Made for 1st Grade

April Word of the Day

2012-03-07T19:08:00.001-08:00

We just uploaded our new April Word of the Day packet. It has 14 Easter and plant themed words that you can introduce throughout the month. It also includes 14 colorful posters for you to display each day as you introduce a new word.

Circle Story FUN {and freebies}

2012-03-06T19:03:00.001-08:00

This week the main story in our reading series is If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff.

We have been ~~patiently~~ waiting to get to this story for quite a while because last year we went ALL out and created an entire weeks worth of center activities and writing activities that went along with this story, as well as all of Laura Numeroff’s other circle stories. We combined them into one big unit and it is available to purchase in our TpT store.

We are planning to do the same thing again this year. Instead of moving on to a new theme the week before Spring Break, we are going to take the week off and have some circle story FUN with our kiddos!!!

Here’s a {sneak} peek at all of the math and literacy centers we will be doing.

We will also be doing these writing activities . . .

Our final project of the week will be to have our kiddos create a circle story of their own. They will use a graphic organizer to plan their story and then write it by modeling it after the format of the ones we had read throughout the week. We are always amazed by their creativity!!!

This year we also made a set of circle story themed Word of the Day worksheets and posters that we can use and display throughout the week.

to download a copy of them click {here}

We’ve also got a complimentary copy of one of the creative writing activities from our unit to share with you. It was originally created to use with our first graders, but we’ve added some additional pages to the end of it in case you teach a different grade. You can just have your students fill in the space with the appropriate grade level.

click {here} to download a copy

We’ve received several requests about some other activities that were featured on our class blogs during our circle story week last year. Unfortunately we don’t have the rights to share all of them with you. One of them was created by another teacher on our team and the rest are all worksheets that we have acquired over the years from resources like Teacher’s Helper.

March Madness

2012-02-29T20:25:00.001-08:00

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will be the first day of March.

We’ve got lots of fun activities coming up this month and we wanted to share a few things with you.

Thanks to so many great creators and sellers on TpT we are happy to announce that we are having our very first Dr. Seuss day . . . EVER . . . on Friday!!! We know it’s probably hard for you to believe that we have NEVER done anything to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday until now . . . but it’s true. We’ve got TONS of fun stuff planned for our kiddos on Friday. We have even invited them to bring their favorite Dr. Seuss books from home.

We wanted to start off the day the “Seuss” way so we made a little Word of the Day worksheet and poster to display.

click {here} to download

Today we made these cute little lion art projects to decorate our classroom bulletin board. We began by reading the book In Like A Lion Out Like A Lamb by Marion Dane Bauer. We talked about what it means when the weather comes in like a lion during the month of March and goes out like a lamb. Then we did a writing project to go with it.

Here’s a folder cover that tells you exactly what you need for this art project along with tracers and writing paper.

click {here} to download the tracers and writing paper

For all of you who will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, here is a graphing center we always use. Just laminate and cut out the shamrock cards and let your students sort them by color. Then they can use their graph to record how many of each color they have and use them to solve some basic addition math problems.

click {here} to download a copy

Here is a worksheet you can use with any book during the month of March. We usually pair it up with one of our St. Patrick’s Day listening centers. After reading (or listening) to a story let your kiddos go on a sound hunt through the book.

click {here} to download a copy

If you are a Houghton Mifflin user here is a sight word game our kids always LOVE. Just laminate the cards and use it during your guided reading time or let students play in small groups.

click {here} to download a copy

Leap Day Sale

2012-02-29T04:09:00.001-08:00

Don’t forget . . . today we will be taking part in the Leap Day sale on TpT along with lots of other great sellers. Every product in our store will be 20% off plus you can save an additional 10% off if you use code L2P9Y when you check out.

Lost!

2012-02-27T10:58:00.001-08:00

Last year we did a fun little writing activity to go with the main story Lost! in our reading series. The kids absolutely loved it and it sounds like a few of you did too because you’ve come across it on our class blogs and we’ve gotten tons of emails lately about posting all of the materials we used.

We began by making a Lost and Found box that was filled with items a first grader might really lose. We thought about just using items out of our school Lost and Found . . . but really, who needs 24 stories about lost mittens. So instead, we dug around at home through our kids treasures, and came up with some fun little items to put in our box.

Examples include: silly bands, toy cars, headbands, action figures, earrings, necklaces, etc. . .

Then we let the kids come up to the Lost and Found box that we made and pick one item out. As you can imagine it was a very tough choice. Their job was to use their item and fill out the graphic organizer by guessing who they thought lost the item they choose, where it was found and who found it. They also got to create a scenario of how it was lost. We of course practiced doing this as a group several times on the Promethean board using items from the box and working together as a class.

The kids were SO ready to write once they got their item.

Here’s an example . . .

After students finished filling out their graphic organizer they used it to write a story. You would not believe how this little pre-writing activity got their writing juices flowing because they turned out GREAT!!! So good that we asked our principal if we could bring them down and hang them up around the Lost and Found nook at our school.

To download a copy of the graphic organizer and writing paper click {here}.

We are planning to do this activity again later in the week . . . can’t wait!!!

Quick Trip

2012-02-27T10:26:00.001-08:00

This weekend we had the opportunity to meet up with the one and only Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade. It was just like getting together with an old friend . . . who just happens to be a celebrity!!! We had the perfect excuse because Diane’s daughters were playing in a softball tournament in Denton, TX (which just happens to be Cara’s old stomping ground) and Kelly has a friend that lives just south of Ft. Worth that she was dying to see . . . so we packed up the car and headed south on Friday.

Thanks to Mr. Schmelzer for being such a great chauffer. I’m sure he just loved listening to us talk about teacher stuff all the way to Denton and back!!!

We had the BEST time!!!. We met up at one of her favorite little Mexican restaurants and after three hours of nonstop talking and countless glasses of iced tea we headed out together to do some shopping. So fun . . . and we even found a cute little outfit for Abby that would go great with her unitard. We couldn’t resist texting her a picture!!!

Folks, we have to tell you Cara is as adorable in person as she is on her blog. She is such a generous and kind hearted soul!!! We definitely feel like we have made a good friend.

We need send out a big thank you to the dear young man working at the information booth at the mall. After several attempts he was able to snap this little picture of us together that we all {sort of} agreed on. Don’t think he really knew what he was agreeing to do when we politely asked him if he would take our picture. We are also very sorry to the people who were patiently waiting to get information about the mall from him. We really didn’t mean to get him so distracted from his job duties!!!

In other exciting news we are joining forces with several other bloggers and TpT sellers to take part in the AMAZING leap day sale. Don’t miss out on the savings . . . these kind of sales don’t come along very often. We are planning to make our wish list early because there are several great products we have been eyeing!!!

Sunday Spotlight–Houghton Mifflin Resources

2012-02-19T19:41:00.001-08:00

This week’s Sunday Spotlight is coming to you kind of late . . . at least it’s still Sunday!!! We’ve both been out of town most of the weekend with our kids activities. Diane has two daughters that both play softball at Emporia State University and their season is just beginning. She headed south to Oklahoma for games on Friday and is just now headed home. Kelly has a son who is involved in basketball so she was at an MAYB tournament today just up the road in Newton, KS. {She had to miss out on all the games yesterday because she had some of the yummy stomach stuff that’s going around}

So, what these two teachers need more that anything is a day off to relax and get their lives back in order. . . no luck with that though!!! We always spend President’s Day teaching our little darlings about our countries great leaders. If you are one of the lucky teachers out there that will be home reading this post while your still dressed in your favorite pj’s . . . let us just say we are jealous!!!! Then we want to pass some savings on to you.

This week we have a new Houghton Mifflin product we would like to share with you.

Many of you have purchased our Houghton Mifflin Resource Pack. One of the items we included in it is the set of weekly spelling words for themes 3-10 that we use. The series only provided 8 words each week that followed the phonics skill we are learning. Who has ever heard of only having 8 words. We thought it must be a misprint . . . but it wasn’t!!! We just couldn’t handle it, so of course we HAD to add 2 additional words to our lists to make it an even 10. Each week we chose 2 of the weekly sight words that we felt were important for students to learn how to spell correctly. We call them the “Writer’s Challenge Words”.

You can imagine how excited we were when a new blogger {Mrs. K’s Munchkins} contacted us about our spelling words. She’s been using our lists and has created a series of worksheets to go with them that incorporate the two extra “Writer’s Challenge Words” that we added. They are absolutely adorable and we have already got a set of them copied and ready to go for this week!!!

Head on over to her blog to read more about this great little product, download a free copy of the Theme 7 worksheets AND find out how you could win a complimentary set.

March Thematic Calendar & Units

2012-02-18T10:29:00.001-08:00

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at what March will look like for us in terms of thematic units . . .

We will be using math and literacy activities from the following units that we have created . . .

In our reading series we will be finishing up Theme 7 the week of March 5-9. That week our main story is If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff. Last year we developed an entire set of center and literature based activities to go along with all of Laura Numeroff’s other popular circle stories. It was one of our favorite weeks EVER. Each day we would focus on a different story and do an activity to go with it. Then at the end of the week our kids wrote their very own circle stories.

You can head over to our class blogs to see pictures and read about all the fun we had last year.

This year we decided to take a entire week off from our reading series. The week before Spring Break {March 12-17} we are not going to introduce any new skills. Instead, we are going to spend the entire week doing all of the activities in our Laura Numeroff Circle Story Unit.

Long A Videos {ai/ay}

2012-02-15T15:45:00.001-08:00

This week we have become Red-Eyed Tree Frog experts thanks to the main story selection in our Houghton Mifflin reading series.

One of us even became a Red-Eyed Three Frog expert . . .ha!!!

{Didn’t catch that until after she had already traced over her title with a Sharpie.}

Today we made these cute little art projects and did an informative writing activity to hang in the hallway. They turned out really cute and the kids wrote and wrote and wrote. It’s amazing how much they can write when they feel like they are real experts!!!

We are also learning about the long a sound spelled /ai/ and /ay/ this week. Here’s a few more videos to add to your library to reinforce this skills. They aren’t all as fun as the ones we posted last week, but the kids have still enjoyed them!!!

{Just click on each picture to view the video clip.}

Wild About Weather

2012-02-14T15:32:00.001-08:00

So, we’ve been crossing our fingers for some winter weather here in Kansas for the past month.

Maybe even a SNOW day.

Well we got what we wished for . . .kind of . . . it did snow, but not enough to cancel school. Just enough to make our playground white for a day and then a horrible muddy mess for the rest of the week. So you know what that means . . . indoor recess!!!

