*blows dust off blog*

Yikes! It's been awhile since I last updated this blog! I've been busy having and raising babies!

This summer calls for lots of relaxation and doing the things I love with the people I love most....but as a teacher, I can't totally get school off of my mind. Our district is adopting McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders! So far, I'm excited with what I see and with the alignment of the common core.

I have started to create materials to go with the first grade Wonders program. I plan to still use The Daily 5 as my framework, but incorporate minilessons and activities from the Wonders program. Hopefully it will be a great marriage between the two.

To start off, I have a wonderful freebie.

Connecticut PTSA is collecting snowflakes to create a "WINTER WONDERLAND" for Sandy Hook students. See the note below:

"Snowflakes for Sandy HookPlease help the students of Sandy Hook have a winter wonderland at their new school! Get Creative!!  No two snowflakes are alike. Make and send snowflakes to Connecticut PTSA, 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103, Hamden, CT  06514, by January 12, 2013. "




In conjunction with our RAK week in our classroom, this was the perfect activity to do today. We used coffee filters to make our snowflakes. Prior to cutting, we colored with blue marker on them and sprayed with water and allowed to dry. The students did wonderful! We are so happy to help bring a smile to the faces of those precious students.

Just wanted to let my fellow teachers know! Have a great rest of the week!

Linking up for Tech Tip Tuesday.....love this! My favorite thing ever is finding ways to incorporate technology into my lessons! Here are some ideas for you!

This is the theme of my door this year and I've received a ton of compliments on it! Check it out yo!

Wow, first I apologize to all 500+ followers for being MIA! Life is really busy at the moment....we are in the process of building a house so that is consuming our lives at the moment! I do have some new and exciting tech ideas to share with your for the new school year, so follow along and stay tuned!

Good news this year! I moved back into the main building! I had been out in a portable classroom for the past 2 years, and while I loved the space, I hated being out there. So to celebrate, I decided to go with a brand new classroom theme -- SEUSS!!

Student tables and cubbies

Back wall with student computers, bulletin boards for student work, and Word wall.

Carpet area and library....and SMART Board! I really wanted the library to be the "heart" of the classroom.

View from the door

Carpet area looking back at the door

My desk area

Books are organized in baskets from Dollar Tree (online)

Another view of Smart board and my CAFE Menu will be to the right of it.

Word Work area for Daily 5

Student book tubs

One of the listening stations

Small group learning area...still need a few more seat cushions!

Read to Someone area

Happiness! I loved the way my room turned out!

Every year, I have my students make a music video to Jack Johnson's 3 Rs song.....they create the ideas for the video, I produce it, and we show it during lunch to the student body. Here's last years video....be sure to check back for this year's creation and also a tutorial on how to do the "green screen" feature in iMovie!!


 Please visit MY CLASS BLOG HERE to see last year's video!

I read about The Dot Project and thought I'd try it out with my first graders. We read the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. This is an inspiring story about a student who doesn't think they can draw and ends up making great art. The students were ready to make their own art after reading this book!

Drawing on iPads would have been super fun, but we don't have any in our classroom. So we went to the computer lab and used Kid Pix to draw our very own dots. They are all unique and beautiful. The kids really enjoyed this and I'm sure we'll be doing more digital art in the future! Just another easy way to incorporate some tech into your day!