Rainforest pictures

Here are a few more pictures from my Rainforest Open House, although these are from last year.  The sloths have a report about sloths on the back, and the monkeys have a report about monkeys on the tummy.  These are some of my favorite projects to teach with.  I used a lot more green tulle this year, and had it coming out from the tree, but in these photos it was just hung on the ceiling.

I have been a terrible, no good blogger.  This kindergarten / first grade combination class took so much out of me this year.  I only had to time to focus on teaching my cuties and being a mom.  Hopefully this summer I will post some ideas in case anyone looking for help in their combination class will find a little something.  I wasn't too lucky when I went searching...

Here are some pictures of Open House.  My first graders were completely engrossed in the Rain Forest, while my kindergarteners learned all about plants and insects with their Spring Garden theme.  You can see my classroom is split in half.  I don't know that I would necessarily do it like that again when I teach a combo in the future.

I  hope you enjoy the pictures!  13 days til summer, and counting!!

Boo-mallows sort and graph!

I did actually make something unique the other day!  Shannon went to Target and found Boo-Mallows, so we had the kids sort and graph using the marshmallows.  It wasn't easy for Kindergarten, but they did it along with the firsties!  It is a super cute activity, but I don't know how to add it to my blog so...
Click HERE to download it!

So, teaching a combo class is not easy at all. But, there are a few positives to having this class. One of the best things about my class is my students. They are so smart and well behaved! I am able to teach 85% of the day whole class, with Math, mini lessons and small group instruction making up the rest of my day. I am also very lucky to have a great student teacher - but that will be short lived since I only have three more weeks with her. I have been having a blast using all of the great ideas I have seen on Pinterest and other blogs. I am embarrassed to admit that I haven't been too unique or creative this year, but I can say that my classroom looks great! I am so thankful for the inspiration and ideas that I get from all of my favorite blogs. How did I ever teach without them? My student teacher Shannon has done some activities with a bat theme, and we made those really cute q-tip skeletons that I saw on Pinterest.  Next week we will begin our Thanksgiving themed activities and these Halloween bulletin boards will be replaced with pilgrims and turkeys. Fall is my favorite season, can you tell??

I am thinking about changing the name of my blog, since this year I am teaching a k/1 combo.  I haven't yet found my groove, but I think I might have finally figured out a routine.  I also have a student teacher until December, so that helps me...I don't know what she is going to learn though.  Flexibility?  Daily 5 is going okay, and I am going to teach them "listen to reading" this week and next.  We are also gearing up for Parent Conferences next week.  Whew! Time is flying by!

Pinterest

Have you discovered Pinterest yet?  If you haven't, maybe you should stop reading now because it is ADDICTING! Here is my Pinterest page:  Liz's Pinterest ... you can get on and request an invite to create your own.  Gotta go, I have images to Pin!

Target Finds!

I know that I should be focused on Back to School, but I couldn't resist these items!  I hope I don't forget that I have them when the time comes :)  Here are some cutesy things I found at the Dollar Spot this week:

I don't how I will use these exactly, but they will be so cute for Read Across America!

These will be used for "ar"rrgh activities early in the year.  I'm thinking Making Words, or sentence building activites, or word sorts...the list is endless!

These are so cute!  They are intended to hold actual cupcakes but I thought the kids would love them for word work activities.  I might do compound words (cupcake), swEEt words (words with ee patterns) or long a/short a word sorts.   Again, the list of activites is endless...

Ooohh!  The popcorn boxes!  I have seen so many cute popcorn activities on my favorite blogs.  As soon as I saw these, I snatched them up!  Now I wish I would have just bought all red - but at least this way each child or group will have a different color.

That's all for now!