SALE

I have wrapped up all of my gingerbread math and literacy centers into one unit. Gingerbread Sweet Treats is on sale at my TPT store now through New Year's Day. This is a perfect opportunity to prepare a January gingerbread unit or plan for next year's.

I am currently working on a new set of winter themed centers. This should be ready to go very soon. Happy Holidays!

Favorite Resources Part 2: Center Storage

Teachers are always on the hunt for organizational resources that they can rely on. Keeping your center materials organized in a manner that works for you as well as your students is a must. If your like me, you are constantly trying to find a better way to organize your center materials. I know there are a few of you nodding your heads in agreement:)

My goal this year was to find a product that would allow my students to easily transport all their center materials to their assigned area. I wanted a tool that was EASY for my students to operative and EFFECTIVE in keeping center activities organized. Most importantly, I was looking for a product that would allow my students to be EFFICIENT during the setup and cleanup process. Sound impossible?

After quite a bit of searching, I came across the Pendaflex Esselte Viewfront Poly Envelopes. I have found them to be just the product I was looking for. What I love about this particular product is that all of my center pieces can be secured safely on one side. On the other side the recording sheets slide right in. Items are kept separate yet everything stays together! My students can operate them independently and not one piece has been misplaced since we have starting using them. No more broken clasps or missing pieces at the bottom of a basket. I am loving that!

What tools have helped you stay organized this year?

Revisions

I made some slight changes to my Peppermint Path activity tonight. If you purchased this activity please visit my TpT store to download the updated version. Thank you again for your support.

FREEBIE

Contractions can be tough for my little ones so I created this contraction cookie matching activity to help them. You can grab a copy of it here for free. I appreciate all of my readers and buyers! Thank you for stopping by:)

Gingerbread Math Centers

I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving and a good week back to school. I spent the day working with other first grade teachers in my district realigning our math assessments to the Common Core. It was a long, but productive day. I am looking forward to getting back into the classroom next week. Isn't December such a fun time of year to teach?

My students will be busy rotating through my gingerbread math and literacy centers throughout the next two weeks. All of my math activities are now available at my TpT store. My centers will always be sold as separate activities, not as entire units. This will always give you the flexibility to pick and choose what will work in your classroom.

I hope you check back next week for a freebie and a few more of my favorite things!

Gingerbread Literacy Centers

It is hard to believe we are closing in on the month of November. We will soon be turning our calendars to a month of fun filled themes in our classrooms. I am looking forward to completing two weeks of Gingerbread Man themed activities with my kids. To complement this theme, I have just finished up four new literacy centers. They are ready to go at my TpT store. Enjoy the start of the holiday season!

Stay tuned for a NEW batch of gingerbread math centers...

Favorite Resources Part 1: Guided Reading

While guided reading is a staple in every primary classroom, it may be structured in various ways. Guided reading in my classroom is a component of my Reading Workshop. Even though my students complete various math and word study stations, they do not visit them when I run my guided reading groups. During reading workshop, students are busy reading leveled books from their personal book boxes. They self select these books once a week and practice them throughout. As they read, I typically pull one group for 20-25 minutes. I find I am able to accomplish more in my reading groups when I stretch one out for a longer period of time rather than having two groups for a relatively short period of time. I understand that this might not work for every teacher, but I have come to work with this time frame quite well.

While I have used many resources throughout my teaching career to help me effectively implement guided reading, I highly recommend The Next Step in Guided Reading. This is an outstanding resource for all teachers. I use it daily in my classroom to help me design my lessons and guide my instruction.

Like many teachers, it has taken me many years to build my classroom library. Throughout this process, I recognized just how important it is to put high quality books into the hands of my students. I am very particular about what books I purchase and place into my leveled bins. My favorite publisher is Rigby. Their leveled readers are outstanding! My students absolutely love the books in the Sails Series. They are highly engaging and support readers across the reading spectrum.

If you are looking for products that are a bit less expensive I would highly encourage you to check out The King School Series by Townsend Press. They offer a great deal - 60 books for $60.00. I purchased this set a few years ago and was not disappointed. The books are high quality with a core set of characters that reappear throughout the various levels. My kids are always picking these for their weekly book shopping.

If you are not familiar with Reading A-Z, you definitely need to head over there and check it out. There is a yearly subscription, however, I feel it is worth every penny. In fact, I have been busy assembling many new books that I will house in my classroom. I like to have my resources on hand and ready to go.

Welcome

Welcome to All Things 1st Grade! After reading many outstanding teacher blogs for the past year, I thought it would be exciting and rewarding to create my own. My blog will feature many activities that I have created for my classroom. I will also discuss current educational practices as well as recommend resources that I have successfully used in my classroom. Are you ready to get started? Grab your freebie at my Teachers Pay Teachers store now!