World Teacher Day

We hope your school year is off to a great start this fall. We know most teachers celebrate “Teacher Appreciation Week” in May, but did you know that there is also a “World Teachers’ Day” in October? 

To celebrate this special day, several of the teacher-author bloggers here at “I Teach First” have teamed up for a collaborative sale on TpT. That means that today, Monday, October 5^th you can save up to 20% in our shops. Check out the following participating shops for some great deals: 

• Nicole andEliceo
• HollieGriffith
• 1stGrade Hip Hip Hooray
• PrimaryInspiration
• First GradeSchoolhouse
• PracticeMakes Perfect
• Sparklingin Second Grade
• I Love FirstGrade
• AMC
• MeganMitchell
• 1stgradefireworks

Also, to sweeten the day, we’d like to give away a $25 gift card to a place of your choice. To enter, just fill out the rafflecopter below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy World Teachers’ Day!

The “I Teach First” Team

"Rock your Writing Center" Giveaway

 Hello! This is Megan Mitchell from First Grade Roars.  Today I'm going to share with you how I have set up my writing center using this resource.  It is filled with goodies to make writing so much fun for your students.  

Before I begin I want you to know that I use this during my rotation time.  I still do whole group writing workshop.  This is what my students use when making a choice during their writing time during Daily 5.

Let's begin with a picture of my writing center area!

There are 12 choices my students can choose from when the entire center is up and running.  We do mini lessons on each style of writing along with a lot of practice in writer's workshop.  Once I feel the students are ready to work on a new style of writing independently, I open that number in my writing center.  Below is a zoomed in picture of "Label a Picture".  This is the first thing we learn how to do in 1st grade.  You will see on the green clip a smiley face.  If it has a smiley face, it is open.  (I got these cute little chalkboard clips in the party section at Hobby Lobby, in case you were interested.)

There is also a number 1 on this chalkboard.  I have a matching number 1 on a tub below containing the paper they would use for this activity.  Here is an example of what the tubs look like up close.

 Inside each tub the children will find everything they need to complete the activities.  Here is a sneak peek into a few more tubs.

Each day many students visit this writing area.  There is a separate table where they do their writing.  

At the table there are crayons, spacers, pencils, HUGE erasers, clip boards, dictionaries and a thesaurus.  Each child has their own file folder where they keep their writing if they don't have time to finish.  Inside their file folder is also an amazing resource from Natalie's Nook!

Link to Natalie's Nook Personal Dictionary

Also I might add that on the first day of school I let the children color their file folders!  It is an easy activity that they can all do as morning work and it takes some time while I teach the children 1 table at a time how to unpack their book bags.

Also included in this writing packet is a sight word dictionary.  I have 5 of these on the table for the students to use.  

When they finish their writing they use the Editing Checklist and turn it into the Published Work Basket.  Before we begin our Daily 5 the next day we share some of our work with the class.  They love to read and share their writing.

I used this writing center last year and my first grader's loved writing.  It offered them choice and they were able to use what they learned in whole group and transfer it over to their independent work!

I would love to share 2 of these packets with some lucky winners.

Enter the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for checking use out at iTeach First! You can also visit me over at First Grade Roars

Giveaway from Mrs. Grooms' Room

Hey y’all! I am Shana Grooms from Mrs. Grooms' Room, and I have been a first grade teacher for 15 years.   It is the hardest job I have ever had and I LOVE it!  Every year is a challenge and every year I grow as a teacher and as a person.  

I am always working towards perfection...okay okay okay...maybe not perfection but I want to be good! 

I have been married for two years to the love of my life.  I swear he and I are cut from the same cloth.  We live in South Carolina and we have a sweet kitty cat named Ningy and a crazy Daisy.  She is a mix of pit bull, crazy, and sweetness and we love her silly!!   

Me and My Sweet Hubs! 

Our front yard on a hot, rainy, summer day...

 Even though I was born in Kentucky, and raised in Ohio, I have lived most of my life in South Carolina.  I LOVE South Carolina! It is absolutely where I am supposed to be.  

I love gardening, swimming, school supplies, minions, fall...the season, Diet Mountain Dew, my sweet kitty, Ruby, who is in Heaven now, anything pumpkin, and my precious husband, Jim.   I also love Netflixing…oh my word… thank goodness for Netflix.  (Do you Netflix?  What are your favorite shows?)  

I am a bit of a science nerd…my favorite animals are bats, worms, and penguins.  I love TED Talk episodes and documentaries.  I watch horror/murder/forensic shows or channels like ID and stand-up comedy.  Maybe I was profiler in a past life????  Hmmm...but I also love anything hacky, and homesteady, and I even secretly wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was little.  

If I could describe myself in three words... funny, loyal, and determined are the words I would use.  I love to tell super cheesy jokes that my students laugh at…they are my best audience!!! 

