Comparison Subtraction and a Candy Corn Overdose

If your fall has been anything like mine...you are running on overdrive teaching super crazy rigorous Common Core standards, while trying to fit in fun fall activities, while wearing a scarf and sipping on a pumpkin latte.

This time of the year always brings the dreaded COMPARISON SUBTRACTION train to our math unit. ugh. gross. It is honestly one of the most difficult concepts to get 6 year old students to grasp.  They can easily tell me who has more or who has less, but ask them how many more or how many less...blank stares, crickets, cute "I don't know" smiles. I can see their frustration...I can feel their frustration.  Its just one of those things. But giving up is not an option in first grade!!!! So, we bought stock in bags of candy corn @ Target, made an entire bundle of small group games, and practiced until our heads (and stomachs) hurt...and in some cases, we fell asleep.

If you are having the same fall dilemma with these tricky skills, hop on over to my TPT store, or click below, to purchase. 

This pack includes: 

-Candy Corn Comparison Subtraction word problems with work mat

-Bobbing for Apples Comparison Subtraction Match Up (students will play concentration to match comparison word problems with the corresponding subtraction equation)

-Candy Corn Grab Bag (Students draw candy corn numbers out of a bag and decide who has more and how many more)

-Caramel Apple Hunt Match and Record (Students match a comparison subtraction word problem with a subtraction equation and record on the recording sheet)

-Roll and Compare 

-Comparison Subtraction Homework Sheet

Enjoy your last week of October friends! 

I Think I'm Catching On!

Hi friends! I hope you are doing well...I feel like I can finally breathe again because the semester is over and I have two whole months (COUNT THEM) two whole months without college!!!! College kind of sucks the "I am on fire with blogging, creating, sharing, etc." life out of me.  So I apologize for being a "sporadic" blogger.

We're off today, as are all MD teachers, due to the MSDE conference taking place.  Yesterday, we had an all day, countywide inservice that focused mainly on CC ELA.  Now I have to admit, my nerdy self actually really enjoyed this inservice....and yes partially because Shafer was a presenter....but still!   Common Core professional development started my first year of teaching, and I didn't listen...AT ALL. because I was too overwhelmed with what I had to teach that day, I couldn't even begin to think about what I'd teach the following year. Then last year, I was forced to listen because we were knee deep in this thing and really still didn't know what I was doing....something wasn't clicking.  I had the "fake it till you make it" mentality until finally I got in a groove and realized Common Core was a good thing, it was working, and I could do this. However, I will admit, I left in-services last year frustrated, angry and stubborn.  They want us to do what?  How can I do that with my group of kids?  Really Common Core?

Now, in the midst of my third year, the pieces are falling together.  I see the methods behind the madness.  I know the standards. And I'm implementing CC more naturally and without a lot of thinking.  Is this done seamlessly?  NO. Am I a pro yet? NO But, I will say I left the in-service yesterday excited to use tools I learned about.  More close reading strategies....yes, I need those!  Videos on how to conduct text talks....sweet, give me more!

This morning, I was up early (God knows why) and immediately picked up my computer to get some planning done for the upcoming week.  As I was tweaking an ELA lesson, without thinking, I created a new writing prompt for the read aloud that day.  Curious, I went back to look at the writing prompt I had already created my first year of teaching and used again last year.  There was no "I'll just use the old one because its already created" honestly, there wasn't even much thinking put into changing the prompt.  It had to be done.

Can you see the difference?  If you can, you're catching on too!!!

Old

New

Now Teach! I love me some organization!

Ok guys, I'm super excited because I eat, sleep and breath organization.  Seriously, my mom always knew when I was stressed growing up because I'd be awake organizing and cleaning (OCD much?!?!) But seriously, organizing is something you can control.  So when your day in the classroom seems chaotic, rest assured your instructional materials are not. It truly is calming.

I am by nature neat and organized, but my true love and need for organization in the classroom came from Shafer. She was like the Mr. Miyagi of classroom organization.

Now, I will say, there are things that I slip up on, get sloppy with, and forget about.  Typically, these are the things that during the school year are just too much to tackle and they get labeled "that will be my summer project." This year, that happened to be my LA and Math game bins.

So, here are some things that keep me sane throughout the year....

1. GO BUY A LABEL MAKER...enough said.

2. Get your binder on!  Have a binder for everything....I'm serious, its a game changer.  I am soooo excited to get to school and print and stock my binders for the year with all the Common Core goodies I need.  

3. Bins and Labeling! I have an obsession with organizational bins, anything that's a cute color that can hold something, I buy.  Its a problem. But seriously, bins and labels! 

 4. Keep your desktop neat and tidy...nothing gives me hives more than a desktop that has things not in folders. eeeek!  It breeds anxiety.

You can't see it very well, but I have a folder for each subject, a TPT folder, a school year folder and a "to print" folder (this is my favorite).  When I know I need to print something, as I'm planning the night before, I drag and drop to this folder so in the morning I don't forget to print!

