I'll Be in Vegas... Will you?!

So I was at the VERY FIRST blogger meet up from waayyyy back in 2012 (you can read about it here) and I loved it! Unfortunately, the 2nd meet up was while I was away on vacation, and last year I was super pregnant! Needless to say, I am beyond excited to be back in Vegas with some of my favorite bloggers of all time! I hear the crowd as gotten a bit bigger since the first time around ;)

Here is a little info about the meet up in case you are joining us this year!





This year will be our 4th annual Vegas Teacher-Blogger Meet Up. What started as a fun little way to get to meet other teachers and bloggers from across the country, has turned into the BIGGEST teacher-blogger meet up ever!

Here are the details you'll want to know:

  • The meet up will be on Wednesday, July 8th, and will start at 6:30pm at the Venetian in the Galileo room. 
  • RSVP on our Facebook event page {HERE}
  • You will need to download, edit, and bring your own name tag.  Download the file {HERE!} Below is an example of how your name tag should look. 


  • You do not need to be a blogger to attend. All teachers are invited and welcome to come! 
  • Please be ready to have fun, meet people, and make new friends! Make sure to post pictures to social media using the hashtag #2015vegasmeetup.
  • Our main sponsors for this event are SDE and TPT, although we have dozens more who will be donating prizes, swag, and other fun stuff! You do not want to miss out on these awesome prizes!
  • Here is a peek at this year's DIAMOND sponsors:

Please take a look at our amazing sponsors, visit their websites, and if possible say thank you for supporting this event! We have never charged an entrance fee for this meet up and it's because of all these wonderful, generous sponsors!   

   
  
 
  
 




And just to help you get even more excited, here's a peek at the fun they all had at last year's meet-up! This year is sure to be even 
BIGGER and BETTER!!






All the happy prize winners from last year!

Will I see you there?!?
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Summer Math Activities!

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Two weeks away folks! 

10 more school days. Well, 9 and a half if you want to be specific... and I do... so 9.5 more days.

We are trying our hardest to remain engaged while still having fun in class these days. The sun is blazing and the last thing my kids want to do is sit in class for 8 hours a day. So in room 102, games are where it's at!

I introduced our last themed math centers for the year, Summer Math, and the biggest hit of this pack was our board game, "The Summer Before 2nd":





This is a simple, yet engaging game that allows students to review all sorts of math before they head out for the summer! Students roll a die and move that many spaces. In order to stay on that space they must choose the matching card and answer it correctly (the other students check). There are 6 different categories of cards: subtraction, addition, time, place value, number sense, and challenge!

In my summer math unit there are also the usual story problem booklet and quite a few print-and-go games with no prep needed. I figured the end of the year is all about easy my students love partner games:


These activities and more are in my Summer Math unit:

and this COMPLETES my math centers for the whole year - Yahoo!

You can snag all 10 units below for pretty dang good discount - you get 2 free with the bundle :)

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How to Writing in First Grade

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How to writing is one of my favorite writing units to teach. 
My students just get it and they enjoy writing many, many pieces!

Maybe it's because my students think they know how to do everyyyytthiinngggg ;)
If your students are like mine, let them run with the idea that they know it ALL and have them write all their genius down on paper!

During my first couple years of teaching I taught the how-to genre as a short unit largely reliant on prompts. I would ask all my students to complete the same prompt using transition words. We wrote all about how to build a snowman, how to make a sandacastle, how to brush our teeth, etc. and we called it a day.

That was fun and my students certainly learned how to write some procedural pieces, but I fell in love with writer's workshop and wanted to create a unit that aligned. I wanted my students to own their how-to pieces, get excited about them and walk through the entire writing process from brainstorming to publishing.

My students recently published their how-to books and I wanted to share a little about how we completed our books and the process we went through.

Brainstorming:
After we learned what the "how-to" genre was all about, we brainstormed some things we know how to do at school, outside, at home, and in the kitchen!

Zooming in:
When teaching this unit, I quickly realized that my students needed help choosing a *smaller* topic. We spend a whole day practicing zooming in on larger topics to find a more specific thing to teach someone how to do.

Writing:
 
Writing, writing, writing!
 I explain in my unit that my students write many, many pieces to keep throughout this unit. Every time we learn a new skill or concept, my students go back into their writing folders and add it to their older pieces. Our writing pages are always a work in progress!

Publishing:

When it is publishing time, my students choose one of their writing pieces to edit/revise and turn into their own book!

Along with these steps there is plenty more in the how-to unit I created:
 
 

If you click the image above you can download the preview and see what else is in there!
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