Why MY blog?

We all know that there are many many wonderful teaching blogs out there (when I figure out how, I will try to link to them on my blog).  Such creative and talented teachers! So why another teaching blog? Well, I have been teaching for quite some time, and never cease to be amazed at how often we keep reinventing the wheel!


Such simple things that we have discovered over the years, or could learn from others that would make our teaching lives...well...easy peasy!


I decided that I just want to share tips and ideas that may be old hat for some, but that some teachers may not have heard about. In addition, I want to be able to post resources for free on a venue that might reach many other teachers. Hopefully, you will find enough useful bits and resources here that you keep checking back!


I was planning on waiting until summer break to begin a blog (because I have NO IDEA what I am doing!), but I realized that there are things that I could share right now that might help in your classroom, or since some of the materials are seasonal, at least can get you ready for next year.


So, I am asking you to bear with me and hopefully it will be worth your while!
Thanks so much.
Chery

My first “tip” and share that I want to get out there involves Easter supplies -- and with Easter fast approaching, I decided not to wait. 


My first grade classroom is very “hands on” and it is important to me that my students have many opportunities to do, play with, and manipulate the concepts that they are learning. One way I have found to really get their interest is with Character Easter Eggs.

As you may know, plastic Easter Eggs come in all shapes and sizes these days. Especially ones that grab any child's interest.  


What little boy does not love Spiderman? What little girl doesn't adore Hello Kitty or Dora?


Now before anyone goes all "pc" on me: in first grade things are what they are and our little ones tend to already have gender preferences. And I for one, am willing to use whatever will engage and teach a child.


I use these containers for many activities throughout the year.


I type out various sentences onto cardstock  (I color code the sentences so I know which ones belong together), laminate, cut apart, and place the pieces inside a plastic egg.


Students choose an egg, pop it open, remove the words, and start building sentences.


In the beginning of the year, or for kinder, I just put in letter/picture to form simple CVC words (I hope to share a resource of this in a later post).


This time of year however, we are working on sentence building.  I have these sentence building activities for students to use at literacy centers.

In my next post I will share the worksheet I created to use with this idea, so please stay tuned...

Chery