2 Days 'Til Johnny's Birthday!

We had a great lesson today about Johnny Appleseed finding out just who he was and what he was famous for. My students enjoyed these delicious "apples" during the movie as I suspected. We created this cute little art project for our bulletin board in the hallway.

Getting Ready for Johnny Appleseed's Birthday

My Little People are going to be soooo excited to see these babies tomorrow!! We are celebrating Johnny Appleseed's birthday Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week. Each day we will have a special apple treat to go along with our SMARTboard lesson and Johnny Appleseed math and literacy unit. You can get my math and literacy unit on TpT. Just click on the link above. 

 

Check back in each day day to find out how we celebrated Johnny's birthday.  Wednesday my students will be dressing up just like Johnny!!  Should be cute!

Hoot -n- Annie

This is the anagram game I showed you in my sneak preview. The first week of school two of my students already had the opportunity to play the game and earn "smart beans". They are already beginning to think about putting letters together to form words and patterns within similar words. You can get Hoot -n- Annie at my TPT store. My students love it!

Halloween Project

This is a Halloween craft project waiting to happen. Any ideas?

Class Dojo

I have been looking for a super, phenomenal, out of this world, make an impression on a kid behavior management program for years.  I have tried lots of different things.  We have tried lots of different things at our school.  Hello, Class Dojo!  I have only been using this online behavior management tool for a week, but it (along with a little prayer) is already working miracles in my classroom.  My students absolutely LOVE earning points and don't want to loose points.  They will do anything for me to earn points.  I am so pleased with Class Dojo!

 
Log onto classdojo.com and take a look at it.  The kids love having avatars and watching points accumulate.  The student in my class who has the most points at the end of the week will get to go visit the principal and choose a treat out of her treasure box.  A nice visit instead of a discipline visit. 

A few of my favorite things

A few years ago I was washing clothes during summer break and emptied a bottle of laundry detergent. The plastic liner had not yet been replaced in the compactor so I just put the lid on the counter. The bottle went into the recycling container in the garage. A little later in the day I picked up a pencil laying on the counter and put it in the lid. An idea was born and the idea spread quickly throughout my school.


                                              

I use Velcro to attach the lids to the desks. Pencils are almost never on the floor in my classroom anymore. This is one of my most favorite features in my room. I save the lids and ask parents to save them. You need to use tall skinny ones like on Great Value laundry detergent. Then the pencils don't lean over to far and get snagged on every passing kid.


Next are my "pouches". I purchase work order pouches from the office supply store and Velcro them to the sides of the desk. Only unfinished work goes in these pouches. That way I can tell who has unfinished work and I can redirect them to complete their work before heading out to recess or moving on to a center. This has worked very well for me. No more lost papers in the depths of the desk.

Sweet Treat

This year is gonna be a real hoot! And, I'm pretty sure my little people are gonna enjoy this sweet treat at the end of their first day of first grade. The bag topper is Summer Bag Toppers from Cricut. I downloaded Cricut Craft Room and bought the digital version of the bag topper. Now I can access ALL my cartridges from home or school after I get them all uploaded to CCR. Sweet!! My husband helped me create the toppers and put the bags together. I think he had fun. Teehee.