New Job!

I am a little sad to report that I have taken a new job in my district for the upcoming school year. I am super excited about the job, but sad because I will no longer be a classroom teacher. While I will work with small groups of kids and model lessons for teachers,I will no longer have a class of my own students. I will continue to post ideas I do with small groups, in model lessons, and that I find from other teachers. If you are following this blog, make sure you are also following my Chalk Talk blog since most of my ideas will be posted there. I am also in the process of creating a web site. I will make a post as soon as it is up and running. Thanks! and I hope you all have a great start to the new school year!!

Chalk Talk

If you have just found my classroom blog, make sure you take a look at my teacher blog. I have not posted anything to this blog since school let out, but I have been posting teacher ideas all summer to my other blog - Chalk Talk.

Field Day 2010

the shoe fling


the ball between the knees relay




tug-of-war
The boys kept beating the girls until I stepped in to help. Then the girls beat the boys! Then we played the class and myself against the parents. Emily's sister helped us out too and we WON!! We beat the parents!




the bean bag toss



taking a Popsicle break






jump rope relays



basketball shooting




the egg and spoon relay

End of the Year Slide Show

A year's worth of learning... only 8 school days left...

A free picture slideshow by Smilebox

The Color Farm

Last week, we learned about farm animals. We read the book The Color Farm by Lois Ehlert. Then we made our own version in the computer lab using the program Pixie.

The Last Class Picture

The Tiny Seed

This week, we are learning about plants and growing things. We read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. Then we wrote our own stories about seeds.

Finding Length

We have been learning about length. We worked in pairs to measure the length of objects around the room. We used links to measure the objects and then we recorded our measurements on paper.




We measured each other using links, inchworms, and people counters. Then we drew pictures of ourselves and recorded the measurements.

Earth Day

Customize your own digital collage

We played a recycling game. We sang a song as we pretended to recycle items. The bean bags were cans and the hula hoop was the recycling bin.


In honor of Earth Day, some of the first grade teachers set up a school-wide book swap. Students were able to bring in books from home that they had already read and trade them with other students. What a great way to reuse books!

Animal Characteristics

We have been learning about animals and their characteristics. A blogging friend shared this idea with me, so we tried it out in our classroom.

We watched an interactive power point on animals and their characteristics. We learned about animal body parts and animal coverings. Then we played odd man out. Students took turns looking at 3 animal cards in the pocket chart. Then they chose which animal was not like the others and pulled it out and explained why.





After the game, we chose animals and labeled their body parts. Then we shared them with each other.

Word Wall Tic-Tac-Toe

This week, we found a new favorite word wall game- word wall tic-tac-toe.

The Chicks Arrive!

Last Thursday night, 4 of our baby chicks hatched. This week, we learned about animal characteristics, animal coverings, and animal needs.