Halloween Giveaway!

It's Halloween y'all! To make this season a little easier this year, myself and a team of amazing teachers have grouped together to gift ONE awesome, lucky teacher with a TPT gift card!

PRIZES INCLUDE 1 x $200 TPT Giftcard

If you want to win, enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Raffle CLOSES: Saturday 3rd November 2018 12am

GOOD LUCK!!!

October Baby Plans

Hey everyone!

At the beginning of the month I posted a schedule of activities that I was going to be completing with my daughter who is now 10 months old. If you  have been following me on Instagram, you have seen these activities. I wanted to highlight a few of those activities here on my blog.

As a reminder, here is the schedule that I posted: one activity every day during the week, and no weekends. Also, when we were busy or had plans I did not have an activity for that day.

Here are some of our highlights from the month!

Songs and Poems: I have really enjoyed using felt as a manipulative for a child this age. She can pick them up, feel the texture, and then put them back all while listening to the song or poem.

We really enjoyed this sensory bag using hair gel, green food coloring, and googly eyes! Idea from Sharing Kindergarten.

Some of our favorite books this time of year have been the following:

Painting in a bag has been difficult. Getting the right weight of the paper and the right amount of paint has been challenging. But we are making it work and still enjoying the process.

Sensory bins have been really fun. At first, my daughter didn't know what to do with it. I would scatter fabric leaves around her and she would just stare. By the end of the month, she was taking out the leaves from the wipes container by herself. I was so happy!

Stay tuned for our November plans!

October Routines and Plans

Now that I am staying home and not working in the classroom this year, one thing that I have missed very much is celebrating the themes/holidays so common in elementary school. Apples, pumpkins, Halloween, etc. are always so fun to teach with the littles.

So I have decided that instead of missing out on all of the fun because I am  not in the classroom, I would bring those activities to my little girl. She is only 9 months old, but very curious. I have created the following calendar that we will follow for the month of October.

Because my daughter is so young, we are only doing one activity per day. On the days where there is no activity, it is because we have other plans or family visiting so I didn't want to commit myself to an activity on that day. Also, there are no weekends. I have also included Library/story time on Wednesdays because that is when it is scheduled for us. We also try to read every day at home as well.

We will use the following weekly routine in order to keep us organized.

The ideas that I have gathered are a combination from Pinterest, other teachers, SAHMS, bloggers, and myself. Please note that I have not tried these activities yet, but will be trying them for the first time this month. I try to use items that are from Dollar Tree, Target Dollar Spot, Michael's, or other items I already had on hand from when I was in the classroom.

At the end of the month, I will post some of our highlights, but you can follow my IG account https://www.instagram.com/dabblingindifferentiation/ to see daily/weekly posts with our activities.

Have a great month!

Back to School Activities

If you're already teaching this year, welcome back! If not, I hope you enjoy your last few days/weeks of summer vacation.

I know in those first few days back to school, you need some activities that the students can complete with little to no instruction. Something that is review so they can be confident in what they are doing.

For my first grade students, I often used a roll and cover activity during the first week of school. It requires little instruction and all they have to do is count the dots on the dice.

You can use 1 die, 2 dice, or 3 dice to add a little differentiation. You can also use the black and white version of the handouts so students can color their answers instead of covering them. I used small erasers to cover the numbers, but you could use anything you have in your classroom, including Unifix cubes, yellow and red counters, transparent counters, beans, etc.

If you are interested in trying this Back to School Roll and Cover, you can find it here.

Another idea that can be used with kindergarten or first grade students is counting bears strips. These strips are easy to prep and all you need to do is add the bears! They work on counting and patterning skills.

Many different patterns are included and all you have to do is print, laminate (optional), and cut them out. They are ready to go! I also included black and white versions so students are able to create their own pattern that goes with the description in the bottom of the strip (AB, ABC, etc.).

If you are interested in trying these Counting Bears Strips, you can find it here.

This final Back to School activity is better suited for second, third, or fourth graders. The activity is mystery pictures that practice addition, subtraction, or multiplication facts. The key is that you should already know your math facts pretty well in order to do these. So definitely not a first week activity for first graders, but they can do it soon enough.

These can be used as fast finishers, morning work, homework, math centers, etc. The possibilities are endless!

If you are interested in trying these Back to School Mystery Pictures, you can click on each one to be taken to my store.

I hope these resources help you in the first few days/weeks of school!

Have a great year!

Back to School Giveaway!

It's nearly that time! We hope you have enjoyed your summer! To make this season a little easier this year, myself and a team of amazing teachers have grouped together to gift ONE lucky teacher with a TPT gift card and an Amazon gift card!

PRIZES INCLUDE 1 x $150 TPT Giftcard, 1 x $100 Amazon Giftcard

Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

REMEMBER: each entry counts as ONE entry, the more links you complete, the higher your chances of winning!!

Raffle CLOSES: Saturday 25th August 2018 12am

GOOD LUCK!!!

