The Return of Two for Tuesday!

Hi Friends!  Throughout the summer, I am going to be joining up with my sweet friend, Chalk One Up for the Teacher, for a Two for Tuesday linky party.  I (and many other sellers) will be offering two resources for that Tuesday only at a discounted price.

Here are the two items I am offering at 50% off today.

                        Read on to find out more and see how  you can get a free sample!

This week, I am offering my newest resource, Nouns, for 50% off.

This is a great, comprehensive resource for teaching everything about nouns to first graders.  It would also make a good review for second grade.  It covers the definition of a noun, singular and plural nouns, common and proper nouns, and possessive nouns.  There are 27 interactive activities, review sheets, centers, games, and assessments to use in this unit, including a put-it-together anchor chart.  (You can learn more about that anchor chart here, and also get a free download of the pieces to make the anchor chart yourself.)

My second offering, at 50% off, is my Father's Day booklet and coupon booklet.  It makes an endearing keepsake for Dad, one that he will look back on and laugh.

Two great resources at 50% off!  Now that's a Two for Tuesday!  

If you want to see the other great resources included, just click the picture above! 

Happy Leap Day!

How exciting!  Another Leap Day is upon us!  How will you celebrate Leap Day with your students?  I have to be honest here and say I haven't given it much thought.  I've seen a few cute ideas on Pinterest, and I will probably incorporate several of these ideas into my day.    I will save you the work and share the freebies I found with you.

Here's a cute science lesson about why we need a Leap Day, along with a writing activity and craftivity to go with it.  It also includes some calendar work.

I found a fun math lesson as well as various other activities at this blog post by First Grade Parade.

Here's another packet of quick, printable activites that you can use as seat work or center activities that tie in to a Leap Day theme.

And just for fun, here's a Leap Day crown you can make with your students. Who doesn't love a crown?!

While you're here, let me tell you about our fabulous Leap Year sale.  About 30 fabulous sellers have grouped together to bring you three full days of leapfully exciting sales.  All stores will be on sale for up to 20% for the full three days.

Then each day, we will all offer a special deal, starting with $4 deals on Sunday, 2/28.

On Monday, 2/29, we all will be offering a bundle at 50% off!  What a deal that will be!

And on Tuesday, we will be offering the ever-popular $1 deals. 

You can find all these deals by clicking on each picture above on the day it is on sale.

And finally, be sure to enter our rafflecopters for a chance to win a $50 TpT giftcard at The Primary Pals.  We have 4 giftcards to give away!! 

click here to visit The Primary Pals and enter the rafflecopters.

Have a happy Leap Day, everyone!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Love Me True (or False)

I'm excited to share my resource with you today.  It's called "Love Me True," and the idea is to read an addition or subtraction problem and decide if it is true or false. If answered correctly, you get to move your marker the number of spaces written on the owl on the math fact card.   I played it with my math group on Friday, and they loved it!

The first time we played, we did it as a whole group with the girls against the boys and I was coach/judge/moderator so that I could make sure they understood how to play the game.

We gathered as a group with the board in the middle and the cards in one pile,  face down.

Pick a card and read the math problem.  Decide if it is true or false.  If it is false, tell why.

Use the number line to check and see if the person has given the correct answer.

If answered correctly, move your game piece the number of spaces on the owl on your card.  Follow any directions that are on the game board.

The game I played with my children is in black and white because I printed it out on the copier.  But the download is in full color as shown above!

The girls won the group game, and we ran out of time before we could partner up and play the game, so we are going to do that today.

I hope you enjoy this freebie, and please do come back and let me know how it worked out in your classroom!   Click on the picture below to download "Love Me True" from my TPT store.

Be sure to check the link up for other great ideas and/or freebies from the other first grade iTeach bloggers!

An InLinkz Link-up

More than Enough!

Welcome to the New Year!  I love the New Year.  It is such a clean slate, with an endless wealth of possibilities opened up.

As I reflect on the old year, I could have never predicted some of the things that happened, such as my son getting married, him buying a house, and finding out I would be a grandma.  Professionally, I never expected to start the school year with a new principal, or that we would be forced to start (and continue) the school year without our funding for new textbooks because our state STILL has not settled on a budget that was due in July!  At this rate, we will be getting the 2015 budget at the start of fiscal year 2016!

Through it all, I walk by faith that life will work out.  Age has taught me that what seems like a huge deal is really not as big as you think in the grand scheme of life.  Somehow, it all washed out even in the end.  I think I'm a much calmer person now than I was 20 years ago.  After all, been there, done that, came out the other side mostly unscathed, when repeated enough times, becomes a way of life.

Today I want to share with you my favorite poem to start the new year.  It applies in all areas of my life, professionally and privately. Those of us who have been teaching for any number of years know that education is a constantly changing game.  What seems huge this year is last year's buzzword.  Whole language learning, anyone?  How about differentiation?  Admittedly, that one is still tossed about, but not as much as it was three years ago.  Remember paradigm shift?  I sat through many a staff development related to paradigm shift several years ago.  But in the end, good teaching is good teaching, and good teachers naturally do whatever is necessary to teach their students.  We differentiate.  We look at problems from all angles.  We figure out how to assess our children so they can best move forward in their learning.  I've done it for 28 years now.  So have faith in yourself and keep doing what you're doing, because it is more than enough!

As you plan for your back to school day in January, I have two freebies (and lots of paid resources) in my store that you may like to use.  You can find them by clicking on the pictures below.

                                
                                

Check out the link up for other great ideas and resources specifically for first grade teachers! Happy New Year 2016! Happiness and joy to all of you this year.

An InLinkz Link-up

Practicing Addition Strategies through Games

Hello!  Welcome to the first iTeachFirst linkup!                         
In these monthly linkups, we will be sharing timely tips, teaching strategies, resources, and some freebies with you.  If you like what you see in this blog post, be sure to follow me (or any of the participating bloggers) and check back at the beginning of the each month for a new link up.  Today, I will be sharing some  free and paid teaching resources with you that I use during November and December to keep the children active and focused on learning math!

I spent November introducing several addition strategies to my students, such as counting on from the larger number, using a number line, using doubles, and doubles plus one.  While most of the children quickly caught on to these strategies, there were a few who struggled with them, and our math text, as is the case with so many texts these days, spent 1 day -- ONE day -- on each strategy.  I know my kiddos need more practice recognizing when to use the strategies and more practice with actually applying the strategies.

Cue the math games!  Every Friday, I pick a fun math game for my students to play that allows them to apply and practice the various strategies.

For Thanksgiving, we used my Turkey Toss game.  It's a ramped up and extra challenge added version of Bump.  The kids love playing it, and I love that they don't even realize they are practicing math strategies.

 Turkey Toss can be played on the SMARTBoard

Or, if you don't have a SMARTBoard, use the PDF version.  I like to play a few times on the SMARTBoard with the whole group, then let them team up and play using the PDF version.

After the fun of playing the game, you can use the included sheets for more practice, homework, or as a summative assessment for acquisition of basic facts.

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, and Christmas is coming, I have a similar game called Elf Toss.
Christmas Elf Toss is a fun and fast-paced Christmas math game played similar to Bump, but with a twist. There are two Elf Toss game boards for differentiated learning. The two-dice gameboard requires the children to add or subtract to place or lock their squares or bump their opponent off a square. It requires strategic thinking to figure out what is the best move.
The second game board uses three dice and is played either like the traditional Bump, or -- I just thought of this -- the children can add or subtract in any combination to get the best strategic move!

After playing the game, you can use the follow-up worksheets for practice, formative assessment, or homework!

 And, as an added bonus, this game also includes a Notebook file for SMARTBoard use!

Let's end with a longtime freebie in my store, another game I developed for practicing addition strategies, in particular the counting on to add strategy.  You can download it from my store by clicking on the cover picture.  Enjoy!

Be sure to check below to see more great ideas from other iTeachFirst bloggers!

An InLinkz Link-up

Veterans Day

Veterans Day.  More than a day off.  Veterans Day is a day to remember all those who are serving, have served, or who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.  Helping young children understand this sacrifice is not always easy.  I have put together this fabulous Veterans Day resource to help you help your little learners understand the importance of Veterans Day.  

There are so many wonderful activities for learning about Veterans Day and activities you can do within your school community and as community outreach for local Veterans.  One user shared her idea on my feedback...

"My kinders always make something special for the vets in the hospital here. Your cards and wreath project are perfect!"

Another buyer had this to say about the differentiation within the unit...

"OH WOW! This is so awesome and wonderfully differentiated for different learners and their levels! Thank you!"

Another aspect of this Veterans Day resource that I just love is the My American Hero wall display.  I send the note home with each child in first grade, and if there is a Veteran in the family, the child colors the flag and border, parents attach a picture, and we display it on our hall wall.  The kids come back with great stories about their grandfathers, uncles, fathers, brothers, cousins, and a few times we had female service members as well that their parents shared with them while completing the projects.  Every person who passes the wall stops and studies the pictures and reads about the Veterans pictured. 

I developed these notes to use when my son left for boot camp over two years ago.  I put them out at his graduation/going away party, and his friends and family all jotted notes to him on them. Throughout his time at boot camp, I sent him a note a day. 

Now, we are using the notecards in class to write messages to him and other Marines that I include in my care packages to him. He says the Marines love the messages and especially get a kick out of the pictures the kids draw on the back of the notecards.  It helps them feel connected to home, too.  And some of the Marines don't get any mail at all, so they love sharing my son's mail.

I love the thought that teachers are using these same notes to send messages to other Veterans and service members!

Have a great weekend!

What?? An iPad Air 2 Giveaway? Sign me up!!!!

Back to School Giveaway

As sad as I am to see summer coming to an end, I can't help but feel a little bit 
excited about the upcoming school year.  While it is hard and exhausting getting 
back into the groove, I do love meeting my new kiddos and getting to know a 
whole new group of children and parents.  This year we have a new principal after
17 years with the old one.  I'm a little nervous about the changes that I know will 
be coming, but I'm also excited about  the new ideas he will probably bring with
him.  This year, everything is up in the air.  Will our schedules be different?  Will we
still be doing X, Y, Z that we have done every year?  

To help you get back into the excitement of back to school, the teachers of the 
iTeach blog are giving away the fabulous prize pictured above.  It would be an 
awesome asset to any classroom!

                            

HOW TO ENTER

To enter, click on the picture above to go to the iTeach 1st blog, and fill out the
rafflecopter entry form at the end of the  post and leave a comment telling 
us why you want to win, or how you would use the iPad in your classroom. 
(I only made that big and bold because I usually don't read closely enough and 
wind up missing that step.) We are accepting entries from Sunday 8/2 through 
Saturday 8/8. A random winner will be selected and announced here via the
Rafflecopter on Sunday 8/9. Best wishes on this new school year and may the odds
be in your favor for the giveaway!

Enjoy the rest of your summer (if you have any left) !