Currently and a Freebie(s)!

I am pretty excited to join up with over 200 other bloggers and Farley to let you know what is happening CURRENTLY! This is my first time linking up,  though I have enjoyed reading many of the  other "Currently" posts from previous months. Some of my favorite blogs have been found hanging out with the "Currently" gang.

It's no secret that I love owls. One of my students asks me every day why I love owls so much. Of course I tell them because they seem so wise and they remind me that Only With the Lords Strength can I do all things! Phil. 4:13. 

 Owls are everywhere in my room this year and even out in the halls. When we walk through the halls we follow the ways of the OWL and you can too! Click on the picture to download a free copy!

Three times a week I get to go read with 7th and 8th graders. Our first book is one of my favorites. How can you not love a book that says, “What a pity every child couldn't learn to read under a willow tree...”  I try to incorporate the daily 5 each day...Word Work, Read to Self, Read to a Partner and Listen to Reading are going well. They have another teacher for English who handles the writing, though we do quite a bit of writing, too! 

Finally, I Have a game for you. I love to share! I hope you enjoy this letter sound I Have Who Has Game! Click on the link to get a copy for your classroom. Click on the pic(k) to get yours!

Monster Mania! Freebie!

I came so close to having Monsters as my theme this year. When I got a comment from Greg at Smedley's Smorgasboard I started to question my decision. (Thank you, Greg for your comment. We could be twins. I have another twin out there and we don't have the same mother, either!)  I'm not switching. I'm staying with owls. I once considered a job change to a different school and a wonderful person gave me this advice: "Make your choice. Love your choice." I'm pretty good now at sticking with the choices I make without saying, "I should have." This friend went on to say, "Never run away...Only run to." I stuck it out one more year at the school I was at and loved every moment of it. I then got a job offer back home in Michigan the next year and it was a definite run to situation for me! I love where I am. I love what I'm doing.

Owls will rule come fall, but we will have time for monsters, of course. I have a class that is comprised of mostly boys, so how could I NOT have some monsters show up? Have you ever read Mo Willems book Leonardo the Terrible Monster? 

It is one of my favorites! I love what a terrible monster Leonardo is. What makes a good monster, anyway? Do you have any students who ever act like "terrible monsters"? I didn't think so! If you did you might want to click on this link to get a FREE Monster Game and FREE Monster I have. Who has? game!!

Greg, I know you don't have any monsters for students, but you might enjoy some of these activities anyway!!

I've got to go to bed or I'll be a monster tomorrow!

We're Going out of 1st With a Bang!

Do you find yourself walking around blogging inside your head?  I seem to have a constant "post" going.  The only thing is sometimes by the time I sit down to put it on "paper" my thoughts have vanished or don't sound quite a good on "paper" as they did in my mind.  Right now I have some many posts and ideas going on inside my head that there aren't enough school days left to capture them all before the final bell rings.

"We're going out of 1st and into 2nd with a bang!"
If you look closely, you can see me with my twin sister..
Super Reader!

A teacher friend said to me the other day, "You mean you're still teaching?!"  I said that I was and that first grade was going out with a bang.  We are doing the "pop a balloon every day until the end of school" activity that has been all over Pintrest.  I took some of our favorite activities and wrote them on slips of paper.  Then I placed the papers into twelve balloons and had my twelve owlets blow the balloons up.  They pop one each day at the end our time together to find out what we'll do the next day. I draw their names to see who gets to do the popping. So far we've had free-time, a walk in the woods and tomorrow... a morning recess... Yep, I'm getting a lot of teaching in!

I must mention that this nature-lovin' teacher used the walk in the woods as a great opportunity to talk about endangered species.  Most children think that endangered only applies to animals.  It was with great excitement that we discovered three Lady-Slipper orchids growing in "our" woods.  We were also able to collect Monarch caterpillars to observe and we learned a little more about tree identification!

Sooo beautiful!

Actually we did accomplish quite a bit today.  My owlets love "I have___ who has___?" activities, so I came up with one that has a worm in it to finish up our worminess!  I looked for a book that I used to  have called Under the Sky.   I could find a picture of it...But not the book!

I remembered enough of the book that I was able to write out the gist of it on sentence strips.  I passed them out and let the fun begin.  I created a document that will allow you to have some fun in your room, too!  We practiced it a couple of times and tried to get faster and faster.  This really helps my students who have trouble staying on task or listening during group instruction. Everyone has to be ready to read their statement so the next person can jump in with theirs.  If you've never tried a sequencing activity like this, give it a try! The Under Over Story!!  

This may look boring, but it's good clean fun!!

I ran out of pockets!!

Don't forget to enter my give-away! One day left!!

Owl Yours,

Jenny