Election Theme

      For the past month we've been doing an election theme during our project time.  We started just learning about the President and what he/she does.  We also talked about the qualities that make a good President.  We went over (in first grade terms) the election process and about debates and campaigns.  Since the Presidential election is going on right now it was easy to tie into current events.  

          We used The First Grade Parade's ideas for the next part of our unit.  Check out her unit at http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2012/02/they-like-me-they-really-do.html and on TeachersPayTeachers http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pint-Sized-Presidential-Fun-Math-Literacy-Mini-Unit.  We then wrote about "If we were President".  We used The First Grade Parade's wall display for writings.   

 

It turned out so cute! 

 

     We read three books, Duck for President, Grace for President, and My Teacher for President. 



 

 

After, we voted on which one of the three characters from the books we would want to become President.  One of my great parent volunteers made us a voting booth and another made us a voting box.  Students came up with their voter registration cards and privately voted for who they wanted.  We talked about how we don't tell others who we voted for.  The next day we made a tally chart with the results.  Duck won in our class!  Next we took the results from our tally chart and made a bar graph and answered questions about it.

 

     Tomorrow our school is doing a mock election for the Presidential race.  Students will be voting on their ipads and the votes will be tallied for the whole school.  Today I showed them pictures of the two candidates and reminded them to keep who they are voting for to themselves and to think about who they think will be best for our country, without going into any detail. 

 

     Next we will be having a class election and working with our fifth grade book buddies to make campaign trailers through iMovie.  We will have a boys' and girls' primary and each group will nominate and vote for a representative.  The winners will then have a debate and give a speech for why they think they should be class President.  We will then do a final vote and reveal who is our class President. 

 

     I love our project time during the day.  It is a time were we can work on so many standards while learning about something that means something to us.  Students are so engaged in what we are doing and can't wait till the next day.  More updates later!

 

Catch ya next week,

Nicole Berg

Accelerated Reader

This week I decided to write about what I do for Accelerated Reader in my classroom.  I have book bins for leveling my books (from Dollar General).  Each bin has a label with the number of the leveled books inside and each book in the bin has a label with the number so that students can hopefully keep them organized for me.  This also allows for students to get books on their levels without my help during The Daily Five and Guided Reading.  Students have cards with their reading ranges on them in their book boxes so when they come to get new books they can see easily which books are "Good Fit" books for them.  I color coded the different levels  to help as well (red= 0.1-0.9, Green=1.0-1.9, Yellow=2.0-2.9, Blue=3.0-3.9). 

 

To help motivate students to take quizzes they each have an incentive chart.  When they pass a quiz they get a sticker for their chart.  Once the charts are full we will have a class party.  I also have a board in my classroom where I keep track of how many points each student has.  Students move their stars to the next bigger star once they have reached that point value.  They get a little prize when they move their star (for example they got a superhero pencil for getting to 5 points). 

 

Students have a goal to take 3 quizzes a week but can do more than that if they want to. 

 1. Class Quiz 

 2. A book at school during Daily Five 

 3.  A book from home  

 

What do you do for AR?

 

Have a great week!

Nicole Berg

Superhero Guided Reading Board

Short post this week...I am super excited about my guided reading board.  Each student will be placed in a superhero group based on their level.  Students' superhero pictures will be put on with Velcro so that they can be moved to different groups based on needs.  The board is made with foam board from Hobby Lobby ($4.99), card stock colored background for each group (glued on), Superhero logos printed on card stock and laminated, and star ribbon hot glued around the edges.  Now when I call a group to the guided reading table, I just have to call that superhero.  I also bought baskets on clearance from Michael's and taped each Superhero logo on one basket to keep that groups' books and supplies for the week.  I'll post the picture for that tomorrow! 

One day at a time!

Nicole Berg  

Superhero Project Theme

We just finished our month and a half long project theme focusing on superheroes.  We had many different activities all around the theme of superheroes.  We made words out of the superheroes names, put their names in ABC order, did problem solving about superheroes, etc.  We wrote two class books one was, If you Give a Superhero a Cape and the other was, What Superheroes Can't Do.  Both stories the kids came up with the ideas from books we read in class.  We also wrote stories about if we were superheroes.  We came up with our own superhero names, super powers, and costumes.  Here are some pictures of our hallway display.  The next month and a half our project theme will be focusing on the election. 

Ready for another "Super" week in first grade!
Nicole Berg

Guided Math

I've been working hard trying to get my guided math going.  I don't know that I'm doing it totally right yet but I have a start.  Each day we start off math time with calendar.  This normally lasts 30 minutes but I feel it is very essential.  During calendar we go over skills like money, time, place value, counting, weather, etc.   This gives students practice everyday on these "real world" skills. 

