Reindeer - A Nonfiction Book Extension

Our favorite winter animal is very interesting. This nonfiction book teaches you many facts about reindeer. Kids are fascinated with this wonderful creature and with good reason. Without these guys, how would we EVER get our toys on Christmas morning?????? HA!

So grab this book (or any factual book about reindeer) and start locating those cool videos of these animals in action. Then, use what you learned to make our cute little Reindeer Facts booklet with cute little hands for antlers. 

You can get our Book Extension here.

Moostletoe - Book Extension

This funny Christmas story is about a very busy moose. He has many things to do to get ready for Christmas. This book is PERFECT for teaching verbs with all the action going on during the rush to get everything ready for Christmas Day. Our kiddos love this story, and all of the other versions as well. We think yours will too. It's a great way to sneak in those skills your students think are just fun and games. 

Click here for the Book Extension.

Must Be Santa - Book Extension

This song brings out the performer in us all, doesn't it??? Admit it! Teachers LOVE this song. It's a favorite song for kids too, and is also a book by Tim Moore, available on Amazon. It will have your kids singing with excitement about our favorite storybook character at this time of year. We made a colorful booklet, and a black and white one as well, for coloring and taking home. The Spin and Color, Spin and Build, and coloring contest are great for Christmas party day and the song is perfect for singing to parents on party day ( and everyday) as well. We need all the engagement possible on this exciting time of year. 

Click here for the book extension.

The Very Busy Spider - Book Extension

This is one of our favorites from Eric Carle.  This book has been around a long time and children still love it!  We created this extension for this book to help you teach your students about quotation marks, story elements, sequencing and more. There are word order activities and a fun game for center time. We included a web to trace with puff paint or glue to make their own 3-D web. They LOVE those!! 

WE LOVE SPIDERS!

Click here for the book extension.

The Scarecrow's Hat - Book Extension

Do you have any scarecrows hidden in your closet? Well if you are from the south you sure do, and it's time to let them out. We can't seem to get enough pumpkins, hay, corn stalks, and scarecrows on our porches right now. I'm not EVEN kidding. I can't wait until tomorrow to start shopping for pumpkins. We even have a scarecrow contest at our school each year. Anyway, this love of fall overjoys us and we have to share that love with our students. We created a new book extension to use with one of the FEW good scarecrow books we could find out there. We like this one because its fun to read, and more fun listening to your kids try to TURN AND TALK and retell it to each other. Their sequencing is hilarious, I mean excellent. So we put together a few extra things to do with this book. Check out the preview to see what all is included. We hope you enjoy it! Now go find your pumpkins and scarecrows!!!

                   

Click here to get the book extension.

2nd Grade WONDERS Science and Social Studies Supplement

This helpful 81 page science and social studies supplement will provide activities to help teach your second grade curriculum as well as be follow along with the Wonders Reading series. We have provided one to two activities for each week of the school year, each covering skills taught in the second grade science and social studies curriculum in most schools. Since each state is different, we did not include standard numbers, since they may vary, but you could easily add it to the top of each sheet for reference. Even if you are not a Wonders Reading series school, you will find many helpful activities that could be used for a grade or to assess learning with any program. 

You can get this here.

Substitute Survival

Have you ever realized you need a sub at the last minute and had a full blown panic attack because you knew getting your act together was going to be IMPOSSIBLE??? Have you ever gone to work SICK because you were too SICK to do all the prepping for a sub? We have all been there. Wellllllllll PROBLEM SOLVED! We created and used this pack last year to see if it was helpful, and OMGoodness was it ever. Once we put in all the information we were set for an entire year. In this pack you will get everything you need to create a binder with all the pertinent information a sub would need to run your class smoothly, as well as activities for each day of the week. You will put in all of your information for the binder first, then take your time making the copies and filling the file folders with everything a sub would need for the day. We included reading, math, and writing that would work on any day of the week. In no time you have a Substitute Survival Kit- which will include an info binder with procedures and tub of activities, one for each day of the week - and suddenly being out of the classroom will be stress free. We included everything we could think of that a sub might need. The activities are geared toward K-3, but many parts of this could be used in any grade. All you will need to add will be 5 ANYTIME read aloud books that are not tied to a holiday or season. Pop them in the folder with the student sheets and you are ready. We hope you find it as helpful as we have. We ♥ hearing from you, so please let us know how it works for you in your tpt comments. I can honestly say this was a LIFE CHANGER!

