FUN Times 2

Hello, hello, hellooooooooooo!

I wasn't lying yesterday when I said that was just the beginning of the FUN!!!!  If you missed yesterday's giveaway - be sure to check that out when you are done reading here.

But don't go yet!

Keep on reading my friends!

The Weekend Warriors are here for a little partay!  A giveaway or two!

I am going to tell you about my latest bundle that I am SO excited about!

When I started teaching 1st grade a few years ago (those of you who are new to my blog might not know that I taught 3rd and 4th grade for 10 years before switching to 1st, which happens to have become my home sweet home :).  Anywho - when I started teaching 1st grade is also when I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers because I was desperately searching for the best of the best ideas for teaching these little kiddos I was about to welcome into my classroom and into my heart.  At that time I would've been in heaven if I found a bundle of products to get me started on the right foot.  That was my goal in bundling these products together.  Whether you are new to 1st grade, or even a veteran 1st grade teacher, we are always looking for new ideas and better ways of doing things.  This bundle was 2 years in the making. What can I say - it's takes me a little while to get things just the way I want them :-)

Here is what you will get in The ULTIMATE First Grade Starter Kit:

Some Getting to Know You activities for those first couple weeks.

Guided Reading, Writing Center, and Word Work - yes, please!

 

And some Math Centers to get you going too!

So if you are like me and would be thrilled to get an ALL-IN-ONE package like this, you should definitely check this one out.

Oh, and did I mention that you can enter to win it??

Well, you can!

 Right now.

Oh and you can ALSO win a $50 Amazon gift card AND $5 to each of the wonderful stores below!

That's right - two giveaways -- well, actually more because some of my friends are giving away some of their awesome products too.  So many prizes, so little time!  So get moving!  Enter and hop along dear friends!  Oh, and stop back tomorrow for yet ANOTHER fun thing I have to tell you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Tutu Teacher	Lucky To Be In First	Bright Concepts 4 Teachers	Primarily Speaking
Saddle Up Second Grade	A Burst of First	Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd	Hippo Hooray for Second Grade
Creative Lesson Cafe	Second Grade Perks	A Sunny Day In First Grade	First Grade Smiles

InLinkz.com

Last Day of Summer Lovin' Sale

Last day of this fun sale friends!  Are you ready to see what you get today????

I brought some "ph"riends to help me celebrate the last day of the sale today.  No I haven't slipped into summer mode so bad that I don't know how to spell "friend" correctly.  These are my Phonics PHriends that I'm talking about.  Would you like to meet them?

I'll start with my Phamily (hehe!)  

Here is the Short Family (Dad, Mom, Meg, Gus, and Jill).  

I have to admit - I really LOVE this pack.  It is so much fun in the beginning of the year and SO perfect for my firsties.  We did a different family member (short vowel) each week as we began the school year and my little kiddies just adored the stories that went along with each family member and the super fun centers and activities.  I *think* they liked this unit as much as I did.  If you want to read more about this pack click HERE.  

I also have some animal "Ph"riends that have helped me with Blends.  You can read more about them HERE.  We have L Blend Lions, R Blend Rabbits, S Blend Squirrels, and the Tw Blend turtles, which is a freebie!!!

   

   

You can get these all bundled together too!

Finally, we have some Digraph "Ph"riends too (Charlie, Whitney, Beth, and Dash).  

So bring some friends into your classroom to help you teach phonics.  I have had my Superhero E "ph"riends on my to-do list for quite some time and I am hoping to get to them this fall.  Fingers crossed!

Bright Concepts 4 Teachers	Sailing Into Second	Primarily Speaking	A Burst of First
Crayons and Whimsy	Second Grade Perks	Lucky To Be In First	The Tutu Teacher
Hippo Hooray for Second Grade	Saddle Up Second Grade	My Second Sense	Creative Lesson Cafe
A Sunny Day In First Grade	First Grade Smiles

InLinkz.com

Bright Ideas for Kinesthetic Learning

Here we are again - another month of AMAZING bloggers getting together to share some Bright Ideas.    This time I'd like to share some ideas for those wiggly, bouncy, chatty, energetic, wonderful, kinesthetic learners.  

We all know 'em.  We all have 'em.

  

I think kinesthetic learners would pretty much describe almost every child in my class in 1st grade.  Maybe it's the age, or maybe it's just my group of lovelies this year - but either way, I think all primary teachers can agree that it pays to have some strategies in your back pocket to break out when you see the wiggles start kicking in.  Not to mention that most children learn best by doing.  

All of the ideas I'm going to share are ones I use in my classroom.  I'm not claiming to have created these ideas, and I'm sure many teachers use the same ones, but I just wanted to share what I do. 

