Author's Tea

We are winding down our time together in first grade.  We only have 6 1/2 days left.  Tomorrow is our final Author's Tea of the year.  It took us a long time, but, finally, we are ready.  Our nonfiction chapter books and I am From poems are all done and our bulletin board telling about the author's is complete.  Now, all we need is to sanely make it to 2:45 tomorrow afternoon...

I posted these last year, but I changed them slightly and they are just so ADORABLE.  Here is the bulletin board the parents see before entering our room:

Aren't these precious?  

Have a fabulous day!

Cecelia

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all of you mom's out there had a fabulous Mother's Day.

It was a gorgeous day for me.  I slept in, had great NY bagels in bed with my mango, papaya, strawberry pineapple smoothie, went to church then relaxed in the sun.

Filet mignon and double stuffed potatoes for dinner...

I am blessed.

 

I made these printables in honor of Mother's Day.  Click on the photo for the link.

 

 

Teacher Appreciation Week

I love Teacher Appreciation Week and wish EVERY week could be it.  Today we were surprised with Qdoba for lunch.  Tomorrow it is Einstein Bagels and Starbucks....
I work at a GREAT school. 

I hope all of you are getting treated like queens and kings, too. 

But if you are not, know TPT and I appreciate you.  We appreciate what you do every single day for the precious children.   We know the extra hours, nights and weekends you put in.  We understand the sleepless nights you've spent worrying over a lesson or a student. We appreciate everything you do.  I know your students do, too, even if they don't tell you or even act like it from time to time.

Visit my shop at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Cecelia-Magro-I-Love-1st-Grade

Here are some of my recommendations from my shop.  These are my top sellers.  Don't just take it from me; look at a few of my comments from people who bought them!

SMARTBoard Calendars

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/May-SMARTBoard-Calendar-

Common-Core-Aligned

Comments:

YEAH!  My kids love your calendars!  Thanks!

Very helpful, for us that did not grow up in the technology age!!  : )

A lot of information and activities in one little spot.  Love it!

I’m so glad that I found this.  I’ve purchased several smartboard calendars this year and this by FAR is my favorite.

This is by far the best purchase I have made thus far on TPT.

Nonfiction Text Features

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teaching-Nonfiction-Text-Features-K-3

Comments:

Great asset for teaching non-fiction!

I love your ideas.  My class is starting to make your non-fiction features notebook next week.  

I know they will learn a lot and will love their notebook.

I’m a literacy coach and I needed a good resource to use when modeling teaching text features.  

This resource was phenomenal!!!!!!!!

There are TONS of resources in this packet – very high quality!  Thanks :)

Common Core Primary Persuasive and Opinion Writing

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Primary-PersuasiveOpinion-Writing-Unit-Correlated-with-Common-Core

Comments:

Another Awesome Resource from you!  Love it…love it…love it!  Thank you for all your hard work!!

Fabulous resources! Thanks!

This was my first time teaching this unit.  Your unit provided so much support in my planning and delivery.  Thanks!

Amazing packet.  Highly recommend.

Absolutely LOVE it!! Awesome unit.  I just started today and the kids are SOOO into the pigeons!! They are so excited about writing these letters …and they loved passing the Accelerated Reader test on the book!

Common Core Math and ELA Morning Work for First Grade

This is a preview of one of the ten months included.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Math-and-Literacy-Morning-Work-for-the-Entire-Year-First-Grade

Regularly there is a discount of 12% when you buy the bundle (reg. price $40) instead of purchasing each month at a total of $59.88.  But with the 28% off it is around $31.00 for the year set!

Comments:

I really needed something that would touch several skills in one sweep (morning work). So, I'm tickled that I can put something on their desk first thing in the morning the last month of school to review skills for the Common Core. Thanks!

Love the Morning work! Great work!!

We use this faithfully each morning. My kids love it!

I love these! I'll be purchasing all of them!

Goes along great with the pacing guide

I would be lost without this! It has been a wonderful addition to my classroom!  Thank you so much!

I AM IN LOVE with these packets!  My students enjoy doing them because they are independent and the “elbow partner” is so much fun in the morning!  Thanks J

Check them out now and buy tomorrow!!  Remember to use code TAD13.

Cecelia

P.S. I just saw Christina Bainbridge's blog and realized my post should link up to her linky party.  So funny I did it without even knowing she was doing a feedback linky )

 

The Barometer is Dropping in Denver

I never believed weather affects behavior until I became a teacher 20 years ago...and I am not just talking about the students....
Today is May 1st and it is spring, right?? Well, we have snow today in Denver.

Seriously??

 It is only like the 4th snow this school year but, come on, it's May!  To add to this, my lovely teammate went on a field trip with her son and we needed to move her sub to another room without a substitute, so I had a few extra kids.  I had an IEP meeting all morning and had 1o minutes to plan before the firsties arrived. 

Chaos!!

 

I had less than ten minutes to adjust my lesson plans {and brain} and make extra copies. We had a blast and it was fun.  However, I needed to make a pit stop on the way home to the adult beverage store so I could decompress....

 

I feel much better now.  Hooray!

 

Here are a few snippets from our week.  My son's chicken went to a farm high in the Rocky Mountains last week.  That was that. Then, we visited Murdocks, a local store here in the Denver Metro area.  Well, they had the most darling ducklings EVER.  I must be crazy, but decided to get one after my sweet boy asked.  But, the sales person informed me they do better in pairs so I ended up getting not one, but two.  I swear I need an interventionist for farm stores.  Having grown up in NYC I never experienced this and have a weak spot for adorable things...

