A Thankful Wednesday WOW!

Nov 26, 2013



Wow! November went so fast.  Can you believe it is Thanksgiving week?  I am accepting it with open arms.  The time off with family is going to be so nice. 

So...it is that time!  Wednesday WOW!    I hope you can link up with something personal or professional that was WOW for you this week.


 I still have so much to learn in our blog world.  But this year, I have met so many other teachers around the world.  I have learned from them, tried out their ideas, tried to pass my ideas along as well.  It has been fun and I look forward to learning more.
In the past two months, I reached outside of my comfort zone and joined some Blog Hops.  Well...I have met some great literacy coaches and reading specialists.  I was amazed by all the great products that everyone posted during the hop! 
I was really thankful to be a part of this hop.  Which leads me to my next party...

I have so many things to be grateful and thankful for. Thanks for this link-up!  It helped me to really reflect.  And that is always a good thing :)


I can't wait to read about all your WOWs of the week!  Enjoy your family/friend time this week!

Gift of Reading Blog Hop

Nov 22, 2013


Welcome to Curious Firsties. You have arrived at  
 

At each blog stop, you will be gathering Reading gifts and freebies.  In each post you will find a picture of a snowman with a letter on it. Collect all of the letters to solve the mystery quote to enter the giveaway. Record all of the letters on your recording sheet and follow each blog along the way so that you can enter the amazing giveaway at the end!

The hop is set up as a loop, so you may start anywhere along the hop, but if you would like to start at the beginning you may go to A Day In The Life of A Title I Teacher's blog.  This is also where you will go after you finish the hop to enter the giveaway!!

************The Gift of Reading***********
I think that some children are very lucky.  They grow up with literacy experiences.  This may come in the form of weekly trips to a library or bookstore.  Maybe they get nightly bedtime stories.  And, possibly, they help their families make grocery lists and talk about environmental print.  I think these experiences provide children with the "gift a reading."  A skill that they will use, need, enjoy...for the rest of their lives. 

I have worked hard in my home to provide my girls with this gift.  And I see glimpses of this when I check on them at night and there is a book laying on their face.  Or I will catch them making menus as they play "restaurant."  The "gift of reading" is more than the physical act of reading, it is a love for reading.

As a teacher, I want to give this love...this gift to my students.

This leads me to my "Gift of Sight Words."  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Gift-of-Sight-Words-982639

Some of our sight words don't come easily to our students.  They can be very hard to remember if you don't have a lot of exposure to them.  And these words are just imperative to reading with fluency and comprehension.  They just need to know them.  That takes time, exposure, and practice.
This game allows students to work with the Dolch words through a game.  Pre-primer through third Dolch lists are included.  It can be played in a whole group setting, with a small group, or as partners. 
Let's take a closer look:

Students get a snowman.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Gift-of-Sight-Words-982639

They choose a gift.  If the word is read correctly, then the gift is glued down in the snowman's hand.  This process is repeated over and over.  The hope is that the snowman will have a tall stack of gifts!


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Gift-of-Sight-Words-982639

I hope you find that this is helpful to your students as they walk along the literacy path!
My secret letter is...




Thank you for stopping by my blog today! I hope that you enjoyed your gift and learned something new. If you would like to be the first to know about new posts, giveaways, and blog hops follow me on Bloglovin' by clicking the image below. 
https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5207723/curious-firsties

Don't stop now! Hop on over to Teachers Take Out to pick up another amazing reading gift! Happy Holidays! 

teacherstakeout.blogspot.com

If you get lost along the way download the Hop Map here to easily pick back up where you left off! 


Wednesday WOW!

Nov 20, 2013


Congrats to Jen K!  She won our 300 Follower giveaway.  I know she will get lots of great resources from TPT with her giftcard :)

It's that time for another Wednesday WOW!  Hope you can link up with something that has gone really well for you either professionally or personally!

 It is going to be short and sweet tonight.  Can someone please explain to me how this baby....



....turned into this 5 year old so quickly?

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl.  You are growing so fast.

One more quick note...there is a blog hop happening in 2 Days!


