Currently

I'm linking up with FARLEY'S Currently for November. Check it out.

LISTENING: Currently I'm listening to absolutely NOTHING but peace and quiet. It's early in the morning and no one is up but me. I LOVE this time of day.

LOVING: This is my most favorite season. I LOVE the warm days and cool nights, the beautiful colored leaves, football, apples, and all that is fall.

THINKING: I have sooo much to be thankful for. I really LOVE my life.

WANTING: I need a new pair of dressy boots and I can't find them. They either don't have my size or the heel is too high or too low or it's the wrong color or they don't fit my calf. Maybe I'm being too picky :)

NEEDING: I need a day off where I just don't do anything. My last break, I went on vacation and that was great but sometimes I need a day, all by myself, where I can just do nothing at all or what ever I want.

YUMMY PIN: This looks too good to resist. It's call a Pumpkin Pecan Braid. Can't wait to try it.

Click HERE for the link.

I hope you're all having a wonderful fall.

Wonder

I just finished reading the AMAZING book called "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio. I don't know if you've heard about it or not.

It's about a 5th grade boy who is born with a facial deformity that had prevented him from going to school. This is about his first year in school and how he wants nothing more than to be treated like an ordinary kid. The story is told by a variety of view points from the boy himself to his sister, her boyfriend, classmates, and others. This story teaches about empathy, acceptance, self-respect, friendship, kindness, tolerance, and the list goes on and on.

I found this WONDERFUL site HERE by the author that has some insight into the book and great teaching ideas if you're using this book with your class. If you do a Google search you will find even more lesson plans and ideas. It might be a little hard for first graders to understand but it is defiantly for 4th grade and up. It would be a great read aloud for parents to read to their kids and discuss.

I've heard they are in the process of making it into a movie! I hope they can do it justice because it is such a fabulous book.

"Wonder" is one of those books you can't put down. It's one of those books you think about all the time. It's one of those books you want everyone you know to read it. That's why I'm buying copies for all my family for Christmas.

If you've read this book, I'd love to hear your comments!

If you haven't read this book- GET IT AND READ IT!

Spookley the Square Pumpkin and more!

Hey all! It's been a few days, okay 2 weeks, since I last posted. It's hard to say why. It's been very busy. We've had Apple Day and our field trip to the zoo. I did my district math assessments today and the next two days are parent-teacher conferences. So I guess I've been pretty busy.

I found the CUTEST book/DVD/CD today. I can't wait to share it with my firsties! Our school is focusing on no bullying this year by going the positive route. We are teaching about acceptance and respect.

I've seen the book before called Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. It's been in my wishlist on Amazon.com and I really wanted to buy it this year. So I looked at it closer and found it in a DVD form. It came in the mail today and it is SO GREAT! Not only is there a darling movie about Spookley which teaches a great lesson but it also has 4 other video picture books with wonderful messages for kids. One is for Easter, Valentines, Christmas, and Independence Day. Plus the book Spookley is also on the disc read by Boris Pickett. All the stories are in rhyme and can lead into great class discussions of how we should treat others. As a bonus there is a music CD of Halloween songs. It is really a bargain for just under $10. If you click on the picture above it will take you to Amazon.com for more information.

I hope everyone is having a GREAT week. Thanks for stopping by.

More Number Lines with a FREEBIE

I know I've written a few posts about number lines before. So I'm sorry to bore you again and I'll keep it short. But I think they are important and lots of fun. You can find my other posts about them HERE and HERE.

I'm teaching them this week and made a fun little game to go along with it.

You can grab a FREE copy HERE.

I also found a FREE fun little app for the iPad.

You can watch a video about it HERE.

I have an AirPlay by AirServer on my Mac so I can send my app on my iPad to my computer and then show it on my projector. Pretty cool huh! This explains it better than I can.

You can check it out HERE.

I hope that's short enough!
Have a great weekend!

Name Frame Find

I found a GREAT activity for 10 frames and names. My dear friend Ms. Arnold over on Oceans of 1st Grade FUN blogged about an idea she found called Name Frames. Please check her out HERE. She is One-in-a-Million. And check out Ms. Nowak because the idea originated with her with a freebie on TpT HERE.

So I tried it with my class on Friday. It turned out AWESOME. First I did a name graph with my kiddos. You can find the graph HERE. We've been discussing more and less this week so this was a great assessment. We've also been talking about how important our names are since school began. And we've been exploring 10 Frames with our Nifty Number Book. You can find it HERE.

Then we did the name frames. It was a great culminating lesson.

THANKS again blogging world for such great ideas!

Love the Lehi FD

Last week we had our annual fire drill with our city firefighters. They come every year and pull a surprise fire drill and time us to see how quickly we can evacuate the building. Each year after this event, I walk my kiddos past the huge fire truck so they can see it up close. The firemen are usually in the building discussing the drill with the principal. But this year they happened to come out while I was taking a picture of my class in front of their truck. Well lucky me! The captain on duty just happened to be a former student from over 20 years ago!

He started talking to my firsties and showed them all the equipment. He even let one of them try on his helmet!

 As we were looking at all the gauges and buttons, the firemen told my class that if they wanted to be a firefighter when they grow up they need to make sure they do their math! They need to know math to work all the buttons and gauges.

 Needless to say, the huge fire truck and the firefighters were a BIG HIT! We went back inside and it was almost lunch time. I told the class we would have to skip math today because of the fire drill. That's when one little boy started to cry. I asked him what was wrong and he said he wants to be a fireman when he grows up and we just can't skip math or he won't be good enough in math to be one. It was soooo cute! I gave him a hug and told him not to worry that we would have math in the afternoon.

THANK YOU LEHI FIRE DEPARTMENT for taking the time to talk to my kiddos and for having such great role models for my firsties to look up to!!

A GREAT New Find!

Sorry I've been MIA for a week or two. I've been swamped. School started and I took a little vacation for Labor Day with the family camping. I just haven't had time to blog. But hopefully, I've got my game together now and can get back to my routine.

I just found a FANTASTIC website. I'm probably late to the 'party' and everyone already knows about it but here goes. One of my grade level team members shared some great math lessons she found from Math Solutions. Thanks Kinley!! I tried the lesson today called 'Comparing Handfuls'. I knew it was going to be great because one of the authors of the lesson was Marilyn Burns! I've read things from her before and LOVE her work. The lesson went AWESOME! It was a great way to introduce comparing. So I came home and did a little research on the site Math Solutions. What a GREAT site. It has over 40 FREE lessons for K-1. There are lessons for grades 2-3 and 4-6. They are Common Core aligned and there are a ton of other great things for teaching math like free webinars, video clips, articles by Marilyn Burns, an on-line newsletter, and more.

Here are a few pictures of my class doing 'Comparing Handfuls'.

I made a recording sheet to go along with it. 

You can grab a copy of my recording sheet by clicking HERE.

You can go directly to the Math Solutions lessons for K-1 by clicking HERE.

Tomorrow I'm doing the lesson called 'More or Less'. I hope it goes as well as today! I can't wait to try some more. If you've tried some of the lessons, I'd LOVE to hear your comments!