In Defense of Morning Work

Funny how the educational pendulum swings, isn't it?  Years ago, I started my kindergarten mornings with what I called free choice time.  Students were able to come into the classroom and coose an activity that helped them ease their way into the day.

                          

Fast forward to a few years ago, and morning work, or bell ringers, were all the rage.  Students came in, got settled, and jumped right into work, reviewing and practicing previously taught skills.

Now, it's all about morning tubs.  Essentially free choice time again, but in a more controlled manner.  Instead of building with big blocks or building puzzles or choosing to free draw or free playing with smaller blocks and cars or legos, students can choose a tub that interests them and explore the materials in the tub.

                                                                               

Are you a morning work person or a morning tub person?  Does it have to be either / or?

Is it possible to be an "and," as in I'm a morning tub AND a morning work person?

Why yes, it is!

Here's how I schedule it:

7:30 -7:55  Morning Tubs

7:55-8:05  Morning Prayers and Announcements

8:05-8:20  Morning Work

I created my morning work to go with reading series I used at the time, which was the Journey's reading series.  Since then, our reading series has changed to Wonders, but the skills, although presented in a slightly different order, are still the same.  So my same morning work still supports my reading series.  Sometimes it's a review, sometimes it's an introduction, and sometimes it's a practice of skill we've covered.  It includes a sentence fix up section, a phonics fix up section, a math section, and basic facts practice section, and a writing section.  I really feel like practicing these skills every day helps my children master them.

                                                                                                                                                            
We begin by completing the sections together for the first few weeks we use them to provide scaffolding in how to complete the work.  Slowly, I pull back on the support.  For the next few months, I will put the sentence correction on the SMARTboard for the students to copy, and I provide a framework to answer the journal prompt on the SMARTboard.

By the beginning of the second semester, I am only providing them clues as to what needs corrected in the sentences by using proofreading marks in red and giving them the introductory sentence to the journal prompt.  At first, they have to write one more sentence.  Then two more sentences.  Then two sentences and conclusion by the end of the year.

This provides me with valuable time because as the children are completing their work independently, I pull a few kids back to me for progress monitoring.

Most importantly, we check the morning work together.  I feel that this is so important for learning.  If I check them and hand them back, the children look at the corrected work, but what does it really mean to them?  But if they have to make corrections as they check their own work, that helps them understand their mistakes!
                             

You can find a free sample of my morning work booklet by clicking the picture below.

Click the picture for a free sample of Morning Work Week 1

So don't give up on this valuable learning tool. Make it intentional to support the learning objectives in your classroom. Find ways to incorporate it into your learning day. Maybe as homework.  Maybe as seatwork during small group time.  Or maybe, like me, as part of your morning routine.

Take Your Students on a Reading Journey!

It's #ThankfulThursday! and have I got a deal for you!  Take your students on a reading journey this year with my supplemental skills workbook series.  Here's a quick overview of my series.

For my deal today, I am putting both my 1st semester bundle on sale for 50% off!  The feedback on these resources is excellent.  Teachers love them for the time saving and student engaging aspects of them.  Kids love them because they are fun and just challenging enough to keep them moving forward in the reading curriculum.
                                      

You can go to www.shoppracticemakesperfect.org to find these and other great reading resources, or click on either cover above to go straight to that resource.

Be sure to search #ThankfulThursday on www.teacherspayteachers.com to see other great bundle deals!

Back-to-School with Anchor Charts for the Artistically Challenged

Recently, I was putting together a nouns grammar resource, and I wanted to include some kind of anchor chart because I see all the beautiful ones on Pinterest all. the. time.  But whenever I try to actually draw one, it's a dismal failure.  The one I actually did make for nouns was really not helpful because the kids really had no idea what I drew.  Being the beginning of first grade, adding a label was not helpful for every child because not every child could read the label.

