MIA

MIA- BIG TIME!!!!!

SORRY! folks for the long absence! I’ve been crazy busy as I‘m sure many of you are too! Honestly there isn’t enough time for me to get everything done on my “To Do List”.

I guess part of the reason I’ve been so behind is football games, house building and SHOPPING! HA! 

Hook 'EM \m/

Meanwhile progress is being made on our casita! 

We hope to be in our new home late November or early December...we'll see how that goes! STRESSFUL building a house! I rather it be when we go on Christmas VACAY!

SO let's do a little rewind...a bit of a modge podge of things because this is all I have seem to have captured on my iphone! BOO! 

I LOVE the Even & Odd activity that I borrowed from that sweet Mrs. Genius over at The Teacher Wife....I just heart her to death! Super cute activity! You can check it out here! 

A quick way I like to do an informal assessment with my mixed groups is to do a class Thinking Map and have each students come up with there individual contributions to our maps!

For example: (Circle Map below) Even and Odd numbers each student had to tell me their number before placing it on the map so I could see who was getting the concept or not. No help from their partners.

WE are crazy for Circle Maps...here are some examples of Circle Maps we have done earlier this year! I also have examples of what our Spanish students are doing in their L1.

I do want to share that we also take the information off the maps and turn it into a writing piece. I will make sure I capture more of our final writing products to share with y'all in the future. 

Here are some examples of our "Math About Me" Circle Maps...my math groups are mixed with English and Spanish students.

My homeroom students love to play "Maps Around The World"! 

It's like "Musical Chairs" except for I have some sort of "THINKING MAP" they must fill in with the skill we are learning. 

You could also do this activity with other subject areas. 

I use it TONS in Math!

 My homeroom class was learning about short a families. I used Circle Maps for each word family (5 short a families). 

They walked around the room in a circle (as I played music) and when I stopped the music they had to fill in the map they were closes to with a word that belonged in that particular short a family. 

They must also write down their name by the word they chose. It was a quick way for me to see who was still needing more guidance.

My Firsties LOVE this game! 

Here are some great examples of our Spanish students doing some writing in their L1-Spanish...beautiful handwriting! 

Christopher Columbus Brace Map:

I really love using the Brace Map for vocabulary...Whole to Part relationship...we did this craftivity during our 

Oral Language develepment block.

Vocabulary is key in any language so this is a great way to show how some words have different meanings based on the 

context they are used in. 

Example "BOW" I was so impressed with how much they knew about how many different meanings this word could have depending on how I pronounced it...AMAZING!!! 

In this case BOW- the front end of a boat or to BOW in the presence of a King or Queen (greatness)! 

SMARTIES I tell you!

I absolutley LOVE Kim Adsit's Hooray for Columbus Day! 

She is soooo AMAZING!! I truly love all her activities! 

I used her "Parts of the Santa Maria" for this activity. 

My bilingual pairs really enjoyed this craftivity!

Check out her blog over at Kinder-Gals!

Brace Map: Parts of an Apple

Bilingual pairs created their own brace map for this activity. 

Here is an example of each L1-English on the left. 

L2-English on the right. 

Okay so I had to share some of my homeroom activities because it is just so darn caaaute! Brace Maps for practicing their spelling words!

They have to come up with some of their own words that have the same phonics rule...check out "AFLACK"! Love it!!! 

They must also illustrate their words if possible... love the suitcase! 

They seriously MELT.MY.HEART!!!!!!!

How can you not keep a HUGE smile on your face day in and day out! I feel so very blessed to be a teacher...the rewards are endless!

Last Week of Summer School

I seriously had a FANTASTIC time workin’ summer school!

It was 16 days worth of extra activities inspired by all those AMAZING teachin’ BLOGs and a few I spotted on PINTEREST!

Time flew by and I was very thankful for the experience.

I will miss my soon to be FIRSTIES but I will see them soon!

Check out what we accomplished our last week…

We did this caaute little shark craftivity (found on PINTEREST) and learned many facts about sharks. 

We then put our favorite shark facts on smaller fish and placed them inside the shark's mouth.

Creating number sentences with seashells.

How cute are these crabs! Our Pre-K crew was workin’ hard thanks to Mrs. Haynes & Mrs. Mayer for all their awesome activities!

A close-up of Pre-K's Craftivities

Ms. Zamora had our soon to be FIRSTIES writin' some great facts about crabs. 

Wishin' everyone a GREAT summer! 

I will be doin' some plannin' for the next school year & gettin' my PINTEREST projects completed. 

Get your TEACH ON!

This and That to Share!

I just wanted to share a couple of things we have done in the classroom post PINTEREST took over my life! 

We have done many wonderful projects that I've discovered on this FAB site! However, I think I may have forgotten where some of the ideas originated. 

I sure don't want to upset anyone! If anything I have posted is your original idea PLEASE let me know and I will gladly give you props for it! 

 Ok, sooooo I was in hurry to start Christmas break or should I say more like "choir practice"! Teacher code for I need to unwind with an adult beverage. 

Our firsties made fact family gifts and peppermints! I am pretty sure most of y'all are familiar with "The First Grade Parade" and if not you need to click HERE and check it out! 

Mrs. Cara Carroll has a gift for CRAFTIVITIES and I am so THANKFUL she is always willing to share! They turned out super duper cute!

Shape Monsters were a big hit! First I had my sweeties make their "Shape Monster" then they had to write down how many of each shape they used to create their monster. 

Sentence Stem: "I used ______ circles." They wrote a sentence for each different shape. 

I'm pretty sure these cute little guys were Pinterest inspired :)

MLK Writing: 

I seriously have fallen in love with Reagan over at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits! 


Her Winter Art and Writing Packet is the "BOMB"! HA! Love it! 


All I can say is…you need to pick up a copy ASAP! One reason why...check out the pictures below :)! 

I read the books below. I did a whole group discussion asking them to come up with facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. from the books I read and we created a circle map. 

I have to remember to take pictures of our anchor charts! I will get better with this.... I pinky promise! Newbie here!

Penguin Unit: 

I have to say I LOVE this cute lil' penguin! This lil' guy is actually sold as a glyph but I used it differently. 


You can find your copy of the "Perky Penguins Glyph"-Kimberly Edgerton over at Creative Teaching (her glyphs are super cute)! 

I also used Cara's "Penguin Writing" over at The First Grade Parade. 
I read the book "If You Were A Penguin"-Wendell Minor. 

We discussed facts about penguins and then I asked them based off of the facts we read which ones would you NOT be glad to do as a penguin? 


Sentence Stem: I'm glad I am not a penguin because: I would not like to eat fish and squid.

FINALLY!! I get my student teacher on MONDAY!! YAY me!!! 


I stayed up at school until 8:30 in the evening reorganizing my room. 

I get very obsessed with placement so I have to do things like 20XXX...yes, I am OCD! 

I just want her to feel at home in our classroom... so I created a little nook area for her. It's still a work in progress...but I thought I would share.

Her "WELCOME" sign

Her lil' Small Group Area

Library/Listening Area (I promise there's books back there on a long shelf) HA!

Her name plate and some post-its & EXPOS!

My Small Group area back by the window ( keeps my Firsties awake)

I moved the Writing Center to the front of the room...curious to see how this will work.

Another view of the Writing Center...sorry, if they are blurry...I am buying a camera today (:

Shoot! I didn't realize how late it was...I am fighting a NASTY sinus infection and it keeps me up late at night and into the early morning hours. 


Have a great weekend! I plan to catch up on some much needed sleep!