Milk Carton Bird Feeders:

Materials:

1. One lunch milk carton per student

2. One craft stick per student

3. Yarn

4. Paint/ Paint Brushes 

4. Knife 

5.  Sink/ Soap

Directions:

1. Collect milk cartons, open the tops, cut off top (leaving about two to three inches of the bottom), wash out with soap and water, set out to dry. (Prepare in advance unless students are old enough to follow these steps on their own)

2. With a knife, slice half inch slits close to the bottom of the carton on opposite sides. (this is where the craft sticks will go to make the perch)

3. Punch holes on opposite sides without slits for yarn to hang bird feeder

4. Have students paint the bird feeders

5. When bird feeders are dry, have students stick in craft stick and tie yarn

6. Fill with bird feed and hang in the trees! 

First Grade Persuasive Writing

After a couple weeks of work on persuasive writing, the final products were finally ready for display! I made the little man and his bubble says come read our persuasive writing pieces! My student's persuasive writing was wonderful and they came up with the most creative reasons and examples. I taught them the persuasive O.R.E.O (opinion, reason, example, opinion again) and they followed the structure to create a persuasive letter. We also learned the parts of a letter. They filled out a brain storm template that said, "I will write a letter to _______." "I want to persuade this person to _____________."  Next, they received differentiated four squares as organizers. Some four squares had sentence starters and some did not. Some required six reasons while others only required three. It was a lot of work and my students had to do this writing step by step but they were really able to see the writing process unfold.  

Math Strategies

 Throughout my student teaching I quickly picked up on the fact that not all students learn the same way. I had read about students all learning differently and I had experienced learning differently than other classmates but I had never actually taught diverse students. Now that I have had the chance to teach a diverse group of learners I can understand the true importance of teaching from several different approaches. I realized that some students can learn multiple strategies and apply the one that works best for a given problem. I also learned that some students are dependent on a single strategy and cannot grasp the idea of other strategies. These posters were made by my mentor teacher's past interns and I was happy to have them in the classroom so I could use them as a resource. It is truly important to make sure every student is learning, even if it means teaching one lesson five different ways.

Mystery Motivator

The Mystery Motivator is a strategy that I got from the teacher next door to me!
Pick a student to be the mystery motivator but do not tell that student or any other students (so the teacher is the only one who knows)  if the student that was picked to be the mystery motivator is good then at the end of the day then the whole class gets a treat. Everyone thinks they may be the mystery motivator so they act better just in case they are it! 

Even or Odd

Cute song for even and odd:

There was a farmer who had a pig
and even was his name-o
0-2-4-6-8, 0-2-4-6-8, 0-2-4-6-8 
and even was his name-o

Picture Clues

I am so happy to have such a wonderful mentor teacher. She is a fabulous phonics teacher and I have learned a ton from her. She has picture clues for each blend, short vowel sound, and digraph. She has taught the students all of the general "tricks" of reading and these students can tell anyone these tricks. For example, "ou" says "ow" like "cloud." If the students come to a word with "ou" and they are having trouble sounding it out she simply says remember our trick, and they will automatically say, "ou says ow like cloud" and will be able to sound out the word.

Efficient Mornings

I strongly believe in routine and building efficiency in the classroom. With 21 students there has to be a form of routine as they enter the room or nothing would ever get accomplished. I love the morning routine my mentor teacher has established and I am continuing in her classroom. Students come in, hang their jackets on their hooks and place book bags in the laundry baskets (let's be real... those hooks are not enough space for backpacks and jackets so I love the laundry basket idea!). Next, they place their snack and homework folders in the labeled baskets. After this, they use the restroom or make a lunch choice (either can be first). They each have a clothes pin with their name to clip their lunch choice. She printed pictures of all the lunches so they can see and read the choices. After all of these tasks are complete students get busy on morning work/ unfinished work/ work that needs to be corrected from the day before. They are very efficient and I love having the routine!