Fraction Leprechaun Freebie

Looking for some Leprechaun Fun for St. Patrick's Day with your firsties or kinders? Even your second graders would like this one!

My sweet, hilarious (best one-liners of ANYone. Hands down.), creative and lovely colleague Shelley (of Indoor Recess Bag fame) shared the Fraction Leprechaun a few years ago. 

It was a hit!

But now, it's a copy of a copy of a copy. Blech.

So, I re-did it using the uber-talented Ashley Hughes' St. Patrick's Day clip art. Love her clip art. AND her. She's fab-dorable. And so's her work.

At any rate...every kiddo colors their leprechaun however they'd like.

Then they cut it vertically in half along the line going up the middle (it's kind of hard to see, but it's there).

They each KEEP their left half and swap their right half (the half with their smile) with a classmate. 

Assemble it onto 9x12 construction paper.

Name their little Leprechaun & add their own names to the label.

This sample cracks me right up! The firstie who made this was QUITE sure that Leprechauns do NOT exist! Even wrote in both spots! Too cute!

You can also do it with fourths...

If you're so inclined, add a little glitter.

Glitter with first graders has been known to make me break out in hives so I probably won't. (Sorry, Greg!)

Maybe you'd like your sweethearts to do some writing about their leprechaun's adventures, too...

 Three types of writing paper: 

Plain, dashed & HWT-type lines.

You can have these pages by clicking right here or on either picture.

Sneak Peek & More Chances in FAB March Giveaway

I'm getting SO close to DONE with my next genre study unit for Writing Workshop! Just need to add more student samples and finish up the Teacher Lesson Plan pages...Can't wait to give some away, too! I LOVE sharing!

If you already entered this giveaway...go back to the rafflecopter and increase your chances...I added some more entries to the Rafflecopter....(click the pic to enter)

If you haven't entered, whatchya waitin' for? G.O. (click the pic)

How To Writing, Question-Answer Freebie

My fabulous team was discussing how we don't tend to love teaching the How To writing genre at this time because last year the students' writing in last quarter became less detailed after we completed the unit.

The students included the basic steps of how to do something (make a sandwich, build a snowman, get ready for school, etc), but there just wasn't a ton of elaboration or careful word selection any longer.

After we'd spent SO much time teaching and conferring about elaboration and details!

Of course, some writing was more delightful to read than others, but in general, the overall quality of our student's writing went down.

I didn't like dreading a new genre, so I decided to visit the local library to find some better mentor texts. 

So glad I did - I'm now super excited to get started on the genre this year! 

Here are some of the hilarious books the children's librarian helped me find!


With these elaborated and delightful mentor texts, I believe our writing will be a LOT more solid!!!

Plus, read aloud time will be a hoot!

AFTER we're done with How To writing, we're beginning Question Answer books...so I whipped up this little freebie.

Students will make inferences in order to match the question card with its answer and then record the matching pair on the recording page.

Enjoy!

I'd be SUPER grateful if you left me some 

TpT feedback!

The cover graphic is for St. Patrick's Day, but you can really use this center at any time of year since the cards and recording page graphics are more neutral.

And, finally for the winners of...

Don't forget to download the Preview of Common Core Crunch - it includes three freebie pages from the pack!

Winners of the Friendly Letter Pack:

aconnolly from See Me Teach

Aimee from Primarily Speaking

Winners of Common Core Crunch - March:

Cindy Calenti of Granny Goes To School

Michelle Jaquillard

Check your in-boxes, lovely ladies :)

Friendly Letter Writing Pack

For 3 freebie pages from CCC-March (ELA), make sure to download the preview file on TpT! Math Crunch is now available, too!

My Friendly Letter Pack, which I never blogged about back in November when I put it on TpT,  has been 

f.l.y.i.n.g. off the 

(virtual) shelves 

of TpT 

this last week.

One of my very favorite TpT comments is about this Friendly Letter Pack!

Awwww - thanks, Cherrie!!! (If you're reading this, Cherrie, please email me at growingfirsties@gmail.com for a little treat!)

As a thanks for all your support, I'm giving 

Common Core Crunch - March

AND the 

Friendly Letter Unit ---

to TWO winners each... 

Four winners in all.

Please follow these rules:

1. Be a google follower. (Choose Join on the right side of the blog.)

2. For each pack you'd like to win, Leave me a comment WITH your email address telling me WHICH pack you'd want and why.

For example, 

Comment #1

I would love the CCC pack because I'd use the sorts in my Daily 5 Working with Words. lkgj54556@gmail.com

Comment #2

I would love the Friendly Letter Unit because I don't love my current materials. lkgj54556@gmail.com

3. Want up to two extra entries? Pin one (or both) of the products and leave me the pin url in a new comment.

Good luck!!!

Ideas and Eyes, please...Common Core Crunch - March...

Oops - I think you're looking for this post...{Click Here}.

Love Notes & Typo (UGGGH)

This is not from today, but it just makes me smile.

