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

You Rock Award and a Give-Away!

Last week at this time I was walking along the shores of Lake Erie collecting rocks.  I didn't know for sure what I'd do with them, but they were too tempting to leave there.  Most of them fit neatly in my pocket. All had been warmed by the sun and I hope that the memories they provide will warm my heart.  When I got home I realized I had not bought a souvenir for my son.  I took one of the rocks and wrote "you" on the bottom (Don't ask how I knew it was the bottom!) and handed it to him.  It is true....He rocks!

Someone else out there rocks, too!  Her name is Renonda and she blogs at Snickety Things!  She makes gorgeous cakes, reviews books, crochets and shares patterns among other delightful things.  She has become my friend and the first recipient of my "You Rock" award!  She has stayed up late at night with me and guided me through bloggy issues!! She even made me a crocheted owl because she knows how I feel about owls!   She has helped me in so many ways with her kind comments and encouragement.  She will get this award in the mail any day now!  Thanks for being you, Renonda. May you display this proudly....

Renonda, please be sure to let me know which book you want!
You get a book, too!!

Now that I have 50 followers, I feel obligated to have a give away.  I'm so thankful for everyone who has taken the time to read my ramblings!  Here is one more for you to read:

What am I giving away?  Three surprise packages with a book from the Book Fair!  Other goodies will be included in the packages.  I just ask that you follow me and leave a comment below letting me know which of the books you would like.   You all rock!!

Which book would YOU like?

 


 I only have thirteen days left with my sweeties!  I'm going to make every day packed with learning!!

Jenny




a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Chickadee and a Worm Freebie!

This chickadee is busy building his nest.

Each year I travel with my sisters to try and see as many birds in one location as possible.  We wish we could do a big year together, but because of other responsibilities we just can't do it...Maybe someday! If you don't know what a "Big Year" is I highly recommend the book "The Big Year" by  Mark Obmascik. I returned yesterday from our "Big Weekend" exhausted and sore from hiking and straining my neck to see more birds.  I won't bore you with too many bird pictures, but I will share this picture these pictures that made me think of my friend Laurie at Chickadee Jubilee.

How can you not love these cheerful little guys?

I do have over 200 pictures of my trip and I will be sharing them at my blog devoted to mostly birds.  If you love birds you can check out my other pictures in the coming weeks! I'd Rather Be Birding is the blog where I let my bird geekiness out!  I promised I wouldn't mention any more bird activities this year.  So I won't tell you about the Chickadee and Hawk game we played during our break.  I won't mention how it is a lot like Duck Duck Goose.  I wish I could tell you how "It" is a chickadee and says chicka-dee-dee-dee and on the last dee the person they touch turns into a hawk and tries to catch them. You'll have to wait until next year to find out that the chickadee is safe if it makes it all the way around the circle and sits down in hawk's place.  I bet you can hardly wait until next year to find out how to play this game that teaches kids about predator and prey in the bird world...sigh!

Looking through a compost pile for earthworms.

Isn't it cute?

Do you know how hard it is to measure worms?  I'll be glad to use
ones that aren't quite so squirmy and made out of yarn!

Today we started learning all about worms.  I promise a couple of posts about this.  Here are a couple of pictures to whet your appetite for more wormy ideas...

Finally here is a Fact or Fiction activity that I'll use with my students tomorrow.  We'll be reading Diary of a Worm.  Today we read a non-fiction book called Wonderful Worms. Tomorrow we'll be writing poetry...our first draft and deciding whether statements are fact or fiction...Here's a link for you if you'd like a freebie for studying worms!  

Worms Worm WORMS! Freebie!

Enjoy these wonderful last days of school.  Love the students that are precious in His sight.  I pray they are precious in your sight, too!

Jenny

Verb Birds

I had to extend our bird unit into this week.  I am My students are so into it that we had to keep going.  Yesterday when I saw  Chickadee Jubilee’s post I knew I had to write some bird poetry.  We haven’t done as much poetry this year as I would like and I knew my students would benefit from this activity because we are also learning about verbs.  The poetry frame originally came from WritingFix.  I used paintbrushes instead of marbles because I didn’t have any marbles at school and I forgot mine at home.  We pretended that the brushes were feathers and now I’ve made a mental note to use feathers when  I reapeat this craftivity in the future.

