Sarah's First Grade Snippets

TPT Sale

2012-02-29T14:18:00.000-08:00

I just spent WAY too much money on TPT. I couldn't help myself! Some people are shopaholics when it comes to clothes or shoes. My addiction is buying school-related stuff. Do you ever feel like you need a second job to support your buying habits for your first job. Ha! There are so many great things on sale right now. My store is also joining in on the fun. Everything is 20%. Click here to get to my store.

100th Day (some old and some new) and a darlin' idea

2012-02-22T10:39:00.000-08:00

I know a lot of you are well past your 100th day, but we just had ours last Friday. What a day! I don't have anything new to post since last year, but I thought I'd repost a few ideas just in case you missed it. There are three activities posted that are free to download.

Here's the link to my post last year.

I've done this every year, but didn't post it last year for some reason. It's the classic Trail Mix sorting. Every student gets 10 of each item to sort, totally 100. Yum!

You can download it here.

This year I also did Mrs. Browning's Mystery Bottle activity. My kids LOVED it! It was so much fun. I highly recommend it if you haven't purchased it yet. It's only $2! Here's the link to her darlin' site.

Weekly Behavior sheet

2012-02-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

I recently started using this weekly behavior sheet. I saw a similar idea posted on a fabulous blog a while back, but I can't remember which one! (If you know, please tell me so I can post a link.)

I send it home every Friday. I realized that I needed to be very specific about what behaviors I was seeing in class. These are the main ones that my students needed to work on. Parents really appreciate the communication and have a clear idea of how their child is in class. If there is an issue that arrises that is not on this sheet, I simply write a note on the back.

You can download this here.

There are two per page to save paper. :) There are two different pages as well: one page is the one shown above and the second page has takes care of materials instead of raises hand.

President's Day mini-unit FREEBIE

2012-02-19T20:06:00.000-08:00

Last year I posted a mini unit for president's Day.

If you want to download the whole free mini unit, you can click here.
If you take the freebie, please leave a comment. I love the feedback! :)

You can see the posts from last year here.

I should warn you that I'm planning on updating it by adding clip art and trying to cutify it (I know that's not an actual word, but it slips out often, pronounced: cute-i-fy). So... I'll do another post if I end up updating it. Hopefully I'll get time to do that tomorrow on my day off, if my little ones take good naps! :) If you have any ideas or things you'd like to see you me add/modify, I'm totally up for ideas. I have some ideas swimming around in my head, but with my (almost) 3 year old and 4 month old, I'm getting low on time. Hopefully I won't let you all down! I'm also hoping to post a St. Patty's day pack, but we'll see...

Exciting personal side note: This weekend my 4 month old flipped over AND scootched a few feet forward on his tummy for the first time! So funny because my older boy was like 9 months when he scootched for the first time. (Again, is scootched actually a word or did I just decide it was a word?) Maybe it was just a fluke, otherwise, I may be in for it if he decides he wants to be on the move this early!

Happy Sunday and enjoy your holiday tomorrow!

Valentine's Day fun

2012-02-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day was such a great day, but SO busy and SO SO crazy! The kids were bouncing off the wall. Below is a picture of Guess My Valentine. I put the kids in groups of 4. The bags were put all around the room and the kids rotated around the room reading the clues to make inferences about what was in the bags.

The link to this activity is here.

When everyone was done, we all got together and peeked in the bags. The kids loved this activity!

Valentines Day Freebie

2012-02-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

I am so excited for Valentines Day! Valentine's Day is so fun in the classroom. I still get excited when passing out valentine cards. :) Tomorrow we have such a full day planned! I hope I get to everything I've planned. Ha! As a Valentines Day gift, I wanted to post a little freebie for you from my Valentines Day Literacy Pack.

You can get it here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day! XOXO (that totally makes me think of Gossip Girl) :)

Valentines Day Inference activity

2012-02-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

There are two ways you could use this inference activity:

Option 1- Stations:

1.Place 4 bags around the room. Put students in four different groups (one group per bag).

2. Glue Valentine gift clues (below) to front of each bag as shown above. (One per bag)

3.Students will read the clues about the Valentine gift and make an inference about what the gift is inside the bag (based on the clues).

4.They will write it on the student sheet. Then they will rotate to the next bag.

5.Rotate 4 times until every group has made an inference about each bag.

6.Come back together and share inferences and then reveal what is in each bag.

Option 2- Four separate student worksheets

With this option, students just read the clues and make an inference. They can do this at their desks at any time. It could be a center or just seat work. If I chose this option, I would use one to model how to do it. I would use the second for guided practice and then the last two for independent practice (or one for assessment) Example of one is below:

I just updated my Valentine Pack to include both of these activities (it originally only had the worksheets, but then I thought of the other idea today). You can buy the entire pack here.

You can see everything else in the Valentine Literacy Pack here.

Valentine's Day Literacy

2012-02-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

I put together a little Valentine's Day pack filled with some great comprehension and word work activities. Scroll down to take a peek. :) We've done a lot with inferring, predicting and visualizing in my class lately, so that's the bulk of this pack. I included a few things from the February menu (since they are Valentine's Day themed as well). I'll post a (cheaper) mini-version of this without the Feb menu stuff too, just in case. :) The regular pack is 50 pages total

Prediction Page: a short story with clues to help make a prediction

4 inferences pages: short descriptions of a valentine gift with clues so students can infer what the valentine gift is.

Read and Sequence: How to make cupcakes

Heart Words: Color the real words (long vowels)

Writing pages: Valentines Day, My Best Friend (with guide words and without) and My Friends

Fiction Stories:

1. Ken's Valentines Day: comprehension questions and graphic organizer

Valentines Day Story with graphic organizer (main idea) and heart venn (to compare Valentines Day in the story to your Valentines Day at school)

Valentines Sentences (use pictures as prompts)

3 Sentence Scramblers

2 Read, Visualize, Draw

The items below are in this pack and also in the Feb. menu (along with one of the visualizing, above). I'll have a mini-version without these things.

Read, Think, Match

Make a Word

Compound Cupcakes

Post office

You can get this pack at my Teacher's Notebook store $3

You can get the mini-version here.

March Literacy Centers and a freebie!

2012-01-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

I just finished updating my March literacy menu and posted it on Teacher's Notebook and TPT. In my classroom we study fairy tales in the month of March. So, my menu has some fairy tale stuff included in it. However, I know that not everyone studies fairy tales so I decided to make two different menu options: one with some fairy tale stuff and one without. So basically, you get more centers to choose from. My indecisive nature is to your benefit. :) Below are the two versions:

Scroll down to see how the menus are different.

2 versions of Read, think, match

2 versions of Read and Sequence

Rebuild a Poem: student sheet and sentence strips

Magic e: Students read word cards and decide if it needs a silent e or not (to make a real word).

Rainbow flip book: make a flip book for your students to mix and match to make real words

Shamrock Words: Use the words in the center of the shamrock to make real words by substituting in different vowels.

Sorting Station: Read each leprechaun word card and decide what sound the U makes.

mix a fairy tale: choose a good character card, "bad" character card, and setting card to make a mixed up fairy tale.

My Pet: choose an animal card and write about that animal as a potential pet (prompt)

How to... 2 versions: How to catch a leprechaun or How to make a PB & J sandwich

(3 different formats included)

Super Sentence: Build a super sentence by using the color-coordinated word cards

The (describing word) (who or what) (did what) (when) (where)

Sentence or Not: read the sentence cards and decide if it's a complete sentence or not.

Word Endings: -er or -est

Sentence Scramblers: 4 included (one is shown below)

Post Office: Prompts for writing to fairy tale characters, or just a plain page for your students to choose who to write to.

Plus 5 extra graphic organizers to use with buddy reading for early finishers.

You can get these buddy reading sheets for free here.

