September is Hispanic Heritage

Hispanic Heritage Teachers Notebook
Hispanic Heritage TPT

Hello!

Ok so I know that September is almost over but if you are like me you are wondering where it went. Didn't it fly by so fast!!!! Well September is Hispanic Heritage Month and along with learning about apples, Johnny Appleseed, and testing I always try to fit it in.

I usually reserve Fridays in the month of September and highlight a different country. I have the students fill out their passports and I even stamp them. Then we buckle up and get ready for our travels. Sometimes if I have enough donations we even have an in flight snack while we go on a tour of the country courtesy of my smartboard. After we have toured the country we talk about the language and some of the music. I always try to download some traditional music on my ipod so that we can listen to it while we color in our flag and find our capital on our map. After we have done that we either have a craft or enjoy some traditional games. I love to show the students some pictures of the children in the different cultures so that they know that they are not much different than them. As September comes to an end we have to finish up our Hispanic Heritage Month and I usually finish it off by eating some traditional foods. I usually have parents donate money so that I can cook some things up. Now that Rio is out on dvd we will enjoy the movie while finishing off our fiesta.

I have uploaded my mini unit on TeachersNotebook and TPT if you are interested. My students really enjoy this unit so I hope you will too. Just click on the link and it will take to our store.

Now I am off to enjoy the last few hours before my weekend ends.

Cindy

Versatile Blogger

OMG! When I got this nomination from Abby over at The Third Grade Bookworm. I was so happy but I have to admit a little surprised. Sometimes it feels like nobody reads my posts since there aren't many comments left but I keep chugging a long hoping I am helping or inspiring someone as many of you have done for me. Thank you so much Abby you made my week and with my birthday being on Saturday you gave me a nice early birthday present.

So according to the rules I have to tell you 7 juicy details about me that you might not know. So here I go:

1. I love to run. I wish I had more time to devote to it =(

I have run a few half marathons and would love to run a full. Its on my bucket list.

2. I hate to cook. Hahaha! I am just not that creative in the kitchen. This is the reason I love pinterest. The ladies I follow over there always have easy and yummy recipes.

3. I was headed to Med School before I decided to become a teacher. I think I made the right decision for my family and I can honestly say I love my job everyday! Even the bad days! Ha!

4. I went to the military right after high school. At the ripe old age of 17. YIKES! I was in the US Navy and I was a gunners mate. Yes, I shot, assembled, and maintained all kind of guns. I know what a 360 turn from that to being a first grade teacher.

5. I love to be crafty. I am not always very good at it but I love to attempt all of the projects I see on Pinterest. I think I fine my inner Chi when I am working in my office/craft room.

6. I secretly desire to be a couple of inches taller. Ha! I am only 5' tall and clothes just don't fit right sometimes and the worst part is that the fifth graders are almost always taller than me. Good thing I teach first grade.

7.My favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning is to wake up early before the hubby and my son and make a good cup of coffee and snuggle on the couch and watch my I Love Lucy dvd's. I love that show she was hilarious and it always starts my weekend off right.

Now I thought that was hard. I have to now choose blogs that I think are worthy of The Versatile Award.

The First Grade Factory

The First Grade Parade

First Grade Fanatics

Step into 2nd Grade

Teacher Bits and Bobs

Ladybug Teacher Files

There is plenty more that I would like to nominate because I am inspired by so many but I have to be honest and I am getting a cramp. HA!

Thank you!

Cindy

poetry journal take 2

Hey friends,
So I was in such a rush to post the Poetry Journal that I didn't catch some typos on it. Some lovely ladies let me know and I have since fixed the problem. So if you would like to download it again then just head on over to our Teachers Notebook. Sorry for the typos but you know how hectic life can be sometimes. Thanks for all of the wonderful messages. I will post again later some of the activities we have been doing this week and I have a plant unit that I have been working on that I wanted to share with you.

Right now my son is calling me from the backyard to help him with his soccer kicks. Mind you he is 3 but already so focused. So mommy duty is calling me but I will catch up with you later.
Love ya!
Cindy

What A Week!

Hello everyone!

Well its been one heck of a week. We started school last Monday here in Las Vegas and it was a doozie. I forget how much repetition and hands on teaching is needed at the beginning of the year and boy was I exhausted at the end of the week. Thank goodness for Labor Day!

My new first graders are great! We always have a few that we need to whip into shape! HaHaHa that sounds horrible. This is why it is so important to have great procedures and classroom management. By the end of the week they seem to be getting the hang of the rules and the classroom procedures. I have so many sweethearts that are ready and eager to learn. I really love my class this year!

Well like I promised before I wanted to show you my finished classroom and here it is!

This is my student work board. Underneath I have all of their book boxes they use during Daily 5.

This is my job chart. I have added all the boats and have all the students names on stars. All those baskets on the shelf are for homework, money and notes, spelling lists and the one closes to the door is for classwork. I don't use the hooks for their backpacks instead I have the students put them on their chair and use this to hang their coats during winter and hang my classroom mascot bag and the lost tooth bag that they get to take home.

This is my reading strategies above my reading group table. I cannot remember where I got the cards but I know I got them from some fabulous blogger.

This is my calendar area and where my group rug is.

I have 3 wonderful windows in my classroom which provide wonderful light but I run out of wall space fast. So I decided to put my birthday beach on my wardrobe and the one of the left is where I post all of my Daily 5 charts. It seems to be working for now since the students can refer to them when we are at the rug.