Lots of great reading materials from literacy coaches and reading specialists.  Oh yeah...there will be some giftcard winners too!

High(s) and Low

Nov 18, 2013


Anyone else have highs and lows during your week? I thought I would reflect on those a mine with Owl Things First!
Let's start with HIGH...Natalie found this picture about two weeks ago (I have tried to find the source through pinterest and google but can't find it!!)
 We decided to try it out to teach subtraction to our struggling mathematicians.  Oh my!! It went so well SO WELL!  We took the concept to our guided reading groups and used it to help us teach fact families with this sheet (not fancy) that I made up.  We just used piped cleans and beads in our small group to mimic the hula hoops and balloons.
Let's do one more high...sister and mom time this weekend!  We took Saturday to shop and enjoy a little Justin Timberlake!
On to the LOW....hmmm...that is tricky.  I try to stay on the positive (especially in the blog world) but I will share my big low for this week so far.  It is almost December and I need to make some changes to my schedule.  We have some firsties that need some additional interventions that were not in place previously.  I try really hard to roll with things and be flexible.  But it is hard to change a routine.  But I will change it, I will make it work, and it will be fine.

Happy Monday everyone!






Five for Friday at 11 p.m.!

Nov 15, 2013


This week Em let me link up with Doodle Bugs for the weekly Five for Friday!  :)

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So... here it goes.......  I hope I don't disappoint. 

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My oldest was off school today and her aunt came to pick her up to spend the weekend at her house.  :)  This is the note my middle wrote to her.  So sweet.  I LOVE those tears.  :)  I think this could be the first time you are seeing my girls names.  Well... now you know.  :)

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This week we started preparing to write our next writing piece.  It's going to be an informational piece about Long Ago, but that's not the best part.  The BEST part is our firsties are writing them on the IPADS!!!!!  We use an app called Scribble Press (check it out!) and I am 50 kinds of in love with it!  So this picture is our lowest group practice and people they were Q.U.I.E.T.  I know!!!!!  You did read that right.  You could have heard a pin drop in my room with this group and that is NOT ordinary.  They are also 50 kinds of *in love* with this app.  :)  We'll see how next week goes which leads me to .......

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During our Quiet 10, Em and I *try* to resist the urge not to check in with each other about what's going to happen for the writing lessons and where we're headed.  Today I was writing during one of our groups to prepare my story to share next week. During our last writing group today Em took part in the fun too!  Don't you love her cow?  :) 

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If you read my post a few (probably more than a few :) ) weeks ago I think I put our Five Star Sentence chart.  I have been TRYING with ALL my MIGHT to get these kiddos to remember capital letters and punctuation.  Some days... it makes me NUTS. :)  So we started a "Five Star Hall of Fame" in our hallway.  It's for firsties and..... our seconds (is there a cute name for second graders out there?).  These were our first firsties who got their STAR.

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And finally...... drum roll please......


dun, dun, dun...........  These are all the papers that need to be graded and entered in the computer.  Most of the white papers have been entered, but I still have a TON more to enter and grade.  :)  Then, I have to start working on typing up these stories for a *SURPRISE* we have for our firsties next month. :)  Stay tuned!

It's your turn now... go and link up friends!!!!!

Have a Curious Weekend Friends,

Wednesday WOW!

Nov 13, 2013


How is it Wednesday again....already!!?!  As I get older, time just keeps going faster!
It is already time for a Wednsday WOW!  I hope you can link up with something professional or personal that has gone well for you this week.

 My WOWs are on the personal side this week.
 My Ruby is going to be five in one week.  FIVE years old!  I just can't believe it.  She wants a rainbow party.  So I decided that we would melt down some crayons and make "new" rainbow crayons for her guests.  This is nothing new.  I have found tutorial on many different blogs.  But I was really excited about how they turned out!
As my girls and I made them together, I thought what a great way to teach solid and liquids.  When I poked around, I saw that some bloggers have done this already.  I love the idea that the kids can see the solid turn to liquid turn to solid and then have a product to take home!  Hmmm....it really got me thinking.

