Mountain Jam, Summer Vacation, and the Final Countdown!

I spent yesterday enjoying live music at Mountain Jam, an awesome music festival in the Castkill Mountains of New York.  Michael Franti and Spearhead, Gary Clark Jr., The Lumineers, and Government Mule....Good times! Every year Hunter Mountain Ski Resort is transformed into a summer music venue.  Of course with Tropical Storm Andrea dumping a bunch or rain both Thursday and Friday, Mountain Jam was more like Muddin' Jam!  Thank goodness for my trusty rain/mud boots!  

Tomorrow is my second to the last Monday of the 2012-2013 school year.  I've got summer fever and so do my kiddos!  Ten working days left, five full days with kiddos, then five full teacher working days, but the kiddos are only there for four of those days, half days....I think I can make it!  For those of you already enjoying your summer break, LUCKY YOU! But, I'm getting close too!  ☺Enjoy your Sunday everyone, even if you are headed to work tomorrow, like me!  ☺

Whole Brain Teaching

I have used some elements of WBT for the past couple of years. This year, I used it more than ever, and I have been so pleased with my students' success with it. This is a great video which incorporates many WBT techniques.

Winners!

Congratulations to:  Dominique, Shelly, and Angie! Your two packets are on the way.  Enjoy!

Teacher Appreciation Sale and NEW Products...Coming Soon

How can a girl not love a sale?!  The Teacher Appreciation Sale at TpT is coming. ☺ May 7th and May 8th, two great days of savings.  Load up your wishlist now, I know I am.  I have a couple of new products that will be listed just in time for the sale.  First, a Pete the Cat missing addend math station.  I'm finishing up some differentiation on this station, I used it with my own firsties and found my high group soared, and my low group needed more support.  To help support the lower end math students, I'm adding some additional scaffolding.  It should be added to my TpT store by tomorrow.

  

Another new product, "Don't Bug Me!" Buggy Word Problems with 3 addends: 

Get your wishlist filled up!

{If you made your way to the end of this post, leave a comment, I will use random number generator tomorrow evening, to choose 3 winners of both of my new products.  Don't forget to leave your email. ☺}

An island made out of candy?

So, the discussion in the teacher's lounge during lunch today was: "How much do you love those commercials with the kids?".  The funny part was, no one knew what the commercials were actually advertising.  One person thought it was insurance. Hmmm.  Turns out, after googling, the commercials are actually for AT&T, who knew?  Anywho...I think the writer of the commercials is awesome.  I'm guessing they know a teacher well, because the "structured" conversation with the kids is so authentic!  Every time I see these commercials I laugh.out.loud.  And, I say: those kids are just like my kids!  Now, don't get me wrong, I know the lines were written for the kid-actors to learn, but they really do sound like the "logical" first grade conversations I am privy to on a daily basis! Too cute!

Siesta Under the Sombrero!

Here's a quick and fun craft just right for Cinco de Mayo!

Students can make their own sombrero hat/headbands.  You can find the file in my TpT store: {Siesta Under the Sombrero}

All you need is creative kiddos, colorful crayons, colored pencils, or markers, a sentence strip cut in half lengthwise, and some tape or glue.  

Students will color the sombrero template with bright colors. 

After students cut out the sombrero, you can fit a headband to your student's head. (Manilla sentence strips work great for this!)

Attach the sombrero to the headband using glue or tape.

Finally, enjoy during your Cinco de Mayo celebration or fiesta! Ole!

You can find the template and directions in my TpT store, also included in the file, is a nonsense word fluency game with a Cinco de Mayo theme.  Enjoy!

May Busy Work Pack for First Grade

I know some of you have the end of the year in sight.  Here in upstate New York, we finish up on June 21st this year.  Although I have the "number of days left" in my mind, it's still a little far off to begin the "actual countdown".  ☺

My latest Busy Work pack has just been loaded to TpT.  My first graders love the activities in the busy work packs, and have even started to ask: "Ms. Holk, are you gonna DIBEL now so we can do Busy Work?" LOL  Seriously! I don't feel guilty about giving them "Busy Work" since I have worked the CCSS into quite a few of the pages.  So, without further ado, here are some previews of my May Busy Work Pack for First Graders: