Would YOU kiss a frog?

The tadpoles still don't have any legs yet, but we're all anxious for them to become frogs. (Me most of all!) We spent our entire afternoon on froggy literature. First, we graphed whether or not we would kiss a frog. The kids thought that was hilarious!


Next we read a version of The Frog Prince and followed it up with one of my favorites "The Frog Prince Continued" by Jon Scieszka. If you aren't familiar with this book you've got to read it. It's so funny and there are several references to other fairy tales in the story. The gist is that the frog prince and his princess aren't really living all that happily ever after and he decides he wants to be a frog again. He goes out looking for a witch to change him back into a frog. The frog prince even looks a little froggy with his long skinny legs and green suit!


I made a huge frog prince and took pictures of my kiddos "kissing" the frog. It was too cute!


While I was taking pictures of kids kissing a frog they worked on a sequencing activity. How would they catch and kiss a frog? All of these activities are available in my Frog Prince unit on TPT!



Fab fab giveaway!

I was given the opportunity to test out Samson's Classroom with my class over the last couple of weeks and I cannot get enough! Samson's Classroom is an online reading skills site. You've got to view their demo to see why I was so excited about this opportunity! When I first introduced the site to my students I showed them the spelling section. I had uploaded our latest spelling list. There are three different spelling games and they are all challenging! My students LOVED the games. Bonus for me was that it challenged even my highest students! There are sight word games as well as reading comprehension games. There are several pre-made sight word lists that my students have started practicing even though I hadn't even mentioned them! There is also a wonderful informational page for parents. My students have now tried all of the games and are doing so well.  One of my students who NEVER reads at home and NEVER studies his spelling words has been on Samson's Classroom every day! He's completed sight word games, spelling games, and (to my complete surprise) reading comprehension passages.  I watched him play one of the spelling games about ten times before he "won." The whole site is just awesome.

Now for the best part....I can give away one free license to one of you!

All you have to do is
1) follow my blog!
2) follow Samson's Classroom on FB- they would love to have a comment from you!

I'm being brave and trying out Rafflecopter for this giveaway.
GIVEAWAY ENDS TUESDAY EVENING!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Great Tooth Mystery

This weekend we moved from a house to an apartment. Not easy to downsize. NOT any fun to move.
But Saturday morning was beautiful and I was psyched to get the move started. Right away I heard the new Jennifer Lopez song. I LOVED it! So much that I downloaded it to my phone. But by the end of Sunday night I had heard that song 30 times.

I no longer want to Dance. And Love. And Dance. Again.....EVER

I'm totally beat, but the new place is coming along.

This morning I opened my desk drawer to grab food for the tadpoles. Sitting in my drawer was A TOOTH! A child's tooth. With blood on it! EWWWWW!
*I do not DO teeth. Don't wiggle them in front of me, please. I can do any injury on the playground, any bleeding, so long as it's not from your mouth. My children know this. They love me so much they never try to show me their wiggly teeth.

So I see the tooth. Scream. Then I'm saying, "EW! _________, get it out! Get it out! OUT! And then wash your hands!"

So. Very. Disgusting.

Then I was laughing probably because I'm so exhausted from moving all weekend. And also, it is kind of funny. But still NO OK.

Could this be a prank?

"Y'all, does this belong to any of you?" No one.

I ask one of my loves to go ask the teacher above me, good friend and prankster, if she did it. She claims she didn't. "Where would I get a tooth Jen?"

So this afternoon we wrote about the Great Tooth Mystery. Where did this mysterious tooth come from? Or rather, WHO did it come from? How did it get into my drawer?

The kids had great stories. Some think it fell out of the tooth fairy's bag, several think it was another first grade teacher, others think it was the teacher above me. One student wrote a story with him as the lead detective. He even put out an alert about the tooth! Ha! Hope your Monday was a little less dramatic then mine!

But, seriously, where did that tooth come from?!

Not Friday?!

I have to say I have such a fun class. (I realize I say this every year...but I totally share my awesomeness with them. It's what good teachers do! We share our awesome!) We use Class Dojo in my class and students can earn one ticket for each point that they earn. Tickets can be thrown into two boxes: 1)We have a grade level drawing on Fridays for students to eat on the stage with a friend, or 2) I have a decorated shoe box for a BIG end of the month drawing. I usually give a book related to something we've studied and some other goodies too. Most of my kids have figured out that they can split the tickets they earn into the two boxes. Well now that we have stinky and disgusting tadpoles for every five points you earn I will punch your tadpole card. If you get fifteen hole punches the tadpoles can stay at your desk while you work! WOW! (Or EW!) Yesterday while we were looking at our monarch caterpillars (They are so cool! Their chrysalises have gold sparkles!) one of my kiddos asked when they could trade in their points for hole punches. I said, "Tomorrow, because it's Friday!" Another kiddo, "Mrs. Tice! No! Tomorrow is WEDNESDAY!"  Another student looks at me and said, "Well THAT'S disappointing!" HAHAHA!

