Teacher Talk Tuesday, Measurement, May...Oh My!

Good Morning!

I love Tuesdays because it is our library day! I have a few minutes in the morning to myself and I love seeing how excited my kiddos are when they return from library with their NEW books! I just love first graders excitement!

Before we went to library this morning we worked on math. This week we are focusing on non-standard measurement. This is probably on of my most favorite things to do in math. We started yesterday with Michelle Silvestri's Measure and Compare. I love this activity because it incorporates ruler skills as well. They love the non-standard rulers and think they are such big kids using them.

It's a freebie too! Click on the picture to get a copy!

I have taught 2nd and 3rd grade and know how difficult ruler skills are for them so I try to incorporate them as much as possible. Today we watched the Brain Pop Jr. on Inches and Feet, they just love Brain Pop! After we watched it I passed out rulers with just inches on them. Since our TEK(standard) says non-standard measurement we are going to use color tiles to measure inches. We created our own rulers using color tiles today and tomorrow we will be measuring our stuffed animals using them! They are sooooo excited. I will post more as we do it!

I am also sooo excited about linking up with all the other wonderful teachers on instagram! I can't wait to see all the great things going on in the teaching world today!

You can follow me too! My username is JKPrater!

I can't believe that tomorrow is May 1st! We only have a few more weeks of school and tomorrow starts our ABC Countdown to the Last Day of school! You can get a copy of the one our team is doing here!

Tomorrow we will be starting our May Calendar on the SMART board! This month we are focusing on place value, addition, subtraction, skip counting, non-standard measurement, and several other skills. My kids absolutely love our calendar and coming up and teaching their friends! I know that it has helped them grow so much this year as MATHEMATICIANS! If you would like a copy of my calendar you can get it at my TPT store! For the next 2 days I will be selling it for $3 instead of $5! Click on any of the pictures below to check it out!

Have a GREAT day!

Five for Friday {Linky Party...April 26th}

TGIF!!!!

Does anyone else feel that way today? I am so ready for the weekend!

This week has been a long and busy week! Lots of great things happened though so I have a lot to be thankful for!

1. ONLY 6 more weeks of school! It has been a great year and I have learned a lot, but I am so ready for summer! I will definitely miss my kiddos, but I know they are ready to be second graders and for summer! What plans do y'all have for the summer? I plan on relaxing and working on some great units and projects for bext year! Also, spending my 1st summer as a married couple with my fabulous husband! I am SOOOOO excited!

2. It is my students teachers last week. :( She has been such a GREAT addition to our class and she will be greatly missed! My kids keep asking if she is coming back, which I'm sure she will ;). I have been so blessed to have a fabulous student teacher, I know that isn't always the case. I will miss our daily chats about school, life, and random things! Lauren, not only are you gonna be a GREAT teacher I am so glad to be able to call you a friend! 1C will definitely miss you!

3. STAAR Testing is over! I am so glad that I don't have to threaten my kiddos to be quiet in the hallway, and be super super serious about it!

4. Our house is feeling more and more like a home! I love that my husband and I are able to work together to make this house a home that is comfortable and warm! 

5. I was totally humbled by my fellow teachers and princpals today. I was given the Trailblazer Award for this 6 weeks. This is an award that is given to one teacher in our school each six weeks and is nominated by my fellow teachers. I was in shock! I have to admit I was a little teary when my principal shared with the students, parents, and staff why I was recieving it: "This teacher is someone who NEVER gives up on her students, her heart may fall at times, but she gets back up and celebrates and pushes her students forward. Not only that she does research and will do anything to make sure her students succeed. Even if that means writing a grant to get something her students need that the school can't afford." Thank you so much and I am so humbled by this honor!

Have a great and restful weekend!

Fun Things!

There are some really fun things going on this week in the blog world!

The first one is Just Reed is hosting an Oprah Style Favorite Things Give Away! There are some really awesome things being given away! Go check it out below!

