5 Things to Get Ready for the First Week of School!

It's that time of year where my mind turns to my classroom.  Well, that's not actually true! I think about my classroom all summer! But it is this time that I start getting the butterflies and having dreams, more like nightmares, getting ready to return to the classroom!

I had a nightmare last week that it was the first day of school and I had no plans! NO PLANS! AGHHHH!!! I didn't know what I would teach, what to say, what to do! The struggle is real! And I have been teaching for 10 years!!! In real life, I don't only plan, but I overplan! I don't ever get all the things done that I plan for each day!

So, I thought about making a list of things to do to get ready for that first day...er... first week!

1.  Think about furniture placement. Look at your furniture arrangement and make sure it has good flow around the room.  If you have students with special needs coming, make sure they have their space ready.

a.  Students in wheelchairs need to be able to navigate all parts of the room
b.  Students with special circumstances may need an end place with special seating.
c.  Consider placing desks in a way that all can see the smart board or main teaching area.
d.  Don't forget YOU need enough room to walk through  and be able to work with students.
e.  Think about stations or centers and where they will be placed.

2.  Organize the things in your room.  Rather than think about the whole, break it into parts! Have a place in mind for each area and even label.  Labeling helps me because I forget my system when I am busy and just toss things in a cabinet on the fly!

a.  Think about where your supplies can go that students bring in. Those pencils, crayons, erasers, scissors, paper, binders, notebooks, tissues, paper towels, etc. It adds up and will be crazy until you find a place for everything! Have a place in mind before they come!
b.  Think about where you will store math manipulatives.
c.  Where will you keep you teacher books, math games, reading games, recess toys?

3.  Brush up on your procedures! If you've taught for years, you may be able to slip right back into this one.  I have to remind myself that kiddos don't just get in line if you ask them!  My favorite book for classroom procedures is Harry K. Wong: The First Days of School (not an affiliate, just a fan!)   I teach procedures for every. single. thing. we. do! Haha!

a. Walking in the room, putting away backpack
b. Storing supplies in desks
c. How to line up in our room
d. How to line up outside
e. How to play outside (We walk around our playground in a long ling and talk about each area, playground equipment, where we can play, where we can't play, and consequences.)
f. How to walk in the hall
g. How to go through the lunch line
h. How to write your name on your paper
i. Bathroom procedures (taking turns, washing hands, put hand drying paper in the trash)
j. How to pack up, line up
k. Car rider, bus rider, bike rider, and walker procedure

4. Plan, plan, plan that first week! Plan a time to meet with your teaching partner to make a plan!
 Have games, breaks, games, breaks to get you through that first week! I plan Language Arts game if it is my LA time and Math games or Stem if it is Math Block time! Here is a little run down of the first few mornings. Your morning may look different depending on your grade. Remember procedures continue through each of these!

a.  When the students come in, I plan to have a fun morning work sheet
b.  Read a book on the rug
c.  Around mid-morning, we go outside that first week to learn playground procedures, then we get to practice those! Yes, we let them play, watching for and re-teaching procedures to the littles that forget. This is a great time for both student and teacher to unwind for a bit from all the nerves built up!
d. Back in the room, play a game
e. Lunch
f. Specials
g. Math is in my afternoon, so I will plan a math stem project.
h. Get ready for home

5.  Have your curriculum ready! You don't want to be scrounging around to find things for your students to do. Get them organized and ready to grab in a hurry! Get extra of read-alouds, fun sheets, quick assessment printables, first week of math, and reading ready to go!

a.  Back to School Read-alouds: Your personal books, school library books, public library books!
b. Quick fun sheets for morning work or in-between work, beginning of the year assessments.
c.  Bring home the first week of math and reading from your adopted curriculum.  I don't follow these word for word, page for page, but it gives me a starting point for my plans.
d.  Look ahead and get your curriculum plans sketched out for the next 6-9 weeks.  I like to look at my curriculum guide our school has implemented and pair it up with our adopted curriculum for topics needed to be covered.  Pencil these in!


Most of all just be yourself! You can't be someone else, they are already taken!

I teach first grade and have some fun and educational printables that I will have ready.  I will use some of these for morning work, and assessments.  Some may seem a bit easy, but it gives them confidence especially that first day.  Color by number? Oh, I can do that!

Back to School First Grade

Get Ready for First Grade Summer Skills

I teach in an average first grade classroom! I have great students!  I have great parents! Many of them ask for what they need to get to the next grade! Today, I am going to focus on what your kindergartener needs to come to first!

Number sense is so important! Many of my sweet firsties work so hard, but forget over the summer a few numbers.  Some common numbers that they forget are 12, 21, 20, 15, 50, 51.  You can see why! These are just flipped and they look so similar!

