Comparing Numbers... Common Core Style

Hello, Hello! Does anyone have that awful cold going around? You know, the one that never wants to go away... well the frugal girls can't seem to kick it. We're two weeks in and it's still sticking around. The worse thing about colds is that even though you're not too sick to work and do everyday things, everything is a little less fun when you're feeling under the weather. Speaking of weather, Brittany just did an adorable activity with our weather unit last week. I'll remind her to post it tomorrow! It's a group learning map about EXTREME STORMS. The kids loved it and my class couldn't wait to do it after seeing the posters her class made. She's so creative!

We're first year common core teachers and somedays we've found implementing the new standards to be very fun and exciting. However, due to our lack of resources we find most days to be challenging and we can't help but feel our students are missing big parts because we're all learning this together. One example of this struggle is our comparing numbers unit. The greater gator has always been one of the easiest concepts for our first graders. Sadly, this year they are struggling because common core asks for more (I need a shirt that says this, please)! Anyway, our county-wide assessments eww would like our students to compare equations with whole numbers. Since we were unable to find many activities that helped with this new standard online, well we did what any teacher/blogger would do and made our own! Hope all those teachers tackling the common core standards find this freebie to be helpful!


Enjoy!

Click HERE to download freebie!

Superbowl Sunday Funday

Happy Super Bowl Sunday frugal friends!!! I hope you are all prepared to watch the Ravens and the 49ners battle it out NOLA style!!! I wish both teams the best, but I must confess that I'm a PATRIOTS FAN all the way!!! GO PATS!!!  Well, since we're being honest here, I'd much rather watch college football any day over the pros.  I'm a true Gator at heart... goooo GATORS!!!  This is probably the only thing Melissa and I have ever disagreed on... that's right, she is NOT A GATOR FAN!!! hahaha  Oh well, gator fan or not, I still love her!!!  Matt and I have plans to relax at home and watch the game... nothing exciting this year! We are going to make some yummy (aka fattening) "superbowl food" later this evening.  I love any excuse to grub out!  I decided to quickly post some pics of my classroom before we (meaning Matt) started cooking. 

As mentioned in a previous post, I just got my very own fancy-smancy SMARTBOARD a couple weeks ago and I couldn't be more thrilled about it!  Buuuuut... this also meant that I would have to flip around my room to adjust where I did my whole group lessons.  Below is a picture of my word wall (framed in Christmas lights) and my math, science, and social studies focus wall.  Here is where I post my key vocabulary for each of these subjects and our essential questions.  Below my word wall I have my Whole Brain Teaching Rules that I snagged from Stephanie over at 3rdGradeThoughts (so cute and even better... they're FREE!)

 

Here's my behavior system I use in my class.  This clip system is used by soooo many teachers and I love it because students have the ability to move up and down throughout the day based on the choices they make.  I modified my to fit my FROG theme so...

PINK = Role model of the pond

 PURPLE = Frog-tastic behavior

 BLUE = Toad-ily good behavior

 GREEN = Leap into Learning

YELLOW = Splish, splash, slow down!

ORANGE = Don't be a bully frog!

  RED = Out of the pond! 

This is the first year I've used a system like this and it is working great!

 

Here's a quick look at my Book Nook!  I got those adorable reading genre posters from C L Hillard.  The "parts of a book" poster is from Linda McCardle over at A Teacher's Touch.  I sent mine through the poster maker at my school to make it bigger!  Comfy and cozy... the perfect place to curl up with a good book!  

 

Here's a glimpse at some of our anchor charts that we've made so far this year!  These are all inspired by things I've seen on blogs and Pinterest!  Thank God for Pinterest!  It's such a valuable resource... not only for our classrooms but did I mention we're planning 2 WEDDINGS!!!

Here's a shot of my listening center.  I took a normal rectangular table and removed the legs so that the students can sit or sprawl out on the floor and listen to a good book!  Above it is my CAFE board.  Melissa and I are slowly (but surely) integrating CAFE and daily 5 into our classrooms.  It's a work in progress, but we L-O-V-E how it's going so far!  We are continuously scouring different blogs and websites to get ideas on how we can become better at incorporating CAFE and the daily 5 into our classrooms. 

I like to think of my class as a colorful yet comfy and cozy learning environment!  After all, I DO spend a majority of my time here, so it's important it works for me!  And there you have it frugal followers... a quick glimpse of Ms. Peterson's pad!  Now, let the games begin!  I'm ready for a relaxing Superbowl Sunday Funday with the future Mr.!  He wants to watch some football and I can't wait for the commercials!  Hope you all have a Marvelous Monday!

Long U Robots!

Hey blogger buddies, we hope you are all having a fantastic week!  This is our first full, five day week in what seems like FOREVER!  Since we've been back from Christmas break we've had trainings, teacher work days, half days, and holidays galore!  So, as you can imagine, it's been a VERY LONG WEEK!  TGI almost F!  Melissa totally made my morning by swinging through Dunkins on her way to work.  Me without coffee... well, lets just hope we never have to experience that! haha I am totally okay with fully admitting I need a cup-o-joe to jumpstart my morning... and a large French Vanilla iced coffee with milk only is what I like to call... a little cup of heaven!

  
Melissa and I have been busy, busy, busy trying to teach our kids the dreaded LONG U spelling pattern this week! UGH!  I don't know if y'all would agree, but I find that long u takes my kiddos a little longer to grasp than most long vowel patterns.  I'm guessing it's because long u can make two sounds... it can say its name, "U", and it can also sound like a double o as in spoon!  TRICKY TRICKY!  Thus, it required a little extra creativity on our part to make this spelling pattern sink in!  I'm not sure if we've mentioned it before but we use Treasures as a reading series in our county... well, that is until the beginning of next year, when we will adopt a new reading series (inserted excited face here) that is more aligned to common core.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Treasures!  Marion County adopted Treasures my first year teaching (awww) and I am FAR from a "by-the-book" kind of teacher, but I definitely like some of the stories used in Treasures and I also really like the phonics pattern/sequence it follows.  I am slightly sad to see it go, but I'm super excited to see what the new reading series will have to offer and I can't wait to see what Melissa and I come up with as far as activities and games to fit with our stories and phonics patterns!  You can be sure we'll keep you all posted!

Here's a little something we came up with to go along with our main selection "June Robot Cleans Up".    It's a story about a little robot named June who likes to make new creations with old junk!  The story ties in with the whole recycling theme and the kids really love it!  We found these adorable little robot gift bags at TARGET last year in the dollar section!  Aren't they cUUUUUUUte?  (emphasis on the long u)  If you look close, you can see one bag is labeled "Long U" and the other one is labeled "Short U". 

As you can see, students take turns reading the words on the adorable little robot cards.  Then the group gives them a "thumbs-up" if they read the word correctly.  The students decide if they hear a long u or a short u in the word and place it in the appropriate bag.  The kids really love this sorting activity (I think it's because of the awesome bags!!! haha)  I usually introduce this activity at my teacher table during centers and then use it again as an independent activity in my word work center the following week.  It's really helping them distinguish between the long and short u sound!

 

 

Tomorrow is Friday and it's also the 100th day of school!!!  80 days and counting!!! YA BUDDY!!!  It's going to be such a fun day!  Earlier in the week we sent home letter to encourage students to dress as if they were 100 years old!  I can't wait to see them!  You can be sure we'll post pictures of all our 100th day activities!  Until tomorrow frugal followers!!!   

 

 

100th Day!

Goodness gracious! Where, oh where has the time gone??? Can you believe we've already been through more than half the school year already? In our classrooms, the 100th day of school is celebrated in a B-I-G way! We started Erica Bohrer's tradition last year and had our students dress up like they were 100 years old! If you haven't done it yet... DO IT!  It's hilarious and SO MUCH FUN! One bit of advice from some rookies though, check the school calendar because picture day is only twice a year and happens to be very close to the 100th day of school. Let's just say some of our first graders looked VERY mature in their pics last year! haha!

This year we plan on doing the same thing and continuing with the tradition. We don't have many original things planned because we have already found so many great things online! We made shirts of course (In case you were unaware, we are slightly obsessed with matching school shirts)! Below you can find our parent letter. Please feel free to download and enjoy the 100th day with your kiddos!!!

100th Day Letter

Thank you  Surfin through Second for the adorable boarder! We love it! 

Double up!!!

Hi sweet friends! We wanted to give you a quick little freebie that might help your students master doubles +1. We made this little activity to help our first graders understand the concept of "doubles plus one" by first figuring out the answer to the doubles fact and then adding one more to find out the doubles +1 answer.  Hope you find this helpful!

Doubles +1 Activity 

The History of MLK Day

We weren't exactly sad to have Martin Luther King Day off from school! Especially since we spent that day finding a wedding dress for Brittany! However, we didn't want to let such an important day pass without reflecting on why we celebrate and remember such an important man in American History. Our classes joined together for a full day of Dr. King! 

The first thing we did was create a "Thinking Map" on the Smart Board. We started with our schema on Martin Luther King Jr. We used whole brain teaching to introduce "SCHEMA" earlier this year. The students use words and motions to describe what schema means. We reviewed the meaning of schema before beginning the lesson. We turn both hands out and elbows in  (as if to "what") and say "SCHEMA is something you THINK you know. It might be right it. It might be wrong. It's what you think." When they say think they move their finger toward their brain. 

