Midwest Teacher Blogger Meet Up - Four Days Left to RSVP!

Hey Midwest teachers! There are only four more days to RSVP to the 2017 Midwest Regional Teacher Blogger Meet Up! Believe me, you don't want to miss out on this awesome opportunity to collaborate with other teachers, grow as a blogger, expand your TPT business, and just have fun! Oh, and did I mention prizes?!

This Saturday, January 21st, 2017 event takes place in Wisconsin Dells, so consider bringing your family along to have fun at one of the indoor water parks (that's what I'm doing), indoor theme parks, movie theaters, casinos, etc.

Already ready to sign up? You can RSVP by clicking HERE!

Be sure to follow on Instagram:

@mwteacherbloggers

You can also find more info at:

mwteacherbloggers.blogspot.com

We sure hope you can join us!  If you have any questions, send 'em my way and I will do my best to help.

Getting-to-Know-You Icebreaker Activity

Have you ever bought those blank building block towers and thought, "Oh! I'm totally going to do something cool with these for my students!" and then you never get around to it?  Yeah...me too.

Well - until today!

"something cool" = Getting-to-Know-You Icebreaker Activity

Do you want one for your classroom?  Follow the simple steps below:

Head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to grab the printable.  Yes, of course you could type up your own questions.  But for a buck, you will save the time and energy of getting the formatting and sizing perfect.  Trust me, it took me for-ev-er this morning and I wasted a lot of paper and ink figuring it out, LOL!

Cut out the boxes.  I even trimmed a bit on the inside of each box for my mini blocks, but if you have the normal-sized Jenga blocks, you could cut right on the lines.

 THIS PART IS IMPORTANT!  Smear some glue on the block before you put the paper down!  At first, I was just laying the paper down without glue and when I tried to apply the tape, the static would make the paper jump up to the tape and the alignment would get off.  My husband was like, "Why don't you just glue it first?"  Duh Amber.  :)

Lay down the paper.  (Please ignore my chipped nails...)

Rip off some packing tape about that long for the mini blocks; perhaps a bitter longer for the normal-sized Jenga blocks.

You can skip this step if you are using the normal-sized Jenga blocks, but if you have the minis like me, you'll want to cut off a bit of the edge of the packing tape (or it will hang off the side of the block).

Put the tape on the paper...

...then wrap the tape around the block.

Viola!

Once assembled this is assembled, you can use it year after year during that back to school time.  The questions are appropriate for any elementary or middle school grade level.  I have included way more questions than blocks that come in a set, so you can pick and choose which questions you like best!

I am going to have my first graders pull a block from a bag, read and answer the question, then place the block on the tower in the middle of the circle. You could do it where each child answers each question...it just depends on how much time you have! I plan to have my students build our tower on a tray, so if we don't finish in one day, we can set the tray aside and continue the next day.

I hope you and your students LOVE this great icebreaker activity!  If you have any questions, send 'em my way.

Featured Teacher Tuesday - Week 2

It is time for another week of Featured (First Grade) Teacher Tuesday!  Our teacher in the spotlight: Liana Davis.

Liana Davis from "Love Learning with Liana" is living her dream as a first grade teacher. All her life, she has dreamt of teaching little kids to dream big and love learning, and her dream has been a reality for 4 years now! She teaches with the core concept of providing social justice to students that were just like her when she was a child. An immigrant, a non-native English speaker, and from a family that lived modestly.  She knows that every student has the capacity to learn, and she harnesses that ability to see her students shine. To read more about her teaching philosophy, you can read it HERE!

Only two of her 4 years teaching have been in first grade, but she couldn’t imagine teaching anything else. She loves the unscripted feel of first grade.  Besides first, she has also taught Kindergarten, and high school English.

Liana is also a newlywed, and she got married in January 2015 to her college/bible study sweetheart. If you would like to see pictures from her wedding, click HERE.  At that time, she was teaching high school English, and she didn’t spend quite as much time cutting, pasting, and creating fun activities for a primary classroom.  With so much free time on her hands, March 2015, she decided to sell on TPT. She was always creating products for her classroom, and she thought why not share them with the world!

If you know Liana, then you know that she never sits still, much like every other teacher who takes on the task of teaching full time, blogging about it, and creating products for Teachers Pay Teachers. To find Liana’s store, click HERE!

Other than teaching, blogging, and TPT, she loves to spend time with her family in Los Angeles, and explore her new city with her new husband in San Diego.

Liana’s most popular product is the Book Report for Grades 1-3.

Her latest two products are Unit 2: Addition Math Printables...

...and Fall Fluency, Phonics, and Writing Activities.

Wanna know more and have access to freebies?! Follow her at:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lovelearningwithliana

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovelearningwithliana

Teachers Pay Teachers: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Love-Learning-With-Liana

Blog: http://lovelearningwithliana.blogspot.com/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lovelearnliana/

Bloglovin:https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/love-learning-with-liana-14331685?/

Email: lnazaret@gmail.com

Be sure to stop by again next Tuesday for our next fabulous featured first grade teacher! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Featured Teacher Tuesday - Week 1

This week’s featured teachers are Samantha Gibby and Lisa Fain.  They are the Primary Sisters!

 (http://theprimarysisters.blogspot.com/)

 Just like their blog name says, Samantha and Lisa are two sisters who teach first grade at the same school in a small town in North Carolina. They feel so blessed to get to teach with each other every day. 

Their TPT adventure began last summer. As Samantha and Lisa were sitting in a hot tub at the Outer Banks, they began to think of resources they needed to best compliment their Words Their Way spelling instruction. You can check out some of the their short vowel word work packs in their TPT Store.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Short-e-vowel-word-work-2008512

 Since July, they have been busy creating products.  The Primary Sisters said no one told them how addicting it (creating products) can be, especially when colleagues come in and say, "Okay, this is great; thanks for making this!"  Even though they are far from their first TPT million, the excitement of creating materials that meet their students needs has been the force that keeps them going. 

Samantha and Lisa are both married and they both have 3 children each.  Their oldest sons are in college at NCSU and Appalachian State, but they are still busy with their other teenagers who cheer and play football for their local high school. They enjoy being active in their churches, traveling, feeding the football team each Friday night and surfing the internet.  They feel so blessed to be on this awesome journey and are thankful for the wonderful teacher friends they are making along the way. 

These sisters are always looking for ways to make learning fun and hands-on.  One of their newest products is a Halloween-themed Boo game working with sight words and math printables working with sums up to 12.  Check them out here!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/No-Prep-Halloween-Themed-Count-and-Color-

Math-Printables-2122240

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-BOO-Game-2115939

 Enjoy these freebies. Students will love these hands-on CVC word wheels.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/No-Prep-CVC-Short-A-Word-Family-Wheels-2095979

AND Sight Word Roll Say Keep is a great addition to any literacy station.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Roll-Say-Keep-Game-with-Dolch-Words-2072369

Be sure to follow these creative sisters on...

Instagram: https://instagram.com/theprimarysisters/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrimarySisters?ref=hl

TPT: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Primary-Sisters

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/theprimarysiste/

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back next week for another round of Featured Teacher Tuesday!

A Quick Update Regarding My Freebies

This is the first time I have ever written a blog post at school!  But this one is quick and important....

I just received an e-mail from "Teachers Pay Teachers" regarding copyright issues.  I find it so unfortunate that teachers cannot create and share extension activities that can be used after reading certain books to their classes.  Here is my thought:  If I share a document that peaks the interest of other teachers, they are more likely to either BUY the book themselves or request that their school library BUYS the book!!  So wouldn't others be happy about our free advertising?  Do you agree?  Or is there something I am overlooking here?  If so, please fill me in!

Grr - Okay, I am stepping off my soapbox.

Anyway, what you need to know:  I did go ahead and completely delete a few of my freebies from "Teachers Pay Teachers."  So if you find dead links, I do apologize for that.  Fortunately, there were only a few of my documents at risk.