"You're a pro"

first grade style

I haven't opened my Valentines from my students yet...gasp...was too busy celebrating with my own kiddos and...

fixing typos in...

I'm BEYOND dying about it.

Pretty much freaking out.

Imagining the printer ink and laminate and time spent cutting apart the cards.

I FEEEEEL the pain of a job that needs re-done in an already insanely hectic teaching world, which is why I'm so freaked out!!!

I am SOO sorry!

If I sent it to you but did not REsend it to you, can you please email me? (growingfirsties@gmail.com) I will resend.

If you bought it this morning (2/14/13) or before, can you please re-download it AND send me an email at growingfirsties@gmail.com? I will resend it with an additional treat attached.

Sigh.

Oprah's Favorite Things - Part 4

K...Oprah....Part 4...Meeting Her 
AFTER the Show

If you need to read the earlier installments, here you go...
Part 1 (How I got picked)

Part 2 (Pre-Show Experience)

Part 3 (During the Show)


Part 4 (After the Show...Meeting Oprah)

So...as you know...the Favorite Things experience was absolutely NUTso.

And...I was there with friends...this is important...

K...once the taping was over and Oprah said her good bye to the audience, the Harpo folks were having us leave one section at a time.

So we could pick our Burberry coat size (couldn't pick color) and Eileen Fischer lounge set size (couldn't pick color). Not complaining, just sharing.

And then go to security to get our phones, cameras, etc back. (This was 2004 so many folks had both phones & cameras...)

I think there were 4 sections to the audience...

All my friends and were in different sections...

My section got let out first...and we slowly made our way out into the mid-November weather...

There were news stations and lots of people milling about outside, carrying their stuff...

My guest and I hung out for about an hour and a half...right about that spot.

I REALLY wanted to hug and de-brief with my friends about the whole experience...

Two cutie pie friends had to leave. 

And I REALLY wanted a group pic of us by the Harpo Studio signs...

It's important to note that I had to...well...nudge the leftover friends...semi-forcefully to do this...

chilly temps

high heels

Awkward (but AWESOME) bags and boxes to carry

starving

BUT...I nudged...cuz I (was) a scrapbook girl...

and it was HARPO Studios

and we hadn't taken the pic before the show cuz we rushed to get our place in line.

So...I nudged...we trudged to the corner...

And there was no one around to take the pic...cuz EVERYone had left by then, 

plus it was on the other side of the block (Harpo takes up an entire city block) so it was away from the hubbub.

So...we waited...til a random couple was walking along and we I  accosted approached them to take our pic.

Smile...click...yay!!!

Trudge back to the car...giggling about how our feet hurt and how we were so hungry we could eat our arm.

We heard something behind us...but kept walking...

Heard it again...turned around...saw a black SUV...kept walking...

We'd been asked NOT to leak anything to the press until AFTER the show aired on Monday...

Heard it again...kept walking...

If nothing else...we are rule following teachers...

we didn't want to offend Oprah!!! 

She'd just given us the most insanely awesome experience of our lives!!!

So then we heard, in a man's voice, loud and authoritative...

LADIES, you will WANT to stop right now.

We turn back and there's a security guard there...

and...

the SUV door is opening...

and...

it's...

Oprah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saying, "Girls - I was just asking you where you got all that cool stuff!!!"

We basically behaved like Justin Bieber fans...

at first...

then we chatted with her for a few minutes...

And asked her to take a pic with us...

She obliged...

I wanted her security guard to take the pic (he was not verklemmt)...

But a random stranger was walking by and offered...

The fact that she also did the Bieber thing a second beforehand should have had me sticking with my gut...

But, I didn't want to offend her OR Oprah by being rude to the kind stranger and I didn't want to take up any more of Oprah's time...

Result...blurry picture...no shocker...adrenaline-hands and all...

but I like it...

It speaks to the experience...

Still can't believe that happened. Any of it, really.

My last Oprah installment will be about the spa trip to Miraval.

Not sure when I'll get to it, but that was an AMAZINGLY cool experience, too.

Valentine Note Freebie

This simple, yet meaningful, Valentine Love Note freebie is one of my favorite things to do with my class each year. So sweet and easy to set up - I use that big paper from the rolling cart to make the speech bubble and heart, and thick Sharpie markers for the I and U...then tape it to my smartboard. My class loves getting their pictures taken!

I absolutely KNOW I saw a photo similar to this on a blog recently. But it was a chalked-in speech bubble on a black chalkboard with "I love you!" wiped off the chalk with something wet.

I have searched blogger and pinterest and google for QUITE a while to find it and I just can't.

Please help if you know where this came from.

Must. Give. Credit.

At any rate - I modified it for my class and you can have it, too! Just click right here or on the first picture.

This freebie is featured in the incomparable Laura Candler's site Corkboard Connections...you can find LOADS of February freebies by clicking the picture below!

Jen Hatmaker

Folks.

I'm all kinds of messed up.

