100th Day and Asking Questions {Five for Friday}

We finally got a snow day today!! Woo hoo!! There isn't a lot of snow out there, but I'll take a day any way I can get it. I could really use the day today since I was out sick yesterday and I'm still not feeling 100%! Here's a look at my short school week. 

Monday was the 100th day of school. My favorite activity was the snack - of course!

The kiddos kept saying it didn't look like there were 100 things in their bags. Ahh...the teachable math moments..

Monday was a yucky, rainy day so I decided to break out the Chooka rain boots. My kiddos loved them! Then when we sat down at the carpet it was all over....they love to pet my shoes and they decided this pair was super soft! Please tell me I'm not the only person this happens to?! 

I was totally inspired by Smitten With First's post last week about question writing, so I used her idea and put my own little spin on it. You can read her post here.

As a class we brainstormed question words and made an anchor chart. Then everyone got a question mark and we filled it up with all the question words. The next day we turned the question marks into necklaces and played musical questions - stop when the music stops and ask a question. 

When we got finished with the game everyone wrote three questions in their journals. It was a great activity and a nice way to work in a little oral language and movement! 

Everything in my TPT is 20% off this weekend. Click on the picture to check it out. 

Will you be celebrating the big game this weekend? 

We are having some friends over and, even though I'm not a big sports fan, I always look forward to the Super Bowl. The commercials make it worth watching for me! And then there's the food! We are having a baked potato bar and some other goodies. 

I've recently fallen in love with a blog called Averie Cooks, so I'm definitely gonna make a sweet treat using one of her recipes. The only problem will be picking which one to make because they all look amazing! 

New Read Alouds...Wordless Wednesday

We can't get enough Junie B. Jones! I decided it was time to try a new read aloud and this Amelia Bedelia book sounds fantastic. Anyone read this one? 

Happiness in a box. This middle-of-nowhere livin' girl LOVES Amazon. So far, this pencil sharpener is amazing....time will tell. 

It's my first time linking up with Miss DeCarbo for Wordless Wednesday...yay!! 

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! 

Quick, Easy Prep Synonym and Antonym Activity

It was a great day in first grade! So great, in fact, that I decided I might dust off this ol' blog and write about some of the fun we've been having!

This week is our "off" week from the Journeys reading series. Every 5 weeks we have a unit test, so we take the week to review skills from the unit. I love this week because I have a lot more flexibility with what we do during our reading time! 

Today I needed a quick activity to review synonyms and antonyms. I wanted an activity to get the kids up and working on something other than a worksheet.

I had everyone choose a word from a brown paper bag. Then, they got up around the room and found the antonym for their word. 

I LOVE how engaged they are when we do things like this, even something as simple as this, and they get so into it. 

The antonym pairs then became partners and they were given a piece of copy paper and a slip of paper with a synonym pair. Told ya' this was easy prep!

The partners folded the paper in half and each kiddo took a word. They wrote the word at the top and then illustrated it. It was a fun review! I hung these up in the room, but I forgot to take a picture of them all together. Really, I'm pretty impressed with myself for even taking a picture at all, so we'll go with this for now! 

If you'd like to try this with your class I'll make it even easier for you, click here and you can download my word pairs! 

Before I go I have one more thing to share. Have you downloaded this FREE game from Teacher Tam? It's a Gobble card game and my kids are loving it! 

Happy teaching, friends! 

First Grade is Like a Roller Coaster

Several times this week on the drive home from school I've thought about how first grade is like a roller coaster. There are so many highs and lows in any given day that it can be dizzying at times. 

It is the most fun I've ever had at school and it is terrifying at the same time. I don't know if I'm doing it right and in the end I'm responsible for teaching these little kiddos how to read. Everybody put your hands up and scream!!! 

My sweet little first graders ride an emotional roller coaster. 

I love first grade. You are an awesome teacher. I want to stay in first grade forever. 

I need to be home. I want to go home. Is it time for snack? 

This is so much fun. Is it almost time to go home? Glue is so fun!

And it goes on and on. This has been my first experience with all these fluctuating emotions. I've just been soaking it all in and trying to help my firsties along the way! 

I ride an emotional roller coaster. 

I think I can do this, I've got this covered. 

I get up to teach and I realize that, even though I'm teaching number sense, I really didn't think this one through all the way and the lesson is a flop. Great. Need to rethink this one. Then I hear, "Mrs. Slemp, you're an awesome teacher." Maybe I can do this! 

Then there are those students who make bad choices. There are tears and hurt feelings. I hate that part. 

On the other hand, some make great choices that make me so proud of them! 

One day I am a focused planning machine. 

The next day my desk looks like this. Just like it did last Friday after school 

And I can't put together two coherent thoughts and I'm checking my email, looking on pinterest for ideas, and browsing TPT, all while juggling my teacher's edition in my lap and a sweet tea in my hand. This is my way of coping when I don't know what to do....do it all! haha 

This new experience has essentially put back in the place of a brand new teacher. Even though I've been at this for going on 9 years now, I'm in a new world now.

That's scary at times, but mostly exciting. I love that I'm in a profession where change, a drastic change, is possible. 

I am thankful that I am getting a chance to ride the first grade roller coaster with 21 awesome little people! I know I'm going to learn just as much as they are this year. 

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? 

No Sew Curtains, Class Brochure, and Work Display {Monday Made It}

This post has been a long time coming! I wanted to back up a show you three very last minute projects I put together the weekend before school started.

I'm linking up with Tara over at Fourth Grade Frolics for her fabulous Monday Made It linky.

The weekend before school started I decided I need to jazz up the curtains in my room. Not the best idea, let me just tell you! BUT I am really happy with the end result! 

The pennant banner on the left came from my old classroom and I felt like it didn't quite fit in on these smaller windows, so I needed a change. 

I love how this has almost a stained glass look at certain times in the day. It really boosted the color in my room. 

So how did I do it? 

I cut strips of fabric 2.5" wide and 21" long and just tied them onto a tension rod. My windows are about 50" and I have 39 strips of fabric on each one, just to give you a little idea. 

It was a quick and easy project that really made a big impact on the look of my room. 

I made brochures for parents to pick up at Open House. 

My next project was super easy and inspired by this pin. 

It's hard to see it in these pictures, but the yard sticks are spray painted purple to match my rock chair and the clothes pins are black. This is going to make displaying student work so easy! 

How do you display student work?