Hopefully you are a little more wild about the weather where you live? Maybe you are even gearing up for a weather unit in the upcoming weeks. If so then check out our newest creation. It’s called Wild About Weather Math & Literacy Centers. It’s got 11 math and literacy centers that reinforce many of our basic first grade skills.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

To read more about everything that is included click {here}.

Happy Valentine’s Day friends!!!

Sunday Spotlight

2012-02-12T07:14:00.001-08:00

During the past year there have been lots of inspirational ladies who have given us advice and featured our little ol’ blog and products on their blogs. We would like to give a big shout out to Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade, Abby Mullins from The Inspired Apple, Brooke Perry from Primary Perspectives, Gladys from Teaching in High Heels, Rachelle Smith from What the Teacher Wants and Mrs. Larremore from Chalk Talk. We are probably leaving somebody off this list, but please know how grateful we are for all of your LOVE and support!!!

So this week we are thrilled to be able to do the same thing for a fellow Kansan who is a new blogger and seller on TpT . . . meet Mrs. Mackey from Mackey’s Classroom.

We are teaming up with her for a giveaway. If you head over to her blog you can read all the details and find out what you need to do to win her set of Luck O’ the Irish Math and Literacy Centers

AND our {new} set of Lucky Leprechaun Math and Literacy Centers.

Help us welcome her to the blogging community. Please show her some bloggin’ LOVE!!!

Long E Videos {ee/ea}

2012-02-10T04:21:00.001-08:00

This week we have been learning how to decode and read words that have the long e sound. . . which means we finally got to have some formal lessons about vowel pairs.

Here are some links to a few of the fun YouTube videos we’ve watched throughout the week. Just click on the pictures to view each video. They are from two of our favorite educational series {Between the Lions & The Electric Company}.

They all make great little lesson openers to reinforce the skills you are covering.

Lucky Leprechaun Centers

2012-02-09T16:27:00.001-08:00

We feel like we are seeing green around here. For the past ~~few~~ several days we have spent countless hours each night updating all of our old St. Patrick’s Day centers and combining them into one unit. We’ve even made a few new ones!!!

Lucky Leprechaun Math & Literacy Centers is now available in our TpT store.

It includes 7 math and 7 literacy centers. It’s so big because we usually spend two full weeks doing Lucky/Leprechaun/Shamrock Activities in March before Spring Break.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

Head on over to our TpT store to read more about each center and pick it up at a discounted price.

Sunday Spotlight – Long Vowel FUN

2012-02-05T08:17:00.001-08:00

This week we are featuring our Long Vowel FUN unit. It includes a variety of activities that reinforce long vowel sounds. Each week students can practice working with long vowel words that go with the target vowel pattern you are teaching. We use these activities each week during guided reading, during our tiered reading intervention time and as independent practice. Our kids absolutely LOVE the decodable word games. Once we have introduced a new skill and played the game throughout the week we leave them out for the students to play when they have spare time with a partner or small group. Believe it or not . . . they actually fight over which game they are going to play!!!

Activities include:

(8)cut/paste real and nonsense word sorts
(8) rhyming word production worksheets
(8) cut/paste sentence scrambles with missing punctuation and capitalization
(8) decodable word games that can be played in small groups

Here’s a {sneak} peek at a sample of each activity included in the unit.

Here is a listing of all the long vowel patterns that are included in each set of activities

Our Long Vowel FUN unit will be on sale all week.

Enjoy some savings today on every item in our TpT store. Through the end of the day everything is on sale. We wanted to offer you a “Quarterback” but 20% was the best TpT would let us do!!!

March Word of the Day Packet

2012-02-04T12:40:00.001-08:00

We just uploaded our new March Word of the Day Packet. It has 15 St. Patrick’s Day and weather themed words that you can introduce throughout the month. It also includes 15 colorful posters for you to display each day as you introduce a new word.

Product News and Updates

It was about this time last year when we {really} got involved with TpT. What an adventure it has been!!!Even though our membership dates back to December . . . we really didn’t start actively listing and creating new material to sell online until sometime in February. Since then our computer/design skills have dramatically improved and we have began selling many of our activities in thematic units instead of individually. Currently we are in the process of updating many of our older items and giving them a little facelift. We are also combining them into bundled math and literacy sets similar to the ones we have been selling since earlier this fall. We also have plans to add some additional activities to many of our units so be on the lookout and make sure you download the revised copy when it becomes available. We would also like to advise you to make sure you have downloaded a copy of all of your purchases. As we update old products we will be removing them from our TpT store.

We are currently hard at work on our revised set of St. Patrick’s Day Math & Literacy Centers and our Weather Math & Literacy Centers.

Stars and Stripes Presidents Pack WINNER!!

2012-01-31T20:16:00.001-08:00

Congrats to Kara! We will be sending you your winnings soon! Be looking for it! We thought your idea of your mom being president was awesome! Mom’s can do almost anything…so why not president!Thanks to everyone that entered our blog give away! If you are still wanting our Stars and Stripes unit we will put it on sale through the weekend! Enjoy!

Sunday Spotlight - Reading AtoZ Resources

2012-01-29T07:17:00.001-08:00

Each Sunday we are going to begin spotlighting one of the products in our TpT store. Not only will we link you up with previous posts about how you could use this product in your classroom, but . . . we will also offer it at a discounted price throughout the week.

As first grade teachers we know that everyone has probably dove in head first with long vowels by now. Some kids may be swimming right along and reading everything you put in front of them . . . but let’s admit it . . . there are probably ~~a few~~ several who are sinking at this point. Everything they ever knew about vowels has started to change. It’s a lot to take in and process for their little brains!!!

Just last week Diane’s class was working on a morning job and one of her kiddos came up to her desk looking very confused. She thought the question she had to answer on her worksheet said “What’s your favorite snake?” when really it just said “What’s your favorite snack?”. You can imagine the confusion because she didn’t have a favorite snake!!! Nor do we . . . unless dead ones count!!!

While our reading series {Houghton Mifflin} provides lots of take home books and guided reading books we are always looking for additional resources to use with all levels of readers to reinforce the phonics skills we are covering. Luckily, we have access to a great database of decodable readers through Reading A-Z thanks to our school district.

Click {here} to read the post we did earlier this fall about Reading A-Z.

So, with all of this being said . . . this week’s spotlight item is our Reading AtoZ {Long Vowel} Resource Pack. It includes over 20+ printables that you can use with the long vowel books available on the website. Each worksheet contains open response questions as well as a spot to record words from the story that follow the target phonics pattern.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

We must tell you that there is a membership fee associated with this website . . . and for a {very} limited time they are offering a discount. It is worth every penny!!! We would be lost at guided reading without these books. They are such a useful resource AND once they are printed you can use them over and over again.

Stars & Stripes Math and Literacy Centers

2012-01-28T07:58:00.001-08:00

We just got our new set of Stars & Stripes Math and Literacy Centers posted over on TpT. Hopefully this will give all of you planners out there a head start on your February lesson plans. We know first hand just how time consuming it can be to get everything laminated, cut out and organized.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

We are excited to announce that we are teaming up with Rachelle over at What the Teacher Wants for a BIG President’s Day Giveaway. One lucky winner will get a complimentary set of our Star & Stripes Math and Literacy Centers AND her {fabulous} President’s Day and U.S. Symbols Unit.

For one chance to win leave a single comment on this post telling us who you would think would make a good president and why . . . have fun with it!!!

And, guess what? Not only are we giving away a set of these two resources to a commenter on this post, but Rachelle is doing the same!

{Contest ends on Tuesday at 9:00 pm CST.}

February Calendar & Word of the Day Worksheets

2012-01-27T21:17:00.001-08:00

We’ve been getting lots of requests for another monthly calendar. . . so, here’s a little {sneak} peek at what’s coming up for us during the month of February.{We are also looking forward to our special visitors who are coming up to Kansas to meet us and spend some time in our classrooms in a few weeks. Should be so fun!!!}

In other news . . .

Diane has been hard at work ALL night getting our new set of February Word of the Day worksheets ready to post. We know some of you are just dying to get your hands on them. As a reminder we use an old set that was made several years ago that follows our weekly sight words from Houghton Mifflin. Students always begin their day with a new word of the day worksheet. We also have the word of the day displayed in our room on the Word of the Day board. Then we supplement these thematic words in throughout the week as we begin learning more about specific topics or holidays.

We both really like the new format of our thematic word of the day worksheets . . . and our kids do too!!! They seem to the challenge the kids a bit more since they have to unscramble the word and write both an asking and a telling sentence. So, our next BIG project will probably involve remaking our Houghton Mifflin Word of the Day worksheets. You may have to wait until summer for that, though!!

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at one of the worksheets and posters that are included in this set.

If you have any March/Spring word suggestions let us know . . . we will be getting to work on our next set very soon and would love to have your input.

100th Day of School

2012-01-22T07:56:00.001-08:00

Since the 100th Day of School is just around the corner {Friday to be exact} we decided to update a few of our favorite 100th day products that are in our TpT store and offer them to you at a discounted price through the end of the week.

If you’ve already purchased one of these items head over to TpT and grab yourself an updated copy.

Let you students flip a coin 100 times and record if they got heads or tails OR let them roll a dice 100 times and record what number they roll each time. Then they can color code each turn and create a math problem that should equal 100. It’s fun to get out the calculators to let them check their work!!!

{click on pictures to view products}

We always let our students make their own book about the number 100. On each page they have to finish the sentence to tell about 100 things they could lift, 100 things they would like to eat, 100 things they would not like to eat, what they would do with $100, what they wished they could have 100 of and what they would never want to have 100 of. There is also space for illustrations on each page.

click {here} for book & preview

One of our favorite books to read on the 100th Day of School is I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words by Michael Frith. After we read the book we let students make a book about 100 words they can read and write. They are always shocked to see that they know so many words!!!

click {here} to preview the book

graphics courtesy of Scrappindoodles

Writing Showcase

2012-01-21T07:12:00.001-08:00

This past week we found several writing opportunities for our kiddos and we thought it would be fun to show off a few. At this point in the year all of our first graders are writing!!! So exciting!!! Like anything you do . . . it takes a lot of pain and practice to get to this point . . . but when you see writing samples like these you know that it was worth the work.

Diane’s class read several biographies about MLK at the beginning of the week and made these pictures of him. Then they wrote about their dreams to make the world a better place.

Wow, 6 and 7 year olds really do understand that we need to work together . . . they did an amazing job telling about their dreams!!!

