What Works! Teacher Appreciation Linky and Huge Giveaway

I'm so excited to join up with a group of fabulous teachers to bring you a HUGE giveaway with lots of teacher tips! 

My first teacher tip is all about words. Whenever I am teaching a new sound I use word cards with that particular sound. I put the words all over the place. I put them in the hallways, in the classroom, anywhere my kiddos will see them. 

I put up the words in the morning so they can see them. It really builds excitement for reading.  As soon as they see the words they start asking if we are going on a word hunt. When it's time, my kiddos take turns to go find a word. They bring it back to the classroom and read it to the class. 

Everyone gets a chance to find a word. We can then use the words over the next few days for various activities like word sorts and games.

My 2nd teacher secret is a highlighter. We love highlighters in first grade!!! I like to photocopy the stories that we are reading in class so they can take a copy home and practice reading. Before the story goes home we use a highlighter to highlight the sounds that we are working on. For example, if we are learning the long a sound spelled a-e then they would go through the story and highlight all of the words spelled with a-e.

My 3rd tip is a tech tip. We use the Smartboard throughout the day and sometimes it's hard for some kids to move things on the board using their finger. Another teacher had shared the idea of using a pompom to move things. It works great! The other thing that is difficult for my kiddos is writing on the smartboard. They use the markers that come with the board but their letters often are very large and/or don't come out neatly. Then it's hard for the others to read it. That's when the lightbulb went off! They could try using the pompom for writing too. It worked!!! They write the same as when they write on paper.

Now it's time for a giveaway!  Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win some fabulous prizes. Remember, the more entries you have the more chances you have to win!

Just take a look at everything you could win...One lucky reader will win this entire prize package!!!

Prize Bundle #1 Includes

Mountain Math/Language Resource of your Choice (up to $99.95)

$100 Gift Card to Teachers Pay Teachers

$50 Amazon Gift Card

Smart Class Website Designed by Flapjack Educational Resources

Pencil Sharpener by Classroom Friendly Supplies

Year-Long Writing Prompts by Mrs. D's Corner

Mentor Sentences Unit by Jivey

Dealing with Math Homework by Teacher's Clubhouse

Your Choice of Melonheadz Graphics (up to $7.00)

Growing Bundle Purposeful Problem Solving by Pawsitively Teaching

Pop Art Coloring Page for Seasons and Holidays by Art by Jenny K

Game Pack from Flap Jack Educational Resources

PLUS....$140 Gift Box of Fabulous Teacher Supplies sent to you from Amazon

We aren't finished yet....take a look at everything a second lucky winner will win!!!

Prize Bundle #2 Includes

Mountain Math/Language Resource of your Choice (up to $99.95)

$100 Gift Card to Teachers Pay Teachers

$50 Amazon Gift Card

Smart Class Website Designed by Flapjack Educational Resources

Pencil Sharpener by Classroom Friendly Supplies

Year-Long Writing Prompts by Mrs. D's Corner

Mentor Sentences Unit by Jivey

Dealing with Math Homework by Teacher's Clubhouse

Your Choice of Melonheadz Graphics (up to $7.00)

Growing Bundle Purposeful Problem Solving by Pawsitively Teaching

Pop Art InteractiveColoring Page for Seasons and Holidays by Art by Jenny K

Mega Task Card Bundle from Flap Jack Educational Resources

PLUS....$140 Gift Box of Fabulous Teacher Supplies sent to you from Amazon

Be sure to enter both rafflecopters for a better chance at winning one of these amazing prize bundles!

Enter to Win Prize Bundle #1 Here

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Enter to Win Prize Bundle #2 Here

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You won't want to miss out on all the other great secrets being shared by successful teachers!  Be sure to check out all the other great posts below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Stop Swap & Roll--A Giveaway

Hey Everyone! I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I'm traveling home from the sunny south just in time to be a part of Stop, Swap & Roll!!! A big thank you goes out to Melissa over at Jungle Learners for putting this all together. 

For this product swap I teamed up with teacher/blogger Abbey from A Teacher Mom and swapped products! She is a first grade teacher just like me! She has many great products that you can check out in her TPT's Store

She generously shared her -ng and -nk Phonics Games Pack. My kiddos love to play games and do word sorts and since we had just learned these two sounds I decided this pack would be great for review. You can pick up this packet at Abbey's TPT Store.

My kiddos are a big fan of Bingo so that was the game we played the most. It was a great way to assess whether or not they could read the -ng and -nk words.

I gave them cute little bug counters to mark their bingo card.

They worked together finding the words. 

They got so excited when they got Bingo!

Another favorite game was I Have Who Has! 

This never grows old for them. 

This packet is filled with word sorts, Bingo, I Have Who Has, Memory, and lots more. 

Plenty of options so you can use the ones that fit your students. 

Abbey has graciously agreed to give away this product! You can enter the giveaway

By using the rafflecopter below OR you can hop on over to her TPT Store and buy it now. It's

on sale all weekend for 20% off!!!