After calendar on Monday, we have a number talk and then our focus lesson for the week.  This is a whole class lesson usually going over math vocabulary they will need during the week.  Normally students have their math notebooks with them for this. 

After calendar on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we go into our math stations.  Students will do two rounds a day for a total of 6 rounds.  This the the format I've been following right now. 

Station One: Problem Solving with adult help

Station Two: Teacher Station to teach a lesson on the skill for the week

Station Three: ipads--Students are given an app to practice a math skill

Station Four: Math Game

Station Five: Manipulatives

Station Six: Seat Work

I have a pocket chart with my students pictures and the station number they will be going to.  I also have signs around the room with the math station number so they know where to go.  Each station ends up being around 10 minutes right now. 

I need to make a point to have a wrap up sharing session at the end of centers but am usually rushing to get some type of science and social studies in before specials. 

On Fridays after calendar we do a number talk and then go into a whole group review lesson.  We also have a quick assessment. 

I love this type of math instruction.  It allows me to have a focus skill but also review lots of other skills each week.  Students are able to have hands on learning without worksheet after worksheet.  They are still learning the same skills just in a different way. 

Check out this book study for more information on guided math. 

http://primaryinspired.blogspot.com/p/guided-math-book-study.html

What does your guided math look like?

Nicole Berg

Good morning followers.  Just wanted to take a quick moment to let you know about what I'm doing to FLIP my classroom.  We have heard a lot of information about flipping classrooms at the high school level, but not much has been done at the elementary level.  Another first grade teacher I work with and I have decided to change that.  We were inspired to see how flipping could work in a lower elementary classroom. 

So we meet and decided to start small and see how it went.  We started with a short video home to the parents letting them know what we would be doing and how excited we were.  Then we divided up the videos we wanted to do for the first nine weeks deciding on one phonics and one math video lesson a week (to start out with).  It ended up being that I was in charge of 3 phonics lessons and 5 math lessons for the grading period. 

For the phonics lessons I video tapped myself using a flip camera.  Here is an example...

 

For the math lessons I used the smartboard and tapped a lesson as I was talking the students through

it.  Here is an example...

 

The students then download the videos to their ipads and watch at home for homework.  The next day we will have a brief discussion about what was on the video to review.  Doing these video lessons has really allowed for more time in the classroom to work on differentiated instruction, Daily Five and Guided Reading, and Guided Math.   

 

We plan on adding more video lessons as the year goes on.  So far the students seem really excited about it and have enjoyed watching us at home.  Check back later for updates on how flipping is going. 

 

Have any of you thought about flipping or are flipping?

Nicole Berg  

 

This week we are starting our "Superhero Homework".  I wanted something for homework that was meaningful and important.  I didn't just want my students doing "busy work" for homework.  So I thought about the things that were most important for my students to be learning during the year; what I really want them to be working on at home and this is what I came up with.  Each day we will roll dice to see what our homework will be for that night.  Whatever the dice land on will determine their homework for that night.  

 

1=15 minutes of reading

2=Math facts ring

3=Study spelling words

4="WOW" words ring (sight words)

5=ipad apps of the week

6=No homework

 

We will roll one die for the whole class to determine what the homework will be for that night. Once we have had one of the numbers that week, we will not have that homework again that week. So if we roll a five two different days that week, we will roll the die again until we get a number we haven't had. That way they are able to practice each of the things each week (except one). 

 

Students will write the number the dice lands on in the box next to that day of the week on the paper above and keep their paper in the take home folders.  Parents will initial next to the box for that night to let me know they did their homework.  Students will get a "Super Student Buck" for doing their homework the next morning when I check their folders. 

 

Spending time each night on these tasks will help them with what they need to know in First Grade and help them with what we will be learning in the classroom.  I hope that it works out and the parents really like it along with the kids.  I'll keep you updated on how it's going. 

 

Have fun with your student's this week!

Nicole Berg   

Focus Wall

It was sure good to have a day off after 3 weeks of school!  Today I wanted to go over my focus board just a little bit more with you.                                                          

                                                                                 Here's some pictures of it...

I just started having a focus board this year but I have wanted to have one for years.  Every two weeks I will change the standards on my board to meet the skills taught in my classroom.  As you can see I've divided the board up into four parts or subjects with two or three standards below each one.  This focus board not only keeps the kids focused on what we are learning but it keeps me on track also.  The statements on the board are in the form of "We Can".   

