Winter in Southern California!

Winter in Southern California might not have tons of snow (at least at the beach), but we do enjoy our winters.  Here in San Diego, we really don't have traditional seasons, but things do change.  Yes, we're babies when it comes to cold.  We wear UGG boots if the weather is in the 60's and I literally have to bring a blanket with me to pick up kids from practices in the evenings because I am freezing. Even my transplant friends adjust to the perpetual 70 degree weather and feel the pinch if it dips below.  All kidding aside, we are incredibly lucky to have most of our days be outdoor days. I am so grateful to be able to be able to see the sun most days.  Our lives are truly based on it, and I appreciate it every day.  Here are a few ways we spend our winters in So Cal:

Even though my daughter and I are just summer surfers, we still enjoy taking a walk with the boys on the beach. The beach is probably my absolute favorite thing about So Cal.  

Sunset walks with my littles are another favorite.  This is a shot of Torrey Pines State Reserve, seriously one of the most beautiful hikes in San Diego.

Water sports are another benefit of Southern California!  My daughter and a few of her friends went tubing (with wetsuits)!  

Outdoor fun keeps going with my little guy catching some air.  Skateboarding is HUGE here in Southern California.  Even though I literally cringe each time he does a trick, I love seeing how much he loves it! Thanks for hopping by on the blog hop!  Below is a link to my winter freebie.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/So-Cal-Winter-Freebie-Blog-Hop-2342928

Please continue the hop and head over to the  wonderful blog below to check out How Kristen Kalani enjoys her So Cal winter! http://www.easyteachingtools.com/2016/01/winter-in-so-cal-blog-hop-and-january.html a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five For Friday! January 15, 2016

1)  Second Week of FREE editable lesson plans.  Here they are:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Freebie-Editable-First-Grade-Lesson-Plans-With-Sample-Plans-2-2313980

2) Text Features Fun!

The kids had a ton of fun learning about text features this week.  They went on a scavenger hunt and LOVED playing the Build an Article game.  I really feel both of these things helped even my language learners understand text features much better.  Both activities are in my MLK unit (link below).

 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Close-Reading-and-Writing-Unit-with-Text-Features-2272644

3)  Our New Narrative Input Chart!

There is always a big excitement when we place our next narrative input chart up.  The kids love trying to guess what our next topic will be about!  I write stories that go along with our units that feature two characters, Kaya and Bob.  Bob teaches Kaya things by taking her on adventures.  The narrative always goes with our social studies and science units.  This idea came about from my class last year.  After the first one I did with Kaya and Bob, the kids kept asking for them.  So, I just decided they would become our class characters.  It worked great.  The kids love them like any other character from a series.  They are found in my science and social studies units as a unit opener.  I read the story that goes along with the pictures and then I write key notes and vocabulary on the chart while I'm retelling the story.  The subsequent days, we work interactively with the story focusing on vocabulary and background building.   As I'm writing this I just realized I forgot to add the sequence in the lesson plans above, but I will do chart before Being an American Unit.  There are 2 narrative input charts in that unit.   Link below: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Close-Reading-First-Grade-Being-An-American-1176650

4)  What's Inside a Number?

Starting place value with little guys is always fun!  They love the base ten blocks, beans, counters, and quick tens.  But, at the core, place value and having a good sense of numbers is absolutely essential to any math they will have from this point on.  I've always taught the kids that other number are inside of numbers to help them grasp the concept of expanded notation, but this year our team decided to expand further on that concept by having the kids really think about where they are in their own understanding.  Taking charge of your own learning is a school wide initiative that we focus on daily.  We came up with this poster as a team and I am excited to roll it out to the kids next week.  As we move through the unit, hopefully they will move through their level of understanding.  We use Engage New York/Eureka.  I created power points to go with each lesson, vocabulary wall cards, and differentiated pages to go with each lesson in Module 4. The link for the unit is below.

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-Power-Points-1783218

5)  Central Message

We came back this past week and reviewed central message of some of our class favorite stories.  Below is the chart we made.  