Inferring mini unit

2012-01-28T17:15:00.000-08:00

We've been learning about inferences for the past two weeks. This is most in-depth I've ever gone with it, and I must say, it's been pretty fun to teach. I think they actually have an understanding of the concept, which is pretty cool considering it's such a tricky one! By the end of the week, the kids were actually saying stuff like, "I infer that..." So exciting! I love that when teaching comprehension skills, some of your struggling readers actually have the chance to shine. I have two kiddos who aren't the strongest with their phonics and fluency, but just have amazing comprehension skills when we do more guided lessons. Here are some of the things we've done:

First, I introduced the concept with this anchor chart.

It's kind of hard to see here, but it says What I Know + Clues from the story= My Inference

The top two little signs are from Abbey's Snowy Investigation pack. They give examples of inferences. I used this chart with books we read. As I read aloud and found examples of times we could make an inference, I'd walk the class through it using this chart. We'd think about what we know (our schema) and point out the clues from the story and share our own inferences. Part of teaching this skill is helping kids to see how they came to their inferences.

Then I had this idea to have the class make inferences about our morning schedule. So I wrote this morning message, giving clues about our day. They used their schema and to clues to infer our schedule.

The blank white pages are laminated so I could use them over and over with different stories. THe one written in purple is an example of our schedule inferences. The bottom one is an inference we made from a story we read together. We used this format with several different stories.

Then we did some guided practice with this Snowy Inferences sheet. We read the short passage together and slowly walked through this. Then they did one on their own.

Here's a snapshot of the actual page:

As a culminating activity we did Abbey's Snowy Investigation. It is fabulous! The kids has so much fun!!!

case file with evidence

looking at some clues

Filling out evidence sheet with inferences

I made a mini-unit based on some of the activities I did in school. In this mini-pack you'll find...

Printout of the poster I used (here are two of the three)

4 Inference sheets for guided practice

Inferring our Schedule: Choice of one page worksheet or as a center.

Inferring Sam's Vacation: read the clues to figure out what Sam did during his vacation.

Choice of one page worksheet or as a center

Read Think Match (Above with the animal pictures)

Read the clues to infer which animal is being described.

You can get this pack at my Teacher's Notebook store.

January Centers in action and a freebie

2012-01-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

January centers are off to a great start. I've been taking note on the little things I do to make centers run smoothly, so I'll be posting those tips later this week. It's taken me years to find what works for me. For today though, just a visual of the centers. I always love to see other bloggers' work in action.

Make a Word: matching snowflakes to make real and nonsense words

Sorting words: oo or o

Students looks at word/picture cards and decide if the vowel sound needs one o or two.

Snow Sounds: This one is tricky! Students need to read the word, then decide how many sounds the word has. They sort on this sorting mat: three, four or five sounds.

Sentence Building: Students choose word cards to make a complete sentence that makes sense. The mat underneath guides them.

Snow Globe writing: students choose a snow globe picture and write at least 3 sentences describing their snow globe.

Read, Think Match: Read the sentences on the small strips and match to the pictures. They have to really read carefully to match them up correctly.

At this center, students place the penguins in the correct igloo. If the word alone makes a real word, then they place it on the blank igloo. If the word needs a silent e to make a real word, then they put it on the e igloo.

Here, students read each sentence strip and put them in order.

There are more, but I only had time to snap a few shots. This week I'll talk more about the organizational part of it. For a look at all the centers, click here. I realized I never posted a freebie with the January centers, so here it is! Click here to get the January center freebie. Happy Sunday!

Clipart for this freebie is by Digiweb and scrappindoodles and graphics factory

Character analysis

2012-01-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have those magical moments during guided reading? Today I worked on character analysis with an advanced reading group. All of the students in this group can read fluently and have good accuracy. So, we mostly focus on vocabulary and comprehension. We read a book called How Not to Babysit Your Brother.

The brothers are perfect to introduce this concept because they have pretty distinct personalities. First, we made a T chart using each brother. Then we went through a list of words that can be used to describe any character. We decided if each word fit the big brother, the little brother or neither.

After coming up with a few words to describe each character, we talked about finding evidence to back up these descriptions. We did this part orally at first, just having a conversation together and looking back in the book. We had to cross out some words because we couldn't find evidence to support our claim.

Finally, I modeled how I would write about this in our reader response notebooks. We'll practice this a few more times in this guided format, then I'll have them do a character analysis independently during daily 5.

In case you don't use reader response notebooks and would rather have a printable copy, I made these for you to download. You can get it here and here.

The adorable frames are from: http://www.scrappincop.com

Snowy shared writing and Cause and Effect

2012-01-19T15:08:00.000-08:00

We had a little tease of snow at the beginning of the week. Not enough to cancel school, but enough to get us excited about snow writing. First, I had students write about a snow day. They could choose to write a true story or make up a story. Before writing, we brainstormed words that we may use in a story about snow and had some time to talk about our stories. As I went around and worked with students, I took short notes on what we needed to work on. The next day, we did this shared writing activity:

For this activity, I "held the pen" the whole time, but the class gave me ideas of what to write. Together we crafted this story. I gave them guidance of course, particularly with sequencing the story, adding details, and staying on topic. As I write, I call on different kids to help with different skills (based on my notes from the previous day). For example, if I noticed that a student was not using inflectional endings while writing, I'd call on them to help me identify the base word first, then add the inflectional ending. We tried to come up with interesting words for our story too. We went back changed some words, like ate to gobbled or went to dashed. We had so much fun making this story together. Shared writing is a great opportunity to model good writing, and teach kids at all different levels.

After reading our story story, we went back and searched for the things that you see written on the yellow sentence strips.

This week we are also working on Cause and Effect. First I made this anchor chart using a story from our reading program.

Then we completed this graphic organizer that goes along with The Hat.

You can find this graphic organizer, along with another one to go with The Mitten in my Jan Brett pack. You can also find one in my Bear books pack.

February Literacy Center Menu

2012-01-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

In case you're looking ahead already to February, here is a preview of my February center menu.

Read, Think Match (2 choices, one with fewer clues and pictures)

Read and Sequence: How to Build a Snowman and How to make cupcakes

Read, Visualize Draw: Snowy Day scene and mystery valentine

Rebuild a Poem: student sheets and pocket chart pieces

Sorting Station: Sort pictures by vowel sound (short or long)

Compound Cupcakes: match top to bottom to make compound words

Slide-a-Word: Use the sliders to make real words

How to Build a Snowman writing and What I Like Writing page

Sticker Story: 2 student sheets

Describe a picture: 4 pictures and student sheet

Sentence Enders: question or statement (my class still needs work with this one!)

Word Endings: ed or ing

Glue a sentence (2 student sheets)

Sentence Scrambler

Extras (not on menu) for early finishers: Post office prompts and student paper and Buddy Reading forms

Also included: directions for the teacher, tips on organizing, rubric and checklist

You can get this at my Teachers Notebook Store.

I've updated this from last year and added a lot of stuff. If you bought it last year, please email me and I'll make sure you got the updated version. This is way better!

Jan Brett Study week 1

2012-01-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

This week we began our Jan Brett author study. First, we read The Hat. While reading this book, we talked about what Hedgie was feeling (curious, embarrassed) and made connection to those feelings. After reading, we did the sequencing feelings graphic organizer from my Jan Brett pack.

Then, we brainstormed words synonmyms for the word ridiculous, which of course is the word used to describe how Hedgie and the other animals look in a hat. We made a word web (also in the pack) to show all our words. I'm always impressed with how they think of words that I may not think of. Then we made these hats.

Students chose their favorite animal and a word from their word webs to describe how that animal looked.

The dog looked goofy in the gloves.

The hedgehog looked silly in the stocking. (She added the word cute too)

Next, we read The Mitten. This book also has so many good examples of interesting word choice. We also read Alvin Tresselt's version of The Mitten and did this Venn diagram. A student copy of this venn diagram is also included in the Jan Brett pack. After doing this, we'll begin our Mitten reader reflection journal and the character Read, Think, Match.

