Making Words

I LOVE MAKING WORDS!  I mean, not making new words myself, but the task that the students have to make new words using the letters of one big word!  It was so much fun last year to see all of the words that students came up with that they didn't think that they could spell.  There were also some creative words that they made up (which weren't correctly spelled but they phonetically spelled them out so I had to give them some credit for that!).  For example, I remember last year a girl came up with the word "innit" and I circled it on her paper and she said "Ms. Schifano that can't be wrong because I know 'innit' is a word!" and I asked her to use it in a sentence and she said "I went in it (innit) when I went to school".  So as you can see this activity gets students thinking about words and I encourage them to use the dictionary if they are stuck on spelling.  
I use making words as a literacy center that I keep every week but just rotate the words used.  If I had the time to, I would make 4-5 sets of the letters, laminate, and put into envelopes to be used every week so that the students didn't have to cut out their own words.  Maybe it's something that I can work on during the year, but last year I had great success with having them cut out their own letters (that way, I can staple them and they can take it home and practice when they are done with the center!)

I just re-did my Making Words pages for the upcoming school year to move the letters to be cut out from the top: 

And now the letters are at the bottom and I made it a little prettier.

The letters on this one make "pilgrims"

The letters on this one make "september"

You can pick up all 10 fall/winter themed making words for your own literacy centers here.  

If you have any comments or ideas of words to use for making words, please post them in the comments section--thanks!!

Now taking a break from planning and time to start packing to move!! 

Common Core: Reading Literature

I am going to be slowly going through the core curriculum content standards for Literacy and Math for first grade and making files with helpful hints for teachers and graphic organizers/assessments that correlate with those standards.  So let's start at the beginning with RL 1.1:Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.  

Here are some helpful hints for teachers when teaching to this standard and assessing.  

And here's one of the graphic organizers that I made to go along with the standard to use after a read aloud (or can be used after guided reading or in a literacy center such as a browsing basket or listening center)

Students will draw and write about their favorite character in the story.  

To get the full file (these two pages plus one more graphic organizer) you can find it here.  

Ch-ch-check back to see the rest of the common core files...once they are created, of course! :) 

More Classroom Management: Vistaprint Cards

I always get these e-mails of promotions from Vistaprint for their free business cards and never thought to take advantage of it because as a teacher I feel like I don't need to have a business card.  However, I saw something posted on pinterest a while back of using business cards for classroom management and I decided to make some of my own! 

I made three cards to use in my classroom.  First up, the Homework Expert card:

Students will each have one of these cards and every time they turn in their homework completed by Friday (Students get a packet on monday and they have to turn in the completed one by every Friday), they get a hole punch on the bottom of their card!  Sometimes students just simply forget to take their homework out of their folders to give to me or they will say that their parents forgot to put it in their backpack, so I am hoping that this will make students more accountable for turning it in!

Next up, the Superb Spelling card:

As explained on the card, if a student receives 100% on their spelling test every Friday, then they get a hole punch on their card. 

Lastly, the Way To Go! card:

This is to be used along with the classroom management clip chart that I posted yesterday.  When a student reaches the top of the clip chart, they will get a hole punch and after 10 hole punches they will receive a prize.   

What will the prizes be?  I had success last year with either giving out pencils or coloring books and I will also give students the option of turning in their card for classroom bucks to buy bigger prizes. 

Now...where will students keep these cards so that they are not eaten up by the desk monster that seems to consume endless amounts of unfinished work and pencils?  I picked up these business card holders from Staples (for about $4 for a box of 10).  and students will put them inside their binder in their desk so they can easily access their cards. 

Check out the free business cards from Vistaprint!  If you have any other ideas of what some other types of cards to make to use in the classroom, I would love to hear ideas!  Also please comment if you have any other Vistaprint projects that you created for your classroom! 

Also...check out Retail Me Not to to see all of the Vistaprint coupon codes you can use!

Check out what *Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge* made on Vistaprint for her classroom!

What do I do when I can't sleep? Do work, of course!

I got so hooked on watching the Olympics tonight and before I knew it, it was midnight and I was wide awake.  So...I'll post what I created tonight! 


First...I put together into one big file all of my literacy center signs that I laminate and put into a pocket chart so that students know what centers they go into each day.  Here's some pictures from the file that can be downloaded here.

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I also uploaded to TPT my home reading log, which I send home with students each month to have them track (with their families) what they read at home.  Parents are supposed to sign the log so that students and families are accountable for reading done at home.  You can really see a correlation between students who fill up their sheets the fastest and the highest readers in the class, which is why parent involvement is so key to helping all kids learn at all ages and levels.  

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We are also switching it up this year in first grade and following the Dolch Sight words for our high frequency/spelling words that we use for our spelling tests & homework.  I think I'm going to like these better than what we used last year (most used words in English language) because they got very hard at the end of the year.  I created a file with 6 words on each page (which is what we give each week for homework/spelling) which are shown in two formats.  

The top format (table format) could be used for putting onto a piece of construction paper and putting up in the classroom all together to display words for the week or putting into a literacy center where students have to work with all of their words for the week.  The bottom ones are spaced out so that they can be laminated and put into a pocket chart or onto a word wall, etc.  If you want to pick up all 36 pages of these flashcards, you can get them at TPT.  

OKAYYYYYYYYYY!!!! I'm going to get into bed and try to fall asleep, which I know will be quite difficult because I have all of these things I am thinking up for my classroom that I want to do!  I'll just start thinking of this magical place and going there for my "mini-moon" and hopefully I can fall asleep! 

Bathroom Passes & Job Chart

Last year I didn't use bathroom passes and it is something that I regret because I was constantly interrupted during whole group and small group instruction to have students ask to go to the bathroom.  Well...no more!  I've seen this idea and am going to be making bathroom passes on hand sanitizer bottles.  There will be one boy and one girl bathroom pass (I may make an "emergency" pass for students to use if it is an emergency and the bathroom pass is already in use).  Students will simply put these on their desks so I know who is out of the room and when they get back, they make sure that they have clean hands if they forget to wash their hands because they can just use the sanitizer!

I also want to create a more VISUAL job char this year (last year I had one that was written with no pictures and I also want to create one to go with my new classroom theme of HOLLYWOOD).  So I've started to make my "PICTURE PERFECT HELPERS" job chart:

I'm going to print out some pictures of cameras to put around this file I made and then print out and laminate cameras with the job titles below it and then put the students faces in the camera lenses.  At the beginning of the school year I will post a picture of my finished job chart so you have a better idea!

Jobs for my classroom: Messengers, Line Leader, Flag Salute, Calendar, Weather, Clean up Crew, Center Police, Quiet Captain, Pencil Sharpener, Teacher's Helper.  What other jobs do you use in your classrooms?

Behavior Management Clip Chart

Last year it seemed like I tried everything for behavior management with my class to see what would work best.  I saw a lot of pinterest posts about behavior management clip charts and decided to make my own. 

I'm going to laminate all of the sheets and put it up on my wall vertically and the students will each have a clip with their names on it, which will be on "READY TO LEARN" at the start of every day.  (I'm going to use this for attendance as well--where students will have to put their clips onto READY TO LEARN when they enter the classroom in the morning so I know who is there).  

This is what the clip (clothespin) would look like

maybe I'll hang them on a hangar like this so everyone can see their name instead of digging through a jar?

There are 7 Pages in the Clip Chart: Outstanding, Great Day, Good Job, Ready to Learn, Warning, 5 Minutes of Friday Free Time, Parent Contact

This will keep all of the students accountable of their behaviors and if they reach the top (OUTSTANDING!) at the end of the day, they get a hole punch of their cards (I'll post about these cards when I finally get them from vistaprint and can take pictures of them).  Essentially, the cards are like those buy 4 get the 5th free punch cards that some stores have and students will have the cards in their desk for various things (spelling test, behavior, homework -- and they will store them in business card holder sheets that I bought at Staples) and when they reach the top of the chart they will know to bring their card to me and I will punch their card.  When they get 10 punches, they will get a prize (or classroom bucks).

Anyways...I want to design a title for the behavior management chart to go with my classroom theme (hollywood).  Maybe...Celebrity Behavior? Rockin' Behavior?

How about this?  If you would like this clip chart title, pick up this FREEBIE

You can pick up the behavior chart as shown above from TPT

If you would like me to make you another title for your clip chart, just post in the comments and I'll e-mail it to you!

Noise-O-Meter

Today I'm making my...Noise-O-Meter!  I made a noise-o-meter for my classroom to show the students that during different activities they should have different voice levels.  Last years some students struggled with keeping their outside voices on the playground and using their inside voices in the classroom, which is why I wanted to create a noise-o-meter this year.  I'm going to cut out each part and put on construction paper to laminate and make it into a clip-chart to put in the front of the classroom.  I will move the "We are using our..." section on a clip to each part during the day (for example, students should use their inside voices when we are in whole-group or small-group instruction, whereas they should use their whisper voices during centers and no voice during D.E.A.R.).  If you have used this in your classroom, please post to comments to let me know how it went!

You can view and download the complete file to use in your classroom from TPT here!

Welcome!!


I'm so excited to start this blog to chronicle my second year teaching first grade and to post any ideas/lessons for the first grade classroom!  I'm a pinterest addict and get a lot of ideas from there that I am going to be using in my classroom this next year.  I also love to make my own materials that I have posted in my TPT (teachers pay teachers) store that you should check out!


I look forward to sharing ideas and what goes on in my classroom during the 2012-2013 school year!