Fall Art Projects

Boots, leaves, colorful trees, and cool crisp air... fall is one of my favorite times of the year!  

With each season comes so many ideas of fun hands-on art projects!  In our school, first graders do not go to an "art special".  Therefore, we work hard to incorporate different activities using art supplies and learning some of the different art concepts.  We use fall-themed art projects to teach students about colors and painting.  

With each project we start out by doing a read-aloud.  We then do the art project, and if there is time, we like to have the students write about their project!  

The first one is a leaf project.  We start out by reading Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf.  

If you can't get your hands on this book, there is a read-aloud available on Youtube here.

Then we make leaves! First I print out different leaf templates from Google images and cut squares of red, yellow, and orange tissue paper.  

All the students need to do is rip the tissue paper apart, glue it on the back of the leaf template, turn it over and cut it out.  I made time-lapse a video to show my students how to do this.

The students can also do a writing piece to describe their leaf and the colors they used.  I like to hang the fall leaves on my window!

We also use fall art projects to introduce paint in the first grade classroom.  For this project, start out by reading any fall story!  Here are some suggestions:

Then the students get a paper with a leaf-less tree.  I also found this image on Google.

I only give the students red, yellow, orange, and brown paint.  I encourage them to add leaves (on the tree or on the ground), pumpkins, scarecrows, birds, a sky, and anything else they might see in the fall!  Then they just paint. :)  Here are some of the beautiful paintings from one of the first grade classes.

Students will then write about their picture and they will be hung in the hall. 

Another fun art project was inspired by a larger version I saw on a friend's front porch.  My friend took seven large pieces of wood and nailed them together with one slanted across the top.  The slanted wood and above became the hat of a scarecrow/snowman and the bottom became the face.  We decided to read a scarecrow story and create the scarecrow/snowman using popsicle sticks!

Below is the story we read.  I try to read a mix of fiction and nonfiction books during these units.  

We then spend one day creating our scarecrow.  I let the students paint while I used the hot glue to stick on the eyes and hair.  Because of the paint and hot glue, we let the scarecrow sit out to dry overnight.  The next day we paint the snowman on the back for winter!

The students really enjoy making these crafts and it is always fun to see how all the different scarecrows/snowmen turn out!  The greatest thing about all of these crafts is that they are all relatively low cost.  Most of the supplies used were things that I already had laying around somewhere in my classroom.  It is important to give students opportunities to be creative throughout the year.  Sometimes we get caught up in all of the assessments and it's hard to take the time to do fun art activities.  Another great thing about all of these projects is that it can be so easily connected to literature and writing.  

Whether you're a teacher, parent, grandparents, or someone else who works with children; I hope you enjoyed reading this!  Good luck with your fall art activities! :)

Columbus Day

Happy October!  Some of you may have already started planning for the entire month of October.  I bet some of you are planning fun fall and/or halloween themed activities; but don't forget about Columbus Day!  I like to use this holiday to teach my students about Christopher Columbus and to talk about exploration. This year I decided to create a Christopher Columbus mini-unit to teach some of the first grade common core concepts. 

The first part of this mini-unit is teaching the students some key vocabulary.  In my Christopher Columbus Activity Bundle, there are vocabulary cards (in color or black and white) for the students to examine and discuss some of the key terms used throughout the unit. 

Many of these terms are commonly used throughout other units.  It is nice to use this unit to introduce several of these key vocabulary terms for the rest of the year.   

When creating this bundle I thought about some of the important literacy skills that I need my students to work on.  Some of these skills include fluency and sight words.  These are both skills that help students become better readers.  A few things that I included the help students build their fluency skills are: a poem, a story, and fluency sentences.  Fluency sentences are one of my favorite things to use with students because you can easily differentiate by using either simple or complex sentences. You then break them down word by word.  Students read the sentence, a line at a time, and build up to the complete sentence. (pictured below)

Another fluency strategy we use is sentence sequencing.  It is incredibly powerful for students cut a sentence apart, glue it in order, write it, and read it.  Not only does this strategy help with fluency, but it also helps students better understand sentence structure.  This is something you can easily make using sentence strips and a pencil! 

You may have noticed the hat on my little explorer on the first image.  The template to create this hat is also included in the bundle.

