Phonics Genius iPad and iPhone App

One of my favorite phonics apps is Phonics Genius. The app has flash cards of short vowels, long vowels, blends, and digraphs. You have the option to have the words read aloud. This is great for introducing the specific sounds. The sound can then be taken off to have the students practice reading the words independently. The app also allows you to add your own phonics words. I plan on using the app for Daily 5, to introduce the weekly phonics focus, and in guided reading.

Classroom Tour

If you've followed my blog for a while, you've already seen my classroom pictures over the years. The class is mostly the same as last year. If it works, why change it? I did switch out some fabrics to make it less distracting, created a larger word wall and calendar area, and sectioned off the white board. Other than that, not much has changed.

 This is our guided reading and math area. The student computer station is behind it. The built-in shelves contain our math tubs (red boxes), tutoring lessons (blue boxes), and teacher books (beige boxes). The rest is miscellaneous storage.

 This is our fluency work area. Our weekly poems are written on chart paper, laminated, and taped to clothes hangers. The students can practice reading to one another or alone. The baskets contain familiar nursery rhymes and songs.

 These are our Daily 5 book boxes. I purchased these from Steps to Literacy.

 The affirmation station is a place where students can write notes to one another for things such as good behavior, being helpful, doing well on a project, etc. Affirmations are a part of Capturing Kids' Hearts.

 This is when you first enter our class. The students place their homework folders on the shelf. It also stores our clipboards and treasure chest. Thanks to my dad for building this shelf!

 For safety, it is important to be able to cover the door's window in case of emergency. Since I do not sew, I was trying to think of a way to cover the window quickly. So, here is what I came up with. Using two Command Strips, I hung up an extendable curtain rod with wedge ends. I then used a tier length curtain to hang on it that I purchased at Target. In an emergency, all I have to do is pull the curtain over and untie the ribbon.

 Here is our helper chart, hand signals signs, and voice level meter.

 This shelf is where we keep our writing supplies for our Affirmation Station and Daily 5 Working on Writing.

 My students sit at individual desks that are put together in two long tables. We do most of our work around the room and on the floor so keeping the desks in tables gives us more space.

 For the first week of school, the students had a crayon writing and coloring book to work in upon arrival. For "Meet the Teacher" night, they were given a treat bag of high bounce balls. Fellow teachers, you can download the gift tag from my TpT store for free.

 This is our creation station and recycling area. Above the sinks is our math focus board.

 This is our classroom library. The book boxes are from Steps to Literacy and the shelves are from Target. I divide my books by themes except for the blue boxes. The blue boxes are divided into our favorite authors. The board above will be used for our Daily 5 anchor charts.

 I love this sign that I got for our classroom library from a local shop in Arlington, Texas.

 This is our new behavior clip system for K-2. The chart is from TpT.

 This is my new word wall area with book and manipulative storage below.

 This is our calendar wall. Below the calendar is a couch made out of a crib mattress, a crib sheet, and a body pillow. On each side of the couch are our Big Books and Buddy Books that we use for Read to Someone.

 This is the shared reading area. I display our daily objectives on the white board. My team types our objectives and print them to save time.

 This is our Promethean Board. I love integrating technology into our lessons. The teacher station is to the left of the board.

 This is the view from the front of our room.

 This is the view from the back of our room.

 This is the view from the front door of our room.

 This is the view from the teacher desk area.

 These are two bulletin boards outside of our classroom to welcome the students to first grade.

See You Later, Alligator!

As a fun craft project, the students created these little alligators at the end of the school year.

Autograph Session

The students completed First Grade Memory booklets to share some of their favorite things about the year. Included in the booklet were two autograph pages. All of first grade joined together in our common area to have an autograph session. As they autographed one another's pages, we emphasized asking questions when you need something rather than just staring or telling someone to do something.

 

Father's Day Gifts

The students created a Father's Day gift before we released for the summer. They completed a questionnaire and then drew a picture of their dad to go along with it. Several teachers have asked me recently how I get my students to draw detailed and proportionate pictures. So, here is my basic answer: model, model, model. I am not an artist myself but I model everything for my students. For this particular lesson, I had them fold the paper in half, top to bottom. I instructed them to draw a dot about three fingers down from the top. I then had them draw a dot in the middle of the fold. They then drew the curves of the face from each dot, top to bottom. Then for the shoulders, they drew a curve from the dot on the fold to each corner of the paper. This gave them a foundation for their portrait and the rest was completely up to them.

Making Ice Cream

We had quite the adventure making ice cream during the last week of school. Using a recipe from Pinterest, the students combined Half and Half cream, vanilla, and sugar in a plastic baggy. They then added the baggy to a larger baggy filled with ice and rock salt. They then shook the bags continually until the cream mixture hardened. The kids loved it and they said it tasted great. And, thankfully, our awesome custodian didn't get the least bit upset when we had water and ice everywhere from the leaking bags. It is all about the experience anyway, right?

Shaving Cream Fun

To have a little fun and clean off their desks, we played in shaving cream during the last week of school. The students practiced writing their word wall words, solve addition and subtraction problems, and drew pictures in the shaving cream.

Watch Out World...

On the last day of school, one of the things we did was to discuss the students' future goals. Those goals included going to college and their dream jobs. So, we took these pictures (Pinterest inspired) to showcase their dream jobs.

Fingerprint Trees

During the last week of school the students created collaborative art projects to take home as a keepsake from first grade. Each student had a photocopy of a tree trunk. They then added their thumbprints in paint to one another's trees.

Readers' Theater Performance

To showcase their reading skills, we held an end-of-year Readers' Theater Performance. Each first grade class learned their own Readers' Theater from the You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series. All of the classes then joined together for a reading of Jack and Jill. For the final Readers' Theater, parents were asked to join in.

End-of-Year Picnic

We had our End-of-Year Picnic last Thursday. The students had about two hours to play soccer, basketball, draw with chalk, run, play chase, jump rope, and fly kites. They then ate their lunch outside.