Fabulous First Grade

Christmas Celebrations!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 01:24:00 +0000

Ahhhh! Say it with me; a collective sigh! Christmas break is here finally! As a teacher I look forward to this time of year as soon as we go back to school after Thanksgiving! Don't you? Christmas at school is so exciting though.

Last year I was fortunate enough to win an Elf on the Shelf from the company in their Teacher Giveaway! I was so excited. I look forward to getting him out now and making him do lots of non-naughty things. I don't know about you guys but mine is used for "crown control" therefore he does not do naughty things. He is teaching rules and manners. :-) However, I have a confession to make. I didn't want some silly name for the elf. My OCD wouldn't allow it. I also don't want it to change every year. So I named him (he came with his certificate already) and this year he kept his name. His name is Kevin Clark (named for Kevin from Home Alone and Clark from Christmas Vacation...my two most favorite holiday movies). Here are a few things Kevin Clark, or KC as we call him, did during school.

Something my team and I do every year is "Christmas Around The World". We love it just as much or more than the students do. It's so fun to learn about other countries! This year we purchased SEVERAL kits from TpT to assist us in the journey. Here is a look at one of the student books they all made.

These are some of the kits we used...

Christmas Around The World Scrapbook and Kit by First Grade Garden

Christmas Around The World Scrapbook by Sarah Cooley

Christmas Around the World by Bonnie Kathryn - Kinders and Beyond

Christmas Around The World by Jessica Rosace

No Christmas celebration in first grade would be complete without Polar Express and Hot Chocolate and then of course a Christmas Party!!

Have a wonderful holiday!!

My team this year!

A Long Hiatus and How I Decorated My Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 19:40:00 +0000

Who would have thunk (is this really a word?) that my 4th year would be WAY more intense and stressful than my first year in 1st grade!?! Well, I am here to tell you it is tough. I am not sure if it's because our district changes things so much, if my expectations are too high for myself and my students, or if I have just taken on to darn much. Whichever it is, I need it to slow down. Like yesterday! :-)

I had intended on blogging very regularly but due to unforeseen stress this year I fell off of the bandwagon very quickly. Ha! I am going to try to catch up with a series of posts over winter break.

Let Me Start With My Classroom Set-up This Year...

When I took these photos, the room was still a work in progress. It was mostly complete but I still had some housekeeping and organizing to do. This is a pano view from my desk.

Here are some individual photos of different areas in the room.

First up is the front of the room. On the board is the "Lend A Hand" Station. We are a Title I school and with donations from the community we are able to provide the students with all of the school supplies they "need" during the year. Parents can choose a hand from my set-up and donate things to my classroom that I wish to have. It alleviates a very small amount of the money that I spend out of pocket every yea, but it helps. Things they can donate are dry erase markers, tissues, plastic zippy bags, extra glue sticks, markers, color pencils, extra crayons, extra scissors, loos leaf paper, copy paper, page protectors, binders, pencil boxes (like the ones on the table) and so much more!

The alphabet line at the top was a new addition this year. I bought the Original Formation Letter Cards, but found out the day after I paid to have these printed and laminated, that I had to have italic formation. So I got crafty and cut up my old line which happened to be italic formation and adhered them to the printouts and then got them laminated. It all worked out. However, you can buy them in italic formation too.

This is a view of the classroom entrance with the teacher cart to the left"ish" side. The workstation that controls the doc cam, SmartBoard, and movie player. I also keep things in a tray that I use on a regular basis like math tools, writing utensils, paper clips, crayons, etc.

This is a view of my small group center - teacher center. Also on the bookshelf is my classroom library (sans basket tags - they weren't ready yet). There is also a number line above the boards. My students use as much as I had hoped they would. On the dry erase board there are schedule signs that I will use to guide our daily schedule.

On the desks are their pencil boxes, group boxes, and welcome folders. Inside the welcome folders I include a letter to the students and parents, wish list for supplies, student info form, a transportation form, lunch forms, dawn-to-dusk (school based daycare) forms, August calendar, first months words lists, and much more.

Behind the closed door is a bathroom!!

The computer station!! I LOVE that we are so fortunate to have this station in every single K-2 classroom (and their are 24 classrooms). I have 6 computers in my classroom which is perfect for small group centers.

