Monday Made It 7.29.13

At the end of last school year we decided to do a fish theme for our classrooms for back to school.  We love the theme O'fish'ally in First Grade!  After heading to the teacher supply store and finding no good fish decor, we searched Pinterest looking for "fishy" ideas to use in our classrooms.  We found these super cute fish:


We love how colorful they are and thought they would look great "swimming" on the wall outside of our classrooms.  We found the colored party plates at Walmart for only $1 a pack!  We were able to get lots of great, bright colors.  Here are our fish so far:



We LOVE them!  We're sure you will see the whole school of them once we get them hanging up outside of our classrooms!

Last week we also made a Facebook page for our blog!  Come follow us over there!

Junie B. Reading Response Journal Freebie

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Junie-B-First-Grader-at-Last-Reading-Response-Journal-785075

We've been busy working on another project from our to-do list!  Our kiddos LOVE our Junie B. read alouds!  We've tried other books, but they just don't enjoy them as much.  They just make special connections to Junie B.!  So...after our first year with common core we thought these reading response journals would be a great addition to our literacy work.  We've created the journals to have tasks that are just right for our 1st graders.  We are super excited to use them for the upcoming school year and want to share one with anyone else who is a Junie B. fan!  They are super easy to use in the classroom and don't need tons of paper...just cut down the middle to make 2 at a time!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Junie-B-First-Grader-at-Last-Reading-Response-Journal-785075http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Junie-B-First-Grader-at-Last-Reading-Response-Journal-785075
Click the picture above to grab the journal for Junie B., First Grader (at Last!) for free!!  If you love it, check out our store for more!


10 Things We've Learned from Teaching





Ten Pin Linky: Writing Ideas

We're linking up with Ashley to share our favorite writing idea pins!

LOVE this How-To idea!!  We tried how-to blow a bubble with gum this past year, but discovered lots of our kiddos couldn't blow a bubble (didn't think about that)!  This idea is fun and something our kiddos should be able to do...

This idea from Kelly at Teacher Idea Factory is darling!  I bet the kiddos LOVE to see themselves doing this!

Love this organizer to help kiddos start to sequence events for personal narratives and add details.

Another GREAT How-To kiddos would love!!

This is an interesting perspective on an emergent learner's spelling for parents.

This could be turned into a great lesson to show kiddos how important details are to their writing.

This is great for back to school!  Give kiddos a small container of playdoh, let them play and make, then write about what they made.

Great book to start writer's workshop at the beginning of the year!

This is a cute way to organize sharing time for writing.

Love this anchor chart!

Simple Science: Fun and Easy Science Experiements for Primary

We love to have a Simple Science Experiment every Friday.  This is an easy way to boost practice of experimentation, exploration, and observation in the classroom.  Plus, they are SUPER fun and allow for student participation! Come see some of our favorites and grab a recording sheets for your kiddos to use!