More Jan Brett posts to come. To view my post about the Jan Brett pack, click here.

Mrs. Cole over at Coles Little Pups has a great Mitten unit and a unit for The Three Snow Bears. Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies has an adorable Mitten label-it pack. Go check them out!

Ten on the Sled craftivity

2012-01-14T13:22:00.000-08:00

Our Ten on the Sled verb craftivity turned out so cute and the first graders loved it! If you want a copy of the directions and tracers, click here.

I have to warn you that I can't cut straight, so you may need to straighten yours out. Also I would trim the shoulders a bit if I were you. The white foot was hard to see, so I put it against a pink sticky note (just in case your wondering what the pink is for). I also added some ideas for the verbs, but I couldn't think of any that started with x, y, u, or o. If you have any ideas, let me know.

To see how I used this craft with the book, go to this post I made a few days ago.

Groundhog Day Fun

2012-01-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

I made a few things for Groundhog Day. I was thinking about how groundhogs "predict" the weather, so I made this prediction activity.

6 of these prediction worksheet

OR you could use it like a center with the prediction cards below...

and the student worksheet to go with the 6 prediction cards

4 sentence scramblers

Groundhog investigation

Anticipation guide

(do this before reading or learning about groundhogs and the again after)

Groundhog nonfiction reading passage

With accompanying questions

and this thinking map

(two versions: one with the words can, have, are and the other with the words can, have, do)

with answer keys

and an ABC order center (12 words provided, you choose 10) with worksheet below

You can get this whole set here at my Teacher's Notebook Store.

Click here and here to download your freebies!

Verbs, a great book and a silly craftivity

2012-01-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason, this became the perfect time to teach verbs. It was one of those times when it just happened naturally at first. Love when that happens! I read this cute book called Ten on a Sled by Kim Norman. My kids loved the rhyming, alliteration, repetitive language, and great illustrations. But what stood out was the verbs! To give a little background, 10 animals are all on a sled. One by one, each animal falls off the sled. To describe how they fall off the author uses alliteration and creative verbs (the walrus whirled off). Of course this was the best time to introduce verbs!

So I made a quick anchor chart (nothing fancy) and we went back to identify the verbs that went with each animal. One of my brilliant kiddos shouts out "but Stella slid off!" Hold up now! Great idea right? We put all our names on chart paper, then together thought of verbs that would go with our names if we were in the story. I was so impressed and they were so excited.

Next came the craftivity. Keep in mind I am nobody's artistic hero. I can ~~barely~~ not cut a straight line to save my life! But if I expect my firsties to try new things, I should at least face my crafting fears right? So here goes... (where is the fabulously talented Jennifer from First Grade Blues Skies when you need her)

The top of the bulletin board will read:

There were 21 on the sled and the teacher said,

(the real version says, "There were 10 on the sled and the caribou said...")

You could add snow falling with white crayon for background.

This is my 2 1/2 year-old's head that I used for a sample. Ha! I literally laughed out loud at myself when I saw the finished product, but I know my students will love doing this activity, especially with their special verbs. :) I'll have a parent precut the pieces probably and then have the kids put it together. Then they'll fill in the bottom with their name and their verb.

I'll post pictures of the students' work when we're all done. Any tips from you crafty folks would be much appreciated. :) If you want this craft as a download, let me know.

You could also have kids make their own version with animals of their choice and they could also choose the verbs to go with that. I may do that and post later...

Jan Brett Pack and a freebie

2012-01-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite authors is Jan Brett. Every year we do a Jan Brett author study, so this year I decided to make a pack of graphic organizers and activities to go along with our unit. Click here to see what we've done in the past.

Below is a preview of the unit. There's probably more than you could actually do in one unit, but then you could pick and choose what you like and change it up from year to year, depending on what you are focusing on with your class.

Read Think Match: characters in The Mitten

THe Hat: Sequencing Hedgie's feelings

The Hat Craftivity

Text to self connections

2 Cause and Effect: The MItten and The Hat

The Mitten Writing Journal (two different fonts available)

Mitten Silent e slide

Synonyms: Mitten Match

7 Sentence Scrambler

2 Nonfiction passages with questions and graphic organizer (mole and hedgehog)

Fill a Verb and/or Sentence Fillers: Match different animals to the correct adjective and verb as they go into the mitten. For example: The scaly snake slithered into the mitten.

Text to Text connections: Hedgie's Surprise and Trouble with Trolls (I've done this as a whole class activity so I made a student sheet to go with it)

Character Analysis of Honey Badger and Honeyguide from Honey...Honey...Lion and a Story sequence for Honey...Honey...Lion

Opinion writing and Character Change (from beginning to end of story)

Annie and the Wild Animals Story sequence and 3 extra graphic organizers to use with any story (only one is shown here)

The pack is 91 pages total (but about 5 pages are directions for the teacher and the cover)

If you are interested in this pack, you can find it here.

Click here for a freebie from the pack. If you take the freebie, please show some love with a comment. :)

Here is exactly what you get broken down by story:

The Hat:

· Craftivity: directions on cover page

· Making Connections (text to self)

· Feelings sequences

· Sentence scramblers

· Cause effect

The Mitten

· Cause effect

· Read think match

· Mitten writing journal (two included: primary lines and regular lines)

· Mitten e slide: silent e word slide

· Mitten match (synonyms)

· Sentence scrambler

· Nonfiction passage: mole and hedgehog (with questions and graphic organizer)

· Sentence filler or Fill a verb: Inspired by Jan Brett’s wonderful word choice. Students will choose adjectives and verbs that best go with each new animal going into the mitten.

Hedgie’s Surprise/ Trouble with Trolls

· Text to text connections (two formats)

Honey..Honey…Lion

· Character traits

· Story sequence (two versions)

· Opinion

The First Dog

· Character change (two versions)

Annie and the wild Animals:

· Story Sequence

Extras:

· Problem solution map

· Beginning, middle, end story map

· Text to text blank

This week I'll post another freebie craftivity using the book Ten on a Sled. It's such a cute book! We've been working on verbs in my class and that book is perfect for it. The craftvity also focuses on verbs (and being very creative with verbs). It involves each of your kiddos (with their cute little heads) on a sled. Stay tuned!

Snowy Sentences freebie

2012-01-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

Are you all getting ready to go back to school tomorrow? Christmas break went by way too fast! I'm excited to go though. :) In January, we start our Jan Brett author study. She is definitely one of my favorites. You can find some ideas that I posted last year here. I'll be posting some more ideas and printables as the month goes on.

In the meantime, here is a center that I meant to include in my Snowy Centers packet. My whoops is your gain. Here it is as a freebie! Enjoy:)

There are two versions:

Fill a verb is slightly easier because your kids just need to fill in the verb that best goes with the sentence. I'll be going over action words during my morning message each morning, and pointing out those great action words while reading aloud or during during writing. Jan Brett books are also PERFECT for this purpose.

Sentence Fillers includes verbs and adjectives so it's a little trickier.

This packet includes a cover sheet for each, sentence strips with picture clues, word cards and a student recording sheet.

You can download both here.

You can get the whole snowy packet here or just check out the details of it here.

Snowy Make A Word Freebie for Kinders and a Sale

2012-01-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I hope you all made it up past midnight. Maybe I'm getting old, but it is not that often that I stay up past midnight. :) Luckily both of my boys slept in until 8 this morning. Phew!

I had a request to modify the Snowy Make-a-Word freebie to be more kinder friendly. I'm always happy to make modifications. So, here you go! :)

The cover and student sheet are the same, but the words are all short vowels, and there are only initial consonants, not consonant blends or digraphs.

Click here for the freebie.

For more snowy centers and literacy ideas click here.

Also, I'm having a sale at my Teacher's Notebook store . Everything is on sale! Click here to get there.

