Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tom...
Download our classroom icebreakers printable and "go fishing" with your students as they ask and answer questions of one another.
Maybe you’ve been asked to lead a grade level team. Maybe you’re on a grade level team that has no appointed leadership and you’re ready to take the reins. No matter how you arrived at this moment and this blog post, you’re probably wondering where to start and what exactly your role should be. As y
These sound experiments are fun and engaging! They're perfect science lessons for 1st graders and are aligned with NGSS for teaching sound.
Fractions Practice Page Color the shapes in each row to match the fraction. Get more 1st grade worksheets from my shop. Click here.
Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The
Plenty of interactive ideas and activities to teach landforms for kids. Find videos, worksheets and even experiments to help.
Teaching Singular, Plural and Possessive nouns will be a breeze when you use my anchor charts, activity ideas, and resources! Enjoy!
Hi Friends… I hope this post finds you well and enjoying your summer break. I just returned home from a relaxing vacation in Punta Cana! It was a ton of fun and I really needed the R & R 🙂 I actually wrote this blog post on the plane there…BUT… the flight didn’t have any … Science FUN with Interactive Notebooks! Read More »
Contractions are great for writing words shorter to save some time. But there is some confusion when students shorten the words. Contract means to make smaller. Students contract two words into one small word. This is what students need to remember about contractions: The first words always stays the same (except for the word; will not, won't). The apostrophe goes where the letters come out. I have a Free Contractions Bingo game to practice reading and writing contractions. This 2-Player game has students matching the two words that make a contraction to the contraction word on their bingo board. The first player to make a bingo is the winner! All you need to play are the Bingo Boards and Contraction Cards. Click the picture for your free download! Place the Contractions Bingo Game in you center rotations or use during small group time. Play after teaching or reviewing contractions. Feel free to send home for homework to play with a family member. Place the Contraction Cards and some writing paper at a Writing Center. Students use the cards to write sentences using the contraction word. Check students for understanding. It helps to remember the first word stays the same and the apostrophe replaces the letters that come out. The only time this rule doesn't apply is for the contraction word, will not - won't. Try this pack of Contraction Task Cards. It includes 3 centers. The first center has 40 task cards that students choose from multiple choice answers to find the correct contraction. The second center has 36 task cards. Each task card has a contraction. The students write the two words that make up the contraction. The third center has 36 task cards. Each task card the two words that make up the contraction. Students write the contraction that make up the the two words. This pack will keep your students sharp on reading and writing contractions all year long. Here are some resources you may need when teaching contractions. I linked them to Amazon to make it easy for you: Contraction Puzzles Contraction Chart If You Were a Contraction - book Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon, Check out more GRAMMAR activities by Teacher's Take-Out:
Higher order thinking math tasks and activities for first grade. Students challenge themselves with these fun tasks that get them thinking about math.
First grade is a very important year where students are building a strong foundation in their journey for mathematical proficiency. One of the most
Teaching grammar and language art skills can be a challenge for anyone. How do you hit all of the skills...effectively? How do you know your students are
1st Grade Reading Worksheets can help your kids get off to a great start of a life-long love of reading. Reading is knowledge. Stimulate their imagination and help them expand their understanding of the world and communication with others. Grow a strong and intelligent future with a passion for learning. Print all of our 1st […]
Daily Math Review FREE First Grade - Math Spiral Review includes worksheets with the variety of problems that are reviewed on one page.
Need some fun activities to teach nouns to your 1st or 2nd grade students? These activities will help you teach common nouns and proper nouns!
Winter is just around the corner and I have been working hard on our Winter Math and Literacy Packet for Kindergarten! I am happy to say that it is
Preschool through 3rd Grade NO PREP Packets! February is such a FUN month! Kids LOVE Valentine's Day and using that holiday to teach core skills and
I have no idea where to start with writing tonight. I took one day off and now I'm thinking, "Oh, my goodness! Why do these people all want to follow me?" I keep trying to think of a funny story and honestly, I can't think past the football game in the background. I'm a Georgia fan at heart (sorry Dad - it's not my fault), but ultimately I'm an SEC fan! I like the guy from Hawaii on Notre Dame, but I have to say, I hope Alabama slaughters them. Now, changing directions, this week we are working on types of sentences, so I threw together a quick sheet. If you guys are anything like me, we have the new common core standards, but our old resources don't align. At the beginning of the summer, I took apart every resource I had and realigned all of my notebooks. It took 4 days to do, but they are a work of art and MUCH better than a filing cabinet. However, many times there are only 5 problems on a page or the page is too easy or too complex. So, now I'm obsessed with creating my own sheets. Anyway, I'm saying all of that to say I have three new freebies for you. The first one is a rounding sheet. Honestly, I'm not sure it's a first grade standard anymore. I thought it was when I created it, but I've looked through all of the standards and our first grade teacher's guide and I can't find it, so I'm not sure. I do know the other two sheets are in our standards. One of them covers true/false addition problems and the other one covers declarative and interrogative sentences plus punctuation marks. If you like them, CLICK HERE to get them. Oh, and for all of my cat lovers out there (See Saturday's post), my hubby has changed my picture on his phone to that picture. Now, every time I call him, the picture of the cat pops up. That's okay... I'm sure I deserve it. I did sneak a boiled egg into his work boot a few years ago ;) Hope you guys are off to a good week!
