Welcome to the 2D Shape Construction Zone!  We had so much fun transforming our first grade classrooms this past week to compose 2D shapes.  We have eight teachers on our team, and we each plan a different subject.  My teammate, Stacey Duffee, came up with all of the ideas you see here!  I am just going to show you what she came up with.  If one has an idea, we all jump on board!  I love that everyone on our team is willing to try new things and supports one another.  We are trying to transform our classrooms once a month, and this theme lent itself well to composing 2D shapes with other 2D shapes.  We use Magic of Math as our whole group math curriculum.  So, we just used their activities within the construction theme.   It took us about an hour after school to decorate our rooms and the hallway.  We all jump in and help each other get it done.  It goes so much faster that way.  We all put this banner on our doors.  We also had signs on the lockers. Each tabl...
How many times have you gone to school sick because you didn't feel like writing sub plans?  I know that I have.  But it's not fair to you or your students to show up to work when you don't feel well.  I knew that I had to figure out a way to simplify substitute teacher plans and have them always ready to go.  You never know when an emergency could arise.  I decided to create a Substitute Teacher Binder that matched my Teacher Binder.  I am going to take you through what I include my sub binder and how I put it together, along with some helpful tips for surviving a day out.   This whole binder is editable.  Each page contains a header in the font called The Skinny .  So if you want to add anything different, that's the font you can download.  I begin the binder with a sweet little welcome note about my class.  All of these pages are just printed on regular printer paper.   It's hard to tell in the photo above, but clipped underneath that paperclip...
Anchor charts are one of my favorite instructional tools.  The only problem is that they're a bit time-consuming to make each week.  I am a perfectionist, so I would draw the pictures and would hate them.  The lettering would not be as perfect as I wanted it to be.  And I just don't have time to create them for all subjects.  It's a lot!  So, when I found out you could print in poster size through Adobe on any printer, I got the idea to make my anchor charts in PPT and then print them through Adobe.  They print out on four pieces of paper; you just have to piece them together.   I recently created a set of Interactive Anchor Charts for Phonics .  I teach first grade, and phonics is a foundational component of reading.  I thought these would be a great visual for my students to refer to throughout a unit.  Next week, we are learning all about soft c, g, and -dge.  I use the anchor charts to introduce them to the new phonics skill.  We discuss the rule, which is includ...