Read Across America

We're getting ready for Read Across America in another week and I'm starting to line up my activities some will be a repeat and others will be new to us. My team wants to do a Dr. Seuss theme for Open House this year, so we'll be starting to plan out our projects so that we're ready in a month.
We have a schedule that we're sending home to have a theme for each day. Monday, we will be having parent readers come in and read with the children. Thursday we're doing a Readers' Theater with both first and second grade. The rest of the days is pretty much up to each teacher.
I just love this hat. I posted this before and you can grab the "Thing 1" button on last year's post.

Check this blog post from last year for some ideas and a freebie.

I'm also going to be doing this It's a Math Thing powerpoint slide show. We did a few of these before and it's so awesome to see the progress they have made when locating the numbers from 1 - 120.

Try this fun activity at my TpT store.

I'm also passing out these cute bookmarks to the kids. They are always asking for the bookmarks in the library and there never seems like there's enough, so I always have to tell them "no". Now they'll each have one to use during their Daily 5, Read to Self time. If you want to use them with your class, please feel free to grab yourself a copy. Enjoy!

These fun bookmarks you can download HERE.

Below is an example of the week's schedule. We'll be sending this home as an easy reminder to the parents. I chose a book for each day of the week.

I've also just released a new, fun product that is super easy for the teacher. Just print and GO! It's called "Build a Puzzle and Write". Choose a puzzle to fit the holiday, the season, or a puzzle just because. All the puzzles are nine pieces. They came in two options. One has a small picture of the puzzle for the kids to refer to. The other has smaller lines to write and no picture. 

You can really use these in so many ways. I've been doing them as a whole class activity, but you can easily use it in a small group. It's also a great way to get them writing a "Super Sentence" with lots of detail.

The picture above shows the freebie available in my store. I thought the topic would be a great activity for Read Across America Week. I hope you enjoy!

Check out these fun activities at my TpT store.

This freebie is available HERE for you to use with your students.

Writing Station and Touch Points

Where has the time gone? We are already well into the second half of the year and it is flying by. This past week we were busy, busy, busy.

I read this adorable book by Maureen Wright, "Grumpy Groundhog". It was perfect to talk at about lots of different shadow shapes, because we were about to go outside and trace each others' shadows. We turned it into a science lesson that worked well with us wrapping up our unit on shadow. We made a hypothesis (a very smart guess), then we traced our shadows at three different times of the day. They loved seeing how their shadow moved each time they went out. If your were to do this easy experiment, make sure they first trace each others' shoes then stand in them each time they go out to trace their shadow. I had a few making all new shadows in another area, then they weren't able to compare the first to the second. All you need is some sidewalk chalk. Easy and fun!

 Many of my student still depend on their touch points to help them with their addition facts. It's wonderful to see many though are using them less and less as they commit the facts to memory. I just introduced touch points to a new student, so I have him starting out just learning the points and their placement. I tell him, "Practice makes better." Sure enough he's getting better. I love to see the growth in first grade. It's one of the reasons I love this grade. 

This is one of my touch point options, click HERE

I'm continuing to work on our Writing Station. During our Daily 5 rotations, I make them choose Work on Writing at least once. They have a lot of options to choose from and they are becoming more familiar with each type of writing as time goes on. See my other blog post for pics of the anchor papers for each month. They are always changing up, so it keeps them interested. What I was noticing though is that the kids were choosing the same options time and again...cards and notes. I thought maybe they didn't know how to do the other options. Now at the beginning of the first Daily 5 rotation, I do a sample writing. I've done the book review of Crankenstein, a book we had just finished reading. I've done on interview with Frosty the Snowman and last week I interviewed the Tooth Fairy (this is a great one for practicing writing question). Sure enough each time I introduced a new type, the kids would try it out in their rotation. Jokes is a new favorite. Most don't know any by heart, but that doesn't stop them from making up something silly. I tell them to ask their parent at home and come back so they can write it down the next day.

We also have up the Magnetic Word Wall. I'm in love with this, but I need to bring it into the classroom. I give clues at carpet time to see if they can find the mystery word. They can use them for Word Work. During our structured writing time I let them search for adjectives that fit our writing. In the beginning I was changing the words each month to match the holidays, seasons, and themes. Now I'm having the kids collect the Martin Luther King words, winter words, etc. Then they place the new words up in the appropriate box. It has saved me time and has been a great activity for them. This has made them more familiar with the words and return they are using it much more independently.

If you want to check out this writing option, click HERE

Since my focus has been on writing, I made this poster and used it on my door display. I tell the kids just like reading, the only way to get better at writing is to WRITE. 

You grab this freebie poster HERE

There Was a Cold Lady Craftivity

I hope everyone is enjoying their much deserved break, I know I

am. I've had a few days where the whole family stayed in their pajamas all day long. I'm a homebody, so relaxing at home with my family is a perfect way to spend a day.
I've been thinking, just a little, about some fun literature activities to do when I get back. Tacky the Penguin and The Little Polar Bear are a few of my winter favorites, but we'll also be bringing in The Little Cold Lady that Swallowed Some Snow.
This craftivity will be so much fun for the kids. I have a bunch of crafters this year which is a perfect match for me. After you read the story, complete the activities either as a whole class or in small groups. I also have a freebie that goes with this story that I wrote about at this blog post.