Since it is still near the beginning of the year, I like to do ABC order whenever I can with my students.  This helps to reinforce the alphabet from kindergarten in a more complex and hands on way.  Some students are able to handle cut-and-paste activities or need extra practice with those fine motor skills.  If you need to save time or you don't want students cutting and pasting you can always have them simply write the words and cross them off in the word bank.   

Sight words are another big component of first grade.  There are so many wonderful free color-by-sight words pages that you can download from the internet.  I decided to create one to go along with the Christopher Columbus unit!

In my school district we are blessed to have several students from different countries around the world.  Throughout this unit we have several wonderful conversations about exploration and world travel.  It is a great opportunity for students to share information about their native country or countries they have visited.  During class discussions we often sit in a circle.  I like to introduce the topic or question, pair students up, and give them a chance to share with their partner.  After a few minutes of partner talk we come back as a group and pass around the class "microphone."  The only person who can talk is the speaker with the microphone.  I have found this to be incredibly effective and students have gained a better understanding of respect and how to be good listeners.  It is fun to hear the students' perspectives and where they've been or come from.  We take advantage of any opportunity to have meaningful class discussions.  

Some other fun activities we like to do:

1. map and globe observation and discussion
2. build "junk boats", race them, and discuss good vs. bad materials to use
3. country flags observation and discussion
4. students can create their own country flag and write about it
5. research project on different explorers (write a paper or a summary, dress as your explorer, and present to the class)
6. dress like an explorer day!

There are so many different approaches you can take to teach your students about exploration and Christopher Columbus.  If you choose to teach your class about the famous explorer you can download my bundle here. 

Otherwise, I hope you're able to use some of those free ideas and have a wonderful experience discussing exploration with your students!  

Happy October!  

Using Movement to Learn

Today I'm going to tell you about my absolute favorite game to use in the classroom.  I like this game because it allows the students to get up and move!  I also love it because it can be applied to so many different content areas.   

All you need to masking tape.  You will need several rolls.  I used one entire roll for the one we did in my classroom last week.  I like to use colorful masking tape because it shows up better on the light-colored floors in my classroom. 

This year I have noticed that this particular group of students could use a little extra practice identifying teen numbers.  A common mistake at the beginning of first grade is mixing up numbers like 13 and 30.  

For the teen numbers I made 9 boxes.  You want to make pretty big boxes so your students don't run into each other.  Then I used the tape to make a different teen number in each box.  I wrote the same teen numbers on index cards, folded them in half, and put them in a basket.  You will also need a line of tape outside of the box on each side for the two teams to stand on at the start of each turn.    

After you've done all the prep work, split your group of students into two teams.  I have the teams sit in straight lines on the floor and wait for their turn. 

The student sitting in the front of the line on each team goes first.  They each stand behind their designated line and wait for the teacher to draw a number.  The teacher then draws the number and says it aloud.  Then, the student from each team wants to be the first one to find and stand on that number.  You can have them hop or walk to the box with that number.  

You can also determine if it is a tie and have the students start again.  The student who stands on the number first gets to stay up for the next round.  The person who didn't get there first sits in the back of their line and waits for their next turn.  Luckily, this is a pretty fast-pace game so each student will get plenty of opportunities to play.  

Another important rule is that the winner of each round must have both feet completely in the box.  These two students (pictured above) made it to the "19" box at the same time.  However, the girl has both of her feet inside the box and the boy does not.  Therefore, the girl won this round of the game. 

I do understand that some classroom teachers like to stay away from competitive games and activities.  This game can very easily be modified for that type of classroom.  Instead of having two teams and having the students race, you could simply have one student at a time and just make it an activity to see how fast he or she can find and get to the number each time.  Either way, it is a fun and engaging way for students to practice a particular skill. 

Here is my favorite thing about this activity... it can be used for:

                                   1.  letter identification

                                   2.  letter sounds/jolly phonics 

                                   3.  sight words

                                   4.  addition and subtraction

                                   5.  multiplication and division

and many more!

Another similar activity that I like to do with students is for practicing word segmenting (this is part of our literacy standardized test). 

Use masking tape to make a layout like this (below): 

This particular set up would be used for practicing three and four sound words.  I would have a list of those types of words ready.  The list I use has the words mixed up.  You can download that document here.

You can also do this with 4 and 5 sound words if you'd like to make this more challenging.   

