Supporting Young Writers

Here are two new listings that I have posted on my Teacher's Store. They are a resource that can be used to support young writers. The Sentence Punctuation Practice set allows students to focus on writing mechanics adding a period or a question mark to complete the sentence, which they then rewrite.

Story Starters provides students with writing prompts that allow them to create a story. Once they have all of the prompts complete they are then ready to write their story on the corresponding stationary.  

To get more information on these products please feel free to check out these items on my TPT Store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Anna-Navarre

Splat Games

 After a request for more "Splat" Phonics Games I've created 3 additional games. They are fun games that allow students to practice reading words and laughing at the same time. My family plays many of these games to help my grandson and we love them. It is a fun way to spend family time.

Check them out on my TPT Store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Anna-Navarre

Jelly Bean Estimation

We began this week with a jar of jelly beans. I told my class that at the end of the week they would be giving me their estimation of how many jelly beans were in the jar. They greatly anticipated the end of the week. Each day some students wanted to know if it was the day that we would be doing the jelly beans. Other students wanted to give me their answers.

On Thursday (couldn't do it on Friday, because of our field trip) I displayed the jar of jelly beans and told the students that I would be asking for their estimations. Everyones hand went up and they were ready to give me their guess. I asked them to put their hands down and told them that it was not going to be that simple. I asked them to take out their math journal and write the question at the top of their page. I informed them that I wouldn't accept just any guess, they had to diagram the jelly bean jar and explain to me how they got their answer. I wrote the question on my paper and modeled how I would begin drawing my jar of jelly beans. I also did a think aloud and talked about having a number of jelly beans on the bottom and layers. After students diagramed their jar they had to write their explanation of how they estimated the number in the jar and then write their estimation at the bottom of the page.

Once everyone had their estimate I wrote their answers on the board. They were very confident in their answers, so as I begin erasing numbers there were gasps throughout the room. With great drama; discussing how students got their answers; and having students adjust their estimates; we finally narrowed it down to the two closes answers before bringing out the answer sheet. The winners each got to take home a small bag of jelly beans and everyone else was rewarded with two jelly beans for their hard work .

The reason I share this activity with you is that, because of the changes at our school and with common core, I am really beginning to see how students can do the same type of activities, but still really move to a higher level of thinking. In the past this would have been a simple "Guess how many jelly beans are in the jar?" activity, but it turned into a half hour long very intense thought provoking activity. It was definitely higher level thinking. I truly enjoyed it and so did my students.

Happy Easter!!!

Teaching Money

Teaching money in first grade can be a little difficult. Asking students to remember the names of the coins; the values; and then adding numbers that they aren't always ready to begin adding, can be difficult for students. There are a couple of things that I have done for the past couple of years that have helped to make teaching money a lot easier.

One thing is that early on in the year I put the various coins on students' desks. I know other teachers make one table group one coin, but I actually like having different coins at each table group. I find that this gives students more exposure to all of the coins, especially as I rotate the coins after a couple of weeks (or when I can find the time).

Another thing I do is use a program I call Money Bags. This program is available on my TPT Store, but basically, it is a program that allows students to get daily hands-on practice counting money with parent support. 

In this program, students are given a bag of money each night. They then count it and return the bag the next day. This program has made a huge impact on my teaching about money. Students are way more familiar with the coins and have some understanding of the process. It is way less difficult for them and way less difficult for me.

You can find this resource at my TPT Store if you are interested. The program does take some management, but it is super fun and rewarding.

                        

Money Bags

There are definitely ways to make learning money fun. I love having my students play the Roll Five Money Game. It is so heart warming to see my student smile and cheer as they learn. 

This game is super easy to prep and play. The most difficult part for me is getting together a bunch of coins. Fortunately, I have a huge coin jar at home that I keep full, especially for this time of the year. 

Roll Five Money Game

As I begin teaching money in the classroom, I prefer the hands-on approach allowing students to count coins, such as using my Money Bags resource, but I also realize that practice pages are a good way to assess students. Money Worksheets is one resource that I use to have students produce written work in order to monitor their learning.

Money Worksheets

However you teach money, I hope that you realize that you can make it a pleasant experience for both yourself and your students. Don't dread it! Have fun with it!

I have several other money resources in my TPT Store. Please feel free to visit and check them out. 

Mrs. Navarre's TPT Store

Easter Basket Adjective Egg Hunt

I'm busy working on my clip art and creating more new products. I continue to try and grow my resources in hopes of creating things that teachers will find helpful. 

I have created this FREEBIE as a special gift. I hope that you will enjoy this Easter Basket Adjective Egg Hunt. It is a good way for students to not just practice using adjectives in a sentence, but to develop a better understanding of which words are adjectives. There are eggs, baskets, and a sentence practice sheet.

You can click on the link to get this free 

Easter Basket Adjective Egg Hunt
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easter-Basket-Adjective-Egg-Hunt-607953

You can also follow me to get notifications of my new products and Flash Freebies at my TPT Store 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Anna-Navarre

Vowel Team Tiles

Teaching phonics is of course an important part of learning to read. Systematically, we start with the alphabet and then move to CVC words. Next, we move onto CVCe words. There are digraphs too, but then the focus moves onto vowel teams. 

Vowel teams have been the focus of my phonics instruction lately. My student have learned all of the vowel team rules, but they need to continue to practice the rules that they have learned. 

I created a Vowel Team Tiles packet to help provide my students with the extra practice that they need. Vowel Team Tiles is a hands-on approach to learning that allows students to manipulate the letters and create the vowel team words. 

These pages can be printed and used as an independent practice page, but I like using activities more than once, so I print the pages and use them as a center activity. I do this by printing the pages on cardstock and place the writing half part of the page in a sheet protector. The other half, which is the part with the letters, is cut up and placed in a plastic bag. The letters are stored together with the writing page and then students use the letters to create the words and write them down.

Vowel Team Tiles

The packet includes 9 practice pages which include the vowel teams "ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, igh, ow, oa, and ue." 

Please feel free to visit my TPT Store to view this and other products. 

                          

Rain Forest

We have been learning about the rain forest habitat and my students are loving it. I have been talking to my students about the layers of the rain forest and why it is a good home for so many animals. We have been focusing on different animals and then writing about them. My students also like the partner cards and of course the art projects. I have several rain forest resources at my Teacher's Pay Teacher Store, but this Rain Forest Unit is the best deal and is pretty extensive.

                  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rain-Forest-Common-Core-Based-Unit

Numbers and Dots Counting Cards

I used this game in my classroom the other day and I was happily surprised. I want students to have a deeper understanding and stronger number sense, but just counting numbers doesn't seem to do the trick. This activity allowed my students the counting practice, but challenged them to see number patterns/groups. They worked to find more efficient ways to count. I loved it.

                http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Numbers-and-Dots-Counting-Cards