Winners, Science, Measuring, and Freebies

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!! It's been fun reading all the comments and having so many join the fun for my giveaway. Here are the lucky winners-

Randi @ Teach It With Class, Annie First Grade, and Suzy Q I'll be contacting you!

It's been a fun couple of weeks and I've got pictures to prove it! 

We did our sink or float experiment today and the kiddos had a blast. They got so excited for science! I love it. I have to really structure this activity because I don't want water every where. Each student has a specific job to do and they HAVE to work as a team of scientists! 

We also did another experiment last week called the 'Great Meltdown'. In groups again, my group of scientists had to find out what the best way to melt an ice cube was. We used sand, salt, snow melt, blowing on it, and even sitting on it.

Snow melt won!

It's been busy, we've done a LOT of measuring in math. We measured with kid steps, baby steps, basketball shoes, tiles, cubes, and paper clips. I love the pictures where the firsties are helping each other with the kid steps. They are holding each others hands so they don't fall over.

Sorry this is such a long post. But I think all the pictures were just so darn cute!
Anyhow, if you stuck it out till the end, here is a freebie. We are working on vowel combination-this week is oi oy and next week is aw au. Here are the sheets I made for us to do. Most of the graphics are DJ Inkers. Click on the picture for a PDF.

Tomorrow is 100th day!!! I'm tired just thinking about it!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great tomorrow.

Math Freebies!

Wow! It's been a great day! Slept in, spent time with the hubby, did a little shopping, did some freezer meals, relaxed, I love the weekends!
A BIG THANK YOU to all those who are new followers and others who are commenting on the giveaway!! I am finding some great new blogs to stalk! If you haven't entered yet, you've got until Monday at midnight.

We are celebrating 100th day on Wednesday. I really don't want it to be a big party day. Every time it's a special day my kiddos think they need to party. Then they get all hyper and I don't get much teaching done. I have one little boy that asks me every time "when are we starting the party". I want my firsties to explore and work a lot with 100. So I'm toning it down a bit this year. One of the games we are playing is 'Roll a Hundred'. I made 3 different boards. You can choose which is best for your class. One is with 2 dice, another with no numbers written in, and one with 1 die and numbers. Click on the picture for a PDF.

I'm also trying to get into the Valentine mood. So here is a BUMP game with hearts. I made it a little harder than other ones I've done. This one is for 3 dice. If you don't know how to play BUMP then click HERE. The graphics are KPM Doodles and From the Pond. The font is by Kevin and Amanda. Click on the picture for a free download.

Well, I'm off to watch the basketball game with the hubby.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you've found something you can use.

CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY!

I can't believe it! I finally have 100 followers! Thanks everyone for clicking that little button and following this little ole blog! I never thought blogging would be this much fun! So I'm celebrating with a GIVEAWAY! Enter to win a prize or check out my shops with 20% off  for the next 100 hours. That means it starts right now and ends on Monday night at midnight Utah time. The giveaway will end then too. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 31st by a random generator. Be sure to leave an email with your comments so I can contact the winners.

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Survived and Award

Yeah, I survived the first night of parent conferences!!! After a 12 1/2 hour day at school I'm finally home and trying to relax. What better way than by blogging and blog stalking? And I just got a big surprise! Barbara over on GradeONEderful just gave me an award. She is such a sweetheart! Thank you Barbara! You'll want to hop over and check out her blog. She has fantastic ideas to share!

I'm supposed to pass the award along to 2 other bloggers. This is so hard. I have such great follower that always leave me such great comments! It's hard to pick just two. I love this blogging hobby and enjoy the friendships I've made. Thanks to everyone who stops by and follows me!

I am passing this along to Deb over on Oh My Little Classity Class. She always has some encouraging words for me. Be sure and check out her blog. She has awesome ideas.

And last but not least is my dear friend Fredia over on Frogs in First. It's all her fault that I'm blogging. She got me started and has helped me all along the way! She has very creative ideas and is a super master teacher. So be sure and check out her blog!

It's been a great day even if it has been very, very long. 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great tomorrow!

Pete the Penguin

We had a great day today. Got so much done with my little firsties. I had 5 absent so that may have helped me get through things a little faster. We started our measurement unit this week in math. I made Pete the Penguin to help us practice measuring and the kiddos loved it. We have read a lot about penguins lately so when I brought Pete out and told them that this was how big a real boy Emperor Penguin is, they all about flipped. We've been measuring with cubes, tiles, and paper clips. So, of course we had to measure Pete. Then we each stood next to Pete to see if we were taller than him so we could do our graph. I snapped a few pictures.

