Help! Desperately Seeking...???

I have bookmarked so many things, and then when I go back to bookmark- I get distracted and can't remember what I bookmarked the blog for!!!
So to solve this, I started a little notebook (pad) to remind me why I have something marked.

One thing that I did not mark was a a wonderful idea about writing folders! I can't remember the grade or teacher. But it was awesome! She had a folder with 10 sheet protectors. Each one had the month on a sticker at the top and she kept their writings neat a separated like that....I fell in love with it and have spent the last two evenings revamping mine....I want to send her a comment and pick her brain for more writing ideas!
If this is you- please let me know. If you know her- please let her know!!!

We have Friday off (yeah) and our Monday is going to be staff only (the kiddos will be home)...I have so much to share- so be prepared for lots of posts!!!!!
Have a fabulous Thurs!

I FOUND HER!!! It's Mrs. Wheeler! @ Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits ! I am so excited about it...and I couldn't have done it without Pinterest!!!!! Thanks for the advice ladies! I am going get pics of how I am using her wonderful idea in my class!

What's Up with the Squirrels, Girls?!

In the words of Junie B.- "Wowee-wow-wow!" I am so excited!
I went in to show the Mr. all my followers- he's just happy there are more people to listen to me....I think he is under the impression it lessens the amount of time I ramble on!

This is the copy of the comment I replied to Kristin with last night: (revised)
Ok here's the deal.. When I was student teaching, it was the first time I had ever really heard my married name with the Mrs. attached....
I student taught in first grade...My married name is "Quarles"....ok, now say Mrs. Quarles three times fast....what do you get? Miss Squirrels!

It was cute during year one and year two...
but our room now gets referred to as Miss Squirrels and the Nutty Bunch....the office staff will buzz my room and make little squirrel noises....and EVERY greeting card that has a squirrel on it makes it way to my mailbox! (Oh, and I LOVE fall- every acorn that is found at the bus stop finds a home on my desk- I could start a reforestation project from my desk drawer!!!)
And the cute little squirrel for the profile pic~ that will change as soon as I take a good one!!!! I thought I had a good one on my class site until the Mr saw it and asked where my sword and buccaneers were----said my hair looked like Captain Hook!!-(Needless to say, he had to use some "pixie dust" to drum up some dinner that night)!
Maybe I'll find a wig for the squirrel!
(get used to the squirrel...har har)

I will have to take pictures of all the squirrels that I receive for holidays and post them.....all I can say is -
Thank goodness my last name doesn't rhyme with skunk!

I am excited about my new blogging experience....I'm a dork because now I have 3 followers and I am giddy!!!

So that was last night and in less than 24 hours- I have 7 times that many!!!
Whoo hoo! Thank you, Kristin! (And I so get the two "i"s....My mother gave me an "i" at the end of Staci and you can NEVER find anything personalized!!!)


thank you all for following- I hope when you come back to visit you either find something you can use, something that inspires you, or something that just makes you smile!

How do THEY know?

This is my first year to use the Daily 5. We actually call it Daily 5 +2.....there is Work with Teacher and Computer...
I have the posters around the room and on the door and near the centers so that they are using the language of the Daily 5.

I wanted to be sure THEY understood that they were accomplishing these tasks.....daily....

So I made these laminated strips of the Daily 5 (+2)
As they move through our day....centers, word work, writing, etc, they place a check mark with a dry erase marker. Their goal is to have them all marked....and we usually do (and then there are those days where we don't ).

Everybody has one under their name tag.....they are hot glued on.Since we started Read to Self (check out my post on book boxes) first thing in the a.m. they are very excited to have that one checked off.....and there are those who will make themselves cuckoo if they aren't done by recess........
I love that they are taking some responsibility and completing their tasks! (There's nothing like marking off a list to make you feel good!)

Volunteering without the tears!

This year I was determined to make it easier for parents, the kiddos (AND ME) to have volunteers in the room. In the past, there have been many distractions... I end up getting interuptted during small group reading, the kids get restless because they aren't focused, the volunteer wants to talk about things other than volunteering...So this year I made it much easier!
I have these sterilite drawers- each is labeled with the names of the volunteer. The top folder is work that needs to be completed or corrected.. That folder always has to be checked first.
Inside of the drawers, I have folders for some of my lower students and I have an unusual amount of low fine motor this year- so there is a lot of handwriting practice!
I made these cute little packets that are in the folders. The parent takes a child or two out along with her caddy and a timer and they are usually gone for 20 mins or so. It has been working out wonderfully so far!










Each drawer has a caddy with sharpened pencils, erasers, pens, and stickers for the incentive chart that is on each child's folder.
I know there are other great ways to streamline the parent volunteer process... I would love to hear other ideas!

French Fry Fact Families

We worked on Fact Families last week and I used an idea from Christie at First Grade Fever! She has an awesome center available _ we used the center and also changed it a little for each student to make two or three orders of facts!
I wrote the numbers they were able to use for each order, only giving one order at a time and they were to write the facts on their dry erase boards, and once they had the go ahead from me or our helper, they were able to add to the order! It is a fun activity and a great display!