Christmas is almost here...

I love all of the fun winter writing activities that we do at school. Not to mention that Polar Express day is one of my favorite days of the year.

I'm constantly amazed at how creative first graders are in their writing. I can't wait to use some winter themed writing activities this school year!! The flipbook craftivities are a lot of fun!

Behavior Charts...

Behavior charts are a great way to help those students that need a little extra motivation to follow the rules and learn appropriate classroom and school behavior. Tie in a learning target to help your students relate following the rules to learning in school! You can personalize the behavior chart by choosing different awards pictures and different award activities.

Flower Clock Writing..

I figured what better way to discuss the parts of a clock, the minutes, and time then match the flower clock in my classroom with a flower clock writing craft...

Telling Time Craftivity...

I can't wait to use this telling time craftivity from my telling time unit with my students... I think they will enjoy the wristwatch!

Writing Center in Action

We've started using our writing center and I'm finding that my students love the freedom of choosing what they're going to write about and the format they want to write it in. They especially like the idea of writing emails and reminders. I like having many options for them to mix it up each week!

How To Be A Team Player

I used the football helmet writing craftivity to discuss how to be a team player with my class. I enjoyed discussing with my students ways that we can work together and help each other out. They really got into it. I was impressed with their creativity with the football helmet designs.. a lot of Cincinnati Bengals helmets. Fall makes me think of football and the football unit and football flipbook really brought in the spirit of football season!

Star of the Week

My class has been loving our Star of the Week display this year! I like to do a star for the whole week because it gives us enough time for each student to share or teach us about their hobbies, family, etc. The parent letter makes it easy and it's fun to see the pictures the students bring in and we get to learn all about each child!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins...

We're getting ready to start talking about pumpkins after fall break. I love doing a pumpkin unit and discussing the life cycle, how to carve a pumpkin, and estimating pumpkin heights, weights, and amount of seeds.

Here is what we did with our seeds last year:

Estimated the amount of pumpkin seeds, students were pulled out in small groups to help glue the seeds to the pumpkin. When it was finished students took turns circling groups of 5. When it was all ready we counted the seeds as a group then compared it to our estimates.

This year we'll use our Pumpkin Investigation Book as we do this unit. Afterwards we use our pumpkin to vote and graph how to carve it (scary, happy, silly, etc.). We'll use our How to Carve a Pumpkin Flipbook for this activity!

 

Book It Day

October 1st is Book It Day!! My students were so excited to learn all about the Pizza Hut Book It program. I love the seasonal reading logs you can send home each month. Pizza Hut makes it so easy by providing everything you need including reading logs, a parent letter, activities, coloring sheets, pizza coupons, and a class poster! All you have to do is request your set in advance.

I used my "Book It Day" calendar number from my holiday calendar numbers to help celebrate our Book It kick off!

Pumpkin Time

I picked up a copy of one of my all time favorite pumpkin books! This is a great story if you're showing your students the life cycle of a pumpkin. The pictures are awesome and the story plot is adorable.

Check out my pumpkin activities to use in your classroom!
Happy Fall!

Sentence Builders

I have been finding that the sentence builders work great for morning work. The students are able to read, build, write, and illustrate independently which is helping their independent reading skills and work skills!

My students have been loving 5 minute brain breaks this year! The cards I made have been helpful and easy for us to grab. I tend to gravitate more towards the active breaks that we can do as a whole group. Rather than getting fidgety and bored they will sometimes ask if we can do a brain break!!

All About Me Pennants

I love the All About Me Pennants hanging in my classroom! They were a fun beginning of the school year writing activity for the students. I love to get as many student work samples up in the classroom as I can- I had the perfect strip right below my power verbs where I could line them up!

I like them so much I'm thinking seasonal pennants would be a fun way to update them!

Candy Corn Compliments

I love the fall season and I am so excited to have my candy corn compliments up on my class compliments mason jar. They really brighten up my blackboard. Check them out!!

 

I have two versions available at my TPT store if you're interested.

Happy fall teaching!!
Yearly Compliments Mason Jar {Class Incentive}
Yearly Compliments Jar {Class Incentive}

Our Bright Class

My brightly colored classroom is ready for a great school year.. check out our door display. The school wide theme is "Dream Big" so we've got clouds and stars throughout the classroom!

Open House

After a lot of chevron preperation, desk arragning, and folder stuffing my classroom is ready for open house! I'm looking forward to another great year in the first grade!

You can find all of my Chevron Collection products at my TPT Store!

Voice Levels Posters FREEBIE

Voice Levels Posters FREEBIE for your classroom as you get ready to go back to school! There is a white version and a black version in bright chevron colors.  You can buy the full version of Voice Levels Posters / Clip Chart {White Background} and Voice Levels Posters / Clip Chart {Black Background} at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Enjoy!!

Is it Back to School time already?

I can't believe that in one week we have open house/meet the teacher night and that in two weeks it will already be the first day of school! This summer has flown by!! I'm sad to see the summer end but happy to start another year of teaching the 1st grade.

I can't wait to use the Back to School Writing Fun Pack and get to know my new first graders!

Mrs. Cullum

Now that I'm married I'm working on updating all of my Ms. classroom signs to Mrs.

I used my Cricut to create my new teacher sign for my door. I'm excited to get it all tied together with ribbon and put up!

Here's a sneak peak of the bright colors of the scrapbook paper I used popping through the black card stock...

Chevron Classroom

My new bright chevron calendar numbers are ready to go! I'm also excited to update my table signs with my new bright chevron table signs!!

My Word Wall Inspiration

I have my chevron word wall letters printed, laminated, and cut out. I love the primary font I used- they will be perfect for the first grade. Check them out!

I love the idea of using ribbon on my word wall. I like having an interactive word wall where students can get up and grab a word if they need to. Using my blackboard is perfect because I just attach magents to each of my word so students can easily take them off and put them back up. I also love the background color and look that a blackboard offers as a bulletin board.

My Ribbon Word Wall:

These word walls are my inspiration for this year:

Simply the Middle:

 Tales of a First Grade Teacher:

Comprehension Reading Response...

Check out these bright chevron comprehension posters and matching comprehension worksheets. Each worksheet has a learning target at the top with the new learning target wording:

"I am learning to..."

Shop for the Comprehension Posters here!