First Grade Giving Back PBL

Yesterday was an absolutely amazing day!  I had the privilege of participating in the culmination of a First Grade project that started back in September on International Dot Day.  Our First Graders learned about the importance of making their mark on the world.  They brainstormed with high school students to identify some ways they could make a difference in the world.  They narrowed it down to our area and found a local organization that helps homeless teens.  First graders planned a way to raise money that involved our entire school district.  They wrote letters to all campus principals asking for campus participation and then created posters to advertise.  For two weeks, students who chose to participate brought pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars in order to participate in fun activities.  Each day had a designated coin.  Some activities included:  wear pajamas, bring a stuffed animal, crazy hair day, etc.  Classes created videos to promote their project across the district.  Check out the link below:

At the conclusion of their money collection, first grade students collected $3,618.00!!!

Teachers went shopping over Thanksgiving break and purchased items that were needed for the shelter.  This week students worked to wrap the gifts and yesterday all of First Grade visited the shelter and presented their gifts.  It was a day full of meaning and hope......not only for the kids who live at the shelter but for our students, parents and teachers.  One of the shelter teens shared with our kids how amazing it was that kids so young had made such a huge impact.  I know it was a day no one will forget.  

Our students shared their gifts and how they had collected the money.  Teens from the shelter took our students on a tour of the shelter and told them a little about how they live and what life is like at the shelter.  They ate lunch together and our firsties sang a few songs.  Check out their final performance!

I'm so proud to say I'm a Pirate and I work with teachers who truly make a difference!

Jammie

Cyber Monday Sale on TPT

I'm participating in the Cyber Monday Sale on TPT!  I'm having Internet issues at home so I wasn't able to flash a cute banner for the sale.  BUT I'm offering 20% off and with the code CYBER you can get another 8%!  I just posted some Christmas games I made last year for my Intervention students.  Kids LOVE games and I LOVE making learning fun!  I hope to have a few more of my Christmas games ready for the sale but I'm not sure I'll make it for Monday.

Happy Shopping!

Jammie

Halloween Fun!!!

Today was a wild, crazy fun day for our students and teachers!  Our students participated in a Pumpkin decorating contest and all had the opportunity to dress up.  We celebrated Red Ribbon Week with a parade with our Elementary campus.  It was so much fun seeing former students.  Check out the Halloween costumes!  This is me and our Reading Interventionist, Ms. Bippert.  The kids LOVED it!

Of course, I have to include a picture of my little girl and I before she headed off to the Elementary.  I LOVE having her close and sharing these moments!

Last, I have to include a picture of my sweet thing.....sent to me courtesy of Dad.  He's been anxiously awaiting this day!!  I can't wait to enjoy some trick or treating with them tonight!

 

I will post pumpkin pictures soon.....tomorrow I hope.  :)

Happy Halloween!

Red Ribbon Week Door Contest

Like most other schools around the United States, we celebrated Red Ribbon Week with many crazy dress up day!  The kids always love getting silly!  Our campus held a door decorating contest and I was so excited to see the amazing creations by our teachers!  I'll admit creativity is sometimes hard for me......I turn to Pinterest quite a bit.  But the Primary teachers came up with some fabulous ideas!!!!  Check them out!

I completely know I'm biased but don't you just love the creativity?  See you next time!

Jammie

Embracing Leader in Me

Whew!  I know it's been a long while since I've posted.  Since the end of school last year I've moved into a new position.  It's been exciting but also a little overwhelming to say the least.  The amount of training I've had makes my head spin!  But the learning I've had and the amazing people I've met......one of them being Reagan Tunstall over at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits....has been fantastic!  

I'm still at my same school but I'm now the Collaborative Learning Leader.  I know....it's a mouthful!  But it really means I'm responsible for professional development on my campus and some other duties too.  Our campus is knee deep in writing SLOs and learning about our new teacher evaluation system.  I was completely responsible for a 3 hour training on the Danielson Framework during Inservice week.  Talk about intimidating!  Not only have I learned about the Danielson Framework and writing SLOs but I've had the daunting task of presenting that to our campus as well.  We've been pioneering through the unknown but now that we are near the end of the beginning (Does that make sense?) the stinking thinking is fading away.  

