Open House and Clip Chart and Blends...Oh my!

Hello again.

Five for Friday time. Let's do this!

This week was Open House.  My firsties acted as tour guides and led their parents on a classroom scavenger hunt. I stayed outside the door to greet and chit chat most of the evening, so the kiddos really had to read the scavenger hunt and complete the tour with their parents. In short, this is what what was on their list:

          1. Tour your desk. Read your parents one of your writing samples in your writing folder. 

          2. Show your parents the Daily Five schedule. Explain to them what you do during each rotation.

          3. Get your book box and read a Meet with Teacher book to your parents. 

          4. Show what you know at the word wall. Read all the sight words you know to your parents. 

          5. Show your parents how many jewels you have on your clip and explain how to get on the Behavior           to Hoot About Wall of Fame (more on this later).  

         6. Guess the bobblehead. Can your parents pick out your self portrait? 

         7. Take a work walk. Show your parents all of your writing and craftivities on display in the hall. 

         8. Visit the Book Fair. 

This collage shows some of the kiddos' bobblehead self portraits, the D5 schedule, the jewels on the clips, and the bald eagles hanging from the ceiling. Somehow I managed to leave school and not take a picture of all the work in the hallway. :-(

About those bejeweled clips. I've been meaning to take pics and I finally did! 

When a student makes it to the top of the clip chart, I hot glue a little jewel on their clip. It takes 13 jewels to fill a clip. When the clip is filled the clip gets retired to the Behavior to Hoot About Wall of Fame. This worked like a charm from August til Spring Break. I didn't hand out a reward coupon or treasure box all year. These jewels are COVETED!!!! And, they're inexpensive. I purchased two bags of these mini jewels at Wal-Mart in August and I'm just now running low. Total spend = approx. $6. I may finally bust out those coupons now some of us are getting Spring Fever. 

The wall of fame is nothing fancy. I'll definately make the wall nicer next year. Sadly, this year all I did was use the cover page of the coupon catalog and staple it to the board. I can do better. :-) My mistake was not prepping the board til school started. I waited until a child's clip was filled. By then, it was low on my list of priorities. But, the kids beemed with pride at Open House if they had a clip of the wall of fame to show their parents!

My clip chart comes from Lindsay Griffith. The jewels were a Pinterest idea. But the resource comes with tons of really neat-o reward coupons.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Behavior-to-Hoot-About-Clip-Chart-Discipline-Coupon-Reward-729419

This activity was a real winner! One of my fast finishers got to start working on her "Spot the Final Blend" activity before anyone else. You get to use a hand lens for this, and hand lenses are a big deal in first grade! Not a firstie in sight could focus on what they should have been doing because they all had to stop and stare at this one student with her hand lens and highlighters. Several forgot rule #3, "Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.", to wander over to me and ask if they got to do that too. Of course! 

This sheet and more can be found here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blends-Be-a-Word-Detective-Initial-Final-Consonant-Blends-1170330

It was such a hit I'm making a version for vowel diphthongs. If my kiddos like it as much as this one, I'll upload it to TpT too.

I found these little yellow punch cards at Dollar Tree (a teacher's best friend). When a student submits work that is his/her best writing you punch the card. I also, display the work with the card as seen here:

When the card is punched 10 times you get a prize. 

Are you going to the the TpT Conference in Vegas this summer? I am!  And, some K and 1 teachers on campus are coming up with ways to raise money for the I Teach K or I Teach 1 conference the same week. Soooo excited! Love to meet ya.

Till next time :-)