Okay, that's it!  I hope you're enjoying your Monday!  (I am guessing many of you are on summer break right now?  LUCKY YOU!  Enjoy!)

Photos, a FREEBIE, "The Mitten," and Other Winter Activities!

Snow, snow, SNOW!  Our typical Wisconsin February weather has arrived!  I am not a fan of the cold or the snow, but... at least the weather correlates with the theme many of my kiddos have been working on - WINTER!

(Actually, I am still sitting at home right now because our school district is having a 2-hour late start, due to the weather conditions.  What a perfect time to finish up a blog post that I started...mmmm...last weekend, LOL!)

 

One of my 2nd grade groups read and compared two versions of "The Mitten" - one story told by Jan Brett and the other story told by Alvin Tresselt.

 



 

 

The kids cut out two huge mittens (one yellow, one white - like the stories) using butcher paper.

 

 

 

We used words as well as images to discuss the similarities and differences between the two stories.

 

 

I picked up the printables for FREE from the amazing Mrs. Bell at A Place Called Kindergarten.  She always has the most amazing stuff on her blog...love her!)

 

 

The cuties - showing off their hard work!

 

 

We practiced a Readers Theatre version of "The Mitten," and then performed in front of the two classes that these kiddos come from.

 

 

Performance #1

 

 

Performance #2

 

 

(Haha!  My little munchkin on the right must have known Mrs. Unger would use these photos on her blog, as he covered his face with the mask for me!)

 

 

My hardworking group of 2nd graders also completed the "If I Lived in a Snow Globe" writing project, made infamous by Pinterest.

 

 

We used styrofoam plates (with the center cut out) and laminated their photos so that it gave the project a "glass" look.  All dressed up in their winter gear, the kids posed for the camera, acting out their winter activity.

 

 

If you would like the FREE "If I Lived in a Snow Globe" writing printable, visit Ms. Watkin's blog, "Ginger Snaps," by clicking HERE!)

 

In order to correlate this fun writing activity with a learning target for my school district, I had to direct my students' writing a bit.  So I created a pre-writing activity that they had to complete before putting their final product on their snow globe template.  If you would like your own FREE copy of this pre-writing four-square grid, help yourself by visiting my TPT store!

 

 

Here are some close-up shots of their work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was too late for this year, but I ordered this book, "The Snow Globe Family" by Jane O'Connor, for next year.  I do not have it yet, but according to Amazon, it is en route.  :)

We also recently read a winter-themed emergent reader that these kiddos just LOVED!  We read it, read it, then read it again until the kids were able to read it fluently.  Here are the steps we took to get there:

 

1) picture walk

2) teacher reads, students follow with their "reading finger" (or we also have mini magnifying glasses in my room that the kids like to use)

3) teacher and students read

4) students choral read

5) students partner read

6) students silent read around the room

7) students read to the teacher

 

 



 

 

 

We have actually been doing SO much more with our winter theme in this group, but (silly me) I frequently forget to take pictures.

 

So...on to First Grade!

 

 

When working on writing with my First Grade buddies, I have noticed that they struggle because of a weak foundation of the basics.  So I went on an online hunt to find a winter-themed writing activity that matched their current ability level...and in walks Ms. Rosenberg and her AWESOME "Winter Rebus Story" activity on TPT!  Have you ever heard of rebus writing?  I had not.  The kiddos incorporate pictures into their writing.  I LOVE this idea because they are able to write creative stories without getting stuck on those "big" words and they are able to focus their attention on sight words and decodable words.

 

 

 

 

My friends in First Grade also completed their calendars for the month of January.  I forgot to take pictures of their completed work, but here are pictures of my example calendar:

 

 

As you can see, I never got around to do the writing piece, but - of course - my kiddos sure did!

 

 

Well, that is it for now!  I will continue to (try to remember) take pictures of the winter activities we do over the next weeks and then blog about them.  Until then, stay warm!  As always, thank you for stopping by!  :)