Buzzing Around

Our schools aren't on spring break until next week. So this week cannot end soon enough.

To help with my boredom before spring break, I have been busy creating a few freebies for you. The first is a buzzing about math packet with three worksheets that are common core aligned. These sheets come in a PDF file. Click any of the three sheets below to be taken to the download.

     

I also worked on some posters to go along with Daily 5 and CAFE. These posters are not endorsed by the Sisters. I created a set with monster graphics for my cooperating teacher. I also created a set with bug graphics and a set with bee graphics for other teachers on the first grade team at my placement school. Click on the pictures below to grab these freebies. 

I hope you enjoy these freebies! Please wish me luck as I work on finishing this long week before spring break!

-Sami

Five for Friday... On Saturday

I am happy to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their Five for Friday Linky today, even though it is a day late. This is the first linky party that I've joined, even though I've blog stalked used linky's to find new ideas.

Here are my five for this week:
1. In my first grade class for student teaching, we had some St. Patrick's Day fun. On Monday, we read some St. Patrick's Day themed books. On Tuesday, we completed some Lucky Fact Families and we had a lucky charms graphing activity after the leprechaun left us some clues. I can't seem to find the blog where we got the great freebie for our first graders to do the graphing. On Wednesday, we did some writing about who is worth more than gold to us. We found the printables here.

2. We started Daily 5 full force this week with our first graders. Overall, they've been doing ok, but my mentor and I are trying to find a way for the kids to pick their choices without taking time in between sessions when we should be doing our many lessons. Any suggestions? Right now, each child has a little card with their picture on it, and they place that card in a pocket chart next to their choice and they change their choice in between sessions. I feel like this is inefficient and takes away precious learning time.

3. With us starting the Daily 5, we have also been completing mini lessons on the CAFE strategies. This week, I am going to be teaching the kids the expand vocabulary strategy - "Tune In To Interesting Words and Use New Vocabulary in Speaking and Writing". For this, the sisters had given their word collection boxes, but I didn't feel like this was a good resource for first graders (you know they wouldn't be able to fit more than two to three letters in a box). So, I am going to copy booklets that have lines and a page for each letter of the alphabet. It is their word collection book. I plan on having each student keep these in their book boxes and then go over the words written in the books during individual or group conferences. Click the picture below if you'd like a copy for yourself.

Graphics from Creative Clips
Fonts from Jenna Barrett

4. The weather in Kentucky has been awful, therefore, I have not been feeling well since Wednesday :( I'm starting to feel better, but my throat is still a little sore.

5. Last, but certainly not least, I got some good news this week. I received an email from the University of Louisville this week stating that I have been honored as the "Outstanding Master of Arts in Teaching Student in Early Elementary Education for Spring 2013 Commencement". After a little digging, I found out that the faculty members all get together and nominate one person for each award. Then they vote on the nominated students. I'm not sure how many awards there are, but am pretty pumped to have won the award. I'm excited to head to Louisville in April for the awards ceremony and see all of my fellow classmates who I haven't seen since December.

Freebie for Daily 5!

We have been working on Daily 5 in my student teaching placement. My mentor and I were trying to come up with a way to track student choices during Daily 5 and also keep track of what students we have met with. We want to make sure we meet with every child at least once if not more each week.

I came up with this little document which I am adding on here as a freebie for you all to use if you so desire. The way we will be using this document is to write the student names in the first column. Then, for each of the Daily 5 choices, we will mark the date in the corresponding box for the child. If we meet with that child for a writing conference, reading conference, etc, we will be highlighting the date of the time we met with them. This will show us visually how many times we have met with each child in a week's setting. (Click the picture below to go to the free download. Thank you Jenna Barrett for the font - I found through the comments of someone else's blog.)

I have made this document so that two full rotations of the Daily 5 are included on one sheet - so we will be using one sheet per week because each child will be responsible for visiting each section of the Daily 5 twice per week. 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

-Sami

We Joined the Blog World and a Freebie!

So... Here it goes, our first blog post....

After the successes of our TpT store, we decided it was probably time to start a teaching blog to be able share our teaching experiences and adventures with everyone online. We have enjoyed blog hopping from time to time, especially through the use of Pinterest.

A little about us, The Teaching Sisters. We are two sisters from Kentucky. The older sister is Sarah and the younger is Sami. Sarah is in her fifth year of teaching second grade in Kentucky. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Kentucky and a Master's in Education from Northern Kentucky University. Sami has a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics from the University of Louisville and is currently working on her Master's of Art in Teaching for elementary education. She will be graduating this May from University of Louisville.

We share an account on Teachers Pay Teachers. We have been selling items for just about a year now, and are adding new products all the time. Sami uploaded Circus Themed Math and Literacy Centers for first grade yesterday. All 16 of the centers included in the pack are Common Core aligned. There are 8 math centers and 8 literacy centers. We will give one copy of the Circus Centers away to the first person to leave a comment on this blog post with their name and their email address! Click the picture below to be take to the product in our TpT store.

We look forward to sharing our experiences with the blog world, and hopefully will grow as educators through this journey!

-The Teaching Sisters