Big Adjustment, Little Adjustment

Hello dear teacher friends! I have been absent for quite some time. Can you believe it is the end of September?!
Switching to another school and another grade has been, well, time consuming to say the least. But now that we are in some sort of routine, I am diving back into the blogging world to share ideas and find inspiration! Here is a little tour of what my new room looks like and and a few of my 2nd graders.

This room to ages to prep - you should have seen the before picture! But I love how it turned out. Lots of color (which it was severely lacking)!

Kiddos working hard during the first week of school with one of our "get to know you" activities! Love to see all the kiddos hard at work and talking to one and other.

And last but definitely not least, the little adjustment to our lives.

Yep, that is our little one at 9 weeks! We are beyond thrilled to introduce our very first baby! Can't wait to meet our person in April!

How have you been? What new things have you done this year? I'd love to hear!

~ Katie

Do You Use Reading Street? A New Adventure for Me

Good Morning, all! Well, I have officially taken my don't-think-about-school-until-July break. Now that the first week of July has come and gone, I am starting to think about next year. My district has just adopted a new language arts basal, Reading Street by Pearson. Do you know it? I am sneaking into my new building next week to snag a couple of the manuals to start reading over and thinking about what it is going to look like in the classroom.

So here are my questions if you do use Reading Street:
* Do you like it? (simple go-to question)
* What would you change about it?
* Are the centers enough? Or too easy?
* Do the students like the program? What do they like most? Least?


Thank you all for your insight! Have a lovely weekend!

~ Katie

Happy 4th! Flash Sale

I hope all of you and yours are having a wonderful, safe July 4th! This week is extra special for me as yesterday was my 3-year anniversary to my wonderfully supportive hubby and tomorrow is my 28th birthday! Whew! It's a big week! In honor of this week I am having a 20% sale over on my TpT site! Head on over and scoop up anything, or everything, you want! :)

What are you doing for the holiday? Do you have any favorite traditions?

~ Katie

What's in a Name?

Well, I have been racking my brain for a new name for this wonderful blog. I have tried to combine my interests. Here are some candidates. Thoughts?

Eat Love Teach
Bake and Teach
The Terrific Teacher
The Lovely Teacher
Teach Love Laugh
Teaching Through Learning

Think any of these will do? Have a wonderful Sunday!

~ Katie

Hello? Is Anyone Out There?

Ok, so that is a bit of a dramatic post title, but hey, I have been MIA for the last month and a half. So if you still kindly have me on your blogroll then bless you! It has been a crazy 6 weeks. First I was being transferred to 3rd grade and booted out to a portable, then an serious opportunity came up to teach in another district's gifted and talented program bouncing back and forth from two schools doing a pull out G/T class, and finally an offer to work in a 2nd grade G/T classroom. Ah, this is it! I am OFFICIALLY moving to 2nd grade in another school working with some truly remarkable students (but aren't all students remarkable?!)

So that briefly explains the craziness of my last 6 weeks. I never realized how hard it was to leave your first teaching job. 1st grade still has my heart, but I am very stoked to be moving on to new challenge.

Ok, no more reminiscing, here is where I need some help! You'll notice that the blog is called First Grade ABCs, not quite appropriate for this new adventure. Also it is only me now - Rebecca had a fantastic opportunity come up to work with an event planning company, so sadly she won't be on the blog very much. What should I re-title the blog? I am planning to focus some of my creativity on some first grade projects, but there will be a much stronger emphasis on 2nd grade now. I know I have some brilliant friends out there, help me find a name!

Thoughts?  Thanks! I am so glad to be back!

Katie

A Suffixes Freebie for My Fellow Teachers

Good Morning all! So, truth time. I haven't seen my cute firsties for 4 days now! It feels like forever! I took a personal day on Friday to go camping with my bestie and our hubbies, then during one of our hiking excursions I slipped, fell, landed on my tushy and sprained my ankle. It was not my most graceful moment!

Anywho, I couldn't put lots of weight on it by Sunday night so I took another day off. But, because I had some time to spare (sitting on the couch for hours with your leg up is not as awesome as it sounds), I made this suffixes game. Just click the picture or head over to my TpT store to download. It is yours because I am so thankful for what you all share and I appreciate the amazing teachers that you are!



