Giveaway Winners and Some Anchor Chart Snapshots!

Hey bloggers!

Today was the big day...the MS Walk! It was an extremely warm day but we had a great time & it was all for a great cause! 

Thank you so much to those of you that were able to help support us find a cure for MS...for my husband and for everyone else that is struggling with this disease!

In honor of the MS Walk, I ran a quick little giveaway for you guys. Here are the winners!

I'll contact you ladies soon.

Thanks to everyone that entered!

Here are some snapshots from our week.

In math this week, we were really focusing on sorting and counting. The students used the counters to sort by color and then count how many of each color they had.

Some of my firsties took it to the next level...not only did they sort them by color like we had discussed, they noticed that you could also sort them by the type of animal! I love when they notice these things and can "teach" me (& the other students). They love when they think they have found something that they think I don't know about...& I'm willing to play along so that they keep looking for these things on their own!

I also had a few kids notice that they could sort the bears by size (and make patterns with them as well!). Keep using those brains, little friends! I love it.

We also spent a lot (& I mean, a lot) of time on rules & anchor charts this week. Here are a few of them!

We talked about all of the book tubs in our library. After discussing all of the tubs and the difference between fiction & non-fiction, the students were able to choose some for their book boxes.

When it was time to choose some of these for their book boxes, we discussed IPICK.

We also talked about the different ways to read a book (since some of these fiction & non-fiction books are above our current reading levels). I modeled how to do each of these things and the students were able to practice each of them by themselves and with a partner throughout the week.

We spent a lot of time with partners this week. Now that they have books in their book boxes, we were able to talk about one aspect of Reader's Workshop: Read to Someone.

We spent a lot of time practicing this!

We found that it isn't always best to choose your best friend to be your reading buddy! ;)

One day during Writer's Workshop, some of my friends were having a hard time coming up with things to write about (remember, we only write about true things that have happened to us at this point) so we made this impromptu chart.

This next chart is one that we made on Tuesday and then referred to EVERY day...and we still will this week too.

We also read our favorite David books this week and created our charts inspired by The First Grade Parade!

We have also started using the SmartBoard daily during calendar time. Because of how the board is mounted, the kids have to use pointers to be able to reach the top of the board...these are dangerous...for the kids & for the board! So we always have to talk about the rules before I can let them loose on the SmartBoard.

The last chart I have for you today is a pretty boring looking one (I ran out of creative chart energy by Friday), but it was very effective. It was inspired by Using My Teacher Voice!

Soooo, there you have it! LOTS of rules & anchor charts this week, but it has to be done!

I can't believe we already have 3 weeks behind us...that means only 5 more weeks of pregnancy for me. WOW. That also means only 5 more weeks to get all of our classroom routines set & running smoothly as well as getting reading assessments done!

Have a great week, friends!