Also, those paintings are done by yours truly! ;-)

I will try my very best to post some updated photos soon. While it has stayed predominately the same, it has changed a little bit. I don't really have a specific theme in my room. I just LOVE color and bright images so that's how I roll.

*I have linked to all of the products that I used in my classroom. You will find them throughout the post.

Summertime Blues - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 01:50:00 +0000

Whew, that last post was long! This one may be as well, but I will try to shorten it.

The last thing we did before we left was celebrate the 4th of July!! It was so nice to have a good old fashioned BBQ with the family before heading back to Florida. My in-laws are French-America. While America is obviously important to them, they don't traditionally celebrate the 4th like I grew up doing.

My 2nd cousin Cross.

My daddy Jerry!

My niece Madelynn.

My 2nd cousin Cannon.

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I also got to meet a brand new cousin (at the time). He just turned a year old! These are pictures of me holding him and my husband holding him. Nothing is sweeter than a man holding a baby. ;-)

~-----~

When we left to head home my niece Madelynn and nephew Trevor came home with us! I was so excited and had so much planned for them to do. We had a blast! Here are a few photos from the week.

Did I mention it's a LONG car trip?! :-)

At the Florida Welcome Center. They loved this chair!

We went to the movies and then to IHOP for National Pancake Day!

This is a kid after her aunts heart. She loves painting as much as I do!

Oh, and she adores her Uncle Noel!

We went to the city pool! This place rocked! They had water slides and other stuff.

We did movies at home too. We introduced them to Jurassic Park! Of course there was popcorn!

No trip to Florida is complete without a trip to the beach!

They tried sushi for the first time....it didn't go so well by the way. Hehe!

Heck, this one wouldn't even try it. He demanded (okay he asked nicely) for Chick-Fil-A instead.

Did I mention that she loves Uncle Noel a lot?

This was technically after their mom had come in to town. We went to the beach for family photos!

My summer was VERY busy and very fast!! I wouldn't trade it for the world though. Now it's time to get back into the "school zone" because Day 0 is approaching fast and I am vastly unprepared! See you in the fall!

Summertime Blues - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:08:00 +0000

Summertime, summertime, summertime sadness. Why does it have to be over so soon? I have had a wonderful summer. We didn't take a huge vacation this year but I spent 2 weeks in Orlando at an all expenses paid professional development for Think Math with FSU-STEM program. I got to visit my family in Louisiana and then my niece and nephew came home with us and spent a week here until their parents (my sister and her husband) came over for a week long beach vacation in Sanibel, FL.

Two weeks in Orlando seemed like a terrific idea and other than missing my husband a tons, it was. It was an incredible opportunity to learn from some of the best in the state. I also got to write a lesson plan for CPALMS using one of the brand new 1st grade MAFS Standards (Florida's version od CCSS). I am so super proud of it. As soon as I figure out how to turn it into a PDF I will offer it here.

This is just a grid image of a few of the activities we did while I was there.

I completed the PD on the 27th of June at 3:30p. I got in the car and drove to Tallahassee where I met my husband at my moms house (this was 4.5 hours for me, 6.5 hours for him from our home in Fort Myers). We immediately got right back into the car and head to Monroe, Louisiana. This is an 8.5 hour drive for normal people who haven't driven already that day. We were driving it at 8:00p. It turned into the nightmare drive. We were EXHAUSTED! It ended up taking us about 11-12 hours to drive it. Why did we do it all in one night you might ask? Because my fathers side of the family was having a family reunion on the 28th and since my husband had never met most of them after 7 years of marriage I had decided we weren't missing it..lol. We got to my sisters house and fell asleep and missed the first half of the reunion. We did make it for lunch and then went immediately to my grandparents house and crashed! It was THE single most best nap I have ever had! :-)

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The next week was filled with so much family fun! I got to see cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, my dad, and my sister's family and my brother's family (who lives in Georgia and made the trip for the reunion too) a ton! Here are a few snapshots.

Then I got to visit my grandparents graves. I haven't been to see them since I was about 13 or so. I am now 35. It had been far too long. The best part is that it was just a few days shy of 4th of July so we brought fresh flowers and flags to put out. My papaw was a WWII veteran.

Then I took my husband for a tour of my home town city. Now, we have been married for 7 years, but since we live about 15-17 hours away from my hometown, we don't get a lot of "touring time" while we are there because I have such a limited amount of time with family. It was time! Here are a few pictures we took downtown. My hometown has SO MUCH rich history. I think I will do a post about it soon to show you more and tell you more.

