Five for Friday

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Are you lucky enough to have the day off or with no kiddos?

I am but I'm stuck doing report cards...bleh.

Here's a few things my firsties did this week!

 



 

We began and finished out unit on length.

Here's a quick informal assessment we did.

I had each student pick 3 things in their desk and order them shortest to longest!

 

We loved learning a little about penguins this week.

We read the book "If You Were a Penguin" and completed a reader's response craft with rip art!

One of my all time favorite books to read throughtout the entire year is "Two Bad Ants".

It's the most perfect book for inferring.

That's just what we did below.

{Read a more detailed post about it HERE and HERE}

 

Another great winter read is "The Snow Globe Family".

I read this to them and then they had to visualize what it would be like to be inside their own snow globe!

 
 
 

 

Since we are out of school for MLK, we talked about him one day this week.

We recorded our dreams too!

 

"I have a dream that one day my school will have a warmer cafeteria."

 

She hot this one spot on!!!

 

Enjoy your holiday weekend and don't forget to link up with Doodblebugs Teaching!

 

 



Perfect and Plentiful Penguin Packet and Ideas {a giveaway}

In January, we love, Love, LOVE to teach about penguins. They aren't icky or gross like the spiders we study, creepy or spooky like the bats...so it is much more enjoyable to teach! Who doesn't love to learn about cute, cuddly penguins and watch them waddle!

 I've been working on {my} perfect penguin packet that I know my firsties will just swoon over!

 

 

This full unit is jam packed with first grade skill work for phonics, reading, poetry, writing, grammar, social studies, and some fun activities as well!

 

ELA Printables:
 Penguin Pals ABC Order
 Playful Penguin Punctuation
 What Can Penguins Do? (verb practice)
 Iceberg Noun and Verb sort
 Cocoa Contractions
 Assorted Penguin Long Vowel practice

Poem

Story Elements (made to go with any fiction book about penguins)

 

 

 

 

 



 Social Studies Printables:

Penguins can/have/are chart
 Label that Penguin
 Where Do Penguins Live?  (world map)
 Penguin fact/opinion writing craftivity

All About Penguins book
   Penguin Trivia (facts about penguins recording sheet)
   3 facts and a fib (recording sheet)
   Penguin types (fact recording sheet) {4 types} 

 

 

 And my favorite part of all:

 

Throughout the 2 weeks that we study penguins, we put together this book piece by piece.

It includes a penguin trivia page, 3 facts and a fib, and 3 informational pages to record facts about the different types of penguins (Emperor, Chinstrap, and Rockhopper...and a blank one).

 

 Writing Printables:

How to Make a Snowman creative writing
 If I Was a Penguin (creative writing prompt) {2 choices}
    

Fun Activities:

Penguin Pie (ice cream activity)

 Word Search

 

 

 Enjoying our Penguin Pie!

 

 

We have such FUN with this unit that I would love to share the fun with one lucky person!

 

Leave a comment sharing your favorite part of January AND your email address.
 

If you don't win, check it out on sale in my TpT store through this weekend!

A Day with MLK Mini-Unit {on sale}

It seems like January starts the beginning of the never.ending holiday celebrations. First, there is Martin Luther King Jr. day, followed by Groundhog's day, the 100th day of school, and Valentine's Day.

 {Holy holidays!} 

 Uhhh, can anyone say PTL for Spring Break!

Since there are SO many things SO close together to touch on, I figured a day or 2 for each would just have to do. Therefore, I made a MLK mini-unit to kick things off!

This mini-unit is the perfect way to teach MLK in a day (or two)! All you need is a non-fiction book to accompany the pages in this unit and you are set!

Here is what the unit includes:

*Who Was MLK? {describing graphic organizer}
*MLK was/had/wanted facts organizer
*MLK 3 facts and a fib {students produce & record 3 facts and a fib)
*Comparing MLK and Me! {Venn diagram}
*MLK: Fact or Not so Much {cut and paste fact activity}
*I Have a Dream, Too! {creative writing prompt}
*I Have a Dream {writing paper}
*MLK ABC order

It's now available in my TpT shop .
It's on sale this weekend only!!

  

I also saw this amazing idea on Cara's blog to show kiddos the difference between races, good ol' equality as MLK would call it. You need 2 eggs (1 white and 1 brown). Talk about how the eggs are different, the only big difference being color. Then, break the two eggs (removing the shell from sight) and ask the kids if they know which egg came from which shell.

Hopefully this is what they get from it “So…the eggs are like people. Dr. King knew that everybody was really alike and the only thing that was different was the color of our skin, so that’s why he thought that things were unfair.”  TOTALLY GENIUS, right!?!?  Such a great way to show the concept for those visual learners!

Are You Snowed In? {on sale and a giveaway}

Living in Texas, getting "snowed in" doesn't happen often ever happen!

So sometimes I have to pretend like I'm snowed in with the rest of the country on dreary cold (like lows in the 40's) days. That's cold for us folks! On days like these, I like to envision myself sitting at my computer with a cup of coffee starting at the snowfall out the window and creating great products for my kiddos.

Last year I created this little gem and am revising it for my own version of "Throwback Thursday"!

This "snowed in" creation features easy printable pages that are great for morning work, independent practice pages, or homework during the month of January.

Included in the pack:

Grammar Practice Pages

Noticing Nouns
When It Snows I Can... (verb practice)
Describe that Snowman
Describe that Cocoa
Snowball Nouns and Verbs
Winter Wonderland ABC Order
Snowy Sentence Punctuation

Phonics Practice Pages

Assorted Snowmen (silent e practice)

Reader's Response Pages

Text to Text Connections
Inferring
Predicting
Beginning Middle End

Click on the picture below to download your FREEBIE from the pack!

As always, I like to give my products to my avid blog followers so the first 3 of you to leave a comment with your email address will win the pack for free!

If you don't happen to snag it, find it in my TpT shop on sale the rest of this week!

Go Back to School with a Freebie!

 

Time to ring in the new year...on the blog of course!

If you are like me, you return to your littles tomorrow.

Part of me is excited.

Part of me is sad.

But despite my emotions 2015 is continuing.

 

Here is what I prepared (a short 2 weeks ago) for us to learn about when we return tomorrow!

Resolutions OR in terms of 1st graders Goals.

 

This book does a great job at explaining what a resolution is in first grade "terms".

 

We read it tomorrow and make our own resolutions after learning how and why we make them.

Together, we make two class resolutions or goals. We also made a personal goal we could keep during this new year.

 

{Last year's example} 

 

We like to get artsy so we will create our first craftivity of the new year with our new goal!

 

This year my goal is to promise to take care of others.

To reach my goal I am going to giving them more medicine.

 

Precious.

 

This year my goal is to promise to exercise.

To reach my goal I am going to play football.

 

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We normally don't spend too much time talking about the new year.

In the past I have also used this sheet to briefly discuss why we celebrate the new year.

This quick little sheet your kiddos can fill out that helps them look back on last year and forward to the coming new year!

 

 

 

Find it in my TPT store where you can download for FREE!

 

Happy New Year to you and your family!