Kelly’s class did a few winter themed writing projects. First they read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Then they made a cute little art project inspired by the main character in the story . . . thanks Mrs. G for the cute idea . . . and they wrote all about one of their snowy day experiences.

Students seem to do their best writing when they can relate to the subject and can draw on their own experiences. So, building a snowman was the perfect topic for a technical writing piece. At the end of the week they made their first “How To” book. They began by reading The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler. In the story the main character, Little Nell, learned that even though she is little she can do BIG things . . . like build a snowman.

After reading the story the class worked together to create a word bank on the Promethean board. Then they got to work in their books sequencing the four pictures and writing. Students were encouraged to add details and descriptive words to make their writing more interesting to the reader.

When they finished their writing they got to decorate the front of their books with this cute little snowman art project. It was inspired by a painting we found online 3 or 4 years ago. Since then we have seen several variations of it, but are not able to find the original. So . . . if you are the creative soul who originally designed this . . . we say “Thank You”!!! We love it!!!

It’s been popping up all over Pinterest this week from our class blog posts from last year. We’ve also received several requests for the dimensions so {here} is the folder cover we made with a list of everything you will need to have your kids make it.

Happy writing everyone!!!

Brush Up with Math & Literacy Centers

2012-01-19T17:35:00.001-08:00

Let your students “Brush Up” on their math and literacy skills with our brand new set of dental themed centers. Head on over to our TpT store to check them out.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

Check back this weekend to see a preview of our February calendar and read all about the fun snowman/winter activities we’ve been doing this past week in our classroom.

Kansas Activities

2012-01-15T12:15:00.001-08:00

So . . . it sounds like there are a lot of you out there in blog world that are enjoying a three day weekend. Man are we jealous!!! We ~~have~~ get to spend the day attending a health fair and lots of exciting meetings in our district. I bet you’re a little jealous now, right?!?! As a little treat for all of you who will be at home we decided to throw a sale in our TpT store. Through the end of the day tomorrow every item has been discounted 20%.

As we’ve mentioned before, every year we celebrate the birthday of our great state of Kansas at the end of January {January 29}. We always do lots of activities that teach our students about the symbols of our state. You can click on our class blog links below to see and read more about what we’ve done in the past.

This year, however, we are going to do things just a little bit different. It’s always fun to mix things up a little bit, right??? So, we’ve made a new set of Wonderful Wizard of Oz Math & Literacy Centers that we will be using during center time to reinforce several of the skills we have been working on. Then we will supplement a few of our favorite {older} activities into our schedule throughout the week. These are activities and project that students can do independently at their desk or with a partner.

So, if you are a Kansas teacher here are a few freebies just for you!!!

The first one is a book that we will use at the end of the week. After learning about the state symbols student will glue them in ABC order. Then they will write a complete sentence about each picture using correct capitalization and punctuation. We will create a word bank on the board for students to refer to that has words such as: bird, mammal, insect, flower, tree, amphibian, reptile to use in their writing.

click {here} to download Kansas Symbols activity

We also have a cut and paste set of Kansas sentences that students can unscramble to learn facts about our state. Students will cut out each row and arrange the words to create a complete sentence about our state symbols. Then they will write the sentence correctly on the line using their neatest handwriting.

click {here} to download the Kansas Sentence Scramble activity

Another fun activity that students always enjoy involves using a map of the state of Kansas. Somehow we both ended up with a class set of Kansas maps years ago. They sat in our cabinets untouched for several years. Then we created this little activity. You would be surprised how much fun your students will have working with a partner to find towns on the map that begin with each letter of the alphabet. It’s great little exploration activity to introduce basic map skills.

click {here} to download the Map of Kansas activity

We are both BIG basketball fans so we created an activity that focuses on writing numbers in expanded form for three well knows Kansas teams. Usually at this point in the year we have just introduced this skill in our enVision math series. On each score card are the scores for all three basketball teams. Students have to write each teams score in expanded form. Then there is a separate space for them to order the numbers from least to greatest and write who had the highest score for the week.

click {here} to download the Kansas Basketball activity

We also like to have a Kansas spirit day. It’s always a lot of fun because all the kids on our team (of four classes) show up decked out in their favorite Kansas team clothing. Several of you have seen our class blog posts and asked for copies of the tracers for our Jayhawk and Wildcat art projects that we do on this day. We would be more than happy to share them with you. We typically let students choose which project they would like to make and then hang them out in the hallway with a sign that says {A Classroom Divided} or {A Hallway Divided}. This year we will be mounting them on the front of our conference folders. Conferences just happen to fall the week of our Kansas celebration .

click {here} to download a copy of the Wildcat and Jayhawk tracers

And help us give a BIG thanks to our friend and fellow teacher Miss Keckler for letting us share the Jayhawk tracers she made. Both art project fit nicely on an 9x12 white background to display.

Magical Giveaway Winner

2012-01-11T16:20:00.001-08:00

Thank you so much to everyone who entered their name in our Magical Giveaway.

And the winner is . . .

Heart Attack Math & Literacy Centers

2012-01-10T19:22:00.001-08:00

We are excited to announce that we just got our new set of Heart Attack Math & Literacy Centers posted tonight on TpT.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

We also have a sweet little freebie for all of you!!!

click {here} to download a complimentary copy

It’s a cut and paste number order activity. Watch out though because we decided to mix it up a little bit this time and have our kids put the numbers in order from greatest to least.

If you haven’t entered your name in our Magical Giveaway it’s not too late yet. Tomorrow one of our lucky followers will get a complimentary copy of our Wonderful Wizard of Oz Math and Literacy Centers and Abby’s We’re Off to see the Wizard Literacy and Math Unit.

You can also head over to The Inspired Apple to get an additional entry.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

2012-01-09T15:22:00.001-08:00

At the end of January we will be celebrating Kansas’ birthday and learning lots of FUN facts about our great state and our state symbols.

It wouldn’t be a week about Kansas if we didn’t take a little trip down the yellow brick road. So, we will be doing lots of {new} literacy and math centers that we’ve just created that are themed around the classic Wizard of Oz fairy tale by L. Frank Baum.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at all 8 of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz Math and Literacy Centers that are included in our new unit.

And thanks to our blogging friend Abby over at The Inspired Teacher we will also be doing some fun writing and art project, too!!! She was SO kind to share her popular We’re Off to See the Wizard unit with us that she created last year.

We are teaming up with Abby for a Magical Giveaway.

One of our lucky followers will get our Wonderful Wizard of Oz Math and Literacy Centers and Abby’s We’re Off to see the Wizard Literacy and Math Unit.

To enter this giveaway all you need to do is post a single comment completing this sentence:

“There’s no place like ________!”

We will choose our winner on Wednesday. Good luck to all of you!!!

Mitten Freebies

2012-01-05T16:03:00.001-08:00

Winter is definitely NOT in the air here in Kansas, but we have been busy all week learning about animals and how they survive in the winter. It seems a little funny to be talking about this topic while we look out on the playground and see kids running around in short sleeves.

Despite the weather, we will still be doing lots of mitten activities next week and we just posted a few freebies over on TpT that we would like to pass on to all of you.

The first is a cut and paste number ordering activity. Students will cut out each row of numbers and glue them in order from least to greatest on the blank record sheet.

click {here} to download a copy

The next is a cut and paste {long a} real and nonsense word sorting activity. This set of words is included in our Long Vowel FUN unit. Since we will be doing mitten themed activities all week we thought it would be fun to have students sort their words and glue them on mittens instead of the generic worksheet we typically use.

click {here} to download a copy

We would also like to give a little shout out to a fellow Kansas teacher {Mrs. Mackey} who just began blogging. Head over to her blog and check out some of the fun things she is doing with her kiddos.

Ringing in the New Year {Winner}

2012-01-04T17:00:00.001-08:00

Today we returned to school and had a great time catching up with our kiddos and ringing in the new year. We spent most of the morning learning about what it means to make a resolution. Then we made this cute little craftivity that we ran across online from A Cupcake For the Teacher. You definitely need to head over to her blog and check out this and lots of other cute ideas!!!

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to enter their name in our Get Organized with Erin Condren New Year’s giveaway. We LOVED reading all your comments about how you rang in the new year.

Now for the moment you have all been waiting for . . .

M is for Mittens

2012-01-02T20:08:00.001-08:00

Every year we read lots of marvelous mitten themed stories {and do several fun art and writing activities to go with all of them} . . . but we haven’t ever had a real great way of tying them all together. So, this year we have created a new mitten journal for our kiddos to work on throughout the week that focuses on recalling the important elements of each story.

It’s called M is for Mittens and it is now available in our TpT store.

At the beginning of our mitten themed week {January 9-13} we will have students create a “mitten” journal. All of the directions and printables are included in the download. Then throughout the week as we read some of our favorite mitten stories they will write about each one. We will focus on the characters, setting, problem and resolution. Then on the reverse side of the worksheet they will write about the major events that happened at the beginning, middle and end of each story. This will be a way for us to compare and contrast several version of the popular “Mitten” story.

In other news . . . tomorrow we will be choosing a winner in our Erin Condren giveaway. If you haven’t entered your name in the drawing it’s not too late.

Ringing in the New Year {With a Giveaway}

2012-01-01T06:37:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year sweet blogging friends.

We hope each one of you rang in the new year with the special people in your lives and are enjoying your last few days of Christmas break before you ~~have to~~ head back to school.

Like all of you, we have REALLY good intentions as the new year begins. We have both made our own lists of all the things we hope to accomplish both personally and professionally in the upcoming year.

At the top of both our lists is . . .

Staying Organized

Somehow over the last 12 months we have neglected a few things around our own houses. Hard to believe, right?!?! Needless to say we BOTH spent several long days cleaning out drawers and closets over the holiday break. Even though it was hard work it feels SO good to have everything in order. Now the goal is keeping it that way?!?!?

To help us out through the upcoming year we have both signed up for the 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge. Every Monday they will send us a new challenge that is aimed at keeping one of the most challenging spots in your house organized. Should be kind of fun!!! If you want to join in just click {here} and head on over to their website to sign up.

So, if staying organized made your list of New Year resolutions we are here to help. We can’t come clean out your closets and drawers, send a professional organizer your way or hire a cleaning lady for you . . . but we can show you one fabulous little product we use to keep our busy schedules organized.

Yep . . . you guessed it . . . it’s a personalized Life Planner from Erin Condren.

Here’s a peek at the {old} one Kelly had last year and the {new} one she is using this year.

