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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Find-It-Shaker!!

So... I know I'm probably late on this discovery, but I have discovered PINTEREST! Oh my goodness!!! There are soooooooo many great ideas on there and I am committed to trying as many as I can!!! :)

One of the ideas that I saw there are these awesome Find-It-Shakers from http://sunnydaysinsecondgrade.blogspot.com/. On her site, I found the directions and a Freebie template for antonymms and synonyms. If I were a Regular Ed teacher, I would be all over it! :)

After telling my husband alllll about it, we went to HEB and got what we needed. He was kind enough to purchase 2 tea different teas (in some amazingly pretty plastic containers) and has promised to drink them as fast as possible so I can use them for my project :). We also bought a 5 lb bag of rice, and a food coloring pack. (We have alcohol in our medecine cabinet.. We will definitely need to replace it)




I got to work! It was so easy... The rice is currently laying in cookie sheets, drying :) I am soooo excited!!! I can't wait to complete the project tomorrow when I get home from school!!!

-Mariana

Sunday, January 15, 2012

*True/ Fantasy*

This upcoming 9 weeks we will begin with discussing true & fantasy using Literary text. I sat down and created a sketch/ cheat sheet of what I want my class' anchor chart to look like and what I'm going to write on it. Here's what I have. I'll definitely update how the lesson went and the pictures of our different anchor charts.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

3rd Nine Weeks: Anchor Charts, Academic Vocabulary, Graphic Organizers




Saturday, October 29, 2011

Octoberfest! = Coopertative Grouping Galore!!!

As promised... I'm just inside my personal deadline for my monthly blogging!!! October has been an ABSOLUTELY crazy month!! With all the curriculum changes,  grades, and preparation for my  PDAS observation... sadly, blogging has been at the end of my to-do lists. 
     
    At the beginning of this month, I decided to try to give my students as many opportunities to work together as possible. They have been loving talking and thinking together through Think-Pair-Share, working in pairs, and working in groups. I have no idea where my camera is, BUT, I have some pictures of our latest group activity that we did on Friday... It was our Halloween Costume Day which would  be followed by our annual Fall Festival, and the kids were a bit wild. I almost decided not to do it, fearing the worst. But the kids did a really great job and learned a lot about magnets.

Here are some pictures:



Sunday, September 4, 2011

First Weeks of School + Newsletters

The first few weeks of school have gone great! I absolutely loooooove my class. They are all super cute and very, very sweet. It has been an experience having to re-train my new batch to do simple tasks, especially after being used to the END of 1st grade 1st graders... :) But, they are doing great!

One of my goals for this year is to inform the parents as much as possible through newsletters. I have been working on them this weekend, and am so excited to have them ready to send in to copy Tuesday morning.

Here are some snap-shots of my creations:

This is the first of my Seasonal Newsletters. My plan is to send them out at the beginning of each 9 weeks.

I want to send a weekly snapshot of the week informing the parents of the skills that we will be focusing on in the classroom and give them ideas on how to reinforce those skills at home.
 I really hope I can keep up with the newsletters this year, but I think I'm off to a good start! :) Wish me luck!!!!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Classroom Preparations 2011

 

 It has been exciting seeing all the projects that I have been working on throughout the summer. Eventhough the students don't go back to school until the 23rd, and our 1st official day back is on the 15th, I worked really hard to have it ready for the 15th. I am a part of my campus' Literacy Cohort and as the 1st grade represenative, my room had to be ready for the Classroom Gallery that will be conducted on the teacher's 1st day back. I am so grateful to my husband, and my friends (Nataly, Katrina, Alex, and  Maria) for all their help and hard work cutting laminate, creating bulletin boards, putting posters on the board, and creating a beautiful kindness tree. I really wouldn't have been able to do it without them and all their help!!! As I was uploading the pictures, I was pleasently surprised to see how different my room looks. Here are some of the images: 

This is my friend Nataly posing with her beautiful creation!

I am so excited to get this project going with my students. I cut out a ton of leaf diecuts where students will write/draw a picture of times where someone does something nice for them or someone else. She did a great job!!! I'll have to update some pictures of the tree when its branches are filled with leaves.

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 Here's the front of my room. The posters on the top right side, the icons on the Workstation Mat, and the train on the right side were some of my summer projects. Needless to say that the PISD Media Center was my 2nd home this summer.

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Here's the back of my classroom.

Lots of storage with the lockers!!! Last year, I kinda threw everything in there as I transitioned into this classroom 3 weeks into the school year. It was a real adventure trying to find anything.  So this year, I used an index card to label the contents of the lockers.

On the image to the right you can see the math area. The tubs with the white lids are my Math Tubs. The bulletin board that you see on the wall will be used as a Math Word Wall and right under it I will place any anchor charts that the students can use as they work. I have a ton of additional Math Instructional materials on the shelve that is now covered by the green curtain. I didn't like how it looked with all the boxes and baskets piled on top of oneanother. So, I went to Family Dollar bought a spring rod and a shower curtain to hide the storage. (Total: $5.00) I'm sure you can find something cheaper at the Dollar Tree or any other Dollar Store, but I'm kinda picky on my colors. They only had a baby pink curtain when I went there.


* * *
Side of the Classroom- Word wall and Big Book Station


The Word Wall will be reveled with my students on the 1st day of school, I will be turning them around and going ove the alphabet with them.

I am so excited about the Classroom Library!!! I will be taking some pillows for it, and my friend's mom will be sewing some custon large pillows for me. I went to Goodwill and found the white shelf for $7.00. I was pretty excited about that because I didn't have to build anything! (I'm sure my hubby liked that too) We will be getting some baskets that I will place on the shelf. My students and I will be sorting the books  into generes the first week of school. I will also be changing the stuffed animals throughout the year to keep the students interested in the station all year-long.

The poster above the easel on the Big Book Station was one of my projects of the summer too. I am also working on task cards that I will be hanging on the suction hooks that I found at Target for $1.00. I also found some cute pointers (star and flower) that I will be rotating throughout the year.

* * *

This is my small group area. I am using a lot of baskets to keep my materials on hand and organized. Last year, I had a really hard time keeping things well organized. I think that this year will be a bit different since I have spent a lot of time setting up an organization system.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Treasure Chest Project


My DIY Treasure Chest Project




I have been wanting to purchase a Treasure Chest Box for some time now but never got around to it. Today, my husband encouraged me to make my own! He even took me to Michael's and helped me pick out the paint. As soon as I got home, I began with my project. ( I can be a tad impatient at times) I started with a medium sized wooden chest (14.99) and three Crafter's Acrylic Paint:  
                             Country Maple, Burnt Umber, and Antique Gold. 

Here's What I did: 
1. I began by painting the entire chest with two coats of Country Maple

2. Once it was dry, I used Burnt Umber to paint the edges.
3. Once that dried, I used Antique Gold to paint the golden bolts and lock.

4. Using a hot glue gun, I glued a wooden pirate flag from Michael's

5. Using a Paint Pen I wrote in the words: Mrs. Breaux's Treasure chest... and tah-dah! I have a treasure chest!!