Problem Solving ~ Solved!

Ok, So....With the new math standards for Texas making extreme changes in their rigor for first grade, our district has decided for K-2 to beging teaching with the new standards this year. 

Well, you can see the challenge already......the gap in curriculum and standards.  This has been a huge pull your hair out priority for my grade level.  How do you teach a child to problem solve at the highest level without curriculum or resources that have enough "meat" in them? 

So, challenge accepted, I have been making my own resources to suppliment the gap.  One resource I have made is mini journals that have the "Rigor" and vocabulary that our curriculum checks have been using. My students LOVE to work through these and discuss the different ways to problem solve. 
We typically work most of them together, discussing, explaining, and checking as we go.  I am trying to get them to be independent in their problem solving skills, not just tell me an answer!

Here is a link to a few of the Strategy Builders on my TpT store.   I will get the Back to School, October, and November strategy builders posted soon! 

 

February Strategy Builder

 

 

 January Strategy Builder

 

 December Strategy Builders



Busy little bees!

We have been moving fast this semester! We will start with MLK Jr.  My kids loved making these simple MLK Jr. crafts!  It was super easy and quick since I already had the face cut outs and eye cut outs as well! 

I love the handle bar moustache! HAHA!

 

Then we covered Landforms and Bodies of Water

 

We were kinda fast and furious with this topic so we just made our own maps and labeled the landforms.

 

Last Tuesday was our 100th day of school and we had a great time!  I made a bunch of 100's chart puzzles for the kiddos to do and hid 100 Hersey's Kisses in the classroom that we hunted down.  We couldn't find #43 for the longest time.  Finally as I was wrapping things up with the whole group at the carpet one of the boys jumped up and RAN over to the paper towel holder and found the sneaking thing on the handle of the paper towel dispenser.  It was pretty amusing to watch his face light up :)

 

My favorite Pinterest find from last year is the 100 digit creation!  This year now that I am back in First Grade I had to step up the rigor just a bit!  We wrote a story about our 100th day creation.   

I bet you wouldn't have guessed this one was written by a girl, lol! 

Center Printables

Ok, have you ever woken up one day and realized that you have been using something for years that could be made better?  I just realized that my generic center printables were soooo boring.... and sad looking as well.  SO, I remade them all to look closer to my personality!  I posted them for sale for cheap on my TpT page if you want to go over there and take a look!  I use some of these forms for Daily 5 as well!  There is some stuff for "Word Work" and "Listen to Reading"

center forms

Christmas in February?

Ok, Sooooo I am REEEEAAALLLY behind on posting my Christmas stuff but I have been feeling a little guilty and feel that I should!  Here are a few of the fun things that we did during December!

This is actually my coworkers nifty bag!  I usually make one every year to hold our fabric wreaths (silly me forgot to take a pic!!!!) but this year we ran out of time. 

We DID make these awesome hats though!  And of course sang Christmas carols to our parents wearing them!  I LOVED them!!!! They are the cutes hats ever!

This is one of the anchor charts I did for spelling in December.  (Sometimes you just gotta put forth the extra 10 minutes to make it cuter than white chart paper, RIGHT!)

We made "Christmas Tree" poems using only adjetives! They love using a paintbrush to glue on the "ornaments" (aka-rediculously small paper hole punches!)

 

And Who didn't write a letter to Santa?

 

Well, that's all I snapped pictures of.  I am kicking myself now because there were so many other fun activities we did that I didn't get on the camera.  It's so hard to live in the moment and "capture" it at the same time! 

 

Now I have a student teacher, I'll just put the camera in her hands! (If I can even remember to do that!)