Author of the Month Helen Lester

I can honestly say the Helen Lester's books are some of my favorite books for teaching young children.  The children love the humor and illustrations in the books.   What I like about the books as a teacher is that each story has a lesson to learn.  

Helen Lester has written so many wonderful books it is really worth your time to look at her website and see which of her books will work in your lesson plans.  

I have been working hard each month creating links for the teachers at my school on our share website.  I also put a couple links for a few free resources I found on Pinterest as well.   I have created qr codes for the classroom with ipads.  

For each of the Helen Lester books I found on youtube I found the cover on google images.  Then I created a qr code.  

I created mini posters that I will hang up by the author board and it will have a dual purpose.  It will look good and the kiddos can get the qr codes to listen to stories. 

I also created some reading challenge sheets for advance students.  You know who I mean, those students who are the first to finish everything.  

   You can find everything FREE HERE!

November Challenge Pack is Ready

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I feel like I have been working on this non-stop all week but really I have been working all month on the Challenge Pack for November.  

There are always a few students in the classroom who always finish all their work way before the other students and what do you have them do?

I have my students do challenge work.  Basically it is a review of what we are learning in out classroom.  It might have a slight twist to the skills.  

For example,  our sight words.  I could have the students just practice their flash cards, however instead they can come to the challenge center and there they will find two sight word games to play.  Sight Word Bingo or Stick Bang. 

In math we have been learning about Base Ten Numbers and ten frames. During Calendar last month we compared Base ten blocks to dimes and pennies.  So I created a challenge activity where they need to do some comparison.  

Another new activity I have for my students is an I SPY the Mayflower with a syllable twist.  They have to search the classroom for words the begin with the letters from the word Mayflower however the have to have one or two syllables.  

I also have a Reading Challenge similar to the Daily Five layout.

I also include the qr codes for stories for the children to listen to and poems for them to read.  

The November Challenge Unit has a lot of wonderful activities:

Challenge 1:  Sight Word Bingo

Challenge 2:  Thanksgiving ABC Order

Challenge 3:  Turkey Hunt

Challenge 4:  Thanksgiving Noun Sort

Challenge 5:  Turkey Roll and Add

Challenge 6:  Mayflower Compact

Challenge 7:  Thanksgiving I Spy -- Addition

Challenge 8:  Thanksgiving Money  (Tens and Ones)

Challenge 9:  Thanksgiving Reading Challenge

Challenge 10:  Thanksgiving Making Words

Challenge 11:  Mayflower Syllable Count

Challenge 12:  The Pilgrims and Native Americans Mixed Up Sentences.

Challenge 13:  Sight Word Stick Bang

Challenge 14:  Stick Short Vowel Sort

You can find it at my TPT store.  

October Challenge Work

It has taken me all month but I finally finished my October Challenge Pack.  The first graders absolutely loved the September Pack and so do the other first grade teachers.  My challenge activities are for those students who finish all there work and are asking me..."What do I do now?"  The kids have been busy all month working on the activities.  

However a new month is here and it is time to change up the activities in the challenge drawers.  Of course I did everything around the Fall and Pumpkin theme.  I have some amazing and fun activities for the children.  

Challenge #1  Sight Word Bingo

I always like to work on the sight words so of course I have a sight word bingo game.  It is building on the sight words I used in my September Pack.   I feel it is so important to practice practice practice those words!

Challenge #2    Pumpkin Patch Base Ten Blocks Match

During September the First Grade Math Unit was all about Base Ten Blocks and Ten Frames.  So I have a quick review in here which they should be able to do easy peasy.  

Challenge #3  Scarecrows Number Order

This is another September Math skill, put the numbers in order from greatest to least and then from least to greatest.  This was a hard concept for the first graders so I want them to review this again in October.  

Challenge #4   Creepy Crawly Mixed-Up Spider Sentences

These sentences are super easy because I am introducing them to the idea of mixed-up sentences.  My first grades always love mixed-up sentences, they giggle and laugh the whole time they are working on them.  

Challenge #5  Pumpkin Time Poem

Here I found an easy poem for my first graders to read.  After they are done reading they work on the short a sound and rhyming skills. Next they draw a picture to match the words in the poem.  

Challenge #6  Counting Money Cards

In September the first graders counted pennies, now they will count just dimes.  I know money is not part of common core however I feel it is important for them to have some exposure to money before second grade.  So I like to have one easy money activity each month.    

Challenge #7  Batty Math

I'm not gonna lie about this one, some kids get it and some do not. I put hundreds charts in the challenge bin and demonstrate over and over and over and over how to find 10 less and 10 more.  The first graders can not practice this concept enough.    

Challenge #8  Count and Compare

I created my own I Spy the Halloween pictures page and then have the students count them.  Next they compare the numbers with greater than and less than signs.  Again this is review from our regular math lessons.  

Challenge #9  Halloween Reading

This is similar to our daily classroom reading except they must read all Halloween stories.  I made some QR codes for the listening center as well.  

 Challenge #10  Pumpkin Shake and Roll A Word

During spelling the first graders are working on short a and e, so I found this cute idea on Pinterest and made it in Halloween colors.  I know the kids will LOVE it.  

Challenge #11  Tens Frames in the Pumpkin Patch

We have more math review but this time with ten frames.    

Challenge #12  Halloween ABC Order

I was introducing ABC order with making words last month and I thought this would be a great follow up.  I added picture clues next to the Halloween/Fall words to make it easy for the kids to read.  

Challenge #13  Sight Word Stick Bang

There are so many versions of this game on Pinterest, over the past three years my students have loved the stick activities from Reagan Tunstall so I also included one of those as well.  I highly recommend this activity. My class begs to play this game over and over.  

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Setting Up My Challenge Area

I fixed up my Challenge area.  I really liked the plastic drawers last year.  I put them at an easy to reach level so the students could easily see what was inside of them.  I used my Silhouette machine to make letters to label my drawers.  I purposely chose the number words to increase the print in my classroom.  

I moved my ipads next to the drawers as well.  I am trying to increase the technology activities in my classroom.  

I made a adorable banner with three items from the dollar section at Target.  

I worked all after noon and I finished the activities for the center as well.

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I tried to think of everything including organizing a teacher's binder.  

I wanted the September activities to be easy and a review from kindergarten so the children feel confident to work independently on these activities.  

Getting Ready for My Challenge Pack

I have been working on and off all of August creating my September Challenge Work Pack.  I had the goal of having this ready to sell mid-August and that did not happen.  So I am late to the game now. Oh well!  My new goal is by Friday it will be ready and uploaded to TPT.  

To help me get there I thought I would show you how I use Challenge Work in my classroom.  

Challenge Work in my classroom is for students who finish all their work and are wondering, “What should I do now?”  I have a poster hanging up in my classroom to remind my students what steps they should take. (Sorry about the picture quality...the lights are so bright in the classroom they make everything shine.)

I have this poster hanging up by their “Catch Up and Must Do” work.

All my students have a green challenge folder.    I correct Challenge Work daily.  The students receive their folders in the morning from the pass out helpers.  

The children can complete one challenge assignment a day and then turn in their folder to me in the baskets.

Then they have free time in the classroom.  (Most students rarely have free time so it is a big deal to finish something.)

If a student has mistakes on the challenge work it is returned the next day and they must correct the mistake.  It does not count as a complete challenge assignment.  They must complete a new one before they have free time.