And by the way my response was "You said it bud. I was totally looking forward to my pedicure on Friday!"

I love my class. They are too hilarious! I would love for you to share your stories either here or on my FB page.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the Luna Interactive Camera here!

I think I'm in love

Learning Resources sent me the Luna Interactive Projection Camera to test out. It's SO fabulous! First, at my school we are fortunate enough to have one document camera per grade level. The document camera we have is really big, takes up a LOT of space, and doesn't have the flexible neck that the Luna has. The Luna is small and hardly takes up any space as you can see below.
You can get up close or stay farther away to your object or paper. It also has a video feature and a camera. And it works as a web cam too. No lie- it's so easy to set up that even my first graders could do it! We used it all last week for math and writing. I love that the set up time is less than a minute. So easy to incorporate this into your lessons.

Here's the great news! Learning Resources is allowing me to give one of these awesome cameras to one of you! Here's how to enter:

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment
2. Follow Learning Resources on Facebook OR follow Learning Resources on Twitter
*Be sure to leave your email address with your comment! I'll announce the winner Thursday night!

To learn more about all the great products offered at Learning Resources click HERE!

I was featured

This afternoon when I got home and checked my email I was surprised to see that I was featured as a top teachers blog at Online Colleges USA! They compiled a list of blogs as a teacher resource for their students who are taking online classes to become teachers. Kind of made my day! You should take a look at this list- there are lots of blogs I'm not familiar with that I will now have to stalk! It's a slippery slope- so many blogs to follow and so little time. Well...I could just sit here all day and read blogs and leave comments! Ha!


*The link to my coin memory game from yesterday worked and then it didn't. I've uploaded it again and now it should work.

That Makes Cents

Hey y'all! What a great Wednesday. My class has really "gotten" what I want from their writing and what some of them wrote today was AMAZING. Y'all would not believe some of the details my kids are putting in. More on that later this week!

We've been learning about coins for the past week and a half. Last Thursday we started learning about the quarter. Me: {showing poster of poem that has a picture of the quarter on it} "Quarter, quarter, big and bold..." My Firstie: "Big and BALD?! Well...I guess that makes sense. That guy on the quarter is kind of bald." Ha ha! Me: "Ha ha! It's quarter, quarter, big and BOLD...._____ I just love you! You sure are a fun girl!"

First grade really is the best!

Anyway... I have about four students who are still struggling with being able to recognize coins and tell me their values. I created a coin memory game to help my kiddos. Click on the picture to grab your copy!

I miss my laminator

I think my laminator stole my mojo! I didn't feel my creative juices all weekend. My poor laminator is in the storage unit until we move in two weeks. I miss it! I miss the smell of hot laminator pockets too! I. Am. A. Nerd.
Anyhoo...I'm working on a couple of things and I'll be having some fun giveaways in the next couple of weeks. AND I'm totally on countdown. 35 days. Last week my lovelies just wouldn't stop talking.

That's right! Moved EVERYONE. 
And....just fyi, tadpoles are still alive. And they smell even worse!

Bunny Hop Freebie

Welcome to freebie # 



I hope you're all having a super time with the bunny hop! What a great way to celebrate TBA's one year blogiversary! My students have been learning digraphs oo, ou, and ew so I've created an I have who has game for you! Click on the pic to download yours!

Now hop on over to see what Tiffani at Time for Kindergarten has in store for you


Phonics Dance Workshop

I can barely contain my excitement! The Phonics Dance workshop was A-MAZING and Ginny Dowd is a genius! She is also so fun, lively, excited about what she teaches, and she is hilarious. The whole workshop was so organized and the giantabulous (that's giant+fabulous) spiral you get with the workshop has everything spelled out for you. She even coached us through the first ten days of school. Wow!

My kids were not happy that I was going to be gone today since they had subs during STAAR testing. I told them I had to help the fourth graders and that I would show them some of what I learned. One of my sweet girls said, "Well, if the workshop has the word dance in it then you'll probably love it." *I dance in class. Often. Especially when they do something amazing or one of my struggling students catches onto something they've had a hard time with.....and also, I may or may not do a fashion runway walk to show off new shoes.*

If you EVER get the chance to attend one of the Phonics Dance workshops you MUST go! Find out more information here!