5. Milk crates, zip locks and hanging file folders. This was my summer project and I'm so excited to use them this year!  This is a trick of the trade I learned from Shafer....it's so simple, but so amazing!

Print, laminate and organize all of your games/activities and store them in big ol' Ziplocks.  Then, label (with above said label maker) the bags with what unit or theme the game/activity is from.  Now, in your milk crate, label and organize hanging file folders for each theme, subject, or unit.  Stick your labeled Ziplocks in their designated spot, and holy moly its a life changer.

EXTRA EXTRA! And guys I finally jumped on board with this last year....get your kiddos organized DAY 1!  Set the example and give them incentives.  I was skeptical, but this so works!  There are tons of amazing ones of these on TPT.  I created my own last year that worked with my class.  Check out the post where I introduce here.  Also, for teacher week, grab it for free below!

Link up and rock out this Teacher Week.  Tomorrow is my first day back to work. I have to be a geek and say I am soooo excited!  My mom took off work and her, J and I will be setting up tomorrow. All of the summer printing, labeling and laminating will finally be put to work tomorrow!

Oh Lordie Bee!

You guys remember that sweet, nice, calming, reflective post I wrote last week about the joys of the last days of July?  Well scratch that!  I've moved to the I GO BACK TO SCHOOL IN A WEEK AND STILL HAVE SO MUCH TO DO post. I've moved to complete crazy. Last year, I started in the classroom literally as soon as summer school ended because Shafer and I had to switch classrooms.  I have to say I was burnt out and exhausted by the time the kiddos arrived.  This year, I'm giving myself a vacation and only going in two days (before we have to report) early!  That's blasphemy right!??!?!  All I know is that I need the break.  I need the break to be creative on my own time in my own space while watching Pretty Little Liars and eating dairy free ice cream (no joke found one that tastes just like the real stuff...So Delicious is the brand!)

Now, just because I'm not going in for another week, doesn't mean that I'm not getting ready.  Prepared is my middle name. I'm preparing daily....just from my living room. I'm even prepared to escape my sinking car in the 1/1,000,000,000 chance I go over the Bay Bridge. Yes. It. Is. In. Pink. What can I say?

I also have this little girl heading to HIGH SCHOOL in a few weeks...which is giving me so much excitement heart palpitations. 

                                       

I am taking full advantage of the five foot ball of awesome that is my little sister...while she still thinks I'm semi-cool and helping me with school stuff is fun. So, we have been getting our craft on!

The first thing we did was attempt the no-sew pennant banner that Abby did over at The Inspired Apple for a TBT post a while back.  I had been looking for something simple to jazz up the hallway outside of my classroom where I hang student work...and I figured I'd try. All I did was buy the fabric, ribbon and the double sided iron on sticky stuff from a craft store. 

Had sister friend cut, and cut, and cut, and cut.......

And then I placed and ironed.  It honestly was easy.  Of course I took a picture of the section where I screwed up the patterning (Common Core's fault for taking patterning out of K and First)  and my ribbon is fraying slightly, but other than that success! I then decoupaged (my favorite word ever) a lot of teeny weeny clothes pins with chevron, stripes and polka dots of the same types of colors to hang their work. I'll show pictures next week when its up and running hanging. 

While sister friend was cutting, and cutting, and cutting some more, I moved to another decoupage project.  Have you all seen those awesome hall pass boards with the teacher's name painted in a super cute way and then the clothes pins for the passes?  I so wanted one. And I was going to order one from Etsy...except I had already spent my "school" budget for the pay period on ink, so I had to make my own.

SIDE BAR WARNING: I hate hall passes.  Frankly, they gross me out. Seriously.  Have you ever thought about that?  We're trusting 6 year olds to carry something into the bathroom with them?  Really!??!?! Who thought that was a good idea? That is why I figured the clothes pin idea was a good one because they could stick it to their shirt, no touching in bathroom necessary and then when they get crusty and nasty I can toss and grab another one super cheap.  Don't get me wrong I know this isn't a flawless system, and the janitor is going to have my hyde the first time one of these falls down the toilet and clogs the septic system for the whole county...but a girl can dream right?!?!

Anyway, to create my own, I just grabbed a cheapo wooden S from Hobby Lobby and some cute scrapbook paper. 

I then just started cutting random chunks of paper and decoupaging. 

And it sucked and looked awful and I hated it so much I wanted to cry. It looked like a Raggedy Anne dress.  It was 50 shades of not even a little cute. So I pouted and then started over.  

I covered the whole thing in gray, added a cute ribbon and voila!  I adore it now! 

Pheww! I can see my projects and must do's dwindling here at home and I realize holy moly, lordie bee...It's that time friends. Sweet sweet summer is wrapping itself up into a cute little GET YOUR BUTT BACK TO WORK bow and there's no stopping it.  

Cami kind of has the right idea.  We know we need to be gearing up and back to school soon...but we're so comfy where we are...we're taking our time getting there. 

Enjoy your last few days friends!