(I joined TPT two years ago and I have LOVED it from day one.  I didn't know anything but PowerPoint when I first started and I happy to say I am still learning even today.)

I am so excited to show you my latest product!!!

  I use Big Mouth with my students every year to help them remember how to use their greater than signs. If Big Mouth eats the biggest number, then the other number is the smaller number, or the number that is less than. We make a Big Mouth, and then we use it with base ten blocks and crackers.  It’s a fun way to learn this concept!  I hope you find it helpful with your students, too.

Inside you will find:

1. Anchor charts or posters:  use with your students as a visual aid.  Color and black and white versions are available.

2. Feed Big Mouth:  A game used to practice finding the number that is bigger or smaller. 

3. Printables:  Ten printables that your students can use to practice finding the number that is greater or less than the other number.

4. Vocabulary Cards:  Each made with different graphics.  Color and black and white printer friendly versions is included.

5. Eating Numbers Around the World:  Take Big Mouth around the Room to find those bigger numbers.  These task cards can also be used in an independent center.

6. Make your own Big Mouth!:  Use these cute graphics to practice eating those BIG numbers.  Print, laminate, and cut!!  Big Mouth can eat numbers, cubes, goldfish crackers…you name it!  

This guy is hungry for the bigger number!  

(Nom, nom, nom!!!)

                      Want to win a copy of Big Mouth???

        If you are interested in Big Mouth, you can just click onto the photos above to see him in my store.  

You also have a chance to win Big Mouth and a $10.00 credit at my store.   Just enter below!!!  :)

                                         Woohoo!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Happy Learning!!!!  

Summer School Learning ~ Fun, Freebies, and a Giveaway!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

If you're teaching summer school this year ... or tutoring this summer... or trying to make it to the finish line a.k.a. the last day of school {yes, I know, some of my dearest friends still have a week and a half to go!}... then read on! I've gathered together some summer-themed freebies that I know you'll have fun using with your firsties! Plus, there's a chance to win a GREAT BIG SUMMER BUNDLE!

Teaching kiddos who'd much rather be doing just about anything else than being in school demands finding resources with a different twist. You'll definitely want to move the show outdoors as often as possible. Take a look at this collection of ideas on Teaching Blog Roundup.

When it comes to reading, keep the comprehension work fun with lots of read alouds and discussion. Here's a list of some great summer alternatives for books to read to your class. As Teacher Tam says in this post, these are not my typical go-to's either, but just like those easy-on-the-brain beach books that we've all been known to pick up in the summer, there's nothing wrong with the occasional Junie B for our kiddos. They just might become the books of choice for your students' independent reading, once you've given them a taste of the fun. Speaking of independent reading, here's a great set of summer reading log freebies, also from Teacher Tam's Educational Adventures!

Have you ever taken your class outside to read? Packing up the beach towels and books and heading outside for independent reading could be a highlight of the day for some of your little summer school learners! This post has some ideas, as well as a letter to send home explaining it to families.

I love data collection, and it can be a fun and easy addition to your summer school math plans!! In addition to addressing the data and measurement standards, data collection builds math skills like comparing numbers, addition, and subtraction. But tallying and graphing also have the benefit of...

* Strengthening connections between your students as they discover preferences, experiences, etc. that they share

* Getting them up and moving. Have you ever had your students build a human graph? Write the title on your interactive board, write the category headings on 12X18 sheets of paper ( It's great brain work for your students to decide the categories! Have partners work on these, or create them together using shared writing! ), and have your students sit themselves on the floor in columns and rows to represent the data in cells.

* Being the starting point of some wonderful writing activities! Have each child put their own opinion on the topic of the graph into writing, and then defend their opinion. Model using graphing data as the basis for word problems, and then send them off to write their own word problems.


Here's a free summer data collection freebie to get you started!

And here's another graphing freebie that's sure to be a hit  (mmmm, smores!) , from
Kelli Bollman on TpT.

Need MORE? Well, here's your chance to win a big bundle of summer-themed math and literacy for first-into-second grade! I just posted it at my TpT store this week, and would love the chance to give away three copies of Summer School Stash!  Scroll down for your chance to win!

Happy Teaching!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interactive Reading & Math Journal Giveaway

I am so excited to be posting here at iTeachFirst!  A big thank you to Nicole who has worked so hard to set all of these great collaborative blogs up!      

First of all, I really want to know how other teachers manage Interactive Notebooks in their classrooms!  When do you have your students complete them (whole group or small group)?  Do you have them color during class?  How do you manage those kids who always seem to cut off the flaps?!  PLEASE leave a comment with all of your great ideas and tips!  Don't have a tip? Leave a question!  I LOVE reading the ideas of other teachers and helping other teachers!

I just added this brand new Reading Interactive packet to Teachers Pay Teachers.  This is a unit that can be used over several grade levels.  This is great for those who get moved from grade level to grade level each year... but it's also great for those of us who have a HUGE difference in levels in our current classroom.  This packet can be differentiated in so many ways.... pictures vs. words, words vs. sentences, sentences vs. paragraphs!