As you can see these are hands down the cutest planners EVER!!! Besides having monthly and weekly calendars . . . there are also spots for goal setting, list making, keeping track of birthdays, note taking, stickers, a pocket to keep things organized . . . and more!!!

And now for the EXCITING part . . . Erin Condren herself has teamed up with us to give away (1) $50 voucher to one of our lucky followers. That’s right . . . with this voucher you could get yourself a Life Planner to help you stay organized this year or you could get one of the other wonderful products that are available on her website.

So now for the important part . . . here’s what you need to do to enter your name in this giveaway . . .

(1) First, you must be one of our followers and post a comment telling us how you rang in the new year.

You can get additional entries by . . .

(2) Becoming a fan of Erin Condren on Facebook and posting a comment.

(3) Signing up for the Erin Condren newsletter and posting a comment.

(4) Becoming a fan of Made For 1st Grade on Facebook and posting a comment.

(5) Becoming one of our followers on TpT and posting a comment.

(6) Blogging about this giveaway and then posting a comment with a link to your post.

Good luck everyone . . .

We will announce the winner on Tuesday, January 3rd.

Winter Center Winner

2011-12-30T06:32:00.001-08:00

It’s Friday, so you know what that means. It’s FINALLY time to announce the winner of our Winter Center Giveaway. Thank you so much to everyone who entered.

Congratulations to . . .

If you didn’t win, but would still like to have all three sets of our winter centers, then head on over to our TpT store. Every item is on sale today through January 1st.

And . . . be sure to check back with us on January 1st because we have a BIG giveaway in store for you that we know you will not want to miss out on.

Winter Center Giveaway

2011-12-28T08:25:00.001-08:00

We’ve got lots of exciting giveaways in store for you in the the upcoming weeks.

The first is a complete set of all our winter themed centers.

You can check out everything that is included in this giveaway by clicking on these links . . .

Smitten with Mittens Math & Literacy Centers

Freezin’ Season Math & Literacy Centers

Penguins on Parade Math & Literacy Centers

Here’s what you need to do to win this complete set of winter centers . . .

Make sure you are one of our blog followers AND post a comment.

For additional entries you can:

1. Blog about this giveaway and then post an additional comment with a link to your blog

2. Become a follower of our Made For 1st Grade store on TpT.

3. You can also become a fan of us on Facebook and then post a comment.

Best of luck to all of you. We will announce our winner on Friday.

Winter Words & Product Update

2011-12-23T08:26:00.001-08:00

We have just finished up our {new} set of Winter Word of the Day worksheets and posters. We tried to include a variety of words that could be used throughout the month of January. If you have any specific word suggestions we would L-O-V-E to hear from you.

Product Update

For those of you that have purchased our Penguins on Parade Math & Literacy Centers we have found a slight formatting issue with the 4 in a Row Punctuation activity. The file has been updated on TpT so head on over and make sure you download the revised copy.

For your convenience here are the 4 cards that we reformatted.

click {here} to download the corrections

Happy Holidays

2011-12-17T20:23:00.001-08:00

We would like to send some fun holiday wishes your way. What better way to do it than with a Jib Jab song and dance. So, to all of our new friends in blogland . . . this ones for you!!!

click {here} for a special Christmas wish from us

In all seriousness, we really do wish we could send every single one of you a special Christmas greeting. You continue to amaze us with your feedback and online purchases. We feel truly blessed to be part of such a positive online community. We are inspired each day by the creativity and dedication to the profession of all the other teachers out there who create and share their resources.

So from our families to yours . . . Merry Christmas!!!

As a little thank you for all of your support this year . . . we would love to share a Christmas and winter themed print with you that we created. You can save them as pictures to your own computer and upload them to your local photo printing shop.

They look really cute if you print them as an 8x10 and display them in a black frame.

Super Saturday {and Sunday} Sale

2011-12-17T09:33:00.001-08:00

We made it!!! After an exhausting three full weeks of Christmas themed fun we spent the last few minutes of the day yesterday getting our classrooms cleaned up {thanks to a few containers of Clorox wipes and 22 sets of little hands} and our kiddos safely loaded on the buses to begin 18 days of Winter Break!!! It almost seems to good to be true!!!

In honor of Super Saturday . . . we wanted to pass along some savings to you. We will be running a sale in our TpT store through the end of the day tomorrow. Every item has been discounted 20%.

Grinch Day

2011-12-15T17:13:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow we will be seeing {and wearing} green! We’ve got lots of fun activities planned for our kiddos that all center around the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.

For those of you that have a Grinch day planned, too . . . here are few freebies just for you.

The first one is a problem solving book. Students will cut out the Grinch themed word problems and glue them in their booklet. Then they will draw a picture and write either an addition or subtraction number sentence to solve each problem. click {here} to download a copy

We also have a very simple 11x17 writing page that you can have your students use to write complete sentences about what the Grinch was like at the beginning of the story and at the end of the story.

click {here} to download a copy

We will be using it as a follow up writing activity after we brainstorm a list of describing words that tell about the Grinch. This is a little {sneak} peek at the ones we created last year. We will encourage students to incorporate these words into their super sentences.

Penguins On Parade

2011-12-14T15:30:00.001-08:00

We really hope you are all surviving these last few CRAZY days with your kiddos before Christmas break officially begins. We’ve got two more fun filled days left . . . not that we’re counting or anything!!!

This has been a very busy week for us so far. We spent Monday & Tuesday doing lots of fun reindeer themed activities. Not only did we talk about Santa’s magical reindeer, but we also learned lots of interesting facts about real reindeer.

Here’s a little peek at jut a few of the things we did . . .

Then today we did lots of Santa themed activities. Our favorite, of course, was making the adorable New and Improved Santa art projects again this year. The kids had so much fun being creative with all of our Christmas scrapbook paper. Thanks Cara Carroll for coming up with such a cute activity last year!!! We absolutely LOVE it!!!

Tomorrow we will all be dressing in our pj’s and taking a ride on the Polar Express. Then we will end the week with a fun filled day of Grinch activities. We promise to post a few pictures and some freebies later this week.

Now onto some January news . . .

We’ve been hard at work getting everything ready for when we return from Christmas break. So for all of you teachers that like to stay ahead of the game like us, here’s your first look at our newest set of centers called Penguins on Parade.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at everything that is included in this new set of centers . . .

Don’t Miss Out

2011-12-12T14:38:00.001-08:00

Long Vowel FUN

2011-12-11T17:24:00.001-08:00

When we return from Christmas break our kiddos will finally launch into decoding and reading words with long vowels. To supplement our reading curriculum we have created a series of activities called Long Vowel FUN that we can use each week as we introduce a new long vowel sound.

This 95 page unit includes (8) cut and paste real/nonsense word sorts, (8) cut and paste sentence scrambles with missing punctuation and capitalization to make the kids think, (8) rhyming word production worksheets and (8) decodable word games that can be played in small groups.

It is the companion to our Short Vowel FUN and Short Vowel FUN {set #2} units that many of you have been using along with us this year.

Freezin’ Season Math & Literacy Activities

2011-12-06T16:18:00.001-08:00

Our new set of Freezin’ Season Math and Literacy Activities are now available in our TpT store.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at all of the activities that are included . . .

We have received lots of requests for a thematic January calendar. Here’s a look ahead at what we have planned for our own kiddos . . . hoping there might be a snow day in there somewhere too!!!

As you can see we have one more set of winter themed centers to finish up {Penguins on Parade}. We hope to have them ready for you VERY soon!!!

Then for all of you Kansas teachers who are following along we will share a few of our favorite Kansas themed activities. It’s going to end up being a short week for us because we have parent/teacher conferences on February 1st and 2nd . . . hard to believe, right???

Smitten with Mittens Giveaway

2011-12-05T17:43:00.001-08:00

Thank you so much to everyone who entered in our latest {Smitten with Mittens} giveaway.

We are happy to announce that the winner is . . .

Smitten with Mittens

2011-12-01T19:43:00.001-08:00

Tonight we are completely smitten with mittens {and our fuzzy blankets, pj’s and slippers} . . . maybe it’s because the temperature has dropped here in Kansas and we can hear the wind howling outside our windows. May be a bad day for recess duty tomorrow!!!

Last night we finally put the finishing touches on our newest set of math and literacy centers and got them posted in our TpT store. We are planning to use them when we return from Christmas break to go along with all of the Jan Brett literature that we always love to read.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at all the math and literacy centers that are included in this set.

Smitten with Mitten Math & Literacy Centers

We are BIG believers in choosing a few skills to teach at a time . . . and teaching them well. This is reflected in each set of our centers. We use them as building blocks each week. The consistency in format also makes things run smoothly with our kiddos.

At this point in the year {January} we expect our students to be able to . . .consistently spell short vowel words with blends and digraphs, begin sorting long vowel (with sneaky e) and short vowel words, put words in ABC order, arrange words to form a complete sentence and be able to write the sentence applying proper capitalization and punctuation, sort real and nonsense words, write and solve addition and subtraction math problems up to sums of 18, identify odd and even numbers, order numbers to 90 and count sets of tens and ones.

Bundle up everyone and stay warm!!!

We would also like to invite you to leave us a comment about something you are {smitten} with right now and we will enter your name in a giveaway for a free set of these new math and literacy centers.

Product Updates

2011-11-28T19:15:00.001-08:00

Happy {Cyber} Monday everyone . . .

We hope you made it through your first full day back at school with your kiddos after a nice long break AND have enjoyed a little online shopping time tonight. We just wanted to give you a few updates about some new products that will be coming soon to our TpT store.

1. We have three new sets of math and literacy centers for the month of January that will continue to build on the skills we have been working on all year with our first graders. We spent several hours last night going over all of our favorite January activities and looking at the Common Core Standards. Within the next few days you should start to see them being posted. We promise to give you a few {sneak} peeks very soon!!!

2. We have a Long Vowel FUN unit, which was made to compliment the Short Vowel FUN units that many of you have been using this year. It will include activities for magic e words and all of the vowel pairs. All we need to do is put the finishing touches on it!!!!

3. We have a Long Vowel Reading AtoZ pack that is ready to be posted . . . but due to the high traffic load that TpT is experiencing tonight it doesn’t look like we will be able to get it posted until tomorrow.

4. We also have a new set of Christmas Word-of-the-Day worksheets that we want to give you as a little FREEBIE to try out during the holiday season.

click {here} to download a set . . .

Then let us know what you think after you’ve used them with your kiddos. If they are something you would like to have each month to supplement your thematic units we would be glad to start putting sets together in a monthly resource pack.