Meet Cecelia and Platypus, two new additions to our family----

 

 

Today we worked on poetry with a fabulous idea from First Grade Wow.  {{I love, love, love this website}}}

 

Here are our poems:

 

 

So. much. fun.

 

Hope you had a wonderful day, too.

 

 

Cecelia

 

 

 

 

 

 

April Showers Bring May Flowers and Chicken Love

The saying goes, "April Showers Bring May Flowers" but what does April snow bring???
Let me tell you we have had more snow in April than we had all winter long.  Still not a ton, less than 6 inches, but the Denver area needs the moisture desperately.  And we finally got our first snow day, so we'll take it. 
We decided that April Showers {or snow} brings mud.  So we made these darling ducklings and wrote about mud.

 

 

This is a FREEBIE at my TPT store.  Get it here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/April-Showers-Freebie

 

We've also being reviewing Author's Purpose and made this tree map.

 

 

 

 

My darling son got a chick for Easter.  He loves it so much he named it after his sister. 

That was chick Emily at 2 weeks old.  She imprinted on my son and follows him everywhere.  It is hilarious watching them run down the cul-de-sac.  He runs in circles and the poor chick doesn't know which way to turn and falls over trying to follow him.

 

I brought the chick to school.  The kids all fell in love with Emily.

 

 

Then, I saw Hope King's product

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Ultimate-Spring-Writing-Craft-Bundle-7-Activities-Aligned-to-Common-Core

 

 

 

All I did to supplement was write a nonfiction article about chickens and we were ready to go.  We did our writing on the chicken's life cycle during Daily Five  Work on Writing and are making the life cycle today.  Here is my example:

 

 

This is the craft from Hope King's fabulous product.  I suggest you go out and get one for yourself right now!  It is excellent and Common Core aligned.  I love it!

 

Have a beautiful day!

Cecelia

 

 

 

 

 

Where has the time gone?

I am having a year...the kind of year where I feel as if I cannot catch my breath.  The kind of year where it's go, go, go.  The kind of year where I don't feel as if I have time to even shower.

And I really don't care for it.

I'm not sure why I am even busy.  My demands have not changed much from last year.  I think I am just slower or maybe not as organized.  I think it has something to do with all of hormones in my house.

Hormones, you say?  Yes, HORMONES.

We have a 14 year old DQ {drama queen} and a 12 year old DK {drama king}.  My 14 year old has had a rough year--including her first experience with girl drama.  One minute she loves me and the next minute I don't have a clue what it is like to be a girl {really???}  and I don't care about her.  It's a laugh a minute...

Then, we have Nick, our 12 yo.  Most of you know he has autism, but what you may not know is that people with autism experience hormones tenfold.  {I'd say 50fold but that would not be medically accurate}  With him, one minute
          we are using flashlights and magnifying glasses to find hairs on random parts of our body that I           will not disclose
          and the next we are punching holes in the wall, kicking mom's car and locking her out of the house, holding the door shut tight deviously laughing as it's happening.

As I said, it is a laugh a minute....

My husband, Tom, and I look at each other and sigh,

"Where are our sweet kids?  Who took them??  Have aliens taken over their bodies??  We want them BACK!!!"

I know this, too, will pass.  I remind myself that they are children of God when dealing with them but I honestly

         could do without this.

Actually, I'd prefer to do without this.  I would love to go on an extended vacation and come back when they are normal again.  If only...


School, on the other hand, is going great.  I have the sweetest, cutest, smartest bunch of firsties and things are going fabulously!  We have a lot of fun and learn so much!  I LOVE this year!

We celebrated Dr. Seuss this week.  I love to celebrate the imagination and silliness of Seuss.  Here are some snippets of our fun:

With our crazy hats eating green eggs.

With our 4th grade buddies

4th grade buddies

 Here we are using fabulous products from TPT sellers

Yummy green eggs-white chocolate pudding with green food dye, Nilla wafers and a few colorful sprinkles.  

Hope you had a great week of celebrating Dr. Seuss, too.

I am off to H-land (Hormone land) to put out a fire that just started!

And I am off!

Cecelia

In the Mood for Love {and Super Sale}

I ADORE this time of year!  There are so many fabulous topics to cover.  We started learning about famous African Americans right before MLK, Jr. Day and will continue this until the end of February {or longer}.  We've studied some of my heroes; Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges.  We read this book:

 

Then watched the movie from Disney-

 

This movie is pretty realistic, and a little shocking for the kids but they truly get it.  I think it is important for people to know the real history of our country instead of turning a blind eye so we can change it for the better.  We always send home a letter  explaining the film and encouraging discussion afterward at home.

Last year I had a parent who was alive when this happened (1960s) and never heard of Ruby.  He researched it and thanked me for teaching him, too.  It's moments like that when I realize how lucky I am to be a teacher.

 

First graders have been inferring like pros!  I saw these inferring bags on Pinterest and decided to give them a try. 

If these are your idea, please let me know so I can credit you!!!

 

Finally, we've been learning about writing How-to's.  The owner of my favorite NY style pizza here in Colorado {Anthony's Pizza} came in to teach us how to make a pizza.

 

 

The students had clipboards and a flow map to draw the steps.

Afterwards we got to eat pizza--personally my favorite part!  I ate around 4 slices...yum!

 

 

We made these adorable snowmen after reading Snowmen at Night.

 

 

 

Just in time for the big Super Sale, I finished Morning Work #8 and In The Mood for Love.

 

These are aligned with CCSS and are my top sellers. 

 

If you watch football, enjoy the game and have fun shopping the Super Sale!  Everything in my shop is 28% off! 

Now, I'm going shopping!

 

Cecelia