Summer Update!

OH MY GOSH... Somehow it is already July and I have completely lost track of time and apparently, I took an unplanned hiatus from blogging. The end of the school year just got SOOO busy... as I'm sure that you can all relate to and then my husband and I spent the first two weeks of summer prepping to move into our first home! (UPDATE below!) Well, I am back to blogging and ready for a little update!

END OF THE YEAR:

For the end of the school year, I wanted to send my students off to summer vacation with fun first grade memories and some activities to keep their minds busy over the summer! I decided to put everything into a sand bucket for the kids to keep and they LOVED it and I loved putting it together.




Prepping the summer buckets on the eve of the last day of school!
  

The buckets included:

 

-our class DVD-

-my summer learning packet- see previous post-

-our end of the year writing books-

-a new book to take home-

-school yearbook-

-anything in our classroom that had students' names on it-

-bubbles-

-sidewalk chalk-

-stickers-

The Summer Learning Packet:

Check this out on TPT!



The finished buckets... ready for the last day of school!

 

THE HOUSE PROJECT:

 

Okay, so this is not teaching related, but my husband and I just bought our first home... a colonial two-story with a great layout... but definitely in need of a little TLC. I have spent the past two weeks covered in paint and other cleaning supplies (I can't complain though because we had LOTS of family members come and help paint!). We also had all of the flooring replaced as well, which was soooo fun to pick out and it was exciting to see it all come together! We are now moved in (still organizing) and I am LOVING it! Still many more projects to do! Here's a few photos!

 

Our fireplace mantle in the family room



Our lower bath

Our kitchen... love that little piggy!

 

SPELLING UPDATE:

 

Now that the moving craziness is over, I've been sitting down to re-create our first grade spelling/word work/homework. As a first grade team, we have really been re-vamping our spelling expectations. Each week, students have some word family words based on a vowel pattern and some sight words from the Dolch word lists that are the focus for the word work that week. We do send home spelling homework which includes...

 

-cover sheet with words-

-write it three times-

-write a super sentence-

 

and recently added:

-ABC order-

-sort your words-



 

Take a peek at our Short A Word Lists FREEBIE including Dolch sight words (two weeks of spelling). If you are interested in more word lists, I have already finalized all of our short vowel lists which take us through December and include all of the words on the Pre-Primer Dolch list. If you like what you see, please become a follower of my blog and I will send you the rest of the lists for FREE! Email me at firstiefavorites@gmail.com. Enjoy! (If you are already following me... simply email me and I will send them to you!)

 

 

We use the Daily 5 structure at our school so word practice happens during our word work time. Here are some of my previous posts about word work- lots of interactive ideas!. Another thing that is included in our spelling list pack is a set of "word cards" that my students use during Daily 5 word work. The cards are laminated and have the spelling words for the week. Students take the list to their work spot in the room and don't have to scan the room to find the words (for example- if they are on the board)- they have the words right on this card! The photo below shows an example of one of the cards!

 

 



Feeling great after organizing our spelling... onto the Long Vowel spelling lists!

 

Loving summer vacation in our new house...

sleeping in... homemade breakfasts (oatmeal brulee and yogurt)! Feeling like a lucky girl right now!