Something else you may notice with this activity is that students' interest will be sparked almost immediately.  When students come into the room and they see big boxes of tape on the floor they will instantly start asking questions about it.  I always tell my students, "It's a fun activity we'll be doing later today!" They then wait anxiously until they discover this exciting new game.  I have had wonderful luck with this game and I hope you enjoy it too!  Thanks for reading.  Happy Monday! :)

Organization: Teacher Binders

Organization

Thankfully, I consider organization to be one of my strong points.  For the last several years of teaching I have used Erin Condren teacher planners for organizing my student information, lesson plans, and grades.   I absolutely LOVED my Erin Condren planners. Here is my planner from last year:

These planners come in a variety of designs and you can personalize them in many different ways.  This design is one of my all time favorites.  Inside there are pages with inspirational quotes, lesson plans, and student information.   You can find these planners on the Erin Condren website here.  

Here are some other pictures from inside my teacher planner from last year: 

 I decided to spend a little more money last year and add a picture of my family at my sister's wedding in Mexico. 

This is one of my favorite quotes!

This is the lesson plan template available in the planner.  One of the reasons I decided not to get the Erin Condren planner this year was because we switched from handwritten lesson plans to online plans.  Rather than typing the plans into planbook.com and then writing them in my planner, I simply print the plans from planbook.

This is the page for recording student grades and data.  Since we switched to standards based report cards this year, I don't record grades the same way.  Now grades are recorded into the student data notebooks. 

Erin Condren planners are absolutely wonderful! The only downfall is, if you aren't using all of the different features available in the planner, it may not be worth the cost. Therefore, this year, I decided to go back to creating a teacher binder and picking and choosing which resources to put inside. 

  
Here is a sample image of the different pages available in the binder I created for this year.  I put a table of contents at the beginning.  You can write in which resources can be found on which pages.  I then have my class list, and schedules.  I put a "notes" page next to each calendar so I can keep my notes organized by which month they were taken.  Also, there are student information sheets, a parent communication log, general information, usernames and passwords, and a page for recording important dates/student birthdays.  This type of notebook is generic and can be used for any grade level.  If you'd like to download this notebook, it is available for purchase at my TPT store for less than $5! 

Let me show you how I organized my binder!

First I just purchased a white 2-inch binder with the clear sleeves in the front and back, dividers, and clear sheet protectors.  I also purchased some card stock because I decided to print my teacher binder pages on card stock so they would last me the year.  These things are all optional.  The only thing you need is a binder!

On the inside I decided on these sections for my binder: Calendars/Important Dates, Lesson Plans, Student Information, Communication Log, Sub Plans/Information, Rubrics and Standards, and Assessments. 

These are my lesson plans that were printed straight from planbook.com and put into the lesson plans section! 

Behind the "rubrics and standards" tab, I have this rubric.  It is used to assign the students' grades.  These are the power standards we choose last year.

I also keep all of our common assessments (above) for the year in this binder behind the assessments tab along with the pages for the student data notebooks (below).  I put all of the assessments in clear sheet protectors so I didn't have to hole-punch them. You can fit around 10-15 pages in each sheet protector. 

Creating and using this teacher binder has helped me stay organized this year.  It has been wonderful to have all of my important information all in one place.  I also take it with me to meetings or any PD opportunities so all of my notes stay in one place.  I plan to share another post in the future about different ways I stay organized within my classroom. 

I hope some of my organizational tips will help you.  Thanks for reading! :)  Happy Wednesday!

We All Have Feelings

    If you're reading this then you obviously already know that we all have feelings!  But is this something that all students understand?  They might know that we all have feelings but they don't necessarily understand what that means for them.  

We often find ourselves trying to teach our students to get along well with each other and to have empathy for one another. (Which is VERY important! So keep doing it!)  But we also need to remember that sometimes our students don't know how to identify with some of their own feelings, let alone other people's feelings! 

This year we decided to take a few days to discuss feelings with our students.  We are going to have a class discussion each day about a different feeling.  We will start out by introducing the feeling and brainstorming what that feeling means to different people.  For example, on the first day, we will discuss the feeling of excitement.  I will ask students to share different times and reasons they might feel excited.  Throughout the discussion students will begin to realize that what makes them excited might be completely different from that of their peers.  

After a meaningful class discussion, students will be given an opportunity to share their ideas through writing and drawing.

