BIG {Back To School} SALE

Whether we are ready or not . . . the first day of school is right around the corner.  So to help you get ready we have teamed up with TpT and several other fabulous bloggers to give you BIG discounts on  some of the items you have had your eye on all summer long.

Every item in our store will be 20% off beginning Monday {August 1st} through Thursday {August 4th}.

Be sure and enter promo code B1T1S to receive an additional 10% off all your purchases from TpT.

  After you get all of the items from our TpT store that are on your “Back to School” wish list be sure and head on over to these other ladies stores and pick up some of their great items too!!!

Primary Perspective

Lesson Plan SOS

One Extra Degree

The Teacher Wife

Anna Brantley

Babbling Abby

Michelle Oakes

Erica Bohrer

Kinder Glynn

Primary Graffiti

Musical Math Giveaway

Remember our post a few days ago about the great CD’s we use from Creative Mathematics every day to reinforce many of our math skills???  Well, we are excited to announce that Kim Sutton has agreed to team up with us and give away a copy of each CD.

Both of these are great resources that we are sure you and your kids will fall in LOVE with.  They are loaded with catchy little tunes that you {and your kiddos} will be singing to yourself in no time at all. 

We are going to make this easy . . . all you need to do to enter your name in this giveaway is tell us what your FAVORITE song is.  What song do you always go to first on your iPod of find yourself humming while your cleaning up around the house???

Just so you know . . . Kelly’s song of choice is “Price Tag” by Jessie J & Diane’s song of choice is “Mama’s Song” by Carrie Underwood.

Good luck friends!!!  We will choose a winner on Monday.

Sight Word Books

After spending a few hours at school today getting things copied and organized we are both feeling a little better about the beginning of the year.  It’s always SO exciting . . . but man is it a LOT of work!!! 

We know a lot of you are Houghton Mifflin users so we wanted to share a resource that we created several years ago to go with the “Back to School” section of the series.  It’s a set of sight word worksheets that review the kindergarten sight words.  They go right along with all of the little paper readers that come at the front of the workbook.  We always practice reading the little paper book that goes with each lesson several times together and then we create a class book by having each student fill in the blank to complete the sentence and draw a picture to illustrate their words.  Then we assemble the books and place them in our classroom library.  Even at the end of the year the kids still love going back and reading them!!!

click {here} to download a copy

Even if you aren’t a Houghton Mifflin user this is still might be a resource you can use to start your school year.  All of the sentences are made up of very basic sight words that every 1st grader {should} be able to read!!!

Staying On Track

Looking for an easy way to keep your kiddos on track during center time???  If so, then check out this free online stopwatch.  It’s SUPER easy to use and it is a great visual for your kids.  After a few days you will even be able to let one of them be in charge or resetting it after each rotation. 

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/

We both use this stopwatch each day during our four {20 minute} center rotations.  We keep it displayed on our Promethean board and it helps our students get their work done during each rotation and stay on track.  We’ve tried lots of other time management methods and this seems to work better than ANYTHING else!!!

Calendar FUN {with music}

Since getting a Promethean board several years ago “Calendar Time” has become one of our favorite times of the day.  We still do a quick calendar routine on the bulletin board each day so the kids will have a visual calendar posted to refer to . . . but now we also do a more lengthy one on our interactive board.  Not only do the kids LOVE the interactive board, but they also LOVE all of the music and video clips that we sing along to each day to reinforce and teach many of our math skills. 

Our first {BIG} step was incorporating songs from a few of our favorite CD’s into our flipcharts.  These songs reinforce the days of the week, months of the year, telling time, counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s, even and odd, money, etc . . . Click {here} to check out these and more great math cd’s from Creative Mathematics.

The next step was adding a link to Starfall.  Here the “Helper of the Day” gets to come up to the board and do the interactive calendar activity for the class.

The {FINAL} step was adding lots of fun videos that we found one day last year on YouTube.  They were all created by HarryKindergarten, who we think is a kindergarten teacher (ha, ha)!!!  The kids absolutely LOVE these songs . . . and we have to admit, they are pretty catchy.  If you are like us you will be singing them all day long and your family will think you are CRAZY!!! 