This is a really fun linky hosted by Rowdy in First Grade! I love reading about good things that are happening for people and what a better way to do that than through this linky!

Something Good from Home:

My sweet husband and I have done some great things for our house this week. Our backyard is cleaned up and ready for some barbecues! We got a new recliner for the living room, or as my dad says it's Mr. Prater's new throne! (BTW he loves it and is so content sitting there) Absolutely love our home and being married to that guy!

Something Good from School:

I DRA tested my kiddos this week and 14 of my 16 kids are on or above reading level and we still have 6 weeks left! I am so proud of them and can't believe how far we have come this year! We are so excited to celebrate this accomplishment tomorrow at our awards assembly!

Have a blessed and fabulous day!

Life Cycle Fun

Good Afternoon!

Wow! It has been a week. If you are a teacher here in Texas the last 2 days have been filled with STAAR testing. We do not take the test in 1st grade but I got pulled to give it. Luckily my student teacher was able to continue on as if there was not testing going on which was great for my kids! I am so glad that tomorrow I will not have to test and get to enjoy my kiddos!

The last 2 weeks we have been working on life cycles. It was supposed to only last 5 days for frogs, but as we all know things happen and we got behind. My kids have loved learning about frogs though. They loved our flipbooks, the song, and the craft. I posted about it here and there is also a freebie.

Next week we are moving to CHICKENS! I am so excited! I just put the finishing touches on my Chicken Life Cycle Craziness unit and posted it on TPT! In the unit I have included a mix and mingle, note-taking foldable, craft, song, and assessment! Click on the picture below to go check it out!

Here is the assessment freebie!

Hope y'all have a fabulous evening!

Peek at my week and Earth Day!

Good Morning!

It has been a crazy weekend and week last week! Friday night was our school carnival! It was a lot of fun and always great to see the kids having fun with their siblings and parents!

We are entering week 2 of the ball and WOW they are doing great and I can really tell a difference. They love them and when they really start concentrating it is so cute because they start bouncing the balls lightly with their behinds. I am so excited and pleased with the results so far!

This is my first time linking up with Mrs. Wills Kindergarten for a peek at my week! I am very excited to share. 

Click on the plans to see them! 

I have a lot of work to do to make them as great as y'alls but I wanted to try!

Today is Earth Day and I found some really cute game on PBS Kids and thought I would share!

Have a GREAT day!

It's Almost May!

Good Morning!

I looked at my calendar and realized we only have a week and a half till we are in May! In Texas that means that we only have like 7 more weeks till school is out here in Texas! That is so hard for me to believe and it makes me a little sad. I am really going to miss this group of kiddos!

After I reminisced a little while about the year I opened my May Interactive calendar and started to tweek it to meet our new standards this year. This calendar has so many skills that are important for them to know backwards and forwards for 2nd grade! It covers calendar, place value, money, non-standard measurement, number of days in school, addition and subtraction to 18, and a few other things. 

I have been doing this interactive calendar for 2 years and my kids absolutely love coming up and showing their knowledge and teaching the class what they know. I hope you will check it out at my TPT store and maybe give it a try. The teachers that have tried it this way have never gone back because their kids have so much fun!

Have a blessed and amazing Thursday!

They have arrived!

Good Morning!

I hope everyone is having a GREAT day! Yesterday in our class we had a fabulous day! We received our exercise balls from Donorschoose.com! Thanks donors for donating! The kids were so excited! Our PE teacher had an air compressor so we immediately went down and started airing up the balls! I love them and the look on my kiddos faces was amazing! 

Enjoy the pics!

Frog Fun and Monday Inspiration

Happy Monday Morning! 

I can't believe it is already Monday! The weekend went by way too fast! I am really excited about this week though! Friday is our school carnival and it is also the book fair! Not to mention we are starting to learn about one of my favorite life cycles this week, FROGS! I just love learning about life cycles and we are so lucky in first grade to do my two favorite chicks and frogs!