Snowy Make a Word freebie

2011-12-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

I'm sending out snowy thoughts so maybe, just maybe, we'll see some snow this year. Those of you who live in parts of the country where you get tons of snow probably think I'm crazy. Here in Portland, Oregon, there is nothing more exciting than a snow day. It's pretty rare, therefore quite magical. Yes, I could drive an hour up to the mountain, but it's not the same. :) So... here's a freebie for you all as we start thinking about heading back to school in just a few short days. Hope you are all enjoying your break!

This is part of my Snowy Centers pack. It is also part of my January Center menu. You can learn more about those here and here.

You can download this freebie here.

Enjoy! I'll be back soon with some more freebies and information about my February center menu and some Groundhog Day prediction literacy activities.

Snowy Centers: reading, writing and word work activities

2011-12-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

I decided to put together all of my snow/winter-related literacy activities. I was surprised by how much I ended up with! The majority of these activities were from January and February literacy menus, but then I also created a few extras (snowy inferences, nonfiction reading passage, fiction passage, sentence writing, and punctuation practice) to add to it. So... if you aren't interested in the menus (which also include a ton of other non snowy-related activities), then you have this option. It is a fabulous package of activities! It should definitely get you through the long, cold winter. :) You can get it here.

Here's a preview. Scroll down for a freebie too!

3 Read and Sequence pages (2 shown below)

2 Read, think, match

1 Read, Visualize Draw and 2 Snowy Inferences

Fiction passage with questions and graphic organizer (above and below)

Nonfiction passage with questions and 2 graphic organizers

My snow day writing prompt

Stuck in a snow globe writing prompt

Describe a snow globe writing activity (several snow globe pictures included)

HOw to build a snowman (using transitional words)

Describe a picture

Be an Author

Snowy sentences and Make a word

Short or long vowel igloos

Slide word mitten

Snow sounds (sound boxes)

Contraction stack snowmen

8 Sentence scramblers

Punctuation practice

2 Rebuild a poem (not shown)

There are 115 pages total!

If you have already purchased the January and February literacy menus, then email me and I will send you the new extras for free (listed above), so you won't need to buy this whole package for only a few activities. Remember, only consider this package if you aren't planning on getting the monthly literacy menus (because most of these activities are from those menus).

Here is a freebie for you: My Snowy Day Writing Prompt

You can get the entire packet here.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T14:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone! Enjoy your break:)

I'm working on a Jan Brett unit, so hopefully that will be posted after the new year! But right now, I'll be enjoying hot cocoa, Christmas tunes and my wonderful boys. :)

Polar Express, Gingerbread, Santa writing, and cute crafts!

2011-12-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

What a fun month! I love December and so wish we had more school during this month because there is so much I want to do that I don't get to.

We had soooo much fun doing our Polar Express unit. We didn't have time to squeeze it all in because I waited too long to start. I always forget how much time the Christmas Pageant takes up! I'll be prepared next year. I was so not good about taking pictures while the kids were working, but I took a few shots of some finished stuff. Here are our Polar Express sequencing trains. This is the front part when it's all folded up.

When you open it up (sort of accordion style), this is what it look like. There is the cover and the first two events from the story.

When you flip it over, this is what you see: the last 3 events. Students get the pages first with the events. They read each event, visualize what they are reading, and illustrate that event. Then they cut out each box and put them in order on the their trains. The black part of the train is just 11x17 construction paper cut in half. Each half makes two "cars" to the train once you fold them in half. The third "car" of the train is half of the half. (that sounds way more complicated than it truly is.) I just glue it to the other two "cars" then fold it so it opens up like an accordion. Then they make their own wheels to glue on. I pre-make the black part for them because it's a little too tricky for them.

You can download those pages here.

This is one of the writing prompts from my Polar Express Literacy unit. Some of them were pretty creative!

If I were Santa I would ride a plane because I could get first class refreshments and free food. The presents would go in the seats.

If I were Santa I would ride in a train because my elves would serve me hot chocolate.

If I were Santa I would ride in a bubble because he would not be cold.

If I were Santa I would ride in a motorcycle because it will be very fast to deliver the presents and I could attach a basket for cookies and milk and I could put the presents in the back.

We had a lot of fun last week with our Gingerbread mini-unit. First, we read several Gingerbread books. Then we compared the characters, setting, and endings. We did a story map from Deanna Jump's Gingerbread unit too. I saw this Gingerbread house on Babbling Abbey's blog last year and loved it, so I made one of my own. I laminated the white paper and wrote using white board marker so I could reuse this again next year.

We decided that we wanted to make our own Gingerbread story. We noticed that the characters in each book went along with the setting. One Gingerbread book was set in the forest so it had forest animals, another on a farm with farm animals, etc. So each student chose their setting first. Then they completed their story by choosing characters that went along with that setting. One of my favorites was this one below: the setting was the Arctic so she chose polar bears, caribou, seals and walruses as her characters. Cute! Another chose the North Pole and had Santa, elves, reindeer as characters. I just love how these turned out. I got this print out from someone else who's been teaching forever, but I can whip up my own version if anyone is interested. The last page says "but he wasn't clever enough for the ______"

I remember seeing this Santa Stuck post from Cara Caroll last year and thinking I wanted to do that next year. Well, next year is this year so I had to do it! I did tweak it a bit though. First, we did this writing prompt independently (after discussing how a story needs a beginning, middle and end).

Here's the rubric to go with it. You can download both here.

Then I used those stories to guide my instruction during this interactive writing assignment:

Together we wrote this story, using the prompt from the same story started. We voted on each event as went along and each student got to "hold the pen". There were SO many teaching opportunities during this lesson and the kids LOVED it! I got to review capitals, periods, stretching out words, and clapping out multisyllable words. But mainly I was teaching them how to write a story with a beginning, middle and end (how did Santa get stuck, why did he get stuck, what did he do when he got stuck and how did he get out.) This was such a great activity and I'm definitely doing it this way next year too!

I loved doing Rachelle's Holidays Around the World unit. You should definitely check it out for next year if you don't already have it! It's the perfect Social Studies unit during this part of the year. Students made their suitcases at home and brought them to school to put all of our souvenirs in.

This is the letter I sent home to parents about making the suitcases. You can download it here.

I just have to show you this art project that our art teacher, Mrs. Cruickshank, did. She is SO talented! Aren't these angels just precious? I'm at a Catholic school in case you're wondering :) These were the gifts that the kiddos brought home to their parents.

We made these beautiful pictures using oil pastels for our 4th grade buddies. They turned out so nice! They glued a letter on the back to go along with it. It's a great buddy gift because it is quick and easy but super cute!

January Center Menu and a freebie

2011-12-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

I finally finished my January literacy center menu! You can get a preview of what is included in this package.

Here is the menu that each student gets. They keep track of their centers using this menu.

Rebuild a Poem: Sentence strips with the words and picture clues for this poem are provided to use in your pocket chart. Also, three options for the student worksheet are provided (this is one of them).

Read and Sequence: Not one or two, but THREE read and sequence pages are included: a bear themed one, the sledding one (below) and a snow fort how-to (more challenging).

Read, Visualize Draw and Read, Think, Match

THREE Make a Word: penguins, bears, and snowflakes (long and short vowels). Match up to make real or nonsense words.

Short or Long: students take word cards and place them on the correct igloo (with or without the silent e) to make real words.

How many O's?: Students look at picture cards and decide if the word makes the oo sound or the short o sound.

Snow Sounds: This is really a sound box (elkonin boxes) center. Students read the words and count the sounds.

Sentence Scramblers: 4 different sets!

Slide a Sentence: Adjust the three sliders to make a sentence about bears.

Build A sentence: put word cards together to make a sentence. Word cards are color coordinated by parts of sentence (describing words/adjectives, who or what/subject, action/verb, where). Students place word cards on top of the sentence building mat to guide them in making the sentences.

