The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

Winter Resources for 1st Grade

Happy Friday, friends! I hope you and your family had the most lovely of Thanksgivings. For me, it was very lovely. One of my uncles married his fiance on Tuesday, so yesterday was an exciting time to welcome new members into our family! 🙂 Plus, I have loved being home, hanging out with Mom, sleeping in a real bed, eating coconut cake, and rocking out my December planning! 

First, welcome Christmas! This Sunday is the first Sunday in advent, one of my favorite seasons in the church. Today I headed into church with Mom and we set up our children’s mitten tree!

Also, I am officially on the 7 day countdown!  Until what??? Well, I am SO glad you asked. Only 7 days until I make my bi-annual trip to the Scholastic Warehouse! Friends, it is the happiest place in the world filled with a million books and wonderful bargains. I will be volunteering from 10:30-5:30 to earning $70 in FREE books ($10/hour), using a $25 off $100 coupon (I acquired here), and then, I will SHOP! All the books in the Warehouse are 50% their cover price!!!!! Last year, I snagged this load for only $2.78!!! Needless to say, I am pumped and so are my 5th graders. 🙂

Speaking of reading….As teachers, we have spent the past four months fostering classrooms where books are valued and loved, so the thought that my kiddos might go 2 FULL weeks without picking up a book breaks my heart. Knowing that many of my kids might revert back to their non-reader habits, I created this Winter Break Challenge.

This challenge is not meant to be daunting, serious, or involve a lot of rules. Rather, the goal is to keep students reading and writing in FUN ways. From reading in your PJs to sending an email to your teacher, I have included oodles of opportunities for families to ‘sneak’ in some literacy moments.

In this resource, I have included everything you and your students need to complete the challenge – an editable parent letter, reward coupons, completion certificates, 2 different calendar options, and any other materials students need to complete the tasks. 
To motivate my students to make the time for these activities, I offer students raffle tickets for each challenge completed. I then raffle off 3 Scholastic Gift Certificates (I use the attached certificate and then, use my Scholastic Bonus Points to purchase the books my kids choose). Knowing that this might not work for everyone, I include lots of different options – a sweet treat, a homework pass, or merely a high five and a ‘Challenge Accepted’ certificate. 
The next little ditty, is a Primary Habitat Study pack all about the Tundra! This
is one of the first packs that I was able to make, plan for, and implement in
the classroom while student teaching! 🙂 So, it definitely holds a special place
in my heart, and includes EVERYTHING you need for a full week of Tundra learning –
daily lesson outlines, links to videos/web cams, student exploration booklets,
main idea activities, vocabulary cards, pre-assessments, vocabulary frayer
models, and SO much more. 
I
had so much fun making the arctic come to life for ‘my’ kiddos! If you are in a
primary classroom, this
pack is for you! 🙂

I
also finished up my ‘Tis
the Season’ to Grammar pack. This is a Common Core aligned pack that
practices and reviews grammar and language skills including perfect verbs, verb
tense, comma placement, sentence editing, context clues, conjunctions, affixes
and suffixes, prepositions, and interjections. 

It
is perfect for homework packets, morning work, or just a little extra practice!
You can read more about this resource in this
blog post!

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