What Do You Love?

  Funky First Grade Fun is having a linky party today! You're supposed to answer the questions about what you are currently loving. Sounds fun! And, it's just in time for Valentine's Day!

1. I love to watch movies with: my friends! We are some movie-watching gals and we even have a weekly movie night! Unfortunately, we've all been a little busy and haven't had as much time to watch movies. But, that's getting remedied: tonight! Here's what we're watching...

We love any and all Harry Potter movies!

2. I love to read books: in bed! There's nothing better than laying in bed on a Sunday afternoon and reading a good book. I've been reading The End of Molasses Classes lately and I can't put it down! I know we can't all start our own schools and do the radical things Ron Clark does. But, man. He brings up so many good points and he truly understands what's important about teaching: relationships. This book is inspiring me to be a better teacher. I HIGHLY recommend it!

3. I love to shop for: my new house! I am always on the lookout for cute lamps and pillows and paintings and rugs. I've taken a little break lately because I've been so consumed with school. But, believe me. There's quite a list of stuff I'm searching for. Beginning with a chair. I'm thinking something like this:



4. I love to collect: DVDs! I have a lot. Like, a whole lot. I got started buying seasons of TV shows a few years ago and just can't stop! Whenever Target has a big sale, I buy them for $9.99. I have Friends, Will and Grace, Glee, Modern Family, Desperate Housewives, almost all of the Real Housewives seasons, I Love Lucy and a bunch of seasons of Survivor. And, that's probably not even half of it. The good news is that I get my money's worth because I watch them ALL THE TIME!



Friends will always and forever be my favorite.

5. I love to listen to: OneRepublic! I think they're my absolute favorite. I mean, I named my blog The Good Life! I also really like listening to Glee cd's. In my classroom, we listen to a lot of classical music, Jackson 5 and Disney tunes :)



This is my favorite Glee cd. I adore The Warblers.

6. I love to eat: fast food. I know, I know. It's so bad for you. But, it's so yummy! My favorites are Back Yard Burgers and Zaxby's. MMmmm.



(I'll be right back....)

7. I love to talk about: reality tv! My friends and I spend a lot of time discussing all  of the tv shows we watch every week.We especially discuss The Bachelor, Real Housewives, The Kardashians and Teen Mom.



Best. Show. Ever.

8. I love to make: graphic organizers and anchor charts. Call me a nerd. Ha. But, I really like creating activities for my little first grade friends to do.

9. I love to travel to: Disney World!!! It's literally my most favorite place in the entire world. I could go there a hundred times and I'd never get bored. It's so magical and fun!

10. I love to teach: writing. I'd say that is my absolute favorite thing to teach. It's the subject that I get to be the most creative with. And, it also seems like it's the subject where I get to see the most growth in my kids... which is exciting to see!

Okay, I think that's all. Head over to  Funky First Grade Fun to see more of what everybody loves!

Penguins and the 100th Day of School

  We've had some busy days in first grade lately! Here's what we've been up to:

We did a little unit on penguins this week. To say the kids enjoyed learning about our fine-feathered friends would be quite an understatement! We made a schema/new learning anchor chart to get us started.

(Sorry, my pics are a little blurry bc I took them with my phone.

 It's just been that kind of week.)

Next, the kids filled out a tree map about penguins.

Then, they filled out a picture/three facts graphic organizer.

We made some cute little paper plate penguins and the kids wrote their three facts on their bellies.

They turned out super cute!

Here they are hanging up on the wall.

Then, the next day, we celebrated our 100th day of school! The kids dressed up like they were 100 years old. And, since I can't post pictures of them on here, you're just gonna' have to trust me about how dang cute they were! I also decorated the door for them and they had so much fun going through it all day.

I think we're going to leave these streamers up for a while :)

I kind of like them!

We made some 100 year old people and then the kids wrote about what they'll look like when they're 100 years old. A lot of the teachers on my hall did this too... and, it was so fun to see how every class made them differently! Every class did such a cute job! Our hallway looks like an old folks home :)

When I was taking these pictures, I realized that I forgot to show you our door that we made when we got back to school in January. This definitely wasn't my idea: it was something that caught my idea from The First Grade Parade. I've had this idea tucked away since February of last year and couldn't wait to try it with my kiddos.

We wrote our goals for 2012 on New Years hats.

And, last but not least, I wanted to show you the cool murals that the 3rd and 4th graders I tutor after school made about the arctic. My friend Kristin and I teach reading and art to these kids two afternoons a week and we have sooo much fun! I'm super impressed by what a good job they did!

Pretty cool, huh?

Okay, I think that's all I've got for now.

Thanks for reading!

Some School Stuff...

  I just wanted to share a few of the fun things we've been working on in first grade since Christmas. I've been pretty much terrible aboout posting lately so I have a bunch of randomness that I have to get on here so that I'll be caught up. Soooo, here we go.

