This post contains affiliate links. The other day I had a substitute and needed something fun for my kids to do during writing! Since our theme was “Pumpkins,” I whipped up this free writing paper! When I returned from my all-day meeting, I was pleasantly surprised by the creative, great work I saw! I considered…
This post contains affiliate links. Children’s books are one of my favorite things to add to my first grade classroom! I try to create an atmosphere where I’m always excited about the new books being added to our class library– I use bonus points to buy books from Scholastic each month, and I am always…
This post contains affiliate links. Halloween is right around the corner, and I’m probably more excited about it than my first graders! Anyways, we are working on true or false equations in math and I wanted something simple enough for my kiddos and a little spooky too, so I whipped up these two practice sheets….
This post contains affiliate links. After four weeks of school, my first graders are finally able to work independently during Reader’s Workshop while I teach Guided Reading groups! Whew! To help my kiddos practice matching “what they see to what they say,” I created this fun and low-prep literacy center! Since my kiddos are working…
I recently attended a math training where I learned about subitizing cards! Although I didn’t know what we were talking about initially, I jumped right on board when I realized what “subitizing” meant! Basically, students work to quickly and automatically recognize the number of objects in a group without actually counting them! Typically black dots…
Want to download this super fun “Mystery Puzzles” number sense activity I made??? Just click on the picture below to hop over to The STEM Laboratory! I’d recommend using it with second graders, or first graders who love a challenge, but you can read more about using this activity on my contributing blog post, HERE….
This post contains affiliate links. I’ve been on summer break for exactly two months now, but it’s been crazy busy! My husband and I bought our first home, we are still remodeling it (like there is paint on my hands right now), and I just finished up an overly time-consuming summer class for my Master’s…
This post contains affiliate links. Who doesn’t love ice cream??? I sure do, and I know for a fact that my first grade students do! This fun money matching game is super easy to prep and I guarantee that your kids will enjoy it too! One way you can use these ice cream cones…
This post contains affiliate links. Clip cards are quickly becoming one of my favorite types of learning activities! They are super easy to prep, and students know exactly what to do with them! These Color Word Clip Cards are a great way for kids to practice the reading strategy “Does it look right?” when learning…
This post contains affiliate links. Clothespins are super cheap and they can be used for so many things! Here are my 6 favorite ways to use clothespins in your classroom– specifically for behavior management and displaying student work. 1. Good Old Clip Chart My clip chart is one of the main ways I handle classroom…
Teaching first grade is amazing because they grow SO much! I know, I’m starting to get all sentimental that my first class ever is moving on to bigger and better… 28 days, but who’s counting??? Anyways, I still have a few kiddos who need to work on their skip counting. We’ve done plenty of…
This post contains affiliate links. We all know that teachers spend SO much time in their classrooms! Knowing this, I wanted to make sure I loved walking into my classroom each and every morning. Being a first-year teacher, it took me a while to settle in, but I figured a classroom tour in March was…
This post contains affiliate links. WE GOT A TEPEE! That’s in all caps because I think I love it as much (maybe more?) than my first graders do! Anyways, we got the tepee through a very generous donor who is a friend of mine. I babysat her daughter while I was in college and she…
Have you heard about Seesaw? It’s an app that I like to describe to parents as “a confidential Instagram for your students’ work”. I’ve been using it for about 5 months and I haven’t talked to anyone who doesn’t like it! Below is a quick video that explains WHAT Seesaw is (probably way better than…
Graphing is one of my favorite math subjects to teach! My students and I spent two weeks tackling this topic, and in this post, I’ll give you ideas you might be able to use in your classroom, and links to my favorite resources to make graphing fun and interactive! Before getting started, my students and…