Falls of Fun!

Hello friends!! Baby Rae and I wanted to stop by with a little throwback post and some exciting news! 

I know that many of you are setting up your Readers and Writer's Workshop and I wanted to share a few pictures of my classroom during this time! You can find the original post HERE! 

We always start out by asking why do readers read? I love the responses they come up with! I think its' so important that kiddos understand why we do things! I mentioned this is the earlier post, but I laminate this chart so I can easily reuse it from year to year. This teacher loves post its! 

We also talk a lot about how to choose a good book! Here's one of our favorite anchor charts! 

And here's our anchor chart wall full of our learning! 

I'd love to hear how you launch Reader's Workshop! 

 I have also teamed up with Educents with some instant downloads for you!

I have 2 great products in the bundle! Now that aren't "fall themed" but they are great units to help get thing started in your classroom during fall! You can check out Launching Writer's Workshop and What is a Scientist by clicking the links! 

But that's not all... the bundle covers to following topics that you will need to teach this year:

·      long and short vowel sounds
·      counting, identifying, representing, and comparing numbers
·      identify and analyze 2d & 3d shapes
·      become scientists  
·      write words and sentences
·      implement writers workshop
·      addition and subtraction story problems to 20
·      story elements
·      retelling and responding to text
·      poetry
·      ten frames
·      least to greatest and greatest to least
·      graphing

For a limited time it is $15.99 from Educents which is about 76% off!  12 instant downloads for your Kindergarten and First Grade learners.  And 850 pages of materials ready for you to use - there is sure to be tons you will love!

Go check it out! :) 

Bright Ideas- Recess Buckets

I am so thrilled to be joining the "Bright Ideas" blog hop this month! I'm sure you have seen this blog hop over the past few months and goodness gracious it has had some amazing "bright" ideas! Today I am going to share my "bright" idea for back to school!

Have you ever been on the playground and realized you didn't have a bandaid for that scraped knee? Or a pen to fill out a nurses pass? Well here is something that will eliminate your worries when you are on recess duty! These are great little gifts to give to your team at the beginning of the year as well!

I found some adorable tin cans at Hobby Lobby and packed them full with some fun goodies after writing my team members names on their bucket!

The buckets include a pen, a soap dish to carry band-aids (from Walmart), and a squirt bottle. You may ask, what is the squirt bottle for? Well I live in Texas and our recess time can be pretty hot at the beginning and end of the school year. By having my squirt bottle, I can spray the students faces to help them cool off a bit! It really helps cut down on students asking to go inside for a drink of water. I tell them to just open their mouth :) They love it!

And of course if there is anything else you might need for your recess bucket, throw it on in! Every grade level at my school takes a walkie talkie out to recess so that also gets thrown into the bucket. And so I don't forget to take my bucket when I'm on recess duty, one of my classroom jobs in recess helper. They love getting to grab the walkie talkie off my desk, put it in the bucket, and carry the bucket to and from the playground.

I hope this post was helpful to you and you can use this idea for your recess duty! Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you have a happy back to school if you haven't already started!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following me on Facebook, Instagram, and/or Teachers Pay Teachers to find other great ideas!

For more bright ideas from more than 100 different bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

An InLinkz Link-up

BTS Sale 2014

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Time for the BTS sale on TpT! I have been leaving feedback on my purchases like a crazy person and can't WAIT to start shopping tomorrow!!!

And the best part is I'm going to keep my store on sale for 20% through Wednesday, August 6. So go on ahead and keep on shopping!! You know you want to!

Here are some of my units that are perfect for BTS. They want to be in your cart. Just sayin'!

perfect back to school activity for your students to get to know one another! Not writing intensive so any ability level can do this!

Are you ready to start calendar time in your class? This resource is what you need!

If you are looking to launch reader's workshop in your classroom, this resource will be guide!!

 If you are looking to launch writer's workshop in your classroom, this resource will be guide!!

Great centers for back to school!

They even come in 2nd grade!

For my Texas teachers here are all of the ELAR TEKS in check off form! Great way to keep track of what your students have mastered!!

It is also available for Math as well!

And if you want both, I have combined them just for YOU!

If you are still decorating your classroom, here are some adorable classroom jobs to spice up your classroom! They come in chevron and polkadot!

I'd love to hear what products are already in your cart and ready to be purchased! Have fun shopping!

Workin' On It Wednesday

Today I am linking up with Kinder Gals for "Workin' On It Wednesday".

I have been going through all of my products and updating ones that needed a face lift. My newest update is my "School R.O.C.K.S" back to school read alouds and craftivities.

The first week of school is so important for you to get those rules and expectations in place and this unit does just that!

R.O.C.K.S stands for Respect, On Task, Cooperation, Kindness, and Shine. To shine you are showing all the parts of R.O.C.K.S. I introduce one letter a day with a book and craftivity. The kids just eat it up and respond so well to it! Then the rest of the year all I have to say is "are you R.O.C.K.IN'?" and they straighten up! Most of the time ;)

Want to win a copy? Fill out the rafflecopter below! Giveaway ends on Saturday 7/5 at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Reader's Workshop

Today I am linking up with Ms. B over at Buzzing with Ms. B for her Reader's Workshop Linky Party.