Over the summer, the focus is to have fun! That is what you are supposed to be doing!  But in between the lazy days, rainy days, or just a 10 minute time you have scheduled in, take time to practice number sense!

You might do something like this!

Review of letters and sounds are always a great way to practice!

Plan your daily schedule for fun and then take out a few minutes to practice getting ready for first grade!  A little time each day will pay off for next year!

Here are more practice pages!
Get Ready for First Grade Summer Skills

Do You Need More Analog Time Practice?

I teach first grade and the workbooks provided have only 2-3 practice pages with only a couple examples on each page for teaching time! What? That is not nearly enough curriculum to teach this concept! It is fine for introducing the concept of time, but my firsties need lots of practice and then a fun element too!

To help my firsties understand this concept, I usually create an anchor chart on the rug to introduce the lesson.  Anchor charts are too big to include in a resource, so the next best thing is a poster!

Posters are great too, or you can copy the posters in your own style on that large anchor chart!

After I teach the concept, I have to model the concept in whole group on the smart board.  I can do this with a worksheet.  I know, I know!  Worksheets are so, well... Yawn!  But the fact is, many state tests are worksheet oriented.  And if my little guys don't get that practice, they will not be confident!

There are plenty pages of practice! Make it a game and have races to finish!  You can add the fun element to any worksheet to make it more engaging!   Here is a glance at one of the pages!

Put these in a center and follow up with a game! This game is great for 2-3 students.  You will need linking cubes, or other small objects for keeping place.  You will also need a die! And go! First to the end wins!

Do you want more?  Here is a link for more practice!  These are two resources bundled in one to save!

Time to the Hour, Half Hour, Quarter To, Quarter After, Half Past

Rabbits and Raindrops!

Perfect for spring! Are you looking for a great read for spring?  I have the perfect book for you! Rabbits and Raindrops! It is an adorable book about a mama rabbit that teaches her babies how to leave the nest to explore the near grassy area! But when the rain comes, it forces the little family to run back to cover!  Eventually, the sun comes back out and the babies are able to go back into the sun to play!

With this book companion, help your child or students understand the plot, including games, vocabulary, fluency, phonics, comprehension strategies, color by sight word, and even a comprehension test with answer key! Raindrops and Rabbits is written by Jim Arnosky.

This book has great vocabulary! Play a fun game to learn about these new words!

There are many activities to make your job easier to teach!

For more information, click the following link.

Rabbits and Raindrops Book Companion

Finish May Strong!

Do you need morning work, homework, or focus work to help you finish your year out strong in a first grade classroom?  

Read a book, pick a page or sentence, roll the die and read like...

There are sight words, time to the hour, half hour, measurement, and much more!

For more information, click below!

May Literacy and Math First Grade

Double Digit Add and Subtract Spinner Challenge

Do you need basic practice for double digit addition and subtraction?  Do you need to add a spin for the fun factor?  The new common core has students figuring by tens, which is so important for our students to be able to 'see' the tens in their heads!  However, I have those students that still don't 'see' it no matter how many manipulatives I show! I am not giving up on them! I will keep trying to help them see these tens! :)  But, I have a spin for them!

I  show my students the traditional method to add and subtract double digit numbers! It works for those students that aren't visual learners!  I also like to give them plenty of practice! Here are few worksheets I have for them for the practice!

After plenty of practice consider spinning a fidget spinner to see if your student can finish the problems before the spinner stops!  This adds the fun factor!

For the printables, click the following link!

Double Digit Addition and Subtraction

Force and Motion: Come Back Ball

Quick science experiments require few or no materials and many can be done on the spur of the moment.  Here is a quick experiment you can do with your students!

Have you ever rolled a ball and had it come back to you?  Did you know you can make that happen?
Give your students a ball and  let them try it on their own.  Some will figure it out! 

1.  Roll the ball a few times to get a good feel!
2.  Roll it again and flip your wrist up a bit to make it spin backward.
3.  Continue to practice until you find that the ball comes back.
4.  Can you do it with other balls in different sizes? 
5.  Try a hoola hoop!

For more Force and Motion visit Robin Wilson First Grade Love!

Force and Motion: Egg Spin

Try this!  Can you tell if an egg is boiled or raw?

1.  Spin the egg.
2.  Quickly remove your hand.
3.  If the egg continues to spin, it is raw!
4.  If the egg stops, it is boiled.

This is based on Newton's Law: An object in motion stays in motion.  An object at rest stays at rest.

To find out more about this experiment, click here! ->  Force and Motion

Force and Motion: Straw and Potato

Guys! I really needed to bring some science into my room! I had been thinking about how to do this and remember a great science class I had in college! We had the best science teacher for our methods classes! Everyday, he had a really neat discrepant event (quick science experiment) for us! It was like watching a magic show every science class!

