Chalk writing

So I came across these super cool chalk circles at superstore, and had to share! They are decals that stick and can be reapplied (apparently). It is a little tricky to write on them but I think they will work just fine. I thought they would be an amazing addition to my guided reading/guided math area. Some smaller circles came in the package so I put those on the students desk to use to write words or letters that they need help with. I'm pretty excited about this find, and the kids were loving it!

Mrs. Dunn

Writing Rubric

I have seen these writing rubrics floating around pinterest, and I just had to make one for my class! It seemed as though there were many students rushing through their work, and completing it just to be done. When asked if it was their best work, they would always reply, You Bet!! I knew that they could improve, but it was difficult to explain how to do that.

The 4 star rubric works like a CHARM!! I can't believe how much they improved just by doing this. We talked as a class what each level would look like and then I made the rubric.

Here is some of their writing...so proud!!

Mrs. Dunn

Fall Art Project

Yes, I know, Fall is almost over, in fact it is around -30C here with the windchill today, but officially it is still Fall and I'm holding on to that.

I am always so inspired by That Artist Woman, and her fall inchies were no exception! Have a look at her Fall Inchies, they are just beautiful. I decided to give this project a try this year, and I was pretty happy with the results. This took us a few art classes to complete, and I had to be creative in how to make some of these doable for grade one students.

All of them turned out so cute, and the kids were all super proud of their work.

Mrs. Dunn

50's Day... a little late.

We had so much fun celebrating 50's day in November at school. All of the kids dressed up like they were from the 50's (this required lots of discussion and explaining) and we did 50's activities all day.

These turned out just adorable:

We also did the root beer float sequencing activity, as inspired by Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade. Sorry, no pictures for that one. 

Do you celebrate 50's day at your school?

Mrs. Dunn

WAY TOO LONG! Happy Advent

WOW, I have not blogged in a VERY very long time. Life just gets in the way I suppose! I hope to be better now that report cards and parent teacher interviews have wrapped up. We have so much going on again this month.
Quick shout out to my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving! and..........

Happy Advent! To get prepared for Advent, my class started their lap books last week, so they will be ready to go for Monday. They are SO excited about this project. We completed the outside cover page, and the title and middle picture to start our countdown.

To see what the rest of this project will look like, check out my TPT product Advent Lap Book.

I am so looking forward to the month of December!

Mrs. Dunn

Practicing printing in the first grade classroom

I always like to practice letter formation at the beginning of the year, and find there are a wide variety of abilities when looking at printing skills. I'm always looking for innovative ways to practice letter formation, and I love to use centers! (of course)

I know I blogged about this a couple of years ago, but I just had to revisit my revamped printing centers. I have four or five centers, depending on the size of my class. They spend about 5-10 minutes at each center during a Language Arts period. I focus on one letter each day, and we practice the sound, letter formation, and read stories.
I think it is so important to sit with small groups of students and watch how they are forming letters. When it is done as a whole class, I find it difficult to watch each student and make necessary corrections. I use this booklet to practice letter formation as well as beginning sounds.

Find the booklet by clicking on the picture below.

Printing centers are never complete unless you have a play doh center! I show the students how to make long snakes to make little and big lines, as well as curved lines.

My students LOVE getting to write on the SMARTboard. I found a tracing page off the internet and put it at the bottom of the board. Students each get to do one letter, and wait in line for their turn.

We also practice on the whiteboards. I love my whiteboards, they have a red line at the bottom and are interlined.

I also have paint bags the students write their letters on, sorry no picture!

My students love doing these centers, and it's great practice for them.

Mrs. Dunn

SaveSave

Classroom Reveal and the First Day!!

Phew, what a big day!! School kiddos first day today, and baby is going to day home. Where does the time go? It was exhausting, as they say, there is no tired like teacher tired the first week back to school.
My kids seem super sweet, I think it will be a wonderful year!

So here it is my classroom for the 2014-2015 school year:

Just loving those ikea mats and how well they go with my classroom decor!

All of my stories organized by theme.

Teacher area 

So there you have it! So excited for the school year.
Mrs. Dunn

The ebooks are here, the ebooks are here!!

I'm so excited! The back to school ebook is up on TPT for the 2014-2015 school year. There are so many tips, tricks, freebies and amazing resources in it. Thanks to the amazing Deanna Jump for creating the K-2 one, I can only imagine how many hours she spent on it. My little page just happens to be on p. 53 of the book. So stinkin' excited!!

Back to School ebook

There are also ebooks for the upper grades as well as middle school and high school!

Science Grade 6-12

Math and Science Grade 3-5

LA Grade 3-5

Social Grade 6-12

LA Grade 6-12

Check them out!

Mrs. Dunn

Classroom Carpet and Product "Show and Tell"

At my new school I found out that they don't provide us with a classroom carpet. GASP. The horror. I've never not had a carpet. EVER. And I know there are all sorts of cool things out there to use instead (those dots that stick on the ground) but I found something new and I THINK I'm in love. It's from IKEA, and it's not exactly a carpet, but a floor mat, like you find in the gym, but it's in my classroom colour, green. SWOOON. It can be washed down for when those oopsiedaisies happen. You know what I'm talking about firstie teachers. I'm SO EXCITED.

