Thanksgiving Freebie

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I was busy this weekend making up a few math centers for my little firsties to use to practice their skills with adding and subtracting on a number line. I also made a center that lets them use dominoes to practice solving problems using a Parts-and-Total diagram. These skills go along with what we are learning in Unit 3 of the new Everyday Math series we are using. Since it is almost Thanksgiving and I'm very thankful for those of you who are following my blog and visiting my TPT store, I've decided to make these math centers a freebie in my TPT store. Please leave feedback if you use them. I'd love to know what you think!

Please leave me a message and let me know what you think of these.  I hope you like them and thanks so much for following my blog!

Number Line Practice

Are you trying to teach your students how to add and subtract using a number line?  If so, this Mimio set is for you!  I made up a set of Mimio slides that have a number line and a cute little frog to use when introducing a number line.  You can move the frog to illustrate how to hop forward or back when counting on or counting back.  You can also use the pen tool to draw the hops to help students better visualize the hops the frog takes.  A blank addition number model and a blank subtraction number model are included to use once students are familiar with how to write addition and subtraction problems.  There are 10 worksheets included to give your students practice with using a number line to solve addition and subtraction problems.  The worksheets can be used during a lesson, as morning work, as homework, or as an assessment.  My students loved using the little frog to solve problems at the Mimio board.  I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine did!

Mimio Fundations Tiles

Do you use Fundations in your classroom? Do you hate using those letter cards? Would you rather have a cute set of letter tiles to use on your Mimio Board? If so, look no further! There are some new products on my TPT store that you're going to love! Since I teach first grade, I made up a cute set of teddy bear themed letter tiles to go with Fundations Level 1. It includes all the tiles you'll need for each unit in the book. I also made up tiles to go with Fundations Levels K, 2, and 3. I made a couple different themes for each grade level. If you have a specific theme or color scheme in your classroom and want something special, let me know and I'll see if I can make something for you. Here's a few pictures of some of the sets available in my store.

My Classroom

I want to share some pictures of my classroom. I've spent a lot of time on Pinterest this summer and have found all sorts of ideas for how I can freshen up my classroom decor. First I'll show you what the room looked like when I arrived at the end of August.  The walls were all painted so everything was down and the room was looking very blah!

After just three long days, the room was looking much better and ready for the students!  Here's a tour:

Here's the front of the room.  I just love the black background and gingham border around my alphabet letters and numbers.  I made the letters and numbers last year but never really liked them on the plain wall.  Now they really stand out on black poster board.  It's hard to notice, but check out the red chair by the computer in the front.  That used to be a really ugly yellow color.  My dad spray painted it red for me and it looks brand new!  It's awesome!!  I covered both of my bulletin boards with black fabric and used matching borders of red and white polka dots and plain white.  Here's a closer look at it.

I made the "Centers" pennant and the little signs with the bears using graphics from MyCuteGraphics.com.  I put velcro on the back of each bear and move them each day so the students know what center to go to.  I write the names on the bear signs using dry erase marker so I can change groups throughout the year.

Above the centers bulletin board is Officer Bear of the Writing Patrol and above the sink area is the Rule Breaker Jail that I bought last year from TPT.

Everyday Math has a million and one signs you need for your calendar area.  I redid most of mine to fit the new color scheme of the room.  You can see some of my book boxes.  I remade the labels with cute gingham backgrounds and bears, of course!

My second bulletin board is for "Beary Good Writing."  There is a writing checklist sign at the top and the writing rubric down at the bottom.  Student work will be displayed in the middle.

Here's the area near my door.  I have the lunch sticks on the shelf by the door and my Word Wall on my cabinet.  The poster above the shelf is for birthdays.

I hang my Fundations posters above the cubbies  along with Painter Bear.  He's "Brushing Up On Fundations"

The Super Bear area will display great center work assignments.  The Cowboy Bears are "Rounding Up Good Work" and this area will display student work.  The overalls are for my job helpers and the bear chart on the door keeps track of how many prizes the students have won for their good behavior.

  

I have my mailboxes and traffic light on the windowsill area.  My white board easel is in the corner.  The apple will hold the new spelling and vocabulary word cards.  Next to my Mimio screen is my teddy themed behavior clip chart.  The bear on the wall by the windows is there to dress up the giant, ugly poster of common core standards that I have to display.  My listening center cart is over by the windows and gets rolled to the front of the room at center time.  I still need to jazz that up a bit!

I hope that you enjoyed this little tour around The Teddy Bear Classroom!

My Store is Up and Running!

Hooray!  It took a little time to figure out what I was doing, but my TPT store is finally up and running!  I've been busy this past week making some Mimio presentations and coordinating worksheet activities to go along with them.  We use the Journeys Reading Series in my district so I'm making the Mimio presentations to go along with the phonics skills that are presented each week.  So far I've got the first 5 weeks done.  They introduce the short vowel sounds.  You don't have to use Journeys to find these useful...you can use them with any lesson on the short vowel sounds.  If you have a Mimio in your classroom, check them out!

    

Opening My TPT Store

It's official!  I am a seller on Teachers Pay Teachers!  One of my goals for this summer vacation was to figure out how to get started on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Today I uploaded my very first product.  It's a Mimio board activity for taking attendance each morning.  It has a teddy bear theme (of course!) and turned out quite adorable if I do say so myself!

  It's a free download so go check it out:

Mimio Teddy Bear Attendance Activity

I've been busy this week making some other Mimio presentations and will hopefully be uploading them soon.  I hope other teachers like them as much as I do!

My First Post!

I'm super excited about starting my very own teaching blog.  I've been thinking about doing this for over a year now and have finally decided to give it a try.  Let me introduce myself...My name is Natalie and I'm a teacher in southern New Jersey.  This September I'll be starting my 16th year teaching first grade.  I love teddy bears and have them all over my classroom (thus the name of my blog!).  I love making new activities for my students to use in class.  I'm in the process of starting my own shop on Teachers Pay Teachers where I'll be selling some of the things I'm using with my class.  I hope you'll check it out.