#teachertalktuesday on Instagram

 I am finally hoppin' on the instagram train!!

I use my personal instagram all the time, but I just created a blog one so I can join in on the fun that Rachelle, Natalie, and Michelle came up with!

^ Genius idea I tell you!^

To follow along my lonely new blog instagram, follow me HERE or search for "thankgoditsfirst" on your phone!

See look... only 10 followers.... and 1 picture... LAME! I will get better. I promise!

You can also follow my personal instagram HERE or search for smoran892 on your phone!

I hope to see you tomorrow!

Make sure to click on the button at the top and check out all the bloggers who are participating!

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Late Nights & Lattes.. a lil sumthin' new!

Well, well, well....


Sunday is here, summer countdown is on, and this lady has WAY too many things going on! I swear it is the only way I can function. Lots of big changes have been happenin' in my life and I needed another outlet to share!

That being said, I have been working on my personal blog this past week and I am happy to say it has launched!! 

Introducing:

This blog is not teaching related but instead will follow me over the next few years as I plan to:
-get married
-buy a house
-travel
-try to get preggers...without explicit details... its not THAT kind of late night ;)

It is just in the beginning stages so please be patient with things that may not be working and feel free to follow along!

If not, it's a-okay! I will be back in a few days with some test prep fun for our 4th grade buddies!


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Writing Through the Seasons {Summer} and a BUNDLE!

Technically, it is still Spring... but the sun is blazing, my kids are squirming for Summer, and I am doing everything I can to keep them moving & working!

After days and weeks and months of learning about a topic, I begin to call my students EXPERTS! I explain to them that an expert is someone who not only knows something in and out, but can explain it to others in a way that they understand it. 

I can tell you my kids are EXPERTS at explaining their thinking and they make their teacher proud!

To help them feel proud of themselves I made this cute little craft:
^This little guy makes me giggle and I think the kids will get a BIG hit out of it!^
(There is a girl hairstyle as well)
I plan to have my students brainstorm some things they are experts at after their year in first grade and we will display them on our last bulletin board of the year!

This craft is included in my Writing Through the Seasons {Summer & End of the Year} along with a few other writing prompts and graphic organizers:
^These are only a few examples from the pack.^
Click on the link to my product above to see more.

I also made a discounted bundle with ALL my writing through the Seasons packs in them:
Click on the photo above to see more!
This pack is 190 pages long and has FUN writing prompts, crafts, and activities all of which are aligned to to Common Core writing standards.

My bundle will be 20% off for the next 2 days!

Happy hump day!


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Earth Day Fun & a Freebie!

We had a F-U-N Earth Day today!

We were hugging trees and singing songs all of last week, so today was time to get to work and show a little bit about we had learned.

We read both of these books last week:
and today we focused on the book Tell Me, Tree by the fabulous Gail Gibbons!

I quickly whipped up this little craft to go with our non-fiction book about trees:
We read the book again, stopping to add facts to a group bubble map, and then we recorded some facts we learned onto the leaves of the craft!

The following are examples of how much more creative my kids are than me - ha! I had the teacher example (shown above) on display and without any prompting my kids were showing me up big time with their creative trees!
 Why didn't I think of roots?!

 A labeled diagram - SO cute!

 Rainbows and tulips!

Horizontal paper WITH rain?!? I was floored with this one.

Even though Earth Day is over, you can still snag this little freebie from my TPT store for a little non-fiction writing activity. Or just stash it away for next year!

We also did both of these today:
Don't be a Litter Monster! - an ADORABLE book written by the talented Lyndsey Kuster. Click {here} to get her Earth Day unit.

"If we don't..." - Flipbook freebie by Cara Carroll. Click {here} to download. 
(I don't know why mine is horizontal... I think it is old from last year?)

How did you celebrate your Earth Day?!



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An emotional and busy FIVE FOR FRIDAY.

I love this linky, but I always seems to miss the boat... 

so here I am... late... but here!

This has been my week in random pictures:

{1}
My home. My heart. My family.
I have been pretty emotional this past week with all the craziness that has gone on in Boston. My family is safe, thank God, but unfortunately, the MIT officer who was killed was a classmate of mine from college. A sweet, man who ALWAYS wanted to be a cop and brought so many laughs to others around him. While the madness is over for now, his family and friends are just starting their own journey without him. If you have an extra minute in your day please send a prayer to them back in Boston.
Rest in Peace - Sean Collier <3

Our entire school showed our support and love for Boston yesterday by wearing our running shoes:
This made my heart happy.


