Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) Sale!

It's coming, teachers!

We absolutely love the Cyber Monday sale that Teachers Pay Teachers throws. 

You get 20% off of most products and an extra 10% off from TPT with a special code at checkout. 

The girls over at Primary Chalkboard are all putting their stores at 20% off! 

And then our wonderful website is adding another 10% on top of that.

Go on... go shopping!! 

Click on our buttons to see our stores.

  

  

  

    

  

 

 

  

   

Don't forget the code:

CYBER

when you're checking out!

 

A Freebie and Surprise!

Hey y'all!
I'm Faith from 1st Grade Fantabulous and I have been looking forward to this blog post for awhile.  First off, I hope everyone had an incredible Thanksgiving!  Every year, I spend Thanksgiving with my entire family and when I say entire, I mean the cousins, grandparents, uncles, nieces, nephews… yeah, I know… you get the point.  Thanksgiving to me is the start of all the fun for the next month.  Speaking of which, if you know me I LOVE like really, really LOVE surprises.  Typically, surprises are the gifts my hubby and I are getting for our 6 nieces and nephews (Yep - 6 and of the 6 there are 2 sets of twins).  I have NO idea what to get the 3 year old girls and the 7 year old boys this year, so if you have any ideas, throw them in the comment section :)  I promise I'll read them.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Since I LOVE surprises, I have a surprise for you!  Have you ever been to shopping on Black Friday?  Well, my friends and I decided that since we know you will be loading up at the TPT sale in a few days and probably grabbing a few gifts for family this weekend that we would offer you a once in a lifetime experience - a Summer in December Hop.  All the products will be items you can use either in the summer or even in December.  I also have to tell y'all, I've gone through every item and it doesn't matter if you teach first grade or second grade, you will definitely be able to use everything at some point.  Oh yeah, and I almost forgot - ALL the items are FREE!!!!  It only lasts for two days so make sure you jump on it!  You just have to click on the button below and it will take you to my girl Katie.

Have a great time!  Oh, and since I know there are always a few friends that aren't on Facebook here's a freebie from me that is always a favorite over on my blog.

Happy Black Friday!
Faith :)

Nuts About Nouns and a Freebie too!

Well to be quite honest I am nuts about a lot of things and nous are just one of them! I am kind of nuts about teaching all forms of grammar period. It is concrete and a grammar lesson can happen by simply analyzing any sentence you come across.  You don’t need a worksheet!

In my ongoing effort to hit multiple standards during my lessons, I am doing a lot of “reading pauses”. During a pause I’ll pick a sentence, write it on the board and we look at it in depth.  We look for nouns. But we also look for verbs (action and helping), and then if possible I’ll talk about adverbs, adjectives, synonyms, antonyms, and phonics sounds we have covered. My students attention level seems more intense because we are dealing with these grammar components in the real reading we are doing.  It also make grammar real.

You all know enough about me by now to know that we are going to do art to reinforce these grammar concepts.  Here is our nouns tree. Each month it changes to reflect the season.

        

 I forgot to take a picture of the Acorn tree.  Darn it! That might have been because of what I call Friday Amnesia! I kind of lose my minds on Fridays! All I can think about is starting the weekend and I forget about anything else. Can you be happy without the picture above for just a few days? I promise to a picture Monday.

      

I have an entire series of Smart Art for nouns.

Here are the ones you might love for winter.  

The peppermint stick is big. Size matters when you are trying to compete for their mental attention.  Santa takes up a lot of their mental space in the coming weeks, but this pulls in the holiday joy and academic rigor. They may or may not get to do this project with a candy cane in their mouth… don’t tell the nutrition police

Are you looking for ways to help your “Littles” understand thankfulness in these coming days?  If so, download this little two page comprehension builder and enjoy!

  

Sending Love, Katie

Getting Their Attention

Happy Monday, friends! It's Laura from Peace, Love, and First Grade!
I'm so happy to spend my Monday with you!
Hopefully, you are out and enjoying a much needed break.
If not, hang tight! Help is on its way!

A few days ago, Nicole posted about behavior management,
and one of the things she wrote about was using music to transition.
Well, today I want to tell you a few ways we get attention and transition in my classroom. :)

I like to call my tools for getting attention Freeze Signals.
For instance, when the intercom comes on, we freeze...so that's a freeze signal.
Most of my freeze signals, though, are just teacher/student chants.
Chants have been around for a long time.
I didn't invent them, but I sure do like using them.

