It's Hard to Fix a Wrinkled Heart

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Howdy!
Welcome back! 
Today we read one of my favorite beginning of the year books, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  It has become a fav of the kids too. Many of them said they have the book at home or their kindergarten teacher read it to them. I told them that's why books are so special. No matter how many times you read a book, each time is like opening a gift.  This time we were going to really think about the main character's feelings and the author's message.  As we read the book, I passed around a large paper heart.  Each time Chrysanthemum was teased because of her name, we crumpled up the heart.  Every time someone did something nice to her, we tried our best to smooth it out. By the end of the story, the heart was a wrinkled mess that could not be smoothed out perfectly. 
The kids got the connection that our own hearts feel wrinkled and crumpled sometimes when we don't like what someone says.  Words do hurt. We then tried to put bandaids on the heart as a way to show that we can own our mistakes and apologize.  The heart will probably still be wrinkled, but it is healing.






I, then had the kids do a mini version of this in their Reader's Response Journal. 
Always Use Kind Words!


You can find this activity along with a few other things to do with this amazing book if you click here!
Including the little heart poem in the center:Before you speak,Think and be smart.It's hard to fixa wrinkled heart.
Here's to Happy Hearts!Joyfully!Nancy

Think Outside the Box Thursday

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Howdy!Thanks for stopping by!  One of my favorite Morning Warm Up activities is my "Think Outside the Box Thursday!" activity.  I developed this unit to help my kiddos stretch the creative side of their brains. The goal is for them to make the shape into something no one else will think of.  This week's shape brought out some fabulous ideas!  Way to go kids!




 for this printable, click here :)
for your own copy of my 39 page Think Outside the Box Thursday pack, click here


Stay tuned for another peek into the creative minds of first graders!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Life size ten frame

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Hello Everyone!Our math objectives for the first couple of weeks of school are to have students recognize quantities without counting, recognizing structured quantities up to 10, and applying mathematical process standards to represent and compare whole numbers.  We are using a lot of dice, dominoes and ten frames to build our number sense.  Today we practiced using a ten frame. The fun part was that it was life size!  I saw a cute idea about using tape on the carpet to map out a ten frame, but I wanted one that I could pick up and move, use in a math tub, etc.  So, for about a dollar, I made two frames out of a shower curtain liner and some painter's tape! The markers or counters were the kids!! We practiced showing different quantities together, and then I broke the kids up into two groups and called out numbers.  they had to work together to be the first group to show that amount on their ten frames. Any time I can incorporate a kinesthetic approach to learning, I am going for it!!  We had so much fun!  I am sure this will be one the kids will ask to do over and over!

Cut a shower curtain liner in half so you have two rectangles.

Tape off the ten frame

 A life size visual of quantifying and subitizing!
 Give it a try!!
Joyfully!Nancy

Word Wranglin' Strategies

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Hello Everyone!Ahhhh! A rainy day.  They come few and far between here in Texas, so I'm taking advantage of not being able to be outside and working on some word strategy posters.  It is not a secret that I love the Daily Five and CAFE.  I am also a very visual learner, as I am positive many of my students are as well. I had some old tricky word strategy posters, but I wanted some with a visually western flair. I used the "Accuracy" component of CAFE and created these poster, mini posters and book marks to organize literacy learning in my classroom and keep my kids motivated, focused and Wranglin' those tricky words!

A sample of one of the posters

 For a copy of yours, rope 'em in here! :)Download consists of Title page, 7 posters, mini poster/bookmarks for each strategy and books marks with all strategies.
Hope you can use them!  I can't wait to get them printed and hung up!! Stay tuned! Happy Trails!Joyfully!Nancy

Eat Your words- Skittles!

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Hello Everyone!Just a super quick post tonight! Crazy busy weekend coming up!  This week our sweet little firsties practiced the short i sound by brainstorming all the words they could think of with ip, in, and it in them.  We practiced with rainbow words, stamps, magnets and...Skittles during Daily 5 Word Work.  My teacher treat for  word work practice one day was to write the short i words, write them again with the "taste the rainbow" colors of Skittles and then use a skittle for the dot above all the short i's. "Skittles is the best short i word ever," said the kids!!  What a sweet way to practice some sweet words!! 




Click here for your own sweet "Eat your Words" printable!

Have a sweet weekend!!
Joyfully!Nancy

Long Range Plans and a Reading Interest Survey

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Hey everyone! It's been an EXHAUSTING, but WONDERFUL first week of school! I love my students to pieces and the students are really loving Whole Brain Teaching! We're still working on whole class participation, but we will get there! I already had my instructional coach come in my room while we were doing it and she seemed quite interested! 
Anyway, I'm kinda late to the Freebie Friday party but I wanted to share a couple of things.
I have had a bunch of emails and comments asking whether or not I would share the long range plans you saw in THIS post. Of course, I would be HAPPY to share! It is already filled out, but you can just change it to suit your needs. 
Just click the picture below to download. I changed the font to Arial Narrow so that it didn't show up weird when you download it. It is a WORD document.Something else I wanted to share with you is this Reading Interest Survey that I conducted with my class this week! We did it together as a class so I could explain each question. I think this is a great tool to get to know the students reading interests and habits. This file is a PDF. Just click the image below to download your copy!

