Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope all of you teachers are enjoying a well deserved break. I know for me this holiday hits just when I need it the most. I plan on posting some pictures soon of some of our newest projects but in the meanwhile, I wanted to share TpT's Cyber Monday:

Click Here to check out My Store

TpT is offering 10% off and I have lowered my prices by 20%!

Enjoy the Monday Madness!!

So much time has passed since the beginning of the school year and I keep telling myself I would get back on here, so here I am, FINALLY. Recovering from surgery and getting the classroom up and running has really been an all consuming priority. Meanwhile, in 1st grade...

- I've implemented the Daily 5 and I LOVE IT! So do my kids, I see so much more growth this year than I did at the same time last year.
- I've become lead teacher for my campus which is leading to lots of interesting learning possibilities.
-I've begun doing math pd for my district.
-Together with Kinder and 2nd at my school we have implemented a mentoring/tutoring program for the kids. 2nd grade mentors 1st and 1st mentors Kinder. It's a great way to really bring home all those character ed lessons we do.
-Our Harvest Festival was rained out so we turned the K-2 building into our own version of a carnival and the kids had a blast, best part all the games we did were free, so nobody felt left out because they ran out of tickets.

To celebrate my return to blogging and my first follower on TpT I have created a new freebie, which you can pick up here.   This fun detective themed center was created for teaching prepositions for place. It includes
12 task cards, 12 cloze cards, 12 multiple choice cards and images to be cut and laminated for students to manipulate to show what the prepositions mean.

Also in my store you will find 2 new Christmas themed math items- 

Christmas Operation

Christmas Themed 100's Chart Puzzles using Word Form, Expanded Form and Standard Form

I hope you enjoy and more freebies will be forthcoming upon reaching 5, 10 and 15 followers! Check back soon and I am back in the saddle.

~The Hodge Podge Teacher~

                                       

Back to School...Almost

We reported back to work on Monday and lots to remaining to do as August progresses slowly and steadily towards the first day of school. I haven't started setting up my room yet, but I have high hopes to move to a more spacious area this year, so I admit, I'm stalling. I'm being helped in this by the fact that the building my room is currently in is being remodeled and repainted. So, in the meantime I am reading up on Daily 5  and CAFE, both of which will be new in my classroom this year. On such a small campus we are blessed to work closely together and my principal is very good in allowing "majority rules" on some things, such as lesson plan format. So, today I worked on a "Daily 5" friendly lesson plan template and worked on converting my co-workers into doing the "Daily 5" across all grade bands. So, for your review, comments and free use : So, for your review, comments and free use, click here!

Teaching History on Family Vacations

My kids love history. Many people are surprised by that, but given our family interest in history and the fact that very early on we exposed them to museums and historical stories I would be more surprised if they disliked history.

This year's vacation found us in Dallas and Ft Worth. We went farther back in history than usual with a trip to Medieval Times. While the restaurant is geared more for entertainment than historical fact we found plenty of things to discuss. With my ten year old we talked about women's rights then and now. With my six year old we focused our conversation on simpler topics such as understanding the difference in manners, specifically the lack of utensils. These are simple conversations but they feed the interests and minds of my children while posing as fun and entertainment. By making these connections early we set the ground for later learning.

Later in the trip we find ourselves at the historic Ft Worth stockyards. Here we look at carriages, ride a stage coach and jump aboard the Grapevine railway and discuss how transportation has changed in the last two hundred years. My son learned why cowboy hats have such wide brims. We also learned how the train killed the cattle drive, all the while exploring a cow pen maze, watching old west style shoot outs, a cattle drive and lots of other entertainment.

The best part? My kids have asked for more books about Texas history, American history and even Medieval history and they have no idea how "fun" turned into education.

Summer Break

Working for a charter school can be a mixed bag at times, and for my district summer is one of those times. We spend most of our summer in professional development or recruiting students for our program. Today we (the teachers) went on a well deserved and hard earned 3 week break.

However as you know a break does NOT mean being idle, it is a time for planning, revamping projects and creating new lessons and activities for the upcoming school year, as well as having some family time.

This year we are doing a family trip to the stockyards in Ft Worth Texas for Cowboy fun (and sneaking in some history lessons too!)

What do you do to keep your kids sharp over summer break?

Check out my newest freebie on TPT for at home or school Fraction Practice!

Welcome

Welcome to the the Hodge Podge Teacher! I have taught Early Childhood for 4 years and in 2012-2013 I made the jump to elementary. I am Texas Certified EC-6,4-8 and Spec Ed. I taught clustered class of first and second grade children and boy, did I have my hands full! I've learned a lot and hope to keep learning more. Stay tuned for crafts, activities, lesson plans, technology, center activities and whatever else I can think of to share that might be useful or just a little silly!