One more quick WOW!
Last week Leslie from Tally Tales (love love love reading her blog) posted pictures last week on the Wednesday WOW of some beautiful fall trees.  I wanted to join in this week.
My Ben posted these two pictures on his Facebook page this morning.  This was his view this morning when he walked out the door for work this morning.  wow.



 Link up with something great from your week!


NO Really...check your work!

Nov 11, 2013


How many times have you subtly  told your students to go back and check their work?  (Flash forward 10 seconds)--then they are done checking!
Hmmm...We've been there a lot...with every subject matter.  Through some brainstorming (and Natalie's brilliant mind) we came up with an idea for our math groups.  It looks like this (click image to download):

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3eyEJCd5J5kYUItazRlUVZ5NEE/edit?usp=drive_web
Pretty much looks like a normal math fact sheet but with dots.
Here's how it worked (for us):
The students completed one row of problems.  When they finished one row, we colored in the number of dots on that row for correct answers.  But we did not tell them which one or ones were wrong.  They had to go back and check all the problems to determine the incorrect one.  Once the problems were corrected, the remaining dots can be filled in.



So....we really weren't sure how this sheet was going to go.  We created these for our more struggling students. Were they going to get frustrated?  Were they going to really go back and find the wrong answers?

Results...amazing!! They loved it!  Our little struggling kiddos...loved it!  They went back, fixed their work, moved on to the next row.  Now, most of them did not complete it.  I just told them to take it home.  BUT they brought it back!  They...Brought...IT...Back!  Just so that I could fill in the dots for them.

It was really exciting to us that we motivated our firsties to go back and check their work (without getting a huff and a puff).
This week we are starting fact families. I had a long list of items that I needed to make for the week to help support this.  And after some reflection of these "check your work" sheets, I decided to combine the two skills: checking your work and facts for a number (really knowing the facts...inside and out...quickly!)
*We will be doing lots of other things besides just these sheets...but they will hopefully support our cause*

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fact-Family-Sheets-to-Check-Your-Work-With-971634
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fact-Family-Sheets-to-Check-Your-Work-With-971634

I am so curious about how these might work out for other classrooms.  The first example way way way at the top of the post--just click on image to download it.  The fact family version has 18 sheets: addition, subtraction, missing addend for facts of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
Let me know if they work out for you or if it is a total bust!

A GIVEAWAY Five for Friday

Nov 8, 2013


Oh, Friday!  I am happy you are here.

This little blog hit 300 followers and I have been wanting to say thanks with a little giveaway!  But (of course) time always gets away from me.  But that's okay...let's do it!

So number 1 this week....GIVEAWAY!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Number 2 is a big one...Our Donor's Choose project was funded!! Thank you so much to my family and friends that were able to help us out.  We are thrilled.  The seed stories that our firsties just finished will soon be transferred on a t shirt.  What a great celebration of writing!

Number 3 is a home project. Since we changed the girls' room around to fit a bunk bed, I had some extra wall space.  I found this cork board at Target with this great frame around it!  But (sadly) the blue clashed with the blue walls of their room. This led me to a brushed white look.  Here are the before and afters:


Number 4 is all about Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I realized last year I had a small collection of her books somehow.  Maria and I decided to try them out as an author study in writing this year but the twist is that we will use them to actually write an informational piece. (Here is our *golden* author)

These books are realistic fiction texts.  But we want to model informational writing.  That led us to gather these texts:



Each book is non-fiction and models a particular type of question-answer format.  Students will analyze these models to help them with their own writing, but use the information from Laura Ingalls Wilder to write a piece about "then and now."  Can't wait to see how it turns out :)

And number 5 this week is all about my wonderful teammate Karen.  She left early today.  We were gathered in her room ensuring that her sub didn't have any questions about her lesson plans that she had left.  She asked if the DVD/VHS player worked correctly.  Natalie, Maria, and I looked up at it.  We all busted out laughing at the same time because we saw this:



Oh Karen...we love you!  Always thinking ahead, always on top of things, always keeping us on our toes!

I am linking up with Doodlebugs today as I reflect on my wacky week!


 Hope you enjoy your weekend.