My True Color is... (linky party)

It's been a busy week! We had Monday off (yippee!), President's Day activities, our first grade Patriotic Program Friday, a field trip to a senior residential facility to sing for them, and practices during the week. Phew! And now I'm fighting off the cold my students have had for the last month or so. I think I might have 1 student out of the 23 who hasn't been sick yet. Through all of this I haven't been spending too much time on my blog but this morning I came upon a fun linky party Tori over at Tori's Teacher Tips is hosting and thought I'd link up. Hope you will too! It's called

You take a short personality test and it tells you your color. I'm going to take it to school and see if my fellow first grade teachers will take it at our PLC. It would be really fun to see what color's we all are! I took my test and my color is....

A few of the things that stand out to me are:

"I believe that work comes before play, even if I must work overtime to complete the job." That happens often!

"I value home, family, (and friends, I had to add that part) and tradition." This is definitely true. I can be very sentimental too. I love spending time with my family and the traditions we have at Christmas and Thanksgiving are especially meaningful to me. I love the tradition my mom has of coming to help in my classroom and the beginning and end of the school too!

"I was the easiest of all types of children to adapt to the educational system." This is the first personality test I've taken that mentioned school. It was easy for me to get along with teachers and I enjoyed most of my classes and teachers.  This line made me think of some students I know who don't find the structure of school easy. I really feel for them.

This was really fun! I can't wait to see if my fellow teachers will take it with me. Have a great Saturday! I'm off to blogstalk some more!

Thanks, Tori!

4

Classroom Photos and Common Core Math Freebie Too

Whew! It was a busy, fun, confusing first week. I forgot how tired I'd be! The good part is that I ended the week with 22 little first graders. They're very sweet. There are some real smarties in the group. They can already the first stories in their reading book, and of course some who don't know all their letters and sounds and can't identify numbers after 10. I'm very excited to get Daily 5 started tomorrow so I can start getting my low kiddos in a reading group to help them out. We'll also start Math Work Stations this week. Need to get that intervention started for my little ones who don't know their numbers. I was also told I'd get a student who was a HUGE handful in kindergarten. So far he's been great! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Now for the confusing part: Monday morning I got my class list with 23 students on it. On the morning of the first day I got another little girl. Total students on Day 1was 24. Keeping count is important in this story. Riley didn't show up. Total=23. Thursday morning I found out that 2 of the boys were going back to the schools they attended last year. Incredibly, they were 2 that had been a bit high maintenence on the first day so I wasn't heartbroken. Thursday's total students= 21. On Friday I got student number 22. Oh my goodness! Other teachers were asking how many students I had and a few times, I must admit, I wasn't sure anymore. Hopefully I'll have the same 22 all this next week. 

I really wanted to post earlier this week but time just got away from me so I thought today I'd join up with a few linky parties and share some classroom pictures.

Here's what it looked like just a few days before school started:

Here's a view of my classroom now:

a view from the front of the room. The door is by the yellow table.

A view from the door. My desk is in the top right corner. The rug area is on the left side.

From the door again. A view of the calendar wall and library.

So, here's a tour of my space and where I live (at least where I spend a lot of time). I'm linking up with Courtney at Swimming Into Second

and Mrs. McHaffie at Beg Borrow Steal and her first ever linky party

Please join the parties once you're up and running too. My next will be about some of the projects we've done so far and hopefully have some freebies for y'all. But tomorrow's my birthday, so I don't know if I'll post tomorrow or wait until Tuesday. And Back-to-School Night is Wednesday. I still want to put together a trifold pamphlet like I've seen on Pinterest. Hopefully I'll get that done in time.
Have a great start to your week- whether you're working or still staying in your jammies 'till noon. See you later!
Till then, here's a little Common Core freebie for you. It's a quick poster I made of the Mathematical Practices so I could keep that nearby when I'm doing my planning.

Also, my Holiday Picture Books/ Back-to-School books linky party is still open if you'd like to take a look or link up.

2

Back to School Jitters

I feel like I've been away from my blog forever! I've been on vacation but still thought I might post at least once at the end of the day. There are so many fun linky parties going around! But by the end of the day I was tired of sitting in the car so I went for walks instead. I'm posting today from my iPad, hopefully, as my brother drives along I-15 between Idaho Falls and Pocatello, Idaho. We left home in California last Monday to go to the Braun Family Reunion music festival in Challis, Idaho. We went through Bend, Oregon (very pretty!). Then on to Boise, Idaho. Loved it there! We walked downtown by the capitol and went to a record store and book store. I'm coming home with my first 2 Pete the Cat books! We spent the next night in a tiny town called Arco, then on to Challis. The festival was great fun! We saw a few of our favorite bands. I'm an even bigger fan of Sons of Bill than I was before. If you like country music, Jason Eady is terrific! But that's country the way it used to be, not what's on radio today.