Many, many years ago a fellow teacher introduced us to a great resource from Scholastic called 100 Write-And-Learn Sight Word Practice Pages. Over the years we have incorporated these worksheets into our daily routine and we now have one to go with every one of our Houghton Mifflin Sight Words. We also have made sets to be used throughout the school year with our special thematic units. Our Christmas set was modeled after these worksheets . . . with a few slight changes to meet our students needs.

5. Finally . . . we have decided to extend our sale through the end of the month so you can pick up any of our new or old items at a discounted rate. We feel bad about not getting everything posted in time for the big Cyber Monday savings. Instead of working all weekend, we spent some much needed time with our families {away from our computers}.

Black Friday SALE

2011-11-24T10:10:00.001-08:00

Thanks to all of you we have had an AMAZING year . . . it was exactly one year ago TODAY that we posted our very first item here on TpT. Your support has been overwhelming with both your purchases and all of your positive comments and feedback. We both truly love getting up each day and doing what we do to make a difference in the lives of our students. We also love that we are able to share so many of the resources that we have created with you.

So, to say THANKS, we are teaming up with two of our new blogging first grade friends and sellers on TpT to “Kick off the Holiday Season” and offer you some BIG Black Friday savings.

Here is a quick link to all of our TpT stores . . .

Caught You Being Good

2011-11-22T19:22:00.001-08:00

When your kiddos return after Thanksgiving break be on the look out for good behavior and work habits. Try passing out these cute little cards and letting your students cash them in for a small candy cane or other little Christmas trinkets once they’ve earned five.

click {here} to download a copy

Last Minute Literature Activity

2011-11-21T17:28:00.001-08:00

We have ONE more FULL day of school to go before our holiday break officially begins, so tonight we created this little writing activity to use with our kiddos tomorrow. Even though there won’t be any turkey at our Finger Food Feast, we thought our kids would have fun creating a page for a class book to go with this story. It was one of the *FREE* books we got in our Scholastic November book order.

click {here} to download a copy

Gingerbread Man Literature Unit

2011-11-17T16:38:00.001-08:00

To go along with our Sweet Batch of Gingerbread Man Centers we have put together a set of literature based activities using some of our favorite versions of the classic gingerbread story.

All of these activities are included in our newest Gingerbread Man Literature Unit.

Holly Jolly Christmas Centers

2011-11-16T16:17:00.001-08:00

We just posted our brand new set of Holly Jolly Math & Literacy Centers over on TpT.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

We hope everyone is having a GREAT week so far. Thanks to a clever idea {Diane} had our kids are behaving better than ever.

Want to know the secret . . .

Every year we make headbands during our Native American unit. This year we are letting the kids earn feathers to add to their headband for positive behavior. At the end of the week we will see who has the most feathers and they will be named our class “Chief”.

The kids are all super motivated to earn feathers so we may end up with a whole classroom full of Chiefs!!!

Rhyming Activities

2011-11-13T10:38:00.001-08:00

Do you have kids that struggle with rhyming words . . . if so, then welcome to the club. For some reason the kids in our low intervention group are having a more difficult time this year with the concept of rhyming than ever before. So, we’ve been trying EVERYTHING under the sun to help them.

One of the greatest {and easiest} resources that we have found is a game called Chipper Chat from Super Duper Publications. With the help of a para we have been able to quickly assess each child to decide if they are struggling with the discrimination of rhyming words or producing rhyming words. Then we have divided students up into small groups to get support in the specific areas where they are struggling. As a bonus . . . the kids absolutely LOVE playing the game.

If you haven’t seen this resource head on over to their website and check it out. It’s a little pricey, but worth every cent!!! It’s a resource you will use for years with your beginning readers.

We’ve also been playing a goofy little whole group game that we made up. We call it “Beat the Teacher”. The idea of the game is to have the class work together to try to produce more rhyming words than the teacher.

Begin by giving each student a copy of the record sheet. Then have each student record the key word in the box. We usually pick a word that follows the phonics pattern we are working on for the week.

click {here} to download a copy of the record sheet

Then set a timer for 2 minutes and have the students record as many {real} rhyming words as they can. Remind them to use their blends and digraphs. While they are making a list of words you have to, too!!!

When the timer goes off have every student put away their pencils and get out a highlighter or pen. Then have them share words they made. We usually make a big list of them on the board. If their word is on your list you both have to cross it off. If they have any words that aren’t on your list they get to circle the word and vice versa. All it takes is one kid coming up with one word you didn’t. It’s actually harder than it seems.

Once you’ve played the game a few times and the kids are comfortable with it you could even invite a special visitor in to play. Last year we played “Beat the Principal” and boy was it fun!!!

One more idea that we just came up with goes along with the book rhyming dust bunnies by Jan Thomas. After two FULL weeks of rhyming word practice and games we thought we could wrap up our unit with a writing activity.

It’s a silly little book that our kids can work on after we read the story. On each page they will have to think of 4 {real} rhyming words to match each key word. This will be a good indicator of who needs additional support . . . still!!!click {here} to download a copy of this little book

A Sweet Batch of Centers

2011-11-09T17:35:00.001-08:00

We have a very Sweet Batch of Gingerbread Man Math and Literacy Centers ready to share with you. We just posted them in our little TpT store tonight. We must warn you . . . we went a little overboard this time!!! This is definitely the biggest (and probably our favorite) set we have EVER created. There were so many skills that we wanted to incorporate into this sweet little set of centers and just when we would think we were done . . . we would be texting each other late at night with “one more” idea that we just HAD to include.

We can’t wait to kick off the month of December with two FULL weeks of Gingerbread Man themed FUN with our kiddos. Just this morning as we were getting all of these new center activities laminated and organized we were both talking about how excited we are to do all of them with our kids. Creating and updating activities to share with all of you has definitely renewed our love for our jobs!!! After all these years there’s something still SO exciting for both of us when we have new, improved, cute little activities that we know our kids will enjoy doing.

So enough about US . . . YOU may be wondering what’s included in this 154 page set.

Here’s a {sneak} peek at all 18 of the math and literacy activities . . .

Native American Literature Activities

2011-11-05T01:32:00.001-07:00

As you all begin your Native American units we wanted to share a few writing activities that we found online several years ago. We would love to give the author a little “shout out” but unfortunately we can’t find the website where they originated. We’ve actually put our own personal touches on them over the years and they have evolved into some cute little class books that we make and add to our classroom libraries.

Each writing activity goes along with a popular Native American story. There are some discussion questions available to use prior to and during the reading of the book.

click {here} to download a set of these writing activities

You can also log on to http://www.storylineonline.net/ to view the book Knots On a Counting Rope.

We hope to have all of our gingerbread themed math and literacy centers ready to share with you VERY soon.

Henry and Mudge

2011-11-01T17:11:00.001-07:00

If you are like us, you are probably always looking for new resources to use with your guided reading groups. Several years ago we started purchasing books from the Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant in sets of 6-7 through our Scholastic book orders. Lots of times we used our bonus points!!!!

We have found that these are easy to read chapter books for our beginning readers. Not only do they LOVE Henry and Mudge, but they LOVE the fact that they are reading chapter books.

As many of you may know, we like to have some kind of response sheet to use with ALL of the books we read during our daily guided reading time. So, we have created a set of worksheets to use with many of the Henry and Mudge books that focus on story word recognition and comprehension.

For each of the books there is a list of 15 story words that you can introduce to your students prior to reading the story for the first time. Then there are 2-3 open response comprehension questions for students to answer using complete sentences. There is also a bonus worksheet for students to practice writing meaningful sentences using the story words.

If this sounds like something you could use in your classroom head on over to TpT and check out our new Henry and Mudge Reading Resource Pack.

Halloween FUN

2011-11-01T16:55:00.001-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone who entered their names in our Spooktacular Halloween giveaway. We loved reading all of your fantastic costume suggestions.

We totally intended to share pictures yesterday as well as the names of our winner. But, after a busy day of Halloween parties and trick-or-treating we were exhausted!!!

Thanks to the help of our families, who drove us around town shopping for accessories and helped us cut and tie tulle, we were able to pull off a last minute costume idea . . . we joined our good friend Kelsey (who was our inspiration) and we dressed as . . .

Silverlicious and Purplicious

And the winners are . . .

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!!

Trick-Or-Treat

2011-10-29T07:22:00.001-07:00

No tricks here . . . just a few treats for all of our sweet friends.

Now through Monday every item in our TpT store is on sale.

We are both still debating what kind of costume we will be wearing to school on Monday . . . so we need your help. Leave us a comment telling us what kind of costume you will be wearing this Halloween and you will be entered in our Spooktacular giveaway. We will choose 5 lucky winners. Each winner will receive ANY 5 items of their choice from our TpT store.

The past few years we have teamed up with our hallway friends in these fun little costumes. The kids always LOVE it . . . but we are ready for a change.

Out of This World Space Centers

2011-10-25T16:45:00.001-07:00

Even though our space unit won’t roll around until early Spring . . . we know many of you will get to it before us and may be needing some fun new centers to go with all of the stuff you already use. So, we combined all of our space themed math & literacy centers into one BIG {102 page} download and posted them in our little store over on TpT. Don’t worry . . . they are all still available individually, too!!!

Here’s a little {sneak} peek of everything that is included . . .

We also threw in this little art/creative writing activity!!!

You can take a look back at our class blogs to see all the FUN we had last year with our own kiddos!!!

Short Vowel Review & Super Weekend Savings

2011-10-22T08:48:00.001-07:00

This past week we have been busy in first grade reviewing the short vowel sounds. We took a week off from our Houghton Mifflin reading series to do a few fun activities.

We made this little short vowel flip book . . . which is always one of favorite activities!!!

This is something you could easily recreate using any worksheet you already have that has short vowel pictures. To make the flipbook all you need to do is fold a piece of construction paper in half and cut 5 slits. We usually already have this done for our kids before we begin.

We also used our reading book to be short vowel detectives. Student had to find 10 short vowel words from all of the stories we’ve read and record them and their page number. This is just a little way to keep them accountable and make sure they are not making up words . . . not that any of them would ever try doing that!!!!

download your copy of this worksheet {here}

clipart courtesy of scrappindoodles

This week we also began learning more about nouns, verbs and adjectives. We used several of the activities from our sentence structure unit . . .

AND we did a yummy little activity about adjectives that was inspired by Babbling Abby.

Every item in our TpT store is on sale through the end of the weekend.

