Victor verb, Nancy Noun and Growing up to be a Pirate

My class is SO cute and funny this year. They say the most hilarious stuff. And they are so excited to share their new learning. Last week I was introducing a big book "10 Dogs in the Window" (which is really cute) so I was "selling" it, and telling them how great all the first grade classes think it is. One little girl got SO excited, she put her hands up to her mouth and started, like, thrashing around and said in this little "Despicable Me" voice "I just love school! I can't wait to see what we learn today!!!!" And she wasn't trying to be goofy or make everyone laugh. She was totally sincere. It was AWESOME.

So here was our week:

Nancy noun and Victor Verb: Victor only eats vegetables and Nancy only eats Nachos. We "fed" Victor and Nancy with paper chips and paper carrots, depending on the word they drew. I wrote nouns and verbs on cards, and they drew them from the deck, then had to decide who to feed. Of course we ate  the real thing later. They were AS excited to eat the carrots as the Doritos. Seriously. I have dream children. And no allergies this year- thank you, Jesus!

Making short vowel words. I have these fun, and funky letters that I got online somewhere. I wish I could remember where and share it, cuz they were only like 6 bucks! But I can't remember. And these two cuties are the funniest!! That little boy at lunchtime once said, "When I grow up I'm going to be a pirate." He was TOTALLY serious. And then she said "You can't be a pirate anymore once you have a wife." Again- deadpan serious. So HE says, "Yes, I can. I'll just go out and get treasures on Thursdays." I think I'm gonna make that into a sign and hang it in my house.

Ladybug subitzing. Look at the dots on one side of  the ladybug and write the number on the other side. We practiced "look, write, count" to get used to looking and writing and then counting if we needed to double check.  We then made ladybug books with dots on each side to make a number sentence. I took pictures but think I deleted them. Maybe next time. It was a good hands-on activity using subitizing, missing addends, and adding. Plus fine motor skills and will look cute at open house! A win-win-win!

An oldie but a goodie. Nothing fancy. Just a spelling hunt. Having fun letter stickers makes all the difference. Maybe next time I'll call it "The Spelling Hunt" game just to jazz it up. And find some good hunting music. They'd eat it up.

By the way, if you're looking for a good fall candle- B&B Works has their candles on sale 2 for $20. And they're decent sized. Their new fall scents are awesome. "Pumpkin Caramel Latte"-it's a keeper. My daughter (7 year old) said "Mom, I wanna eat that candle."

 
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Pumpkin song and video- pin it for a freebie!

Need something pumpkin related? Here's a cute little video from YouTube. I've been looking for some pumpkin related music that isn't scary or too Halloween-ish.  This is unique and cute- kind of... Indie-alternative meets the Monkeys. I'm putting it in my pumpkin unit that I spend a week on every year. It's Pumpkinpalooza!

Anyone who pins this and comments below telling me that you did, I'll give you a copy. It's geared toward ages k-2, mainly first grade. Remember to leave me your email address so I can send it to you!

 Do you use You Tube for anything? Join in this linky and tell us how you use it! It's a great tool, but has so much stuff to wade through, it's nice to make it easy for all of us to know what to look for!
Thanks for reading!
 
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10 Weeks Worth of Morning Work giveaway!

In the past, morning work has been the BANE of my existence. During my first year back in first grade 4 years ago (I shudder to think of it- forgive me, parents and students of that year) I think it took me about 3 months before I even gave them morning work, just because my head was up my...sleeve. Each year I got progressively better, and then after thinking all summer long about possibly doing a morning work cutesy theme, I came upon this post from Nancy at First Grade Wow. Sold. Count me in. Yes, please. Each day has a "theme" for lack of a better word. And it's FUN STUFF! Nancy gives her Thursday morning work away for free at her blog, but no other days, so I was sadly on my own to figure those out. Crap- I had to have an original thought.

So I've been working for a few weeks now, and here's what I've come up with:

So I'm organized, themed and ready to go for the next 10 weeks. Woohoo!!!And so far, I love it! It is SO NICE having mornings all ready to go.

For the next 24 hours, it's only $1 at TPT. And at TN, my whole store is 20% off. And enter to win it! It's my first rafflecopter. I hope I'm doing it right!


a Rafflecopter giveaway Thanks for entering and for reading!
 
 
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Tips for teaching writing and free posters

I'm redecorating my husband's classroom. I posted about it here on my other blog. Oh, by the way, I started a new blog. It's about classroom decorating, which is probably one of my favorite parts about teaching. 

Anyway, my husband had some little posters hanging up that listed the 6 traits of writing with a description. They had some graphics on them, but were plain white, and hung all haphazard, making them more of a distraction than an anchor chart. They're hard to see, but they're on the cabinets in the back. So I cleaned them up and gave them some graphics that matched his classroom decor. I didn't make the original poster, and it is not my original wording. It comes from kimsforner4teachertalk.com. 

This website is great! It has so much useful information and ideas for teaching writing. The teacher is now a high school teacher, but used to teach elementary or middle, so I think I'll be able to tweak alot of the stuff for the lower grades. Check it out if you need a few tips for teaching writing!

 

So here are my posters- they're free at TPT and TN.

 And by the way,if you become a follower of my Schoolroom Swag blog, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send you something from my store for free!

Thanks for reading!
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[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]