This is a sample page from the book I created for my students to use.  You could use any format you like for students to share their ideas.  

Through these meaningful discussions and writing activities, students begin to identify with their feelings.  After drafting out their ideas, it would be wonderful to share their writing.  Other conversations will begin to arise and eventually students will realize that their peers' feelings are just as important as their own.  It would be very easy to transition into conversations about respect and empathy after this type of activity. 

If you would like to download my product for this activity is is available for purchase on my TPT store here. 

I decided to make this post short and sweet for a change!  I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading. :) 

Student Data Notebooks

UPDATE: I now offer these resources for purchase on my TPT store.  Thank you to all who expressed interest in my products!  The link as at the end of the post. 

What are student data notebooks?

A student data notebook is, basically, exactly what it sounds like: a notebook where students keep data.  There are so many different variations of student data notebooks.  One of the wonderful things about being an educator is the freedom to create and choose what you use in your classroom.  When creating student data notebooks you can create templates for tracking goals and assessments for the Common Core, spelling tests, Everyday Math assessments, or any other assessments used throughout the year.  I understand this is all pretty broad information so let me tell you what we're doing in my class!

Last year our first grade students experienced a great deal of success in their state mandated reading assessment, reading level growth, and math skills.  After discussing this success  with my team, we decided one of the greatest factors was setting and discussing goals.  For example, for the FAST (reading) assessment, we told the students, "Our goal is to be able to read 41 words in a minute! Let's see if we can do it!"  We would then set the timer and they would give it their all.  Knowing their goal was motivating and it made them want to do better.  If they reached their goals, they all felt very accomplished.  If they didn't reach their goal, they eventually learned how to deal with that, accept it, and just work hard to get there the next time.  It was amazing how just setting and communicating those goals with the students made them so much more intrinsically motivated. 

One other example I'd like to share is the students' guided reading levels.  At the beginning of the year we determine our students' guided reading level through Pioneer Valley and through running records.  We then tell each student their level and give them "good fit" books to practice reading.  After each week we conduct a running record to determine their instructional reading level.  If a student reads at the independent level, they are bumped up to the next level.  We work with each student to set a goal for the following week.  We also work with the student to set a goal for their reading level at the end of each month or quarter.  Simply setting these goals has motivated our students tremendously. 

FINALLY to the student data notebook...

You might be asking: Where do I keep that data?  Where do we write the goals?  How do I have time to do all this? 

If you read my "Classroom Tour" post from last week, you might have noticed the piles of white notebooks on the shelf.  

  

These are my students' student data notebooks.  The front cover is a piece of red construction paper with their name on it.  This gives the students the opportunity to decorate their cover and personalize each notebook.

Inside we have made a student graph for each common core "power standard".  These are the standards that will appear on our report cards.  We know that we can't realistically report on every single first grade standard and discuss them with parents.  Therefore, we decided on which standards are the "power standards" and these are the ones we have chosen to report and put in our data notebooks.  Those look like this:

 We have designed an assessment to measure each of these power standards.  At the top of each assessment you will see a similar rubric.

After the student takes the assessment and it is graded, I circle which level of the rubric he or she has accomplished.  Then all we need to do is pass out the assessment and the student data notebook and record their results.  As you can see from the bottom of the data notebook pages, we plan to assess each standard multiple times.  When the students record their results, they write the assessment date on the bottom part of the graph, then they color up to the level of the rubric that they accomplished on that particular assessment.  

As the year goes on, students will be able to physically see their growth.  This is incredibly important and powerful. 

The best part is, it doesn't have to end there!  You can also use this method to track reading level, fluency, spelling tests, sight word assessments, etc.   We use charts like this to chart their success in other areas. 

Each week during guided reading, after a running record is conducted, the student will grab their student data notebook and write which level book he or she read, how many words he or she read in a minute and then color up to that number on the graph.  We always make these data sheets in the form of a graph because then students can continually see their growth throughout the year!  

This may seem like a lot of leg work up front, but I think it is worth it!  I am excited to implement these notebooks this year and see the growth of my students.  Sometimes, as teachers, it is very rewarding and just as motivating for us as it is for the students to see that growth.  I plan to share more blog posts about student data notebooks as the year goes on so stay tuned!  

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week! :) 

Link to Student Data Notebook Resource on TPT

and an editable version here 

The assessments we use to measure these standards are available for purchase here.