No trip to my hometown would be complete without a visit to the Duck Dynasty Duck Commander headquarters!!!

I have SOOOO much more to share but this post is long enough. I will make another one in a few days! :-)

I "Mustache" For Your Help!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 18:15:00 +0000

So I have been busy creating and working this summer in preparation for next year. Let's get real, we never really "take a break"! One of my favorite things I have created thus summer is my new job chart. I have mine all printed and ready to go. Just waiting to get into my room to hang it up!

There are more jobs included in the kit which you can see listed in my TpT store here! It's free until Thursday! We all love free stuff right?!

I also created something to use on open house Saturday. I will attach these cute little sign to a bag of microwave popcorn and give them out to the parents and students that come to meet me!

These are not available yet in the store but will be when I figure out which way I want to go with it (pdf or publisher file).

One of my other favorite creations this summer are these cute little desk nameplates for the primary grades. They will be in the shop by the end of the day!

The name is just there for show. ;-)

And lastly for now, this is the new alphabet line that will hang in my room this year. It is the color scheme I am mostly going for this year. I like these pastels and am still in love with chevron so I will be using quite a bit of that too. This one is available at TpT too!

Thanks for taking a peek!

It's Been A While!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 17:34:00 +0000

I am just terrible at remembering to blog! I LOVE doing it, I just caught up in other stuff and forget. And let's get real, with Common Core being put into full swing here in the state of Florida last year, I was just too exhausted from curriculum planning. However, I am once again vowing to do a little better. :-)

Mu summer has been pretty uneventful. I have done some training, spent time with family, and of course lesson planning and classroom organizing. Below are more details into all of it!!

1. I started my summer with a Kagan training.

Honestly, I went into it wanting to hate it! I had only known bits and pieces of Kagan before hand and I was really not interested in learning about it. I guess part of it was that I was still stuck on what I thought should go on in a classroom based on my own learning experiences. That was 20+ years ago!!

In the training I actually won a raffle, which thrilled me! Us teachers love free stuff!! We really don't care what it is! Am I right?!

After going through the training and flipping through the catalog they want you to buy from, all of the pretty pictures and the $10 coupon I had in my hot little hands, I was convinced to purchase something! I got the Kagan Switchboards. They are "Write-On Plastic Pouches" that have 8 great organizers included! I can't wait to use them in my centers!

2. The second thing I did was attend a training in Orlando!

This training was amazing! The training was a grant funded professional development opportunity through FSU, FCR-STEM and CPALMS. What an amazing experience. First off, the fact that it was through FSU was exciting enough! Go Seminoles!! Then to learn I would be doing work with CPALMS was great too. We use this site in our school and district all of the time. This is a site that is even used around the US by other school districts. It is a teachers dream. Kind of a one-stop-shop for lesson plans that are created by teachers and other education professionals.

Anyway, back to the training. I learned Thinking Mathematics. This is a great training that provides you with more of a research based look at math and the way it it taught in the US versus the rest of the world. It really makes you stop and look at all of the possibilities that are before us when doing math.

3. The third thing I did this summer is visit my family in Louisiana.

I look forward to this every summer. I mean, they live 17 hours away ya'll! Summer is the only time that I have to go home and make it worth my while economically. Even though I love my life here with my husband, I miss them all dearly. Here are a few photos from the week.

My daddy!

My husband Noel and my nephew Gabriel.

My nieces Makenna and Madelynn and my nephew Trevor.

Then, my husband and I brought my niece Madelynn and my nephew Trevor home with us back to Florida where we got to hang with them while mom and dad went to Key West for vacation. We had a blast!!

We took them to the beach,

the community pool,

and 7-11 for Slurpees!

We also had movie night (Jurassic Park anyone?!)

and just hung out. Oh and Madelynn got to play in a good 'ole Florida thunderstorm.

It was great quality time. Don't tell my husband, but I think he missed them as much as I did when they left. ;-) I have TONS more photos, but I don't want to bore you with those! :-)

4. Something else I have done this summer is some genealogy research.

There is nothing more exciting than to trace your family roots back 9 generations!! Yes, I have done that on both sides of my family. I even finished scanning hundreds of photos into the computer. They were old, some as old as the 1800's. My grandmother inherited them from my great grandmother when she passed away. Here is a photo of my great-grandmother and me that I found this summer.

