Monday, November 11, 2013

Presenting... the "Story Stick"!

What is a story stick you ask?  Well, we saw this idea {somewhere on Pinterest} of using pictures to retell a story and attaching them to a rule or paint stirrer.  We've always done retelling pieces using pictures from a story at our drama station, but this was new and exciting- not to mention that it was a good way to keep track of the pieces!  We've been using plastic rulers (they're a few for a buck at Dollar Tree) and then attaching a strip of velcro on one side.  We then put little pieces of velcro on the back of each picture.  As the kids retell the story, they place one picture at a time on the story stick.  By the end they've sequenced all of the pictures to account for all of the events.  It's pretty simple, but it's an easy way to spice up the drama station!  This week we're using I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie with the story stick.  There's a link on the picture to check it out!

 I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie retelling pieces on a story stick!  You can check it out here!


Here's a way that we've found to be useful to keep pieces organized.  We use the small envelopes and laminate them with the title of the activity and place all of the pieces inside.  It stays nicer than a bag, and stores flat!  
 Laminated envelopes used to store small pieces.

How do you keep your small pieces organized?

-Amanda and Jessica

Monday, November 4, 2013

Turkey Time!

As we wrap up the first quarter we have been BUSY with report cards, conferences, and planning!  Our district switched around our math pacing guide and we're now teaching time in November, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a turkey clock!!  Jessica made this ADORABLE creation-isn't he a cutie??  






If you're interested in trying it out you can download the template on the google doc HERE.  We recommend sticking the pieces together with liquid glue, so they stay put.  :)

-Jessica and Amanda

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Halloween!

It's fast approaching... are you ready?  This week is going to be CRAZY.  It's our last week of the quarter, and we know all the kids will have on their minds is candy!  Hopefully we'll be able to be productive and finish assessments for report cards!

We LOVE holidays and incorporating them into our learning- it just makes it more fun, right?  Since Thursday is Halloween, we wanted to post a few of our halloween favorites.  Here are some things that we've done in the past or that we're planning to do...

Goofy Pumpkins!  We've been doing this project for a few years.  We originally found the idea from an awesome art teacher's Flickr page. We decided to turn it into a mini writing unit.  It makes an adorable hallway display!




Favorite Reads!  Here are some of our favorite stories for this time of year.  What are your favorite Halloween read alouds??




Retelling Pieces!  This is a little drama station that we made to go with There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat.  Click picture below to get your FREEBIE!!



Oreo Spider!  Who doesn't love yummy treats??  Here's a fun following directions activity that's also delicious...



Pumpkin Sight Word Game!  This is great to use to review sight words.  You can use fun halloween erasers for markers!  Click the picture for your freebie.


Literacy Stations!  Click the picture to download from our TPT store.  :)  The Frank's Sight Words is a freebie!


Poems!  Click the poem titles to download the PDF for each!  Each PDF has two poems per page, perfect for shared reading journals!


Happy Halloween!  :)


Saturday, October 26, 2013

Welcome!

Welcome!

Thank you for stopping by.  We have been contemplating starting a blog for a while, and we've finally decided to jump on board!

A little about ourselves... we are two friends from Virginia (born and raised!) who have known each other for almost 15 years (wow- time flies!!!!)  Throughout high school we knew we both wanted to teach little ones.  We worked at a daycare together, did a teacher cadet program senior year, and then went into teaching in college.  We both ended up getting our masters degrees at UVA and moving back home to teach.  We both teach first grade at different schools in the county and LOVE it!

We spend a lot of time together brainstorming teaching ideas, coming up with activities, and sharing school stories.  We love checking out what other teachers do on other blogs, and we hope we can share some ideas with other fellow teachers.  Thanks for stopping by.  Check back for more posts.  We're excited about the upcoming holidays and will be posting some of our favorite activities!

If you'd like to check out our TPT shop click HERE!  Thanks :)

Here's a little taste of some of our products...