Hurricanes and Halloween in First Grade

Lately, I've been a bad blogger but a super okay mom and teacher. I CAN'T BE EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE ALL THE TIME!!!!!!Okay??! *insert crazy eyed emoji*

Here are my excuses:
1. I moved. (Please see: I guess I'm living in Florida 4EVA because that's never happening again. Girl bye.)
2. I traveled. On a train, to New York, with two kids under five. There were fun parts. I swear.
3. I switched grades. (2nd to 1st and wow what a difference! I miss 2nd grade but I also like 1st a lot it turns out.)
4. I fall asleep dead nightly as soon as my youngest's eyes shut.

I don't know how some of you ladies do this juggling teacher-mom-blogger-etc. act but I'll have whatever you're having with an extra shot.

Nonetheless, we've been pretty busy in our first grade classroom so far this year and we (mostly me) are very excited that this mysterious season called Fall is upon us. I think it's a time of year when the air cools and leaves (not palm frawns) turn brown. Here in South Florida we half-heartedly have ICED pumpkin spice lattes and wait impatiently for January temperatures to make us feel like we get at least one seasonal change. 

We are currently bracing for Hurricane Matthew who should be arriving tomorrow night to my area. Safe wishes to everyone along the treasure coast and the Carolinas too. My students know there is a storm coming so in an effort to make light of the situation we read the classic tale Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and wrote about what we would want it to rain instead of meatballs (Spoiler Alert: ice cream and cupcakes were the clear winners). Of course I don't have a picture of their writing because BADBLOGGER. (We used this perfect freebie for our writing and cut out pictures of our favorite foods from my unhealthy sized collection of Food Channel magazines.)

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Fall is supposed to mean Halloween not hurricanes! And Halloween math centers are my favorite. Here is a fun way we are practicing our addition facts. I wrote numbers 5-9 on the cauldrons and then number sentences on the sticks for every fact (and tried to reinforce the commutative property). I also created a fact checker page for them to use when they finish sorting. The cauldrons were $1 at Target.
I had a lot of fun making a Halloween themed math and literacy pack to use this month with my first graders too. I love Whimsy Clips Not-So Spooky clipart. So cute! I think my kids are going to especially love the writing centers and the picture prompts! I also wanted to include place value seat work and math centers since we will be focusing on those concepts (oy vey) until November. Click {HERE} to check it out.

{HERE} is a freebie for you from that pack too!

This year I have also been using a self-running PowerPoint presentation I created to run my reading and math groups. The CLEAN UP slide and defining *chime* noise has really helped get my kids better at transitioning to their next center but we are still workin' on it. Click the picture below to see the rotation board options I have listed in my tpt store.

This marks my fourth year teaching and I am starting to feel like I have much more of a handle on a lot of the nuances of running a classroom. I'm excited to see where the year takes me as I am told first graders grow so much in just one short school year! There is tons of foundational learning going on and it's already pretty cool to see how far they've come since day 1. I will post some more from our classroom soon - here's hoping the power isn't out too long. Hurricanes are no fun. Stay safe everyone!!!!

Alternative Seating in My Classroom

I decided to be a lunatic and try alternative seating the week before Thanksgiving break and (most likely) my first informal observation. I am not known for my patience when I have my mind set on something. This change was no exception so I decided to just dive right in. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have a classroom run by boys! 70%, if we're getting technical, of my classroom is rowdy, running, horse-playing, hitting, swearing BOYS. I needed to ditch the traditional classroom model of "stay seated", "sit still", "no standing" and so on. Most of my boys just simply can't waste their attention on fixing the way they're sitting. I came across the idea of alternative seating this summer and I know when I saw this photo on Pinterest I about drooled on my iPhone.

If you google "alternative classroom seating" this beautiful classroom is the first picture that pops up and it belongs to Setting Up For Second. The colors * swoon* The stability balls with little feet *swooooon* The bean bags *swooooning still* I want to go to school there!

After being hypnotized and inspired by the above photo, I then randomly read a great article Kayla Delzer (from Top Dog Teaching - like you didn't already know!) wrote on EdSurge about the evolution of today's classroom. Kayla writes, "As I sat in our local Starbucks this past summer, I looked around and thought--why can’t my classroom look like this? " I, much like Kayla, want my students to have the opportunity to choose where they learn best in our classroom... and I had a feeling that for most of them it wasn't at a desk. If you read Kayla's article, you'll see some of the completely inspiring photos of how she changed her classroom. Simple options like a bath mat and a clipboard can change your students' entire perspective on how they can work independently and comfortably. 

Without spending more than $15, I was able to transform my classroom into something new. Let's get to the pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I asked our custodian to lower these tables for me and they're now a great height for kneeling and sitting at crate seats. They used to have our computers on top of them - I put the computers on student desks instead! The floor cushions are made from $5 vinyl (for easy cleaning) that was 30% off and some foam stuffing my mom had saved (I'm so lucky she is a organized hoarder).

I cleared the top of the cubbies so that if students want to stand they can. The cubbies are also where we keep our book bins and what I've dubbed our "desk bins" - they hold all our notebooks and folders. The random little rocking chair looks kind of silly to me but the kids loved it. I think I got it in a thrift store my first year teaching. I would love to get a moon dish chair so I may or may not be searching Craigslist daily.

The black bins hold supplies -  1 supply box of crayons, glue sponge, and a cup with scissors. Students take as needed. This has been a hard one for me. I have been very particular about how they have retrieved supply bins up until this point. I'm trying to give up some control and see how they handle it. Students often surprise us!

Each of my students has a cup. They pick it up in the morning and put one pencil in it. I blogged previously about how I am winning the pencil war this year. I'm hoping this minor change doesn't throw a wrench in my victory!

It's only day 3 of our new classroom and I can't wait to see how we do for the rest of the school year. My hope is that this freedom gives all of my students - but especially some of my most unmotivated learners - something they may have been missing before at school.

Do you use alternative seating? I would LOVE to hear from you!


Here were my hesitations with bringing alternative seating to my classroom:
- my classroom (portable!) is small
- the boys I secretly really don't want anywhere near each other will always sit together
- will I be able to handle my kids having so much freedom?
- what if they can't handle it!?

I'll be blogging about how these are panning out soon!

Monday Made It - July 13th

  

This has been the summer of MOD PODGE!

Pencil Bins  

I'll be using these for each table/group to keep their pencils. I printed the labels and Mod Podged (is that a verb?) them to the inside so they'll last! The font is KG Second Chances Solid and the pencils and grey pencil bins are from Target's Dollar Spot (my second home).
 

 

 

 

 

Crayon Organizer
LOVE! I was inspired by this post by Going Nutty! with Miss Squirrels. I love how she put contrasting colors in the same drawers so they're easily distinguishable. Her whole supply setup is perfection.

Grab the labels I created HERE  for free! 

 

DIY Calendar
I found calendars, two in a pack, at Target for a $1! Although really cute, they didn't match my color scheme (teal, yellow, grey) so they needed a makeover. Luckily, the border is grey so I just had to remove the top.

 

I cut the days of the week off across the top. Flipped the cut piece, so the white part faced out, and taped to the back. I then used Mod Podge to glue my own design to it. I let them dry and then cut out the visible white parts (step 4) and then applied another coat of sealer. After they dried, I stacked heavy books to flatten the calendar completely (the glue causes the paper to bow a bit as it dries).

 

I love how it turned out! 

 

 

 It's been a crafty summer!

I can't wait to see everyone else's ideas and crafts that linked up!