Alphabet Exchange: The Letter L!

Have no fear...The letter L is near! I'm participating with 25 other teachers across the United States in First Grade Found Me's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet exchange. Some of us are frantically making 26 of one letter to send to the other 25 teachers. In the end we will have a kid made collection of every letter of the alphabet from around the country. Tomorrow I mail our letters. Today I reveal one of them...

A lovely ladybug L!

Poetry Slam and Freebie!

I was going to link up with Barb at Grade ONEderful, but the collection is closed!! I thought I had one more day to squeeze myself into her monthly poetry slam. Would you like some apple poems anyway? I have one and Barb has a bunch...I mean a tree full. I'm sure she'd love you to stop by and pick some up. Head on over and tell her an owl sent you!

I love using poetry to teach reading. There are so many ways to introduce vocabulary, work on sight words, search for adjective, verbs and nouns and the list goes on and on! We read and re-read poetry every day and our lives are fuller and richer for it! Enjoy this original poem and a fun song, too! Click on the picture to get a copies of these sweet poems/song!

Have a great week!!

Do you love this clip art? Kari Bolt is AMAZING go HERE to check out her store!

When I get to Heaven...

Ugh! How do you do it? Cook...Clean...Teach...Parent...AND blog?! I'm feeling like a failure on all counts! Here is a comment that made me feel like a winner this week...

I got to share a special double rainbow with a student before school started this week!

Is that not awesome? I feel so blessed to have students who want to spend eternity with me! As I continued to circulate around the room listening to happy children's voices I was  overwhelmed by the love and simple trusting faith of children. I feel humbled and thankful that I have been able to nurture not just the 3 Rs in my student's daily life but also the faith that will one day bring us all back together to spend eternity with our friend and Savior, Jesus. Teaching in a parochial school may not always be financially rewarding, but when you get a chance to help mold souls for eternity the earthly rewards are suddenly not so important!

Would you like some  earthly rewards today? Come on over to my Facebook page and join the Frenzy. Amazing teacher authors have created fun fall activities just for YOU! Look for the Frenzy tab on the top of my Facebook page and follow along to get some great freebies!

Five For Friday...Freebie, too!

This morning message reader likes windy weather best!

1) I wish someone had told me how wonderful Morning Messages are! This is the first year I've written messages each morning to my class and I don't think I'm the only one lovin' it! They have provided a great way to build enthusiasm for learning and assess students prior knowledge. I feel like I teach more in our 15 minutes of meeting time than any other time during the day. Whether it is circling vowels in the message, counting letters in our name or finding out fall is a season and not a weather condition each child's response is important and provides valuable insight into their thinking processes. This resource has been so valuable...

I spent $19.80 on this book and it is worth every cent I paid for it! This book is filled with great ideas for not just messages, but also for activities to wake my Owlets brains up in the morning!

We found lots of long vowels in this message! 

Snow was a favorite weather for many...We always get plenty of it!

2) Ten's Day landed on the tenth of September...How cool is that? For one week the number of days we were in school was the same as the date. We set up our usual museum in the school library and I brought ten owls...of course!

The students thought it would be funny to pin me behind a bunch of chairs and
go out for coffee!

This curator explains that her collection of ten socks is clean!

3. Notice the iron- ons on the back of the shirts!  The first one
was for the first day of school and the second for the 10th day.
The next iron-on will commemorate our field trip to the apple orchard.

4) Did I say apple orchard? Yes I did! We'll be going there to PICK APPLES! Last year we went and looked at apple trees, but there were none to be picked because of late frosts in the spring. This year there are tons of apples to be picked...I can't wait! Here is a Freebie for you with an apple theme. I made it to help my students remember their double plus one facts and their double facts.

I know there isn't one apple in this picture, but there are in the other two!!

5) On day 13 we had our best ever Daily 5. I was able to read with many students who need some extra support for a great chunk of time. I caught some partner readers reading the room in quiet whisper voices. Isn't it amazing what students can do when you set high expectations? I feel so blessed with my class this year. They are kind, loving and thoughtful. They make getting up on Monday easy! Tomorrow I'll sleep in!

Off to link up with other Five for Friday bloggers...

Five for Friday: Deer, Lizards, Freebie, and Mystery Bird!

So my day just started out weird...I drop my daughter off every morning at high school on my way to work. (It is the first year in over ten years that one of my birth children has not gone to school with me!) Her school and my school are really close together like 1/4 of a mile at the furthest. anyway, first we see two police cars and then a baby deer flailing around on the ground. It was obviously hit by a car. Now I'm not a big fan of deer. They eat my flowers and shrubs. They carry ticks. They have taken over my backyard and NOTHING grows there except digitalis. Seeing that baby laying on the ground, hurt, brought tears to my eyes. Traffic is moving really slow. We are pretty much stopped right in front of the deer and the police cars. POP! Yes, they shot that baby deer right in front of my sensitive baby girl and then laughed. Not such a good start to the day. Two blocks down we had to stop for fire trucks. Lots of fire trucks. There is a house fire and we can see firemen surrounding the house and smoke billowing through the air. We probably should have turned around and gone back to bed. A ten minute drive took me about thirty today.