Once you have it set up, you are ready for the entire year!!!

The Lesson Plans are easy to set up and super easy to follow.  Each day of the week is different.

Your classroom procedures take a little time to fill out, BUT once you have it in there, they are a life saver!  And they won't change much from year-to-year.  That'll make next year even easier!

                           You can get this must-have resource here!

If you have any questions about how we set ours up, please e-mail us at iheartbeingfirstgmail.com.

Ten Black Dots Book Extension

Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews is another favorite for kindergartners and first graders. Who doesn't love playing with black Avery dots??? (purchased from Amazon to save the hassle of searching). The possibilities are endless. This book extension has many fun math activities including ways to make 10, using a ten frame, and counting to improve number sense. We also included two booklets to make and some sequencing as well. Give your kids ten black dots and see what they can create, write what it is secretly in pencil at the bottom or on the back, cover and let others guess what they made with their 10 black dots. You will see who your really creative kids are right away. My personal favorite was the fidget spinner.  We hope you enjoy it! 

                                                                     

There is so much more in the packet!! Your kids will have a blast working with numbers to 10! Check out the preview to see what all you'll be doing with this awesome book              by Donald Crews!

You can get the extension here!

Animals - A Science Unit

This science unit will cover all the standards you are required to teach your first graders about animals. It is packed full- 151 pages full- of information and activities to get your students engaged and motivated to learn more about ANIMALS IN THE WILD. We included vocabulary activities, fact gathering activities, opportunities to write and research, and we added some just for fun stuff too. 

Click here to get the HUGE packet from TPT!

FREEBIE - POCKET DAY!

IT'S A 42-PAGE FREEBIE YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS! Kids LOVE their pockets and putting things in them, so this activity, that is so old we can't remember where it came from is still a huge hit with our first graders. On every 10th day of school we have Pocket Day. We use counting cubes and put one in each pocket. Then as a group we count our cubes to see how many pockets are in the group, then add to make a class total. We keep track of our last total and see if we can beat it each time. We use the counting time to incorporate a bunch of counting and addition activities. We break them into groups of 10, count the leftovers, and figure out how many more it needs to get to 10. It is also a great way to introduce place value. Your kiddos will LOVE it too! They always look forward to POCKET DAY!!!

You can get this FREEBIE here!!

Here are a few pages that you'll get, but there is so much more!

Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark

Can  your kids relate to being afraid of coming to school after summer break? Of course they can!  Do you totally get into ocean animals as part of your science study of animals? Well, The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark book extension activities for K-2 is a pack you could use at the beginning of the year to address fears, like going back to school, or used anytime during the year. It could also make a great addition to any unit of study on ocean animals. Your kids will be making those Text To Self and Text to World connections as they read about Pout-Pout and his fears. Use this fictional book to teach fictional characters, word order, word work with rhyming words and vocabulary, as well as some plain old fun stuff. This packet is filled with fun activities that will keep your children engaged and thinking in a fun way as you use these activities to help get the conversation going about our fears and how this is NORMAL for us all.

Click here to get this.

Crazy About Ladybugs

If you walk in my room this year, you will be immersed in BLACK AND RED and lots of adorable LADYBUGS.   I've had the theme going on for several years, but not to this extent!  I want to share a few pictures.  I hope you like it!

 Calendar Area:  calendar, counters, math vocabulary. 

LOVE the way these chair pockets turned out.  I wish I would have taken a larger picture of the whole class!  They are so cute!!

 This is my small group table!!!  I could sit here all day!  

I LOVE how it turned out!

Days of the week!

             

 "HOW WE GET HOME" clip chart.

Pocket chart for Spelling Words. (They will be added next week!)

We have labels in our pack that are editable!  You can label any and everything in your room!

 Numbers 0-10 with ladybugs on a ten frame!!!

 Our school uses the clip chart for behavior management. 

I just had to have LADYBUGS!  I love how this turned out!

 I will add HFW to the word wall as they are introduced.  

It looks a little plain right now.

Science Lab tubs for our Science rotations.

 A few organization items.

 My welcome letter for Meet Your Teacher and a spot 

to hang our monthly lunch menu.

Sorry, but this is SOOOOOOO true!

We have all of these available on TPT.  A lot of it is editable, so that you can make your own labels and name tags.  If you have a certain color scheme or theme that you would like to see, please leave us a comment.  We don't have everything on TPT, so we may have it or be able to make it!!  

If you are CRAZY ABOUT LADYBUGS, click here.