Winter 1ST GRADE Resources for the busy teacher!

Happy New Year! It's almost time to go back to school. What will I be using in my classroom in January?

January Learning Hunts are editable printer-friendly ELA and Math Centers. 

 

These ACTIVities are a favorite of my firsties! I use them for centers, early finishers, and whole group. I have the students “hide” the cards and take them down for me when the activity is finished. Click here to see it!

Winter Bingo Dauber Centers are also a favorite in my classroom! I mainly use them for sight words and spelling centers because they are EDITABLE! Kids dab the same words with the same color of dot marker. Click here to see it!

I use these EDITABLE Hidden Pictures for sight word practice. My students can't get enough of them. I don't have a picture of the winter one in use but here is the Christmas one I just used! Click here to see!

My Winter Pictionary is a wonderful tool for both vocabulary and writing! I use these in my writing center and during writing lessons. Click here to see them.

Winter Writing is so fun! We'll write about building a snowman, our favorite winter activity, MLK, and space. Here are some things from my Winter Writing Pack. It's editable! Click here to see it!

Bump is also a popular game in my classroom. Here's the winter version we'll be playing! Click here to see it.

These are my Audio Books for January. I put the CDs on iTunes and use playlists on my old iPhones for kids to listen. 

Have a great January!

Handwriting House - A Handwriting Learning Tool and Intervention and a FREEBIE

Have you heard of the Handwriting House?

 

Using the idea of the floors of the house, students learn which letters are upstairs letters, downstairs letters, and basement letters. 

Cards come in 3 sizes: full page, 2 on a page, or 4 on a page. 

They also come in capital, lowercase, and mixed.

In addition to the cards, I have mats that kids can use in a plastic sleeve with dry erase markers. 

I hang the large one on my board to demonstrate proper letter formation.

I made worksheets for students to practice writing letters and numbers. 

                       

Click to see the product in my store!

    

Traditional Manuscript or D'Nealian Versions

Click below to get your FREEBIE!

Pocket Dice Roll Tally and Graph

I discovered pocket dice! I created these centers for each month. I teach the kids how to play it once and they can use the center all year!

First students roll the die and make a tally for each roll. If you are just working on tallying, this can be a standalone center.

If you want to incorporate graphing, you can stop tallying at 10 and then graph your results.

Finally students can answer questions about the information they collect. 

Click HERE to see them in my store!

My Favorite Teacher Things

I am a gadget person. Anything that makes my life easier, I want it! Here are my favorites:

My teaching easel holds everything I need during whole group teaching. Check out the karaoke machine and microphone. It makes reading to the class so much fun that everyone wants to do it!

Here is a front view of my easel. The number bonds on it are magnetic and dry erase! I got them with bonus points from Scholastic.

Pencil sharpeners are important. This beauty set me back about $130 but that was 3 years ago and it still works great!

This year I bought a cordless Dyson to keep at school. I love mine at home and it makes it so easy to clean up messes.

I inherited these from a retiring teacher and have had to add a layer of wood to reinforce them but they are awesome! I have seen similar ones made of pressed board that are shoe holders that would work well too. 

This desk organizer that I got on Amazon keeps all the things I need while sitting at my table at my fingertips.

This organizer clamps on to the table. It is from Really Good Stuff. The needle nose pliers are great for pulling off glue caps that are stuck shut so I can clean them out with an unfolded paper clip.

I couldn't live without my Sterilite Drawers. I don't have a desk so I store all my little things and my papers for each day.

This shelf from Really Good Stuff holds the big construction paper. 

This is a rolling cart that stores my big books and large posterboard-size posters. 

The kids love choosing from the treasure box at the end of the month. I got it from Oriental Trading.

This rainbow pocket chart is great for displaying all the phonics cards. I used a Sharpie and wrote on the pockets to tell what type of sounds that row contains. 

I am hot-blooded. This little fan keeps me comfortable while I'm sitting at my table.

These seat sacks came from Lakeshore. They are working great!

I use zipties a lot in my classroom. I always keep some of each size around.

These trays are awesome! I got them from Dollar General for $2. They are not very durable but I use them for puzzles, for glitter, for kids picking out stickers, art projects, etc. 

These dry erase pockets are awesome! I have them hanging by a magnetic hook on each pod of desks for kids to grab and use with math mats and dry erase markers. Great for protecting things too.

These dishwashing basins from the dollar store are great for collecting work for absent students when it is put on their desks.

These are a few of my favorite things!