I'll start with our writing. We've been doing a ton of it lately. A few weeks ago, we used bubble maps to help us pre-write. I gave each kid a bubble map and they had to use it describe an animal.

Then, they used their bubble maps to write about their animals.

To continue our practice with pre-writing, I gave all of my kids one of those little round and white mints. They look like this:

(I had a TON left over from a Christmas acivity.)

They each drew the mint on the top of their paper and then had to make a bubble map to write facts about the mint.

Then, they used their maps to write about the mint. I also incorporated persuasive writing into this activity since it's one of our standards.

This one is my favorite, ha!

My little friend is obviously not a big fan of mints.

Moving right along...

I borrowed this ideas from Mrs. Saylor's blog. I love how she uses this technique to help her kiddos write great sentences. I made a little chart and we have been talking a TON about the difference between strong sentences and weak sentences. My kids are even calling out authors in books and saying that their sentences are too weak, ha. They love to hold their arms out like a body builder and tell me that strong sentences are long and heavy like a weight. I can see them trying to make their sentences stronger and it warms my heart. They are good little writers and now they're going to hopefully be even better!

We did a little unit on families about two weeks ago. I let my kids do a pre-writing activity about the members of their family (that I didn't get a picture of.) They had to write two facts about each family member. This was a good activity to differentiate because it was so easy to encourage my high babies to write more!

Next, they took their pre-writing and turned it into a story. When they were done writing, I gave them some people I cut out on the die-cut (sp?) and spread some scrapbook paper on the counter and let them make the people in their family. They turned out much cuter than I expected!

If you can't see their writing, click on the pictures to make them bigger :)

We also did a little unit on shadows. We talked a ton about how the placement of the sun effects the length of a shadow. So, I had my kiddos make a little graphic organizer to explain to me how it works!

Then, we read Bear Shadow by Frank Asch, which is an adorable book! We focused on finding the main idea and providing details about it. We verbally discussed what the main idea was and we kept retelling the story and pointing out the details. So, I made a little graphic organizer for them to complete. I was very proud of how well they did. They worked on these independently while I was doing guided reading.

Well, that's all I have to share right now. We're doing some cute Curious George things this week and penguins/birds next week so maybe I'll have more to share soon!

Thanks for reading!

A Long List

  Oh, man! I haven't blogged in forever! There's just been too much going on. I'm going to attempt to catch up by making a list... a long list. So, buckle up!

1. When I was Christmas shopping for my mom, I came across a sunburst mirror that I loved at Kirklands. I have seen this exact same mirror in tons of pictures on Pinterest.

 Like, this one:

and, this one:

And, the best part? It was $39! So, I grabbed two, of course! One for my mom and one for me. I put mine above my bed and I must say that I really like it!

2. I broke my phone yesterday. I dropped it on the concrete and it shattered. Like, it looks like a spider web.

AWESOME, huh?

The good news is that I went to Verizon to see what they could do (nothing) and I ended up getting a new phone:



an iPhone 4S!

I'm sooo excited! Although, I think I'm going to be sure and put this one in a case so it doesn't shatter. I'm thinking this one:

3. Reality TV is insane right now. Dance Moms is back and better than ever, I've been watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta religiously and I just heard that Leah from Teen Mom 2 is pregnant WITH TWINS again! Oh, and I saw a commercial for Bethenny Ever After last night. So, yeah. Good times. Ha.

4. My birthday was on Friday. And, we had a snow day! This is the second year in a row that I've gotten to miss school for snow on my birthday. Lucky, huh? It was a great day. I went to see my friend Tiffany's new baby, Lily. She was a DOLL. Then, a few of my friends and I went to see this in theaters:

I'm totally not ashamed to say I'm 27 years old and went to see this on my birthday! It was so fun! And, in case you were wondering, there were only adults in the theater: I only saw one kid! Ha.

5. I rearranged a little in my front room. I got a shelf thingy for Christmas that is still at my parents house until I can make room for it. So, I moved some stuff around and here's what it looks like now:

That wooden thing over the cabinet came from Pier 1 and I love it! Not sure what to do with it, though? Any ideas???

This side of the room is really bare. But, there are plans! The shelf is going to go over the black table and I need to get a new lamp for the table. Also, I'm going to eventually get a better chair for that corner. I just want to be patient and get something nice. So, the little rocker will stay for now.

6. In rearranging the front room, I had to slide one table into the den. And, I really like it in its new spot!

7. I'm going on a work-related trip this Friday-Monday. So, I've been busy doing laundry and packing. So, corners of my room look like this:

Fun times.

8. For my trip, I needed to get a carry-on bag and a cover for my Kindle Fire. So, I went in Mori Luggage and came out with these:

carry-on

Kindle cover

So, I should  be all set!

Okay, if you're still reading this, you're either family or extremely bored, ha! I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys their break today!