tired but inspired

     So in order to keep this first blog real, I have a confession to make.  I am TIRED, people!  I think I have been tired for seventeen years!  The little people in my life keep me on my toes all. day. long.  I love them, I really do.  But I am exhausted.  Yet I have that same feeling I get in August (not the sick one because summer is over, but the other one).  You know the one.  How when you go into a teaching store and it is the very start of the school year ....and you get all motivated by all the new cool STUFF?  You see the potential of what your classroom can be like THIS year? And you get inspired by all sorts of ideas and it is actually sort of FUN to get organized? sort of.

Well THAT is how Pinterest and this whole blogworld is changing my perspective.  If your school district is like mine, and if you've been teaching for a while, you know that just when you think you have a handle on things, everything just goes and changes.  So I am absolutely THRILLED to see all the elementary ideas people are blogging these days, and none of us have to invent the whole wheel anymore, just a spoke here and there:) Plus,  I have a Pinterest obsession.  I'm afraid I am going to need counseling over it. Not really.  Maybe.

I want to show my classroom through my blog with the ups AND the downs, the things that work for me AND the things that DON'T.  I want to share with all of you other firsties and get ideas from you too.  I like the cutesie stuff, but we all know that a lot is lacking in the commercial offerings out there.  My desire is to combine the Common Core with FUN.  It seems to me that our resources are either too dry or too "fluffy", do you agree?

Anyway, come by anytime to see what's going on in my class and I'd like to stop by yours too!


Here's a look at my classroom happenings of the past few days:

My first graders worked on a marshmallow math activity I found on Pinterest.  It is free and printable...I just have to figure out how to post the link.  It involved sorting, measuring, graphing, comparing, and adding.  (and eating:)

The greater than/less than symbols are sometimes confusing, but no one seemed to have a problem imagining the "big mouth" chomping the most marshmallows.

After students graphed the various colors of marshmallows, they tasted one of each and graphed their favorites using post-it notes on the board.

We also did an inferencing activity seen on Pinterest (I think it is a Cara Carroll idea.)  The kids LOVED this.  I have read the book No, David! to my classes for years, but never had an activity to do with it.   This one got the idea of inferencing across beautifully (and of course the favorite part of the story is when David runs down the street naked!)

As you can see, the Davids were "first grade made".  I don't use a lot of templates.  If it is an art activity, it needs to be created with their own style!

I also tried out the Twister "Sight Word Edition" game for one of my literacy small group stations.  I did not want to write on the game, so I put down sight words from a pack I found at the dollar store.  The game is now in my weekend bag with a Sharpie and a word list...I am so going to write the words on the game.  They got kicked everywhere.  Also, it is best if a teacher or volunteer can oversee the game or the kids TOTALLY cheat.  They don't read the words and they cheat on the left/right thing as well.  But the REALLY liked the game.  Even when they had to play by the rules:)

Have a great weekend all!