Our campus has been sticking our toes in the Leader in Me program for the last year but we've decided to dive into the deep end this year!  I'm a member of our campus Lighthouse Team and we set some plans into motion this year.  We asked all our teachers to make all their hallway bulletin boards leader oriented and they did not disappoint!  We are planning to immerse our kids in the idea of becoming leaders.  Take a look at some of our fabulous boards!

I've got more great boards to share but I'm going to save some for a later post!  We've also asked our teachers to post Teacher Bios outside their doors.  We saw this on a visit last January to some other Lighthouse Schools in San Antonio.  I've actually loved having the bios posted because it's a great way to get to know the people you work with.  I mean.....really....how well do you know everyone?  I can tell you lots of great things about the amazing people I work with but not so much about them personally.  As a parent myself, it helps knowing a little bit about the person we leave our child with.  It definitely helps make a connection.  We gave our teacher little direction and check out the fabulous products they came up with!

I know this has been sort of a long post but I'm so excited our the great things going on at our campus this year!  I'll share more of the things we're doing with Leader in Me very soon!  Until next time.....enjoy your weekend!

Jammie

Teacher Appreciation Sale on TPT

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!!  I just wanted to give a shout out to let all my favorite teachers know that Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Teacher Appreciation sale on May 7 - 8.  All items in my store will be on sale.  Enjoy your week!!

Jammie

More games!!

My same teacher pal has been on a roll finding these really fun games!  Since I have two small ones at home I try not to go shopping very often.....even though I really love it!  My two year old usually embarrasses us so it's just easier to avoid taking him altogether.  She found this one at Tuesday Morning and I had to rush out to get it.....kids and all.  It's called Cluck -n- Chuck.  Let me tell you it is sooo much fun!  The kids love it and even though I known it's coming I squeal every time the barn pops up. 

The way the kids play:  they have to choose a one breath box to read all the words.  I have already pushed down the barn and they must read the words as quickly as possible.  After reading the words they put one chicken on the roof.  Students take turns reading words and putting chickens on the roof but they don't want the barn to pop up on their turn.  If it does, they get a point (I keep track).  They want to have the least amount of points to win.  It is so hilarious!  I'm sharing some pictures and some videos.  You've got to check it out.

 

 

 

Finally, I have to end with a video of my own kids playing this game.  I didn't have them reading words but they had so much fun!!  I love the sound of kid's laughter.  Enjoy and have a blessed day!

Doggy Dentist game

Omigosh yall!!  One of my co-workers found this fabulous game on Amazon.  There are several versions but the one I used was the dog.  I made my own version of the Teacher Tipster's one breath boxes.  I made some with sight words and some with cvc words so that my kids could get some extra practice at reading those words quickly.  Leave a comment if you'd like a copy of my words.

Back to the game......each child had to choose a one breath box and read the list of words as quickly as possible.  If they read the words correctly they could choose a tooth in the dog's mouth to push down.  If they happened to get the dog's "sore" tooth the dog's mouth would snap down!  (It doesn't hurt.)  If the dog snapped them they got no point but if they successfully pushed down a tooth they got one point.  It was hilarious!!  Check out the pictures.

My kids absolutely LOVE playing games!  They are so motivated to read if I turn it into a game.  Can't wait to share more of the fun games we've found!!

Leader In Me

Our campus was trained last summer in the Seven Habits of Happy Kids.  We have been slowly working to become a Leader in Me campus.  After attending a fabulous Leader in Me Symposium one of our Kindergarten teachers Ms. Felty wrote this song to the tune of the hit Dynomite.  The kids have loved learning the lyrics.  Check out her kids starring in their first music video!

I LOVE working on a campus that is devoted to teaching children how to become responsible and caring citizens!  Have a phenomenal day!

