To say this week was anything but insanely busy would be a lie! Not only was it the first week of school, but my BFF’s daughter was born, student ministry started back up for the hubs, Friday Night Football began, and I started my weekend in the doctor’s office getting a steroid shot for my sinuses. PTL for modern medicine because I’m feeling almost 100% better just a few hours later! It also helps that we this weekend is a day longer 🙂
Throughout all of that craziness I did manage to take some pictures of our classroom happenings.
I used the Mathematicians posters from Teaching in High Heels to go right along with our little craftivity from my Let’s Get Started Unit. This year I added the hair pattern for a girl which ended up working out rather nicely! My students absolutely LOVED making these little guys! {please ignore the crookedness of my MATH title… that is ridiculously off-centered and crooked!}
Each year my students make the alphabets for our classroom. This is a dual language requirement, but I have come to really like the whole process and end-product. It becomes a huge resource for the kiddos because THEY made it, so they take huge ownership! I am extremely picky about what they turn into me because it is going to be up in our room all year long. We talk a lot about making the pictures BIG and adding backgrounds.
This year I passed out picture dictionaries and allowed the students to choose the picture for the letter they were assigned. We had a discussion about what would be appropriate for our alphabet. And, yes, I did have to turn down the word “diarrhea” for D…. oh my! Then, I gave the students a half of an index card to write the words on. We trace the words in blue for English/red for Spanish to meet our Dual Language requirements!
I’m not going to show you a lot of the Spanish alphabet because I haven’t had a friend come and check my Spanish skills, ha! But, here’s a little peek at it 🙂
I mentioned before that we were doing a Kevin Henkes author study during the first week of school. We made these little Wemberly’s from Read with me ABC. My kiddos wrote sentences to describe Wemberly on their index cards, but for some reason you can’t see that below!
I really just love Chrysanthemum. It has such a great message and there are so many fun activities you can incorporate with the story. Our motto this year is to “make each other bloom, not wilt!” After reading the story we sorted our names by number of letters, number of vowels, number of syllables, etc. We finally decided to make a Syllable Graph to display with our Chrysanthemumwriting. You can get the flower template from Hollie GriffithHERE!
We also had a HUGE focus on juicy vocabulary words. If I forgot to mention the vocab words, it didn’t take long for my students to say, “Mrs. Lemons did you find any juicy words while you were reading?!” I have a feeling they will keep me on my toes all year!!!
We really had such a great week, and my kids are absolutely precious. They were genuinely excited about each and every activity that we did! AND, talk about eating up the Daily FIVE?!! Ohmiword! Stamina is their new favorite word and they are setting goals like CRAZY! I snapped some pictures, but I plan on making a completely separate blog post about our progress soon!!! It’s been exciting so far!
But for now, I’m off to enjoy my weekend and sleep as much as physically possible! Happy weekend, friends!
Hi, I'm Amy
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Looks like you guys were really busy!!! I love the mathematician board. I am definitely going to have to add that unit to my TpT wish list!!! Thanks for sharing.
Jamie teachingtidbit.blogspot.com
Wow, looks like you had a terrific first week! I love the alphabet that your kiddos made. I guess you could be thankful that someone just asked about diarrhea because there are definitely worse words that begin with d, lol!
That mathematician board is amazing. Thanks for sharing. Have a strong year! Cheers
I usually have my students write their name and add it to our alphabet. I think on Tuesday I will have them make the pictures. Love the idea.
Love the math board. Where did you get the clock clip art?
I love the idea of having the children make the alphabet! It turned out so cute! Love the mathematicians craft! Those glasses crack me up! Enjoy your weekend!
I adore all of your ideas! This is my first year teaching and I lucked out with second grade. I was wondering if you would post an outline of your curriculum plan/schedule for the year. And maybe a daily schedule? Thanks so much, you truly are an inspiration!
Sara
Love to use of your little math craftivity and Glady's signs together!
Love to use of your little math craftivity and Glady's signs together!
You've been busy little bees! Love all of the activities! And thank you for the sweet shout out…my kiddos loved making your mathematician craftivity…it'll be going up on our board on Tuesday. Hope you feel better soon…happy long weekend! xoxoxo 😉
My students enjoyed making your Math craftivity and it looks great in my room! I like the Chrysanthemum activity and wondered where you got the I'm Special paper? Hope you're feeling better! Thanks! Susan
The mathematicians look super cute this year (I love the new girl hair!). And the class-created alphabet is such a great idea! Thank you for sharing!