First Day of School Ideas

So I have been a little out of the action for awhile. Buying a house, moving, having a baby, and many more exciting things have happened since I last posted! I am no longer in the classroom, but am staying at home with my sweet baby girl. This is my first year ever not returning to school in some capacity - whether that be as a teacher or student. It is so strange not going back, so I thought I would share my First Day of School ideas with you all instead!

We all know that the first day of school can be daunting. Even the most laid-out plans don't get completed, nor do they need to. I find that instead of having a strict schedule for the first day, having activities and mini lessons planned works much better. So instead of giving you a schedule of what I did in my classroom on the first day of school (because of course I wrote it all out), I thought it would be better to share a few activities/ideas that I try to include every year and that you can do too!

1. Desk work

For the past few years I have taught first grade. When they arrived in the morning, I had the following page on their desk.

This is from Jen Jones at Hello Literacy. It is FREE and can be found here.

I chose a coloring sheet because it required no directions or explanation and the students could just get started while I was welcoming other students or talking with parents. Plus, the students loved to open their new box of crayons and start coloring.

2. Go over the "schedule."

As I mentioned earlier, there isn't necessarily a set schedule that you will follow for the first day, but let the students know what types of activities they will be doing. Many of them come in so nervous and just like to hear what they'll be doing to calm their nerves. Activities include reading books, lunch, recess, specials classes (if you have them that day), games, etc.

3. Read a few books.

One of the first things I do with my students is read to them. I want them to know how important I think reading is in the classroom, but also this is a familiar activity for them where they can just sit and enjoy. Here are a few of my first day favorites:

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg

The Night Before First Grade by Natasha Wing

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

(I would have included a picture, but somehow I misplaced 3/4 of these books!)

After we read either First Day Jitters or The Night Before First Grade I will have the students discuss their feelings about the first day. Together we complete the following anchor chart from The Applicious Teacher.You can find it here.

You could either have the students write their name on a Post-It (smaller ones would be better than larger ones) or they could put an X on the chart above the picture.

4. Ice Breaker Activities

One of the activities that I have done the past few years is very simple. I put a piece of masking tape on the floor in the front of the classroom. Students will stand in the front. I will then ask them a question, like "Do you prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Do you prefer math or reading? Cats or dogs?" Students will then stand on either side of the line depending on their choice. It is a fun way to get the students up and moving, get a little information about them, and help them see how they are alike and different from their classmates.

Here is a free list of questions that you can use!

5. All About Me Bags

At Meet the Teacher night I pass out these notes stapled to a brown paper bag. This is a free activity from Kindergarten Squared and can be found on TPT here.

 On the first day of school (or during the first week) students are asked to bring 5 items that represent themselves. I always share my bag first and then I ask 4-5 students to share theirs each day during the first week of school.

I brought a blue crayon (I like blue), a puzzle piece, chocolate bar, rubber duck (ducks are my favorite animal), and Spot It game (I love games!).

So those are a few ideas for the first day of school in a first grade classroom!

Spelling Baseball

Today I want to share a game with you that I haven't tried yet in my classroom, but that I used to play when I was in grade school. It's a game that can be used with any subject really, but I am going to share how I will use it for spelling.

This year my students will play Spelling Baseball!

The first thing you need to do is set up your classroom to resemble a baseball diamond.

You can use the bases that are included in the freebie. I would print them out on cardstock and place them around the room.

Another option would be to pick up these bases from the Dollar Tree. The set includes home plate, first, second, and third base, as well as a pitching rubber. I don't use the pitching rubber for this game.

My plan is to place these bases around the room, with home plate in the front of the classroom.

Now onto the game. The students come up to home plate and they get to choose which type of 'hit' they would like: single, double, triple, or home run. The type of word that they spell will correspond with the following picture.

Each week we study a specific spelling skill, like short a, color words, long e, etc.

1. If the student chooses a single, they will get to spell a word from the current week's spelling unit.

2. If the student chooses a double, they will get to spell a challenge word from the current spelling unit. (Our spelling curriculum includes challenge words in the chapter each week, but you could easily create your own. For example, if the spelling skill was short a and the words were pan, can, man, bat, etc. a challenge word could be cabin or fancy.)

3. If the student chooses a triple, they will get to spell a word from next week's unit. For example, if this week is short a words and next week is short e, they will get to spell a word from the short e unit.

4. If the student chooses a home run, they will get to spell a word from the dictionary. I love when my students spell words from the dictionary. Whenever I open the dictionary to find a new word, they remember the words from the last time we played a game. They learn so many new words this way.

And that's about it! The students move around the bases and score like an actual baseball game.

I think this game is great because it is so easily differentiated and all students can be successful, no matter which level of spelling they are at. I know we will be playing this a lot in my classroom this year!

This product is a forever freebie in my store and you can grab it here!

Now I'm going to work on making a Spelling Basketball game!! (This was also found at Dollar Tree!)

How do you differentiate spelling in your classroom?