Word Endings: Sentence strips are provided with this center. Students choose the word with the correct inflectional ending.

Sticker Story

Be An Author: Students use pictures to write a story. 9 pages included, but you could use as many as you would like.

Describe a snow globe: students use descriptive clues to describe a snow globe. 5 different pictures of snow globes are included.

2 Story Starters:

You can download this whole packet at my Teacher's Notebook store here.

There is also a checklist, rubric, and directions for the teacher included.

I need your help deciding which one to post as a freebie. Let me know what you'd like to have! :)

Back to school and December centers and a Freebie!

2011-12-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Last week was my first back to school after being on maternity leave. I had a fabulous week! The kids were so excited and we did so many great activities. They LOVED the December centers. They take it so seriously and feel so proud of their "menus".

First, I'll start with a freebie from the menu because tis the season to share! :)

Click here for a sentence scrambler from the December menu (four are included in the actual pack)

While I meet with reading groups, students work on these literacy centers. They use their menu to guide them and help keep track of what they've done and what they haven't done. When they complete a center, they color it in on their menus.

I combine this with Daily 5. They get to do one or two centers a day (depending on time, how they are pacing themselves, and on the student), and then they get to do Daily 5. I love Daily 5, but I also love these centers because the kids absolutely love them, and they get to practice so many skills. I feel like I get the best of both worlds.

During my reading workshop, I have 3 rotations usually, so they get to do centers for one rotation, daily 5 for another rotation and then meet with me for a rotation. Because of the size of the class, one group does not get to meet with me each day (but will meet with me the next day). They get to do two centers the day they do not meet with me. My kids literally picked up on this by early October. I have maybe one or two kiddos who need redirecting, but that is usually to be expected. I use a chart to show them what they are doing for each rotation (centers, daily 5 or guided reading). I train them on Daily 5 first, then add in the centers. Since Daily 5 teaches so many good behaviors, centers go right along with it. They know the expected behavior. They also pick up on centers really fast because they want to do them. Parents enjoy having the papers come home too, because then they can see what we are working on and how to reinforce at home. when I post my January menu next week, I'll be adding some more management tips with pictures.

Here are a few pictures of my kiddos working on their centers. If you are visual like me, then you probably want to see them in action! :) You can click here to see all the December centers.

Sorting gingerbread men in Sounds of Y (long e sound or long i sound)

Sorting pictures by short vowels sounds, then recording on recording sheet

Santa Sentence wheel (huge hit because of Santa)

Rebuilding a poem (I leave the first word of each line in the pocket chart. Since it is color coded, this helps the kids to rebuild the rest)

Matching contractions to the word pair

Sorting ending blends

Sentence scrambler

Sentence endings: ed vs. ing

Adorable sticker story!

Stay tuned for my January center menu! Also, I'll be posting some more pictures of this and next week's fun with Gingerbread and Polar Express. I love Christmas time! :)

December menu correction and a freebie

2011-12-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

To all those who purchased my December menu: I just noticed today that there is an error on one of the centers. How embarrassing! I was going back and forth on which end blends to use and I changed it up at the last minute-leading to my mistake. So... here's the link to get the fixed up page. SO sorry about the mistake! It's such a huge package, but I thought I had checked it over enough. Next month I should quadruple check it! Thanks:)

Here's a freebie for you all that I'm planning on doing this week sometime:

You can either do the one with transitional words already there, or with blank boxes for them to choose.

You can download these two here.

You can download this one here.

Polar Express Pack for Kinders now posted!

2011-12-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

A big thanks to all of you who purchased my first Polar Express Pack! Since I've received positive feedback so far, I decided to complete one for kinders. It's now finished and posted over at Teacher's Notebook. If you already bought the first grade version, but like some of the kinder one, please email me and I'll send you the link for free. I could use some of this with my firsties for sure!

The main differences between this one and the other one are:

fewer words
larger spaces to write and a place for drawing (for the writing pages)
More picture clues
letter sound match instead of noun sort

Here's what you get in this pack:

Match the picture cards to the correct initial letter: 30 picture cards, letter board and recording sheet

Syllable Sort: Pictures and words

Rhyming Words

7 Writing Prompts: prompt cards and paper

2 Text to self Connection pages

The First Gift: What would you choose?

Summary Slide (fewer words than first grade version and picture clues)

Sentence Scrambler

Read Visualize Draw (teacher can read it aloud and have students draw what they visualize)

Sequence a Story: student page and strips for pocket chart

Cause and Effect

You can get this pack here

Polar Express Pack for Kinder and a Freebie!

2011-12-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

First off, let's start with a freebie. I made a Read, Visualize, Draw for the Polar Express to go along with my Polar Express Literacy Pack. You can download it here.

You could read it to your class or have them read it.

I've had a few requests to modify the Polar Express Literacy Pack for kindergarten. Since I'm not an expert when it comes to kinders, I wanted to hear your input before I post on Teachers Notebook. I only want to sell quality, age-appropriate stuff, but I also wanted to give those kinder teachers an option. The main differences are more pictures, fewer words and bigger lines. Also, the word work is only short vowels.

Of course, if you already bought the pack for first but you like this kinder version better, you get it for free! Just email me and I will email you the link. :) I think some of my firsties would benefit from this version with that extra support.

Below is a snapshot of most of the pages shrunk down. Take a look and see if you are interested in the kinder version and let me know. I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions. Thanks!

Holiday around the world map freebie

2011-11-30T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! I bought Rachelle's Holidays Around the World unit and can't wait to use it! I made a map to go with it and thought I'd share it with you all. You can get it here.

Polar Express Literacy Pack Freebie!

2011-11-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a freebie from my Polar Express literacy pack. I hope you can use it! :)

Click here to download sequencing page

To see more, click here.

Clip art from:
http://www.digiwebstudio.com/store/
and
http://www.graphicsfactory.com/

Polar Express Literacy Pack

2011-11-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

Ignore my last post, I figured it out! So, now officially my Polar Express Literacy Pack is done and posted. :) You can download it here.

I'm pretty excited about this pack. I love the Polar Express book and movie and i love doing the whole pj's and hot cocoa with the kids. But before all that fun, we got some work to do! Here's what you'll find:

Sequencing: Put the events in order and cause and effect

Noun Sort: picture cards with words

Matching the initial consonant with short and long a word families

Counting syllables of words from the book

Rhyming words from the book

Sentence Scrambler: 4 sentences

Summary Slide: Print this first page onto construction paper and cut on dotted lines. Cut the following page on the solid lines. Then place the strips through the holes in the first sheet (with the dotted lines). Retell the story by matching the character, event, and setting!

Verbs: Several sentences about events in the book with the verb missing. Students use verb cards to complete the sentences.

2 Making Connections worksheets with extra paper to write on the back

9 Writing prompts cards with prompt papers

What would you do page

Original poem for shared reading and/or rebuild a poem center

Whether or not you're interested in purchasing, I'd love to hear your comments. :) I'll be posting later with a freebie. Let me know which one you'd like to have as a freebie!

You can get the whole package at Teacher's Notebook.

Polar Express Pack

2011-11-28T19:14:00.000-08:00

I'm finally done! I'm pretty excited about this pack. I love the Polar Express book and movie and i love doing the whole pj's and hot cocoa with the kids. But before all that fun, we got some work to do! I'm having some major issues trying to upload this huge pack to Teacher's Notebook (the file is too big-any suggestions?), so it's not quite ready, but I wanted to give you a sneak peak:

Sequencing: Put the events in order and cause and effect

Noun Sort: picture cards with words

Matching the initial consonant with short and long a word families

Counting syllables of words from the book

Rhyming words from the book

Sentence Scrambler: 4 sentences

Verbs: Several sentences about events in the book with the verb missing. Students use verb cards to complete the sentences.

