Place Value and Stations {Five for Friday}

I'm ready to jump right in to this three day weekend. Who's with me? I stayed late at school today get everything finished so I have nothing but relaxing and fun ahead of me! 

Here are some things we've been up to this week. We just finished off day 22 of this school year and that is unbelievable! Time is flying by! 

We've been hard at work this week introducing place value. My favorite lesson from the week was an impromptu circle session where we practiced counting out groups of ten bears and recording the results. 

We are slowly but surely getting settled in to reading stations. So far I have introduced writing, word work, and computer. I love first grade writing and this little cutie loves brain breaks! 

This year I'm following the steps outlined in Jan Richardson's The Next Step in Guided Reading to get my stations started. I'm loving all the time I get to spend with each group modeling and teaching them how to use the materials at each station. While I've been introducing stations the other groups have been working puzzles, coloring, play with play dough, legos, and tangrams. 

I made these Place Value Scoot cards as a fun way to practice our learning this week. This was our first try with scoot this year and it was a success! I heard a lot of, "Oh I get this now!" while we were playing, so that always makes this teacher happy!

Click here or on the picture above to check it out in my store. 

Today marked week two of Fun Friday and it was another big hit! The idea came from Angela Powell and you can read more about it here. I thought the beads and pipe cleaners would be nothing but a distraction to my firsties, but they have proven me wrong and been so responsible with them! 

Money Easter Egg Hunt

Looking for a quick activity to incorporate a little Easter fun into your week? Try this Money Easter Egg Hunt. 

Label some eggs with letters of the alphabet, throw in some coins, and hide them around your room. 

The kids worked in pairs to make their way around the room. I had each pair name the coins, put them in order from the greatest value to the least, and then each partner had to count the coins. If both partners came up with the same answer they each wrote the amount on their answer sheet. 

If you'd like to try this activity in your class you can click here to download a copy of the answer sheets. 

Have a great week and enjoy your students! 

Greater Than Less Than and Compare and Contrast {Five for Friday}

It's Friday. We've made it through to the other side. I walked outside one night this week, looked up and said, out loud, "Well that explains so much." 

I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs to celebrate the start of the weekend! 

It snowed on Monday. We knew it was coming, but we went to school on a regular schedule and stayed all day long!! I'm whining really...there was really not a lot of snow to speak of, but we've had so little and every other district around us had an early dismissal. In years past this would've been enough to close us, but times are changing!! We live in a very rural county and the back roads get bad in a hurry....

My little friends were having a hard time with greater than and less than this week. I cut out some signs using my Silhouette Cameo and we used them during class. First, we looked at some problems on the Smartboard and they held up the signs. Then, we did this worksheet and they were able to move the sign around on their desks. Last, we had a little fun..who couldn't use a little fun, right? 

We turned the signs into math gators, complete with a math sentence. 

It was an exciting math day. I love getting to do projects like these just as much as the kids do!

We've spent a lot of time on compare and contrast lately, so I decided to change it up a little this week. The kids worked in pairs to compare different scenes in our story this week. 

post its = instant fun.

The Sunday Superbowl Sale in a lot of TPT stores caused me to get clip art fever, like I needed any help! Since then I've been updating the covers of some of my TPT products. Here are two of my favorites! 

I got an iPad Mini this week!! I've been debating about getting one, but finally decided to go for it last week and it arrived on Wednesday!  I'm having so much fun playing with it. 

Question of the week: What apps do I need to download? 

Place Value and Review Week

Happy Saturday! I'm a day late joining in the Five for Friday party because this week kicked my butt!! It was our first full week back after a 3 week Christmas Break (last week was a 4 day week with a delay every day). I was asleep by 9:30 last night #thestruggleisreal. Here is a peek at what we've been up to this week. 

 We've been working on place value this week, so I pulled out the football serving trays I got at the Dollar Tree last year and put them to use for a little game. 

This idea hit me in the car on the way to school the morning we did it, so it's pretty easy prep. I put some 10 rods and one cubes in the center compartment of the footballs. The kiddos worked in groups of three. One person got to pick how many blocks stayed in the middle of the football while the other two turned their backs. Then, the person on the left put all the tens in that little compartment and the person on the right put all the ones in the other compartment. Once the blocks were sorted the group counted together and wrote the number on a white board. 

You could use white boards because aren't those just so much fun?! Or click on the picture above to download this cute football work mat.

We played Consonant Digraph Scoot from Fun n Games in First Grade. Scoot is one of my all time favorite classroom games and this one was free! 

We had 40 sight words to review for our unit test this week, so I made some flash cards and we walked all over 'em! The kiddos thought this was so much fun. I was able to walk the loop with some of the kiddos who struggle with sight words and we practiced together. 

I have a handful of student who need a little extra support when it comes to appropriate behavior, so I decided to give these personal clip charts a try. That little visual reminder has been a big help this week!

It was happy mail week! 

We have secret pals at school now and mine rocks!! I found these goodies in mailbox at lunch on Wednesday. Just on time too cause I was in need of some new Expo markers. 

This super sweet package arrived yesterday afternoon! Don't you just love a handwritten note? I've really enjoyed working with ReadWorks this year. 

How was your week? Head on over and link up with Kacey! 

Getting in the First Grade Groove {Five for Friday}

Fri-DAY!! Don't ya just love Fridays? Of course this one was busy, busy because I've been back to my over planning ways and we were trying to finish up everything this afternoon! 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share some randomness from our week! 

Did you shop any this week during the TPT Boost sale? I did a little too much shopping! Don't tell my husband...sshhh! 

I bought this Math Journal set from Jessica Hursh - The Teacher Talk. I was a little apprehensive about interactive notebooks in first grade, but after trying a few of these activities I'm sold and the kids are too. I wish I could've recorded all those sweet little voices counting away! 

We added some marshmallows just for fun. Mini marshmallows make math better! My kiddos aren't so happy about math, so I'm working on playing it up and hoping to change those ideas. 

Here is one of my favorite TPT finds for first grade - Daily Quick Math from my VA girl, Alisa at FirstGradeFunTimes. We started using them this week and my kids loved them!! The foldable style was very appealing to my kiddos and when we finished them today everyone wanted to know if we'd have another one next week! 

Alisa also has Daily Quick Writes made in this style and those were just right for our morning warm up! Check 'em out! 

These pictures are actually from last week...is that cheating on Five for Friday? They are so fun I just had to share! 

We did a study on Fairy Tales and for these masterpieces we talked about the setting of the story, then drew it, and added in the characters. 

Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater! I'm doing it again! 

Retelling the Three Billy Goats Gruff was by far my kiddos favorite activity! I had so much fun with it too because I got to eaves drop on all those cuties trip trapping with their partners! 

The Dollar Tree is my new best friend. I'd shopped it before for supplies, but now I dig through all the cards and supplies there searching for things I can add to my arsenal. I turned this Pooh card game into a whole class number match up - a nice fix for the Friday afternoon wiggles! 

What are some of your favorite Dollar Tree finds? What do I need to put on my shopping list?