Theme 2 Resources

2011-10-19T16:41:00.001-07:00

In reading we just finished up Theme 2 in our Houghton Mifflin reading series. We know a lot of you are HM users so here’s a few little things we thought you might be able to use.

Here is a book to go with the story A Surprise For Zig Bug that we recently created and used with our kiddos. On each page students have to answer a question about the story using a complete sentence and draw a picture to illustrate their answers. We have been working REALLY hard on this skill!!!

click {here} to download a copy of the book

We also have a fun little fall themed game that reviews all of the weekly sight words and decodable words from Theme 2. We always have our kids say the words printed on each acorn card aloud and use them in a meaningful sentence. You can even use the cards to have your kids practice putting words in ABC order. That’s another skill we are working hard on!!!

click {here} to download a copy of the game

Fire Safety FUN

2011-10-16T16:13:00.001-07:00

This past week we had with our kiddos learning and reviewing important fire safety rules. We are all “Smoke Detectives” now. During center time our kids also did lots of fire themed centers that reviewed many of the skills we have been working on. You can head over to our class blogs to see pictures and read about everything we did.

In math we have been learning how to connect addition and subtraction. To go along with our fire theme and extend this skill we created this little fireman fact family activity.

click {here} to download a copy of the worksheets

We did this activity on the Promethean Board as a whole group. We began by writing three numbers in the circles at the top of each problem. Then we shaded in the number with our red crayon that was the largest so we would know how many were in the “whole group”. Then we used the numbers to write two addition and two subtraction math problems.

November Units and Calendar

2011-10-14T20:45:00.001-07:00

We’ve received several request to post another calendar for the month of November that outlines how we will be using all of our thematic units . . . so, here’s a little peek at what our month will look like.

Since Halloween Day falls on a Monday this year AND we know the kids will only have one thing on their mind . . . we are planning to spend most of our day using one of our favorite Halloween themed stories {Harriet’s Halloween Candy by Nancy Carlson} to reinforce some of the reading, writing and math skills our kids have been working on.

We have put together a literature and math packet to go with the story. There should be enough activities included to keep your kiddos busy ALL day long!!!

The rest of the month we will be using all of these sets of centers . . .

Some of you who have been purchasing our items may notice that the format of our sentence scrambles are changing. At this point in the year we are expecting students to begin to independently identify which word the sentence should begin with (without it having a capital letter printed) and what kind of punctuation mark should go at the end. This is definitely more challenging . . . but you will be surprised at how well your kids will do with it.

Short Vowel FUN {set #2}

2011-10-11T15:59:00.001-07:00

If your beginning readers are ready for more of a challenge . . . then check out our new Short Vowel FUN {set #2} unit. It’s a follow up to Short Vowel FUN which we posted earlier this year. This new set of activities incorporates blends, digraphs and consonant clusters.

Here’s a little sampling of each activity that is included for all of the short vowel sounds.

FYI – We stuck with the same format since our kids are all so comfortable with these activities. We thought this would make it easier on them (and us)!!!

Don’t worry . . . we will be working on a long vowel FUN unit very soon. Our little readers just aren’t quite ready for that yet!!!

Short Vowel Activities

2011-10-09T08:52:00.001-07:00

We are about to wrap up our study of the short vowel sounds. For the past 9 weeks we have been working REALLY hard to build, blend and read basic CVC words. During this time we have been using a lot of the resources in a few of the products we have listed on TpT to supplement our reading curriculum.

Before we move on and begin introducing consonant blends and digraphs we always take a week off to do some fun short vowel review activities. In the next few weeks you will probably be seeing a few of them if you check out our class blogs. Here’s one we would like to share with you. Let your students be short vowel detectives and find words from their reading book for each vowel sound.

click {here} to download a copy to use in your classroom

graphics courtesy of Scrappindoodles

We know there are a lot of you who have been using these resources along with us this year and are ready for some new sets of short vowel activities that incorporate blends, digraphs and consonant clusters. There are even a few of you who are ready to move on to long vowels. We are just beginning to work on them and promise to have them ready VERY soon!!!

We do have one new item ready to go and we just posted it on TpT this morning. It’s a set of the Build-A-Word {short vowel} Gameboards that incorporate blends, digraphs and consonant clusters.

It includes a colorful game board for each short vowel sound, a set of beginning sound letter tiles and a record sheet for students to record the real and nonsense words they create.

Gobble,Gobble

2011-10-04T17:43:00.001-07:00

You all know by now that we like to stay a little ahead of the game and get our new math & literacy centers posted early so you have time to get them all printed, laminated, cut out and ready to go for your kiddos.

So . . . if you are ready to get a jumpstart on November. . . we are too!!!

Our new set of Turkey Time Math & Literacy Centers is now available on TpT.

Head on over to our little store and check it out.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

We have also included materials to make a cute little turkey art project.

We LOVE Literature

2011-09-30T20:49:00.001-07:00

One of our VERY favorite stories to read around Halloween time is Harriet’s Halloween Candy by Nancy Carlson. In the story Harriet learns the hard way that sharing her Halloween candy makes her feel better than eating it. We also use this story with our kiddos to reinforce TONS of math and literacy skills.

We’ve updated all of our activities, added a few new ones, and combined them into one unit. It is now available on TpT.

Skills include: estimating, counting, sorting by attribute, graphing, analyzing a graph to answer questions, problem solving, sequencing events from the story, identifying the main character, setting, problem and resolution, writing complete sentences.

And now . . . it’s time to announce the winner of our Reading A-Z giveaway.

Guided Reading {Part II}

2011-09-27T16:52:00.001-07:00

We have received numerous requests from teachers who follow our blog for some more in depth information about what kind of materials we use during guided reading each week. Earlier in the year we posted information about “HOW” we organize, group and rotate our kids for guided reading. Now we are going to give you some information about “WHAT” we do and use.

To read the earlier post and download the materials click {here}.

To begin with we probably need to tell you a little about our reading curriculum. Our district uses the Houghton Mifflin Reading Series. We absolutely LOVE this curriculum because everything correlates. For example: our weekly sight words are integrated into all of the stories we read, there are leveled readers that incorporate the sight words and words that follow our target phonics skills for the week. There are numerous paper readers that we can use to have students highlight specific words or spelling patterns, the spelling words each week match the phonics skills, etc . . . you get the point!!! Long story short, it’s an all inclusive program.

We are both BIG believers in having our students read as much as possible. This means sending books home. In the beginning this was a VERY frightening process. For one, we worried that all of our little leveled readers wouldn’t be returned. But, we laid our fears aside and trained our students and parents to read the materials in their daily reading folder and return them the following day. Once in a while a book doesn’t get returned, but for the most part they all come back each day (or the day after in some cases).

We have a plastic three pronged folder for each student. This is their reading folder. Each folder has a note on the front that explains what to do with the materials inside. It also reminds parents to help their child remember to return their folder the following day along with all of the materials. Students take home their reading folders Monday-Thursday. Inside there is a large Ziplock baggie that has been three hole punched for the students to keep their books in. This helps protect the books that go home against spills or leaks in that may occur in their backpack.

Students take home a set of Lightning Words each week in their folder. These consist of our weekly sight words plus some decodable words. Each night parents are supposed to time their child reading the words and record it at the bottom of the page. The goal is to get faster and faster each night. It seems like a game to the kids so they tend to be highly motivated to practice their words. They are equally excited to show off their times at school the following day and earn a sticker for their sticker book.

If you are a Houghton Mifflin user you might want to check out our Resource Pack which is available on TpT. It includes a copy of the Lightning Words to go with each week as well as other items that supplement the series.

In addition to the leveled readers that are available from Houghton Mifflin we also use a lot of books that we have purchased in sets from Scholastic (thanks to our bonus points) and books from Reading A-Z. In order to send a book home each night we had to look to outside sources.

If you are not familiar with Reading A- Z you definitely need to head over and check it out. It is a website that has everything you could possible need to teach reading. Several years ago our school so graciously bought us all a yearly membership to the site and we have used it SO much. To tell you the truth, we actually went a little crazy in the beginning. It all began when we started sorting through the leveled readers and looking for books to supplement our thematic units. We thought this would be a fun way to integrate our thematic units into our guided reading instruction. To date we probably have over 100 sets of books assembled and ready to use throughout the year with all of our themes. The great thing about all of these books is that they all come with lesson plans and printable worksheets.

As you can see there are books that range in level from AA to Z.

Then we discovered all of the books in the Phonics section of the website.

We quickly got hooked on the Decodable Books and the Read-Aloud Books. What we love about these books is they go right along with the phonics skills that we are teaching. The Decodable Books are all designed to use with our on level to slightly below lever readers and the Read-Aloud Books work great with our above level readers. So . . . we went crazy AGAIN and made ourselves class sets of nearly every title in these sections. Now we have books to use every week that reinforce our target phonics skills.

We also made our own set of worksheets to go with these books. We wanted to have a place where students could record words they found in the stories that matched our target phonics skills and some open response comprehension questions. These worksheets are all available to purchase in our Reading A-Z Resource Pack which is available on TpT. This download includes worksheets to go with all of the books that focus on short vowel, blends and digraphs.

Now you may be thinking that we have totally lost our minds. This is a LOT of books. But, by creating class sets we can reuse them each year. We printed the covers in color on cardstock and just copied the pages of the book on regular paper. Then we assembled 8 copies of each book and marked them with a label so parents would know to return them. We keep them organized in large envelopes near our guided reading tables so we have quick and easy access to them.

For you visual learners here are a few pictures . . .

Reading A-Z is a website that requires you to have a yearly membership. We can tell you it is definitely worth the money. If you are looking for additional items to use with your kiddos during guided reading then you should look here first. The good news is you can check it out free of charge. They offer a 7 day free trial membership.

Now for the exciting news . . .

The nice folks over at Reading A-Z has been so kind and agreed to give away one free year long membership to one of our followers.

This is an $84.95 value.

There are four ways to enter . . .

1. Post a comment and let us know how you would use these resources in your classroom.

2. Become one of our followers on TpT and post a comment.

3. Become a fan of Reading A-Z on Facebook and post a comment.

4. Become a fan of Made For 1st Grade on Facebook and post a comment.

Good luck everyone!!!

We will choose one lucky winner on Friday, September 30th.

Fall FUN

2011-09-23T18:20:00.001-07:00

We both absolutely LOVE Fall so to kick off the start to our favorite season we have some exciting things to share with you.

Our brand new set of Scarecrow FUN Math and Literacy Centers have just been posted over on TpT. Here’s a little {sneak} peek at everything that is included in this 78 page unit.