A few of our favorite are . . .a song that reviews the Months of the Year {here}  a song that teaches and reviews counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s {here}

a song that teaches and reviews numbers in the teens{here} . . . which is often kind of tricky for some of our kids at the beginning of the year.

and the kids ALL TIME favorite {here} . . . which is set to the tune of “Pants on the Ground” . . . a catchy little song that reinforces names and values of each coin.We would LOVE to be able to share our calendar flipcharts with you, but unfortunately we won’t be able to because many of the links wouldn’t work for you and several of the pages have been created collaboratively with other teachers from our grade level.  Hopefully with the resources we have shown you here you will be able to create your own interactive calendar that meets your classroom needs.

Christmas In July!!

Everything in our TpT store is on sale July 25 for a Christmas in July sale! Only 2 more weeks before we have to report back to school! Happy Shopping!  Have a great day!

Apple Activities

With school just around the corner . . . we thought we better get all of our favorite apple themed activities ready to go.  We all know how CRAZY those first few weeks of school can be!!!

Here’s a little {sneak} peek of all the new literacy and math centers that are now available in our Made For 1st Grade TpT store.  As always, we have listed each activity individually so you only have to purchase the ones that meet your state standards and you know you will use in your classroom.

We’ve also got a few apple FREEBIES just for you.

Grab our Apple Patterning activity {here} . . .

All you will need for this activity is a basket filled with red, yellow and green mini die cut apples and a copy of the worksheet .  You can also enlarge the worksheet (like we do) to 11x17 so students have more work space.

 

and our Appleseed Math activity {here}.

 

Sports Kids Theme

Here is another theme that we have worked on as a request! It includes numbers zero-twenty, Champion Kids Rules Posters, and the writing elements posters that you see here. These are all available now at our TpT store! 

MONSTER Madness

Since posting the pirate themed classroom numbers, rules and posters last week we have received numerous requests for some other popular classroom themes.  We would LOVE to be able to fulfill every single request, but unfortunately we don’t always have access or legal rights to some of the clipart that teachers want.

Here is a little {sneak} peek at our newest set of MONSTER themed decor.  You can find all of it in our TpT store.

If you are looking for a fun new theme this might just be the set for you.  We have a good friend who teaches with us that has the CUTEST monster classroom you can imagine.  It is so bright and friendly and the kids absolutely LOVE it. 

COLOR Day Monsters {winner}

Congratulations . . .

Color Day Monsters

We have created a {NEW} item to add to our color day activities.  It’s a set of 11 color day monster worksheets that can be used each day as you introduce a new color.  They are the perfect desk jobs for kids to work on when they arrive at school during the first few weeks.

Many of you have seen some color monster worksheets on our class blogs and requested copies of them.  Since we don’t have the rights to distribute our copies or have a place to direct you to purchase your own set we decided to make our own version that feature these cute little monsters. 

As a suggestion . . . you might consider copying the matching color word worksheet from our Color Day FUN unit on the back side of each monster worksheet.

If you have already purchased our Color Day FUN unit post a comment here to win a free set of our new color monster worksheets.  We will choose one lucky winner on Sunday!!

Wednesday Winners

Wow . . . you guys are AMAZING!!!  In just a few short days we already have over 160 friends on our new Made For 1st Grade Facebook page.  As we promised we are going to pick three lucky winners that will each receive any item from our TpT store.

And the winners are {drum roll please} . . .

Oops!!!

We have just discovered that there was a mistake on one of the center nametags included in a previous post that explained how we do center rotations in our classroom.  If you downloaded the nametags you might want to upload them AGAIN

Click {here} to download the new set of nametags.

Do you “Like” freebies?

We just launched a new Made For 1st Grade Facebook page and would love to give away a few FREE items to some of our loyal followers.  To participate in this giveaway all you need to do is become a fan of ours on Facebook and post a comment here letting us know.  We will randomly choose three winners on Wednesday and they will each receive ANY item of their choice from our TpT store.

