Firstie Kidoodles: BANG! Nat Geo Style and Oh Yeah...I'm Moving

Hi there blogging world! It's been awhile....a long while. I'm really sorry. I wish I could tell you that I have an excuse, but I really don't. Well kinda. Besides wrapping up the school year, packing up my classroom that I've been in for 3 years and moving it to a completely different classroom (more on that to come), a trip to Chicago with my Wolfpack (gotta love Hangover), my sweet girl's 2nd birthday, and my 5th wedding anniversary, I guess you could say summer started off busy, and really doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In my little bits of free time, which basically are the hours from 9 pm-1 or 2 am, I have been working on quite a bit for school. I am moving classrooms this year so I am using that as an opportunity to get rid of my jungle theme and go for the ever popular chevron/polka dots/chalkboard theme all in bright colors. I couldn't pick just one of the three so I figured why not mix them all. Hopefully when it's all said and done it looks good. I'm still unpacking/organizing/decorating but I will be sure to get some pictures up when I get it all done. It's getting close. I have been going to school every Tuesday and Thursday for the past 2 weeks to get things done. When I get home it's family time, but once the hubs falls asleep on the couch around 8:15 after Kayleigh has gone to bed I am a busy little bee.

I volunteered to be on the Reading Adoption Committee for 1st grade this year. I had never done anything like this before so it was definitely an eye-opening experience in many ways. P.S. Who knew teachers could get so caddy and vicious about a textbook choice?! Not this girl! It's definitely a shame the way some grown adults act. Nevermind the fact that those grown adults are also K-3 teachers!! Wowza! Anyways-we fell in love (most of us that is) with National Geographic's Reach for Reading program and so that's what our building ordered for 1-3. Kindergarten ended up going with Benchmark Literacy for those of you wondering.

I guess I didn't anticipate all the work that goes into things when you get a new reading series. All my files that I labeled by stories when I got hired 3 years ago, I now have to relabel and reorganize to match up with the new series. Not to mention the spelling tests, lists, vocabulary cards, roll & write cards and recording sheets, etc. The list just. goes. on! I think I have about 10 lists of things I need/want to do before the school year starts. I know I've gotten a lot accomplished off of that list, but not as much as I would like.

One thing that I have completed are labels for the game BANG! If you haven't played this game with your class you need to! They will love it! It's a vocabulary/sight word game that can be done in many different ways with index/word cards or popsicle sticks. I've done the word card version before and am not really a fan, so I'm going the popsicle stick route this year. Here's how it works: get large popsicles and Avery 5160 labels. Print the words on the labels, cut the labels down, and put on the popsicle sticks. Divide the popsicle sticks by units and put them in a storage container. Crystal Light containers work great! Put some of the BANG! sticks in with each unit. You can play this game whole group, small group, or with a partner. Students take turns pulling a stick. The student has to read the word on the stick. If they successfully read the word in 3 seconds or less, they get to keep the stick. If they don't get it, a partner has to help them with the word and the stick goes back in the container. If a student pulls a stick with a BANG! on it, they have to put all of their sticks back in the container. Play continues on until someone miraculously gets all of the sticks (minus the BANG!s of course) or time it up. The kids are learning and practicing their sight words and they don't even realize it.

I have made the labels for you. They are already up on my TPT site for $1.50. Click on the picture below and take a look.

I'll be back soon friends with some new products I've been working on and pictures of my new room! I'm hoping to be done unpacking/decorating by the end of this week. Stay tuned!