If you LOVE having a 120th Day celebration with your students, you’re in the right place! We dressed up as cowboys/cowgirls and had a Texas-themed celebration. We also asked some parents to help out with our stations. We are fortunate enough to have a big neighborhood around our first-grade classes,

Making Connections Teaching cross curricular in first grade just comes naturally to me. I know I was meant to be a first-grade teacher. Teaching cross curricular is the best way I know how to make better connections with my students. It really makes me proud when my students connect science

Do you love teaching about life cycles? I sure do! In this blog post, I give a lot of different examples of research and writing with frogs, chickens, praying mantis, butterflies, bumble bees, and ladybugs.  Here is a great learning goal: By the end of this lesson, students will be

As a teacher, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is this: when students are given the freedom to write their own stories, their own genres, and their own ideas, their writing blossoms in ways no daily prompt could ever capture. I used to think prompts were the way to

If you’ve ever wanted to start Math Workshop with math stations but didn’t know where to start…you’re in luck! I hope this blog post will help you gain the confidence, organization and tools to help you succeed! Are You Ready to Get Started? Here are some questions that you need

Having literacy centers in your classroom is a wonderful and exciting thing! This is an easy way to spiral skills that you’ve already taught in your lessons and continue a love of learning through all the subjects. First, you need to see the layout of your classroom to see where

How Do I Use a Star Student in My First Grade Classroom? So let’s set the stage… I just finished my mini-lesson for Reader’s Workshop. The students are all sitting at their desks working on their interactive notebook page for comprehension (which is their Schema Notebook), and I quietly sit

4 Ways to Nip the Dismissal Chaos in the Bud! A lot of teachers struggle with their elementary dismissal procedures, but I’m here to help you out and give you an easy way to implement a fresh idea with less stress and no mess! And the best part is??? It’s

Do you LOVE having your students make Mother’s Day gifts, arts and crafts? Do you love incorporating special holidays and celebrations within your classroom? How about adding some Mother’s Day fun? I’m always looking for new ways to spice up my Mother’s Day celebrations so here are some of my

Let’s learn about my 4 F’s: 4 Fun Friday Activities that I do with my First Graders! Did you know you can have 4 Fun Friday Activities with your students and still have purposeful lessons? Fun Friday doesn’t have to be daunting. It can be something that you can do