“Like” our Facebook page by clicking {here}!!! 

We will post updates about upcoming sales and new items that will be featured on our blog and in our TpT store.

Ahoy Matey!!!

Do you have a pirate themed classroom . . . or are you thinking about changing your theme?  If so, head on over to our TpT store and check out the {new} pirate themed classroom items that we posted today.  As always, we posted each item individually so you can pick and choose and only get the ones you need for your classroom.

Items Include:  Pirate Numbers (0-20), Pirate Rules Posters and Pirate Literacy Posters.

Even though neither one of us has a pirate theme going on in our own classroom, we received a sweet request from one of our followers and we decided to make her a few new things to add to her classroom.  If you have something special that you would like to have for your classroom or you just have an idea for a new unit let us know by dropping us an email.  If we turn your idea into something we will send you a FREE copy and post it in our store on TpT for other teachers to purchase.  We better warn you that we both stay pretty busy with work and kids activities so we can’t promise you that we will be able to answer every single request, but we would love to hear from you!!!

Thanks again for making us {Made For 1st Grade} one of the blogs you follow. 

Short Vowel FUN

We are so excited to announce that our newest unit called Short Vowel FUN is now listed in out TpT store.  We began creating many of these activities last year to go with our MTSS daily intervention program and used them with our Intensive and Strategic readers.  These are all activities that could be used to introduce or review short vowel sounds at any point in the school year.  

Here’s a list and {sneak} peek of everything that is included in this 86 page unit.

In honor of today {7-7} being Diane’s birthday we thought it was only appropriate that we price this unit at $7. 

Enjoy the last few weeks of your summer break!!!  We’ve got LOTS more coming soon so keep checking back.  Next up . . . Alphabet FUN.

Vowel Power Winner

Congratulations to our latest winner {Mrs. Magee} in the July Primary Concepts giveaway. If you didn’t win but still would like to have this resource for your own classroom check out the Primary Concepts website.  They’ve got so many great items!!!

We’ve also got a new item COMING SOON . . . so keep checking back.  It will be packed with activities that teach and reinforce short vowel sounds.

Big Bang Sale

We would like to say “thank you” for all of your support this past year as we have launched our blog and TpT store.  We continue to be amazed at the positive feedback we get from so many of you.  Connecting with other primary teachers all across the country has been such a rewarding experience for both of us. 

We wish you and your families a very happy {and safe} 4th of July weekend.  From now through the end of the holiday weekend we are having a BIG BANG sale. Every item in our TpT store is 20% off.

Vowel Power

We are excited to announce that we have another great giveaway this month thanks to our friends at Primary Concepts.  Each month they will be teaming up with us to give away one of their fabulous items to one of our lucky followers. 

Here’s a little {sneek} peek at Vowel Power . . .

This is a great resource to use at the beginning of the year as you review short vowel sounds with your beginning readers.  It could be used at a literacy center or at guided reading. 

Item Description

Children will practice differentiating short vowel sounds as they build phonetic three letter words to match the illustrations on the sturdy picture cards. Peg vs pig, log vs leg, pan vs pin, etc. Cards have beautiful illustrations on one side and their matching word on the other. Students build words to match the pictures by placing sturdy plastic tiles on the laminated fill-in-the-blank cards. They can turn the picture over to check their work.  Includes:  20 picture cards, 20 short vowel tiles, and 20 fill-in-the-blank cards, plus Teaching Notes

If this sounds like a resource you would like to have here’s what you need to do . . .

1.  Make sure you are one of our followers AND post a comment about how you could use this great resource in your classroom.

2.  For an additional entry you can blog about this giveaway and then post an additional comment with a link to your blog.

3.  You can become one of our followers on TpT and then post an additional comment.

4.  You can also become a fan of Primary Concepts on Facebook and then post an additional comment.

Good luck to everyone who enters . . . we will announce the winner on Monday so cross your fingers and keep checking back in with us.