As we get near the first day back to school, I know we are all thinking about how we are going to teach the first week. Will you just go over rules and no actual teaching or will you jump right into teaching? For me and my district, we jump RIGHT into teaching the 1st day. The logic behind it is to start teaching day 1 so that the kids start seeing what the rest of their year will look like!

My district is very big on the workshop model and we do it for math, reading, and writing. I wanted to share with you how I launch reader's workshop in my classroom.

If you are new to the workshop model this is what it looks like. Mini lesson, independent reading/centers (during this time I meet with small groups), sharing (normally reading from their reader's response journals). The total time of the workshop can vary (60 minutes at the most) depending on the length of the mini lesson, but remember, the lesson is MINI. So make it short! No more than 15 minutes.

For the first 3 weeks of school I am teaching the students why we read, how we read, what we do when we get to a word when don't know, how to write in our reader's response journal, etc. all within the workshop model. So when I'm ready to start teaching predicting, inferring, visualization, my students already know the workshop model and can easily transition!

Here is an example of how the 1st day of reader's workshop would look in my classroom.

I would bring the students to the carpet (that's where all of our learning happens). I have my easel up there and all of my supplies ready to use for filling out anchor charts.

The first day I talk about why we read. And as a class we brainstorm ideas of why we read and record them on our "Why Readers Read" anchor chart.

A trick I use so that I can use these anchor charts year after year is write the students responses on sticky notes and stick them to the anchor chart. Then at the end of the year, pull off the sticky notes, and store the anchor chart till next year!

All of our anchor charts are displayed ALL year long for students to refer to whenever they need!

After the "purpose of reading" mini lesson I tell the kids that we are going to read a book for fun today. I think it is so important to read to your kids DAILY! My favorite author is Mo Willems. I always start out with a pigeon book. They LOVE them! After I read it we talk about why we read that book. Of course to have fun and entertain us! And it of course entertained us! That darn pigeon!

Day 2 and 3 of school will consist more of what the mini lesson will look like and what independent reading will look like. Here are some of the other anchor charts we do within the first few weeks.

Baby steps are so important when you are laying the groundwork for the workshop. Don't try to shove too much into one day because you'll end up having to reteach it later because they aren't going to remember.

If you would like to do reader's workshop in your classroom, check out my "Launching Reader's Workshop" unit in my Teacher's Pay Teachers store. It is geared for K-2. I promise if you stick with the lessons, you're kiddos will be ready to tackle reader's workshop in 3 weeks! Kids strive on consistency and that's what reader's workshop does for you!

If you have any questions about reader's workshop, please do not hesitate to email me at flyinghighinfirstgrade@gmail.com I'd love to help!

Best and Most {linky}

Don't you remember voting on the "best dressed" and "most likely to succeed" in high school? Well, a group of bloggers and I are going to do the same thing with products we use in your classrooms!

As we close in on the Back to School Sale, it's fun to think about everything you want to buy to make the most out of your year with your babies! So I want to show you what I feel is the "best and most" of what I use in my classroom.

But first, I must share with you my high school drill team picture. I never was voted anything in my high school yearbook, so this will have to do :)

I've always wondered if that uniform still fits. I don't dare find out though :)

Now, onto the best and most of things to use in the classroom.

Let's start with the "Teacher's Pet". My teacher's pet is my "All About Me" book. I LOVE this activity because it's a great way for students to help me get to know them at the beginning of the year. The students also learn about each other as they work through the book. I love listening to the conversations around this activity. It is also not a writing intensive activity, so even your babies who are not the best of writers, aren't afraid to tackle it.

Next up is "Most Likely to Help Your Student Succeed". I love these centers packets because they include simple centers activities that will build up your student's confidence as you are teaching how centers work in your classroom. What I also love about these units is they work for numerous grade levels. The 1st grade set can be used in 1st grade at the beginning of the year or kinder a few months in. Same goes for the 2nd grade set. It can be used in 2nd grade at the beginning of the year or 1st grade a few months in.

The "Best Couple" goes to "What is a Scientist?" and "Launching Reader's Workshop". You may be thinking, how do science and reading go together? Well let me tell you! They are a great couple because both units are a great way to introduce science and reading into your classroom at the beginning of the year!

Well that wraps up the Best and Most of things I use in my classroom. I hope that you are able to get everything you need to make your classroom successful this year during the sale!

My store will be 20% off Sunday and Monday and don't forget to add in the code BTS13 to get an extra 10% off when you check out! This is not something you want to miss!

Head over to Christina's blog to check out the other bloggers who are sharing their "Best and Most".

Teacher Week {tricks and tips}

Every good thing must come to an end and today the end of Teacher Week is here! I hope that you were able to learn something new from me this week, whether is was something new about me or something new you can use in your classroom.

Today's topics is Tips and Tricks.

