Aw, yeah!! It's finally THANKSGIVING BREAK! I always feel a little guilty saying this. I truly LOVE teaching and seeing my students every day! They make me laugh & just make my day.  This year has been incredibly busy as I am working on getting my National Board certification as well as holding many leadership roles at my campus & of course have a life out side of work...so I am really excited to have the TIME to get check off many things that are on my to-do list so I can remain present with my students when I get back!

When things get crazy and our emotions get the best of us it's then that we must remember what we are truly thankful for.  There are so many things to be thankful for!

Originally, I wanted to make wreaths with my students and so I made the example above and everything; but then decided that since the first graders had already done the Thankful place mats, that it was too much of the same thing.

THEN I decided that I wanted my students to think a little deeper about what they were thankful for. So, instead of making the wreaths this year (although I plan to make them next year instead of the place mats), the students made turkey bags!

Then, the students wrote about what they were thankful for and why.  They then put the thankful notes in their bags. They also had to fill out a thankful pilgrim hat for each of their table mates (they wrote their name on the backs of those hats so the recipient child would know who it was from). But instead of putting those hats in their bag, they put them in the bag of the child they wrote about!

My dream would be that the students all open the bag with their families sometime during Thanksgiving dinner and read to their families what they wrote down that they were thankful for. I just think that would be such a wonderful experience for everyone involved!

We focus a lot the last few days before the break on the different traditions that the students have when celebrating Thanksgiving.

How is it already October?? Now that the school year has gotten into the swing of things, time seems to just fly by.

One of my favorite things in the world is handwritten letters. I love the personal touch they add. From the time they took to write the letter, to getting to see their handwriting, to the stationary, the sweet words in the letter - there is so much I love about them! This year, I decided to write letters to each family in my class. I've always thought about doing this. It seems like our conferences, which are in October, don't happen until the school year has been going for a while and I really wanted a way to let the parents know how things are going before then. 

I wasn't sure if all the effort would be that worth it in the end. For me, it was nice to reflect on each child. For the parents, they LOVED this! I got so many nice notes from the parents about how much the letters meant to them. I will definitely be doing this every year from now on! 

My absolute favorite thing from last week was our problem based learning activity that occurred in my classroom.

First thing Monday morning, one of my first graders walked in the door and said to me "I have an idea." She then shared with me how she wanted to collect stuffed animals so give to kids in Houston and the Texas coast who lost theirs due to flooding from Hurricane Harvey.  #bless

I was so on-board with making this 6 year old's sweet idea come to fruition. After she shared her idea with the class & told them what had happened in those areas last weekend, all of the students wanted to do something - even expanding her original idea to include food, clothes, & other necessities! 

I was truly amazed by what I was seeing naturally unfold before my eyes. As I stood there I watched twenty 6 year olds hear about a problem, talk with each other about how they can help, come up with quick questions they had for me, and then jump to the next step of what to do to help. During the whole project I was simply the scriber for the class. 

Here is how the project unfolded:

A student shared her idea & what had happened in parts of Texas and other students said they wanted to help too.


The students commented that they didn't know anyone specifically in Houston.


I shared with them that there are some organizations like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. that help raise money & donations for people in need.  As a class we researched the different sites to see what kind of items they accepted. 

We talked about needs vs wants. Which is why certain organizations ask for certain types of items.


The class wrote an e-mail asking for permission to do this type of project.


Behind the scenes: I found out some logistical things to make this happen. There was already a project that had been started by our PTA to collect the necessities for Hurricane Harvey flood victims for the week so I asked if we could partner with them. Then I kept calling groups to see who could benefit from stuffed animals since it was a unique item that most organizations don't accept. 


Side note: One of my family friends was helping me in calling organizations. When she called the Red Cross & told them about the project my students had come up the Red Cross volunteer said she was so sorry she couldn't take the items but wanted to help the students so she proceeded to pray on the phone that the idea the sweet students had would come to fruition to help comfort those children in need. So incredibly kind.


They got a letter back (I cannot tell you how exciting this was for them!)
To partner with our PTA, the students spoke on the morning announcements telling the campus about the collection each morning this week.


Some more behind the scenes happenings: I found out the stuffed animals had to be new. I didn't want to burden parents with having to go do "another errand" or feeling like they had to do something at all. So I wrote an e-mail to the parents telling them about this project & how it came to be. The responses I received were amazing! The parents loved this and really wanted to help make it happen. So I told them that if they wanted their child to participate, we could all do a trip to the local toy store and purchase some stuffed animals. They were so generous & all wanted to participate. 


