Cookie Cutter Writing Centers

I have had this pack of cookie cutters that a friend gave me (They were actually part of a #SecondGradeTribe tribe box she sent me! Thanks, Tara!) in my classroom cabinet for a year. I knew I wanted to keep them for something but aside from sugar cookies I had no idea what. Then it randomly dawned on me last week to use them in a seasonal writing center.

 I put the cutters in a bin along with the picture that came with the pack for the kids to use as inspiration. I think it will also be a good idea to label each picture so that the kids can use those words to write their stories. You could also include a Halloween word list. *If you're looking for other Halloween writing ideas click HERE and HERE* 

This is the story we wrote together in a small group, which is how I like to teach most of my center activities

My kids really loved the idea! When I modeled how to trace the inside of the cookie cutter shape and then add details and color, they were literally Ooooing and Ahhhing. It was awesome. They got really creative with their ideas when we were working on a piece together and said I should put a witch in the haunted house window. We wrote the story from her point of view. I was so impressed with their thinking.

 This simple center is so easy to put together and I can't wait to use the same format with all my holiday cookie cutters!

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!!!!

I Failed at Flexible Seating

Updated 7/29/16: Hi and thank you so much for stumbling upon my blog! The below post (from  April 2016) was written as a way for me to document my experience with alternative, or flexible, classroom seating. It's not meant to persuade you against the concept or to say you shouldn't try it out in your own classroom! I was inspired to try it in my own room because of the many amazing teachers that have made it work so wonderfully for themselves and their students. Going full throttle into it wasn't for me but I love letting my students have some freedoms of course - standing to work if needed, working with clipboards on the rug, fun reading seating, etc. Having reflected on my own experience since publishing this post, I think I struggled a lot with how my students would cope the next school year in a desk. Was I setting them up for failure by giving them too much choice? That's question went through my head a lot. But I digress!

Flexibility is the backbone of teaching and I also believe in life you must take risks. I suppose that's why I jumped head first into transforming my room to begin with. I have no regrets! What I'm trying to say is... If you feel flexible seating could work for your class I hope you'll go for it! Let us know in the comments how it goes.

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Back in November I blogged about how I had transformed my classroom with flexible seating, otherwise known as alternative seating. I jumped head first into the idea that my students would choose their work space and get down to business and that each day would be buzzing with the hum of productivity and engagement. That was the idea. The reality looked and sounded a lot different. I don't consider myself a super traditional person. By that I guess I mean that for the most part, I like to take risks and try new things. I immediately thought flexible classroom seating would be a perfect fit for my teaching style. Turns out I am much more traditional than I thought. My mom will be so excited!

I failed at implementing flexible seating in my classroom. I just couldn't make it work. I could list reasons for why I think it didn't work out but I fear they may sound a lot like excuses. Perhaps they are. I really wanted to like the new set up, to trust my students' decisions and partnerships, but as the days passed, I knew alternative seating wasn't going to work for me or my kids. Add a couple days of substitute teachers and I was truly over it!

via the Corner Stone for Teachers Facebook

Like a lot of things in life, my big plans fell short of what I expected. I couldn't manage my students' behaviors or needs as well when they were choosing their own workspaces. I fully believe that kids need movement and hands-on learning and they still get tons of that but when I switched my students back to assigned desks, I couldn't help but feel a sense of failure. Why couldn't I make it work? Why can't my classroom have the same vibe as the classrooms I see on Pinterest with their stability balls and fancy couches? WHY don't they understand that stability balls aren't meant for rolling yourself across the room?

The answer for why I failed is probably simple. I wasn't buying into it 100%. I worried about how my students would cope next year in a traditional desk scenario. I dreaded daily transitions. All the walking around made my eye twitch! And I worried that I was going to cry if they didn't stop talking off topic so much!!! The whole vibe of my classroom just felt off.

Since I've switched back to traditional seats, we've been engrossed in an author study, researched rainforest animals, experimented with rainbows, and so much more. I realized I don't need to make a grand classroom change in order for my students to thrive and learn. I'm not sure if it makes me a better or worse teacher but for me, a traditional classroom has just been a better fit this year.

Now if you'll excuse me I have some stability balls to deflate.