiles.  Then they will move on to the next word.  Click on the pic to snag the page that goes with the puppet word work on Google Drive.
No- I did not come up with this on my own (wish I had).  I got it from a Vegas conf one year.

Happy Friday!!!
Amy

1 year Blog-iversary!!!

Well, it has been 1 year since I started this blog-venture.  I have had a good time learning how this whole thing works.  I am so glad I started the blog.  It's been fun and I've gotten to know some pretty cool people through this experience.

As a thank you to the 124 BlogLovin' followers and 68 Blogger followers, I'd like to give a freebie to those who have read my silly little blog about teaching 1st grade- from my perspective.

Click the picture below to get the templates for your classroom.  I thought, with Halloween coming up, these might be fun to make with the kiddos.  The Google Doc shows the template for the wings, body, and nose.  I also added pony bead eyes.  You could draw a cute mouth as well, if wanted.  I did this one with felt, but you could easily use construction paper.  

Well, thank you to all the wonderful folks out there reading my silly thoughts.  Thank you for celebrating the joy of teaching with me!

Yours,
Amy

Catch up on the 5

Click the big button above to join in!

Well, we have been busy in 1st grade.  We went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch recently.  The

kids had a great time riding on a hay ride, picking pumpkins, playing on equipment, 

and seeing rabbits and goats.

It was pretty windy but, all in all, the weather was great.

We have been busy building Reading to Self stamina.  The kids are getting better and better at 

staying in one place, reading the whole time, reading quietly, and getting started right away.

We are getting ready for our NM Fiesta.  One of my favorite parts of this event is the Mexican Hat Dance!  Below are students from another year doing the dance.  There are a ton

of other activities done that day that are state themed.  I use my state study packet to learn

about our state.  Click the pic below to see the packet in my TpT store.

It's also getting close to Veterans Day.  Our school hosts a VERY big event for the Veterans to honor them and thank them for their service.  

More to come on this awesome day, but click on the pic below if you wish to get my FREE Veterans Day packet from my TpT store.

Fall Break!!!

It is Fall break for our school and most of ABQ schools.  We have off until Tuesday. 

Today, we went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta today.  

It was jam packed this year.  More than I have ever seen!

Below is a pic of my girls with a person from the Angry Birds hot air balloon.

The other is a balloon I was super psyched about- the Wicked balloon!!!  I don't remember that 

one from last year.  I love that play!  It's my favorite and I got all 

goose bumpy when I saw the balloon.  BUT- just look at the crowd 

(near the Wicked balloon) at 5:45 in the morning!

Happy Fall Break!!!

Amy

Daily Five Efforts

Well, this is my first year working on Daily 5 in any way, shape, or form.  Our school is in efforts of learning about and implementing ideas from D5 and CAFE.  So, I am trying to get it going in a way that works for me.  Here is the anchor wall that I have completed with my students.  

The kids are building stamina and working toward a few goals.  I am working toward goals as well.  I would like to be able to get to the point of the 5, where I am effectively using the CAFE as well.  I am not doing the true/real CAFE yet.  I assess, take notes, do a variety of checks, but not in the way that CAFE has set up.  I will get there near the end of this month I think.  I'm working on it.  Slow and Steady...

The Daily 5 title posters are from Amy Marshall at The Resource(ful) Room.  The larger posters are from Tracy Tegler at Creekside Teacher Tales.

So now, on to a linky.  Helpful Hints Wednesday....click the pic to join in on the fun.

 

Yesterday, I had a Read the Room freebie connected to my "trick-or-treat" from the Currently I had completed.  I realized at school that when copied on the copy machine, it looked terrible.  So, today I made a copier friendly version!  Click below to download both copies.

As for the hint, use this freebie with giant silly glasses, pointers, and/or a fly swatter with the center cut out so it may be a word whacker for the room reading.  I will try to post a pic of what that looks like in my room, soon.

Click {HERE} to get it. 

Happy Wednesday,

Amy

Yay, October Currently!!!

It's time for the amazing Farley's Currently, yay!  Click the link below to join.

I think this months Currently is super cute.  I always have such a fun time in October with Halloween- it's my 2nd favorite holiday.  We already decorated our house for it! 

Loving-  We have a field trip to a local pumpkin patch on Friday and it is such a fun place.  I am so excited to go!  There is a hay ride, corn maze, petting zoo, equipment to climb, giant slides, etc.  The kids have soooo much fun and so do the teachers.  I like buying a little special something there each year.  This year I get to wear the tie-dye shirt I got from last years field trip!  Tehe.

Thinking- I need to get my self in gear for working on words activities.  I would like to freshen up the routines.

Wanting-  In ABQ, we host an International Balloon Fiesta each year, beginning the 1st weekend in Oct.  We will go to it the following weekend, but we are super excited it is starting.  There are balloons of all shapes and sizes, fun games and contests that balloons take part in, and tons of yummy food!  We always like to go on the special shapes days.  My favorite is the Darth Vader balloon from Denmark.  They have people dressed as storm troopers for pic taking opportunities.  Neat!!!

Trick-or-Treat-  I have a quick "Read the Room" freebie below.  Hope you enjoy it.

Click the link {HERE}

Happy Tuesday,

Amy