The next day, we'll build our "Cold Lady" containers. I would have the kids glue the inside flaps... "A little dot will do." I just tape the bottom on the outside and a little piece for the inside. I'm sure gluing would do as well.

We love to play card games in class. Sometimes I make games on sturdy cards that I keep as a center, but ofter I want them to take the cards home so they can practice with their family. The game shown in the picture is called "Bang". It's really simple and can be adapted for any skill you are working on. We'll be working on the magic E, so those are the cards I prepared for this craft. Instead of writing "Bang" on the cards, I wrote "Chomp".

Directions
1. In a group, students take turns drawing a card from the deck and try to read them.
2. If they can read the word they get to keep the card. If they can’t, have the group help them read it correctly. He/she gets to keep the card.
3. When a Bang!/Chomp card is pulled from the deck the student who drew it has to return all their cards and the Bang! card into a separate pile. In this case they will place them into the "Cold Lady" container.
4. The game is played until all the cards are drawn, and the student with the most cards, wins. 

Grab this freebie in my TpT store by clicking, HERE

I'm thinking of making an author study with Robert Munsch. It was either him or Kevin Henkes. The books I thought of were...

Stephanie’s Ponytail
We Share Everything
Thomas’ Snowsuit
The Sandcastle Contest
Andrew’s Loose Tooth
The Fire Station
Wait and See
Do you have another favorite that I should include on my list?
Take care everybody.

Writing Station with the Daily 5

This past October my team went to an amazing Daily 5 conference by The Sisters. It completely changed the way I ran my literacy block. I've been so excited to implement each one of the five elements, but I'm not rushing it. I'm really allowing time for my students to "get" each part. The last element I have to bring in is Read with Someone. We'll be starting that one next week. I just wanted to share some of the things I've been doing that have really worked and the kids are excited about. One of the first lessons was to teach the kids how to find a "just right" book. This took a few days and I'm still assigning a parent to go "book shopping" with the kids to make sure they now how to pick a book that fits them. 
The first element I introduced was Read to Self. I wanted to make it FUN and something they would look forward to doing. Now that I have more than 30 little ones in my class, I had to get rid of my bean bags and comfy chairs in the library. Our space is just to limited. What I did pick up were five furry saucer chairs that fold and stack, so I can easily slide them under a desk.

I've seen them at Target and on Amazon. I also picked up four giant clear tubs and oversized pillows. Big pillows can be pricey, so I went to Big Lots and found these cute, soft ones for under $5 each.

I didn't have a selection to choose from, but I like what I ended up with. The kids cuddle up in these private cubbies and READ. It's awesome! They truly don't look up for 30 minutes. I don't know what it is about these cubbies that make them tune everything out, but it works.
Word Work is another favorite of theirs. I try and offer a few options each week. Mostly we work with our spelling words or other words that match the phonics skill we're working on. They love Rainbow Writing because I let them use markers which is a rare treat.

I got this freebie from Mel D over at Seusstastic. She also has amazing posts on how she runs Daily 5 in her classroom. If you are implementing the program or thinking about it, you must check her blog out.
Work on Writing was one that I was nervous about because this was an area they have the least amount of stamina. "I don't know what to write about" is a constant. I also wanted them to write in different forms (lists, directions, etc.). This led me to creating a station that provided them with a ton of options and prompts. I wanted it clear to understand, so they could pick their type of writing and get going quickly.

On my white board I provide examples of that months writing opportunities. They look to see what they would like to do (journal in their desks is always an option I give) and then go to the file box.

I helped them the first few times, but surprisingly they got the hang of it. This quickly became a crowd favorite. The wonderful thing was they were writing the entire time. Kids were writing stories I never thought would have picked that option. Lists, cards, super sentences were also very popular.

As time goes by, they venture into other options which I am loving. We are doing a lot with Olive the Other Reindeer, so I made a separate Book Study just for that book. It's not available in my writing station unit, but you can grab it here.

I also love that any of these options can be used as a whole class directed lesson. The writing station does not take the place of direct writing instruction. I do that at a separate time, but it does set them up so they can practice their writing for a length of time, much like you would have them do Silent Reading.
The sisters also talked about the importance of making your word wall interactive. A magnetic word wall seemed perfect for my classroom.

This magnetic word wall is part of my Writing Station. Check it out.

I have words based on theme, time of year, and units of study. Some words I keep up all year and others I change out monthly. I also added adjectives in a different font that are popular with my kids and will provide them with an opportunity to use richer vocabulary. The words based on theme is available in my writing station unit, but if you just need some more adjectives, you can grab this freebie here.

 

You can find all the above activities in my Writing Station unit found in my store at TpT. A couple of the fun Christmas crafts that we're doing is this triangle Christmas tree. I first give the kids nine triangles. I do not provide them with an example.

I just tell them to try and make a large Christmas tree with these nine triangles. It's fun to watch them move the pieces around to try and make a large triangle. Usually a few get it, but I have to start giving them hints by giving them the base row. I sometimes put this piece on top of our calendar that goes home, but this year we decorated the trees and I put them up on display.
On our door, we have all of Santa's helpers. I love using paint chip samples in our artwork and language arts. They are so versatile. I thought these came out cute.

The only problem I ran into was that kids couldn't decide on just one.
Enjoy these last few weeks before break!