Here's to hobbling back into the classroom!

~ Katie

It's Official - 3rd Grade Here I Come!

Ok, so it has been decided. I will be teaching 3rd grade next year - barring any unforeseen circumstances. At first I was, well, scared. Then, I started thinking about it and I think it will be a good challenge. And the kiddos will be great, they are my class from last year!

So any thoughts or advice on switching grades? I haven't taught anything but 1st grade, in the same school, in the same room. Moving all of my things is gives me a bit of anxiety!

Help!

~ Katie

Welcome to the Rainforest

a toucan and elephant - love my kiddos!

Well, it has been quite the week! We have been studying habitats for awhile now. Each of the six first grade classes took a habitat to specialize in, but I must say ours was the best. We were the rainforest. The kiddos were choose an animal to learn more about and then we transformed the room into a rainforest. I used a performance assessment to assess their research, and here is how it went. The kids made their own animal costume - this was a blast, though a bit chaotic (but aren't most student-led learning experiences?) - and then we made vines and trees for the classroom.

Once we were all set, the kiddos put their costumes on and the other first grade students traveled to the rainforest, interviewing the animals that they found. The students animals were in charge of telling 2-3 facts about their animal (great oral component) and show off their picture and costume.

crocodile

orangutan

Poisonous Dart Frog

Komodo Dragon

Piranha

Toucan and Macaw

Glass-winged butterfly - yep, they do exist!

gorilla

Amazon butterfly and Morpho butterfuly

Tasier and Red-eyed green tree frog

A picture of our vines from the ceiling!

Once our classroom presented, we had the opportunity to explore the other habitats, which included the ocean, polar lands, desert, grassland, and forest. This has got to be one of my favorite moments of the year so far!

~ Katie

Synonym Rolls, Question, and a Freebie

Such adorable synonym bakers!

Hey all! I am getting a bit better with posting within 7 days - a daily blogging goal just doesn't seem possible at this time. Well, here is a grand adventure we had this week.

I saw a pin on creating synonym rolls - a super cute take on cinnamon rolls - and then Rebecca found this amazing post at The First Grade Parade (don't you just love her!?!) She has this fantastic tutorial on making baker hats, which we did pronto! But we thought we would dress ours up a bit, we made mini cinnamon rolls and put them on the hats.

Then we made this matching game. We printed several cinnamon rolls on brown paper, and put a word on them. Then we printed several frosting globs and put corresponding words. (for the words, we printed them on labels, but writing them on the pieces would work just as well!)

We laminated them and then cut them out. To play, we had kiddos laid out the pieces like a game of memory. Then they take turns flipping one cinnamon roll and one frosting glob in hopes of finding a match. If it is a synonym match, the student builds the synonym roll and reads the two words to their partner. If it is not a match, then they flip it back over and it is the next persons turn.

Viola! The kiddos loved it - especially using wooden spoons and the matching aprons I found in my cupboard!

Now here is the question, there are rumbles that I may be moving to 3rd grade next year. If any of you lovely teachers have taught 3rd grade, would you please share what I can look forward too?

Thanks!
Katie

Another Week Down, R-Controlled Vowel Unit UP!

Well, my dear friends, I want to apologize for the sudden absence. I can't believe it has been another week of no posts, but then again it was one of those weeks. Here is a brief run down of the awesomeness that the third week of April has showered upon me:

* Sick student on Monday, throw up city! (yuck!)

* Special behaviors reigniting and well, let me tell you, not super fun and completely tiring

* Accidents - you know the kind, my primary friends, and yes plural!

* One student found a goose egg and decided to bring it into the classroom - glad he wasn't attacked by the goose!

*Spring hyperness still in full swing!

*Sudden sick day, room not ready at all and my wonderful secretary scrambling to find a sub

So, yes, I am definitely ready for the weekend and yes, I am need of some time to recoup. Oh, but great news, posted our Bossy R mini unit, and I must say I adore the cute story that I wrote! Oh and best part, it's only $3! 

How was your week?

~ Katie

Help! Spring Break Didn't Fix It!

