year 4

 

Another year bites the dust. I'll say it every year...but I CANNOT believe I'm entering my [5th] year of teaching. It's just kinda nuts. Teaching is super rewarding especially after 3 years deep and more in the groove. This year I was teaching the new Common Core which changed the way I sequenced out the year. I really love the new math core curriculum and got high praises from my principal from my students test results. At the end of the year I was very happy with how I planned things because I ended up having a very productive end of the year with my kids. They were learning and engaged till the very end. I completely adored this group of 1st graders. It's one of those years where classroom management was under control and the kids and I could let loose and laugh and really enjoy each other. I am honestly sick that they have to leave me for 2nd grade. I always get nervous about a new batch of kids.

Things I learned in year 3:
+importance of explicit teaching
+children are so forgiving
+using Dr. Jean cds were a game changer.
+admit to the students when I am wrong
+using parent volunteers to their strengths and interests
+making class books after Language Arts units was a great post-assessment activity and they loved reading them
+we worked really hard this year, but I still feel like there was so much I didn't get to teach them
+the value of teaching speaking and listening skills
+having students keep their own data from their test results causes them to really make the connection with how they did on the test. I had them graph their test percentage in a notebook. Some kids really understood what that meant in terms of how they did on the test. clutch
+teachers pay teachers is a great resource
+Annie Belle introduced me to Adventure to Fitness -- a real life saver for the snowy and rainy days with no outside recess.

++++++
year 3
year 2
year 1

June '13 classroom

Elise came to my classroom for the afternoon to help me out. She's the BEST! I say this every time, but I wish she could be my assistant every day. She's so smart and helpful. The kids love her and she's so sweet and patient. 

This countdown has been my best friend. We've been counting down since the 100th day of school. It becomes part of our daily Calendar routine to tear off a link. It didn't really start to feel exciting until 20 days left. I can't believe that we're ending another year. How can a year feel so long and so short at the same time?

Our Father's Day bulletin board. We drew a portrait of our dads and filled out a questionnaire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My good college buddy, Bethany, came into town from Arizona and asked if she could come and teach an art lesson to my 1st graders. YOU BET!!!! She teaches are to Jr. high kids and is super talented artist. I loved seeing her teach and the sunflowers turned out so cool! Bethany and I sat in the back of the classroom and chatted while the kids worked. I love Bethany, a life-long friend.

May '13 classroom

Spring crafts

Each week I print off a class set of books from readinga-z.com that is focusing on our reading lesson that week. (word families, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels etc.) They love going on a "hunt" and circling what they find. By the end of the week they've read the book about 6+ times and they can take it home on Friday. 

Mother's day portrait and questionnaire for our bulletin board

 

For art center I let the kids build cities with these wooden blocks (I borrowed from another teacher---I have GOT to get my own). They loved it and it was a compliment to our math unit covering geometry.

 

fun with shapes

I've mentioned before how happy I've been with the Dr. Jean cd I bought this year with songs for throughout the day. I've loved it. On birthdays there is a song on the cd that I play for the kids. It's the best!!! We all sing it and point to the birthday boy or girl. I had to capture the fingerpoints because I giggle every time. "Today is the birthday of somebody who, is happy and smiling and right in our room, just look all around you and tell me just who, is happy and smiling, my goodness it's YOU" and there is another verse too.

April '13 classroom

^pattern raindrops with a poem underneath about spring

^this was an art center. we've been talking about spring and blossoms on trees. super easy and a little bit hilarious seeing how they turn out.

^another spark of genius when I had a bag of airheads and decided to have them eat their airhead without talking and tape their wrapper on a paper. They wrote adjectives as they ate slowly and thoughtfully :)

^they shared in groups of same airhead colors

^they wrote 2 sentences about their airhead using adjectives (look how naaaasty their name tags are. at this point in the year I am not going to replace them. so ya, it looks trashy)

 

^my friend Wes came in to visit my class and teach them about bears, particularly polar bears. He came last year and the kids absolutely loved it. He studies bears and has spent time in Alaska doing research. Wes is really good with the students and brings in a polar bear skull, ear, tooth, claw, and heavy winter coat. SO NEAT! They loved it. Perfect timing since we've been learning about living things and parts of animals that help them survive.

March classroom '13

^^I made this little 100th day of school sign in 2 seconds flat. They hardly noticed it because it was so high up. I knew I didn't want it lower cause I would have gone crazy if I had to walk through it 50x during the day.

^^I wanted to get my kids a 100th day of school treat, but Walmart didn't have 100 Grand candy bars like I wanted. I was on the phone with my sister, Jen, and she gave me the idea to do the worm and the two life savers. The bonus being that I already had those candies at school. No money spent. 

^^Sometimes I get a stroke of genius at school and this was one of them. They had colored a pattern on this graph paper clover and cut it out and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. Then I decided to let them tape it anywhere in the room they wanted. They LOVED it. It was a good reminder that I need to let them control something occasionally.

^^We are learning about adjectives and I got the cloud and rainbow idea from pinterest. 

^^We did a writing activity where they wrote a story about how a leprechaun finds a pot of gold. Writing is hard.

 

 

 

^^How sweet are these?

 

^^Parent-Teacher conferences

^^I wore glasses for 2 days and the kids TRIPPED. They walked into school and looking at me all quizzically "you look weird"..."is it glasses day or something?"..."why are you wearing glasses?"

The next day a sweet girl wrote this on the back of her spelling test. my!

^^A snapchat I sent Teen. I love my kids and all...but guess who's on Spring Break?!!!!!!!!

February classroom '13

 

This art is a pain in the neck, but every year I forget and I do it again. They turn out so cool and it's a nice break form all the coloring they usually do for art. Once kids got it, I had them go around and help the less able ones. Pretty neat how they turnout though.

 

This was my little Valentine. I found the printable on the internet and had Egan change "friend" to "teacher." The confetti poppers were so cheap. Easy times.

I came back on track the 2nd week of February and all of a sudden it was Valentine's day. I love holidays as a teacher. It's fun with activities and art, and always plenty of things to do. I kinda hated this Valentine's day cause I didn't have the parent volunteers I needed and I really needed a mom to throw a party, so I just did glorified centers. It was too much work. I should have just let them pass out their Valentine's and eat a cookie. They would have been happy.

Saw this post it on one of my students math homework and it made me giggle. "I love you Ms. Metcalf" Come on. Melt a teacher's heart.

In other news... I got new glasses. I gave Warby Parker a try. Teen and I use snapchat app all the time and I sent her this, which is why there is a "9" in the corner. The picture text only shows for 10 seconds or less and then it disappears unless you take a screen shot.