100th Day of School

Yay for the 100th Day of school......only 80 more (but who is counting).  I am b/c I am ready for warm weather & lots of sunshine!!!!!   So my day started like this at home.......

Banner on the door

Bag of red hots....yes I came up with the saying.....Pinterest gots NOTHING on me!!!!

We had matching 100 Day shirts I made (which I did get the template from Pintererst).

Then the school day started with our 100 day parade around the school showing off our 100 day projects we made.  Did I tell you these were the best projects yet in all my 12 years teaching!!!!

Lots of creative juices flowing in those households!!!!!

Now on to our centers we did.....Race to 100, 100 dice tallies, estimating objects, 100 Day trail mix, 100 Day Mystery Pic, plus somethings we just couldn't fit in.  If only our day  could have 30 more min. a day I could get sooooo much done!!!!  Just sayn'

Here are the examples of the centers....then you can see my kiddos in action.

Estimating Legos ....4 different bags one had 100 legos

100 Day crown

100 Tallies Dice Game-  they had to roll a dice & put 5 tally marks in each box.

Race to 100- play with a partner, roll a dice & each move their cubes that many places.  The 1st to get to 100 is the winner.

This I thought was so cute but boy did it cause heartache.  They had to write their name over & over in the 100 boxes.  Then color each letter in their name a different color. 

Now my kids in action......

Counting out 100 day trail mix.....10 food items, the kids count 10 of each item to equal 100.

Lastly we finished the day with a cake, singing & drinking some juice!!!  Great end to the day & watched Emily's First 100 Days of School.

Plus we had many flip chart pages where we had to figure out numbers to color on our Mystery picture.  Can you guess what our picture made........

You guessed it......100

You guessed it ......100

How did you spend the 100th day????  Yay for the weekend.....it's been one LONG week & I think it will be like that from here on out.  I plan on relaxing & will be back next week with some more fun things in the classroom!!!!

Groundhog Day & Comprehension Beanie Baby Posters

Well it was a successful Groundhog day in my classroom, everyone went home happy & ready for DAY 100.....tomorrow b/c that means only 80 more to go (but who's counting).  Here are something we did today to celebrate the groundhog.....even though we don't believe we will have 6 more weeks of winter (b/c here in NC it has been in the high 60's all month). 

We made these too cute groundhogs, that went with a glyph.  The arms depended on if your bday is in winter or not, the inside ears depended on if you were a boy or a girl & the sun/cloud was if you thought the ground hog would see his shadow or not.

Then we watched a short video on shadows & went outside & looked for our shadows & then they paired up with a partner & they drew each others shadow......good thing it was SUNNY!!!!  It was fun to see the different ways they would stand.

Here are some other things we did during Daily 5....Nonsense word Candy Land (read yesterday's post to get the Candy Land Cards).  Met with a reading group to finish their character page on Junie B. Jones in the 1st chap. we read & did fast phrases with my students.

We just started that this week.  They get a Fast Phrase book with 6 lists.  Some kinders I had last yr. & they picked up where they left off.  They have to read the 25 phrases in 30 seconds.  It takes practice at home, they can not just come to school & expect to ace it.  As they finish their 6 lists they move up to the next 6.  I was really impressed with how they did this week!!!!

Fast Phrase booklet

List 1 ....they all look like this & need to be read in 30 seconds.

Junie B. character page.  We are trying to focus on character traits & describing characters.

If you are interested in Fast Phrases you can Google Frye's Fast Phrases & find it there. 


My latest download on TpT....Comprehension Beanie Baby Strategies.  You can purchase it here.  It includes posters for the following comprehension strategies:  Spinner the Spider (connections), Rocky the Raccoon (visualizations), Fix It Bear (Monitor & Repair), Digger Dog (dig for important details), Jabber Parrot (retelling), Iggy Iguana (Making Inferences), Questioning Owl ( Ask questions).  It also includes cards for each strategy they can take home to trigger a conversation with their parents about what they have learned that day. 

Cards to take home

Posters to use in your classroom

Here is Digger the Dog.....this is the strategy I introduced this week.  It is an added bonus to use the beanie baby with the poster to help students remember.  I got mine on ebay, dug them out of the bottom of a closet from years ago & they sell them at AC Moore & teachers get 10% off.

Stay tuned for Decoding Beanie Baby Posters.......& 100 Day activities tomorrow.  We are starting off our day with a parade around the school to show of our 100 day projects.  I will say this one is my fav ......I got the idea on Pinterest!!!!

Happy 100th Day for those who are near or it already happened or is tomorrow!!!!!!

What's Going on in First Grade....ALL sorts of Learning

Hello my friends!!! What a week, I feel like it should be Sat. but only Wed. night.  And the days have been jammed packed with stuff all through out the day.  I think it is because I am EXHAUSTED!!!!  Oh well here is what's been going on...Inferencing, Guided Reading Groups & we still have Groundhogs Day ( tomorrow) & the 100th day (Friday). 

So I purchased The Inspired Apple's  Snowy Day Inference Unit.  It was all sorts of fun for my kids & a great way to introduce inferencing.  We started by reading the book Suddenly.  Then the next day we read a story about Tim & Grandma.  The students needed to figure out what Tim & Grandma did on the snow day & where they were when mom came home at 4pm.  The kids did a REALLY great job with Inferring.  Here they are recording all their evidence.

Then today we did a time line & answered questions about what Tim & Grandma did.  I just wrote the questions on a flipchart.  Next year I will have a flipchart already made.

Then exciting.....exciting.......we have started to use TAG Readers during Daily 5 for Listen to Reading.  We have 2 TAG readers & 2 computers to use for Raz-Kids.  So much better then the walkmen to listen to books on tape.  I hated fighting with those things & not keeping battery life!!!!

Just a Work Work Drawer

Now we are at Guided Reading groups.....we are focusing on Main Character to help with comprehension questions. 

Some students have played Candy Land with Dolch waords, Nonsense Words & Addition Problems.  I have found these Candy Land games here.  They are awesome.....I can't get enough!!!!!

We have also started reviewing Long Vowels & Sparkly E.  I can't remember where I found the idea for Sparkly E but I LOVE it!!!!!  We sang the Sparkly E poem to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  Then we incorporated Flippy Dolphin (decoding Strategy) to flip the short vowel to the long vowel when there is Sparkly E.  We also reviewed all long vowel sounds by sorting pics on the Activboard & I found a great video on Teacher Tube...I Like Apples & Bananas.  They change words to say the words using long vowel sounds.

Song to sing

Changing sit to site

tub to tube

Wow makes me tired just writing & recalling about the week so far!!!  I also seemed to make Comprehension Beanie Baby Posters.  It is on my TpT store. Check it out I love using the decoding & now Comprehension beanie babies to teach these strategies.  I will post pics of some posters this weekend:)


Hope everyone has a GREAT rest of the week.  Happy Groundhog Day.....not sure if winter will ever reach us:)  But I am just fine with that.....stay tuned to morrow for Groundhog Day activities & of course Fri for 100 Day of School activities.  I will say I do have the best 100day projects compared to year pasts.  Maybe they are all addicted to Pinterest like me. haha

Check back this weekend:)