Facebook and Freebies!

Hi friends!

I'm super excited to introduce my new fan page. (I don't really have "fans" but it sounds really cool to say). Check it out by clicking on the icon to the right or click on the images below!

If you head over, you can find a few free things to grab in my fan freebies tab.

You can grab the titles I made for each theme of the first grade HM series. I hang them up on my language arts focus wall as we work through the series.

I'm slightly obsessed with pennants, chevron and these cool and calm colors.  Super bummed they won't really work in my room :( Head on over to grab them too!

Remember how I said I learned how to make chevron backgrounds on Adobe Illustrator?  Here's my first pack, free for my Facebook fans! I call it "And All That Tan...Chevron"  (you have to sing the title of the freebie with the All That Jazz mentality...just saying. 

I hope someone out there can enjoy and use!

The End of July...

The end of July reminds me of the calm before a storm.  It's that beautiful and peaceful time when you break out a hot glue gun, some mod podge and scrapbook paper...but only after you've taken a nap and watched an episode of some old show on Netflix.  It's not the crazy frantic time where you are screaming "I HAVE TO GET THIS LAMINATED AND CUT OUT BY TOMORROW, BECAUSE WHAT IF SHE COMES TO OBSERVE ME?!?!?"  Do you see the difference there?

The end of July is when sisters can help you with all of this stuff and it somehow feels like a bonding moment instead of "I swear if you wrinkle that lamination or cut that line uneven I'll flip out."  Do you see the difference there?

The end of July is when you have finally decompressed from the last school year and are excited about the possibilities this new school year holds.

For me, the end of July is when my brain is somewhat quiet (which usually means one turn of the volume knob away from max) and I can come up with ideas that are my own and haven't been seen on Pinterest.

The end of July is when you get texts like this from your best teacher friends....

It's when you start getting the little things done (which in your first and second year of teaching you never thought to do before hand) p.s they are super cute with the names, but lists haven't gone out in our county...and it would be a BSD (big stinkin' deal) if I was showing names prior to the lists being mailed. 

The end of July is when I sit for hours and hot glue gun Houghton Mifflin HFW to clothes pins, so I can stick them to a ribbon instead of taping them up every week.  This task would have been a waste of time type of task mid October... 

And it's when I forget that yes I already have a perfectly good, laminated, cute schedule in my room, but chevron and pennants are in...so here we come. 

I'm kind of in love with the end of July....in one day it will change into the beginning of August.  In a teacher's world the words "beginning of August" have a meaning not many truly understand.  But for today and tomorrow, I'll soak in the last day of July and hot glue my heart out. 

Mo' Chevron...Mo' Problems.

So Stella got her creating/teaching/crazy groove back....

I had decided that I wanted to organize all of my binders this summer, now that I have my Common Core life semi figured out.  Shafer inspired me with her awesome teacher binder. (which you can buy here...she also made me one that is hot pink and black chevron, which you can buy here ) After I printed, laminated and hot glued it together, I was hooked.

So, I started creating binder covers, spines, tabs, etc. for all of my subject areas.  Except, I kind of got carried away. And made five sets.  Different colors.  Different awesome colors. And now I want to use them all.  But I can't.

I think I'm going to go with the hot pink writing binder, which you can get for FREEE here. It is just for first grade Common Core writing, but oooh I love it!

 Then of course, I needed a Language Arts binder. We use Houghton Mifflin in our county, so this set is specifically designed for first grade. I am sooo excited to get my themes organized for this year!  I am not so excited about choosing which set I'm going to print and use.....thoughts? You can purchase any of these sets by clicking on the one you want below!

I guess there are much worse problems to have.  

It's Summa Time!

Ok, so technically we still have a week and a half.  But, come on its 90 degrees outside!  (also, side note, I know I suck at blogging...it's possible I bit off more than I could chew with blogging, but it's like the friend you can call even after months of not talking and she still gets ya)  I was super excited about these last couple of weeks of school, because they are fun!  However, I got sick.  Super sick.  I actually had a fever sick.  I have had to miss the last two days of school which breaks my heart and causes me lots of anxiety, but fever free I am and returning to my windowless classroom tomorrow.

Next week we have a week full of fun planned...career day, beach day, game day, talent show, awards...fun, fun, fun!  I made it through our first year of common core, first year of homogeneous language arts grouping, first year of a windowless classroom, first year of grad school and HEY I'm done my second year of teaching.  Am I burnt out...yes.  Am I still going to teach summer school and keep taking grad classes through the summer...yes.  Ask me how this works out in the fall and if I will keep doing all this next summer.

I honestly have to say that I have enjoyed this group of kids immensely.  They are full of personality, humor, and WOW they are bright.  I will miss each of these kiddos a lot!  Because they are so awesome, and beyond amazing writers, I decided to give them my address and let them be my pen pal this summer.  Will I receive hate mail or random knocks at my door...highly possible. But the idea is super fun!

Here is what I'm sending home with them on the last day of school...