NEW BLOG REVEAL COMING!!!

I am super excited to announce that I should have my new blog design in the next day or so!!! If you haven't checked out Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs then what are you waiting for???? She is amazing and so easy to work with!! I know this new design is definitely going to motivate me to blog more!!

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She also has her own teaching blog as well! Definitely a talented lady!!!

Thanks so much Megan for doing what you do!!!

Choosing a New Math Program

Our county has finally decided to take the plunge and adopt a "Common Core" math program. So guess what lucky me got to do today???? Yes, you guessed it!! Me and several of my staff members got to sit through 7 hours of presentations from many of the math publishers while they tried to  convince us that they each had the best program. It was exhausting!!!!!! And my booty is sore from sitting all day.  I have to go back on Monday and Tuesday and try to narrow it down to our top 3 with other teachers from the county. Then we will choose a program from the lucky 3.  There were parts that I liked about each. It is really hard to tell when you just hear the sales pitch. I need to delve in and use it myself!! Any thoughts on Envision Math, Singapore Math, My Math from McGraw Hill, or Math Expressions from Houghton Mifflin?? I would love to hear any feedback!!

A Little Late, But Must Share!!!''

So I have been missing from the blog lately. It seems that my blog posts lately are too far apart.  I swear I do not know how you all do it. I take photos of what I am doing and plan to share, but time gets the best of me. I would like to blame it all on the fact that I am at a new grade level, but I think the real reason is that I get too wrapped up in checking everyone else's blog posts out!! 

OMG!!!! Can I say I went to the Southern California Kindergarten/First Grade Conference!!!!!

I had so much fun! I actually got to sit right next to Deanna Jump and Katie Knight at the Blogger's Bash!! They are so cool! Poor Deanna  was so exhausted from presenting for 8 hours after no sleep. In case you all were wondering... she is the sweetest thing in person. And I love Katie Knight!! She is hilarious and an amazing presenter!!! If you don't follower her blog I suggest you make your way on over to it!!! 

I am so impressed with all of the ladies that presented! They were so enthusiastic and easy to talk to!! And I was super excited when I finally got to meet Kelly Dolling from Teacher Idea Factory in person. We had been emailing back and forth since last year trying to get a Northern California Blogger Meet Up going. Did I feel like a ROCK STAR when she remembered me...Oh yes I did!!! If she faked it... boy is she good!! LOL!! 

So here are a few things I have been working on ...

I began our weather unit by having the kids answer the following questions about types of weather. Then they went back and listed words that described each particular type of weather.

We have been reading several different books about weather too. I decided to do a few experiments at the beginning of the unit to get them more excited and interested in what we were learning. Actually, my kids are always excited about learning. I have the most amazing class this year. The best kiddos ever!!

Check this out...My mom and dad came up and spent the morning doing weather science with us! We had so much fun!!

Here is my mom talking to kids about making a prediction! (She's a retired 1st grade teacher)

Here is dad running the Rain in a Jar experiment!

Mrs. Kramer (My student's grandma from last year and the best retired preschool teacher and friend!) I can't tell who is having more fun!!

My teaching partner and bestest BF!!! She went to the conference with me!!

Making snow!!

The fabulous scientists recording their results!!

This week we will be focusing on clouds and types of precipitation!!

We are adopting new math curriculum this year so I am off to see all the publishers tell me how wonderful their programs are tomorrow. I think the best part is that I do not have to be there until 9 am so I can sleep in. Woohoo!!

I'm Joining the Sale and So-Cal K/1 Conference Here I Come

Oh Yes!! I am super excited for the TPT sale! My wish list is full and I am ready to add them all to my cart! Of course, my store will be on sale as well!! 

So excited that tomorrow will be my Friday!! I am off to Pasadena with my best teaching buddy and sister to the So-Cal K/1 conference! I can't wait to meet and hear all of the amazing teachers presenting. And I will be attending my first Bloggers Bash!! Woohoo!!!

Happy Thursday to everyone!!

Happy Thursday!!

I love my class, but they have been quite chatty the past few weeks! I don't know if it's because California has been having a 70 degree winter or what. Luckily, last week we finally got a few days rain!! I am usually not a fan of rainy day recess schedules, but I was excited!! Crazy I know!! The best part was that it rained most of the three day weekend. I got to be lazy and not feel guilty that I was curled up on the couch watching movies!! That's what happens when you live on the west coast and you haven't had a winter!!!

Here's a quick math valentine activity freebie!! 

You may have seen the one I posted for Super Bowl one or the hot cocoa one I posted in December. The kids love them and it's a great way to practice their subtraction skills!! Just click on any of the pictures below to enjoy!!

                                

Are You Ready For Some Football?? Photos and a Sale!!

It's Superbowl day!! Woohoo! I am doing some relaxing before I need to get up and get my appetizers ready and my big batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies baked. Word on the street is that they are some of the best!! I must admit they are quite delicious!! We are heading to our friend's annual Superbowl party down the street. So...I thought I would get a little work down now that way I can enjoy the festivities later!

I am not a big football fan, but I do love the play offs and Superbowl. Being from California, I am a little disappointed that the 49ers are not in it so I am going to be cheering on the Broncos!! I am so looking forward to the commercials!! Did you already see the Budweiser commercial with the puppy??? OMG...tear jerker!!!

This past week was a long one! I finally got some antibiotics for my flu that turned into a sinus infection! Did you know NyQuil and your anitibiotic make for a really good night's sleep!! I had 2 of the best night's sleep ever!! Something I really needed!! All week I had been working on some fun Superbowl stations for my kids. I wanted to get it on TPT, but I didn't quite make it. Below are a few of the activities that we did. The kids had a lot of fun!!

Here is our Superbowl graph. They had to decide which team they were cheering on! My kids are definitely Broncos fans! Sorry I didn't take the after photo so you could see that the Broncos are the favor.

Here the football fact families that they worked on!! They used their white board markers to write the 4 fact family equations. 

This was a compound match up game they played. All the words had to do with football. It was challenging for some, but they enjoyed it!

 Here they had to decide whether the sentences were declarative, interrogative, and exclamatory. They added the correct punctuation mark with a white board marker and then sorted under the correct heading.

These cards were laminated and cut. I had them in a super cute football container. The students had to draw a card and read it. If they read it correctly they kept it. If they could not read it they put it back.

   

These cards were added to make it even more fun!! They loved it!!

We didn't have time to get to adding 3 addends or missing addends. We will do both of these on Monday!

This is a freebie I posted earlier in the week. I gave the kids a cup filled with 20 Skittles. They read the problem in their book and then used the Superbowl Subtraction Tens Frames to solve it. They had to record the equation and write the answer. They totally enjoyed this...of course, because they got to eat the Skittles!!

I am joining in all the fun and my entire store will be on sale today!!

I wanted to share a few writing samples. I try to get my kids to write several times during the week. This year I switched from second to first grade. I am actually looping with my class to second next year. They are an amazing class and sometimes I forget they are first graders... I actually catch myself treating them like second graders. Anyway, I do a lot of modeling and framing so they can learn what good writing looks like. Here are a few samples of their writing this week!

 Here is the prompt. We talked about it and brainstormed. Then they were off and on their own!! 

Check out some of their writings!!

We also did this prompt too!

Sorry for the long post!! Enjoy your day!!