We hung him in the hall so the rest of the school can share him. I was surprised with our graph results. About a third of the kiddos were taller, a third were shorter, and a third were the same. This was perfect for first graders. Okay, now don't think his feet are funny looking.  They actually hang down. We had to tape them up so the kids didn't step on them.
Here is the graph I made to go along with it. Click on the picture to grab a copy.

The graphics and border are freebies 'From the Pond'.

Well, the next 2 days are going to be VERY, VERY long. We have Parent Conferences. One nice perk is the food we get. Our PTA does a dinner for us one night and it is fantastic. Then our secretary does a dinner for us the next night and it is always really good.

Oh, and I really am losing my mind. In my last post I had a vowel worksheet and I didn't realize it but I had already shared that one. So it is on my blog twice. I guess I really need to read my own blog or try to remember what I've already shared. Sorry!
I hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

Compound Word Round Up & FREEBIES

Hey Ya'all! I just finished my Compound Word Round Up Packet and put it on my Teachers Notebook and TpT shops. I hope you'll check it out. I'm an ole cowgirl at heart. I used to ride horses and help with the cows so this was a fun little packet to put together. Click Teachers Notebook for a link or TpT.

And of course here's a little freebie to go with it. It's a worksheet from the packet for finding compound words. I hope you can use it.

And here's another little worksheet we are doing this week. We are working on vowel teams -oa, & ow saying the long o sound.

Oh my goodness, I just checked my stats and I am almost to 100 followers! Yeppie! Boy, I'm going to have to celebrate with a give away so stay tuned!!!
I hope everyone has a fantastic week.

Great Day!

I had a great day taking care of the hubby! He's doing great and not too much work. I should be able to get back to my little firsties on Monday. By then he should have mastered the crutches and being able to get around without help. Meanwhile, I'm getting lots done in between the "honey come here" and "babe I need this". I made a little Writing Summary sheet for my team yesterday and want to share with everyone. We went to a district training last week getting us ready for the new common core. We liked the idea of getting the kiddos to respond more to their reading. Click on the picture to download a PDF.

Oh, you will want to go over to Oh My Little Classity Class blog spot. You know the cute LEFT RIGHT game I blogged about last time from Swamp Frog First Graders, Deb made some for math. Cute stuff. Check it out.

I also started a TpT shop over on Teachers Pay Teachers. So you can check out my stuff HERE.

I hope everyone has a great FRIDAY. I know I'll be having a great time taking care of hubby!

Great Ideas!

It's still CRAZY in my world! My hubby had his surgery and is doing great. I hope to bring him home from the hospital tomorrow. I've been able to do a lot of blog stalking while sitting at the hospital except they have a very, very slow connection. I've found some great ideas. Here are just a few:

Jill has some terrific snowflake ideas over on her blog Mrs. T's First Grade Class.

A very cute sight word game I found at Swamp Frog First Grader you should check it out. Love the monsters!

I was able to finish a new story mat packet for my Teachers Notebook shop. I love story mats to teach story problems. Go check it out HERE.

And here is a little FREEBIE from me. It's my birthday graph my sub will be doing for me on Friday while I nurse the hubby back to health. Click on the picture for a PDF download. Clipart is DJ Inkers.

I hope you are having a great week!

CRAZY

OK (okay), my OLW (one little word) for today it CRAZY. I just discovered what OLW meant, duh me! Feeling a little dumb. All these acronyms throw me for a loop sometimes but it's kind of fun or do you think I'm being cheesy? Anyhow, my life this past week has been CRAZY and the next two weeks should be just as CRAZY. My BFF (best friend forever) hubby is going in for hip surgery this week. So I need to take off the whole week to be with him. I've been getting sub plans ready and that by far is not my favorite thing to do. Plus, I've had to get all my DRA (development reading assessment) testing done. That's been no easy task with 31 students to test! The week I get back is Parent Teacher Conferences. So all my benchmarks had to be completed this week too. Then I have to get it all compiled and ready to show the parents. Hopefully, I can work on that while taking care of the hubby this week. So it's been a little CRAZY for me lately.

We are working on vowel teams the next few weeks. We do one a week. Here is a little freebie sheet the sub will be doing while I'm MIA (missing in action).