I worked really hard last week getting my Life Cycle of a Frog Fun Unit ready and uploaded to teachers pay teachers! It is packed full of cooperative learning, foldables, a craft, and a song! If you want to check it out click on the picture below!

Because I am so excited to start this here is a FREEBIE to share with you!

I saw this and loved it! This is my prayer for all my kids always!

Picture Courtesy of www.smileyme.com!

Have a blessed Monday and a great week!

Five for Friday {Linky Party-April 12}

So this is my first Five for Friday post and my first linky party! I am pretty excited!

This has been an amazing week in my classroom and personal life! I am so blessed and can't believe it!

1. On Tuesday my Donorschoose.org grant was funded and I will soon be receiving balls for all my kids! I can't wait and am looking forward to seeing the change in our day and classroom! I love all my kiddos and am always trying to find new ways to motivate and help them, this is one of them!

2. Major League Baseball is on! I love watching baseball especially with my husband! I am so excited because HIS Atlanta Braves are 8-1 and MY Rangers are7-3 ! I am so excited and I am loving the Braves organization and learning so much from the hubby!

3. My Teachers Pay Teachers store is up and running! I know I don't have much up there yet but I am just getting started! I love creating things even more now because I get to share with teachers! I am so excited and can't wait to see where it goes! If you haven't checked it out yet I have 2 freebies posted that I think you will like!

4. This happened last week but I am so excited about it. My husband and I have been married for 4 months! I know that may sound a little hopeless romantic, but I love celebrating mile stones with my husband and I am a proud wife! Last week he made me dinner to celebrate and even bought a bottle of the wine we toasted with at our wedding. I guess I am a hopeless romantic but we made it a quarter of a year ALREADY! Can't believe that!

 5. This is the most exciting part of my week. My Aunt, who I am named after, is in town this weekend to spend time with my mom, sister, and I! She is one of the biggest blessing in my life and I am glad that she is here! I love spending time with her and knowing that she is praying for and loving me even when she isn't in town! Love you Aunt Jackie!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

First Grade Market, Terrarium fun, and a freebie!

Good Morning! 

I hope everyone is having a great week this week. We have had so much fun this week in our class becuase we are preparing for our 1st grade market! In Social Studies we have been learning about goods and services. Each student has picked a good or a service to sell to our kindergartners! The market is tomorrow and they are SO excited! I am so impressed with some of their ideas! We have bracelets, paper airplanes, stained glass coloring sheets, tattoos, necklaces, posters, purses, tissue paper flowers, etc! 1st graders are AWESOME! Here is a picture of a few of their plans: 

Last week we finished up our unit on plants. We had to study terrariums last week! Ugh, have you ever tried to find information on terrariums? There is NOTHING out there! I did not realize that an aquarium is a terrarium did you? My student teacher and I learned that terrariums are a small piece of a habitat. While we were talking we realized that zoo exhibits are large terrariums so we spent some time looking at the National Zoo Webcams talking about why there were certain plants and other things in the exhibit. If you have never looked at the webcams you should take some time to look, the kids absolutely go crazy and LOVE checking out the animals!!! It is always fun and we do it once in awhile as an incentive/reward! 

On the Friday before we created a desert terrarium as a class. Hoping it would sprout over the weekend. Well it didn't, just a tip if you are going to do terrariums start several weeks in advance. Here is our desert terrarium as of today.

The kids were so disappointed that the cacti were not sprouting much. So Mrs. Battenfield, my student teacher,  and I decided that we need to come up with a craft for them. I will admit it was a little challenging at first, but now that they are done I think they turned out so cute!

 

 I loved the way they turned out so much that I decided to put it down so I will remember and make it a little cuter! I thought I would share with you! You could change the plants and do a different terrarium if you wanted! Here is a picture of the new terrarium! I can't wait till next year to do this again!

Click on the picture below to go to my TPT store and download your copy of the craft!

If you download this craft please let me know if you have any suggestions and let me know how it went!

I hope everyone has a blessed and happy day!