BOTSY freebies

Hi!  I hope your are all having a great week so far!  I am finally up and running again! I can't believe how lost I felt without my computer, but after having Norton spend 3 entire days trying to get rid of the virus that was on it, they think they finally got it!  I am so relieved.  It was on my picture viewer, so when I downloaded any TPT purchases (lessons, clip art, etc.) it said my files were empty.   Today it was resolved I hope!  So, what did I do during my spare time? I organized all my necklaces.  My jewelry box wasn't doing it so I bought some hooks from Target and nailed them behind a door.  Now my necklaces are hung and organized.  I used mini hooks for some of my smaller ones.  I just poked them in the wall and walla!  When the door is open, you can't even see them.  :) 

 

This weekend I was able to add some freebies that I was working on for the beginning of the school year (BOTSY).  My abbreviation is so much easier to write.  :)

 

The first freebie that I have for you is some incentive charts.  I don't use them often, but when I do, it's nice to have something on hand that I can just print off.  I would like to use them more with homework this year or maybe with passing fluency tests.  How do you use them in your rooms?  I am curious to know.  I have mostly used them for behaviors.

Click here for: Incentive Charts Free Download

I also added some certificates for giving to your students at the end of the first day of school.  They are for K-3rd grade.  If you would like one for an older grade, let me know.  I will find "older" looking clip art.  I asked my son who is going into 6th grade if he would've liked getting something like this last year.  He did say it looks kinda babyish.  He's a 6th grade now...he'd know! LOL!!!

Click here for: First Day of School Certificates

 

If you like these...follow my Teachers Pay Teacher store for more freebies. 

My Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Have a great night!
Sara

Responsive Classroom

I hope you are all having a great weekend!  Unfortunately, my computer caught a virus.  It's a pretty nasty one.  So, my advice to everyone is make sure you have an anti-virus program on your computer.  I had one but it wasn't good enough.  The people at Norton said that the new virus is nasty and it's breaking through virus programs.  I am now able to get on my computer, but I can't download anything.  I have spent at least 8 hours on the phone with Norton and have had them working remotely through my computer.  They are calling back on Monday.  I am bummed because I just bought some new clip art from Melonheadz and from Cara Taylor and was so excited to use it!  For now I can download everything but the folders appear empty!  UGH!  My advice is....have a good program installed and back up your files. :)

Onto my new product.  I have used MANY behavior programs in the past, but I have had the best results when using Responsive Classroom.  The children are included in every step of making rules and learning how to do procedures.  I use a Take-A-Break chair in my room and most of the kids eventually end up sitting in it.  It's meant as a spot to gather your self together and join back with the class when you are ready to learn and allow your friends to learn.  You can find my pack here.

The-First-Weeks-of-School-Using-Responsive-Classroom-Ideas.

 

 

The red hearts below have one of the Responsive Classroom principles on it.  I have included activities for you to do for those areas.  You will get Y charts, mini books and lots of posters and labels to use while setting up your classroom.

I have included several posters on how to do many procedures that we do.  We will do them and practice them over and over.  These can be used to hang in the room or to make into a book for your book center.

There are several posters explaining how to use each supply.  We go through the whole process of naming the item and kids will say how to use them.  We will them practice using them.  These can be used as a reminder or to hang by your supplies.

Labels for supplies so that kids know where to find them.

Labels for centers in room.  It's helpful to list how many kids you want in each center.

 

(Birthday Posters for you to hang after you have taken pictures of kids holding their birthday number.

 

I included 5 posters for the social skills necessary for Responsive Classroom to be successful. 

 

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Sara

Five For Friday Linky Party

Hi!  I hope you are having a fantastic week!  It's been a relaxing one for me.  My boys and I have no real routine set up yet.  We have been hanging out at home.  They haven't fought or asked to go anywhere.  I am okay with that!  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and am listing 5 things about my week.

1.  I added a new resource to my TPT store.  I use Responsive Classroom in my classroom at school. I spent time this week creating posters, mini-books, etc. to use next year.  You can check it out here.
The-First-Weeks-of-School-Using-Responsive-Classroom-Ideas.

 

2.  I took my boys fishing on Thursday.  It was the first really sunny day that we have had.  We went to my parents after for a cook-out.

 

3.  I got to go to my little cousin's dance recital.  She is 4 and it was soo cute!!!  I really don't know how ANYONE can teach a group of 3 and 4 year olds how to dance so that they know all the moves and they are doing them together.  I give them an A+!

 

4.  I baked a lot this week!  One of my 9 year olds favorite things to eat is Banana Bread.  He was so happy!

 

5.  On Wednesday night my laptop gave me a scare.  It stopped charging.  I thought that I was going to lose everything on it.  I spent 3 hours copying everything from my computer to My Book (my external hard drive). 

2 years worth of pictures!  LOL! 

 

I love it!  It has lots of space and I can use it from computer to computer.  I still have to figure that feature out.  After everything was copied over, my computer started charging again.  We think the power cord got way too hot and stopped. I ordered a new one, just in case.  I highly recommend backing everything up if you haven't.  You can find this external hard drive with different amounts of storage and at lots of different places. 

 

1-5TB-External-Drive-Storage-Backup

 

I hope you all have a great weekend!  Happy Father's Day to all you dads! 

Sara

 



Five For Friday *Last Week Of School*

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 random things about my week.

1.  Our last day of school was on Tuesday.   I read these cute books to my kiddos.

 

Hooray for You is one of my favorites.  It talks about how unique each person is when they are born.  It lead perfectly into our classroom awards ceremony.  I told them that they were all unique and that they would be getting an award that was unique to them.  They loved trying to figure out who was going to receive each award when I said the title.

 

End of the Year: Classroom Awards

 

2.  On the last day of school two of my little sweet first graders sang me a song. With permission from their parents I am posting it here.