2 Making Connections worksheets with extra paper to write on the back

9 Writing prompts cards with prompt papers

What would you do page

Original poem for shared reading and/or rebuild a poem center

Soon, this will be available on Teacher's Notebook.

Whether or not you're interested in purchasing, I'd love to hear your comments. :) I'll be posting later with a freebie. Let me know which one you'd like to have as a freebie!

Sunshine Award

2011-11-28T15:24:00.000-08:00

A very special thanks to Mrs. Mac from First Class with Mrs. Mac for passing on the Sunshine Award. You really made my day!! How cute is your blog name too! Make sure and check out her blog.

The rules for the Sunshine Award are:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and write a post about it.

2. Answer the following questions below.

3. Pass the award to 10-12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs, and let them know you awarded them.

Favorite color: Pink - always and forever:)
Favorite animal: turtle. I know this sounds strange, but I've loved them since I was a kid. I used to do an impression of a turtle named Toddles (who had an English accent) for my sister when she was mad at me. It always made her laugh. She has a turtle now named Toddles.
Favorite number: 2
Favorite drink: Coffee and wine
Facebook or Twitter: Facebook. I don't get Twitter yet
Your passion: Teaching. I love it!
Favorite day: Christmas! I'm such a sucker for the holidays. It puts me in such a good mood.
Favorite flowers: lilies

Here are my recipients for the Sunshine Award (I narrowed it to my top 5):

1. What the Teacher Wants

2. Heather's Heart

3. The Adventures of Ms. Elizabeth

4. First Grade Blue Skies

5. Crazy about Kiddos

Stay tuned for my Polar Express Pack coming later tonight! I'm finally almost done! :)

Rhyming center

2011-11-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I am posting something non-Christmas related. My head is exploding with all of these ideas I have but I am not back to work for another week. Yes, I am going back to work for only 2 weeks then I have another 2 week break for Christmas. Maternity leave has been lovely, but I'm ready to go back. What a time to go back huh? Back to my non Christmas related post. I made a rhyming center to go with my Bear book study (Karma Wilson's Bear books). You can download it for free here. Here's a peak:

And I added one more thing to my Bear pack. You can download the new graphic organizer here.

You can read more about the entire packet in this post.

Stay tuned for my Polar Express Pack!

Great Gift Idea

2011-11-26T13:55:00.000-08:00

As you may have heard, today is Small Business Saturday. I'm here to tell you about a great small business called Paper Moon Shop. Paper Moon Shop is offering FREE SHIPPING today! I get a ton of my Christmas shopping done here. I also buy stationary for myself to use as a teacher and for friends and family. You should all really check it out! Get some shopping done and get some stuff for yourself to use as thank you cards for your students! :)

Here are some of my favorites:

Support small businesses and shop today! Click here to go there.

Polar Express sequencing train

2011-11-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

Are you hopping on the Polar Express with your class this year? It is one of my favorite units with my kiddos. Well let's get to it! After we read the book, we do a sequencing activity. First, we sequence the events as a class using sentence strips. Then, each student gets a copy of mini sentence strips to cut out. Then they glue the strips in order on their sequencing train. Finally, they illustrate each page to match the sentence strips. They turn out super cute!

I only have pictures of the first two events. The last three main events are on the back side.

Okay, I know what you're thinking. We need to spruce this up and cute-i-fy it a bit, maybe add some wheels or something. Any ideas? You all are probably way craftier than me! :)

When I'm back at work, I'll repost with the sentence strips I use for this. I can't share the train front for copyright reasons. :(

To make this train, I used larger paper (11x17) and fold it hamburger style. Unfold, then cut it on the fold to make two separate long strips. Fold both in half hot dog style, making two rectangles on each. One will be the first two boxes. Use the other one for the third box, by cutting it on the fold, (making two boxes). One box will be attached to this train, and the other box can be used for another one. Would love ideas to cute-i-fy it!

December Center Menu

2011-11-19T09:37:00.000-08:00

I am finally done with my December Center menu! It has all sorts of goodies included. The whole packet is 100 pages. Here a small snapshot from the packet to give you an idea:

Here is the student menu.

There are 4 reading centers:

Rebuild a poem: This is the student sheet, but the actual center is written in a pocket chart. Students are given the first word of each line of the poem in the pocket chart, then need to rebuild the rest of the poem. Two poems are included.

Read, Visualize, Draw: Students read each sentence, pause to visualize, then draw what they are visualizing.

Read, Think Match: Students read and cut out each small strip of clues. Each strip has clues like, "I am wearing a scarf. I am holding a tree. I have a hat. Who am I?" They have to use these clues to match to the correct picture. I purposefully put the clues in such an order that they would have to read all the clues to match correctly. Lots of reading and thinking! Two versions are included to meet the needs of your class: this one with 6 pictures and one with only 4 pictures.

Read and Sequence: Students read and cut each sentence strip. Glue in order. Two different choices for this center.

And 4 Word Work Centers

End Blends: Students match the ornaments with pictures to the correct tree blend ending. For example, an ornament may have a picture of a vest with the letters v e _ _. They would place this ornament on the tree with the -st.

sorting station: students sort picture cards to the correct vowel.

Contraction Stack: Students match the top word pair to the bottom contraction to finish the snowman.

Sounds of y: Students will read each gingerbread man and decide if the y in the word makes the long i sound or long e sound, then place it on the correct gingerbread house. Pictured above is the student worksheet.

And 4 Writing Centers:

Mystery bag: students will give clues about an item in the mystery bag, practicing descriptive language.

Post office: 4 prompt cards included for ideas of who to write to (pictured above are two) and 4 students worksheets are included (one pictured below)

Sticker story

Holiday lists: 3 pages are included (with 2 lists on each page)

and 4 Sentence Building Centers

Asking or Telling: Students place each sentence strip on the correct mat (labeled asking or telling). Each picture has two sentences: one question and one statement. Two student worksheets are included: One version where students just add the punctuation and the other where students must write out the whole sentence and add punctuation.

Sentence Scrambler: 3 sentences included and a students worksheet.

Sentence Wheel: This was featured on a previous post. Students spin the wheel to make different sentences.

Word Endings: Students choose -ed or -ing to fit with the sentence. I place the sentences on chart paper first with the -ed and -ing endings on separate cards with magnetic tape on the back. Students add the endings first to the chart, then reread to check for accuracy, then write the answers on the student sheet.

You can purchase this menu packet at The Teacher's Notebook.

My kids LOVE these menus! They are so nice for me because I don't have to put out new centers every week. Once you have them all cut, laminated and made, then you have then done for the next year and it takes very little prep (just copying student sheets). So nice!

Check out my tips on how to organize here.

I'd love to hear your feedback! Thanks:)

You can download the rubric here.

December Writing Prompts

2011-11-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

Morning! Getting ready for December and looking for some writing activities? Look no further! I know I promised not to post more Christmas goodies until after Thanksgiving, but I couldn't help myself. :) I love having 2 weeks off for Christmas, but at the same time, there are SO many fun activities that I don't have time for in December. It just flies by, doesn't it? Hope you can use these in your classroom too!

Borders from JW Illustrations: http://www.jessicaweible.com/

You can download these here.

Make sure and follow my blog, and look back at old posts for tons of freebies! :)

Clipart from http://www.graphicsfactory.com/

Fonts from http://www.kevinandamanda.com/

Enjoy!

Bear Books (by Karma Wilson) graphic organizers

2011-11-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

I LOVE the Bear series by Karma Wilson. I read them to my son and to my first graders and they both love the stories just as much as I do! Reading these books present so many teachable moments. I always find myself thinking of a lesson I could teach when I read each book, so I decided to put them all together. In this book series study, you will find graphic organizers for five different books in this series.

Here is a freebie from the packet.

to go with this book:

and here's another...

(There is a version of this specific to one of the books, but I thought I'd post this generic one so you could use it with any book.)