5. The other thing that has consumed my summer is school!

That's right, we all know us teachers never really get a break. We think about school year round. We think about what we will do to make it better next year, what classroom management strategy with work best, what we need to tweak in math instruction so they understand it better, what reading skill needs to be made a top priority, and the list goes on! I also can't stop thinking about what I can do to be a better teacher and being better organized. I have also been busily creating some cool things to use in my classroom. I will make a new post soon about that stuff!

Thanks for sticking with my post and reading it! It's been a busy summer and I only have a few weeks left! I think I will cherish that time and use it wisely. :-)

Summer Is Near!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sat, 24 May 2014 12:08:00 +0000

Wow! This has been a challenging year! With two new curriculums and a district that constantly changed what we were doing it was a challenging year. Unfortunately my blog suffered. I really wanted to keep it up but as you can see it's been a very long time since I posted anything of value on here. I am planning to get back on board as soon as I begin planning for next year over the summer. My goal is to be more consistent with it. I am sure you guys know what I mean.

In the meantime, please don't forget to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers shop for some fun products. I will also be adding things to it over the summer. Enjoy some fun in the sun and I will see you back here shortly! I have two days of school left and they will be busy!

Get The Egg!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 19:10:00 +0000

The title of my post is the same as the title of the story we read recently that inspired this project! It was about Brad and Kim and how they saved an egg that had fallen from the nest. The companion story to the main selection was How To Feed A Bird. It gave instructions for how to build a feeder. So we did!! They turned out so cute.

All you need is a pine cone, peanut butter, bird seed, and string. Super easy peasy lemon squeezy!

I gave each child a paper plate with a dollop of peanut butter and a mini wooden popsicle stick and let them get to it. They just spread the peanut butter all over.

After that, they brought it up to my table and we dipped it into the bird seed and put them paper bags.

In the bags they stayed until they went home that day. :-)

Other than the occasional whiff of peanut butter I get still, this was a great success! You should try it!!

Happy Teaching!

Anchor Charts, Festivals, and A New Book! Oh My!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:57:00 +0000

I have been so busy lately! Isn't that the life of every teacher though? I have a few updates to do but I am going to put a couple into one post.

Anchor Charts

These things are all the rage! And I totally get why. I LOVE them! They are such a great asset to my classroom. My students look forward to the new ones on Monday mornings when I am introducing a new weeks set of skills. These are just a few of them. If you use Pearson's Reading Street for Common Core then they will look familiar to you. I have done one so far for every week, but I only took pictures of these two so far for some reason.

I also LOVED this chart that I saw on Pinterest so I copied it for my room. I would love to give credit to whomthe original author was but unfortunately the photo I pinned doesn't trace back to a web page. If you know who it belongs too, please let me know.

Fall Festival

We recently had our fall festival at my school and it was a HUGE success (HUGE Caroline!!....I couldn't resist!). Our PTA raised a lot of money and the kids had a wonderful time! I was manning the popcorn station for a couple of hours. My co-worker and teammate was there too.....

This was only 20 minutes after it opened and it was jamming already!!

We had about 8 bounce houses and jumbo slides, inflatable games, carnival games, corn hole, and every kind of junk food imaginable! Such a great time!!!

A New Book

Do you read the Divergent Series?!?!

If not, do yourself a favor and pick it up!! At the urging of two friends, I finally did and killed the first two books in 4.5 days. Well, on Tuesday the new book and final one of the series was released. I am having a love/hate relationship with the outcome. I feel complete but so completely mad. I hate when authors do this!

Another post coming soon of a bird feeder project we did! Happy Teaching!!

It's Been Awhile!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 23:53:00 +0000

Wowzers!! This school year is banging and I am going from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm on most days. I hardly have time to think, less let build and maintain a blog. However I am going to try and be more present with it! I miss it and I want to use this space as a journal of sorts. I have tons to update on but I left my camera at school with all of my pictures so maybe I will get it done this week.

In the meantime, I did manage to snap some photos of my kiddos playing some random math games. We had a blast. We totally skipped curriculum math for a whole day and played math games instead. It was a nice break for them and for me.