I was so sad to miss yesterday's topic, {taming the wild}, but I was up at school with my sister helping her organize her library. It's turned out great and looks so much better than just books thrown on a shelf. 

This also happens to be my FIRST tip. Have an organized library so that it's easier for your students to pick out books, put them back in the right spot, and it's one more thing you don't have to worry about being a mess all year long.

This is how I organize my library. They are categorized by genre and topics and put into buckets. Each bucket has a label on it with a colored sticker. All of the books that go IN that bucket have the same colored sticker. So when the child comes back to the library they just have to look for the sticker.

What if you have lots of books and only 4 colored stickers? No worries! Put a number on each sticker and you can make lots of them! So you would have a 1 buckets in all the colors, then a 2 bucket in all the colors and so on.

Now for my trick. I LOVE this trick and some of you may already do it, but I must share! It's called the mystery walker. I have a jar of popcicle sticks with my students numbers on them. I pull one before we leave to go anywhere in the school and don't show them. I watch that student as we walk to our destination. If they do a good job, they get to clip up on our clip chart. If they don't, then they don't. If they don't earn their clip up, I don't tell who the person was. Normally the class can figure it out anyways ;)

Well I hope you enjoyed teacher week and I will thinking of all of you as you get ready for back to school. I know we are all stressed about getting everything perfect, but it will all work out in the end. Enjoy your year of loving on those babies!

And to make going back to school a little less painful, TpT is throwing their Back to School SALE! It is here! So start filling up your cart and get ready! It'll be here on Sunday and Monday. Even if you're already back at school, you cannot miss this sale.

Be on the look out tomorrow! I will be listing some of my favorite units that you just can't pass up. Get excited!

Teacher Week {Now Teach- organization}

For some reason organization seems to be hard for some teachers. For me, I love it, but I also feel like I could do better. Whenever my teammates come into my room and I complain about not being organized they normally laugh, because I am VERY organized, but I always strive to be more organized that I was the year before. So I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' to show you how I organize things in my classroom.

First off I want to show you how I organize all of my curriculum information. This includes lesson plans, scope and sequence, year at a glance, testing schedule, etc. I use binders. I started this last year and I love how much it has helped me stay organized.

I have a binder for practically everything. Here's a peek into some of them.

I use Reading A-Z for running records. If your district doesn't have it, you should really talk to whoever is in charge because they are the best! Great for doing quick running records or sending home for guided reading.

My math binder houses all of my lessons for the year along with testing schedules and scope and sequences.

This binder is used for when I meet with small groups during math workshop. In my district we also do something called "First Steps". It's a program to help bridge the gaps for our low babies!

I always make sure to have my groups written out so that if I forget, I can easily go look!

My guided reading binder is alot like my guided math binder.

I include my guided reading groups, our district reading correlation chart, our schedule for what level our kids should be on every month, what I should be working on them with for their certain level, my guided reading lessons for certain books, and of course Rachelle's reader's response sheets. I keep TONS of them in pocket protectors so if I need something to send home on a whim, voila! I can just pull it out and send it home.

My next binder is my writing conference binder. I somehow didn't take a picture of the cover, but here's what's inside.

I have my writing conference schedule and my documentation page that I have for every student. Great way to get some quick documentation for writing time.

This binder is another favorite! It's only 1 binder! Did I trick ya? :) But it acts as 2 different things. This is where I house my students information sheets along with any communication I have with parents.

This list is imperative :) You can tell how many times I've used it through out the year. This is the first page in the binder.

I have dividers for every student. I number them so I can use this binder year after year.

Behind each tab is their information sheet, that you can download from my TpT store for FREE here. After that I put notebook paper for me to document conversations that I have with parents that need to be documented. THIS my friends, is GOLD! When you need the documentation, it's right there! Also, don't wait to write it down. Write as soon as the conversation is over if it's in person and if it's on the phone, write as you talk!

This is also where I house all of my volunteer information. I send home my volunteer sheet at Meet the Teacher night and then keep them here. I also print off my volunteer schedule so I can reference it easily.

AND the best part about this binder is when we go on a field trip, I just grab it and we go! It has all of my students information (allegies, parents numbers, etc) that I might need on a field trip.

Ok, next I want to show you how I organize all of my papers for the week. I promise, it's quick! :)

I have a crate with hanging folders for every day.

Then I have these folders in each hanging folder. I put them in order of my schedule for the day.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!! Just pop those babies in there when you make copies! And then it's waiting there for you for the next day!

To organize how my kids turn in their work I bought hanging file folders and gave them each a folder. They would turn their work in there and if they didn't put their name on it, I knew who's it was because it was in their folder :) Genius I tell ya!

If you are needing help keep your parents in on what's going on in your classroom, and this is for you!

 This product is an editable 12 month editable newsletter! My parents LOVE getting this newsletter because it keeps them in the loop!

PHEW! I hope you held on through that blog post! I know it was long, but I just had to share how I organize in my room! It's such a great thing to get under control so that you can focus on teaching those babies!