You're a Mean One, Miss Smith...

Okay so this week I've totally given in to the holiday madness and have started playing Christmas holiday songs at various times during the day. Like in writing workshop. And in math. And when the firsties won't stop talking. I just turn the music up really loud so I can't hear them and pretend they are diligently writing complete sentences with capitals and periods. No, not really, but I do keep bribing them with the music to keep them quiet and make sure the music is super low so one kid will invariably complain and I can say, "Maybe you should stop talking so you can hear the music?"

Which brings me to my thorn for today. I spent all Monday day and afternoon (okay technically night since I stayed at school until like 7:30) Cricutting away crafts for the kids to assemble during reading. We made Cara Carroll-inspired Grinches as a reading response for "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," where they had to say what made them feel like a Grinch. Yesterday I modeled the response (I feel like a Grinch when my first grade friends don't sit criss cross applesauce on the rug and talk when I'm reading a story,"), had volunteers share some of their responses ("My sister doesn't help me clean our room," "My brother scratches me,") and thought all was weel in the world. THEN, today I ask who would like to share what they did during reading. Here is what one my precious students wrote for his Grinch:

WHAT?!!! I had a moral crisis. Am I a Grinch? Do I really yell? 

In my defense, here's what I think happened:

1. Someone at the table figured out how to spell "yell"
2. Everyone copies word "yell" to show that they know how to spell it, too.

And, little firstie, the only time I came close to yelling was during the Thanksgiving Feast saga when you were all crawling on top of each other throwing corn at each other. Totally justified.

I gave them all Lifesavers at the end of the day to make myself feel like I wasn't such a Grinch--didn't work, I still feel Grinchy. Tomorrow I am determined to change this student's mind (and definitely change his paper when he isn't looking.)

But at least the Grinch is ADORABLE!

Countdown to Christmas!

I can't believe that it is already December--and that I have survived report cards, parent teacher conferences, Halloween, and Thanksgiving--although that last one cut it close.

Good news: I really am starting to like first grade. Case in point: When I told them the plot of a book was like a roller coaster, they pretended like we were on a roller coaster. When I told them we were going to "go on a plane to go to Mexico" to learn about Christmas around the world, they squealed when I gave them their "airline tickets" and proceeded to practice saying "Feliz Navidad," so I would let them off the plane. (What a mean stewardess I am!)

Bad news: I have a chronic hatred of the mundane/I hate looking at my room for too long and I constantly want to rearrange/change how I have things set up. This means a lot of late hours at school/indecisiveness on my part. I keep telling myself that it just keeps the kids on their toes, too.

I have a trillion cute pictures documenting the past three months, but I'll only put up a few of our things. Any students' faces have been blurred in iPhoto, I do not have any ghosts in my class. I think next time I'll find a less creepy way to post the pictures.

My old word wall above their cubbies... discarded for a more interactive, accessible word wall courtesy of pinterest, dollar tree cookie sheets, and a ton of adhesive.

New and improved word wall!

Celebration after reading "Shark in the Park," we took out our telescopes to the pond to see if we saw anything exciting.

Melted, unconsumed iced coffee... I've stopped even trying at this point.

Imagine if they were actually older and I had to grade essays...

Coins are really tough--but we do know a lot about them.

Building a skip counting ladder

Character traits activity with the Hallowiener-adorable and hilarious!

Math partners working with coins

I nearly had a heart attack when I saw how long we had been in school-now we're already at 63 days.

Spicing up our writing with fancy words!

Working on our reading strategies

My personal two favorite strategies

Gorgeous new book boxes

Topiced and leveled library

Guided reading materials-yes, that is a princess tiara you see. If I'm wearing it, they can't talk to me because I'm working with one of my readers!

Thanksgiving placemats and number story activity-came up with it last minute

Thanksgiving feast- courtesy of Boston Market. Never thought this day would end-Native American headdresses flying everywhere, vests getting ripped, kids crawling on the floor, shouting for macaroni and cheese-nightmare.

I swear these photos were not posed- they really love reading and know exactly what to do!

Building towers with sight words

Reading with a buddy- elbow to elbow, knee to knee, book in the middle so they both can see

Disguised turkeys!

Finally, our latest adventure in Everyday Math is measurement-hence, we're tracing a "foot."

Usually I'm struggling to come up with activities to last throughout the week, but since there are adorable ideas on Christmas on pinterest, so now I'm off to cram in a zillion crafty cute ideas into the two weeks before break. (College really did spoil me, all my grad school friends are finishing up classes this week. So proud they've made it through their first semester and can't wait until I get to complain to them about my grad school when I get to it.)

More pictures and updates to come, and I will update more than just every 3 months...

Finally an update

I finally decided to update so this doesn't turn into my summer camp diary... So today is the 11th day of school! Thank goodness we do the calendar every morning so we're keeping painstaking count of the days.

I'm getting more into the swing of things, but it's still hard to do certain things that I never did in student teaching. First graders are so much tinier than fourth graders! It's hard to teach phonics especially because the last time I had any sort of phonics-related instruction was sophomore year of college, and having a real job was such a distant pipe dream at that point anyway.

I had back to school night last week--I think I blacked out just like I did when it was time to walk on stage to get my diploma. I was rewarded for BTSN with a payday--I'd forgotten I was actually going to get paid for this!--and we got to wear jeans!

I think the children are trying to give me Chinese water torture. Every time they leave the room, one of them leaves the water on just a little bit. Forty minutes into my prep later, I realize why I'm so annoyed and finally get up to turn off the water.

We had our first whole school assembly today. It made me think of student teaching and camp--I was temped to dive into the middle of my class to be better able to control them. At least I didn't have to wrestle flash lights out of their hands!

I completely forget everything else we've done every day, so the rest of this post will be 100% pictures!

TEN MINUTES AND 30 SECOND RECORD! <3 <3 <3

Heart maps to help us think of writing topics

Everyday Math Games!

An actually cleaned off desk in time for BTSN

I realized today I leave incredibly dangerous things ALL around the room...

Chinese Water Torture

We <3 No, David!