First Grade is Great!

I know it’s been a while since I have posted. I have crazy busy taking care of my daughter and lesson planning for school. I am loving first grade compared to kindergarten. Kindergartners are so sweet, but the beginning of the year was always stressful trying to teach so many routines. First graders know their way around the school, but still love being there!

We have been working on learning the short vowel sounds and how to read and write words with short vowels. Some of the activities I have been using are sound boxes, making words, word ladders, and picture/word cards. I gave the students a probe on short a and I was pleasantly surprised by the great results. Just a few students will need extra work with short a.

I’ve been spending lots of time visiting other blogs for ideas since this is my first year back in first grade. I hope to get creative soon! One idea that I am going to use in a word work center next week is a word family game. I have 3 mini pumpkin baskets with consonant tiles in them. On the outside of each pumpkin I have included a word family ending (-ack, in, ot). I made a recording sheet where students will record the words that they make. I will let you know how it turns out!

Well, I will talk to you all soon! Hugs and kisses from first grade!

First Grade on My Mind!

Well, excitement and dread both come to mind as the coming year approaches. This will be my first year back in first grade after spending 5 years in kindergarten. I am very excited to get back to firsties, but it will be hard to leave my 8 month old daughter to head back to work! Although I taught first grade in the past, I have not taught first grade in this district. I know that I have a year of hard work ahead of me, but I know I will love it!
I had to move into a new classroom so I am trying to get in to work when I can to unpack and organize my classroom. While I am at home, I am working on lesson plans and items I need to print. I just printed my labels for poetry folders, writing folders, vocabulary journals, math journals, and reading journals. It's so easy to buy the printable labels at Target and then create the labels in Microsoft Word! I also just finished up a letter of information that I will give to parents at Open House Night. Well, I suppose it's time for me to get back to work! Good luck all!