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Be sure to hop on over to Abbey's blog, A Teacher Mom, to see my -ed suffix in action with her first grade class. Abbey is also doing a giveaway and you could win my product!! You can also purchase any of my phonics products at my TPT Store, which will be on sale until April 28th!!! Click here to visit her blog and check it out!

Be sure to stop by Jungle Learners to catch up with lots of bloggers that are doing the product swap and hosting a giveaway!!

Nancy

Penguins on Parade!

I know, I know, here we are halfway through the month of April and I'm talking PENGUINS!!! Well... I have a great excuse. It is still snowing in Maine and Spring has NOT arrived! All of those snow days and 2hr delays put us behind in our read aloud of Mr. Popper's Penguins.

Don't you just love this book???  I love reading it to my students every year!

As we were reading the book we worked on our lapbook. This was my first time creating a lapbook and definitely a first time for my kiddos to make one. I wasn't sure how it would go with first graders but they did great!!! I was amazed at how they turned out!

The front

Inside

They did a fabulous job! I was amazed at how well they did. First we cut out all the pieces that they needed. We stored them in a baggie with their name on it. Then when we were ready to add the next part they could go to their baggie and get the pieces they needed to make it. They loved it and were so engaged. 

After we finished the book and the lapbook we decided to celebrate with a Penguin Day (afternoon really). Of course, we had to start by making Penguin Headbands. Oh, did they love them!  

Not sure how this one got ripped on one side. Oops!

Here are all my little penguins! Super cute, aren't they??? They had so much fun! They were a noisy group of penguins too!! lol

We even did a penguin song and dance!

Before the day was over, Mrs. Smith delivered a special package. My kiddos were so excited!! All she said was, I think I heard a noise come out of the box and my kiddos' excitement doubled! All of a sudden, they all thought they could hear noises. 

We opened the box up and this is what we found inside.

There was a stuffed penguin that we named Captain Cook.

There was a penguin math game, penguin rings, penguin stickers, penguin key chains, a penguin journal and the book If You Were a Penguin. A box filled with goodies! Each child gets to take Captain Cook home with them for 1-2 nights. They play the math game with someone in their family, read the book and then write in the journal. 

They were super excited with their new friend Captain Cook!

This is the parent note inside the front cover.  The journal had specific directions on what to do.

They had to find P  words in newspapers, magazines, or cereal boxes. Then cut them out and paste them in the journal in alphabetical order. After that, they used each p word in a sentence at the bottom of the page. I also reminded them that I would be looking for a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and punctuation at the end. 

Once they were done with that, they journaled on the other page about their adventures with Captain Cook at their house. They could take a picture with Captain Cook, if they wanted to, and paste it at the top.

If you would like any of these penguin activities CLICK HERE

We ended our Penguin Day with a special treat!

Who doesn't love a penguin cookie! 

Spring is in the Air

I wasn't sure if Spring would ever get here and I'm still not convinced that it is. Actually, we had snow  today, but thankfully it didn't last. I've joined up with some great bloggers for a Spring giveaway! I can't think of a better way to start the season.

Up to just a few days ago, my classroom was still decorated with snowman. I was starting to notice some funny looks from the other teachers suggesting it was maybe time to take the snowman down.

SO.......

THE SNOWMAN CAME DOWN

Thursday and Friday we started to transform our classroom into Spring. I LOVE Pinterest, don't you?? I started hunting for some Spring ideas that we could incorporate into what we have been learning. It was also our open house this weekend for new families to check out our school so it was time for some Spring cleaning. First, I found the cutest butterflies. We have been working on fact families in Math so I figured we could make fact family butterflies. 

They came out so cute! I love them! I decided to hang them on our door. These butterflies are a freebie by Teach it With Class and you can download them by CLICKING HERE


We needed to bring a little Spring into our classroom so I went back to Pinterest and did a little search. Sure enough, I found the cutest rainbow cloud craftivity. It was the perfect thing to brighten our room. I decided to get out the smelly markers and let them write Spring with them in "fancy" writing. They LOVE to dress up their writing a bit and when I showed them how to add dots to their letters you could here lots of oohs and aahs in the room.

It's hard to see their "fancy" writing in the pictures but they came out really well. Once everyone had time to write Spring we went to the rug and brainstormed adjectives of Spring. They came up with some great adjectives. Then I gave them strips of colored paper to write the adjectives on.

Are they adorable or what????

I hung them up on our line that goes across the classroom.











I found these great Spring Rainbow Clouds on Pinterest from Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons.
CLICK HERE   to hop on over to her blog to see what she did.


Now that Spring is in the Air it's time to get some learning done. Next week we will be reviewing long vowels and I'm excited to use my new Long Vowel Clip It Cards to play Scoot.

Do your kiddos love Scoot as much as mine do???? CLICK HERE to pick up your own copy.

Happy Spring!!!!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Time for a Giveaway!

I am joining up with Heather over at My Life at the Pencil Sharpener for a giveaway! She is hosting 5 giveaways this week with lots of great prizes. Each giveaway is worth near (or over) $100!!! Hop on over and enter as many times as you like.

                                   http://mylifeatthepencilsharpener.blogspot.com/