This year I've incorporated the "I Can" statements into my classroom too. At the beginning of each two week I send home email my parents the "I Can" statements we will be working on those two weeks. All I do is take the standards and put them in parent/kid friendly
terms.  At the end of the two weeks I send home to the parents the paper with the standards they can do checked off.  I have gotten great feedback from the parents on these so far.  They like getting the extra feedback on how their child is doing in my class (since I'm not doing as many "worksheets" things don't get sent home "graded" as often).      


These are GREAT for me as well.  It keeps me up to date with my assessments and helps to drive my instruction.  Waiting for the results of the tests we give 3 times a year or for report card time 4 times a year is not enough!  This way I know right away how my students are doing and what we need to work on or what we are ready to move on from. 


You might say WOW that's a lot to keep up with, but if its tied to your curriculum and your assessments its not at all.  We have a standards based report card so it fits in well with that.  When I make my lesson plans I have an area where I put the "focus" of the week.  That doesn't mean those are the ONLY standards I am covering that week.  It just means those are the ones that I am going to focus on and assess after two weeks.  Some standards will be on there longer than two weeks depending on the skills.


Have a great short week!
Nicole Berg  

 



Lots of awesome things are happening in First Grade!  We have started doing number talks and I love them.  This is the first year I have done them and I am so impressed by the things they have come up with on their own. 

We started on the first day of school with number one and now we are on number 8.  All I say is show me a way to write the number ________.  They do all the rest of the work.  They have already come up with equations like 100-95= 5 and 10-15=5 (on the fifth day of first grade, WOW!).  They know that they can write numbers as ten frames, tally marks, with money, on a clock, number words, dots, etc. 

This will help them with their number sense and mental math.  It is huge what taking 10 minutes out of your day will do to help your students learn about numbers.  I plan on doing more number talks along the guidelines of the book, Number Talks

http://www.amazon.com/Number-Talks-Children-Computation-Strategies/dp/1935099116

as the year goes on.  I encourage you to try them and see how it goes.  I'm sure you will be impressed with the impact it has on your students and the different ways they look at problems.   

Check out these blogs for more information. 

http://oceansoffirstgradefun.blogspot.com/2011/09/number-talks.html

http://simplyfirstgradefun.blogspot.com/

http://firstgrademagic.blogspot.com/2011/11/number-talks.html

Have a great week in First Grade!

Nicole Berg

Well...School has started and I'm one week down. My first grade superhero classroom is turning out pretty cute thanks to Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and my husbands help. I still have a couple of things to do to finish up but right now here's what it looks like.

This is the view as you walk into my classroom.  I have 4 sets of desks with 6 students in each group. 

 My mom made me those CUTE chair bags for my students to store things like folders, notebooks, flashcards, ear buds, etc.  In this pic you can also see my whole brain teaching rules (which worked out great this first week), my super student bucks (from Kelley Dolling at Teacher Idea Factory) , and my Happy Birthday display that's not finished. 

 This is the view of my gathering area with my rocking chair.  On the floor are my tubs that the students put their supplies in.  I find this to be a very easy way to sort the supplies during Open House. 

 This is my CAFE board with my superhero labels (from 3rd Grade's a Hoot). 

 This is where I am going to put my "WOW WORDS" (sight words).  Underneath are my book tubs for my Accelerated Reader books.  I spent time this summer labeling all my books with a sticker on the outside of each book to hopefully have them stay more organized this year. 

 Another view of the classroom.  I got rid of my desk so I bought some organizational items this summer that you can barely see in the back. 

 The orange board will be my classroom helpers board but for Open House it was my helpful hands board.  Parents could take a hand with an item to donate to the classroom.  This helps with some of those items that you need but aren't on the supply lists.  You can also see my mailboxes and my student supply shelves.  Also underneath the orange board are my students book tubs to keep all their books they are reading for Daily Five. 

 I made these superheroes with my Cricut cutting machine. 

 This is outside my classroom and it's my "I'm super proud of" wall.  Each student has a place where they can hang up items that they are super proud of. 

 My husband made me these awesome superheroes on the computer.  They are in the hallway outside my classroom. 

 My aides desk is behind those three cabinets.  One cabinet has math tubs, one supplies for the kids, and the other one has working with words items. 

 This picture shows where my math wall is going to be, my student computers, and my teacher computer with my filing cabinet.  This is where I choose to included my small group instruction table as well. 

 Here is my Superhero behavior board that matches my cafe signs (from 3rd Grade's a Hoot). 

I taught summer school two weeks before school started for the students going into second grade so I had to hurry up and transform my room after that.  I will post pics after I finish the classrooms jobs, Birthdays, and Wow words walls.  I also have a focus board that isn't really visible in the pics that will have the standards that we are working on that week.  Thanks for taking a tour of my classroom and I look forward to seeing you back next week for another post on the happens in my First Grade Superhero classroom!

Nicole Berg