First Grade Mystery Reader

I love getting the parents of my students into the classroom. Our weekly Mystery Reader is a great way to do just that!

Each week, I have a parent or grandparent come in and read a story to the class on Friday. During the week, I give 3 clues as to who the mystery reader might be. I give the clues on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By Friday, we have figured out who the mystery reader is and so excited to see them and hear them read a favorite story to us! Many of our mystery readers bring in a little something for the class that connects to the story, but that is definitely not something we expect!

This is a favorite part of the week for my students. I'm attaching the form I send home at the beginning of the year. I grabbed it off of the web years ago and tweaked it a bit to fit my needs. Feel free to do the same!

Don't forget to enter my first giveaway! Go HERE for the details!


Mystery Reader

Operation: Cute Classroom

So back when I was on maternity leave a little over a year ago, I was told that I would be moved to a "portable" classroom.  That's a trailer, people! Our school is growing so fast and we are running out of room, so sadly, I was the one who had to relocate. 


I was super sad initally, because not only did I feel like I was getting kicked out of the building, but my "classroom" had.....WOOD PANELING. Dark. Icky. Musty. Definitely NOT first grade cute! 

Unfortunately, I had very little time to make it all cutesy before the start of last school year. So we lived with the dark brown walls. I put up a ton of art work and called it good. 


Now I have all summer to plan on how I'm going to make this room so fun and cute for my new class. Obstacle #1: I can't paint the walls. Obstacle #2: Fabric to cover the walls would cost an arm and a leg. So....I'm wallpapering. With bulletin board paper. Covering every square inch of the wood paneling nastiness with bright colorful paper. 

Here are my walls before: (see....SO not cute)

And here's a start of what I have done so far on my "yellow" wall. 

And the tree I saw on Pinterest that I knew I had to paint on one of the walls! I love it so much, that I think I'm going to add a few others around the room. Keep checking back to see how my classroom goes from blah to super cute!!

Regarding Pinterest, I have send invites to all of those that commented in my previous post. Please give me a follow! pinterest.com/genamarie . And if YOU are on Pinterest, let me know so I can follow you! 


Just a few more followers until my first giveaway! I'm so so excited! 
Gena

Pinterest -- my latest addiction!

Have you visited this amazing site yet?  In a nutshell, Pinterest is a social catalog. You "pin" your favorite online ideas and share them with friends. I have boards for every room in my home, recipes, things I'd like to make, and a board for school ideas. Finally a cool place to keep all of these wonderful blog ideas in one place. The pins will link you directly to that blog post or website for easy access.


I can see how this would be a helpful tool for all of us teacher bloggers. If you'd like an invite for Pinterest, just leave your email in the comments and I will send you an invite!! Happy pinning!!

P.S. I'm so close to my first giveaway!! Please tell your blogging friends to give me a follow. When I hit 100 I'll post a super "cool" giveaway!

Postcard Exchange??

 Ok, I'm breaking my own rule of not thinking about school stuff during June! But getting on the blogs just sparks all of these ideas.

I was a part of a postcard exchange last year. It was supposed to be with 100 schools ----send out 100, you get 100 back. Well, we only ended up getting 40-something back. The kids still loved it, but there were so many teachers that flaked out. Bummer!

How many blog friends would be interested in something like this? It would be cool to incorporate Google Earth, and maybe even skype into the postcard exchange as well.

Just kicking around the idea of this......any interest??

Oh, hello there!

Hello! I've been MIA for a few weeks now. I have been on summer break for 2 weeks and have pretty much checked out of school stuff and focused completely on my family. It's been a nice change! Good luck to those of you finishing up your school year.

I usually plan to take June off and relax.....then really dive in during the month of July and focus on my new ideas for the upcoming school year. And boy oh boy, do I have some great new ideas, thanks to all of you!

Only 14 followers away from the big 100!! When I reach 100 followers, I will have my first giveaway, and it's a goodie!! Invite your friends to follow my blog!

Skype Story Time!

During May, we have been skyping people around the US (and Canada!) for what I like to call "Skype Story Time". The people we skype with share a bit about where they live and share a picture book with my class. The kids are just loving this and think the technology is so cool that we can talk face to face with others from around the country.

One of my favorite teachers and coaches from high school! The kids thought it was neat that he was MY teacher. :) He read The Diggiest Dog. Thanks, Mr. T.!

Ryan, from Calgary, did an exceptional job using Smart Notebook + conferencing software. It made for an awesome presentation!

Ryan read Too Many Toys by David Shannon.

And here's what my kids looked like on the other end. :)

Voki in the Classroom

April is Poetry month and my first graders have been busy writing all types of poems....free verse, acrostic, cinquains, and haikus. We used Vokis to publish one of their poems. I embedded all of the vokis on my class blog. Here's one example from a student....enjoy! I chose this particular one because it's about my alma mater!