Showing posts with label Astrobrights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astrobrights. Show all posts
Happy Thursday! How is everybody?? It's Friday Eve and the fourth day of the Blog Hoppin' Teacher Week 2015!!

Today's topic is Sanity Savers: What Makes Work Easier?? 

One Word: Astrobrights!

This paper is the best thing since sliced bread. Like the best. I use Astrobrights to color code EVERYTHING!! I use it for file organization, classroom decor, labels, notes home, storage, etc. 
Here is an example: 

With my Math centers, I usually make about 5-6 copies of each center. Why? Because I have 26 students and when I have 6 students trying to do one center all at the same time it tends to get a little louder than is necessary. And then stuff gets lost and kids start getting a little rowdy while they wait for pieces from the center. BUT if I have a center for each student or pairs of students then this issue goes away. 

When I make a new center or purchase a new center I make sure to have it available in B&W as well. INK SAVER ALERT!!

Then I print them out in different colors. All parts of the center. 

Roll and Write Center

Roll and Write Center
The students know to grab all parts of the activity in the same bright color. So if you are grabbing the pink dice, then you also grab the pink envelope with the pink cards inside it. 
 I cut the paper in half, fold it, and then staple or tape the sides to make an envelope. Sometimes I even laminate the paper before doing this. 
Counting Caterpillar Center
So the students each have an activity in the same color so no pieces get mixed up and each child is happy with his or her own center. Man, when I started doing this my life got so much easier!!!!

Centers are quiet and engaged. Students are working the whole time. There isn't any loud volume voices. I can work with small groups. It's just amazing!! And it is so bright and the paper is such good quality. It just makes sense!!

Well that's it for my sanity saver today. Can't wait to read how everybody makes their life easier!! 







Time will not slow down at all it seems!! The summer weeks are FLYING by for me. Anybody else feel this way???? But it has been a fabulous week that has gone so quickly and that means its time for Five for Friday y'all!!


Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this fabulous Friday Linky!! Here's what's been happening in my week: 

OH MY GOODNESS first and foremost I have to tell you that I finally got to "Hangout" (see what I did there???) with my original #teachertribe and TpT buddies - The Primary Punchbowl!!!
Picture credit to Elsa at The Whole Wheat Class and that is the fabulous Sarah from Mrs. B's First Grade! Sarah and Laura from Luv My Kinders gave us (the ones who were home last week) some GREAT tips from Las Vegas and the TpT Conference. We were all on Google Hangout and got to see and hear each other! So much fun! We also all made plans to be there next year no matter what!! 
If you haven't done a Google Hangout with your friends yet, I highly suggest it! 


My presentations: Dude, I had two presentations at the APEL Conference (Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana) this week and they were awesome! The theme is Super Heroes, which is totally up my alley, (ahem #gonegeekgirl <---I'm gonna make this a thing). 

Both of my sessions were full. Like packed! 

APEL Conference 2015
 I got great feedback on both of the sessions and I talked all about some fabulous TpT'ers and told the whole audience to go and follow as many Teacher Authors as possible to get inspiration and motivation!! I also had a giveaway, and of course I printed them out on Astrobrights paper! Really added a pop to my presentation! 
Astrobrights paper

Getting Started on TpT
It's my Teachers Pay Teachers Super Product Planner, on sale for $2 til Saturday only!

I am now addicted to presenting and I will just have to win the lottery and become a millionaire so I can present all the time. I think that plan is solid. 

The conference itself: I sat in on some great sessions, and feel excited to implement my new knowledge this coming school year! One session was on ways to motivate not only your students, but your fellow teachers and even your administrators. Simple little notes and sayings to make them smile. The presenters had the whole room laughing and up and moving. 
Brittany Taraba from Learners Meet World gave two great presentations! 
One on RTI with Behavior and Academics. She gave out a great list of iPad apps that would work wonderfully well in support of your RTI. For example, Sushi Monster. This was so much fun! There's a monster and you have to fling plates of sushi to add up to the number around his neck. I'm pretty sure I was having more fun than the average 6 or 7 year old would have. 
APEL Conference 2015

I also sat in on her Eureka Math presentation. While my school doesn't use Eureka/Engage NY religiously we do pull some activities here and there. Like the sprints. Look! I almost finished!! 
Eureka Math Sprint

And this was multiplication and division which is well over my first grade head! :)
  
Also, practically my entire school came to the conference! 
Mayfair Lab School
We have the best team!! And I got to meet the new teachers in 4th and 5th grade! 

 Mayfair Lab School
Here is Regina! My Mayfair Teacher Bestie!! 

On the computer: I made this SUPER back to school unit. I just kept having idea after idea so the packet kept growing and growing! I tried to pull in some fun activities that we did at the beginning of last year but SUPED them up for this year!
Super Hero Back to School Unit
 I've been printing and creating the activities and I can't wait to show the product in action! There is stuff here that we can do the very first day of school! So exciting! See that super hero cape? I'm going to copy them onto Astrobrights paper and give them to my firsties. They are going to write their Super Wishes for the year on the cape in marker and we are going to hang them in the hallway with the title "We're SUPER Excited about Learning!" 