What do you like to do when you listen to music? Practice writing sentences by answering this question and more about music in this creative writing worksheet.
Looking for a fun way to teach 2D shapes? This marshmallow geometry activity will do the trick - and fill your tummy!
Last week we were very busy learning about force and motion . We learned about friction and the force that moves a roller coaster. Then we p...
Give your child practice with his sentence building skills with this printable worksheet that's all about capital letters.
How to Avoid the Summer Slide! Summer is right around the corner! We all LOVE our summer vacation, but not the "Summer Slide!" According to Oxford
This past week, we learned about synonyms. The kids really grasped the concept by mid-week! I am excited to see them start using synonyms...
K-1 POETRY UNIT I love teaching poetry to kindergarten and first grade students! Even though I have this labeled as Unit 8 in my Writing Series , I actually teach poetry throughout the entire year. We follow the same routine and students look forward to our poetry week every month.
Use these 35 fun and easy first grade writing prompts +12 bonus ideas with your kids and help them improve their writing and reading skills!
1st Grade English Worksheets are a great way to get your little ones off to a great start in reading. Worksheets are fun and perfect for little learners. We have all kinds of fun themes to keep them interested. Help them with reading comprehension, spelling, word sounds and more. Print all all of our worksheets […]
It amazes me how much class size affects my teaching and my students. I started the year with 31 students. I just lost my second one at the beginning of this week, so I'm down to 29. I've had 2 kids out all week on long vacations and 2 more out sick. So I've had a class of 25 ALL week!! It's been a big difference. Even though the ones gone are little angels and I still have all the hard ones, it really makes a BIG difference!! Our district and researchers keep telling us that class size doesn't make a difference but I have to beg to differ with them. It makes a HUGE difference in first grade. With a smaller class I can spread myself out more- work with more kids, more often, for longer periods of time. We can get more done- 25 kids take less time to finish an assignment than 31. With all the activities we do in first grade through out the day it can really add up. With less kids, fighting for my attention, I can give more attention to those that really need it. During class discussions, there is more participation by more kids. The shyer kids start to open up. It just feels more like a close knit community rather than a big city. I can hardly imagine what it would be like to teach less than 20. What a dream!! Back to reality. Our school has been doing training in SIOP this year. It stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. You can find out more HERE. It actually is training in teaching English Language Learner but our school does not have a very high percentage of ELLs. We actually have only 3 out of 180 in our grade level. But the SIOP model is really best practices and a great review in how to teach better. With the new common core our principal thought is would be a great help. We've had to do lesson studies and just finished one yesterday. Our team did ours on Synonyms. It's great to collaborate and work together as a team developing and analyzing a lesson. Here's a practice page we used and a cute song we found. I don't know who to give credit for the song but our kiddos really liked it. Click HERE if you'd like to grab a copy. Hey, believe it or not but it's FRIDAY tomorrow- again! Gotta love FRIDAY! I hope you all have a GREAT one.
They're Here!! Adorable March First Grade Worksheets for your home or classroom. Math, Addition, Subtraction, Grammar, Writing, and so much more.
This worksheet had students distinguish between school rules and community laws. Choose color or black and white. ...
Fichas imprimibles para trabajar vocabulario en inglés. Printable vocabulary worksheets.
