In Honor of Antonyms and Awards

I'm all about making classroom books.  They're very popular with my kids.  I've mentioned before that we make so many that each child gets to take at least two home at the end of the year as souvenirs.  Click here if you just might be interested in seeing some of the books I've posted about so far.  

The book below is in honor of antonyms, as well as learning a concept by way real reading and real writing.  I partnered up the kids and together they worked on an antonym pair.  One word was illustrated on one side of the paper.  Its antonym was on the other.  It's not massively creative, but it's worth reading by kids, simply because it was authored by them.

Before I put this post to rest, I'd sincerely like to thank Natalie from Teachery Tidbits, Sandy from Soaring Through Second Grade, and Mandy from Mandy's Tips For Teachers for thinking my blog is worthy of the One Lovely Blog Award.  I'd also like to thank Amy from The Crazy Adventures of a University Grad, Kelly from All That Glitters in First Grade, and Mrs. Cook from First Grade Smart Cookies for sending the Top 10 Award my way.  I consider it an honor, and I'd like to honor these gals by inviting you to visit their blogs.  I know they'd love to hear from you.

I'd love to send you all to visit these gals as well.  They're now awarded with the Top 10 too!

Miss Russell from Thoughts of a Student Teacher

Jennifer from The First Grade Dream

Ashlyn from The Creative Classroom

Kelli from Tales From a Traveling Teacher

Lisa from Stories From Second

 Ms. Wilcox from Oh, Kindergarten & K-5 Sped I Go!

Ann from Mrs. Greene's Kindergarten Korner

Staci from Let's Teach Something

Amanda from Learn, Laugh, Grow

K. Mo from Flamingo Fabulous in Second Grade

Saturday Sayings: Hook, Line, and Sinker

I'd love to share another one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite literacy role models.  

I'm lucky enough to teach an age group that believes what I say hook, line, and sinker.  If you teach first grade you know what I'm talking about, right?  How many stories have I heard from parents over the years about a little argument their child had with them over how the parent was going about something?  First graders can be very adamant that their teacher does things the right way.  "Well, Miss McMorrow says..."  


The idea that my word is bible comes in really handy especially at the beginning of the year when I'm setting the scene for their lives as future readers.  I tell them over and over about my love for reading.  Pretty much every time I pull out a book I say, "Hey guys.  Have I ever told you how much I love to read?"  After the umpteenth time, their response is almost comical.  "Yeeeeees!" they say with a little roll of the eyes.  I love it!  


If you have a moment, please visit Lori at  Conversations in Literacy to see one of the ways her staff shares their reading lives with their school of readers.  It's pretty special!

22 Times Over

Pinterest inspired me to have my kids draw the Cat in the Hat today, but unlike the Pinterest activity, I opted for just his top half.  I'm glad I did, because I think he turned out awfully cute 22 times over.  

A Few Tricks Up My Sleeve

As adults, don't we all have those words whose spellings pester us?  I love a good spelling trick.  I only know the difference between "affect" and "effect" because "a" in "affect" is at the opposite end of the alphabet as "v" for "verb" so in my brain they go together.  If not for this little trick up my sleeve, I'd be up a creek.  

Over the years I've collected and invented a few tricks that help my writers spell a few of the first grade words that pester them.  Most of these tricks happen to be kinesthetic, which John Medina, the author of Brain Rules, would be pleased to see.  He believes that movement improves memory, and we all know he's right.  Enjoy.

(Thanks to Garrett's mom for giving me permission to use this video.  He gives a great demo!)

I would love to add the tricks up your sleeve to my collection.  Please do share.

Of Thee I Sing

My room is often filled with singing.  It's got a basket overflowing with classroom books we've created too.  Put those together and you get two classroom books that are based on songs we sing about our country. They're not overly creative, but they're enjoyed and loved by my little patriotic Americans. 

I simply typed up the words to both songs with only one line per page.  Then the kids drew the American flag on their page.  Pretty simple.  


In honor of our country, we also drew The White House, and the kids wrote about what they would do if they were the president.  (You can see the little president peeking through the doorway.)

Saturday Sayings: Fun Isn't Enough

Here's installment number two of a little something I'm calling Saturday Sayings.  It's my attempt at reflecting on some of my favorite professional quotes.  In other words, I'm not all that smart, so I like to keep track of what the gurus say. Hopefully some of you will enjoy hearing their thoughts as well.  This one came from a Regie Routman conference, straight from Regie's lips.  Sigh. 

I love hearing, "That was fun!"  If that's all my kids can say though, I missed the mark.  I've made a concerted effort in the past several years to make sure I do a better job of letting my kids repeatedly know why we're doing what we're doing throughout the day.


"Hey guys, now that you know the three sounds of cousin ed, you're going to be better readers and writers.  The next time you see him, you'll probably say to yourself, 'Yep, I know all about this.  No problem.'"  


As I'm typing this though, I'm already thinking of parts of my day where I haven't been as explicit as I should.  Thanks Regie for keeping me on the straight and narrow.  What a learning process this is!  

Right in Front of Your Nose

Links are powerful but more so when they're right in front of your nose, especially if you're a six-year old.  Below is a picture looking down at one of my two tables that kids can write at during Write to Self.  For years I've covered the tables in butcher paper to protect them from wayward pens, markers, or even graffiti.  (Yes, even in 1st grade.)  Then one year it finally dawned on me that kids would be more likely to use the helpers I recently posted about (click here to see that post) if they were practically part of the table itself, right in front of their noses.  Some of the helpers seem upside down from this view.  Kids sit on both sides of the table, so they aren't upside down to them.

I've included all my table versions of the helpers below.  (These are smaller than the ones I use on my wall.)  If I did this right and if there's anything here that looks useful, you should be able to click on the pictures for your own personal copies.