Anyway, my iPad is bouncing in my hand, so on to the linky party for today. I'm linking up with A Turn to Learn for

Oh my gosh, that worked! I don't have her cute form, so I'll just type it out.

I'm excited for... my new animal print/jungle themed classroom decorations. My mom and I will be busy bees Thursday and Friday when I get back into my classroom!

I'm nervous that... my students show up Wednesday! I've never gotten ready in this short a time before. I printed a lot before we left, and I've been planning in the car, though.

I'm loving... that I have Internet while driving down I-15 south of Salt Lake City (we've made some progress!) and saw the Mormon Temple and Tabernacle. I'm not Mormon, but it was beautiful to see. How incredible is this technology???

I need to remember... that my little ones will be as nervous to meet me as I am to meet them. At least I hope so. I had one year where the kids came in yelling out to their friends and not being at all shy. That was the most difficult year I ever had. I have one coming who was a HUGE problem for his kinder teacher. Maybe he matured over the summer... Fingers crossed.

To al, of you back at school, I hope you had a wonderful day.

To those still on vacation, enjoy the rest of summer!

Classroom pictures to come! Probably over the weekend.

http://aturntolearn.blogspot.com/2012/08/back-to-school-jitters-linky-party.html

7

"First Day of School" LInky Party and Award

Happy Monday! I love that it's not a Monday at school yet. Although I am excited to get back and fix up my room, get projects ready, and meet my new little kiddos. Last year's class was SO wonderful. I hope this year will be as much fun. So since I'm thinking about the start of the year, I thought I'd link up with Michelle at

for her "First Day of School" linky party.

She asked what teachers do in their first 1/2 hour or so while kids are coming in, parents want to talk/ask questions, and there's just so much going on. Oh my, that's a crazy time, isn't it?

At our school a supply list is sent home in June, so kids come with sometimes with a bug bag of stuff. So I need something for them to do without me for a while. I put a small container of playdoh on their desk with a coloring sheet and their new crayons. This way they have a choice of activities and the kids have something easy to do while they chit-chat. Meanwhile, I write their name on the bag of stuff they bring, ask parents if they're supposed to get school lunch or if they brought a lunch, and who is picking them up. And I make sure they know what time to come back for their little ones! I write their name on their supplies the best I can because there are some things they bring that I don't need so I send them back home or give them to another teacher. Like pencil boxes. I bought a class set of these

so I send home the type that closes up and tell the kids they can use them when they do their homework. Storage space in my students' desks is really small, so these fit better anyway. I just bring them home at Christmas and in June and run them through the dishwasher to get them clean again.

When I take the kids to the rug, we go over a few rules, I introduce myself with my "ME bag" and show them some photos of me, my family, my pets, and tell them about my hobbies. I explain that they'll take home a bag with this poem attached

This poem comes from Mrs. Bonzer's First Grade Friends. Click on picture.

They'll put up to 3 items in the bag and bring them to school to share. Then they get a little time to decorate their bags.

We usually go over rules again and talk about a few more of them, do calendar and take a school tour after that.

That's pretty much how the first little while goes.  I hope you'll link up and share some of what you do!

Yesterday I was very sweetly awarded the Versatile Blogger award by Maggie from First Grade and Fearless. Thanks so much, Maggie! To accept this award the rules are to:

1. thank the blogger who gave it to you (check, done)

2. include a link to their site (here it is)

3. include the award image in your post

4. give 7 random facts about yourself (This is so hard. I don't think I'm that interesting. I'll try to think of something.)

5. nominate 5-10 other bloggers and tell them about it.

Here are my nominees:

She's also having a "50 followers" giveaway. It's an Amazon gift card....... Betcha want one!

Tales-of-a-First-Grade-Teacher.

My 7 random facts (this really is hard and I'll try not to share things I've shared before. If I do hopefully you'd forgotten and they'll sound new to you):

1. I used to do counted cross-stitch and really enjoyed it. It's a hobby I should pick up again.

2. I included the Ramblings of a Deaf Ed Teacher's Mind blog because it made me think of all the deaf/hard of hearing kids I've had in my class for inclusion.  They were all such great kids! And I learned so much from their teacher about hearing loss, too!

3. I love to read mysteries. Right now I'm reading Todd Borg's series that take place in Lake Tahoe.

4. It turns out that I like 1950's sci-fi movies. I just learned that this summer. There's a summer outdoor movie shown every Friday during the summer in a park not too far away. This summer their playing sci-fi movies. We saw The Day the World Stood Still. Right now I'm watching/listening to The Blob. The movies are a little corny by today's standards, but they're fun. It surprises me that I like them!