Ikea Gym Mat

While we are at it, I also got this rug for my reading corner. 

Ikea Mat

As you can see, I MAY have a bit of an obsession with having things on the floor in my class, but c'mon y'all those little firstie bums need to be comfy, I'm telling yah.

I can't get into my classroom until the 21st of August, (I KNOW I NEED IN NOW ;) So I will post pictures once I have everything in place.

Today is the LAST DAY of the TPT sale so you can save %28 on all items. I have posted a bunch of new products.

FREEBIE

This Back to School Listening Center booklet is perfect for the beginning of the year. Students will need an iPad or iPhone to scan the QR code, and then instructions are read to them or they see a picture to help them with the activity. I also have more of these QR activities on sale right now in my store.

Back to School Freebie

I also just finished a couple of new clipart packages, and I'm so excited about this one. Check out my Halloween costumes, so adorable, and just in time to start creating those Halloween resources.

Halloween Costume Clipart

Ok I'm off to shop!!

Mrs. Dunn

New school year, New Blog, and SALE!

It is hard to believe that summer is half over and we will be back at school before you know it. I am going back in the fall to a new school and it will be so close to home and my littles day home, which is such great news and makes going back a ... LITTLE ... easier.
I've updated my blog so it's a little prettier and MUCH more user friendly. Now you can access all of my social media links in one easy spot; the banner! Click on the icons to follow me. If you are like me and HATE looking at blog coding (it is such a foreign language to me) check out this GREAT tutorial video on how to make your banner with links, without the fuss of trying to do the code on your own. SO amazing!

Since it is getting close to back to school, there is a site wide sale going on at Teachers Pay Teachers! All you need is the Back to School code and you can save up to 28%. Thanks to Camping Teacher for the cute button.

Mrs. Dunn

Vegas BABY!!!

I went to the TPT conference in Vegas last week. OH MY WORD. It was amazing. I got to meet so many of my online friends, and felt immediately connected to everyone. All the people I met were so friendly and I learned so much from them. The sessions were very informative and I came back with a lot to think about; changing parts of my store, data information and just some general great new ideas. Collaboration is always the key to success, as many brains work better than one.

NEW FRIENDS
So my bloggie inspirational teacher Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade did a super presentation, and I got to meet her after! SOOO exciting. She is as beautiful, funny and brilliant as you could ever imagine.

I also met so many other teacherpreneurs. It was so fun, we would introduce ourselves, and then show each other our logo and start SHRIEKING going I KNOW YOU, I KNOW YOU. It was like everyone was a celebrity to each other. So cool.

Krista Teaching Momster
Me
April Performing in Fifth
Pam Rockin Resources
Debbie Crocketts Classroom 
Jen The Teacher Next Door 
Neetu Cinnamon's Synonyms

Yup, I'm name droppin, but they are all so talented and sweet I gotta mention them all.

Neetu (a fellow Canadian might I add) and I hung out after the meet up and laughed our way through the night. We had such a blast together.

I also SAW but did not MEET Kristin (Teeny Tiny Teacher). She is indeed teeny tiny. We were in the bathroom and not once but TWICE I saw her. Way too awkward to say hello, I mean how does one even begin a conversation in the washroom?
"So, whatcha doin?"
Yah, not so much. Anyways, next time I see her I hope it's not in the washroom in Vegas so I can confidently go say hi and tell her how hilarious and lovely she is in person.

I can't wait for next year!
Mrs. Dunn

End of the Year

As the school year draws to a close, and the weather turns sunny, I am feeling sad that my maternity leave is drawing to a close and it will be time for me to go back to school soon! So hard to believe. I wanted to post a few end of the year videos and ideas that I found and figured I could use next year!

From my favourite WBT Teacher Miss Freundlich, a cute little end of year song.

From one of a my favourite bloggers, Cara Carrol at The First Grade Parade.

So stinkin' cute I can hardly stand it.

And from my favourite teacher-artist, Gail of That Artist Woman

Happy June everyone!!!

Mrs. Dunn

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is right around when we are doing the Building Things Unit in Grade One Science, so it ties in PERFECTLY. I have the kids make traps at home and then we do activities with it at school, including this one.

 

The students put the directions in order for how to make their trap. The students set their traps the day before, so make sure that parents know which day to send them in, and then that rascally leprechaun comes overnight. He left little footprints and made a disaster in the classroom. He must have escaped out the window!!

We have so much fun! What do you do in your classroom? For the full resource with my St. Patrick's Day activities, look here.

Blog Link up and New Product

Hey Everyone, Happy New Year!

What a busy holiday it was with a new little one, oh my word, a whole new meaning to the word pack up the car for a holiday. 

I'm linking up with Simply Kinder, basically you can find some new blogs to follow for this lovely little link up. 

Also wanted to share a new product, for the "athletic competition that is coming up in February for many countries to go to and get really excited about". Wink, wink, apparently copyright infringement to even mention the name so there you have it. It's a bulletin board to use in your classroom during the games!!

Go For Gold

Mrs. Dunn