Below you will see our entire thinking map. First we wrote down our schema. Every year our students think MLK is the president and/or a King. 

As we learned new facts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we added our facts to new learning. Also, we discussed the word Misconceptions. We always add 'misconceptions" to our thinking maps, however, this particular lesson seemed extra appropriate since so much of what went on during this time in history was based on a lot of misconceptions. 

Next, we watched the read aloud "Martin's Big Words."
We discussed
as a class his words meant and that by BIG
words the author is always
telling us that Martin used POWERFUL WORDS. 

We did the egg activity using a white egg
and a brown egg to discuss Martin's famous quote "
 I have a dream that my four little children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
color of their skin but by the content
of their character." 

Of course our students quickly realized
 that though the eggs were different colors on the outside,
they were the same on the inside. We were surprised by how well
they understood this concept. 

 

" I have a dream that Ms. Prussing will be
the principal of our school forever" haha

We asked our students to visualize and think about how Martin must
have felt when people treated him unfairly. 

After our speeches were finished
 writing our speeches, we practiced
reading them.

Later that day we created a "I have a dream..." list. We discussed
different dreams that were important to us and our world.
Teacher tip: make sure to explain that in this case
 the word dream is more like a hope
or a wish not something we do when we are sleeping. 

We finished off our day by doing some Kagan, HAND UP- STAND UP- PAIR UP to share our speeches with our classmates. 

It was touching to see how much the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. affected our first graders. They were all very upset by the way he was treated along with all of the other people who were treated so poorly because of the color of their skin. They all agreed that they are very glad MLK was brave and stood up for what was right. 

_________________________________________________________

One day later... 

Today we used the story of Ruby Bridges to discuss the sadness of segregation during the time Martin Luther King. We are working on the reading comprehension strategy QUESTIONING. First we wrote down the importance of asking questions before, during and after we read. Next we made a mini anchor chart of questioning phrases.

Students wrote down the question they
felt was most important to them. They
recorded their question on a post-it note. By the middle of the story
they were able to answer their question. 

After seeing only the cover of "The Story of Ruby Bridges"
 students developed
questions the had about
the story based on what they saw on the cover of the story.

Overall, the lesson went well. we did a lot of class discussion about Ruby and here bravery. We also talked about the importance of this event in history. "What if Ruby wasn't so courageous and she stopped going to school? Would things have changed?" We could have spent the next few hours learning about Ruby and other brave people in American History. But 2:05 came all too quickly today and before we knew it, our two day history lesson on segregation (thanks to whole brain teaching, our students have mastered the meaning of that word too) had to come to a close. 

The most important dress!

The frugal girls went shopping in a BIG way yesterday! Let me give you a hint... the maids took our beautiful bride-to-be, Brittany to pick out the most important dress she will ever wear! Okay, so it was more like a *total giveaway* than a little "hint"! I've never been very subtle anyway! There is no reason to start now!

So as you can imagine, we wanted to bring gown shopping to a whole new level! Being Brittany's maid-of-honor is a job I don't take lightly! I wanted her dress shopping day to be everything she had hoped for! Living in a rural city like Ocala means there are not many absolutely no places to shop! We're talking very slim pickings here! So we planned to take MLK day (No school!) to head south bound and dress shop Orlando-style to find the perfect dress!

A message to Brittany from here bridesmaids! We filled the basket with celebratory pink champagne labeled "Brittany's Bridal Bubbly!"

Yum! 

We had a "Bridal Brunch" before we hit the road. The Bridal Gown Itinerary was set on all the plates so everyone knew the schedule for the day! We followed it almost perfectly, I might add! Dinner was going to be at Cheesecake Factory at 6:00 so we made sure to eat enough brunch to hold us over all day! Plus, we bought tons of snacks for the car ride.

Our bride! She's sipping mimosa's and reading a letter from her closest friends! 

Cheers to our bride!!! 

Lots of pink!

 Table view!

The bride, her bridesmaids and her sweet flower girl, Madison!
 We are only missing one of the bridesmaids. She had to work :(
We are all enjoying our healthy brunch.
"Do you think champagne makes you bloated" quoted from our bride! Too funny! The answer must be no because she looked perfect in all of her dresses!

Each girl also got a bottle of lotion called "Diamond Dust." It said, "she has her man, she has her maids, she has her diamond... now all she needs is her DRESS!!"

It was such a perfect day! Let me tell you, Matt is one lucky guy! Brittany looked absolutely STUNNING in every single dress she tried on! She narrowed her search down to the final three!!! We need to bring Brittany's mom back with us to help with the final decision! I'm pretty confident that Brittany will say YES to the DRESS very soon!!!!

The dress will have to remain a surprise for the big day, October 20, 2013!

Stay tuned...