Smaller Calendar Pieces

Hi there...I had a request to make the calendar pieces smaller for pocket charts that won't accommodate this size. I had the same problem so here is a smaller set for those of us who need them :-) Happy November!!!

November Calendar Pieces

Get your copy of November Calendar Pieces here...the pattern is cornucopia, boy, girl, cornucopia, boy, girl.

100+ FOLLOWERS TPT SALE!

Guess What???? The number of friends following my blog has hit 100+ members soooooo it is time for a sale! Who doesn't love to shop when there is something to celebrate???? So head over to my TPT store and go shopping-everything is 10% off through tomorrow! Hurry before the sale ends!

Also-look for pumpkins coming soon!

November Calendar

Good Bye to Halloween (almost) and hello Thanksgiving! Can you believe it? Where does the time go? We are celebrating Nevada Day here in Carson City, Nevada and I am LOVING staying home for the day. I get to be mom for once and visit my kiddos at school ( they go to school in california-where we live). Anyway, I had a few minutes and thought I would post the November calendar being that it is literally right around the corner. Before ya know it is going to be Christmas-ugh! I wished we could just sllllllloooooowwww down this time of year because there are soooo many fun activities to do and we never have enough time! Oh-well...click below on the image and get your November Calendar. The one on the left is for Carson City School District (has Parent Teacher Conferences). Grab the copy on the right if you are not CCSD.

Oh My Gosh!!!!!!

I am SOOOOOOO excited-Cara over at The First Grade Parade just featured ME...MY BLOG...on her AMAZING blog! How exciting is that! She is my blog idol! Cara-Thanks a BUNCH!!! I have 51 followers now-I can hardly stand myself! I am driving my 12 year old daughter CRAZY with my excitement! Is that enough exclamation points for ya!???? Thanks again Cara-you made my day ;-)

A Unit About BATS!

I just finished and posted my new unit on BATS! It has several Thinking Maps covering both math and ELA content. Your students will have blast learning all about BATS with the activities found in this unit. Go to my TpT store and check it out. Below is little preview of what you will get when you purchase the Bat Unit.

BooMallows Graphing!

I just posted a fun graphing activity on TpT. Visit me at my store and check it out. Purchase BooMallows at Wal-Mart or Target and have some fun with sorting and graphing, and then of course, EATING! Click below and check it out at my store.

Spider Poem

I LOVE having students work with poems. There are so many things you can do with poems. Students can identify rhyming words, high frequency words, specific sounds learned, they can cut apart the poem and sequence it, then glue and add it to a poetry journal. Too many fun activities...how do you use poems?

Download a copy of the spider poem below:

sing to "I'm a Little Teapot" 

I have students read the poem several times. This helps build fluency, word recognition, identify high frequency words and rhyming words and what ever else you may think of. Then, I have them cut the poem apart, mix it up really good, sequence it, then glue it to another piece of paper. They can then add it to their poetry journal for future reading. 

Roll-a-Leaf

Finally leaves are starting to fall here in Northern Nevada - I'm not complaining or anything though! I am L.O.V.E-ing this weather! I could handle the entire winter to be like this and I wouldn't complain one bit! Anyway...here is an anchor activity for your early finishers. Give partners each a piece of scratch paper and  one die. They take turns rolling the die and can only draw the piece they roll. The first one to finish drawing the leaf is the winner. You can gear it up by giving students a set of high frequency words. They  draw a card, read it, then (only if they can read the word) roll the die and draw the part of the leaf to match the number rolled. Again, the first one to finish drawing the leaf is the winner. Grab a copy below!

SPIDER UNIT is HERE!!!!

I finished my Spider Unit!!! WooHoo! Visit my store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Johanna-Tackittfirst-Grade-F to get a copy! Thinking Maps are included in this unit plus soooo much more! See a preview below.

Common Core addition sort

Here is an activity for students to identify and sort number sentences. I am going to have students use a white board and pen to draw a picture to solve whether the number sentences are equal or not equal. This activity covers the Common Core math standard 1.OA.7: Work with addition and subtraction sentences. We are beginning with addition. Grab a copy below!

I am Now Officially a Teachers Pay Teachers SELLER!

Keep your fingers crossed...I think I am now a TPT seller...we shall see!  I will show you soon what I posted! I think you will like! And the best part...there is more to come! An entire unit using maps on spiders. Perfect for this time of year! Talk to ya soon! Check out my first activity posted ever... the best part, it is FREE! Click on ME!

Domino Math

I have been surfing the "net" (surprising I know!) and came across this great activity for writing addition story problems at Mrs. Wills Kindergarten.  So I recreated my own version to suit the needs of first graders. I have created two versions, one for your mid to high achieving students...

...and one for your students who need a little more support.

I will give each team of students a bucket of dominos to choose from. They will choose one domino and draw the dots to match it their paper. Then, students will draw a picture to match their domino/number sentence story. For example, if the domino they drew shows 5 dots and 4 dots, then the student would maybe draw and write a story about 5 dogs at the park and 4 more came. Now there are 9 dogs. I can't wait to see the stories they come up with!

October calendar

October Calendar!

Fill out the calendar with your kiddos...I use the calendars to keep track of their homework. I just star the appropriate box to show students completed their homework. If a student struggled with the page, I make  brief note in the box. The calendar is kept in their homework folders for the month and at the end of the month I replace it with the new month's calendar. 

Common Core Math Vocabulary First Quarter

Good morning! I stayed up WAY to late last night putting these together but I had to share them with you right away!  Below you will find Key Math Vocab. (Common Core) for first quarter plus a little more. Each word has a pictorial representation with it. I have a big Math Vocab. bulletin board I am going to post them on for students and myself to refer to when needed. Grab a copy!

How will you use them??? Post a comment and share your ideas with me!

Fall is here for SURE!!!

I have to say that Fall is my absolute favorite time of year! I LOVE the weather, the holidays, the apples and pumpkins...I could go on forever! So I made a bubble map to describe Fall using adjectives/adjective phrases. I started out by visiting SMART Exchange and found a great presentation about Fall. You must check it out!

Then we brainstormed adjectives together to describe Fall. When we were finished, students were ready to complete the bubble map on their own. 

Students get one group of words with pictures to place on their bubble map. The bubble map uses the words "has" and "is" to connect the detail with the main idea. Students need to study each word and decide which connecting verb makes sense with each detail. For example, "Fall has colorful leaves."

Here is the adjectives/adjective phrases each student will need to cut out to complete their bubble map.

Below is the bubble map for students to glue the adjectives/adjective phrases to and then read.

Once students have completed the map, I have them read their map at least 5 times. They can partner read or read to themselves to build fluency. After reading, I have student glue their maps into their science journal and write three sentences. This is when you can really differentiate their work by doing a mini lesson with the students with are ready to write compound sentences, tell-me-more sentences, or simple sentences. 

Because they have glued their bubble map into their science journal and they are familiar with the text, this becomes something they can read during extra time. And they really do love to revisit this fun stuff! Click here to get your own copies of the activity above!

I am a Scientist!!!

Finally we finished our " I am a Scientist" story and it is now up on our bulletin board. Take a look below...pretty cute huh! They were soooo excited to see their work posted! Now we are on to apple writing. Common Core standards (W.1.2.) expects first grade students to write informative/explanatory texts. Because we are a Thinking Maps/Write From the Beginning, all three types of writing Common Core expects first graders to master will work perfectly with both Thinking Maps and Write From the Beginning. Our first graders are well on their way to becoming fabulous little writers!

Again, thanks Cara for your great idea-we had a BLAST!