In the Kitchen: Today is Day 20 of the Whole 30 and I'm doing GREAT! I haven't been doing too well with picture taking. I'm so excited about eating that I forget to take a pic until half of my plat is gone. But I did make a fantastic Chicken Cacciatore in the Crockpot that was divine!!
The Whole 30 Chicken Cacciatore
Served with some spaghetti squash and YUM!!

Tomorrow night? Pulled Pork Carnitas with sweet potatoes. Mmmm.......

With the Kid this week: On top of her completely missing the hamper in the bathroom which is LITERALLY right next to where she throws her clothes. 
On the floor. 
Right next to it. 
Th empty hamper. 
Literally.
Besides that Ant-Man came out last night and we totally went! We go to the Thursday 7 pm showing of every Marvel Movie because once again, #gonegeekgirl is totally gonna be a thing. Just wait for it!  
Ant Man Tickets
And we saw it in 3D because of course! 

Well that was my week! How was yours? 
March has so far been very wet for us here in Louisiana. But that has given me plenty of time to work on some amazing additions for my classroom! My firsties are working hard on becoming second graders and as this school year quickly passes us by they let me know how ready and eager they are to learn and be better. Love them!!

My latest addition is to shake up my Building Words/Spelling Words/Word Work/Working with Words center. Task cards!

Ok, so this isn't a new idea but it's new in my classroom this year! And I do it a little differently, with Astrobrights paper to help!




Astrobrights by Neenah cut into 3x5 cards. 
Avery 2x4 shipping labels. 

Astrobrights cardstock is amazing because it a great thickness and doesn't fade. Avery labels are just the best thing ever. I print out the task cards on the 2x4 labels and stick one on each 3x5 Astrobrights card.



I use an index card holder to store the cards. I have multiple copies of each task card so the kids can choose to work on the same task if they so choose. 

I store the task sheets in clasp envelopes and the number on the card tells the student which task sheet to use. 








Cover sheets for clasp envelopes



I also have the task cards with fun, colorful borders as well if you don't want to use labels and cardstock. 





So if you like this idea, click {HERE} for your freebie :)

{HERE} is a sampling of my labels task cards from my larger collection to stick on cardstock. 

Thanks and Happy Teaching!!!


Whew! The first weeks of school are SOOOOOOO BUSY!!! But would we have it any other way??? Of course not!

I just wanted to show you a quick little part of my morning math routine. Morning Math is starting off with a bang! Now it does take the kiddos quite a little while to get it going reeeeaaaaal good, but for the most part they are doing great! I will be posting more on that real soon - the truth is I'm waiting for some stuff I ordered from Really Good Stuff to help us out. Then I'll go on a picture takin' frenzy with my littles and their soon-to-be super charged math brains!!!
Oh my goodness this has been the BEST first week of school!! I was so excited to meet all my new firsties and begin our adventures together! We got through A LOT of rules and routines and procedures this past week and are ready to do even more next week. One of the best things this week was our interactive notebooking (INB) using Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys reading curriculum. This series is completely Common Core aligned and is an excellent way to introduce to students the love of learning to read. We've had so much fun with the back to school week and are excited to keep learning! The kids loved putting their books together and beginning activities to help them study in the future.

I have finished lessons 1, 2, and 3 (working on 4 and 5!) but I couldn't wait to share them with you!

All notebooks are Common Core aligned and feature interactive components.

Lesson 1 - summarizing, main ideas, nouns, sight words, short a words, Daily Edits,

Main Idea sort!




Daily Edits! 






Short a Words - pocket to keep words in to study!



NOUNS!




Labeling




 



Lesson 2 - making inferences, sight words, short i words, ABC Order, understanding characters, possessive nouns, captions, Daily Edits.




Understanding Characters




Possessive Nouns



Captions



Making Inferences!!! What's in the Bag?









The Daily Edits will all follow the same format, but with increasing difficulty through the year. 

Lesson 3 - sequence of events, beginning sounds, short o words, author's word choice, verbs.
I decided to print out on my Astrobrights paper to help #colorize my classroom!! Not to sound too egotistical, but this was a BRILLIANT idea! The paper is slightly thicker than regular copy paper and it brightens up the place!!! 

#colorizeyourclassroom





Spelling Word Slide I thoroughly enjoyed making and playing with as I'm sure the children will, too!!




Totally gonna have to help them cut until they learn to do it themselves.








Working on sentence order. 






Sequencing, allowing the children to write under the flaps. Always ready to practice handwriting!


And verbs!! 



The story in the book for Lesson 3 is Curious George Goes to School. The target skill includes Author's Word Choice so I created a little graphic for practicing. I included a graphic organizer for George and a blank one in case we use another book and we can continue character study with a different character. 


I am loving the Daily Edits!!


Well that's it!! Please click on the Covers below to get your own INB lessons from my TpT store. 



You can also find the Back to School Interactive Notebook for FREE {HERE} on my blog. 

Thanks for reading!! And happy teaching!


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