Accelerated Reader Prizes in My Room

We took our VERY FIRST AR (Accelerated Reader) tests last week in my classroom! Last year we didn't start until second semester and this year we were able to start in the fifth week of school--go me!!! :)

Since we are started now, I figured I should probably get my reward system for AR figured out! I spent the weekend scanning websites and soliciting ideas from some of you out there and I think I have a plan!

This will get us started--once they go beyond 10 points, I will be ready with an additional incentive chart. I don't anticipate that happening for a few weeks though! :)

I made the "Sparkling Reader" and "Glowing Reader" tags mentioned on the chart and I am happy to share them with you now!

So you get to see a live glowing shot because I accidentally activated these!!!

5 glow sticks in a pack at Walmart for $1!

  I bought the glitter pencils from Walmart for $1--12 in each pack.

And for one last incentive, I am using an idea left by an Instagrammie:

These fabulous and inexpensive beads will be worn by a student each time he/she earns 1 AR point. They will get to wear it all day and then return it at the end of the day. Sweet and simple. (I think this may end up being their favorite incentive!)

If you would like to snag a FREE copy of the aforementioned tags, visit one of my shops by clicking below:

What kind of incentives do you offer for AR?

Please share below!

Hope you had a great Monday!!! :)

Going on a Shape Hunt...

If you recall last Sunday's post, I shared my math plans with you AND a little Shape Hunt freebie! In those plans, I explained that we would be going on a Shape Hunt around our campus using iPads to capture the shapes. This was probably our FUNNEST day of math to date--the kids were not only excited to go outside on a hunt, but they were THRILLED to be able to carry their very own iPad with them! Well...

The hunt is on!

After the hunt, the kids looked at all of the pictures they took and used them to fill out the Shape Hunt recording sheet.

They took some great pictures!!

After they finished the recording sheet, they got to play one of the shapes apps we have on the iPads. However, I CANNOT remember/find the app we used!! Lo siento. It is on the school iPads so I will find out once I have access to them again. I want to say it was called Train Shapes but when I googled it, the apps that came up didn't match the one we played.

And here is the chart we made using some of our iPad pictures!!! The kids came up with all of the descriptions--I was simply just the scribe. :)

This was a great kick-start to our 2D Figures unit. We will be finishing up this week, so I will have to share some more activities with you! :)

 

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!!