For reals.

I spent last night and this morning listening to Jen Hatmaker.

Pardon my I've-almost-hit-the-ugly-cry-sheen and 4th-case-of-pink-eye-since-November glasses.

Are you familiar with her?

She hails from Austin, TX. 

Words that describe her...

On her website, she's: 

wife. (to Pastor Brandon Hatmaker of Austin New Church)

mom. (to 3 biological kids and 2 kids adopted from Ethiopia)

author. (of 9 books)

speaker. 

blogger.

My friends and I would describe her as:

loving.

genuine.

hilarious.

adorable.

real.

poignant.

powerful.

soul-changing.

My soul is all tangled up after hearing her speak about Christians and Christianity.

How polarizing we can be...

When all there really is, is to serve with love. Be like Jesus. That's it.

As a Christian, am I REALLY living out these principles day by day?

I had seen her a few years ago and she ripped me apart then. I'm in a different place now so I'm ripped apart differently.

I don't quite have words yet or even an inkling of an idea of where God's path will take me. 

But I will listen to Him.

You will see what we all saw if you like her on facebook (along with 20,000 others) or follow her blog or see her speak.

I own several of her books and I'm going to be reading and re-reading them.

I own (affiliate links included): 

Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load

A Modern Girl's Guide to Bible Study

Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life

Jen, thank you.

Self-Evaluation Freebie

For our upcoming parent-teacher conferences, the parents will be scheduling their conferences using an online tool.

I have mixed feelings about it...(parents scheduling their own conference)...as in...there are certain folks who I'd rather not have scheduled in my last (or first) time slot.

And, it's not necessarily because they're difficult to work with...sometimes it's that they're so darn nice and supportive and fun to talk to that doing the shoo-shoo at the end of the night is SUPER hard.

Also, my personal preference is to have several slots in a row filled up, followed by a potty and catch up break, followed by several slots in a row filled up and then buh-bye.

Not so much a fan of conference, break, conference, break, conference, break, etc.

If they're scheduling themselves I can't really do it that way.

Guess we'll just have to do it and hope that we'll get the opportunity to give feedback afterwards. It's never too hard to come by my opinions.

Our third quarter conferences are optional...either the teacher or the parent can request the conference.

You might be interested in this conference self-evaluation freebie...it has two sides, two versions...one version includes Quarter 1 2 3 4 in the upper right corner, the other version does not.

How does your school schedule conferences? 

You can get the freebie by clicking the first picture. If you're willing to take a moment to leave me some TpT feedback, I'd be super-dee-duper grateful.

Diigo

I had the lovely realization that my teaching license needs to be renewed on June 30th, for which I need 6 credits.

And, I am quite certain it's been 5 years because Emily will turn 5 on June 30th and I was taking a last class just a few weeks before that day 5 years ago.

Huuuuugely pregnant + school chairs + 5 days of sitting = 3 uncomfortably earned credits.

At any rate...how many credits have I taken since then?

Zero.

Zilch.

Zada. 

(Huh, you ask? Shhhh. it goes with the z thing.)

K. So, I took a 1 credit technology workshop about using iPads in the classroom a few weeks ago. We learned about a variety of useful iPad apps.

So, I thought I'd link up with Katie's linky party...click the pic to see all the other great tips!


I have two favorite apps from the class.


They weren't so first grade-ish, but they are nice-for-my-home-and-teacher-life-ish. And, that means they might be lovely-in-your-life-ish, too!

Diigo...


This app also is web-based. Basically, you create your own diigo account and add the diigo-let bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar (easy on google chrome, HARD on the iPad...the teacher had us do it step by step). 

Any time you like something on a web page, you can open diigo and highlight a portion of the page and it saves to your diigo library forever and ever.

I use it when I see a cool idea on a blog. I stalk so many it's sometimes hard to remember which fab idea came from which wonderful blogger and it's more something they shared rather than something I'd pin, I use diigo.

When I go to my diigo library it is all there. Here's a screen shot of part of my diigo.

When I want to go back to the article/site, I open my diigo library and click where I want to go.

You can also add sticky notes and it will save those notes, too. 

I am new to this and have just tapped into its potential, but I'm a fan! Especially with the "diigo-let" bookmarklet on my bookmarks bar, it makes it so easy!

I have also used it for health-related articles...pretty much if I don't Pin it but want to keep it easy to access I am diigo-ing it. New word.

I'm using the free version now and think it will last quite awhile for me.

Do you diigo? Would love to hear how you use it!

If you want to see some great primary apps, head over to this lovely post by Katie King - Queen of the First Grade Jungle. Have I mentioned how much I love her?

I. Love. Her.

Wanna link up on our Shout Out Linky? It's so fun to see who you choose to shout out!!!

I am having SO much fun filling my TpT cart! What are you putting in yours?

I linked up with the ever-terrific Ashley Hughes for the big sale. There are a zillion sellers offering sales! LOVE! Go link up. :)