Techies in First Grade : Last Six Weeks

So the count down has begun and so has the first grade "itis" is there such a thing? I know my senior has senioritis so why can't a first grade student? Well my students started thinking that first grade is over and they are ready to move on to second grade.

Since my curtain partner and I are departmentalizing this semester, I do get ~~some time away~~ an opportunity to teach my partners students. I love teaching this way, I guess that comes from my middle school days, but I love the fact that I plan for one subject and get to teach my favorite subject in the whole wide world, math. I have to admit though that I do find myself teaching ELA and hearing my little ones read, so when I get a chance I still call students to my table and have them read to me. I just love to see this little ones grow up. I have had most of these kiddos since Kindergarten. I was able to loop up with them this year, so I have seen the improvement since day 1 on most of my students. I am going to miss them next year, but I was glad that my first year in first grade was with a group that I knew and knew my expectations well, in fact they pretty much trained my newbies.

Anyhoo, our school is STAAR testing this week and we are locked in our classrooms till the testing is all done (we aren't really, but it feels like that to the kids ~~and the teacher~~ at times). I have taken this time to begin my end of year testing also. Did I mention I love to see progress it just makes my heart swell with pride in these kids.

Well with our 3rd graders testing this week, we wanted to send best wishes to our counterparts in 3rd grade, so we made them some STAAR Wars Best Wishes cards and attached a blow pop to it. I found the clipart from Dorky Prints over at etsy.com to go with our STAAR Wars theme. Also since this is the last week and like I mentioned before we are having a little trouble keeping kids to stay with me the last six weeks my curtain partner and I have started a little table wars game with our classes. The winner earns extra recess on Friday while the other students sit and work on AR and earning points towards our end of year Book Bonanza Celebration (more on that later). I have included the cute boxes I made for each table for you today.