New Year, New School, New Freebies!

Hey teacher friends! I've been going through some major upheavals throughout the past few months, and life is finally starting to settle down again. Since May, I left Japan to move back to the States, got married, bought a house with my new husband, and accepted a position as a first grade teacher in my local school district! I'm thrilled to find myself in first grade again after all the changes I've gone through recently. Starting the school year in a new place on short notice has been a bit daunting, but I've been blessed with friendly, collaborative coworkers. Here's a little glimpse into my life for the past two weeks!

My biggest focus lately has been classroom setup. I'm trying to keep things clean, organized, and simple from the get go. 

Alphabet Sound Chart and Matching Word Wall Labels Available Here

It's so important to establish rules, routines, and expectations during these first few weeks. On day 1, we read No, David by David Shannon, and made T-chart of things we DO at school, and things we DO NOT do at school. On day 2, we read Swimmy by Leo Lionni, and thought about the ways we work together at school. Then, we used these two stories to launch a discussion about respectful vs. disrespectful behaviors. We managed to boil our T-chart down to two rules:

1) Respect people (including yourself)
2) Respect materials

Next week, we're going to focus on Whole Body Listening. I've made a Google Slides presentation to lead a conversation about listening with ears, eyes, mouths, hands, and feet, and we'll make an anchor chart for referencing this lesson throughout the year!

Whole Body Listening Lesson

Whole Body Listening Lesson

Whole Body Listening Lesson

Whole Body Listening Lesson

Whole Body Listening Lesson

I've also added a new math freebie called Good Clues, Bad Clues to my store. It focuses on adding zero. 

Good Clues, Bad Blues FREEBIE available here!

Now that things have calmed down on the home front, I'll be getting back to my "First of the Month Freebies." In the meantime, enjoy this math game and b/d reversal posters! Happy teaching!

FREE b/d reversal posters available here!

Back to School: Diving Into First Grade

It’s August? Really? When did that happen?  

I’ll be getting back into my classroom soon, and although I love the creativity involved in designing a new theme, I’m going to recycle last year’s “Under the Sea” look. My recent travels and wedding planning have left me fried and my checkbook a little thin, so something had to give! (Case in point: I spent the better part of yesterday evening practicing these map flowers for my centerpieces. Thank you, Pinterest!)

Can’t say I’m too sad about recycling the theme, though… that means I get to make these scuba divers all over again…

… They’re pretty adorable if I do say so myself. I revamped the pattern a bit since making them last year, so now they’ll look a little more like this…

I love the way they look with the kids’ photos in place of the generic face, so that’ll be the only difference! My first graders were so stoked to make them last August. This time around, I’m also going to have my kiddos write about the reasons why they are excited to be “diving into” first grade for my bulletin board display. Here’s what it looked like last year:

I’m anticipating a smaller class this year and will tone down the size of the letters, so there should be extra room to display the writing. 

This packet includes writing paper and graphic organizers appropriate for kindergarten- 3^rd grade, with a variety of prompt options! It also includes the template and detailed directions for making the scuba divers. I also found this cute ocean- themed border at JoAnn Fabric to accent my board. 

The octopus tentacles are made from construction paper links and my students LOVED him! To finish off the hallway display, I used thispacket from Susan Morrow's Teachers Pay Teachers store to make nametags for my new kiddos and dubbed them “Ms. Utz’s Sea Creatures.” The packet is filled with tons of other goodies for decking out the classroom with the ocean theme; once everything is up and running, I’ll post again with a full classroom tour!

One more thing before I go… I think I’ll bring back my “Reader’s Reef” library nook for another round :)

Thanks for stopping by! You can find the scuba diver packet by clicking here for my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Little Owl's Teacher Treats. Feel free to reach me with questions by commenting here or emailing littleowlstreatbarn@gmail.com Happy back-to-school season and good luck starting the new year!