Sunday, October 19, 2014
Little Green: Kinder Lines
Kindergarten read the book Little Green by Keith Baker to learn about different types of lines. Little Green is about a child who watches a bird fly and paints a picture about the various ways the bird flies. The students drew various lines with crayons and colored in the spaces that were created by those lines.
First Week Mural
For the first week of school, each grade was assigned a specific color. Each student drew a self-portrait using that specific colored marker on an index card. They then water colored over the self-portrait in the same color. The cards were then glued onto bulletin board paper and laminated together as a mural. The colors are in order from Kinder through Fifth Grade so it was interesting to see the progression of drawing skills from one grade to the next. The lesson also served as an intro into the color wheel and color order.
My Art Classroom
Here are some photos of my new art classroom. I love how much storage space is in the room. It helps so much with my constant need to organize. I also love the ceiling tiles that the school's very first art teacher made with some older students. They add so much to the room and are great for referencing particular art pieces.
I'm Back!
Thank you to my fellow teachers who have emailed to see when I will be blogging again. I've taken a hiatus from blogging since mid summer while I transitioned from teaching first grade to elementary art. I am LOVING my new art position! Since I teach over 600 students now, I've decided that the most manageable way to keep up with the blog is to show general photos of student work rather than specific individuals. I will most likely only blog once or twice a nine weeks as and may include some more general education resources I have found to be useful as well.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Keep Calm and Teach Art
After teaching first grade for six years, I have decided to switch gears! Starting this year, I will be teaching Elementary Art at the same school, Moseley Elementary in Grand Prairie. I am very excited about this change but know that I have a lot of learning and work ahead of me. With this change, several people have asked me what I am going to do with this blog. I am still undecided at this point for the future of the blog as far as art is concerned. I am wrapping my brain around the logistics of getting permission to display student created art online for a school of over 600 students. But, at this point, I will continue sharing various ideas for Elementary Education as a whole. I will share ideas I've stumbled upon from other sites, creations I have made for Teachers Pay Teachers, and more. You can also follow me on Pinterest here. I will continue to have boards for first grade as well as new boards for various art topics.
Content Board and Grade Level Banners
We all know that anchor charts are a huge part of a classroom. I believe that they should be separated by content. To add a little bit of color above the bulletin boards, I created these Content Board and Grade Level Banners and added them to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. The banners can be pieced together on ribbon for display. The sets include triangle pieces to assemble the following words: Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies, Word Wall Daily Five, CAFE, Art. P.E., Physical Education, Music, Computers, Library, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. These designs match my Word Wall Headers.
Fry's Instant Words Handwriting Practice
I created a set of handwriting sheets for all of Fry's Instant Word Lists and added them to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. These words are the most frequent words in the English language and this set is great for repeated practice of those words. The more the students see the words, the more likely they are to remember them. The sets can be copied for one time use or laminated for repeated use with Dry Erase markers in centers or as a part of Daily 5.
The sets can be downloaded individually to meet your specific grade level needs:
The sets can also be downloaded in value packs to meet a variety of learning levels:
Word Wall Headers Download
I recently added new Word Wall Headers to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. These are sets of colorful, round alphabet labels to use for your classroom word wall. There are five different styles to choose from to add a splash of color to your room. Click on the links below to download. These sets also match my Content Board and Grade Level Banners.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Fry's Instant Words Bingo Games
I created several sets of Bingo games for Fry's Instant Words and uploaded them to my TpT store. There are four sets of Bingo boards in each pack – one for each list in the first set of 100 words and then the second set of 100 words. Each set contains six boards. The games are meant to be utilized during small group lessons such as guided reading and tutoring.
I will be adding additional sets in the coming days! Check out my TpT store for other downloads!
Classroom Management Downloads
I recently uploaded a few files to my TpT store that I have used the last few years for classroom management.
The first is a set of classroom helper cards to use when assigning classroom jobs. I display mine in a small pocket chart with student names next to each job. I rotate the names each week.
The next is a set of guided reading group signs. These signs are for grouping students for guided reading. I put Velcro tabs next to each sign and each student had a Velcroed name tag. The name tags could be moved from group to group quickly as their levels changed. I also used the grouping signs on the guided reading book baskets. Using colors for the guided reading groups kept the students from knowing which groups were high, medium, or low.
The last set is a set of cards I used for early finishers. These finished assignment cards are suggested tasks for students to complete when they finish work early. They are in card format to go in a pocket chart so that the teacher can use some or all to differentiate.
The first is a set of classroom helper cards to use when assigning classroom jobs. I display mine in a small pocket chart with student names next to each job. I rotate the names each week.
The next is a set of guided reading group signs. These signs are for grouping students for guided reading. I put Velcro tabs next to each sign and each student had a Velcroed name tag. The name tags could be moved from group to group quickly as their levels changed. I also used the grouping signs on the guided reading book baskets. Using colors for the guided reading groups kept the students from knowing which groups were high, medium, or low.
The last set is a set of cards I used for early finishers. These finished assignment cards are suggested tasks for students to complete when they finish work early. They are in card format to go in a pocket chart so that the teacher can use some or all to differentiate.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Last Day!
Our school has a tradition of having a 5th Grade Walk at the end of the last day of school. All of the students line the hallways to cheer for the 5th graders as they leave the school for the last time. Here are some pictures of the first graders as they waited for the 5th graders and for the bell to ring at the end of their first grade year.
I'm Blown Away!
I am truly blown away by how far this group of first graders came in their reading this year. To celebrate, we went outside on the last day of school to blow bubbles!
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