Writer's Notebook Package COMPLETE!!! {Latest Labor of Love}

I have literally been working on this pack for MONTHSSSS. I actually finished it right before school started BUT (for some reason) I became a little busy and was unable to get it posted. ;)


I am SOOOO excited to share with you:

This pack is 198 pages FULL of Writer's Notebook resources!! I have included all of the following:

PLUS, this bundle comes with my Writing Paper Package, which has 253 pages of writing paper (including letter writing paper)!

You can choose not to include the paper pack, but it is a great deal for both!! I will have all of these products on sale for the week!

Click below to view the product bundle (both products):

Click below to view JUST the Writer's Notebook Package:

Click below to view JUST the Writing Paper Package:

A Peek at My Plans??!

So, I have NEVER shared my lesson plans with you all, simply because it is quite the task to do them in my district's lesson plan program (as I am required to each week) and THEN prettify them up to share with you. Too. Much.

I decided to give you a little peek at my district-formatted lesson plans, raw format! Before I do, don't worry--I am just showing you the first day of math this week. It won't bore you too much. ;)

As you saw, we are going on a Shape Hunt to kick off our 2D Figures unit! I am so excited to this activity because we will be using our school iPads!! We have used them 2-3 times already this school year and I know my kids will be excited to see the iPad cart roll into our room! :)

I can't wait to share pictures with you from our Shape Hunt tomorrow! Below is a copy of the form I made to record our hunt findings. Click on the pic to snag it--enjoy!

Never a Dull Moment.

Who has time to have a dull moment in first grade (or even just a moment)??! Seriously, today was PACKED with activities (like any other day)! I didn't get everything in pictures but I did capture math (imagine that). Check out what we did in math!

First up, we did a little part-part-whole practice by playing my Part-Part-Whole Roll game using animal plates!! You can check it out here!

Then we gathered our shoes for an introductory graphing activity using my DIY graphing mat.

We discussed many ways we could sort our shoes into two groups--tennis shoes and sandals, by height, by color. After listening to many suggestions, we decided to sort shoelaces and no shoelaces! Let the sorting commence:

We discussed our data during and after sorting. We had just finished a unit on comparing numbers up to 30 so they were ready to analyze! After talking in partners and as a whole, we were ready to write comparative sentences about our data. Read what they came up with! (I wrote down exactly what they said.)

After all of the graphing fun, we wrapped up math with a fun and stickery ten-frame activity. The kids were randomly assigned a number from 1-10 and given a ten-frame. They used stickers to make the number in the ten-frame. I then took each child's picture with their ten-frame--I have a few little projects to use the pictures for. I will share more about those later! They did have a blast raiding my sticker collection!

Hope you had a fantastic Friday!! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Part-Part-Whole Chart Action! (and your Sweet & Simple Saturday freebie)

Week 2 is officially over and I am still alive! It has been a fun-packed and BUSY year so far! I ended week 2 with 21 students in my class and they're some pretty sweet kiddos. :)

Yesterday, I introduced the part-part-whole chart to my firsties. They were SO excited to not only get a new chart, but to USE it! (Seriously....they were ecstatic.) They must know its great power. ;)

FIRST, I passed out the chart and we talked about its name and very, very briefly talked about the purpose. We will get more into that later. Then, we rolled a die and put counters in one of the parts. We rolled again and put counters in the other part.

We talked about how many counters were in each part and how we could find out how many counters there were in all. We decided to push the parts together and then count. They discovered that the whole was a great place to put them together and count them up. We did that 2-3 times. Then, I called a student to roll for me and place the counters on my mat under the document camera while the rest of the class did it at the their desk. I called another student for the second roll and placement of counters. We did that FOREVER because they were VERY engaged--they wanted to be picked!! Almost everyone got a turn with that. 

After that, it was time for some independent practice. We played Part-Part-Whole Roll:

They did SUCH a great job. We'll be ready for round 2 of PPW on Monday!!

And here are the possible recording sheets for the game:

Click below to purchase this activity--just a buck!! :)

Need part-part-whole charts for your classroom?? Here is your Sweet & Simple Saturday freebie:

Have a great weekend!!

Simple, Fun Counting Activity (Round 2!)

At the beginning of the year last school year, I did a fantastic counting activity with my class that I got from the fabulous Barbara Novelli from Creative Mathematics. Well, I did the same activity with my new firsties last week and it was GREAT, once again!!

Here is the original post from September 3, 2012:

Well, I'm kind of back in blog land. I even visited/commented on three blogs today! I'm still super busy with school and still very overwhelmed with everything, BUT it is getting better, day by day. Can't wait for life to slow down just a little bit!!! By the way, I'll have some pictures of my finished classroom for you very soon!! I just l-o-v-e how it came out.

I did want to stop by and share something of worth with you! Here is a math activity that me and my team have planned to do this week with our 1st graders. By the way, 1st grade has been AWESOME so far! I have 21 kids in my class. We just finished week 1 of school and in this week, I have given at least 20 hugs a day (WAY more than the 1-2 per week in 4th grade), talked to lots of parents, have wanted to pull my hair out only once or twice, sang LOTS of songs, read LOTS of books, and have done more phonics than I even have thought about since college. I'm in a good place and I think it will be a GREAT year!! My kids are SO sweet and are totally enamored with how fast I can write and color, and how AWESOME my drawings are (lol). It's the simple things...

The activity I am sharing with you is an adaptation from one of the ones I learned at Math Camp. (Check out my other Math Camp posts here!!) I was able to prepare for this activity and will use it without having to spend any money at all! (Well...any new money. I already had all of the supplies at home.) Here is what you need:

Materials:

• scrapbook paper (or fabric) with many objects in the print
• colored paper plates
• scissors
• unifix cubes

After the activity go over how many objects the students counted and what exactly they counted. Be sure to instruct students to only connect cubes that make sets of ten. When they share results they will tell how many tens and ones they have, and then the total count. Example: "I counted the whole polka dots in the circle. I have 1 ten and 2 ones--12." 

Hope you enjoy and are able to use this activity! I think we will have fun with it--I'll let you know after Wednesday. ;) See you SOON (though not sure how soon...)!