While the students were purchasing their stuffed animals, they had to decide if they wanted to buy several smaller ones to help comfort more kids or one bigger one, they learned about "change" and why they get money back after making a purchase, they commented about how "warm & fuzzy" they felt after buying the animal & putting it in a bag for animals to give to children. As a class, they collected FIFTY animals give help comfort other children! 


While my end goal was for the children to take a trip to a shelter to  help pass out the stuffed animals, I learned that the shelters prefer to not have a ton of random people showing up with stuff and that it is actually more helpful to give items to a specific organization to sort everything & deliver. I'm so thankful that Austin Disaster Relief was able to take the stuffed animals and pass them out to children at the shelters to comfort them.  

It was such an amazing project and I cannot get over how impressed I am with this class! What sweet first graders to come up with these ideas totally on their own, think of what needs to happen for their idea to occur, and then work to make it happen! 

With this group of first graders as our future, I know we are in good hands!

My sister surprised me & came to visit! 

Ahead of the Hurricane Harvey my sister decided to leave and come home. So she surprised me at my school! This was such a fun surprise & I am so happy she came!! Every year she makes a point to stop by, meet my group of firsties, & pretend she is the teacher for a minute by reading them a story. 

My other favorite was reading more of our Forever Books. On the first day of school, I share my forever book with my students and then they are given homework to bring theirs. The students then share why it's their favorite and we read it to the class. I also love it because I always learn about new books that the kids bring in.

Just Like Me!

During our morning meeting this morning, I LOVED our morning meeting activity. Some background: Yesterday, we made mini-versions of ourselves and learned that no 2 people are alike and that our differences make each of us special! So this morning during our meeting, I had the students go around in a circle and share something that made them special. For example: I have 1 sister. Then everyone who that statement was true for too would sit up, point to themselves, & say "Just Like Me!" Literally, such a sweet way to start the morning! 

My next favorite were these scientists we made. I always wish my science lessons had a craft to go with it to work on those fine motor skills.  Well after reading about sweet Ada Twist, we talked about what a scientist does. The students then made themselves as scientists and wrote a wondering they have. 

DISASTER MASTER

So after lunch, the students came into the classroom to a HUGE disaster. Tables were flipped over, books were knocked out everywhere, papers were just thrown about, all of our math materials were dumped over, etc. We soon discovered that our class mascot Stripes, had had some fun while we were at lunch.

We decided we needed to make some classroom agreements so that everyone would know what the expectations were and we wouldn't have this happen again.  The students were more than happy to do this as they did not want to pick up another mess left by Stripes, or anyone else for that matter. They even signed their names at the bottom of the agreement to make sure of it ;)  

Bonus: At some point today, one of my firsties raised his hand several times & asked several questions in a row. After asking them he commented loudly to himself "I sure ask a lot of questions." #selfawareness #bless

This might be one of my favorite years so far. I have LOVED how this school year has started and am super excited about the year to come!! 

Having such a great start to the year is definitely a group effort. A well prepared teacher, grateful parents, and responsive students are the keys to a spectacular year! Having such wonderful parents & students to engage with every day really makes me so even more thankful & excited to get to work with them for the next year! 

Starting this year with such a grateful heart makes me want to reflect on my favorite things from each day. 

My mom sending me flowers. This is a sweet tradition she does every year and every year I get so excited knowing they will come! 

Having one of my amazing teammates tell me about this adorable book at lunch and then reading it to my students right before we went to go look at the eclipse. Of course, we talked about what the eclipse really is & the students totally understood it - they were even able to show off to their parents what the words "umbra" & "punumbra" mean. What was adorable was when they all looked at the solar eclipse with their glasses on, they all said "Wow! It does look like something ate it!!" Is that the cutest thing or what?! 

Oh & having one of my sweet new firsties comment that he definitely did not think he was responsible enough to be able to be trusted to wear the glasses on his own. This was after he heard what can happen if the glasses were not worn correctly. Sweet thing. Having a student understand the idea of risk/reward on the first day of school makes me a grateful teacher! 

Having the students work on these puzzles. It really allowed for the 1st day to be very chill and let them have something sweet to take home at the end of the day to remember their 1st day by. 

Here's to 4 more posts this weekend because I just came up with the daily favorites idea...

This year we made snowman magnets as gifts from the students to their parents for the holidays.  This activity only took about 10-15 minutes and they all ended up super cute!! The students all decorated them their own way and then put a picture of themselves where the purple frame is on my example.