I wanted to do that in my classroom! I finally got around to working it up! Not only did I want to share neat science experiences, but wanted my students to be able to be active in them.  I didn't want them to leave saying, "Mrs. Wilson did that neat trick!"  I wanted them to say, "I did a neat science experiment!"  I also wanted students to have a minute of writing to solidify the experiment in their minds!  Here is one that my students love, and it is so easy! Grab some straws and a few potatoes!

1.  Grab a potato.
2.  Hold it over a table.  I actually set mine down on the table!
3.  Hold the straw between your thumb and index finger.
4.  Plunge the straw straight into the potato!
5.  Don't worry if it takes a few tries. You must have the right angle and enough force quickly!

Science: A straw is weak if you bend it back and forth, but the straight edge is strong! You must use a lot of force at the correct angle!

To see this product and response sheet, click Force and Motion.

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt will bring language arts and math into your fun Easter Celebration! This can be used in small groups, or in math/literacy stations. There are blank eggs in color and in black and white that can be written on to add any content you are working on in your individual classroom. Consider sight words, addition, subtraction, word family, true false, anything!

Directions
1. Hide 10 eggs around the room.
2. Students find eggs and answer questions on corresponding record sheet.
3. Teacher or assistant checks off answers with sticker or marker 
4. Reward with trinket or chocolate egg candy 
5. There are blank eggs as mentioned above to add any content into your curriculum. Consider sight words, addition, subtraction, word family, true false, anything!

This is just in time for Easter!  Click here to find more information!

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

Farm Unit

Our class is going to the farm after spring break! I love this time of year! We will be investigating farm animals, literature, and how food gets from farm to the table!

So, I had to get busy to create everything I will need to help my students.  I wanted to share with you what I came up with!

Several farms are featured with informational text using real photos (so important) for you and your students to be able to research farms with ease! There is a research page for students to record their facts. Explore phonics, alphabetic order, color by word, and much more in this Farm Unit.

Pictures are included of each farm animal for you to make a large anchor chart to graph your students' favorite farm animals! 

Interactive printables to let students choose in a station, or as whole group.  Great for morning work for the week, or whole group! I haven't decided! This is part of the packet that I am most excited about!

There is so much more! There are coloring sheets by farm word, adjectives, a farm maze, and even a comprehension test and key!  

If you are interested in this Farm Unit, click below:

Farm Unit From Farm to Table

Easter Literacy and Math!

Bring Easter into the classroom while practicing first grade skills! In Easter Literacy and Math Activities you will find all printable Easter themed pages, with fun games, sight words, addition, subtraction and more! 

Game: Great way to learn 10s and 1s place!

Posters for Types of Sentences!

Morning Work!

And much more!

Click here for more!
Easter Literacy and Math Activities

The Dot by Peter Reynolds Activities

The Dot is about a little girl who is not confident in her art abilities, but her teacher finds a way to encourage her to create! 

In this book companion, you will find everything you need to help students with growth mindset, understand the plot, including games, vocabulary, fluency, phonics, comprehension strategies, color by sight word, and even a comprehension test with answer key!  The Dot is written by Peter H. Reynolds.

Introduce vocabulary from The Dot with this fun game!  

Players take turns to pick a vocabulary card. The student must read the word. The adult leader can discuss the meaning of the word, and make a sentence.  Then the student can roll die and move that many spaces. 

If the student cannot read the word, then he or she cannot roll the die.  "Lose a turn."

First player to the "End" wins!




Practice fluency with this fun game!

Roll the die, pick a sentence in the book, and read like...

With this book companion, your entire reading block is planned!

Readers' response!

Play Stomp with the vocabulary cards!

For more activities to help your students with this great read, click here!
The Dot by Peter Reynolds Activities

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Robin Wilson First Grade Love

2D Shapes and 3D shapes!

My math stations this week are so much fun! I almost feel guilty to pull out the blocks, but it is our standard we are covering this week! Yay!!

These are the stations!

Station 1: 2D shapes! The leader goes over each shape and helps students call it the right name.  Then allow them to make a picture or structure with the shapes! We are covering trapezoid, square, hexagon, and triangle this week!

Stations 2: 2D This is one of my favorite ways to teach any concept! It is called the "Unboard Game."  I lay out the blocks, grab some dice, a few place markers and go! Students roll the die, and name the shape! If they get it wrong, they must return to the previous spot they were on.  Play until someone wins or time is up! Whoever is closer to the end, wins! This is a popular game in our room!! (I use this game with any concept! Nouns, addition, subtraction, anything!)

Station 3: Online game with shapes.Shapes! A Geometry Activity

Station 4: 3D Shapes! Go over each shape and the work with the students to build something! Who can resist building?

For more shapes! Check this out! Shapes 2D and 3D

We do have station 5! It is our school's math online connection to our curriculum! Iready, if you are interested!