It was sweet and I had lots of tears.  I am so proud of all my kiddos this year and the gains that they made.

 

3.  On the first day of summer break my boys and I go to Ihop.  We have been doing it for years.  We have breakfast and then come home and be lazy.  We usually don't leave the house for a couple of days...just because we love staying in our pj's.  Why go anywhere when you don't have to?

 My son Riley will be a 6th grader next year.  It was sad because he will no longer be in the same building as me.  Aiden will be in 4th grade.  They are growing fast and I am wishing I could stop time.

Every year I order the fruit crepe with cream cheese in the middle.  This is the only time we go here and I LOVE it!

 

4.  I added a new resource to my TPT store.  Before doing my guided reading groups next year, we will be working on Fluency Phrases.  Each guided reading level has 10 phrases.  This will hopefully help them become more fluent readers and they will remember their sight words better.

Fluency-Phrases-Guided-Reading-Levels-D-R

 

5.  I finally created a Facebook page for my blog.  You can find it here.  First Grade Funtastic.

 

That's about it for my week. I hope you are all having a great one! :)

Sara

Fluency Phrases: Guided Reading Levels D-R

Hi!  I am so excited to say that today was officially my last day of teaching for this school year!  I will miss my first graders so much.  My class got along so well with one another and were so sweet.  I tried to stay strong and not shed any tears, but after two of my first graders wrote a song to the Cups song by Anna Kendrick (they made their own lyrics up to the song), I lost it..  They said they were going to miss me when they were gone.  It was so cute.  I read some stories about moving on and gave them a chance to say good-bye to their friends and give hugs.  Right away I had several students start to cry and say they didn't want to leave our class.  By the time we were lined up there were probably 7 or 8 kids crying. I felt so bad for them.  But, like I said, this class cared about each other and helped each other out.  I will miss them.

I cleaned up my room today and started to prepare for next year.  Next year I will be doing fluency phrases with our sight words.  Research says that repeated practice of reading sight words in phrases will help readers memorize their sight words and become more fluent.  I took the sight words and phrases that we will be using next year and typed them onto cards.  I laminated and cut out all the words and assembled them on rings.  Next year when I do my guided reading groups, I will put out the rings with the leveled words that they are on.  We will practice the words on the 10 cards.   When they move up to the next level, we practice the next group of words.  Each level has a different background of paper.  There are fluency cards for each reading level...levels D-R.

You can find them here. Fluency-Phrases-Guided-Reading-Levels-D-R.  I am so excited to be starting my summer knowing that I am a little bit more prepared for next year.  I hope you are having a great week.
Sara

Five for Friday

To say it's been a crazy week would be putting it lightly.  I am glad it's over and I survived it.  We have 2 days of school left and I cannot wait to sit back and enjoy them with my kids.  I can't wait to just have fun with them. 

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her May 31st Five for Friday Linky.

 

Here are my random photos/events from the week.

 

1.  Monday was Memorial Day.  We went to my parents and had a BBQ.  My parents found out they would be losing their trees soon.  We took pictures of the boys in the trees they have climbed since they were babies.  It's going to be sad when they are gone.  My dad fought hard to get the power lines moved...but he lost.

My boys.

 

My dad and me in front of all the trees.

 

2.  My husband had a birthday this week.  We went to Applebees to celebrate.

 

3.  We had Swim and Read Day (Tuesday), Watermelon Day (Wednesday), Track and Field Day and Ice Cream Day (Thursday) and Author's Tea this week.

 The kids dressed up in beach clothing and read a book to their classmates in a swimming pool.

 

 On Watermelon Day we had a seed spitting contest.  It was so much fun watching them spit seeds.

 We tried watermelon flavored Twizzlers, watermelon gum and a watermelon sucker.  We graphed which one we liked the best.  Most of the kids chose the gum.  I think they were more excited that they got to chew gum in class than the actual flavor of the gum.

We each got a piece of watermelon and picked out the seeds and had a seed spitting contest.

 

Our Seed Spitter Winner.

 

 My son at Track and Field day.

 

 My class was yellow.

 

 Making Ice Cream.  Shaking it in bags.

 

 All done and ready to eat.

 Author's Tea.  The boys were so cute in their ties.

 

The girls were cute in their dresses too.

 

 

 

4.  We had Author's Tea today!  It was so much fun!  The kids did a great job reading their stories.

 Each kid got  a bucket filled with bubbles, Kool-aid and a beach ball.   All these ideas were from Pinterest.  I also gave them their baby chick back that they took care of for 21 days.  They were sooo excited about this.

The front of my room.  Our theme was a Hollywood theme.  The high school let me borrow their stands that they use for prom for our special day.

 I had a VIP background for kids to stand in front of and have their pictures taken after Author's Tea.

 Each kid made a star with their picture on it.

 The kids brought in cookies.  They each got a trophy after they were done too.  It's hard to see them on this table.

We had so many parents, grandparents and friends here.  The room was packed and we ran out of chairs! It was a huge success.  The kids did well.

 

5.  My 5th grade son decided that he wanted to end his elementary school career with a bang.  He fell in Phy. Ed. on Thursday morning.  At the end of the day one of his friends asked him what happened to his thumb because it was so swollen.  He went the to nurse and she let me know that something was wrong with it.  I brought him to the ER and found out he broke/fractured his thumb.  Poor thing sat through school all day and never said anything.  

 

 Tonight we went to TRIA and had the cast put on.

He picked purple and black as his cast colors.

 

 My son and me waiting for the cast to be applied.

Thursday after school we went to the ER and found out Riley broke his thumb.  Poor kid. 

 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!  We only have 2 days of school left!  I will be doing report cards, writing cards to my kids and will be cleaning my classroom. 

Sara