Ok, so maybe that blog title is a bit extreme, but man oh man it has been a bit harder coming back from Spring Break than I would have liked. I think the kiddos are feeling it too. So here's what I desperately need from all of my wonderful teacher friends out there - what amazing, effective, stellar management tricks/tips do you have that helps students settle down from Post Spring Break Craziness, or PSBC? Oh, and keep in mind, it has been raining here and we are looking at more inside recess days. (Was that a collective "ooohhhh," I just heard?)

But on the brighter side of things, here are some oh so adorable quotes my kiddos have said this week:

     Student A: "I don't know what I like most about summer."
     Me: "How about sleeping in?" (yes, something I cherish!)
     Student B chimes in: "I don't like sleeping in, it just wastes the day!"

Yes, my friends, the wisdom of this particular student totally made me think "wow, I should be more like him!"

    Student C: "Sometimes I call my mom sassy."
    Mom Helper (laughing): "I bet she calls you sassy too!"

    Student D: "I'm a Tweedy bird!" Flapping his arms and running in circles at recess. Totally made my recess duty today!

Oh, and I have been working on a stellar R-controlled Vowel Mini Unit. So far it includes the most adorable Bossy R story (if I do say so myself). I am hoping to have it posted this weekend and a corresponding freebie with it.

What do you look for in a unit?

~ Katie

TpT Troubles?

Quick question ~ Is anyone else having an error message pop up when you try to upload a new TpT product? Just checking to see if it is only me. :)


Thanks!

~ Katie

This To Shall Pass...But With A Crash and Bang (and a FREEBIE!)

First off sorry for the unexpected hiatus in postings! Rebecca and I are on Spring Break - Finally! While Rebecca is off gallivanting in Washington D.C. with her sis, I am home listening to my kitchen be demolished! Yes, my friends, the Hubs and I are remodeling our kitchen - well the nice construction crew is! I am so excited for the finished product, but as of now, all I hear is BANG...CLING...CRASH and occasionally the crew muttering something under their breath (I'm afraid of what that might be!!!).

So now that our house is in complete shambles - our fridge is in what will be the dining room, and the microwave is in the living room, plus no kitchen sink to speak of - I decided to make a quick Spring Inspired Freebie to help me feel a bit more productive!

Click on the picture to download it!

Oh, and the other thing keeping my spirits up - these delicious brownies I made! If you like chocolate and caramel, definitely give them a try. So dangerously yummy! 

Photo courtesy of What's Gaby Cooking

~ Katie

Egg-stra, Egg-stra! Ready for Spring Break?

Has Spring Fever set in yet? Um, yeah, Rebecca and I are feeling full force. And it's not just us, but the littles too! So, with one day left before break, we decided we needed social time a fun buddy activity to reinforce nonstandard measurement! 

With loads of plastic eggs, some big and some small, we combined classes and paired up our kiddos then set them off to measure different surfaces and objects. Brilliant!

How tall is my buddy?

"Can we measure you Mrs. Walker?" Sure!

Super brave kiddos wanting to measure the room!

Measuring the doorway

"The book is only 2 eggs!"

Miss Kunz being oh so brave!

Uno, Dos, Tres...Three Days of Classifying Animals

Day 1
Prompted by one our science methods course we took last year as part of our Master's program, Katie and I start our animal and habitat unit with an interesting exercise. We give each student pictures of a variety of animals (including a human) and plants. The students are instructed to independently sort and glue the pictures into animal and not animal categories. I think it makes my kiddos crazy when they ask if they are correct and I tell them, "you decide, it is up to you...we will talk about it together in a bit." I enjoy listening to their reasoning as they do their sorting. One of my favorite quotes this year was, "the girl is a mammal and mammal and animal rhyme, so that has to be it." Haha!!

We then have a student driven discussion where we sort large versions of the pictures into animal and not animal categories. Through guided questions, we help the students arrive at the proper conclusions. We LOVE this exploration activity!! If you have ever wanted to get inside the brain of a firstie, this activity is for you!

After the sort we use a webbing activity to create a definition to articulate what an animal is.

Day 2
I started this second day with another "get inside the head of a firstie activity". I laid out all my animals in the middle of our circle. (They came from one of those bulletin board punch out kits that I purchased at Lakeshore a few years ago. I think it was a habitats pack.) I asked how could we sort or organize the animals into groups. Of course my first graders had lots of ideas.

