50th Day of School

This year seems to be flying by!!  Friday was our 50th day of school and this is the third year that our first grade has celebrated by having a 50's day.  We encourage the students to dress in 50's fashions and we have lots of fun related to the number 50.  This year we used the 50th Day of School book by Latoya Reed  It's a freebie and it was great!!  We also had our students bring in collections of 50 items to count and sort.  Prior to the 50th day we had hula hoop contests in our classrooms to get a girl and boy champion from each class.  On the afternoon of the 50th day we had our "sock hop" complete with ice cream sodas and dancing plus the finale of the hula hoop championship.  The champions from each class face each other for a hula hoop showdown.  Just imagine six girls or boys hula hooping while surrounded by 100 screaming first graders cheering them on.  It is a hoot!  We have excellent hula hoopers every year and we end up having to make them start walking around while continuing to hula hoop in order to speed up the contest.  Here are just a few pictures of our 50's day fun!

Counting and sorting our collections.  I have mats for them to use that have 10 circles drawn on and the number 5 is in the middle of each circle to remind them to put 5 items in each circle.

Sock Hop Fun!

Hula Hoop Practice Time and Contest

Some of my fabulous teammates!!

Jessica and Brooke (Teaching with a Tiara)

Mandy and her intern Cari

Tina

Somehow I didn't get a picture of Starla!!

This is a picture of our team from last  year.
 Unfortunately we never got a picture of everyone together this year.
(I'm the one in the red skirt, Starla is in the argyle vest)

Lesson Plan Decision

For several years now I've used a template that I made with Publisher to do my lesson plans.  It worked OK  but sometimes I didn't have enough room to include everything that needed to be in my plans. Since we've made the switch to using common core standards this year I decided that it was time to make a lesson plan change as well.  My problem was that I didn't know what I wanted to switch to.  After much thought and just jotting down lesson plans on notebook paper while debating what to do I finally decided to start using www.planbook.com to do my plans.  I learned about this program through a post from April Walker at www.ideabackpack.blogspot.com that reviewed several different options that could be used for lesson planning.  After looking at the different programs she talked about, I ended up setting up a trial account with planbook.com to see if I would like using it on a regular basis.  I liked it so much that I just paid for my membership (only $12 for one year).  I really like the following options:

• You can set up a daily schedule with classes and times that vary from day to day as needed.
• It's easy to set up special events such as early release days, teacher planning days and holidays.
• You can easily add standards (common core as well as state standards) and when you are ready to add them, the standards pop up with the number and the written description of the standard. 
• You can easily bump lessons forward if you didn't get to something one day or if you need to spend more time on a lesson before moving on to the next lesson.
• You can print lessons one day at a time or you can show the whole week (I like the one day format to be able to leave for a substitute when you have a planned absence).

If you've been looking for a new option, check it out! I know I'm loving it!

I'm Finally Back!

Wow!  It's taken me a long time to get into the swing of things this year and get back to my poor neglected blog. Between implementing common core, stressing over the new teacher evaluations and what they will be using as the evaluation tool in first grade, it all gets to be a little overwhelming !  Between school and home and other obligations it's been crazy.  Now that things are settling down some I promise to get in the habit of blogging on a regular basis!

It's hard to believe that this week is the end of our first nine weeks.  This Friday is a teacher planning day which is a welcome end to the week.  Last week we had some fire safety fun which included a visit from the volunteer fire department on Friday.  Our principal's husband is the fire chief and he comes out every year with some of his crew.  They do a great job and the kiddos are always thrilled to see them.  It was a beautiful day and rainbows appeared as they had some of our little friends helping spray the fire hoses.  But guess who forgot her camera??  How unusual, I always have my camera but walked out of the room without it that day.  We also had our Fall Festival on October 6 and we grossed $28,000 between the sales of chance drawing tickets and the money spent on tickets and food at the Festival itself.  This is the only fund raiser that we do each year and it's always a big event.

In addition to looking forward to our planning day, we are busy planning our 50th Day of School celebration on Friday, October 26.  This will be the third year that our first grade classes have had "Fabulous Fifties Fun" on the 50th Day of School.  We have classroom level hula hoop contests prior to the big day and each class gets a boy and girl champion.  On the 50th day, we dress up and have a sock hop out on the bus shelter with dancing and ice cream floats.  One of the highlights of the sock hop are the contests to determine our first grade hula hoops champs.  The girls battle it out and then the boys take their turn.  It's amazing how long some of these kiddos can go with those things while walking around and showing off for their friends.  We always have a blast!  I won't forget my camera that day and I'll post pictures of our fun.