Just love this! I love having the students create the alphabet instead of using commercialized products. Do you have a copy of the letters you used for the alphabet signs? Are they available in your tpt store?
The alphabet turned out great! Our kinder classes do that at our school and they love it!
AHH!! I forgot about the “student generated word wall”! I need to do that with my Kinder friends this year! Maybe I should wait until we have talked about all of the letters, though. 🙂 I can just hear them now…”Mrs. Richardson…IIIII cannnnn't dooooo itttttt!” Yeah, we are totally having a “We don't say 'can't' ” mini-lesson” next week! Great first week!! Hope you are feeling better! Amanda Mrs. Richardson's Class
Looks like you had a wonderful week! I was wondering where you got the I'm special because… to go with the Chrysanthemum flower. or did you make them.
Thank you,
Lauren
That alphabet is the greatest idea ever! I have struggled with getting something up there that is more personal and helpful for children. I can't thank you enough. Why didn't I think of that!? Doh!
I LOVE the alphabet headers. Where can I get those? Thanks!
It looks like you had a great week! I LOVE the “juicy” vocabulary words on the tree! Definitely stealing that idea! And… the Chrysanthemum flowers look adorable! My kiddos had fun with it too!!!
Cute stuff!! I would like the clocks, where can I find those??
22 Responses
Looks like you guys were really busy!!! I love the mathematician board. I am definitely going to have to add that unit to my TpT wish list!!! Thanks for sharing.
Jamie
teachingtidbit.blogspot.com
Wow, looks like you had a terrific first week! I love the alphabet that your kiddos made. I guess you could be thankful that someone just asked about diarrhea because there are definitely worse words that begin with d, lol!
Hope you are feeling completely better soon!
Wendy
One Happy Teacher
That mathematician board is amazing. Thanks for sharing. Have a strong year! Cheers
I usually have my students write their name and add it to our alphabet. I think on Tuesday I will have them make the pictures. Love the idea.
Love the math board. Where did you get the clock clip art?
I love the idea of having the children make the alphabet! It turned out so cute! Love the mathematicians craft! Those glasses crack me up! Enjoy your weekend!
ThePolishedTeacher
I adore all of your ideas! This is my first year teaching and I lucked out with second grade. I was wondering if you would post an outline of your curriculum plan/schedule for the year. And maybe a daily schedule? Thanks so much, you truly are an inspiration!
Sara
Love to use of your little math craftivity and Glady's signs together!
Love to use of your little math craftivity and Glady's signs together!
You've been busy little bees! Love all of the activities! And thank you for the sweet shout out…my kiddos loved making your mathematician craftivity…it'll be going up on our board on Tuesday. Hope you feel better soon…happy long weekend! xoxoxo 😉
My students enjoyed making your Math craftivity and it looks great in my room! I like the Chrysanthemum activity and wondered where you got the I'm Special paper? Hope you're feeling better! Thanks! Susan
The mathematicians look super cute this year (I love the new girl hair!). And the class-created alphabet is such a great idea! Thank you for sharing!
Teaching in the Tongass
You have some great ideas!! Thanks for sharing!!
Just love this! I love having the students create the alphabet instead of using commercialized products. Do you have a copy of the letters you used for the alphabet signs? Are they available in your tpt store?
The alphabet turned out great! Our kinder classes do that at our school and they love it!
Ashley
Flying High in First Grade
Just grabbed those little math guys… they're TOO cute!!
❤Teri
A Cupcake for the Teacher
AHH!! I forgot about the “student generated word wall”! I need to do that with my Kinder friends this year! Maybe I should wait until we have talked about all of the letters, though. 🙂 I can just hear them now…”Mrs. Richardson…IIIII cannnnn't dooooo itttttt!” Yeah, we are totally having a “We don't say 'can't' ” mini-lesson” next week! Great first week!! Hope you are feeling better!
Amanda
Mrs. Richardson's Class
Looks like you had a wonderful week! I was wondering where you got the I'm special because… to go with the Chrysanthemum flower. or did you make them.
Thank you,
Lauren
That alphabet is the greatest idea ever! I have struggled with getting something up there that is more personal and helpful for children. I can't thank you enough. Why didn't I think of that!? Doh!
Kimberley
First in Maine
I LOVE the alphabet headers. Where can I get those? Thanks!
It looks like you had a great week! I LOVE the “juicy” vocabulary words on the tree! Definitely stealing that idea! And… the Chrysanthemum flowers look adorable! My kiddos had fun with it too!!!
Cute stuff!! I would like the clocks, where can I find those??