We played subtraction BINGO first...

Next I allowed the kiddos to sprawl out all over the classroom and they went to work.

Here are some shots from that!

Then lastly, some of the kiddos wanted to play Odyssey Compass assignments. They love this stuff!

It was one of my most favorite math days. I can't wait to do it again!

Wow! What A Beginning!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 13:51:00 +0000

Who ever knew that adopting two new curriculums in one school year would be so exhausting?! I have had a lot of fun reading all of the new material but trying to figure out what to use and what not use is daunting! There are so many choices and I want to use them all. I know however, that is not feasible. My kiddos seem to be adapting well to the new school year. We have been in school for a nearly a month and I can say the only thing we really haven't "mastered" yet is the rules part of first grade. I have a great group of talkers this year! I do know that it is a learning process and the learning never ends so I am sure I will be working on this until the end of the year.

During literacy centers while going over high frequency words, I notice that many of my students do not know their color words. I decided to make a game for them to practice these. This can be done solo or in a group. I hope you find it useful too. Please visit my TpT store to get it!

It's a great deal of fun and my kiddos love it!! Enjoy and happy learning!

Whew! A Day Off!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 17:33:00 +0000

Well hello weekend! I am so glad Labor Day is here. It has been a stressful school year so far! I do have some good news to report though. I gave my students their first math assessment and all but two students passed it. I was quite pleased considering I felt like I was flailing and floundering when it came to actually teaching the content. Yippee for small victories.

First Full Week and a Center Activity!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 04:49:00 +0000

Whew! I have survived the first week! And by survive I mean "holy wow why do school districts adopt new reading and math curriculum in one school year"?! I am beat. And feel like a first year teacher all over again. Eesh!

On a positive note though, I am IN LOVE with my kiddos. They are so much fun. And funny too!

TRUE STORY: We have begun our first fundraiser of the school year and it's selling Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough. I know right? :-) Anyway, I told all of my students that if they all sold 1 tub of cookie dough, I would give them a pizza party. (Hello $5 pizzas from Little Ceaser's!) This morning I had a student open her bagproudly and announce to me that she did exactly what I wanted her to do last night with the cookie dough. I told her "yay, you sold a tub already?" She looked at me puzzled fora second and said "No! I brought in the cookie dough so we could have a pizza party!" She proudly handed me a roll of dough. It was SO hard not to crack up but I held my composure and said "Does mommy know you brought this in?" and she said "Yeah, she took me to buy it last night!"

FACE PALM!

It truly gave me a Friday morning giggle!

I know some of you are going back to school just now so good luck with your first full week next week! I will be thinking about you all!

Now for the new goods! It's a great center activity for practicing nouns. :-)

Go to my TpT store to see more images and a description.

Also, look what I did last night! So much fun! I went with a couple of friends from work to a canvas painting class and had a blast. It was FSU vs. UF night! I was totally painting Osceola!

I am on the left standing right next to the "Gator Lover"! :-) My painting has FSU going down the canvas.

If you ever get the chance to do this with your friends, GO! It's so much fun!

New Product on TPT!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:45:00 +0000

I have a new product out today. Labels!! What teacher doesn't like labels?! These labels can be laminated and then written on with a sharpie. Need them for something different? Erase the writing with a "magic eraser" and write something else! Very versatile and most importantly, only $1.00 for the rest of the month!

The First Two Days!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 02:30:00 +0000

Well, I have met all of my students and it went amazingly well! I have some adorable little kiddos. It has been very fun getting know a little about these tiny humans but it has been enjoyable.

Like everyone else, the first couple of days of school we spend going over procedures and rules and such and doing some fun activities.

This year on the first day, we read First day Jitters and David Goes to School. Jitters was a fun book, but I don't think my kids quite "got it". We did have a great discussion about what gives us the jitters though. David is a great book about a little boy who is a complete handful. He disobeys the rules quite regularly. I read this as an introduction to classroom rules and procedures. Here is a picture of the book cover.

I found an adorable activity idea on none other than Pinterest so I decided to recreate it. I found the idea at The Kinder Cupboard blog and fell in love with it. We read the book, and then I we talked about being "peacemakers" and "peacebreakers". The kiddos loved it and they really got into the activity.

Afterwards, we made the "Davids"and they really loved this! I have a few pictures of some of their samples. Do you see mine hanging on the board at the bottom of the picture up there? Hehe, their creations look nothing like mine but they are cute anyway.