5. I raised rabbits in 4-H for about 11 years. 

6. Every year my mom and I organize the rabbit show at our county fair. We do all the paperwork, get the judges, etc. The rabbit show was last Friday. Here are a few pictures:

Aren't they cute?

7. My blog turned 1-year old on July 15th. I can't believe it! Here's my first post if your interested in reading it.  

http://www.firstgradefoundme.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-first-blog-ever.html

I've had fun going back to some of those earliest posts. I've learned so much since then.  

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I really wasn't sure anyone would want to read it when I started. Now it's just been so wonderful to meet all of you and share/get so many ideas!

PS- there's still an opportunity to get in on a Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom Letter Exchange. Carole is looking for participants for hers. You can check out her blog here.

6

A Good Kind of Drama

Happy... what day is it? Thursday, I think. It's summertime and one of my favorite things is not having to keep much of a schedule. 

Today I decided to link up to Barbara's first linky party- woohoo!!! She picked a very interesting topic and one I've never seen a linky party for. It's drama lessons! To be honest, teaching drama scares me. I have wanted to do a play with my class for a few years now. Really wanted to do it with my super class last year. But I'm just afraid. A few years ago I bought the play Goldilocks and the Three Bears from Bad Wolf Press. Their slogan is "musical plays for musically timid teachers." (Here I am, raising my hand!) Another teacher at my school told me about it. The play is funny because it involves characters from other well-known stories and isn't just a straight retelling of the story. I played the music for my class and they adored it and sang along after hearing it a few times. But that's as far as I got. So I'm taking the lead from Barbara, sharing this idea of where to get a play, and hoping I get braver next year. "I think I can, I think I can."

 They have plays for all grades spanning all curriculum areas.

I hope this helps you get started with drama for your students or helps you find something new. 

Thanks for getting this started, Barbara!

4

Favorite Picture Books, Alphabet Letter Exchange News, and New Blog on the Block

I started this post yesterday morning looking for my favorite picture books on Amazon so I could link up with Lindsey's "must have picture books" party. But you know how some days just don't end up like you thought they would? Yesterday was one of those days. I was on my computer when my mom called from work. She just wanted to let me know that she was going to the emergency room because she has some shortness of breath and unusually high blood pressure. Yikes! She said I didn't need to come, but I'm only 1 1/2 hours away so of course I went. By the time I got there she felt better. Of course any emergency room visit takes hours, so we sat and talked till the doctor came back and said she was okay. Whew! So I drove her home and we visited for the afternoon and had dinner before I came back home. Today she said she feels fine. Thank goodness!!!! I love you mom! (She reads my blog so that's for her. I hope she's not upset that I told this story.)

So today is a better day for getting to my blog.

I'm linking up with Lindsey's (from The Teacher Wife) terrific idea

to share 5 of my favorite picture books with you. Wait! Only 5? Seriously, how can I choose? Picture books are one of my favorite things ever! I know I can't choose my favorite 5, so I'll choose 5 favorites instead. Well, sort of. I'm going to cheat a bit and include some collections of books by a favorite author. Here goes:

1. Books by Chris Van Allsburg. These are 2 of my favorites. The Garden of Abdul Gasazi is about a little boy who is asked to take care of Fritz, Miss Hester's dog. Fritz runs away into the Garden where a sign warns that no one should enter. The boy meets Mr. Gasazi, a former magician, who turns the dog into a duck. Or does he? That's what I like best about Chris Van Allsburg's books. They all have a point where the story could end, but then Chris puts a special twist on the story. It leads to a fun discussion with my students about what they think really happened.
In The Wreck of the Zephyr a young boy meets an old man next to a sailboat at the top of a cliff. He's confused about how the boat got there so the old man proceeds to tell him the story. The boy in his story wants to be the best sailor ever and learns to pilot a boat that soars through the sky.  It ends up crashing atop the cliff and the boy's leg gets hurt. As the old man finishes telling the story, he walks away with a limp.
After reading this book with my class, I have the watercolor a piece of white paper with blue and a little black and purple so the water/sky look stormy. Then they color and cut out a sailboat and glue it into the picture. I wish I had an example to show you, but it's at school. The kids love the project!

2. I wish I'd read Patricia Polacco a long time ago. I'd heard about her books but didn't read them until a few years ago when I taught 2nd grade and Thundercakes was in the reading anthology. I went to our school library and checked out most of her books to read to my class. If you know Thank You Mr. Falker, then you know her books can be tear jerkers. This is no different. It was one of the last of her books that I read and apparently the kids could tell when I was going to cry. In this book a young, new teacher gets a kitten. The kitten goes missing for 2 weeks (if I remember right). At this point one of the boys in my class said, "She's gonna cry!" And he was right. I couldn't help it. I thought of my pets and got all choked up. In the end the teacher gets her cat back. I love this book. Maybe you can read it without crying. Good luck!