This is a common scene in my backyard! I have to admit they are beautiful.
My baby girl likes them a lot and really doesn't like seeing any animals hurt.

 For the most part things did get better. We had a surprise guest that fit perfectly into our Treasure's reader. If you have Treasures then you probably know the story about David making friends with a lizard. Today we all make friends with a lizard. He was really cool...

These two are reading David's New Friends to our new friend, Ricco!

He is gorgeous. This Bearded Dragon will live to be 10 to 11 years of age. He will grow to be about 22 inches in length.
Two students had arms that were 22 inches long. Some were shorter and two were 23 inches! Nothing beats
hands on learning. When we observe and record data we are scientists!

This group of students tried making a new habitat for  Ricco! They loved it when he knocked over
the blocks. Watching him eat crickets was pretty amazing, too!

I've lost count of my 5 for Friday, so I'm just going to do five pictures! Partly cause I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Before I go you can click HERE for a game that is perfect for playing during those times when you have five minutes to fill. I'm not sure why my owlets love it so much, but they do! I changed it today to "Leaping Lizards" We have played the same game, but I've named it different things!! 

I'm going to leave you with one more picture. Four plus one more is five after all. This is a picture of the first bird that came to our bird feeder. If you don't know what kind of bird it is please click on the picture and you will go see who my BBB is! You'll know why I was so excited that this was the first of what I hope will be many birds! I hope you linked up with DoodleBugs...It's always a good time!

Dragon into School!

I really wanted to have a dragon themed classroom this year. I just couldn't get past the idea that the kids would feel like they were being dragged into school every day. Read on and lost somewhere in this post is my actual theme for the year!

Finally I have a class to call my very own! I have waited, prayed and hoped for this for a loooong time! I get to spend the whole day with first and now second graders without having to say goodbye at noon. I think that they are happy about that, too! Yesterday I announced that I had good news and bad news. Which did they want first? After voting to hear the good news first they booed when I announced it was time to go home! "That's two bad newses!" Said one of my new owlets! Awww such sweet words. Now a nice long weekend to recover from loosing my voice....from too much singing and resting my face that hurts from too much smiling! Want to see some fun stuff? Read on!

Of course this lover of all things pink would have a "sparckale" dragon! 

 I never knew there was a name for this...Guided Drawing! My owlets get quite excited when we do this. I'm not sure if there are rules for it. I start with a shape or two and then we make a list of what we think it is going to be. I don't give any hints and no idea about what it is is a bad idea. I cannot draw without following directions, so I have all kinds of step-by-step books. When we have finished I have the class add details of color and or put the character in a setting. Finally we add a sentence or two telling about the picture. I could do this every day. I only do it once a week...I want the kids to get excited when we do it and not make it part of our daily routine.

My "theme" this year is "Showing S'more Kindness" so we have
chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallows all over the
place. I love that this creative genius showed a kind dragon helping
a princess roast marshmallows!

On another neat note...My class had fun with cleaning wipes this week. You would think it was a free-time activity with the excitement you could feel in the room. It started with one owlet wanting to use a wipe to clean off some marker from their desk at free time. Pretty soon look what happened...

I'm off to enjoy some shopping, cooking and celebrating of my Cranky Bear's birthday. Need some resources for guided drawing? Check these out!

Mrs. Miner has some awesome resourses and many are FREE!

Five for Friday/Thankful Thursday and a Hidden Freebie!

1) This is quiet possibly the worst Friday of the summer. I know Friday's can't possibly be combined with words like worst, but this one is! School starts on Monday. That means possibly the best summer of my life is coming to a close. On this Friday my son started the next chapter of his life. He travelled eight hours away from home today to start his college career. He is as far north as my daughter is south. Don't worry I still have one at home!

2) I get an e-mail from Mailbox magazine almost every day. I don't always open them. When I opened the most recent, I went straight to my classroom to complete this delightful way for students to let me know what they are having for lunch. Click on the picture if you'd like to have your own copy of the bear's head!

3) Did you see the full moon this week? WOW!! I actually got to snap this picture on the morning of it being full! Isn't it gorgeous?!

4) I made shirts from my class. They will be able to wear them on field-trips and special celebration days in our classroom. You can see my theme coming through loud and clear!

5) Now I have to say that I'm thrilled to link-up not only with Doodle Bugs but also Penguins and Peacocks to thank another blogger. I have someone to thank who I think is pretty awesome. I'm thanking Curious Firsties. I'm picking on Maria E especially! She gave me words of encouragement that meant the world to me this week. Curious Firsties is bursting with great ideas and if you aren't a follower you should be!

Can you think of someone to be thankful for? You don't have to wait until Thursday to say "Thanks"!

SHhhhhhh...If you made it to the end go ahead....scroll back up and click on the picture! There is a special freebie waiting just for you! If you like it leave a comment and give a clue about what it is!!