On the second day, we read the books Chrysanthemum and Wemberly Worried. Kevin Henkes is a wonderful author! For Wemberly, we listed on post-it notes all of the things that made us worry on our first days of school. We gave the worries to Wemberly and kissed them goodbye. The kids thought this was fun. Here is our poster I created (just by looking at the cover of the book) with our worries.

Afterwards we read Chrysanthemum. For this book we talked about how unique each of us are. I was also able to involve a math concept with the book so I a two-for-one deal with it. :-) Each of the students were given a slip of paper with their name on it. They had to cut apart the letters and count them. Then they had to glue them onto construction paper and we attached it to the chart. Here is our activity below.

I would say the first two days were good. We didn't lose a 1st grader this year going home and my activities rocked! I would say overall it was a success!

Teacher's Pay Teachers

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 02:35:00 +0000

I am so super excited to debut my TPT store tonight! Right now the products are free. Please visit my store and take a look! Maybe I have something you could use!

Word Wall Labels

Book Bin Labels

Classroom Task Cards

Open House and My Classroom!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 22:25:00 +0000

Well another success open house and official beginning to a new school year. I really enjoyed meeting my new kiddos this morning. It is so exciting to see their smiling faces and experience their enthusiasm with them. I have so many hopes and dreams for what they will accomplish and for what I too will learn along the way.

Every year, my team takes a photo minutes before open house it to begin. This is the shot from today!


Cathy, Mary, Amy, Michelle, Mrs. Flock, Me, Jenn, & Jaime - Best Team Ever!!

I also decided to take some photos of my classroom today too. Show off some of the things I have been working on lately.

This is my "Centers" corner. All of the math manipulatives are on the red shelf. The math centers
and the literacy centers are in the cubbies. On the two desk are the supplies fir a writing center.

The view of the front of the class. Notice the posters to the left of the SmartBoard. That
was a Pinterest find! I talk about them here in a previous blog.

This is my "Jobs" board and my birthday chart! Can't wait to fill it in now that I have my class list!

I LOVE this set up for a desk group of 5. It makes the 5th not seem so left out. Genius!! My
co-workers came up with this idea!

Computer center and my favorite thing in my room...my READ Owl Posters!! LOVE THEM!

Just a nice view of the side of the room. The door on the right side is the door to the bathroom.

I am nowhere near finished with the room, but I got it "open house ready" for now. Thanks for checking it all out! I hope your open house goes smooth and you enjoy the time!

2013-2014 School Year Begins Tomorrow!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 13:37:00 +0000

While I am a bit sad that summer is ending, I am very excited and anxious to get into the new school year. I have so many ideas trampling around in my head trying to find a way out so I am glad that I can finally release them.

Our first week and a half of school is for training, meetings, and time in our classroom. I am most definitely not looking forward to the the first two but I am the last because my room is practically ready to go. I will be able to focus on curriculum.

So this weekend, I have been working on some more anchor charts and I thought I would show them here. **Disclaimer: I have no idea what wonderful teacher had these on their blog. I sadly didn't save that info. I did find these ideas elsewhere and if anyone knows where, please let me know so I can be sure and give them credit.

I love them!!

Happy "first day back" tomorrow for my teacher friends!!

One Weekend Left!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 20:05:00 +0000

Yes, you read that right! We have one weekend left until we start the new school year. Thankfully us teachers get a week and a half before we see students, but it will go by increasingly fast!

I am down on my back this week which has really slowed the completion of my classroom, but I was able to at least begin work on some anchor charts. There are so many good ones floating around Pinterest and while I think I am very creative I look at them and longingly think "wish I had come up with that idea". Well I did the next best thing and drew my own versions of some. This is the only one I have a picture of, but I will post more later as soon as I get a chance.

This poster was seen on 2nd Grade Smarty Arties and I fell in LOVE! Here is my take on it.

I can't wait to make more!! It's so much fun!