I've been searching for the best Holiday gift and I think this is one that I will repeat for ages!! 

Building a sense of community is one of the most important things to do in the classroom.  It is such a focal point at the beginning of the year and I feel like it needs to continue through the rest of the year too.  

Letting students share about themselves and learn about others is one of the best ways to do this! 

Each Wednesday morning after the announcements (starting about the 3rd week of school) we have an All About Me presentation.  I remember having All About Me presentations growing up and loving them so I wanted to make sure to incorporate them into my classroom as a teacher.

Each child has a week assigned to them.  The students LOVE this time! The presentation lasts about 5-15 minutes and during this time the student's family members come and watch the student tell the class about themselves - from what their favorite food it to what their favorite color is to their favorite sports team to introducing the class to their family members, etc.  The student creates a poster at home with all of these favorites on them and the students use this poster to guide his/her presentation.

After this presentation, the class creates a book for the student. The book consists of a page (or more) from each classmate about what he/she learned about the week's presenter.  The students love writing all about their classmate! 

 It is also great because it is a time the students are often using common words like "like," "favorite," "color," "is," & "has."

After we finish the book, I read it to the class.

You can grab this freebie here.

Happy Sunday!

Is it just me or do these weekends FLY by??

Every Monday my First Graders always come in with so much that they want to tell me about theiir weekend! Between students wanting to share and parents telling me things about heweek, I often found Monday mornings a bit overwhelming. 

I wanted to be sure to have a chance to listen to what my first graders had to tell me in a way where there wasn't a line first thing Monday morning...

This is my FAVORITE way to kick off the week with my group of Firsties...

I just love this time when my students practice writing about what they did over the weekend and my first graders love being able to share after writing what it is that they did.  

Here is how it works: when the students come in on Monday morning, they spend the first 15-20 minutes (with morning announcements at some point during that time) writing in their "Weekend News Journal" all about their weekend! Then, all of the students come to the carpet and we take turns sharing what they each did during the weekend. 

Tip: I have the students write the date at the top of the paper to help with organization.

Here's to a great week! 

Q: Why do seagulls fly over the sea?

A: Because if they flew over the bay, they would be called bagels!

{Who doesn't love a good cheesy joke?}

I decided to incorporate a Classic Joke Tuesday into my classroom (based off of Ellen Degeneres' Classic Joke Wednesday) and the students LOVE it!

Each Tuesday morning I write a joke (with many grammatical mistakes) on the board.  During the morning meeting, we work as a class to correct the joke.  Once the joke it written on the board correctly, it stays there until the end of the day (rewritten in a small corner so it doesn't take up too much space).  

Before they leave for the day, we take a few minutes to guess what it could be and then I share with them the answer.  

Today was a day my firsties have been waiting for since the first week of school - Reading Buddies!! Finally we got to meet our 4th grade reading buddies! Both the 4th graders & 1st graders have been begging to meet their buddies so it was a happy day for all. 

In the past, my first graders meet with their reading buddies every other week.  However, this year schedules were hard so we are meeting once a month.  

If you have never done reading buddies before I would HIGHLY encourage you to reach out to another teacher at your school!! Not only do reading buddies promote a love for reading & practice read aloud skills, it also fosters an amazing community and helps bring the students of all grade levels, and school as a whole together! In fact, today one of my firsties was a little sad because his reading buddy from Kinder was in the class and he didn't get paired with him.  When he realized that he could still go up to his old buddy and say "Hi, it is nice to see you! How are you?" AND he could now get the opportunity to meet another person - he was so excited! Learning the social skill of being able to interact with people who you may not have seen in a while is so important!  

Today for our 1st reading buddies day, we made miniature versions of ourselves.  Since I have only taught 1st I was a little nervous that the 4th graders would finish super quickly or not be into the activity - they were SO excited! It even worked out perfectly because some of them had to make 2 (more 1st graders than 4th graders = some 4th graders having 2 buddies)  in the  (something that both the 1st graders & 4th graders really enjoyed!!). Thank goodness ;)

...I've got my sister, mom, dad, and me!

Not the right lyrics? Well, they work for this post ;)

Today we learned about families.

We started out by reading this precious book...

Then we talked about what a relative is and what families are.  We discovered that a family is a group of people that come together because of a common bond and family is made up of people who love and care for you.  

The students then shared with each other what their family looks like.  This was such a fun activity! We loved seeing all the different families - some with just immediate families, some including cousins, adopted families, etc! 

When my teammate did this, she had the students write "_____'s family" rather than "my family."  I am definitely going to do that next year.