After they shared some ideas, I told them that scientists wondered this very thing and that they have sorted animals into categories based on some traits. We discussed the meaning of the word classify. I introduced the categories of vertebrates and invertebrates and the sub categories of birds, arthropods, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish.

Day 3
I shared a PowerPoint with the kiddos that explained the traits of the animals in each category.

We then sat in a circle and sorted our animals again, this time according to the scientific categories.

I made this page for independent practice. Thanks DJ Inkers for the clip art! (Note the picture in the middle is a salamander, not a lizard..I needed another amphibian.)

This is one of my favorite units to teach because the firsties just eat it up!! I also love it because it is a great way we can heavily use informational texts!!

~Rebecca

Fry Phrases

After our CBM testing (anyone else use that?!), Rebecca and I noticed that some of our precious kiddos were struggling with their fluency. Everything they read...was...so....slow. (Like what I did there? hehe). Well after some searching we found these wonderful fry phrases. At first, I had my kiddos reading each group of words. But that was a bit boring. Don't get me wrong, the kiddos were doing great, but it didn't have that something extra. So Rebecca and I brainstormed and we decided we would shrink the words, print on golden cardstock, laminate and find a fry container and something to put the fries in!

Brilliant! So we found this cute fry container clipart from DJ Inkers (but you could easily use a real one too!) and we laminated it then cut a slit at the base of the fries. We put a snack baggie behind it (it is just small enough to let the fries poke through the slit). Then we made a mouth, because, well, who doesn't love eating fries?! Rebecca put hers on top of a bowl, I made a brown paper bag. Both have worked out great and we have sooo many students who want to do engage in this activity! We have students pull a fry, read the words, and then feed it to the mouth (adding a fun sound like, "yum" "mmmm" or "num, num, num" also puts a smile on the students' faces!) Love it!

What do you do to help build your struggling readers' fluency?

~ Katie and Rebecca

Weekend Round Up & A Jellybean Subtraction Freebie

Photo courtesy of Picky Palate

Well Sunday has come to an end and I can't believe how fast it went! The Hubs and I worked so hard on our yard and figuring out the car fiasco, I feel like I am ready for another weekend to start. But at the same time, I am so happy with all that we accomplished. Work is kinda funny like that, right? We get so exhausted but so fulfilled with all that we do.

Anywho, in honor of our hard work this weekend, and the fact that the Hubs is feeling a bit under the weather, I tried a new recipe: Chicken Pot Pie Bowls with Puffy Croutons. Oh. My. Stars. This is super tasty! Definitely the feeling of comfort food, but with a twist. We definitely recommend it. :)

In preparation for teaching math tomorrow, I thought playing a Spring Themed game was in order. Hop on over to our TpT store and download your copy for free!

(click the picture to download the copy from our store)

~ Katie

Happy Weekend and An Inflectional Endings Freebie...Whew!

Wow, I can't believe Saturday is practically over. Can I just say that Spring Break needs to be here! Only 5 more days. I can make it, right?! I was so jealous when most of you wonderful girls were having Spring Break, but now that it is actually Spring here in lovely Utah, I think the timing is just right!

I made this quick game on Thursday night for my kiddos to play and review inflectional endings. Then I thought I would clipart it up a bit and make it more Spring-y (if that's a word?) for centers this next week.

My students loved playing the game. It was super cute to hear some of my stellar students not only adding the right inflectional ending to the verb, but then use the new word in a sentence. Can I just say that my kiddos make me smile so much!?

Oh, and here is the freebie part. All you have to do is follow our TpT store here and leave a comment on our TpT site with your email address, then I will gleefully (yes, gleefully) email you the game! Fabulous, right?! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and fingers crossed I keep my Spring fever in check for one last week!

~ Katie

Egg Fact Families Activity

Ok, so clearly my sense of time is not quite right as I meant to write my follow-up post, oh um, on Tuesday! Can I just say, this week has been a week! I have been dealing with insurance stuff from a car accident 2 weeks ago - just when you think things are going smoothly then you get the call "Maam', your car has been totaled." Not the call I wanted.

But this is when you start counting all of your blessing - great hubby, cute puppies, 19 awesome kiddos willing and wanting to learn! So yes, stress is there, but I am all smiles today in my classroom!

