Time to catch up...and an apology!

Last year was my first year of teaching first grade. It was a crazy, hectic, and eventful year. I apologize for not keeping my blog updated and I am really going to try to catch you up on all of the things I did in my class last year. I will be teaching first grade again this year! I will do my best to keep you updated this year on all the things we do. I am SO excited about some of the fun things I am thinking of doing this year! Through trial and error I have learned a lot about what works and what didn't!

I have been working over the summer with one of my grade level teachers. We worked very well together last year and decided to continue our partnership this year. Don't you love it when you get to work with someone you can truly collaborate with? Anyway, I had some things I really enjoyed doing last year and some great anchor charts! Here are just a few examples:

This first one is not my classroom (I can't find the picture of mine) but I did the same thing. I found this on Pinterest.

I had kids work in groups. Each group was responsible for making a chain and then they had to come up the addition number sentence that is represented by the chain. There are 10 black links on each chain and then there are between 0 and 10 pink links. 

The next few anchor charts are from my room. Some are inspired from Pinterest others are my own thought process.

Nick Noun, Abby Adjective, and Vicky Verb. The first thing we did was discuss adjectives nouns and verbs. The kids were then given 3 sticky notes (with one adj, one noun, and one verb) when they walked into class. They had to read the word (or have it read to them) then decide if it was an adjective, noun, or verb. During ELA the students were reminded of what adjectives, nouns, and verbs were and each sticky note was discussed and was put in the right category (I may have missed something with all the sticky notes). The anchor charts were then hung up and used as a reference.

These are two of my favorite anchor charts! I use these in both ELA and science. My students use these as references for a variety of things!

How do we add? How do we subtract?

These anchor charts gave students a variety of ways to look at adding and subtracting as well as gave them important vocabulary that they needed to know.

Story structure. This is an important concept in first grade. 1st graders need to understand that there are three parts to story structure. Characters, Plot, Setting. Within plot they need to be able to identify the beginning, middle, and end. This anchor chart helps them remember when we discuss story structure.

On the left is my science plant unit vocabulary chart. On the right is my FAVORITE part of my room! My science corner not only holds all of our experiments (you can see our plants) but it also gives a space for student work when it comes to science. The work that is in the picture is student flower diagrams and parts of a plant (with vegetables - root, leaves, flower, stem). 

I have a few other anchor charts - a map, reading. I will post when I can get into my classroom. These are some of my favorite anchor charts.