 Here are a few of our faves:

Teacher Says: Macaroni and Cheese  -or-   32 Degrees
Students Say: Everybody Freeze

Teacher: And a Hush Came over the crowd
Students: (in a whisper) HUSSSHHH!

Teacher: Hocus Pocus
Students: Everybody focus

Teacher: Everybody in the House
Students: is as quiet as a mouse

After we use the Freeze Signals, everyone "should" stop everything and silently freeze. I say "should" because sometimes we lack self control.
That probably doesn't happen in your classroom. 

Even with our fun Freeze Signals, there were a few times during the day when we were having trouble getting ourselves together. Specifically, lining up.
Can you feel me??

So...I came up with a few Freeze Signals for particular times of day.
I'm sure someone thought of these before me, but I'd never seen them anywhere.

Getting Ready for the Hall

Teacher: Stand Up Tall

Students: We're Ready for the hall

Settling down in the line for lunch

Teacher: Hawaiian Punch

Students: We're Ready for lunch

One thing about Attention Getters.
I start the year teaching one a day for about the first two weeks.
I want them to overlearn each one.
THEN-very important-I make sure I don't overuse any of them.
If we want them to be effective, we can't use them to the point where the kids get tired of them.
Throughout the year, I add more attention getters.
January is a great time to turn "Macaroni and Cheese" into "32 Degrees." You get the idea.

At the end of the post I've linked you to free Attention Getter resources from TpT and TN. Hope you can use!

Bells, Chimes, and Other Pleasant Sounds

One of the easiest ways to get kiddos' attention is to use pleasant sounds in the classroom.
Here are some we use.

Hand bells and Call bells are very inexpensive and get the job done without being obnoxious.
Just ring the bell a few times when you need the kiddos to listen.  

We ring a call bell 3 times when we are ready to move to another station during Reading and Math Workshop.
Our daily helpers get to ring the bells.
Very Effective!

This Hand Bell costs about $6.35 from Amazon. The picture will take you there.

 This Call Bell is about $5.30 from Amazon.

You can do the same thing with wind chimes.
I currently don't have any wind chimes in my room,
but I know some teachers who couldn't live without their chimes.
One teacher I know sounds the chimes when she is ready for the kids to come to the carpet.
Again, a pleasant signal to get the kiddos moving.

This set of chimes is around $12 from Amazon.

Sometimes we just need a Whistle!

Oh, the Whistle! I have a train whistle. It is called "The Last Resort."
When the kids hear the train whistle, they know I mean business.
We are too loud or way off task and we need to get ourselves under control.
We don't mess around when we hear the train whistle.

This train whistle costs about $5.49 from Amazon.

Attention Getters from TN and TpT.

I truly believe in Attention Getters!
If you haven't tried them, give them a shot!
AND-Whatever Attention Getters/Freeze Signals you choose,
make sure YOU are happy with them.
When the teacher is happy, the classroom runs much more smoothly! :)

Have a relaxing and blessed Thanksgiving, friends!

The Common Core State Standards and Math!

Hi Everyone!  This is Deb from Fabulously First!  Hoping you are Happy, Healthy, and thinking of what you are going to prepare for your BIG Thanksgiving Dinner next week.

The Common Core State Standards are here. Some say they are here to stay and some say they are only here temporarily.  Whatever you think we must teach on!  The Common Core State Standards provide a clear understanding of what is expected of our students to learn.  They are designed to be rigorous (a word we hear often) and bring relevance to the real world.  They were designed to reflect what knowledge our students will need to have to have success in college and in a working environment.

Forty-five states have adopted the Common Core State Standards.  The math standards are supposed to allow teachers to focus on fewer topics and be able to dig deeper into the concepts to make sure our students master them.  They also want our students to apply them to real world situations. 

I know that we all have a favorite subject to teach and mine is math.  Not that I don't love teaching reading, social studies, and science, I just love teaching math a little bit more. 

To support those of you who are working extra hard I have a great product for you that my boys and girls use every single day.  I have them on metal rings around the room for my kiddos to grab and use if they need to. I love having this product in my room and love that we are working on being independent in the classroom and building our stamina to be independent.  Whew! I forget too quickly by the time first grade is over how much they don't know when they arrive to first grade at the beginning of the school year.  

Love these two little girls!

See, None of them dislike the camera!

Click the image above to take a look!

TIME FOR A FREEBIE! 

CLICK ABOVE! 

Please leave feedback and let me know what you think!

Thank you for visiting today and all of us here at Primary Chalkboard wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a well deserved time with family and friends.