Since it is poetry month, I thought I would share a bit about how I teach alliteration. Teaching literary devices is probably one of my favorite things to do, but they can be tricky for the little ones! That means I provide a lot of different kinds of activities to help the concepts stick! Here are just a few of my favorites with alliteration. Tongue Twisters Tongue twisters are a favorite! I love sharing some with my students and have them try to say them three times fast to the class. We usually end up doubled over in laughter. :) Once students are familiar with tongue twisters, we set out to write our own. We publish them on the tongues of these cute displays! No template - we just trace lids for the circle faces and I free-cut tongues out of the large construction paper. Poem Practice We read the Jack Prelutsky poem, "Bleezer's Ice Cream" and I ask students to identify the flavors that alliterate, like checkerberry cheddar chew or cotton candy carrot custard. This poem is in the book The New Kid on the Block and it's an all-time favorite poetry book that I highly recommend! {affiliate link below} There are a few ways to access this poem online if you can't get your hands on the book. Here is a YouTube reading of the poem. You can also play the musical version of the poem being sang by Natalie Merchant here. After analyzing the poem, I put students in partners and let them create their own wacky ice cream flavors that alliterate! You can download the freebie below to do this activity with your students. {Download Freebie Here} Games Galore Games are so important in the primary classroom. We play games every single day. Multiple times a day. For alliteration, we play an old fashioned car game. It's great, not only for alliteration, but for listening and memory, too! The items being taken on the trip must all begin with the same initial sound as the destination. To play, I read the card, for example, "I am going to Paris and I'm taking a parachute." The next student in the circle would repeat my item and add one of his own, for example..."I am going to Paris and I'm taking a parachute and a piano." The sentence keeps getting passed around the circle with each student repeating it and adding another "p" word. They are amazed when it make it all the way around the circle! I also teach students how to play it with just two players - perfect for the car ride home from school (sorry parents)! One student starts it, and it keeps alternating until one player either can't think of an item to add or can't remember an item. What fun practicing alliteration! Clever Crafts Since we study literary devices during the spring, we love to decorate the hall with clever craftivities. For alliteration, we create "Alliterainbows." Students use planning pages and brainstorm parts of speech to alliterate with each color and then use these ideas to write their own sentences with alliteration on each color band of the rainbow. By now, they are amazing at alliterating! :) Story Surprises Throughout our study, I always throw in a couple of surprise read-alouds! These are a couple of my favorites for alliteration. The first book I read is The Little Book of Alliterations. It is a simple alphabet book with one phrase per page. It's perfect to read before having students write tongue twisters. The next book I read closer to the end of our study. It's called One Smug Slug and it is written in story format. The story uses as many "s" words as possible. They enjoy trying to figure out what the smug slug is climbing throughout the story and are always surprised when he is eaten at the end! But, their favorite part of the book is that there is a hidden "S" somewhere on each page - some are super tricky and they love searching for them. {affiliate links for books} I hope this post gave you a few new ideas for teaching alliteration!
The pressure is on! I have my formal principal's evaluation on Tuesday. I don't know about you but these always make me soooooo nervous. I've done them a million times. I've had tons of people, over the years, in my classroom watching me teach from district personnel to other school's principals but it always makes me crazy. I think it's because I'm a perfectionist. I want the perfect lesson and my students to behave in a perfect way. Well it ain't gonna happen this time. I have a VERY difficult class! Plus I have a new principal and I'm not sure how he grades. And I'm going to use my new Smartboard which doesn't always work the way I want it to. I think that's what is making me soooo nervous. But the 'SHOW' must go on and I'll just do my best. This darling frame is a freebie by 'Sweet Berry Patch' over on her Teacher Notebook shop. She has some cute stuff! I'm introducing contractions. I'm excited about my lesson. I'm going to have the kiddos build contractions with tiles and find them in their reading. I love teaching by the gradual release method so there will be lots of TO, WITH, and BY. I LOVE this song and wish I knew who wrote it so I could give credit. If you'd like to download the anchor chart, practice sheets, and song click HERE. Linking up with Rebecca's FREEBIE Linking Party. Go check it out. There are some GREAT FREEBIES! I hope everyone has a great LONG weekend! Thanks for stopping by.
Telling time past the hour can be challenging for primary kids but it doesn’t have to be a struggle for you or your students. Learn simple ways and effective strategies to make telling time easier for primary kids.
It's time for Five for Friday by DoodleBugs Teaching. This one will definitely be one of my favorite ones because I have some cool things to share. I took these pictures last week. Our kindergarten TAs are just amazing! Love all the colors and habitats! They turned out great! Do you see this pile? I got a new printer for Christmas and literally JUST hooked it up two days ago. I am in love! I'm trying to get ahead and get everything printed off that I'm going to need the next few weeks. Freebies? Did I hear that you wanted a freebie? Well, since Easter is coming up and unfortunately so is testing, I pulled out a few of my freebies from last year. I hope you enjoy! Do you like Brain Breaks? Well, I am in LOVE with The Learning Station brain breaks. I found them on YouTube last year. They are perfect for rainy days and my kids ask for them over a movie when we are stuck inside. Here's the thing. I ordered one of the DVDs a few weeks ago and thought, "I'd love to be able to share these with my followers." Guess what? We are doing just that! I contacted my friends at The Learning Station and they are letting me give away ONE DVD bundle! Friends, it is worth $80. You have a week to enter and I seriously can't wait to make someone's day next week. a Rafflecopter giveaway So, I've been looking for some fun things to do with my class that are more hands-on, especially after testing in a few weeks. Here's a picture of one of my favorites - walking on eggs. Why yes, we will be doing that in my classroom in two weeks. If you don't believe me, ask my friends. I'll try anything once. You can read more about how to do this on Playdough to Plato. Oh, and make sure you check out Quirky Momma on Facebook. She posts the neatest things to try with your kids and even in your classroom. Have a Fantabulous Friday!
It's Spring! So it's time for a fun Spring learning idea. I created a printable set of Fraction Flowers that includes fractions through 1/10. This can now be purchased in my shop. Fraction Flowers are a
This post will give you more than 360 pages of 1st grade common core language arts worksheets with answer keys and posters to help your students learn!
Is your kid having trouble with contractions? Try out this simple memory matching game.
Let's take a little peek in a day in first grade! I love my job and working with the kids, tap to get some tips and tricks you can use too!
February Morning Work Math Worksheets First Grade includes worksheets with a variety of problems that are reviewed on one page.