Back to School Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 01:15:00 +0000

I finally went to our local school supply store today and did a little shopping. Well maybe more than a little...$75.00 roughly. I told the lady I was waiting to hear my total and she goes "oh it's not that bad". Her idea of not so bad is clearly different than mine. It's all good though, I am in LOVE with my purchases. Here they are below. I took them with my iPad so they aren't the best quality but they will do. :-)

Random Borders - Chevron Print with have magnetic tape adhered to the back for the white board. The Street and Green Glitter ones will go to complete the "Reading Street Focus Board" I am creating. The Owl border is still being debated. I am thinking it will go on my Spalding Board.

Owl Posters - I am obsessed with them! I can't wait to laminate them and decorate!

This is a ginormous wall banner that reads "READ". It is of course owl themed which just excites me!

This is my Jobs Board set. I love this black and white stuff. So simply stated. Can't wait to get it done.


Not exactly sure what I will use these cards for but I loved them. The pencils will be in my open house goody bags.

I am going in tomorrow to laminate them and decorate. I will post photos of all when I am completely done.

Pin Party!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 00:07:00 +0000

Just thought I would sneak on here and share some of my favorite pins from recent browsing fests! I stalk this site like a rabbit stalks a carrot. I love it! Share some of yours in the comments!

Glitzy In 1st Grade has an amazing classroom!


Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten uses this fabulous rules display! I may just have to make one for myself!

Seriously?! Who thinks of this? Nancy does over at Teaching My Friends! This is genius!

Leslie Ann over at Life in First Grade has some amazing games! I love them all and can't wait to use some in my class!

I hate frogs of any kind, but this activity is just adorable and goes with Frog and Toad! Love it! You can find it at Once Upon A First Grade Adventure.

Hope you find some use for some of these or anything else you may find on their blogs! Share with me some of your favorite!

Task Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 20:38:00 +0000

I saw this idea on Pinterest so I made my own! I can't wait to see how well they work in the classroom! The idea is that you hang these on the white board or somewhere else prominent in the classroom and voila! Instant organization! I can dream right? :-)

You can get them here!

Clock Seconds

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:31:00 +0000

In light of having to teach the CCSS now in Florida, I am trying to get creative. Since I know and use Photoshop CS5, I have been creating some things to use in my classroom.

We have to teach clocks this year in math class so I made these handy "clock seconds" to put around my clock at school. Feel free to snag and use. I will post pictures of them in use once my classroom is finished. :-)

Here is an image of them and their links.

ENJOY!!!

Ahhh! My First Post!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenn Kellams) — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 20:10:00 +0000

I am so excited to have my first post. I am not sure what this blog will entail, but I am most sure it will have to do with my family, friends, and most importantly 1st Grade!

Let me introduce myself a bit.

My name is Mrs. Kellams and I am so excited to be teaching first grade in Lee County, Florida!! 1st Grade is very fun with tons of learning and new adventures and I can’t wait to share them with my students and see what the year has in store for them. I am excited to learn all about them, but first I am going to tell you all about me.

I was born and raised in a small town in Louisiana and I am the oldest of three. I have a
younger sister and and a younger brother, and 6 nieces and nephews (who you will see lots of on here!). I love them so much! When I graduated from high school, I moved to Tallahassee, Florida with my mom and brother. In the fall of 2006, I met my now husband, Noel.

Noel is a wonderful teacher too! He has been a teacher for 6 years in the same county; he teaches middle school, gifted, history. He is beginning his 7th year right now! After Noel and I were married I decided to speed up the college process and quickly finished my degree in Elementary Education! I was so excited and couldn’t wait to begin teaching!

I began here at the school I am currently employed at in 1st grade and I never left! This is my 4th year and I couldn’t be happier! I adore teaching in first grade because this is such a big year for children academically. They learn so much!! This is the year they begin reading more and discovering the things around them.

Some of my favorite things:

Favorite - black
Favorite Season - Spring
Favorite Food - Asian
Favorite Fast Food - Chick-Fil-A
Favorite Drink - water
Favorite Sport - Football (Go Saints!!)
Favorite Animal - My kitty (Scampi)
Favorite Book - Hunger Games
Favorite Song - I am a music ADDICT!
Favorite Hobby - Photography

Some pictures of my family and I!

Noel & I

Me, my brother Jeremy, and my sister Kelly.

Makenna & Trevor

Gabriel, Madelynn, my dad Jerry, Warner (in his lap), & Taylor

My mom Kathryn, my step-father JL, and Ariel.

I have to find some great pictures of my husbands family and then I will post them. I will also post some of my classroom when I get it finished for the year!