 

 

So, in the noun resource, I decided to include all the pieces necessary to construct an anchor chart with the children.  It is super simple to do.  First, print out the pieces, cut them out, and have them ready for the  lesson.  Then, gather the children around the chart paper.  Tell them today you are going to answer this question (glue on the question "What is a noun?"  Read the question to the children, then read it together.  As you say "A noun is a word that names..." glue on that phrase.  Then add the just the words in four spaces under the beginning phrase.  Be sure to leave space to glue the two pictures to the chart.  So you will glue on "a person", "a place," "an animal," "a thing" in different places on the chart.

Then you display the pictures of the nouns.  Have the children name each picture, then let them take turns putting the pictures under the correct definition of a noun.  When it is finished, it will looks something like this.

Please excuse the poor printing.  My inkjet printer was having "nearly out of ink" issues at the  time that I printed this out.

So, now you have built an attractive anchor chart with recognizable pictures that you will be proud to display in your classroom for your students to use as a reference.  Your children have gone through the process of building the chart with you, and they even had a chance to interact with the building of it, so hopefully the meaning of noun will be embedded for life so when they go to 2d grade, they don't give the 2d grade teacher the "deer in the headlights" look when she asks, "What is a noun?"  Instead, every hand will shoot up, and the 2d grade teacher will say, "Wow, your first grade teacher did a FANTASTIC job teaching you about nouns!"

Since the idea of an anchor chart is something you want to build with the kids each year, there are two ways to approach this.  You can either A.  Print out the pieces each year and build a new chart, or B. laminate the chart paper first, then add Velcro to the laminated chart and the back of the pieces.  That way you can remove the pieces and redo the chart each year.  Oh, I thought of C as well.  You could use foam board, add the Velcro, and make the chart on the foam board.  Which actually would be an awesome idea for me because then I could lean them against my walls since we're not allowed to hang anything on the new paint. (insert frowny face here).

Anyway, if you would like to try this anchor chart for yourself, you can click on the finished anchor chart picture below and download the pieces to experiment with over the summer.

If you'd like to check out the larger Noun package that this came from, it's available in my TpT store.  Just click the preview below to get there, and be sure to download the free sample in my preview!

So there you have it!  I hope you find this idea useful.  I'm sure I'll be creating many more of these Anchor Charts for the Artistically Challenged, so keep your eyes open for them!

Have a great day!

Launching Off with Educents!

Have you heard the news!?  Educents is opening their MARKETPLACE!  What does that mean?  That means that besides the already AMAZING deals they offer on a daily basis, you can now purchase items from sellers stores, also on a daily basis!  WHAT!?  That’s right!  Over 500 sellers have already created stores in the Educents Marketplace, so you are sure to find some money-saving deals anytime you need them!

To LAUNCH the whole thing, several of the sellers are joining in to bring you a sneak peek at a FREE product offered in their new sale, as well as hosting a giveaway for $50 worth of Educents Credits.  You can buy a LOT of educational materials with that kind of money!  And, there are several groups of bloggers who are joining the LAUNCH, which means multiple ways to enter.

Here is a little information about my FREEBIE.   It is one of my favorite items that I use every year to help my firsties master short vowel sound

                 

click the picture above to find my freebie in my Educents shop!

I love these five short little stories that tell stories incorporating the sounds of the short vowels.  I laminated them and hung them by my reading table for the kids to use as a quick and easy reference when trying to remember which vowel has which sound.

I also have this great freebie available in my store

This one is a free resource!

It's a sample of a much larger companion pack I made to go along with my Short Vowel Stories.  There are games, interactive notebook pages, flip-flap booklets, and so much more in here to go along with each vowel to help your students master the sounds!

And, of course, I have the complete Learning the Short Vowels bundled resource available in my Educents store as well!

This one is not a free resource!

Leave a comment below for a chance to win the paid resource "Short Vowel Stories Companion Pack Bundle:  Learning the Short Vowels"!  Let me know what the best thing YOU have found on Educents has been (past or present!).

Be  sure to enter for your chance to win $50 in Educents credits!

