Welcome to my beehive!

This is the entrance to my classroom.  This is my second year with my bee theme. 

High Frequency Word Dot Game

Write a high frequency word in each box. Two or three partners take turns drawing straight lines to connect the dots. The child that connects the dots to complete a box must read the HFW before he can write his initials in the box under the word. Once a word is read, the child gets one more turn. Just like the game I played as a child, but with a twist. My students enjoy playing this game.

HFW Dot Game

Measurement Mini Work Station

Mini Station Contents: Mice with varying tail lengths, paper strips of varying lengths, plastic reptiles, tape measure, ruler


Answer Sheet: Mouse Answer Sheet     Mouse Answer Key


Picture:

Place Value Mini Work Station

Mini Station Contents: Unifix cubes in sets of ten, bag of numbers 1-100, place value concentration (found online)


Answer Sheet: Place Value (Choose numbers from the bag. Use the Unifix cubes as tens and ones to show the number.)


Picture: picture coming soon

Addition Mini Work Station

Mini Station Contents: Egg-cellent Addition game, addition flashcards, dominoes


Answer Sheet: Egg-cellent Addition (Write numbers 1-10 in the sections in an empty egg carton. Put 2 bingo chips in the carton, close, and shake. Make an addition number sentence with the 2 numbers that the chips land on.)


Picture: picture coming soon

Where's My Word? High Frequency Word Game

The game is played like Battleship. The directions are at the bottom of the page.


Where's My Word?

Number Mini Work Station

Mini Station Contents: Math Font Sort (found on the web), Fun in the Sun (found on the web), number/object matching game

Answer Sheet: Fun in the Sun

Picture:

Money Mini Work Station

Mini Station Contents: wallet filled with realistic plastic coins, Coin Connect Four (found on the web), bingo chips, large plastic money dice, restaurant menu (I created), calculator, receipts (I created)

Answer Sheet: Restaurant Menu, Restaurant Receipt

Picture: The children love playing restaurant.  I want to add pictures of the menu items to this station.

Word Building Mini Work Station

Mini Station Contents: wooden word puzzles (from a garage sale), letter tiles (from Dollar Tree)

Answer Sheet: No

Picture: The 2 children who built the word puzzles together decided that they should put the word puzzles in ABC order.  Smart idea! At this point in the year we have only put words in ABC order by the first letters in the words.

What Mini Work Stations Do I Use?

Here is a list of the 15 mini work stations that I am using with my children. Mini work stations are usually used by 2 students at a time. They bring the mini stations to one of their desks. Some of the stations have a paper to record their answers and others do not. I took some pictures of the children working on their mini stations. I will include them next with any answer sheets that I have.

Mini Work Stations: place value, addition, counting, numbers, grammar, spelling, (2) word building, graphing, making connections, money, time, measurement, ABC Order, and Sequencing

Mini Math Work Stations

I have been creating mini math (and some reading) work stations since the beginning of March. The kids love them!! So far I have 15. (Then I ran out of clear shoe boxes.) I plan on making 15 more. They are housed in cubbies that I got from a clothing store that went out of business. The plastic shoe boxes fit perfectly in the cubbies. Besides the 15 mini work stations, I have larger work stations placed around the room.  I got my inspiration from Debbie Diller's books. I had her literacy work station book and just purchased her coordinating math work station book this month. I love her ideas!

Here is a picture of the cubbies with the 15 mini work stations.

And a close-up picture.

My Classroom

Here are some pictures I took of my classroom (after I cleaned up a bit). 

RTII Form Templates

My fabulous first grade team has worked very hard along with our learning support teacher to organize our RTII (Response to Instruction and Intervention) process.  We send 4 students per day to our learning support teacher. She works with them in various reading and math areas. Our learning support teacher does intense drill and practice for two days, then  reviews and assesses on the third day.  Each session is a half hour long. My first grade team and I have our children working in work stations while students are being tutored. We monitor our students while they work in the work stations. We also use this time to work with individual students and small groups. We have 3 templates that we use to record the students' progress.  

I posted the files as word documents so other first grade teachers could add their personal information.

Individual Intervention Record Sheet

Student Record Sheet 1st Semester

Student Record Sheet 2nd Semester

Fact Family Kite

I wanted a spring-inspired activity so my students could practice fact families. I am sooo tired of the snow, slush, and coldness of winter.  We made these kites today and colored them with all different colors.  The kite tails were made from construction paper that kind of looks like it was tie-dyed. I hung them in the hall and wow did the colors brighten my day!

Fact Family Kite
Fact Family Kite Bows

"Think Dots" Spelling Practice

Ready for something new in spelling? This is a great idea that can be used for every spelling list.  The activities include different levels of difficulty. The children roll their dice to choose a spelling activity. If they do not want that activity, they roll the dice again.  I copy the spelling list on the back for each child.  After the activity is completed, the children color in the box with the activity that they chose. We do these activities for three days. The children have the opportunity to choose 3 different activities to help them practice their spelling words. I keep the papers for each activity file folders with a pictures of the dice on the front. Let 'em roll!

"Think Dots" Spelling Practice

"Think Dots" Spelling Folder Labels

Dice Roll 1

Dice Roll 2

Dice Roll 3

Dice Roll 4

Dice Roll 5

Dice Roll 6