We also have EVERY item in our TpT store on sale through the end of the weekend. This means you get our newest unit at a discounted price . . . or one of our other fun sets of fall centers.

As many of you know we usually incorporate a different set of thematic activities into our weekly lesson plans. During the week all of our math & literacy center activities go along with our theme and we use TONS of literature to incorporate writing and art.

Here’s a {sneak} peek at what the month of October will look like in our classrooms this year.

Hopefully this will help a few of you with your planning as well!!! We get excited just looking at all the FUN things are in store for our kids in the coming weeks!!!

Creatures of the Night

2011-09-18T20:22:00.001-07:00

We just posted one more set of centers that we will be doing during the month of October with our kiddos. They always LOVE learning about nocturnal animals.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at all of the centers that are included in this set . . .

Click {here} to head over to TpT and pick up a set of these centers to use in your classroom.

A Sweet Treat

2011-09-15T20:06:00.001-07:00

Who doesn’t LOVE candy corn, right??? Well now you and your kiddos can enjoy a week filled with Candy Corn fun on the days leading up to Halloween.

We’ve got all of our new Candy Corn math & literacy centers posted on TpT.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

Pete The Cat

2011-09-15T19:43:00.001-07:00

We have both had so much fun this week with our kiddos reading {and rocking} to the Pete the Cat books by Eric Litwin. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you bloggers out there who introduced us to these fun little stories. We LOVE them!!!

We began on Tuesday by reading Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. This story reinforced the color words that we have been working so hard on. After reading {and rocking} to the story a few times we made our very own class book. The funny thing about this book is that we created it WAY back and then we saw one that is nearly identical over on one of our favorite blogs {Finally In First}. I guess great minds think alike!!!

click {here} to download a copy

On Wednesday we read Pete the Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes. Not only have we been doing lots of short a things the past two weeks, but our story for the week in our Houghton Mifflin Reading series was A Day at School. So, this all fit together just perfectly!!! After reading about all the things Pete the Cat did at school each day we made a list of all the places we go and what we do there. Then all of our kiddos wrote their own story. This book really inspired them to write, write, write!!!

Here’s a little peek at our final products . . .

We had conferences yesterday and today so these writing projects made for a fun hallway display!!! Thanks so much Mrs. Jump for the cute Pete the Cat art project idea.

It’s Pumpkin Time

2011-09-13T17:08:00.001-07:00

If you are looking for some new pumpkin centers to use during the month of October then head on over to our TpT store and check out our newest item called Pumpkin Time Math & Literacy Centers.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek of everything that is included . . .

Alphabet FUN

2011-09-11T19:32:00.001-07:00

We would like to invite you to head on over to our classroom blogs to read all about the fun things we did last week to celebrate the end of our alphabet review unit. The kids had SO much fun and we now have lots of class books to share with their parents when they come to conferences later this week . . . that’s right . . . it’s already that time of year!!! Hard to believe, huh???

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at some of the literature based activities you saw our kids doing. They are included in our alphabet FUN unit . . . which is available in our TpT store.

Fire Safety FUN

2011-09-10T07:27:00.001-07:00

Mark your calendars because National Fire Safety Prevention week is coming up.

In preparation for this we gave many of our Fire Safety Math and Literacy Centers a BIG facelift and they are now available in one big bundled set on TpT.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek . . .

Throughout the week of October 10-14 we will be using lots of literature to teach and review important fire safety rules. We will also be sending home a fire safety checklist for students to do with their parents. We will encourage parents to sit down with their family and create a fire escape plan so that everyone knows what to do and where to meet in the event of a fire.

Click {here} to download a copy of the fire escape plan book we will be making with our classes.

{graphics courtesy of Scrappin Doodles}

Shake Those Beans

2011-09-08T17:16:00.001-07:00

This week in math we are learning about ways to make 6, 7 and 8. We always like to extend these lessons and spend several days doing some hands-on activities that reinforce this skill. One game that we always like to play is called “Shake Those Beans”.

We must tell you . . this is not an activity that we can take credit for!!! It was actually something that Diane was introduced to several years ago when she worked for the Wichita Public School district. Each week the district would host Monday Math Night and share ideas and resources with primary teachers that made learning {and teaching} math fun.

Over the years we have updated this activity to meet our classroom needs and we thought it we would share our version with you.

Here’s how it works . . .

First, you will need to make sure that you have a set of 2 sided bean counters like these.

If not, head on over {here} to get a set.

Begin by having your students go through and shade in the numbers that are circled at the bottom of their graphs with their red crayon. This signifies how many red beans they have in each combination.

Next, make sure that each student has a worksheet, the correct number of beans, a cup and a small plate. Model for students how to carefully “Shake Those Beans” and pour them out onto their plate. Then have them sort the beans they rolled into two separate piles {red and white}. Using a crayon have them graph the combination they got. Remind them to always count the red beans first in each bean combination.

To download a set of worksheets and directions for “Shake Those Beans” click {here}.

Octo-Bear FUN

2011-09-05T16:36:00.001-07:00

Even though it’s only September we have started looking ahead to October and are so excited to announce that our “Octo-Bear” unit is finally ready to share with you. We always welcome in the month of October with a fun filled week of Teddy Bear themed fun. Now you can celebrate the arrival of “Octo-bear” right along with us.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at all the math and literacy centers that are included in this unit.

There are also lots of literature ideas and lesson plans that incorporate writing, math and art.

There are still a few more hours left to take advantage of our Labor Day sale. If you hurry over to our TpT store before midnight you can save 20% on Octo-Bear FUN.

Enter promo code FLASH to receive an additional 5% off thanks to TpT.

{graphics courtesy of Scrappin Doodles and Digi Web Studios}

Alphabet FUN

2011-09-03T21:31:00.001-07:00

We have spent the first 3 weeks of our school year reviewing letter sounds and proper letter formation with our kiddos. Now that’s we’ve made it through the entire alphabet we are looking forward to a fun filled week of alphabet FUN when we return to school on Tuesday. We will be incorporating lots of our favorite alphabet themed literature and making several alphabet books for our classroom libraries.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at some of the activities that are included in our alphabet FUN unit . . . which is available in our TpT store.

Click {here} to download a free copy of a template you can use to create a class book for your classroom library. It goes along with one of the alphabet books we always read called It Begins with an A by Stephanie Calmenson. Assign each student a different letter of the alphabet and let them write clues to describe something that begins with their assigned letter.

Happy Labor Day weekend friends!!! We hope you all have a safe and fun weekend and find some time to relax and enjoy your extra day off.

All day Sunday and Monday every item in our TpT store will be 20% off.

{graphics courtesy of Scrappin Doodles}

Color Day FUN

2011-08-27T06:22:00.001-07:00

We have both had SO much fun getting to know our kiddos during these first two weeks of school. As we’ve mentioned before we always kick off our school year with a big color day unit. Not only do we review the color words and how to spell them . . . but we also have lots of FUN doing literature based activities that incorporate reading, writing, math, art and even eating!!!

{graphics courtesy of Scrappin’Doodles}

Here’s a little {sneek} peek at some of the items that are included in our Color Day FUN unit . . . which is available to purchase on TpT. If you are a kindergarten teacher this might also be a fun unit to do with your little ones at the end of the year.

We also have several color themed center activities available that we will both begin using on Monday when we do centers and guided reading for the first time . . . wish us luck!!! Those first few days of learning how and when to rotate are always a little CRAZY!!!

To read about our color days and see how we are using all of the resources included in this unit with our kiddos head on over to our classroom blogs. Later this weekend there should be some updated pictures. We both have a weeks worth of photos that need to be posted!!!

Have a great weekend friends!!!

Free For All Friday

2011-08-26T19:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Friday friends!!! It’s hard to believe that we already have 10 days of the school year under our belts. I guess it’s a good sign that we are not feeling quite as tired as we were this time last week. In all seriousness, we were both feeling like we had been hit by a big yellow school bus this time last week!!!

We’ve both had so much fun this week checking in on some of our favorite blogs and reading all of the posts that were linked up on Blog Hoppin’. What a FUN idea!!!

For our Friday freebies we have the {new} posters that we are using this year for our Top Banana and Star Student classroom displays. We send the poster home with our “student of the week” to decorate over the weekend. Then they get to share it with the class on Monday and display it, along with other photos from home, all week long.

Graphics courtesy of Scrappin’ Doodles

click {here} for Diane’s STAR Student posterclick {here} for Kelly’s Top Banana poster

Three For Thursday

2011-08-25T16:56:00.001-07:00

We are linking up with Blog Hopper again today to share three of our favorite things.

1. Our Favorite Font
This is a really hard one because there are so many that we both LOVE. This summer we discovered a new one that we have been using a lot lately.

You can find it . . . and lots of other great ones {here}!!!

2. Our Favorite Blog
There are SO many great blogs out there that we are both absolutely addicted to checking on a regular basis. But, we would have to say that we LOVE how new sites are popping up (just like this one) where teachers can link their posts and readers can hop around from one to the next and see what kind of exciting things are happening in classrooms all across the country.

3. Our Favorite Online Resources

We can’t wait to see what your favorites are!!!

Where It All Goes Down Wednesday

2011-08-24T16:25:00.001-07:00

Hey friends, we are so excited to let you peek inside our {little} classrooms and take a look around. We must warn you though . . . our rooms are very oddly shaped and they seem much more roomier in these pictures when there aren’t 22 little bodies inside.

Last year our entire K-1 primary building relocated to a newly renovated building that was right next door. Even though we were thrilled to have a nicer building, we weren’t exactly excited about these rooms. After sifting through all of our stuff and getting rid of enough to probably start up a small charter school we managed to get everything crammed into our new little homes away from home.

Come on in and see where it all goes down . . .

We both use the same approach to discipline. Our students operate on a color card system. Each time they make a bad choice they have to turn their card. Students shade in a behavior calendar at the end of the day in their daily folders to document how they did. This goes home every night for parents to see.

We both have word walls . . .which seem pretty bare at this point in the year!!! We also have a “Word of the Day”. Right now we are reviewing the color words. In a few weeks we will start getting new sight words. Each day the new word is displayed and students complete a worksheet all about that word. They have to practice writing the word, cutting it out and arranging the letters in a sentence and using it in a meaningful sentence of their own.

We both have guided reading tables where we meet with small groups each day. We both probably spend more time sitting here than anywhere else in our room. Luckily we have great parent support, so while we are working with small groups we use parent volunteers in our rooms to assist students at centers, monitor behavior, assemble books, cut out new center activities that we’ve made, etc . . .