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #6 - First Grade Stores

And finally, be sure to follow the blog hop around the circle to visit other great Educents shops and claim your freebies!  Next up is Mrs.  Thompson's Treasures.  Click on the picture below to get to her blog.  If you get lost, look for the Link Up at the bottom of the page to get to the next blog and the next freebie!

                                             

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a great day!

Easing into the New Year!

I hope your Christmas was filled with as much love and laughter as ours was.  We were blessed to have our son and his wife home with us again this Christmas from North Carolina, and we ate way too much, drank way too much, and spent a whole lot of time laughing at the antics of the two newest members of our family, this precious baby boy, my great nephew,

And this little bundle of furry energy, my first grand-doggy!

But, alas, all too soon, it will be time to think about going back to school after the New Year.  So my bloggy friends put their heads together and came up with a way to make it just a bit less painful for you all to head back to school.

What?  No or low-prep freebies to start January off right?  Sound great to me! Hop around to grab the no/low prep freebies, and then enter to win an Amazon gift card at the end of the hop!

I am stop 17!

Here's my NO prep freebie to use your first week back!

click the picture to download the crown

This fun crown is great addition to anything you are doing to celebrate the New Year in your classroom.  Writing about resolutions?  Wear the crown.  Doing New Year's Math?  Wear the crown.  Reading about New Year's celebrations around the world?  Wear the crown.  You get the idea. 

And, it just so happens, this crown is part of my much larger resource, 

If you click here, you can see a GIF that shows you the contents of this resource!

This awesome resource can easily take you through your first day back to school.  It includes reading and writing activities, a CVC and CVCe phonics scoot game, two math activities, a PDF or PowerPoint version of a short informational text about New Year's celebrations around the world, and a follow up staggered booklet to make based on the informational text.  Lots of good stuff in here, and it will be on sale for 20% off the regular $5.00 price for the duration of this blog hop!

Now hop on over to the next stop and enter the Rafflecopter on The Teaching Tribune for an $80 gift card to Amazon.com by clicking the button below!

Just click on me to go to The Teaching Tribune and enter the Rafflecopter.  If you need to continue the hop, you can continue from The Teaching Tribune!

Enjoy the hop, and I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

October Already?

Wow, I can't believe it's October already!  Today sure feels like fall in our neck of the woods.  After a beautiful week of lows in the high 50s and highs in the mid '70s (perfect weather in my book), a cold front came through while we were at the pumpkin festival, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 10 minutes!  We had sleet!!  And now it's 42 degrees.  BUT on the plus side, I've got chicken soup on the stove and the fireplace going.  For everything there is a season, right?

So, how's your school year going so far?  I'm thrilled to say that I have the sweetest group of first graders this year.  They're not perfect, but they are bright and cute and inquisitive and eager for school, and I love going to work every morning.  The days are flying by with this group.  That makes me happy because believe me, there have been years when the opposite was true!

We've been really focusing on the short vowels this first quarter, and most of my kiddos are doing really well with sounding out and blending words.  I created these awesome short vowels resources to use with them each week, and it really helped.

                                     

We created short vowel interactive notebooks for each short vowel sound using  a lot of these resources.  I tried to make the activities engaging and fun, from making short vowel crowns to playing games in small groups with the kiddos who need extra support with applying the sounds.

I'm pretty excited about these resources, and I think they are a must have if you are teaching short vowel sounds to your students.  For tomorrow only, Sunday, October 5, all day, I am putting the bundle of these products on sale for 10% off.  It would be $15 to buy all five resources separately.  I have bundled them for $12.  But tomorrow only, you will be able to buy the resources for only $10.80, and you can choose one of my two newest resources, Word Sorting Mats set 1 or Word Sorting Mats set 2, to receive completely free!

Click on the picture above and to view my Learning the Short Vowels bundle up close.  You can also sample some of the resources by clicking on the picture below.

If you'd like to see other great deals, visit All Things Apple in Second by clicking on the picture below.