Just like the Chickadees we Owlets read the book Birds by Kevin Henkes again.  This time we listened for and recorded the verbs we heard as we read.  Then we made the verbs  fly across the paper before we painted what we thought the sky would look like if birds left paint behind when they flew. We all hooted with pleasure as we hung our finished projects up for others to admire and learn from.

My owlets have always loved speech bubbles, so today as we finished up another project we used them to reinforce the idea that verbs are what a noun does.  Each child made a bird with a foot and handprint.  They used markers to add the details.  I placed the birds on a blue background.  I added speech bubbles and the owlets told me what their bird could do. 

A whole flock of verbs!

I saw this idea somewhere on Pintrest.  It looked more.....hmm
professional when I saw it!

Don't you love this Hummingbird!

This has been a rough week.  My owlets are getting restless and branching out.  They are ready to fly. Tempers have flared, and arguments have erupted over play-dates and birthday parties.  I found that my patience ran low, too.  Today the sweetness of three students made me smile and remember why I do what I do.  One child, who loves to test me said, “You are so cool!  I love you.”  Another left a note on my desk that said, “Mrs. Reck I love you as a teachur and a purson.” Another student returned to give me hugs during the afternoon because, “I’m going to miss you so much, tomorrow!”  Not too many people have that happen on their jobs.  

Daily Review and Teacher Appreciation!

Me and my Firsties looking for birds on our field trip last week!  What a hoot we had!

What do you think about my new look?  I think it is amazing!  Thanks to my friend Snickety Things and Digital Bakeshop graphics I have a whole new look!  Blogging has given me a great new friend who I wish was my neighbor.  She has helped me over and over.  I hope someday we can meet up for lunch!

I am so excited....I sold a product on TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers!)  I made 15 cents.  Because of my instant wealth I've decided to share my Daily Review with you.  It will be available through my blog all week for Teacher Appreciation Week.  After that I'll ship it over to my TPT store.

When my students come in in the morning they . . . "Put their folder in the hold and get their Daily Review.  It's sitting on my desk waiting for you them!"  Daily Review is just as the word implies...A review of past objectives and a reinforcement of lessons taught.  Each day of the week I have students skip count by a different number, write the date, write the weather, write the number of days we have been in school and well look for yourself!

The handwriting lines are for students to write their own original sentence or to answer the question of the day in a complete sentence.

If you Would like a weeks worth click on the link to get it freeeee all week long. Here is a week of Daily Review just for you! ( I hope this link works...Let me know if it doesn't!)  While they are doing the review, I take lunch count and check folders for any messages or homework.  If there is time left I have students read their fluency passages to me.  They have twenty minutes to try to complete the review.  Early finishers become rug readers...They sit on the rug and read.  They get to choose from books I have put in a basket on the rug. Then we are ready to start our day of growing and learning!
Teachers, I appreciate you and what you do for all the precious children in your care and keeping.  May you be appreciated over and over all week long!!
Jenny

MORE Birds!!

All week the weather man tried to scare me away from taking a field trip today.  Storms, rain, wind...They promised everything necessary to make an outside in the woods hike seem out of the realm of possibility.  What a glorious day we got!  In West Michigan along the shore the weather was PERFECT.  Warm...Check!  Sunny....Check!  Now imagine sitting on a quiet bench enjoying the tranquility of the dunes.  Suddenly, a mob of first graders goes tearing down the dunes and scares every bird and animal away within a five mile range!  But they're happy, so it doesn't bother you one bit!  The funniest part of the whole experience to me was my firsties fear that we might see a fox on our hike!  I soon feared that we wouldn't see even one bird!

Only one horrible moment occurred on the whole outing...Wait, two!  The first one was when I turned on my camera and saw . . . "no memory card"!  You have got to be kidding!  I have no pictures of the Bluebirds, Towhees, Goldfinches, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Black-throated Green Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, or first graders to share with you.  Do I have to tell you about the other?  Well.....The State Park is getting ready for their annual plant sale.  Earlier, I had pointed out some of the plants that they had for sale.  Somehow, a  Prickly Pear Cactus lost a leaf.  Some kids found it and picked it up.  In a wonderful teaching moment I said, "When your done, pass it to the next person!"  Have you ever handled a Prickly Pear?  They are prickly.  Two girls took on most of the damage and I spent half an hour pulling out prickers back at school.  I told the kids that they had to do three things today....Stay safe, have fun, and learn something.  We all learned that Prickly Pears are.....PRICKLY!  What are cactus doing in Michigan, anyway?