I hope you will see something that inspires you and you can try out in your own classroom.  I named these ideas just to help explain, but if there is another name for them that maybe I don't know about or if there is an original creator, please feel free to let me know.  I will always give credit where credit is due.

So let's start with some ELA ideas:

 Whole Body Spelling is using your whole body to form letters to spell a word.  You could do this with sight words or other spelling words.  You can do it in the classroom, but my students love going outside to do this.  We even go out in the winter and do this in the snow.  

Write in the air is just a quick way to practice spelling.  We use our fingers in the air as if we are writing and spell words out loud together.  This is a hard one to capture in a picture, but here is my attempt.  Maybe you can tell that they are spelling the word again.  :)

Listen and Jump is something we do when reviewing sight words, rhyming words, or vocabulary words.  In this picture all the kids have sight words and when I say a word that they have, they jump up in the air.  They LOVE this one!  

Sometimes I will give them other words and say if your word rhymes with "cat" then jump up or if your word starts with a "b" sound jump up.  This is also fun because a couple kids might jump up at the same time.  Again - simple, but gets 'em moving.

Lifesize Making Words  - We use letter cards to spell words.  As we stretch out the sounds the kids will either stand up or hold up their letter.  Sometimes we have vowel teams and those kids link up their arms and say their sound together or we put a Super E at the end of the word and have him/her flip the vowel sound.  The person holding the vowel turns around in a circle and says the long vowel sound instead.  Acting out phonics is something that really helps my lower readers.  They seem to remember things like flipping the vowel and linking arms and so on.  Great visual for the whole class.

Finally, and probably our MOST favorite, is a variation of the game Hullabaloo.  This is such a cute game and my 3 and 5 year old girls really love playing this at home.  

In the actual game there are rubber mats that have pictures and words with things like animals, food, instruments, etc.  You spread these out on the floor randomly.  Then you turn on the "announcer".  The announcer says things like "Slither over to a yellow mat" or "Hop over to a food".  The kids move around and find the mats he's talking about.  Then he will say something like, "If you are standing on the elephant you win - take a bow."  It's super cute!  

So I decided to make this into a classroom game to practice word families and as we learn new spelling patterns.  I use these pack of foam shapes that I got from the Dollar Tree.  

Then I write words on them using a sharpie.  Right now we are working on long vowels so the pack of words I'm using has CVCe words, vowel teams, and also includes blends and digraphs.  But in the beginning of the year I just use CVC words and slowly add in blends.  

We spread out the words on the floor and I will give directions like, "Tiptoe over to a word that rhymes with feet" or "Crawl over to a word that has a long e sound."  We just stand next to the word instead of on them and then I have them read the words they chose.  I play this with small groups of children so it is more manageable and because I don't have a ton of room, but it could be played as a class too.  In the actual game kids can share mats, so sometimes we do that too.  

I also use these same cards at our reading table with fun fly swatter to swat the words if we don't have time to spread them all out on the floor.  This is also a class favorite and super quick to set up when I don't have the time for the full thing.

Now for some kinesthetic ideas to use in math: 

First up is skip counting.  We use numeral cards that I quickly printed on the computer and laminated and each child has a number.  We sit in a line or a circle.  If we are counting by 2s for example, we will count around the circle and whisper the odd numbers and then shout (not too loud) the even numbers while those children stand up.  Then we switch it up and count by other numbers.  If we're counting by 3s, we would whisper 1,2 and shout 3, whisper 4,5, and shout 6, and so on.  

For Greater than/Less than we use the same numeral cards.  We make numbers between 0 and 120 (first grade common core standards).  Then I have a student stand in the middle and hold their arms like the sign.  We practice reading it together.  For example: 57 is greater than 46.   We will also make numbers and put them in order from least to greatest or vice versa.  Sometimes we turn the numeral cards into necklaces using sheet protectors and string and they don't have to hold up the numbers.  

This next one is something I am planning on getting when I have the money, but wanted to share it with you.  In my classroom I have made a Lifesize Tens Frame out of a dollar store plastic tablecloth and washi tape for the lines (sorry no picture).  We have kids stand in the tens frame to practice counting, adding, and subtracting using our bodies.  But I also just found online this giant 120 chart and blow up dice that I think I will HAVE to get.  I also saw another one that was even bigger where the kids move around on it.  How fun!  

Finally is my version of Math Hullabaloo.  This is the same idea as the reading version, only using numbers.  Again, I write a bunch of numbers between 0 and 120 on the foam shapes using sharpie.  Then we spread them all out.  I give clues such as, "Dance over to a number with 6 tens" or "Slide over to a number greater than 30."  Super fun!

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my Bright Ideas for Kinesthetic Learners.  If you enjoyed these ideas, please consider following my blog on Bloglovin' over on the side or following me on Facebook or Instagram.