Five for Friday

Holy moly! I am whipped. Today was field day and it was the first real HOT day in Dallas. Hot and MUGGY. Terrible! So as I'm writing this Five for Friday I have an ice cold strawberry margarita next to me. On to Five for Friday!

#1 First off, here's a picture of the kiddos at Field Day. They had so much fun!

#2 And not to brag, but we are the tug-o-war champions for Field Day 2013. The kids are on cloud nine.

#3 Next up, for the last 3 weeks of school my students are working on their "All About Me" books. They are loving it! I wish I had made this at the beginning of the year so that they could compare their beginning of the year book and their end of the year book. Check it out in my TpT store.

#4 We have been studying fractions in math and the kids absolutely loved it! Here are some activities we did this week.

 #5 I saved the best for last! Because I have such amazing followers I am throwing a giveaway with Lindsay Griffith from "For the Love of First Grade". We have become quick bloggy friends and she and I have been growing at about the same rate so I thought, why not?! Let's have a giveaway! Take a look at who is involved and a couple more will be added before the giveaway starts! Make sure you follow these lovely ladies blogs, facebook, TpT store. Links will be included when the giveaway starts.

Have a great weekend!

Blog Feature

I am so excited to announce that I am being featured on Dana Lester's blog, Fun in 1st grade.

Head over and learn alittle about me! And while you're there, go on ahead and follow Dana. She has amazing ideas! If you are a new blogger, email her and she will feature you on her blog! Such a great way to get our names out there. Thank you Dana!

Five For Friday {and giveaway winners}

Can it be? Can there only be FOUR for Five For Friday's for me in the school year?! Heck yes there is! So stinkin' excited.

Before sharing the fun we had this week, here are my giveaway winners! Congrats ladies! Danica, my main idea packet is on it's way to you. Corinna please email me your email address!

Now onto Five for Friday.

This week was jammed back of fun and I can't wait for the end of the year because it's when we get to have some fun!

First off I have to share all of my fun purchases from this week. It seriously is the "most wonderful time of the year"!

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to show off my goodies!

Now back to Five for Friday!

Enjoy your weekend and go link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching! You know you want to!

Christmas in MAY {aka teacher appreciation week}

Hello my friends! It's teacher appreciation week. Of course you already knew that! This is seriously one of my favorite times of the year. Mostly because it means there's a sale on TpT! Here are some pointers as you begin the shopping:

1. Stock up your cart with your wish list. Go on ahead and move it all over! You know you want to.

2. make sure you leave feedback (who doesn't love free money?),

3. Think about what you'll be teaching next year and start preparing now! Never hurts right?

4. And have fun! Remember, you are supporting teachers just like YOU!

Click on the banner to head over to my store! Starting right now through May 8 my entire store will be 20% off. and don't forget the extra 10% off code (TAD13) starting tomorrow through Wednesday.

Keep calm and SHOP on!

Reader's Workshop {and giveaway}!

I have decided to do a post on how I do reader's workshop in my classroom. I hope this helps anyone who is struggling with the "ins and outs" of reader's workshop. Whether you are a new teacher or not! Sometimes you just need a change!

My reader's workshop starts at 9:20. We start with our mini lesson. It normally lasts about 15-20 minutes or alittle more if the kids are really into it! :)

So this week we focused on main idea and did my pocket chart mini lesson to introduce main idea on Monday.

After the mini lesson, the students will have "read to self" time for about 10 minutes. This is when I meet with my lowest group. It's quite and the best time to work with him.

At 10:00am it's time to start centers. I continue working with guided reading groups during that time.

Here is how my students know where to go for centers time. Let me explain. 

Here are how my centers work! Some are self explanatory like read to self and buddy reading, but here are pictures of the rest of them.

 Writing Center- students have tons of choices to do during their writing center. poems, stories, lists, etc.

 Listening center- tons of books to choose from! They have a recording sheet to fill out after listening to the book they choose.

 Computer centers- my students love them some abcYA.com. the best website ever!

 classroom library- where they trade out book to put in their book box for read to self.

word work center- this isn't the best picture, but the word work center is to the right in the book shelf but the chairs. I promise to take a better picture soon! Here they have magnetic letters, playdoh, stamps, magic boards, and white boards to practice their spelling words for the week.

I hope this post is helpful for those who are putting their reader's workshop together! If you have any questions please comment or email me at flyinghighinfirstgrade@gmail.com.

For those who actually read through the whole post, congrats! I would love to give away a copy of my two new units "What's It All About?" and "All About Plants". I will choose 2 winners next Friday.

Leave a comment for each thing that you follow:
1. blog
2. Teachers Pay Teachers
3. instagram
4. facebook

Buttons for all of these are found at the top of my blog.

Enjoy your weekend!

Five for Friday {4 left!}

for the school year that is! Can't wait to do "Five for Friday" for the summer! 

Alright, here are my Five for Friday. Short and sweet today my friends!

 We had Teacher Appreciation week a week early and my parents decorated my door. Isn't it adorable?

 Our district gives out pins for years of service starting at 5 years.  Has it really already been 5 years?

 We studied main idea in reading this week. My kids loved it! Unit posted in TpT.

 We started our Plant Life Cycle unit this week and we also made our terrariums to observe a plants life cycle. So much fun! This unit is also posted in TpT.

My little sister turned 24 today. Happy Birthday Courtney Mae! 

Go link up with "Doodle Bugs" to see everyone's Five for Friday!

Currently- May

I am so excited to do my first "currently" link up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th grade. I've always read everyone's posts and now I'm finally doing one!

listening- to dogs barking. We have 2 dogs, our sweet Stella and Allie. Every evening Stella goes in the backyard and randomly just lets out a bark. She must be letting the rest of the neighborhood "I am Stella, hear me roar!" or something like that.

loving- friends I haven't talked to in awhile. My husband and I have been going through alot lately and I have had a couple of friends randomly start popping back into my life right when I need them. God is amazing and puts me on their minds for a reason. I have had so many email or text saying "I've just had this feeling that I'm supposed to talk to you". Yes, my friends, my God knows how to comfort me!

thinking- I love changing up my hair. blonde, brown, short, long. Who knows what I'll do with summer right around the corner?

wanting- a baby. Is that too personal? Oh well. I'm putting it out there. My husband and I want a baby, bad. We've gone through alot in the these past few months in regards to infertility. This goes with the "loving" above. I've had alot of friends who have gone through this that I didn't even know went through it, contact me, and say "I feel like I need to share my story with you" and their stories have been so encouraging, especially when all of their stories end in babies :)

needing- I need a back rub. Actually a full body rub. It's that time of year.

summer bucket list- I'm planning on designating one day a week (or more) to work on TpT stuff. I have so many great ideas that I want to actually become something! I have a note on my iphone that I continue to add to. It's time to start markin' things off the list.

I want to get tan. Duh. Who doesn't?

Host a TX blogger meet up. Yep. It's an idea I've had and I can't wait to start getting it in the works. Emails will be going out to TX bloggers very soon! And if you are a blogger that isn't in TX, but wants to join us, leave your email and I will include you in the email. It'll be lots of fun! I promise! Sun, swimming, wine, baseball games, blogger talk, wine, shopping, eating, wine. You catch my drift? Lots of F-U-N!!