What's happening in my classroom

It has been forever since I've blogged. I have had a hard time this year getting into a groove and remembering to take some pictures so I have something to blog about. I keep meaning to link up with Five for Friday but by the end of the week I only have a couple of pictures. So I'm going to share all the pictures I've taken and give you a little update about my class. I have 22 first graders which is more than I've ever had in first grade. There were rumors that we might get a co-teacher in first grade but our numbers didn't quite grow enough for that. So one day I got 3 new students. It was challenging to have that many new students at one time. I think we're finally getting into a groove. Of course last time I thought that, then we added our formal RTI and things had to start over again. We've had a hard time getting into an independent routine. I know that is normal for the beginning of the year but I loop with kids so 16 of my students were with me last year. But I think we're getting there.
We finally have read to self up and going. It took a while to figure out a good schedule. But we read at the end of the day and it is my favorite part of the day. I love seeing the kids engaged in reading.

I love all the great cute things I find on Tpt but sometimes simple things are the best. A few weeks ago we were working on nouns. I gave each kid a half a sheet of white paper cut longwise. I had them fold it twice so they had 4 sections in their paper. They had to draw and label a person, place, thing, and animal. 

This week I did the same thing but they had to pick four spelling words, write them and illustrate them.

There are so many ways you can use this simple idea. They could write first, next, then, and last for stories and books. You could gave them write four facts on the paper about a topic on science or social studies. The ideas are endless. 

Another simple idea but not cute we did this week was in math. We have been working on decomposing numbers and getting ready for addition. I used KinderKraze's decomposing pack the week before and it was great but I didn't have time this week to get it ready. So I took large copy paper and wrote blank addition sentences for the number 9. The kids worked with a partner and used two sided counters to come up with all the ways to make 9. I was proud of how well they worked together. 

Our unit in a Reading this past week was all about neighborhoods which tied in pretty well with our upcoming field trip to Cade's Cove to talk about communities in the past. The kids came up with a list of places in our community and then picked one to draw. I gave them a piece of white paper they had to fill up and use labels. Some of the kids worked on their own and some worked as partners. Two boys wanted to makes the streets. So they cut up white paper and glued it down on butcher paper. Overall they did a great job even though it wasn't to scale of our town. I meant to take a picture but forgot. Maybe I'll add a picture tomorrow. 

So that is a little peek into what we've been doing. Centers are finally starting to run fairly smoothly. I have to work with a group for RTI during this time and haven't been able to take pictures. Maybe this week I'll have a little time. I'm headed into week 26 of my pregnancy and things are going well. My legs and feet have been swelling and I'm exhausted. Here's my week 24 bump picture.

Today we bought this cute dress for my little one. She's not suppose to be here until after Christmas but you just never know. I found this perfect dress at Osh Kosh so of she comes early it is a little Christmassy but not too much.

I have posted a couple of things to my tpt store recently you might want to check out. One is Math task cards for comparing numbers with everyone's favorite groovey  cat.  Check it out here! 

Check it out here! 

The next is reading fluency homework for first grade that correlates with Journeys reading series. It practices spelling words, high frequency words, and fluency. It works on the first 15 lessons.Check it out here!

Check it out here!

It is what I use for homework and I think it helps a ton with their fluency. 

Until next time, whenever that might be!