Giveaway Revisited

Remember my big giveaway when I finished my "It's Owl Time" unit last summer?  I still get comments from people who have participated even though the giveaway has expired, but when someone puts in the effort to support you of course you still give them the game, right!??!  Well for those of you who never got it, I posted it on Classroom Freebies! 

Click here to get it.

Enjoy!

It's Time to Study Time!

I'm not sure what your curriculum calendar looks like, but where I teach we are now starting Time to the hour and half hour again.  If you are also studying time right now, here's my free Race Against Time gameboard.

If you like that, check out my complete Time Unit!  It's 42 pages of differentiated Time practice, games, and activities!

The Give-Away Continues . . .

Hey everyone! 

Thanks for such a wonderful response to the give-away.  I'm so excited!  I feel like I've finally got some momentum, so I'm about to start working on the next unit!

Just to let you know . . . the give-away will end on Friday at midnight, so if you want the Time File Folder game join the give-away!  Click on the link below to take you to my previous post with the give-away requirements.

Thanks!  Y'all are awesome!

Seconds, Minutes, or Hours?

Every year when we start our unit on time I'm reminded that at their young age, most 1st graders are unaware of the concept of time.  It's kinda funny to pre-assess their concept of time by asking them to guess the duration of one minute.  Have you ever asked them to put their heads down and close their eyes while you watch the time?  You direct the students to raise their hand with their eyes closed when they think a minute has passed by.  In my 9 years of teaching I think I may have had maybe 8 students who already knew that there are 60 seconds in one minute and used this information to come close to the minute mark.  As I watch for those little hands to pop up it sometimes only takes a matter of seconds before a hand is raised!  There are also a few hands that never pop up when I cut off the experiment about 2 minutes into the wait.  We forget how we had to train ourselves and our sense of time as we were growing up.

That's why I created this little pocket chart center!  So students could contemplate, practice, and train their minds to understand the concept of time.  At this center students will need to sort activities that take either a few seconds, minutes, or hours.  They will also come up with a few activities of their own to sort.

Enjoy!

Personalized

Everyone has a need or desire to feel special.  Unique or different.  We like to think there's something that makes us shine just a little brighter.  Then again, it can also be thrilling to find out what you have in common with others!

So often we have our students do projects and work that is very cookie-cutter.  Everyone answers the same.  These are great and easy ways for us to assess, but sometimes it's nice to make it personal!  That's one of the things I like about mini books.  It can offer an opportunity to personalize the content and make it your own.

This Time mini book is similar to some other books you may have come across, but I designed it so that a student can easily personalize the content to make it his/her own!  It reflects the student's school day but asks the student to add details as well as a chance to sequence the events of the day to fit the student in particular!

You can use this mini book as a center or seatwork.  It can even be used as an assessment.  I hope both you AND your students enjoy it!

Click on the preview picture to get it from my TpT store!

Updated File Folder Game!

Remember this annoying Time Unit I keep talking about?  Well, the first product I posted was my "Hoo's" Turn Is It?file folder game.  I've finally gone back and differentiated it as I had always planned.  See, that's one of the reasons my units are taking so long.  I'd like to differentiate my products to meet the needs of your low, average, and high learners.  (I know there's a nicer, more p.c. way of saying that.  How would you name the differentiation so as to not offend anyone?)  You can always differentiate a product on your own, but I'd like to have them differentiated for you already so all you have to do is as the name says: Plug-n-Plan!

Anyways, the new differentiated  file is up on my TpT account.  If you've already purchased it, go back and download the new file.  It's got a lot more to it now!

I hope you enjoy!

The Best Part of Summer

Summer vacation has always been something to look forward to.  Like most of you I've had summer vacation since I was 5 years old.  Even after graduating grade school there was Summer Break during college (even if you decided to take summer courses, there was still Summer Break)!  As a teacher Summer Break has not gone away!

Last week I spent 3 extra days after the actual start of our break to finish up at school to purge, clean, and pack my classroom.  I felt it was essential since I missed the 1st month of school with maternity leave and put the contents of my classroom in the hands of my wonderful sub.  As you know, however, no matter how wonderful the sub she is still not going to do things exactly the way you would have done.  So at the beginning of the year this also means putting things in the right places.  I just found some things last week that I was unable to find all year long!  Now that that's done . . . it is officially Summer!

This year, Summer Break has taken on a whole new meaning.  For the 1st time Summer Break means I get to be a stay at home mom.  For those of you who are mothers you know just how precious this gift is.  I am literally tearing up today on my 1st official day at home with my 10 month old, Analise.  It astounds me to see how much she changes every single day and proves to me just how very blessed I am.  I wish you could see her crawling around, laughing, giggling, smiling, and babbling away!  She's showing off her new words and her newfound monster voice!  =)

Who can resist this cutie pie?!?!

Other than hugging, kissing, playing with and feeding my lovebug . . . I'll be working on her baby book and goodies that I can post here and on my TpT site!

So here's something new:  Time Dominoes!

Let's squeeze one in!

Speaking of very little time . . . things are super, super busy here at the end of the school year!  I'm taking just a minute to quickly upload a freebie for you.  This will be included in the Time Unit that I plan on getting together . . . eventually!  It's a simple game to practice time.  I use it as a center and bring it back as review at the end of the year.  I hope you enjoy it!

Race Against Time Game (It's free!)



So what's this all about?

 Welcome to Plug-n-Plan!

Seeing as how this is a brand new blog, I thought it might be a good idea to explain why I started yet another teacher blog . . .

My name is Melissa and I've been teaching 1st grade for 9 years now in Gwinnett County, GA.  For years I put in endless hours in the classroom, coffee shops, and home working on lesson plans, grading papers, creating centers, drawing up worksheets, etc.  You know the drill.  Then 7 years into teaching I got married, and I kept up this same routine only this time I'd bring stuff home to work on while my husband studied or worked on stuff for church.  Now in my 9th year we've added a beautiful baby girl to the equation!

Life has definitely changed.

I'm still doing all I can, the best I can but I try to make it a point NOT to take stuff home unless there's a really big deadline.  (I've got to put my family before my professional life.  Priorities, right?)  So that means that I'm squeezing in as much as I can into every "spare" second of the day.  Not everything gets done, and a lot of things don't turn out as well as I would like.  It can be pretty exhausting.  You can relate, can't you?

Ready for a confession?  I haven't been fully satisfied with what I do at school.  I know that I can do better if I had more time.  I know this because I know what I used to do. Factor in a teacher's tendency towards control and perfectionism and you can imagine my frustration.

I know I'm not the only one out there who wishes they could make the creative centers they imagine in their heads, plan effective lessons, gather/develop practice sheets and assessments, AND still have a life outside the classroom.  This is why I've started the blog.  It's my goal to put together packages for specific skills that include all these things so that all you have to do is just "plug" the pieces into your own lesson plans and save yourself some time!

So in the spirit of saving time . . . let's start with a file folder game on TIME!

(Complete unit to follow shortly . . . check back soon!)