Constitution Day, Apples, Math Workstations, and Homecoming

Yikes!  I don't even know where to begin.  I'm really loving this class and they are loving being in front of the camera.  Therefore, I have an abundance of pictures and lots to say about the last few weeks. 

Among other things, we honored Constitution Day by wearing red, white, and blue.  These cuties did a great job!

We have made some major academic achievements over the past couple of weeks, including fully launching Daily 5.  This means that everyone is doing something different depending on their choices.  Thanks to my wonderful room moms, we are also doing "backpack books" at the same time.  Whew!  Believe it or not, things are going smoothly-that's because these kids rise to the expectation! 

We also launched Math Workstations.  You could hear a pin drop in there as the kiddos explored our math manipulatives. 

Also thrown in this mix, we celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday with apple activities and making apple sauce.  They loved it. MMMMMMMMM!!!

Each one took turns coring and slicing their apple.

It's ready to cook-what a long wait!

As if that didn't seem like enough special activities, add in homecoming festivities and you get one exhausted teacher!  No, really...we had fun.  The theme was super heroes.  Students were encouraged to dress in either super hero attire or blue and gold.  Some even did both!

Go Trojans!

Baur Power and her super heroes!

Ta Da!!!  (I had to fit this picture in because she is just adorable here)  I hope you enjoyed these little bits of our week! 

Our First Weeks Together

I'm back!  I haven't blogged in forever.  I'm super excited about this school year.  We have the first two weeks under our belts and these kiddos are doing great.  We started the week with lots of procedures and classroom building. 

 

I am loving our morning meeting time together and I promise to keep this time sacred as the kids seem to eat it up, too.  I can already see a difference in their respect for each other and interest in their differences. 

 

 

 

Last week, Wednesday, we celebrated Milton Hershey's birthday with some chocolate math.  (Teachers can find a way to incorporate chocolate into almost anything we do.) New this year, we wrote our names in Hershey Kisses and also played Hershey Kiss tic-tac-toe.  We continued with tradition by measuring length and comparing weights with chocolate.  As you would expect, we concluded our celebration with some taste testing...mmm chocolate milk was a fav!

 

We read a story about Dex training to be a super dog.  We connected this to building our stamina in our first of the Daily 5 rotations, Read to Self and Writing.  We are already past the 6 minute mark in these, working towards 20 minutes of independence. 

Have a great week!  I hope you enjoyed our post just  "little bit."

-Jen

Daily Planner

Here goes my first somewhat valuable teacher post.  One of my very favorite blogs to follow is What the Teacher Wants.  I just love what Rachelle and Natalie share and they are probably my biggest blogging inspiration.  Back in May, they shared their Daily Planner sheet that they use in the classroom.  Of course, I printed it (I use almost EVERYTHING they share).  Some of my colleagues and I started talking about how to modify it and make it work into our SMART homework.  Our school follows HET (Highly Effective Teaching) which really emphasizes the different ways to be smart (a.k.a. multiple intelligences).  After several weeks talking about the different ways to be smart and which one we feel best fits us, we start SMART homework.  Last year, was my first time using SMART homework and I received a lot of great feedback from my parents.  One of the reasons parents loved it was it encouraged "the well rounded student."  As you will see, sometimes, I preprogram the grid with activities that fit what we are doing, other times, it is up to the students to find something for each SMART.  I also encourage parents/students to "double-dip."  If you are helping make dinner with your parents (people smart) and also using measuring cups (logic smart)-write it down twice.  To spring board some ideas, I send home a document with suggested activities for each SMART.  Unfortunately, it is saved on my school computer.  Remind me and I will upload it soon.  The graphics on the SMART page of the daily planner are graphics that match the posters our early elementary uses when teaching the ways to be smart.  I hope you can use or modify what I have done!  All the credit for this idea goes to Rachelle and Natalie from What the Teacher Wants!  Thanks for all that you both share!

I will print these as a two-sided document.  You can access them on Google docs by clicking here.  (I'm hoping the images also link to Google docs but I'm still new to this.)

Decisions, decisions

My district is actually growing and I was offered to move to a Young 5s position (dream job).  Unfortunately, I wasn't ready to move out of my current first grade teaching role.  So, despite a holiday weekend spent debating the pros and cons, I decided to continue on my first grade journey.  Now, I can really start posting on my blog and sharing some of the cool things (I think) that I do in my classroom.  Thank you to the current followers for showing interest, I hope to not let you down. 

A Little Bit of Everything

Here goes nothing...this is my first attempt at blogging.  I created this blog after many pushes from teacher friends.  I've spent the past six months being a "blog stalker" and I guess it's my turn to contribute.  This blog is titled "Little Bits" because I want to share bits of everything from my life:  teaching thoughts and ideas, our family life, and scrapbooking layouts and ideas.  I hope you'll enjoy all the little bits of my life!