Beginning of year madness!!!

Oh my goodness I have been neglecting this blog that I was so excited to start. But no more!! To start off I am so blessed I have the best group of grade ones this year! They are a really well behaved group and we have been having a lot of fun learning! Daily 5 has been going great this year as this group was exposed to it in kindergarten. I plan on posting some pics of what we have been doing in the next few days. For SAGE this year I went to an inservice all about Beverly Tyner and small group guided reading instruction. I got some new ideas for word work and work on writing which I am excited to try out.

Dollar Store Finds!!!

The other day I was at Dollar Tree kinda just browsing around and of course I found myself in the teachers section....well it didn't take me too long to fill up a basket with some really great finds. I'm not sure yet how I will use all the items but I'll post pics of how I incorporated them after.

I think with the wands I am going to use them when I am working with small groups. If a student comes up to me and I hold up the red wand then they know to come back later and if I hold up the green wand then they can ask me a question.

I must say I fell in love with the cookies and milk cut outs I'm excited to use them just not too sure for what.

Trying new things and something "old"

I don't know what it is with holidays but I get completely restless without a set schedule for the day (it's a good thing I teach grade 1). I have been wanting to incorporate daily 5 math into my math routine and for many reasons this past year did not. But this coming year I am changing things up! I have literally spent all day looking at other blogs and have been inspired by Renee at The Reading Corner I love what she has done and love the fact that she is Canadian and from the same city as me. Don't get me wrong I love all the American blogs but its nice to find one where the person is actually buying resources in the same place I can too! I have started thinking up ideas and planning for daily 5 math and look forward to posting later in the year. Moving on I thought I would post some pics from last summer of my classroom set up. I had 20 munchkins last year and this coming year I only have 11. So things will look a lot different plus I do want to change things a bit. I should be posting my new photo's in a month or so!!

my cute rugs and table and chairs from Ikea...they brightened up the class so much. This was the calendar area but it had to be moved after working some kinks out.

Library display shelf and smartboard...the smartboard was moved next door (sigh) so the grade 2 teacher and I can share it. I wish it was still in the class but glad we can both use it now! Well I'm off to enjoy some of our beautiful weather and catch some Canada Day Fireworks tonight!

Well I'm excited as this is my very first blog post. I have been wanting to start my own blog for a while now after being a compulsive blog stalker, but have never really had the time to start (hmmm I wonder why??). I plan to show some ideas that I used this past year in grade one and am looking forward to the new school year (since I've been on vacay for a total of 2 days). This will be my second year teaching grade one and I am IN LOVE with it!! I just had the best year ever and was sad to see my class go. I decided to title my blog "Fearless in First Grade" not because I am fearless but because I hope to be. I want to try and take more risks in my teaching and try things that scare me a bit. Having the opportunity to teach grade one again this coming year has helped me to really reflect on what I have done right and what I can or need to change. I really want to teach more in centers this coming year and have definitely gotten some great ideas from all the blog stalking I have been doing. This past year I was covering a maternity leave and felt that I had to teach the same way as the teacher I was covering for. Although she is a fabulous teacher the she teaches and the way I want to teach are a bit different and this year I'm not going to let anything stop me, I am going to be Fearless in First Grade!!