{2}
I got a haircut. Bangs. Ahhhh! I love them, but I haven't had them in about 5 years so it was quite a change from my usual 'do! (Don't mind the picture - I.is.no.good.at."selfies")
Whatcha think?!
Most of my kids loved it... most of them...

One of my sweet girls was staring at me Monday morning.. like really staring... 
 "Em, whatcha lookin' at??"
"Your hair.... (picture Em with stink face)"
"Do you like it?? I got it cut!"
"No. I do NOT like it (still with stink face)"
"Well.... it's okay - you will get used to it!"
"I will N-E-V-E-R get used to it. You used to be pretty!"

6 year olds.... oy! It's a good thing we are learning about writing our own opinions! Now, I should teach them when to keep their opinions to themselves - ha!

{3}
Speaking of opinions, we have had these nasty lovely little critters in our classroom all week:

We did a little opinion writing about insects from my Butterfly Unit:
It was pretty split in my classroom - half of them LOVED insects and the other half HATED them. They had fun sharing their opinions and providing reasons for them though!

{4}
We also played some math and language games from my butterfly unit as well.
My kids needed maaaaajor practice with adding and subtracting 10 from 2 digit numbers in their heads. They can use a number line, their fingers, or their hundreds chart like pros... but identifying that 10s place and adding or subtracting a 10 from it mentally... was WAY hard for them. Thankfully, this game helped a bunch:

 We also needed some practice with inflected endings:
This game was helping us practice adding -ing to root words and determining when to double the middle consonant and when not to!

{5}
Last, but not least, I am so excited to have my practicum student, Ms. Paddy!
She is so much fun and my students loveeee her. She is doing a fun unit on plants and the kids are in the process of growing their own lima beans.
Check back in the next couple weeks to see more on Ms. Paddy's plant unit!

Well.... I have lots to do today... so I will leave you here!
Make sure to check out Kacey's linky by clicking the button below:



6

Butterflies! and a freebie!

Last week we got our classroom butterflies and the kids are SOOOO excited!

We have already read a few butterfly books, watched a BrainPop Jr. video (they are obsessed), and began our butterfly observations:
 
"I am wondering..."

After we watched the BrainPop Jr. Butterfly video, we wrote down some facts we learned about butterflies:

We will be studying butterflies for the next couple of weeks so I created a bunch of Common Core aligned activities to go along with our unit:

 Here is a sneak peek at some of the activities inside:

Diagrams/Posters/Printables


Literacy & Math Centers


Writing Prompts


If you'd like to read more about my Butterflies unit you can click here or on the picture of the cover above!

This unit will be on sale through Monday :)

PS - I have turned the observation booklet portion of this unit into a FREEBIE on TPT! Click the image below to download it!



Have a great week!


3

Poetry Month!

Poetry month is here and my students are letting their creativity fly!

After teaching all the different types of poems with a structured lesson, I just let them go and have fun! They have been loving the freedom of poetry and they amaze me with their poems. During our Daily 5 my students are often found writing allllllll sorts of poems and reading their poems to others. They also love getting to *snap* their applause at the end of a poetry reading instead of clapping. I went through my students' poetry bins and pulled a few for out bulletin board. It is not finished yet... but this is how it looked when I left school today!

The beginnings of our bulletin board:

Here are a few of the poems up close:
Sleepover - Acrostic

Spring - Acrostic

Cinquain

Burning Popcorn! - Sensory poem

Shape Poems:



^The flower one is meant to be read from the bottom up^

SO cute! I love looking at students' writing and these poems have made me so proud! They have really expressed themselves and even my struggling writers had fun with this.

All the poems taught and published were from my Writing Poetry for Primary Grades unit available on TPT. There are still plenty of other poems we are going to get to throughout the month. We also need to finish that bulletin board!

Click on the image below to get my poetry unit:

Do you teach poetry in your classroom? Do you LOVE it like I do?!?


7

Giveaway winner!

Winner, winner chicken dinner!! Lyndsey and I have picked the winner of our Hello, Spring giveaway!

The winner is Veronica Porche! CONGRATULATIONS!!! We will be e-mailing you shortly.
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Thanks to everyone who played along. Be sure to still go check our our TPT products by clicking on the links below.
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Thanks to everyone that entered and thanks to my giveaway partner, Lyndsey!!
Love you all!

Happy Sunday!
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