Ok, ok, onto the math activity. On Monday, we did a jelly bean math activity focusing on fact families. On Tuesday, we stayed with the spring theme and did an egg race. This is how we did it:

• First, put I bought the small Easter eggs, the tiny ones that will fit on a plastic   spoon.
•  I put a number in the egg, and the student teams were challenged to write a fact family using that number as the whole (or we call it the daddy number).
•  The students had to bunny hop to the bucket, put an egg on a plastic spoon and tiptoe back to their team. 
•  Each member of the team wrote a fact family on their own white board (you could use a paper recording sheet if you would like).
• Once all members had their fact families written down, they raised their hands in the air and I checked their work. If it was correct, they would tiptoe back to egg bucket and put a new egg on their spoon. If they were not correct, they would fix and then head to bucket!
• It was a blast!

What do you do in math to help combat Spring Fever?

~ Katie

Jelly Bean Fact Families, A Freebie and Updates

This is the Hubs and mine impulse buy of the night!

Ok, so within the last 12 hours I have sampled 3 brands of jelly beans (um, can I just say this is not an addiction I recommend - man my tummy isn't feeling so smiley!) and I must say that the best I have tasted is the Starburst ones. But the Mike and Ike are close runners up!

Enough talk about jelly beans and on to what the kiddos and I tackled today. To help make Monday Math a bit more exciting, we studied fact families using tasty manipulatives. I made up this practice page (click the picture to download) as our recording sheet. The kiddos ate up this activity! ;)

Tomorrow we are going to have an fact family egg race. More on that tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Now updates: Rebecca and I posted our Sounds for Long A packet on our TpT account. So many fun activities that help our sweet lil' ones practice the 3 main ways to make the long a sound. Check it out here!

Question of the day: Do you follow the new Reading Street program from Pearson? Our school is switching over to it next year and we are wondering what to expect! :)

~ Katie

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day all! We celebrated yesterday and now I am recovering from the craziness by lounging in my pjs! On Thursday, we designed leprechaun ladders and leprechaun traps (from our March Lucky Literacy Pack) and then, as the door closed and the last of the kiddos left, the leprechaun I got to work. Our room was trashed - glitter sprinkled everywhere, streamers, gold coins, shenanigans had definitely ensued.

Such a tricky leprechaun!

When the students first came into the classroom their faces lit up! It was the cutest thing! They were so excited to see that the leprechaun had left green foot prints over their letters they wrote for the leprechaun (which, as a side note we all signed our letters with more of an Irish flare, we added a O' before our last names - so mine was Katie O'Walker, they loved it!)

Earlier in the week we made March Monsters, it is a fun art inspired by the monsters over at KPM Doodles. I think they turned out so stinkin' cute!

Aren't the guitars the cutest?!

All of our March Monsters

What is your favorite thing to do for St. Patrick's Day?

~Katie

A K-2 Link-up and Updates

I so love finding new blogs out there! Not only do Rebecca and I love to share our ideas, but we also love learning from all of our fellow teachers! It is like working on a team of hundreds of primary grade teachers rather than just the 6 of us at our school. And isn't hundreds of heads working together better than 6? (I just got a funny visual of this!) If you haven't checked it out, you totally should! There are so many great blogs that are out there!

Student Teachers X2:
My student teachers have been in the classroom for 2 days now and they are just getting their feet wet! I am excited to see them teach some guided reading lessons tomorrow! I know they will do great! At first, I thought it was going to be totally intimidating to have two teachers watching me, but they are such dolls! I think this will be a great experience for both of us!

~ Katie

New in the Shop: I Can Write a Story

Happy Tuesday to all of you! I took a day off today for some doctor's appointments. As nice as it is to have a day off, there is quite the amount of prep work that goes into it. Not to mention the 9 pages of sub plans, but maybe that is just because I am shall we say "a tad bit particular"! Katie can attest to my severe case of perfectionism, which at times may be borderline crazy! 


Enough chit-chat, let me get to the actual topic of today's post: a new mini-unit in the shop! We are so excited to present our I Can Write a Story! mini-unit. This primary grade narrative writing unit focuses on the four elements of a story (characters, setting, problem/climax, and solution) as the framework for students to write their own stories. 