It's also great because you can choose to print on white paper and have the kids color OR print on colored paper.  Either way looks great.  These are printed on colored paper which look great and save time!

I also have this Interactive Math Journal Bundle which covers so many skill in the primary grades!  These are some of my time activities that are available.  There is also a bundle of ALL of my Interactive Math Activities!

I am going to offer up my Reading Interactive packet and my Time Interactive Notebook packet to 2 lucky winners!  Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1stgradefireworks GIVEAWAY

Who doesn't LOVE a giveaway???!!! 

 Hi everyone!

I am Wendy from 1stgradefireworks...

As we "wind down " the school year,

(Raise your hand if YOU are counting...I  AM!!!!!)  

6 days to go...WAHOOOOO!

We want so bad to just "let go"...

But we know, if we do, we will be like...

NO!!!!!

So ...here's a little rafflecopter 

to give you some goodies

 to get through the last weeks!

Independent  / Partner / group work to keep them busy during the last

few weeks! 

2 winners will be chosen!

ENJOY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Remember..Follow  us  and leave a comment!

GOOD LUCK!

Preventing the Summer Slide

Summer learning loss, the dreaded summer slide. If you have been teaching for any amount of time, you have either experienced students with summer learning loss with your students coming in or heard about your former students that have lost months of learning.  In fact, summer learning loss can account for more than HALF of the achievement gap from lower-higher income students because of the unequal access to summer learning opportunities. (source:www.summerlearning.org)  In a year that I looped from first grade to second, one of my students lost 8 Rigby reading levels! That is half of the year!  I wouldn't have even believed that the data from the year before was reliable if I hadn't done the testing myself!   This is not an isolated cases.  According to a John's Hopkins study,  most students lose TWO MONTHS of math learning during the summer months, regardless of income level.  The same study suggests that low income students also lose 2 or more months of reading instruction because of lack of educational activities. I don't know about you, but I want more for my students than to have to spend September and October of first graded relearning what we worked so hard to master all these months!

During the years, I have worked to come up with some strategies to help my students avoid the summer slide.

 

1.  Inform parents! 

Every year I have parents are surprised to find out exactly how much learning can be lost during the summer months!  I start in May reminding parents how important it is to keep up with reading and math.  I tell them of it in my note for my last book order, when we send home our weekly newsletters, and I send home this note the week before we get out of school.  This year I am also putting it on our school Facebook page.  #summerslide

You can download it {HERE.}

2. Provide opportunities.

For my low-income students this is important.  Some of my parents just don't have the means to provide lots of learning opportunities for their children. We send home as much as possible for our students. 

We include:

1) A First Grade review book that has a half page activity for every day.

Learn more about this {here.}

2)  A Summer Writing Journal {DOWNLOAD FOR FREE HERE}

3) Math Word Problem Journal for Summer

Learn more about this {here.}

4) Summer Information for free programs from local Library

5) Summer Information from Barnes and Noble for a free book

6) 2 sharpened pencils and a piece of sidewalk chalk

7) District Sight Word lists for 1st grade and 2nd grade

8)A stamped envelope so they can write to their teacher

 

3) Pump it up!

We do everything we can to offer incentives for our students to complete these tasks!  We talk up the folder and the incentives for bringing back the Summer Learning Packet, the Writing Journal, and The Math Journal.  Each has it's own reward and then another large reward for bringing back all three!  We offer students picks from the big treasure box for each individual activity and then tickets for our school store if they brought all three.  We have already started sharing these incentives and they are so excited!!!



And now for....

I am giving away copies of my First Grade Summer Review and Common Core Math Word Problems for Summer Fun to 2 winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Good Luck!

www.educatingwithheart.com

$100 Teacher Appreciation Giveaway!

Give me a T! Give me an E! Give me an A! Give me a C! Give me an H! Give me an E! Give me an R! What’s that spell? TEACHER! Hooray! Hooray! Teacher Appreciation Week is almost here, and just when we all need it the most! Let’s face it, the end of the year can be exhausting as it’s often filled with extra activities, events, grading … and dare I mention the never ending testing?!? With all this on our plates, no wonder we sometimes start to feel overwhelmed and underappreciated. Here at iTeachFirst, we can relate because we’re in the same shoes as you. We know that first grade teachers wear so many more hats than just their “teacher” hat, especially towards the end of the year. In fact, we wrote a silly poem about it to share with you. Here goes…

We hope our humor helped lighten your load and put a smile on your face. To show you even more appreciation, we want to continue celebrating by giving away $100 worth of gift cards to the places we love to shop at most. 

You can enter on the Rafflecopter below from April 26th to May 2nd. On Sunday, May 3rd we’ll announce and celebrate our four winners here on the blog and via email to kick off Teacher Appreciation Week! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As always, happy teaching!
The iTeach First Team