And when I get back we'll be doing this one. Click on the pictures to grab a free download.

I hope you can use these. UNT (until next time) Have a great weekend!

Frustrated but better!

I'm am frustrated! I'm in the process of giving my DRA (reading test) and got so frustrated today. I gave the test to one of my cute little firsties, who I thought was just barely on grade level. But when I gave him the test he just shut down and bombed the test. Why is it that some kids just shut down. I know he can do it. It doesn't help that I have 31 students either. It is just blowing me away this year, because I can't do everything I need to do.
Okay, I've vented and now I feel much better.
I've had fun this week doing some cool things I got from the blogging world. I forgot my camera at school, so I don't have pictures. Sorry! We did a fun activity for wordwork in Daily 5 today called 'Frost It'. I got the idea from Lauren over on her blog The Weekly Hive. You write sight words on cupcake papers. The kiddos pick a word, read it and use it in a sentence. Then they cover it with a piece of tissue paper. They fill out a recording sheet using some of the words in a sentence. My kids loved it.

Another thing we did this week was lots of Penguin Learning Fun. We made our penguin glyph from Jennifer's Penguin packet over on First Grade Blue Skies. They turned out adorable. Some glyphs are a little hard for first graders but this one was perfect! We also read a great book about Penguins. I love this book! It gives lots of facts about Penguins in a fun way. If you click on the picture it will take you to Amazon.com for all the information on the book.

Then we did some lessons on non-fiction writing and made our little Penguin Fact books, again from Jennifer's Penguin packet.
I love getting such great ideas from all of you! So here's a little something from me. We've been working on skip counting this week. I hope someone can use it. It's a sheet for counting by 10's and another one for 5's. This is from my Hoppy Skip Counting unit. You can check it out over on Teacher's Notebook HERE.

Okay, so now I'm feeling much better and less stressed after this blogging session. Amazing what blogging does for me. I hope everyone has a great tomorrow. I'm headed to a district inservice- yahoo! I hope it won't be boring.

Award- ME!?!

I can't believe I actually went to school today. Isn't it Saturday? For some unknown reason I am so behind. I haven't been able to get caught up since the break. So I thought if I went in for a couple of hours today I could get things done. We'll see come Monday. Hopefully, I still won't be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.
It's really not my day, I just ran out of yellow ink in my printer and I don't have a refill. I hate when that happens. But here's some good news!

Holly, over on her blog at Crisscross Applesauce, made my day though. She gave me the Versatile Blogger Award. I'm still in shock. It's hard to believe people really read my stuff. I am so loving this blogging thing! So here's what you have to do:
First, thank the person who gave you the award:

THANK YOU HOLLY!!!

Second, tell 7 things about yourself that people may not know. Okay this has been hard for me so here goes.

     1. I have lived in Utah all my life and I have NEVER been snow skiing on the 'Greatest Snow on Earth'! I'm a warm body person and I really don't care for the cold weather.

     2. I married my high school sweetheart. We grew up living a block and a half away from each other but never really knew each other until junior high. We started dating when we were sixteen and dated for 5 years before we got married.

     3. My hubby and I are only 13 days apart.

     4. I love dark chocolate!!!!

     5. I love to sing, play the piano, cook and sew.

     6. In the summer, I love to spend time in the mountains riding ATVs, hiking, and camping in my 5th wheel trailer with my family and dogs.

     7. One of my favorite things to do is to curl-up on the couch with my hubby and watch a good movie!

And third, I get to give the award to 15 newly discovered blogs. Wow, there are so many great blogs out there. It was fun finding new blogs to stalk! Here's my list:

First Grade Garden

Tales from a K-1 Classroom

Today in First Grade

The First Grade Jungle

Grade ONEderful

First Grade Found Me

Stickers & Starts

What's the Buzz in First

First Grade's Lyon's Den

The Good Life

A Pirates Life for Us

Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives

First Grade School Box

Team Johnson

My First Grade Backpack

I hope you will check out their blogs. They have some awesome ideas to share!

Oh yes, and one more thing. I have a new packet on Teachers Notebook. It's a mini packet for skip counting by 10's, 5's, and 2's.

It finally snowed today. We've been having spring-like weather but it was nice to get some snow even if it was only an inch. I love it when it snows and I have no place to go but to sit in front of the fireplace!

Have a great rest of the weekend!