My friends each published a story for their Parent Teacher Conference portfolios. I only wish I had snapped a few photos of their stories before I sent them home! They were pretty stinkin' cute! Let me see if I can paraphrase one: "Once there was a snowman who was at a party. It was too hot inside at the party so he started to melt. The children put the snowman in the freezer." Yes, very simple, but not to shabby for a first try! I am going to work the whole class through another round of story publishing, then I plan to put the character and setting cards and story maps out as a writing center.

To buy this mini-unit click on the picture!

Teachers Taking Care of Teachers

One thing I love about teaching is the amazing women and men I work with! There are so few people who will go above and beyond for someone they don't know and here is our chance to help out our own. With the recent devastation of 44 tornadoes across 5 different states, some of our precious communities have lost homes, schools, and friends. In order to help out, Crystal and Kreative in Kinder has created a link up that provides a platform to offer our support and materials. We are more than happy to send copies of our TpT  materials and also comb through our classrooms for extra supplies that others may be in dire need. If you want to join, or if you want more information, head over to Kreative and Kinder!

~ Katie  and Rebecca

Survived PTCs and Upcoming Challenge

Well Parent Teacher Conferences are done! It was a long 2 nights and I am so happy to be sitting here at home in my pjs. Although it is a lot of work - as all of you know! - I really enjoy talking with parents about their students. I just would prefer to do it one parent meeting at a time rather than 4 solid hours of talking!

I can't believe we only have one term left! Where has this year gone?! For me, this year has been the most challenging teaching year of my career. But, with the craziness behind us, my students have formed the most amazing bond and support for one and other. I am absolutely blessed to know these students and to be working with them.

So what am I going to do with my day off? Pretty much live in my lulu yoga gear and do some baking. I'll keep you posted on what deliciousness I make! I am also going to be planning for my 2 student teachers than will be arriving on Monday. Yep, you read that right, 2 student teachers! Yikes! Oh my stars, what am I going to do? Have you had a student teacher before? What did you like the most about it? Any tips?

I hope all of you have a wonderful Friday.

~ Katie

Preparing for PTCs and an Award

Last week was a little full of crazy as we celebrated Dr. Seuss and finalized our report cards. Sheesh, I think I am still trying to recover! Then today rolled around and I am still not feeling 100% ~ I have a few culprits in mind, last week a couple of my kiddos came to school with notes from their parents asking if they could stay in from recess as they were recovering from something or other. With all the luck, it looks like it is my turn to bring in a note to stay in from recess now too because I am rocking a pretty yucky head cold.

That doesn't paint a pretty picture for my Monday, right?! Then just think how happy I was to see that the awesome Erin from First with Franklin gave us this award!

I've seen this award on several blogs and think it is such a cute way to highlight our fellow teacher bloggers! So thank you, Erin, you totally turned my day around! Now here is what we need to do:

1. Link back to the blog that gave you this cute award.

2. Pass the award onto 15 other lovely bloggers.

3. Follow the person who sent it to you! :)

Here are some very deserving and lovely bloggers. And my fabulous fellow bloggers that are nominated, don't worry about passing it along. I know it is hard work, but I just wanted to highlight your amazing blogs and help get the word out about how awesome you all are!

Kim at Growing Up Teaching
The Lovely Pixie Girls at Playing with Pixie Dust
Randi at Teach it With Class
Melanie at First Grade Brain Sprinkles
The fabulous girls at Fun For First
Reagan at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits
Allyson at Stickers and Stars
Tammy at 123 Teach With Me
Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files
Michelle at Apples and ABCs
Sarah from the Eager Teacher
Sandra at Sweet Times in First
Keri at Teach Play Smile
Lindsey at The Teacher Wife
Langston at Langston's Learners

~ Katie

Hope You Had a Seussical Day!

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday because today was a teacher work day in preparation for conferences next week.

We started the day by making the obligatory Cat in the Hat hats and posing for photos.
(Yes I captured the day on my iPhone, so excuse the poor lighting.)

Then our Darling principal dressed up as Thing One and came to read to our kiddos. Of course we made sure that we had on our Seuss party hats on when she came!

What did you do to celebrate?

~Rebecca