I have to share the books that we read today before our trip.  The first book I had never heard of until I read about it on Mrs. Quimby's Readers and Writers.  As soon as I read about it I ordered it from Amazon.  I love Keven Henkes.  I treasure this book written by him and illustrated by his wife, Laura Dronzek.  Birds is perfect for first grade. I had only one student who didn't like it because "it didn't really tell a story."  ( I'm proud of her for not being afraid to state her opinion!)  I thought the illustrations were one of the best things going for the book, but I also enjoyed the simple text and imaginative ideas expressed in the book.  Her is my favorite page(s)!

One of the things I HATE about Amazon is that they give you bad ideas....Okay this one was a good one!  I had to get this book, too.  I am so glad that I did.  The pictures....gorgeous.  The text ... Simple!  About Birds A Guide for Children is beautifully written by another husband wife team.  The pictures are so gorgeous, I had to share one with you.

Gorgeous pictures...Simple text....All of my firsties love this book!  We heard
the Oven Bird today...No chance of seeing it!

Now, are you ready for firsties projects?  On my last blog I posted a link to grab my bird unit. Here is my very own firsties research projects.  You can get this from my blog for free or if you really want to buy it you can visit my TPT store!  I am so proud of my students....

 Have you made it to the very end of this very long post?  I am impressed!  Leave a comment . . . You might win a prize or a new follower!!

I had a very odd experience today.  I typed my blog address into the address bar and was told my blog had "issues" because of my association with shabbyblogs.  Has this ever happened to you?  I did push the panic button and figured I'd never be able to use my blog again.  But I calmed down took a deep breath and said goodbye to my lovely owl background.  I now have to figure out how to get a suitable background in place. Boo HOOOooooo I miss my owls!

Some Thoughts and Birds!

KPM Doodles....Love!

I have noticed that in my class the children who have teachers as parents know exactly how many weeks, days, and hours are left in the school year.  Is it because their parents have a sense of urgency about making sure the students in their care are ready for the next year?  Is it because their parents are dreading the end of the year and saying goodbye to students who have come to be a part of their learning community that supports and encourages each other?  Maybe it is because the parent/teacher can't wait to spend some quality time with their own children.  If might even be the parent/teacher is feeling weary and needs the summer to refresh, restore and relax!  If the parent/teacher happens to be me...It is a combination of all of the above!

Being a parent has helped make me a better teacher.  With the end of each day I ask myself, "Would I have found my own teaching acceptable for my own child."  Most days I can honestly answer, "Yes!"  I have great children.  They encourage, accept and love me!  More than once I have heard all three say, they wish I had been their first grade teacher.  That makes me swell with love and joy.

Being a teacher has made me a better parent!  I have some amazing parents. They encourage, support and reinforce classroom learning in their own homes.  It has made me be a more engaged parent.  I can ask myself, "Would I want my students to have a parent like me?"  I'm working on it...I'm trying to guide without being over bearing and encourage without being pushy.  I pray each day that they will grow to be filled with the joy of knowing God has blessed them in body, mind and spirit.  I love being a mom and a teacher.

Now you probably think I'm going to share something for Mother's Day...Nope!  I want to share my developing bird unit with you.  Did I mention I am a bird....nut?  It's true.  My other blog is all about birds. I'd Rather be Birding is a blog that ends each post with..."I'd rather be birding...."
Click here for Bird Unit! Here!

A couple of pages from my expanding bird unit!

A continuing issue for me is no windows in my classroom.  I came up with a solution today that made the whole class happy.  allaboutbirds.org is a website with lots of great bird resources.  They sponsor a web-cam that streams live video of a Red-tailed Hawk's nest at Cornell University.  My firsties loved watching the young hawks being fed pigeon meat.  I heard lots of awwwwes!  When I project the image onto my whiteboard I have a window with a view!

I'm looking forward to sharing some more bird action with you later this week.

Check this out on allaboutbirds.org.  You'll fall in love with these little fluff-balls!

Jenny-Wren (A fitting nickname given to me by my Dad!)