Five For Friday January 8, 2016

1) Freebie - Editable Lesson Plans

I'm starting my first blog of 2016 with some gratitude. I feel so blessed to be on this TPT adventure.  It is incredibly time consuming, exciting, and there is a great collegiality among the teachers, authors, and bloggers I have met.  Here are some sample lesson plans as a freebie.  I always love to see how other teachers organize their day.  I included the products that I'm using in my class right now.  Almost all of the products in my store are products that I use regularly in my class. That is why I update them and add to them so often. Kids change and with the change the curriculum needs to change too!   Hope it is helpful!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Freebie-Editable-First-Grade-Lesson-Plans-With-Sample-Plans-2297832

2)  The Jack and Jill Marathon

I'm so excited because my word for 2016 is balance.  I'm doing something just for me, which I haven't done in awhile (at least on this scale).  I was sitting next to a friend while watching my daughter cheer at a game and she was telling me that she just signed up for a marathon. She showed me pictures and in an instant I knew I had to do it (totally not me -I'm a planner to a fault).  Although I'm an avid runner,  I've never travelled anywhere for a race. I've always thought it too expensive, and I haven't even done a race in years because I just couldn't justify the expense.  I can't explain it, but I just knew this was right.  I've also kind of felt like I've been in a running rut.  My one and only marathon was 16 years and 2 kids ago. It scares me a lot, because I know the time it takes.  To be honest, I don't know where I'll find it, but I'm not stressing it.  It's not about times anymore for me.   I'm so excited, mostly to challenge myself mentally and physically. 

3)  Balance

I don't know if anyone else feels it, but sometimes I can totally get out of balance.  I was lucky enough to have 3 weeks off.  My district goes back really early, but we do have longer breaks in between.  I found balance during the break physically with yoga and running and mentally with organizing, slowing down, and actually making my family nice meals!  I really hope I can keep it going at least a little bit more than I had been doing in 2015.  I need it for 2016!

4)  Text Features!

Before break I gave my kids some assessments and I really thought they had a good concept of text features.  But, I was wrong.  They had some easier ones down, but I needed to do something different to get the information to them in a fun way and still cover material I need to teach.  So, I created a Martin Luther King Jr. unit that focuses deeply on showing kids how to navigate text features in informational text.  Below is the link if you are interested. I'm excited to use it when we get back! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Close-Reading-and-Writing-Unit-with-Text-Features-2272644 

5)  Fun Math Game!

The pic below shows my students having fun with a Make a Ten Game that is easy and almost no prep (if you have 10 frame cards).  Here's how to play:

Each pair needs a stack of 10 frame cards (20 or so)

1)  Mix up cards.

2)  The first player turns over 8 cards facing up, leaving a pile facing down.  Player 1 tries to find as many combinations to make 10 as possible.  (For example:  2 and 8 make 10 or 2, 3, and 5 make 10).  They can take the cards that make up 10 and keep them.

3)  Player 2 adds any cards to the face up that were taken by using the pile that are facing down. Player 2 tries to make as many combinations of 10 as possible.

4)  Play continues like this until all cards are gone.

5)  Player with the most cards at the end wins.

Five For Friday! December 11, 2015

1) Christmas Monkey Elf!

Last year almost all of the teachers on my team used the adorable Elf on the Shelf in the classroom.  Since I didn't want to shell out the $30 for the kit I got a Christmas Monkey from Dollar Tree for another teacher and myself.  Our monkey has been causing lots of trouble around the room and occasionally leaving us notes.  Below he is hiding in a wreath near our handmade Christmas tree.  So much fun!

2)  Grateful to my wonderful helping parents!
I am blessed again this year to have an amazing group of helpful and artistic parents.  They made origami ornaments with the kids and everyone had a blast!  They also made a beautiful 3-D Christmas tree by accordion folding!  Talented!

3)  Christmas Opinion Writing!
We had so much fun discussing, graphing, and writing about who we thought worked harder the elves or Santa.  I absolutely love reading the reasoning of first graders!  We will turn their opinion pieces into little books next week!

4)  Take Brain Breaks!
Super blessed to have a track at our school and we take advantage of it at each transition running a lap or two before we get inside to get to business!  I love having the kids get oxygen to their brains.

5)  Our Celebration of Learning!
We have been working on our Life Long Ago unit for social studies for the past few weeks.  Our informational text has been articles about life long ago, Blend Space research, and for fiction we have been reading about Johnny Appleseed. The kids were in expert groups that studied one area of Life Long Ago in depth. They loved doing their projects and here is some of their great work!  We present to other grade levels and parents next week.  The links for products are also below if interested.

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Long-Ago-Common-Core-Informational-Text-Unit-1531230

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Johnny-Appleseed-Common-Core-Unit-1496196

  1) We began our Data and Graphing Unit!   We started the week by defining organized and unorganized data, graphing blocks, shoes, and other fun activities. Then we ended the week with the kids conducting surveys.  The had a blast and their cute little survey responses warm my heart!  See below:

All of this can be found in my new data, graphing, and survey unit found on TPT.  It has wall vocabulary cards, activities, surveys, and centers.  We'll be moving on to using the concepts in centers as a review this week.  Here is the unit link if you are interested.    2)  Gratitude We make it part of our day to make sure that we write a gratitude message at the end of each day.  We are fortunate to have write on desks, but this could easily be done in a paper journal, which would be such a cute footprint of the kids' year.  It is one of my favorite parts of the day to read what these fantastic firsties write!  Here's one below:     3)  San Diego Area TPT Meetup! It was awesome to meet other local TPT authors over the Thanksgiving week break.  I loved learning about the powers of Instagram from Kristen Kalani (@easyteachingtools).  I am always impressed by the dedication these ladies have to teaching!   4)  Power Writing! It is one of our class goals to become better writers and also to read like a writer.  I am so impressed by my kids each and every day as they try to improve their craft and grow as writers.  Below is a picture of one of my little guys using his Opinion Writing Handbook in a Power Writing entry.  When the other kids saw him it was like the domino effect.  Soon everyone was accessing their handbooks and I saw a sea of green, red, and blue books.  The color coding is for the text type they choose to write.  In Power Writing, we brainstorm two topics.  We have a few minutes of table group discussion about each topic and then we create a brainstormed list on the white board.  The kids then share with their tables what text type they will write and what topic they will write about.  I then set the time and the kids are off. We write without stopping to build stamina.  If someone finishes their first topic, then they go on to the next.  I scaffold the journals also for my kids who have a tough time looking from board to desk and need the extra support.  I LOVE this time because everyone focuses on writing fluency which is essential.  They are also given a scaffold with a white board list of ideas, and they are given CHOICE.  Choice on which topics to write on and choice on what text type to write about it.  As the kids write I go around and give little mini lessons like capitals, noticing strong introductions or conclusions, and even focusing on proper printer motions.  It's a little one on one time for me with the kids as I circulate.  This is just one part of my writing program and takes only about 15-20 minutes.  It truly is valuable time!     I also started using some of the great introductions and conclusions I was seeing in our class and putting them up on our wall. I teach the kids the names of the introduction and conclusion to the kids so that they can have them as part of their vocabulary.  For example when they use a question as an introduction I put it up under our Question Introduction poster.  When kids talk like a writer, they write like a writer.  The kids love having their writing as the mentor text. Last week, a little firstie came up to me and said, "Look Mrs. Miller. I came up with a new introduction type. . . the countdown!"  I loved it and I love that he even gave it his own name! Below are some of these fun pics and the products that I use to teach these things!        5) I'm so ready for Christmas!  I just love the holiday times.  People just act a little nicer, have extra kindness in their hearts, and family time is prime time!  I love it.  I'm so thankful for all that we have have and that I have my two beautiful children.  Below are some fun Christmas products I'm looking forward to using and a couple of Pinterest snapshots of things I'm going to try in my classroom.  Happy Holidays!      

Five For Friday- November 20th

 

 1) Blend Space for Research

 My colleague Gisell Barrett (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Maestra-Barrett)
is just finishing her Masters program and brought this great knowledge to our team.  It is a researching platform that the kids can navigate on a computer or iPad.  Each member of our first grade team made a platform in Blend Space for our life long ago unit (transportation, communication, daily life, jobs, school,  and games and fun). 

   

Then, we created QR codes so that the kids could research in their expert groups.  It was easy because you can upload videos from You Tube, Power Points, Articles, and even things that you create. 

 We are giving the kids research time each day.  They are having a great time with it, and so far it has been great. It has eliminated the challenge for younger students to navigate spelling in searches and also having 10 QR codes for different sources. 

They are taking notes and preparing to write an informative book on their expert topic, create a timeline, and make a group iMovie.  We first gave them all background information on all the topics, but each expert group will share out after their projects are done and give us more information so that we can learn from each other!
If you are interested in this unit I just added 100 pages to it.  Here is the link on TPT:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Long-Ago-Common-Core-Informational-Text-Unit-1531230

2)  Being Thankful!
 

 I love seeing the kids art and how different each one looks.  We made some simple turkeys and they were adorable.  Kid art is the best!

3)  We love field trips!

This is a cute picture of my firsties having some hands on fun with a telegraph.  We went on a Life Long Ago field trip to a local spot in our community that features a school house of the past, a working blacksmith, a telegraph, and much more.  It was fun!

 4)  Checking our Success Criteria in Math!
We made a great poster of all the things we need to include in order to be successful when solving a word problem.  I've been having the kids go to the poster to check as they finish their work and it has been working great!  It's teaching them to catch little things like missing labels or forgetting to write an equation or number bond!

 5)  Goodbye to a great leader.
Our fabulous principal Dr. Winters left this week to move on to a district directorship.  He is, without a doubt, a phenomenal leader who is humble, intelligent, kind, and a great person.  Our entire school sang to him in a farewell on his last day.  He opened our school and will forever be the heart of it.