And below is a preview of the packet:

Skills covered:

cause and effect
making connections
sequencing
retelling story slide
vocabulary
comparing stories
realistic vs. fantasy
story map
character traits

Use all of them or pick and choose which would be best for your class!

You can check it out here.

In case you are a newish follower, make sure you check out an older post from last year about bears. There are several ideas and freebies to go along with a bear unit.

And if you haven't already, you should definitely check out Rachelle's bear unit at What the Teacher Wants. It is SO good, worth every penny! She is so creative.

Christmas freeby...a little early

2011-11-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

So I know it's WAY too early to start talking Christmas, but Starbucks started it when they brought back the red cups so early! I can't help myself, I am giddy for the season. Anyhoo, I was having way too much fun making December-themed centers for my next menu, so I thought I'd share one with you all a little early. Since I'm on maternity leave, I'm not in the classroom being reminded that it is still only mid November, while you all are smack in the middle of making turkeys and pilgrims. Sorry to jump on the Christmas wagon too soon, but you'll have to bear with me!

Hello Santa Sentence Wheel!

If you are interested and want to tuck it away for the appropriate time, you can download it here.

Clip art is from: http://www.graphicsfactory.com/

I promise to wait until after Thanksgiving to post more Christmas relate goodies. :)

Stay tuned for my December menu and more tips on how to manage them.

Sale! November Literacy Center Menu and Freebies

2011-11-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

Hi All!

I'm busy working on my December center menu, but I decided to put my November menu on sale. You can get it here if you are interested. :) Click here to see a preview.

Here's a center to practice digraphs.

You can download it here.

and...

A November themed sight word race:

or non November themed sight word race:

You can download it here.

Clipart from:

http://www.digiwebstudio.com/store/

Plant bulletin board

2011-11-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

Hi All!

So I'm officially on maternity leave with #2, but of course I still have teaching on the brain when my little boys are napping. It's like an 8 week vacation with very little sleep. :) I'm taking this opportunity to spruce up some old units and centers. If I were in school, we'd be finishing up our plant unit. I thought I'd share my 2 favorite activities from years past.

#1 Student-made bulletin board: the kids LOVE doing this. Each kiddo makes fruits and veggies, then decides where it belongs on the bulletin board (bush, tree, under ground, from the ground, or on a vine) depending on where they grow.

#2: What plant part are you eating?

After doing this interactive website, I pass out a sheet of stickers to each student. We identify each fruit and vegetable, then together we decide which plant part they are. For example, onions are roots, asparagus is a stem, etc. It's nothing special, but you can download your own worksheet here.

I bought these at my local teacher store, but you could also make your own stickers using clip art and printing on sticker labels.

Apple math games

2011-11-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

Here are two math games that go along with our apple unit. You can download the game and directions by clicking on the links below.

Apples Ten

and

Apple Tree Addition

Pumpkin Measuring

2011-11-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

So this is a little late, but maybe you could use it next year. I usually do this activity as a whole class, calling up volunteers to help. The kids make predictions and record results as we go about the measurement and weight of our class pumpkin.

This is the recording sheet I use.

You can download it here.

I am always so impressed with how well the kiddos do with this activity. Together we compare pumpkins and apples using this Venn diagram.

apple activities

2011-11-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

Every year we have an "apple celebration". We taste apple products and do the usual apple centers:

Weighing our apples

Measuring our apples

and testing to see if our apples float.

Below is the printable we use for our apple centers:

You can download it here.

November literacy menu

2011-10-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

My November literacy menu is now posted on Teacher's Notebook. The package includes 16 centers: 4 reading, 4 word work, 4 writing, and 4 sentence building activities. Below is a preview:

November menu contents: Sorry it's sideways!

The menu is divided into four categories: Reading, Word Work, Writing, and Sentence Building, and there are four centers under each category. The four categories stay the same each month. They always have reading, word work, writing, and sentence building.

Students are told which category to do each day, but they choose which center to do under that category.

Here are all the center folder holders. They are labeled with stickers showing each category.

Each folder holder has its 4 centers. So, they know that they need to go to the yellow folder holder if they are supposed to do a reading center. They find the center they want to do and do it! Then they color in the center on their personal literacy menu when it's finished. I tell them to color half way if they didn't finish.

I keep a checklist of all the centers for that month. They turn their centers in daily and I check them. I keep track so that I always know who is falling behing or who is not on task. I also pass back any work that is incomplete or too sloppy. They learn pretty quickly that it's best to do their best work the first time! :)

I file their centers in a hanging file system until the end of the month. Then I staple all their centers, their menu and their rubric together and send it home.

I start these centers in October and practice a lot with them. I have parent helpers too. They love the variety and get to practice a ton of different skills. The skills are all taught the month before. For example, this month one center is making words with consonant blends. I incorporated consonant blends into my morning message, shared writing and spelling lessons the month before so they had a good understanding before they had to do it independently.

Here is a freebie from November:

Fill a word focuses on digraphs. Students will look at the picture and decide which digraph is missing. You can download it here.

Apple Sorting and apple experiment

2011-09-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a center for sorting short i words. It's part of my October literacy menu.

Click here to download.

Here's a printable for a science experiment if you are doing an apple unit. Students use the scientific method to figure out how to keep an apple slice fresh longer (it's a twist to the ol' lemon juice on an apple slice experiment). Click here to download.

October centers

2011-09-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

I've posted my October Literacy Menu on TPT. It has 16 October-themed literacy centers. There are 4 reading centers, 4 word word centers, 4 writing centers, and 4 sentence building centers. The menu ties them all together.

M&M/Skittles Math

2011-09-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

To get kids excited about math, here is a little activity for the first few weeks. I used to do math with M&M's but then changed to Skittles because of food allergies one year. Take your pick (they are the same). :) We go through this step by step so the kids know what to do. They LOVE it!

Living or Nonliving

2011-09-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

To kick off science, we do a living and nonliving mini-unit. It's a good lead-in to our apple unit coming up. Here are two activities that the kids really enjoy:

1. Searching for living and nonliving items on the playground.

We're always looking for an excuse to do science outside, especially while the weather is so nice! We do this activity after we've already read about living and nonliving things and learned a cute little song (by someone named Carol Ogden) to help us remember how to identify living vs. nonliving.

You can download this activity with directions here.

2. Living or nonliving experiment:
I did not create this experiment, but I did make the worksheet to go with it. This experiment is from our science program. I made the worksheet to go along with it to reinforce the scientific method.

Call students over in small groups to observe mealworms in a container with bran meal and some rocks. They really enjoy using magnifying glasses to really look closely at the worms. As they observe, they need to ask themselves if the mealworms and rocks are living. They use what they've already learned about living vs. nonliving to help them decide.

You can download this here.

Scholastic Story Starter Spinners

2011-02-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun online story starter spinner from Scholastic. I've used it as the basis of a writing lesson and as a quick writing assignment when I have extra time. You can make it for whatever you need. Everytime we do it, my kiddos get so excited!
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm

Early finishers during reading

2011-02-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

During guided reading, I always have at least one student that finishes "whisper reading" before the others. Usually I have them read the story again for fluency, but sometimes I give them another task. I have them search for a certain spelling pattern in the story. For example, if we are studying long i, they would search the story for long i words and write them in their notebooks. This doesn't take any extra copies or work on my part, but it's something for them to do while they are waiting, and it gives them extra spelling practice. To make it a little more fun for them, I give them a pipe cleaner curled up like a "magnifying glass" to help them search for words.

Here's a picture of a student looking for words using a pipe cleaner after we read a poem as a class.

Other times, I'll give early finishers a reading response question to answer in their notebooks.

2011-02-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

These fabulous bloggers have passed along to me the "Stylish Blogger Award":

Dana Baker at A Place to Share

Jenn Bates at Finally in First

Heidi Samuelson at Swamp Frog First Graders

Amanda Thiessen at The First Grade Sweet Life

Thank you SO much!!

