Budding Bloggers Showcase {Erin from Projects & Polkadots in First}

Hi! I was checking out my Instagram a couple of weeks ago when I saw Amanda was doing a Budding Bloggers Series. I couldn't wait to jump on board!

The Personal Me
I'm Erin over at Projects & Polkadots in First! I live in Michigan with my husband and 2 year old son. I LOVE spending as much time as I can with my family. I love going to garage sales, creating fun decor for my classroom, shopping, biking, hiking, and spending my summers with my son!

Love the outdoors!

The Teacher Me
This will be my 9th year teaching 1st grade, I taught 2nd grade for one year. My how 10 years flies by! I love my job more than words can describe. The school I work at is my family away from home. We truly are a team!

My favorite part of the day in my classroom is Reader's Workshop. I just love seeing all my little kiddos curled up around the room in their "book nooks" as they develop their literacy skills right before my eyes! I do individual conferring as well as strategy/guided reading groups during this time. My first graders start Reader's Workshop off by "warming-up" with their poetry notebooks. Then they go right into Read-to-Self followed by Read-to-Someone. During our Read-to-Self and Read-to-Someone time, some students are on our classroom laptops Listening to Reading on Raz-kids.

My Classroom
If you popped into my classroom you would most likely see/hear singing, regardless of the time of day! I absolutely love putting things to a song. Whether it's our shared reading time after lunch, or during a math lesson, I try to find ways to help my kids love learning. I tend to do this with singing, hand gestures, movement, or rhymes.

You would also see polkadots in my room... lots. of. polkadots!

Ikea polkadot couch

Ikea polkadot rug

polkadot ribbon chandelier

Tough Day

I'm able to get through one of "those" days at work with the help of my awesome teammates. Whether it's chocolate from Jane, a laugh with Amanda, or  a coffee with Heather, we always get through one of "those" days by helping each other! (I'm the 2nd from the left, the far right was my student intern last year).

Favorite Classroom Activity
At the end of our character study in Reader's Workshop, I have my kids create their character with construction paper (Junie B. Jones, Arthur, Biscuit, Little Critter, etc.). I gather all of the necessary colors for the various characters ahead of time for each partnership so the kids have everything they'll need to create their character. Then I model making a Frog or Toad in front of the class. I spread the kids out all over the room to create their characters. It's so fun to see the kids working together to create "one" end product. They are so proud when they are finished and the characters always turn out adorable (each in their own way!).

Love these cute little characters!

My Go-to Teaching Resource
Every year my lesson plan binder changes, but however I change it, one thing remains.... EVERYTHING IS IN ONE PLACE! I simply use a binder and put dividers in it with the following sections: calendar, lesson plan pages, teacher passwords (I counted, I have over 25!), student passwords, birthdays, meeting notes pages, reading, and finally writing.

I put a copy of whatever reading/writing unit I'm in at the time. This way, when I go to lesson plan with my team, the units are right there to pull out! For math, science/social studies I have big binders so I just keep those all together separately.

Blogging Goal
My goal for this year is to simply POST! I really want my blog to showcase what happens in my classroom daily. I also want to share the fun things I create for my classroom with others. I've gained so much from the blogging community and I want to  give back!

Come scoop up some first grade fun over at Projects & Polkadots in First