anchor charts, bugs, and the Lorax

BUGS! Everywhere in the classroom right now are bugs! We are studying them in science, and my littles love it and I am grossed out. We have been using Deanna Jump's amazing insect unit. Here are our dragonflies we made.

We also have visitors in our classroom...

Yep, I bought us some caterpillars. I have to admit I am pretty excited to watch these little guys become butterflies. Along with our little guys we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" this week and used it with our reading skill. It was plot. 

I drew it myself! HA

In other news I finally finished my Lorax door! Thanks CVS for taking six years to develop my pictures...grrrrr.

And here are some anchor charts from the week!

words that end in -y but sound like e

telling time

Along with the -y ending words we made some jelly jars with those words to reinforce our thinking!

Makes me want a sandwich....

Celeb sighting and anchor charts...and a freebie!

I am watching Real Housewives of OC right now, these woman be crazy. But, I love trash television so I am eating it up. :)

Sorry I have been gone, I have been trying to keep on schedule with my compositions so I can actually graduate in May? 

So STORY! Prepare yourself! I went to work at a coffee shop on Saturday, and then had an appointment for my hair. Well, I needed to pick up some book at Barnes and Noble that I reserved and went in to La Madeline to pick up some food to go. They are next door to each other so it was bueno. Well, I walk into La Madeline to make my order, and there is a precious little girl sitting in front of the bakery with her Dad in front of her. I say out loud (as I do a lot) "She is so pretty!" Dad turns around and it is......

TOM FREAKING CRUISE! I flipping lost my breath. He smiled at me and then went back to, yes SURI. No wonder I thought she was beautiful. So, I am beside myself deciding not to bother them and order my food after the lady in front of me finished and who is that you ask?

YEP KATIE HOLMES. Y'all I saw the whole dang family. I just stood there in shock. They got their stuff and left shortly after, since people were starting to be obnoxious. CRAZY! I found out he is filming a movie in Baton Rouge right now. We seem to be the city for movies right now. I am okay with this!

In teacher news! Here are a few anchor charts I made recently:

ay and ai sort and compare & contrast

The Cat in the Hat and drawing conclusions

Thanks Abby! Loved this activity!

An oldie but a goodie!

We are reading these two books, and comparing and contrasting them.

I also made these little hands recently to help my kiddos out with counting by 5's. Mainly for counting money. These made it easier. I did an activity like this at the beginning of the year where they cut out their own hands, and those went home. So these are up on my board now!

And for you!

Counting Hands

Thanks for sticking with me to the end! Also, noticed I am almost at 400 followers (what?!) Y'all like reading my nonsense? Well, I would LOVE to do a giveaway for it...I am thinking giftcard?

Happy Tuesday!

Some anchor charts and WBT

Every week in Reading and in Math we meet at our whole group area and I usually make an anchor chart with the kids about our skills. Also just a note: I know some teachers are like yes we make it and then I re-do it all pretty. Ummmm, this does not happen in Room 103. I am a big fan of you do it once and it looks okay, then ya keep it. :)
So here are some that I have made in the last few weeks. Some are split down the middle with reading and then math on the bottom. For all of you Treasure teachers you know there is a mess of skills they want you to cover, so these charts are usually how I get the skill across!

Also, I discovered whole brain teaching back in August. Yea. You know when you are like "Yes, this is awesome I am so going to do this everyday!" Well, this girl started out like that and then you know Thanksgiving and Christmas happened and that kinda faded out. :( BUT now I am back on the bus with it! I am serious when I say I realized that when I was doing the techniques my students were not bananas. So, it is going great. Check out the website or google it and you will find a TON of stuff. It really is a great way for management and the lesson format is amazing to watch in action.  I posted a video of my rules in an older blog post. Check out Sandra at Sweet Times in First. She has great video of her amazing students doing whole brain teaching!
Here is my really cute scoreboard! Thanks Ms. Simoneaux for the sassy duck tape!

Basically, they get smilies and frownies for the class behavior. If the smilies win they get a reward. The past few times it has been the wobble {yes} and then the YMCA. We do it at the end of the day. They love it and it is a great instant motivator!

Today is our 100th day! Post to come with all of our activities!

More Anchor Charts!

Whew! What a week! The first week back after a short one is always crazy! But, it was okay because we were reading "Olivia" by Ian Falconer this week in Reading! (I teach from Treasures, and it can be boring :( so this was exciting!) Thanks to Leslie Ann over at Life in First Grade, I bought her Olivia unit and used the pattern to make those adorable Olivia pigs!

Our skill this week was fantasy vs. reality, so we attached our graphic organizer. Click here for the organizer:

Olivia: Fantasy and Reality

I also have two anchor charts to share! I made one for long o (oa, ow) and one for fantasy and reality. By the way, I copied the pictures out of a book. I promise I am not that good of an artist! :)

Enjoy! Happy Friday!

-Ms. Thomas

Random Monday things!

I am random today....I figured I would share these two random things with all of you!

First, I made a pretty cute anchor chart today, if I do say so myself! HA. We have been talking about inferences so much lately, and thanks to fab teachers (Babbling Abby) my kids are really getting it!

Here is inference boy!

I also have had this one for a while, because he sneaks up on first grade a lot!

AND the second random thing....we start money tomorrow! I just made my bubble maps using Cara Carroll's idea! Those are darling and I already have all my money anchor charts done! This makes me happy! AND one of my good friends Meg (I love her for what she sang to me the other day) told me or rather sang me a song she learned in grade school to help remember coins! I typed it up, and I wish there was a way I could sing it for you?! I guess make up your own tune? or it can work as a poem!

I LIKE MONEY!

Enjoy!!

-Ms. Thomas :)