We also have a special place in both of our classrooms for students to be recognized. Each week we choose one student to be the star. They get to decorate a poster, bring photos to share, and bring a special item for show and tell each day.

Teacher Talk Tuesday (late Tuesday)

2011-08-23T20:25:00.001-07:00

Meet the Teachers Monday

2011-08-22T18:52:00.001-07:00

We have added links to both of our class blogs on the left hand side of the screen. We would like to invite you to follow along with us this year and see how we use all of the items we create in our own classrooms.

Finally . . . we are happy to announce the winner of our latest giveaway!!!

Weekly Decodable Word Checks

2011-08-21T18:11:00.001-07:00

Several years ago we created a set of 30 weekly decodable word lists that we use throughout the school year as quick assessments at the end of each week to document student progress. They give us a quick snapshot of who needs additional support on specific phonics/decoding skills that we have covered in class. We recently gave them a little facelift and they have been updated in our TpT store. If you already purchased them you might want to download the newer version. We promise they are WAY cuter and there is now a blank form included in the set for you to create your own word list . . . just in case there is a skill that you cover that is not included.

We also have a brand new companion that we just created to use along with our decodable word lists this year that are now available on TpT. It is a set of 27 nonsense decodable word lists. Since we began DIBEL’ing {that’s a verb, right???} a few years ago we have spent more time focusing on nonsense word activities. This seems to be an area that often challenges some of our higher kiddos who have learned to read by sight. We are hoping that these {new} nonsense word checks will give us a clearer picture of who can really apply the phonics skills and strategies that we spend so much time teaching.

We would LOVE to give a set of both weekly word checks away to one of our fabulous followers.

Here’s what you need to do . . .

Post a comment telling us how many kids you have in your class this year.

{For the record . . . we both have 22 little darlings!!!}

We will choose one lucky winner tomorrow . . . Good Luck!!!

Blog Hoppin’

2011-08-20T15:22:00.001-07:00

Next week WE will be Blog Hoppin’ . . . will you???

Hop on over {here} to read more about it and join in on all the fun.

Build-A-Word {short vowel} Games

2011-08-11T15:58:00.001-07:00

It’s SO hard to believe that our summer break is already over . . . gosh it went by fast!!! Can we just say that we are SUPER jealous of all of you who are still sleeping in and enjoying your days at the pool!!! Tuesday was our “official” first day back at school. It was a very LONG day. We got lots of time to work in our classrooms that first day and then that evening we got to meet all of our new kiddos and their families at our annual “Meet the Teacher Night”. Since then we’ve spent our days sitting and listening.

Most of our inservice meetings so far have focused on the new Common Core Standards and of course MTSS. Believe it or not we’ve actually taken away a few strategies that we want to incorporate into our own classrooms this year and we are looking forward to sharing them with you sometime soon.

Unitl then . . . we’ve got a brand new item to share with you that we just listed in our little store over on TpT. It focuses on building real and nonsense short vowel words.

Here’s a little Build-A-Word {sneak} peek . . .

We also want to give a little “shout out” to a brand new blogger. Her name is Heather and she just started a blog aimed at reaching teachers. It’s already loaded with lots of fun *FREE* math and literacy activities that are available to download. Head on over to her blog and check it out.

Alphabet FUN {Literacy Unit}

2011-08-07T19:54:00.001-07:00

Each year we spend the first 2-3 weeks of school reviewing the alphabet. This includes letter and sound recognition as well as proper letter formation. To conclude our review we spend a fun filled week using some of our favorite alphabet themed literature to do several writing activities. During this time we make a LOT of class books for our classroom library that are modeled after many of these stories.

We’ve compiled all of our literature based activities into one unit (as well as some other alphabet themed printables) and it is now available to purchase on TpT.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at Alphabet FUN . . .

Houghton Mifflin Resource Pack

2011-08-04T13:44:00.001-07:00

From correspondences that we have had with many of you since beginning our blog we know that there are a lot of Houghton Mifflin users out there. Since adopting this curriculum several years ago we have created numerous resources that we use in our own classrooms every day to supplement the series.

We have been hard at work the last few days (and nights) trying to compile all of these activities into one BIG 319 page resource pack so we could get it posted on TpT before the sale ends.

Click {here} to download a sampling of every activity from Theme 3.

If you are not a Houghton Mifflin user, but have a teacher friend who is, we would really appreciate it if you would pass along the word about our new resource pack. We have put a lot of time, energy and LOVE into every single page!!!

A few little something's we want you to know . . .

1. Many of you may have have noticed that at the beginning of the year all of our sentence building activities include proper capitalization and punctuation. As the year progresses we begin to leave these elements off of our activities (example: center cards sentence scrambles). It isn’t because we forgot!!! It’s because we want our students to begin applying what they’ve learned and be able to independently incorporate these elements into their writing.

2. Since opening up our store on TpT there have been more and more sellers popping up every day offering products that are very similar to ours . . . if not the same. We understand that you have a choice when it comes to purchasing items for your classroom and we want to thank you for your support and loyalty. We try very hard to create items that are developmentally appropriate and meet state and national standards. We teach in thematic units by incorporating skills we have covered in math and reading. There is a natural skill based progression to each of our units.

3. We are extending our sale for ONE more day so you can continue to save money on any items that may still be on your wish list. Remember to enter code B1T1S at checkout to receive an additional 10% off your purchases. This would be the perfect time to pick up a copy of our new resource pack if you are a Houghton Mifflin use.

Back-2-School Shopping

2011-08-02T07:31:00.001-07:00

We hope all of you are taking advantage of some of the great sales that are underway on TpT. We just added a few items to our own wish list and are planning to make some purchases tomorrow. There are so many FABULOUS resources available . . . where was this website when we started teaching????

We just wanted to let you know that our two newest bundled sets of literacy and math centers are now available in our store on TpT. We apologize for not getting them added before the big sale began. Luckily you still have 3 more days to save 30%.

We also want to announce the winner in our Musical Math giveaway. It was SO much fun reading each post and learning about everyone’s favorite songs.

One last thing before we go . . .

We want to check and see just how many of you 1st grade teachers out there use the Houghton Mifflin reading series? We are throwing around the idea of putting together a BIG resource pack that includes all the supplemental material we have developed over the years to go along with the series and want to know if it would be very well received. Let us know what you think!!!

Fabulous Fall Centers

2011-08-01T10:29:00.001-07:00

We’ve been working hard to get all of our fall math and literacy centers ready to post during TpT’s {BIG} Back to School Sale so you can get them at a discounted price. Now of course, we can’t get them posted until tomorrow.

What we can do today though is give you a little {sneak} peek at everything that will be available. You will have the option of purchasing them in one big bundled set or individually.

As soon as TpT will allow us to start posting items we will provide some links to them here on our blog.

Apples, Apples {Math & Literacy Centers}

2011-08-01T07:18:00.001-07:00

Good Monday morning friends!!! We hope you had a great weekend. We tried to stay out of the HOT Kansas heat so we spent several hours working in our classrooms and then we brought home piles and piles of stuff to work on.

We wanted to let you know about a new item that we will be posting on TpT tomorrow. We would LOVE to do it sooner, but they have got everyone blocked from posting anything today due to the high volume of sales they are experiencing.

For the first time EVER we have combined all of our thematic math and literacy centers into one download . It includes all of the apple themed center activities that we previously posted. We’ve gotten several request from teachers to bundle them all together . . . so that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Here’s a little {sneak} peek at all the centers that are included in this single download.

As always, we will continue to post each center activity individually. We know that many of you like to have the option of only purchasing the items you know you will use in your classroom.

Be sure and enter promo code B1T1S to receive an additional 10% off all your purchases from TpT.

BIG {Back To School} SALE

2011-07-30T09:58:00.001-07:00

Whether we are ready or not . . . the first day of school is right around the corner. So to help you get ready we have teamed up with TpT and several other fabulous bloggers to give you BIG discounts on some of the items you have had your eye on all summer long.

Every item in our store will be 20% off beginning Monday {August 1st} through Thursday {August 4th}.

Be sure and enter promo code B1T1S to receive an additional 10% off all your purchases from TpT.

After you get all of the items from our TpT store that are on your “Back to School” wish list be sure and head on over to these other ladies stores and pick up some of their great items too!!!

Musical Math Giveaway

2011-07-30T09:57:00.001-07:00

Remember our post a few days ago about the great CD’s we use from Creative Mathematics every day to reinforce many of our math skills??? Well, we are excited to announce that Kim Sutton has agreed to team up with us and give away a copy of each CD.

Both of these are great resources that we are sure you and your kids will fall in LOVE with. They are loaded with catchy little tunes that you {and your kiddos} will be singing to yourself in no time at all.

We are going to make this easy . . . all you need to do to enter your name in this giveaway is tell us what your FAVORITE song is. What song do you always go to first on your iPod of find yourself humming while your cleaning up around the house???

Just so you know . . . Kelly’s song of choice is “Price Tag” by Jessie J & Diane’s song of choice is “Mama’s Song” by Carrie Underwood.

Good luck friends!!! We will choose a winner on Monday.

Sight Word Books

2011-07-29T18:56:00.001-07:00

After spending a few hours at school today getting things copied and organized we are both feeling a little better about the beginning of the year. It’s always SO exciting . . . but man is it a LOT of work!!!

We know a lot of you are Houghton Mifflin users so we wanted to share a resource that we created several years ago to go with the “Back to School” section of the series. It’s a set of sight word worksheets that review the kindergarten sight words. They go right along with all of the little paper readers that come at the front of the workbook. We always practice reading the little paper book that goes with each lesson several times together and then we create a class book by having each student fill in the blank to complete the sentence and draw a picture to illustrate their words. Then we assemble the books and place them in our classroom library. Even at the end of the year the kids still love going back and reading them!!!

click {here} to download a copy

Even if you aren’t a Houghton Mifflin user this is still might be a resource you can use to start your school year. All of the sentences are made up of very basic sight words that every 1st grader {should} be able to read!!!

Staying On Track

2011-07-27T18:13:00.001-07:00

Looking for an easy way to keep your kiddos on track during center time??? If so, then check out this free online stopwatch. It’s SUPER easy to use and it is a great visual for your kids. After a few days you will even be able to let one of them be in charge or resetting it after each rotation.

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

We both use this stopwatch each day during our four {20 minute} center rotations. We keep it displayed on our Promethean board and it helps our students get their work done during each rotation and stay on track. We’ve tried lots of other time management methods and this seems to work better than ANYTHING else!!!