This is my word wall and my math wall. We didn't have any words up when this was taken but now I put all of the students names and the first 5 words on our list. The table is our writing center.

This is the view of my room from the door. All the rooms in our school are the same size so I have a pretty good size room with lots of windows so I am truly blessed.

This was my welcome board which I was inspired from one of my favorite sites. You guessed it Pinterest. The students loved finding their names on the surfboards during Meet the Teacher.

Well friends this is my classroom I hope you enjoy and it sparks some creativity like many of your rooms have inspired me. I am now off to enjoy what's left of my Labor Day weekend.

Cindy

Hello Friends!

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. We officially went back to work on Wednesday and had all our meetings and trainings. We had a whole half day of training for our new Common Core that we have to implement this year. Talk about stress.

I am also trying to implement Daily 5 in my classroom. I am a little scared just because its hard to change what you already know. So if you all have any tips on Daily 5 I will love to read them. I have read many of your posts on Daily 5 so thank you so much for sharing all of your knowledge and insights because it is what inspired me to begin. Keep on posting ladies!

I got to meet my new students on Friday and talk about cuteness. I cannot wait to start off the new year. I have so much fun things planned for them.

I promise I will get some more pics up of the final classroom. I will also post some new things that I have been working on but right now I am exhausted. Its been a long day of doing all the last minute prep, boy I tell you the work of a teacher is never done.

Cindy

Back to School!

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since my last post but I have been sick. Yes, can you believe having a cold in the middle of summer! It was a not a pleasant time especially in Las Vegas since it it so HOT! Can you imagine having a fever and it being 110 degrees outside. YIKES!

Well anyways now its over and glad that its out of my system so that I can get back to my classroom. I have to report back to work on Wednesday and I am not ready. Its like the more I go to class the more unfinished projects I find or make up. LOL! I love looking through blog world but there are so many good ideas that I want to implement in my classroom that sometimes I feel like I'm going CRAZY!!!!

Well anywho! I met with my wonderful first grade team last week and discussed many of our Back to School routines. We always start off the year with a Gingerbread hunt around the school to show our students around the school by solving a series of clues. The students love this activity! Well this year we decided to change it up a little and since our school's mascot is a Superhero. We decided to to a Superhero Hunt.

I dont know if any of you can use a Superhero Hunt but I am offering free fro all of you. Just click on the link below and check it out. Isn't it darling!

Superhero Hunt

Well I don't know how many of you can use the Superhero themed hunt but if you can't I have also made a mini Gingerbread Unit. I have it up for sale on out TPT and our Teachers Notebook. It includes 15 pages of Gingerbread themed activities. Go and check it out! Click on the image below to head on over to our Teachers Notebook. Click on our TPT to check it out there!

Well now I am off back to the classroom. Hope to get a lot done so I can have a relaxing weekend with my family. My brother is back from studying abroad in Japan. Yipee!

Cindy

VIP Student

So as I was reading the blog post by What the Teacher Wants the other day about her VIP procedures. I got to thinking or actually remembered that I have to redo my VIP. You can check her posts and her wonderful downloads by clicking on the link. Last year my theme was more of an ocean theme so I had The Whale of the Week and that special child got the whole week to themselves. Each day they would do something different.

Monday: They would bring in their Autobiography and baby pictures. I would hang this on a bulletin board I created especially for this. We would read the autobiography and ooh and ahh at all the adorable baby pictures. I also asked the parents to write a special letter to their child on why they are so special and put it in an envelope for us to share on Friday.

Tuesday: The students would write a note to The Whale of the Week telling them why they are special. The Whale of the Week would write about being the VIP and what they think they are really good at.

Wednesday: The students would bring in a "Show and Tell" item. (I had to be very specific to tell my parents no animals because my word these people want to bring everything in.)

Thursday: The student would bring in their favorite book and we would share it with the class.

Friday: The student was presented with a certificate for being the student of the week and a little book of all the letters their classmates wrote. I would also read the letter from the parent. After all this is done the VIP for the week would reach in a bag and choose the next VIP for the week.

This is when I would return all the baby pictures except for one. The student would chose their favorite one and they would go on our baby wall. It looks so cute when it is all filled with the students pictures and I even put my own baby picture. Of course I am the first VIP since I want them to get to know me first and learn the routine. I also hang onto the autobiography paper and bind them together to make a great book for our classroom library. The students love reading it.

Well this year I am doing more of a Beach theme than an Ocean theme so I decided to change things up a little and instead of Whale of the Week, I am doing Surfer of the Week. Yeah I know I am very creative. HA! I also changed some of the things I do during the week because sometimes we wouldn't have enough time for the students to write a letter to the VIP so I decided to skip that this year but I wanted to let you know about it in case you are interested. I loved the idea that Rachelle had from What the Teacher Wants of sending home a classroom mascot and having the student write about their adventure. So I am adding the mascot this year and since I was an Ocean theme last year and I had a dolphin in my classroom already "Flippy the Dolphin" was created.

This is what the VIP wall looks like. In the frame goes the students picture that I took at the beginning of the year and in all that blank space goes all the pictures that the parents send in. Some students have more than others but I have never had a student not bring any in but if I did then I would have to put my own pictures of the student, since I am always snapping pictures. This clip art is all included in the download as well as the things for the binder for Flippy the Dolphin. I don't know if you could use it but at least it might give you ideas so click on the link below and let me know what you think.

Surfer of the Week

Ok seriously I have 13 days before I have to be at work, where did this summer go? Must find my inner peace. Ha!!!

Cindy