Troublesome Sneaky e

Hey there!  My little firsties seem to have so much trouble getting sneaky e down.  When they are learning to read words with sneaky e in class they seem to do okay but when the constant repetition of that pattern is over they get tripped up and often read short vowel words they've known with the long vowel sound.  I created a Roll and Read game to practice reading sneaky e words but I put them into sentences.  The context helps them and we are really working to get them to ask themselves if what they read makes sense.  I'm sharing my Roll and Read as a freebie.  If you download please comment.  I really love reading your comments!  Also, if you have any special ideas you could share on helping kids get down sneaky e I'd love to hear them!!

Have a fantastic week!  I'm super excited that Spring Break is almost here!!  I get to spend some quality time with my own kids!!

Jammie

Roll and Read Sneaky e freebie

We are 100 days smarter!!

Being the Reading Interventionist I often miss out on all the fun celebrations but I decided to play a fun game and celebrate my kids being 100 days smarter!!  They really have made so much progress this year! 

A few weeks ago I came across this game designed by Sally at Elementary Matters! It's called Beanie Toss to 100.  It's really an adding game for students to practice adding to 100.  But I thought it was super fabulous and figured out a way to tie in Reading.  As seen in our pictures, I created the same squares she did and used bean bags.  Students had to stand at the line and toss the bean bag.  If they landed in the inner circle they had to read a difficult word and could earn 10 points.  If they landed in the outer circle, the words were easier and they earned 5 points.  If their bean bag landed outside the circle they earned no points.  I kept track of the points on a white board but had them help me count by 10's and 5's.  The first person to reach 100 was our winner!!  They had so much fun and really showed off their skills.

Please don't look too closely at my square!!  :)  I ran out of the cheetah tape on the outside square and a trip to Walmart for more would mean at least a 20 min. drive.  So I decided it would have to do.....really hard for my type A personality but not one kid mentioned it.  They were too busy having fun!

I've attached a copy of the words I used and the labels for the cups if you'd like to play this game in your class.  Click here and here  to get what you need to play!  Hope you enjoy!!

Jammie

Rainbow Words

Oh boy....sight words are so difficult for first graders to master!  We all know they are so important for kids to learn because they trip them up so often when reading!  It's hard to explain that to kids and their parents but learning them is essential to reading success.  I was so excited when my teacher bff shared with me Jennifer Jones' Rainbow Words.  If you haven't seen them you must check them out at her Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  Her blog post about this can be found here. 

My students have had amazing success this year and they are so motivated!!!  They can't wait to get to the next color!  I test them each Monday and Friday.  That might not be feasible in a regular classroom setting but it works for me.  It's quick and it has definitely helped!  In January, our first grade teachers created sight word folders and tested the students on each Dolch word list.  Many of them commented on how great my Intervention students did.  Each week after testing we keep track of how many sight words each child know and move stars on a graph to track our way to 100!  The kids set goals and work towards them!  It has been so great involving them in their learning and showing them that hard work pays off!

Don't forget about the Sunday Super sale at TPT!  I've got my cart ready!  Enjoy your weekend!

Missing in Action

I know it's been a while since I've posted.  :(  My family was sick for 3 weeks leading up to Christmas and then I just took a creative break and enjoyed the time with my children.  They are getting too big too quickly!!  Christmas was lots of fun with them and once we got past the crazy rush of all the Christmas parties we had to attend we had lots of family time. 

How can you not absolutely adore that gorgeous face?  He's been obsessed with his "costume" lately!  It drives my husband crazy that he wants to wear it all day.  And it must be worn with mommy's cowboy boots!  Tee hee!

Back at school I hit the ground running and scheduled 60 conferences with parents of Intervention students.  I felt it was much more personal meeting individually with them to talk about their child and provide meaningful feedback. It was great to meet the parents behind the child. 

We recently completed our Middle of Year TPRI testing.  I am SO excited to see the progress in most of my students!!  I've seen many kiddos take off since returning from Christmas.  This second half of the year is awesome as we watch them put all the pieces together.  I'm going to be working on some Wahoo games that have more of a mixed selection of words instead of words isolated on a particular skill.  I want to make sure my kiddos can apply them when mixed up. 

I'm joining in on the Super Sunday Sale thrown by TPT!  I'll try to get some of the Wahoo games added before then.


I promise to get better about adding blog posts.  See ya soon!