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 5 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

7 things about myself (in no particular order):

~I love to dance! It makes me so happy.

~I have a wonderful husband who I've known since high school. He's the best!

~My son is about to turn 2 in March and is almost better at puzzles than I am!

~I am a horrible artist! That's why computers and clip art are my best friends. My first graders love to cheer me on when I attempt to draw stuff, but even they try not to laugh. :)

~ I could have goat cheese, cheese-its, bread and butter, and wine for every meal and be perfectly content.

~Eye drops and contacts make me faint big time! I'm not very much fun at the eye doctor. :)

~I'm a huge Gleek and I'm a not-so-secret reality T.V. and sci-fi fan.

I'm passing this award on to:

Hollenbeck's Happenings
Life in the Lime
First Grade Learning Stars
What the Teacher Wants
THe Fairytale of a First Grade Teacher

Visualizing

2011-02-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

Today, I did a visualizing activity with my class. I started out with modeled/interactive writing. I wrote a few sentences on the white board with the class gathered around. They helped me spell certain words and place punctuation, but I came up with the sentences. Then they went to their seats to draw what they visualized. They do similar pages during literacy centers, where they read it independently.

You can download the worksheet here.

100th day activities

2011-02-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

I am so far behind most of you with 100th Day activities! We don't have our 100th day until next week, so I'm just now getting my act together with posting about it. :) Here are a few things we'll do on the 100th day.

You can download it here.

PS. I did not think up any of these ideas, just the worksheets. :)

Doubles Math Game

2011-02-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a game I recently played with the class for practicing doubles. There is a directions sheet included so it can be used as a center or you could do it with the whole class. Two different game boards are also included (one with directions on the page and one without).

You can download it here.

President's Unit part 2

2011-02-11T21:27:00.000-08:00

Here are a few activities for President's Day/week.

1. KWL chart: What we already know, what we want to know, and what we learned (at the end.)

2. Anticipation Guide for If I Were President by Catherine Stier. This is a great book that explains the jobs of a president in a very child-friendly way.

Fill out the left side before reading as a guess. Then, after reading, fill out the correct answers on the right side.

3.We did these sentence scramblers in groups then presented them to the class and placed them on the white house. The sentence scramblers reveiwed the jobs of a president.

4. Balancing the budget: An activity to help students see what it's like for a president to make tough decisions. They are given $2.00 and they must choose how to spend the 2.00. There are task cards explaining some of the different needs for the money.

First students place their dimes ($2.00 worth) on the different task cards to show how much money they want to give each program.

Then, they color in the amounts they chose on this worksheet.

5. Choosing other leaders: Students think of someone as their vice president. They are given a list of qualities that important to have as a leader. Then, they write about who they would choose and why.

6. Signing and vetoing laws:

7. Solving Problems: Students are given problems to solve. As president they must think of a fair and peaceful way to solve the problem.

You can download the whole mini-unit here.

Money Games

2011-02-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

I recently purchased Cara Caroll's Great Coin Collection and it is FABULOUS! Here, my students are playing one of the games in the packet. They LOVED it! I highly recommend buying it from her TPT store.

Abraham Lincoln

2011-02-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

After reading Abe Lincoln's Hat, we talked about all the fun facts we learned about Abraham Lincoln. I wrote some of the details from the story on sentence strips and then the class worked together to put the events in order. You can download a student copy of this here.

Then in writing workshop each student wrote facts they learned about Abraham Lincoln. We glued this to Abe Lincoln's hat because in the story we learned that he kept his important papers in his hat. This craft is from my teaching partner. I'm not sure where she got it, but she think it's as old as I am. :) An oldie but a goodie, right?

There is also this cool interactive website where you can "build" a log cabin. http://www.indianahumanities.org/Wethepeople/302-module.html

Literacy Centers

2011-02-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things to do is make literacy centers for my class. It's taken me a few years but I've figured out what works for me. I realized that I couldn't change them weekly, so my centers are changed monthly. Here's how it works:

They get a literacy menu each month.

Here are all the center folder holders. They are labeled with stickers showing each category.

I file their centers in a hanging file system until the end of the month. Then I staple all their centers, their menu and their rubric together and send it home.

I start these centers in October and practice a lot with them. I have parent helpers too. By now, they are totally indpendent with their centers. They love the variety and get to practice a ton of different skills. The skills are all taught the month before. For example, this month one center is making compound words. I incorporated compound words into my morning message, shared writing and spelling lessons the month before so they had a good understanding before they had to do it independently.

Here are some pictures of kids doing centers this month.

Slide-a-word: Students move two sliders to make real words.

Read and Sequence: Students read each sentence strip and glue them in order.

Ending Sentences: Students read from pocket chart and put in appropriate punctuation.

Sorting Words: Students sort long and short vowels.

Describe a picture: Students use descriptive language to describe a picture. Then they read it to me and try to see if I can visualize their picture!

Making Words by connecting hearts

The entire February literacy menu can be found at Teacher's Notebook, but some of the centers I will be posting here.

Click here to download information about how to organize the centers (as described in this post) as well as how to integrate it into your Reading Workshop.

money dice game

2011-02-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

I played this game today with my class. It's a way to use dice while practicing counting money.

You can download it here.

President's Day unit part 1

2011-02-07T22:20:00.000-08:00

I'm slowly getting my President's Day mini-unit together. I have a lot of great books to read to the class, which will help with all of these activities. First, I'm going to do this tree map with the class.

You can download it here.

There are four different options:

Page 1: They can write it in themselves after reading/discussing
Page 1 and 2: They can cut out and place in the correct column
Page 3: They can do the one that is already placed with some words left out

Then, we'll compare Lincoln and Washington with this Venn diagram.

Every year I've done this cute Lincoln craft, which my teaching parter gave to me. It's from the 80s I think, but as I like to say, "it's an oldie but a goodie!" I'll post a picture tomorrow. They are SUPER cute!

More activities to come! I'm making some activities for the class while they pretend to be the president for a week. They will balance the budget (sort of), choose other leaders for their "country", support or veto "laws" and help solve some world problems. :) I'd love to hear what you think!

Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Once again, my students inspired me today! We were reading this cute groundhog story, when one of my students asked, "how come he only sees his shadow sometimes?" Of course many of the other students were excited to tell him the answer to his question. :) But, I still thought it would be fun to do a little investigation anyway. I spent my lunch half eating and half making an investigation worksheet for this afternoon.

So... first, we made our own groundhog paper puppets.
Then, we asked our "essential questions", made our predictions, and went over our plan.
I originally was going to turn off all the lights and use flashlights, but it was actually sunny outside! It's pretty much cloudy from November-June here in Portland, but we were blessed with a beautiful day. So instead we went outside and tried to find our groundhog's shadows.

Some of the kids got really into it and acted out the groundhog popping out of his burrow. To compare, we went inside and turned off the lights and closed the shades. I challenged them to try to find a shadow anywhere in the room. Some of course knew they couldn't no matter what, others tried just in case, while some were determined to make a shadow. When we were all done, we discussed then completed our investigation paper.

When I got home, I enhanced it a bit with some cute font. If you would like to download a copy of it, you can get it here.

how to build a snowman

2011-02-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

The art teacher at my school did an adorable snowman craft. So, I made this writing activity to go with it. Right now, it is wishful thinking because we rarely get snow in Portland, Oregon. :) I'll add pictures soon. You can get the writing activity here. There are two different formats to choose from.

I'm also working on a President's Day mini-unit. Hopefully I'll get that finished and posted soon.

Bear Habitat flip books

2011-02-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

Today we finished our bear habitat flip books. On the front flip is the name of the bear and inside is the corresponding habitat. A great book to read before this activity is Alaska's Three Bears. It's a very cute story about the polar bear, black bear and brown bear traveling to find the perfect home.