First Grade with a TwiSt: A little of this & a little of that

My class is SO sweet this year. I really don't want this year to end and we have been able to do so many fun things. Here is a chart that we made today to activate prior knowledge about winter. Students wrote one thing they know about winter on a post it note, shared it with the class, and then stuck it to the chart.

During small group reading, I love to use white boards. I got them cut at Lowe's my first year teaching for really cheap. Such a great investment! After reading a decodable reader, I assigned each student to write/ draw about one of the following on their white boards: setting, characters, problem, and solution.

On Tuesday we finished our money unit and reviewed with a game that the kids played in partners. Each student had a "piggy bank and a bag of plastic money. They chose 10 coins to place on their piggy bank. Then, the students took turns spinning the spinner. If they had the coin on their piggy bank, they covered it with a bean. If not {or if it was already covered}, they passed the turn on to their partner. The student who covered all of his or her coins first won the game.