Go link up at Blog Hoppin' if you haven't already!

First Week of School Activities

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We had our first day of school with students Wednesday and I forgot how utterly exhausting and mind blowing that first day is! We did lots of rules, routines, and procedures but also made time for some fun first week things. 
Here is what we have been up to!


 You can purchase these Scholastic Order Form activities from Clutter Free Classroom HERE!
I also introduced the students to the Activ Expressions! They were literally asking me about them ALL week long and so Friday, we took a Multiple Intelligence Survey using the device! I adapted this activity from Laura Candler's printable survey which you can download free HERE! You can download the flipchart by clicking the image below.
Important Note: You must have Promethean Activ Inspire software installed on your computer to OPEN and use this file! Please do not download otherwise!

I also made some labels to go on my Activ Expression bins. You can download those by clicking the button below!I have also decided to implement brain breaks into my classroom this year! We needed a little wake me up on Friday morning so we watched this HILARIOUS parody of I'm Sexy and I Know It, called I'm Elmo and I Know It! I am definitely adding this to my brain break file!

I plan on making some brain breaks sometime this week. Stay tuned to find out how I plan on incorporating this bad boy into my brain breaks!

I absolutely can't wait for it to get here!!

Free Fonts, Egg-speriments, and Shake Breaks!

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This chick has been a BUSY BUSY bee!! I have been trying to post for like a week, but just can't seem to find the time!! I have been up to a lot and want to share a few things!
First up, OUR WHOLE SCHOOL (teachers that is) GOT iPADS!! How cool is that!??!! I have been dying to get one and now I don't have to! Each teacher only got one, so I have to get creative with how to use it in the classroom. =) 
I have also been waiting to get one so that I could download the app, iFontmaker, and create my own fonts! Sooo, that's pretty much the first thing I did when I got it...I might have been doing that during one of my planning period at school! SHHHH! Don't tell!!
Anyway, they are all free and can be downloaded right from my sidebar underneath where it says fonts. Here is what they look like!

I have actually added two more since creating the picture above and they are also in my side bar for your downloading pleasure! =)
Click the button below to view my terms of use!

I also used my iPad this week to video our Egg Float Egg-speriment! The kids absolutely loved it! I could only upload 15 minutes of the video so you won't get to see the very end -- it's only 16 minutes so you don't miss much, but this lesson is a great way to introduce the Scientific Method! Check it out below! I know it's kind of long, but it's so neat to see the progression of the lesson from the outside! I might also develop a slight stutter during one part, so please forgive me!! HAHA


UGH!! My arms look so fat in that video! Eek!! lol
And finally, I finished my SHAKE Break file! Remember I told you about this guy??

Well, instead of having a regular ole dance party shake break, I thought it would be TOTALLY awesome to have a Disco Party and turn on the colored disco ball for two minutes while they break it down!! Hopefully, I don't get in trouble for this one...lol
Anyway, here is the complete file! There are 42 Shake Breaks included with directions for each one! P.S. Shake Breaks are just my version of Brain Breaks. 

 I cannot wait to print these bad boys off tomorrow and start using them! I plan on incorporating them with my WBT scoreboard! I will still use the brain breaks as necessary in class, but I have a feeling the students will be begging for more so I think if I link it to the scoreboard, they will totally work their little butts off to earn one! They will try to earn a Shake Break instead of 1 minute of extra recess for the scoreboard game.
You can get this file for $3.50 at either one of shops by clicking below!

And don't forget about the Carolina Blogger Meet Up! Please go visit Hope's FB event to RSVP so we can get an accurate head count! Just click the picture below to head over.

Classroom Helpers and More Classroom Happenings

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It has finally happened. I have caught  the dreaded cold and it only took two weeks of school! I had to miss our tubing trip with friends today because I felt like walking death. The only good thing to come of this is that I was restricted to my couch and computer and forced to do "schoolish" things. 
I finished my classroom ihelpers project that I have been working on for about a month, even though it's only like four pages long! HAHA I made it editable so you all could take it an use it in your classrooms. 

Just visit my either of my shops below to download.

Here is what else has been going on around my room this week!





Download the Boat Afloat and River Map printables by clicking each picture below!


And, I have a few new fonts in my side bar for you to download!
Gingersnap Thick Hand and Gingersnap Print. I also fixed the Gingersnap Handwriting font to make the punctuation flow better with the text. =)
Happy weekend!! I'll just be nursing my cold and willing it to go away by Monday! Ya right...lol