3. I love the simplicity of this story! And it's great for starting an art lesson about mixing colors. It's about Little Blue who goes out searching for a friend. He meets up with Little Yellow. They hug, turn green and go back home where no one recognizes them. They are sad and cry, causing the two colors to separate. They form back into themselves again and ... ready?... live happily ever after. It's really very sweet. I read that this was Leo Lionni's first book. He came up with the story while riding home from work on the train with his grandchildren. They were bored so he took out some paper and made up a story. It sounds so easy.......

4. Books by Virginia Lee Burton. Some of my very favorites. Especially The Little House. Another story that makes me cry, actually. I believe it was written in the 1940's. "It was written about the time your grandma or great-grandma was born," I tell them. And they turn and look at each other, astonished. This little house sits int he country and is very well loved. As time goes by the city gets nearer and nearer until she is almost swallowed up by the skyscrapers. The subway runs right past her and she gets neglected. One day a woman passes by who recognizes the house from when she was a child. Her grandfather built it. She has the house moved back out the country where it is happy again. My students always enjoy the final picture where the house looks like she's smiling. I find the story very touching. Mike Mulligan and Katy and the Big Snow are 2 other books of hers that I really enjoy reading to my first graders.

5. This book is special to me. It was written by a local winery owner that my husband and I became friends with. It's called Mambo's Tail. Mambo was the winery owners dog- a big, super-sweet black lab. Jodi (the author) and her husband loved Mambo so much and this story tells of the adventures and trouble Mambo got into in his life. He passed away a while ago and is deeply missed. I got this book a few months ago and read it to my class. They really enjoyed it to. The book is also quite a family project. Jodi wrote it, her mom illustrated it, and her brother helped with layout or publishing (I can't remember which). If you love dogs you'll identify with this book.
You can purchase it at Consilience  and Tre Anelli Winery. Just click HERE.

Well, those are some of my favorites. I have enjoyed reading other people's choices. My wishlist is much longer now! Oh, by the way, the rest of the books are available through most major bookstores and probably through

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! There's a new blog on the block.

Her blog is really cute! But the best part is that she's hosting an Alphabet Exchange too. So if you're still looking to join up, she'd love to have you on board. Please hop over there and check out her blog. She's love to have you visit!

Well that's my rambling for now. I'm glad today was a much calmer day than yesterday. I'm off to work on my spread sheet for the alphabet exchange. I should it out to all participants in the next few days. Have a great night!

9

Kids say the Darndest Things

I've been sitting here blogstalking for a while and laughing at some of things people have heard kids say over the years. It reminded me of something one of my first graders said during my second year teaching. I haven't thought about this in a long time.  So I decided to link up to the party Jeannie started over at Kindergarten Lifestyle. Here's one my of "darndest things."

You can link up if you want to at




Thanks, Jeannie
 Chrissy

10

"How'd You Meet Your Hunny?" linky party

I had the day off today. Yippee! Off, off, off. And you know what I did with it? Come on, guess..... I went to school for a few hours. Did you get it right? Did you do the same thing? I cleaned and wrote lesson plans for the week and got out some patriotic projects and books to work on during the next couple weeks. I made my valentines for my class for tomorrow and these little goodies for my instructional aides and the fabulous ladies that work in our office.

And then I discovered Ms. Chrissy B's linky party "How'd You Meet Your Hunny?"

So here's how I met mine:
We actually met in high school. At the end of my freshman year in high school one of my friends started talking about her new boyfriend. "He's rich and romantic," she kept saying but she'd never let us meet him. So when school started again, she introduced a few of us to him one day by her locker. And that's it- how we met anyway. My friends and Greg spent time together at lunch, etc. like people do during the school day. He was nice and we got to know each other some but were just friends. They ended up breaking up before the school year was over and he graduated at the end of it.
The following school year Tony, a friend of Greg's and a friend of mine, said something about seeing Greg and I said to tell him hello since I hadn't seen him in a while (truly just a casual hello). Well, Greg called and asked me out on a date and we continued to go out for a few months. We split up then got back together a couple years later after running in to each other at the local community college. After dating for less than a year, I moved 5 hours away to go to college (my junior year). The next May his job took him to North Carolina and then to New York. No one thought a long distance relationship like this would last, but because he flew back when he could and we paid the phone company LOTS of money, it worked out fine. We met 26 years ago and have been married just over 16 years.  And in case you remembered from the beginning of this story, the "romantic" part turned out to be true. I'm still waiting for the "rich" part.

 Happy Valentine's Day to all my bloggy friends!
 Chrissy

8