Inferencing, Phonics and Pancakes....YES, they ALL Go Together!

Who's down for a #foodfriday?

We were all about it in room 118.

In fact, we had been reading a poem about pancakes all week long in preparation!

I stumbled upon this book again recently (oldie, but goodie). 

After rereading it, I knew I had to use it to review making inferences.

If you haven't read this book, it is a wordless picture book. 

Beyond perfect for using those text clues + schema to make inferences!

As I read, I had 4 spots throughout the book where my firsties stopped to record their inferences. 

Once we finished reading, we went back a second time to share our inferences as we read.

It was also fun to have them help me come up with words to the book!

So...who reads a book about making pancakes without actually making them?!?!

Psshhh NOT this teacher.

We broke out the pancake mix, syrup and griddle and went to cooking!

They admired my cooking for a few minutes and then I sent them off to work on yet, another, pancake project while I resumed cooking 30 pancakes!

Searching for words was their task. 

This past nine weeks we taught silent e and bossy r words.

They had to find one word for each pattern.

Once they found all 10 words, they make a short stack of pancakes with their words.

And to top it all off, we ate these heavenly puppies right up!

Head Hunters: a sight word game

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw me post this picture yesterday.

We played a game I named "Head Hunters" to review our sight words.

It's super easy to make and did I mention it's loads of fun too!

To Make (Labels):

Type up sight words onto labels (I used Avery 5160 template in Word).

Print.

To Make (Recording Sheet):

Simply type up a class list with a blank space beside each student's name.

Print.

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To Play:

Now that you have your supplies, stick one label to each students head.

Yes, stick it to their head!

{They may have thought I was crazy when I walked up with one on my head.}

#teachersplaygamestoo

Pass out recording sheet. Students will walk around and read the sight words on each classmates' head. They will read the word to person and then record it on their paper.

Once completed, they may take their sticker off and place it next to their name.

Here we are in action!

This game can be made to fit any list of words or any class size.

Happy word hunting!

Five for Friday {PLUS a Freebie!}

Friday, Friday, FRIDAY!

This week was our first week back after spring break and we surely sprung into some fun activities!

I feel like the lucky one sometimes with these kiddos!

We've been getting real good at making connections to the stories we read.

This week we read on called Friends.

The weather this week in Texas was surely spring-like. 

Before the rain came, we ventured outside to observe the spring things happening!

With spring making an early arrival, we made rainbows with words that described our spring weather.

If you're anywhere close to spring break, this next one is for you!

I have my firsties complete this the first day they come back from the break.

We write and then share our adventures!

Snag it by clicking on the picture.

Do You Know What Time It Is?

All year long my firsties have been itching to learn how to tell time on that clock that hangs on our wall.

I think it makes them feel <--------------------> this much smarter!

Now the questions change from "Mrs. Griffith, what time is it?" to "Is it ______?".

We had fun constructing a life size clock using unifix cubes to illustrate the parts of a clock and how they work.

We also constructed a clock in our math journals to refer back to in later days.

You can find many more ideas for teaching time {HERE} on Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits!

ARe you ready fOR phonics?

I just adore teaching phonics!

There is always a way to have a "play on words" when teaching the skills. 

Up this last week was OR and AR.

I found these super fun ideas from a blogger friend Michelle over at Smitten with First.

I introduced the OR sound with my easy-peasy "smORe" chart. 

That had our tummies rumbling, so why not spell words with OReos!

YUM!

While we didn't have a full fledged Pirate Day, we did practice our pirate voices quite a bit.

My kiddos loved this "Pirates say AR" video (click on picture for link). 

We may have listened to it every day!

We became acquainted with Captain SmARty also as he brought us many AR words on his treasure map.

Head over to Michelle's blog for mORe phonics ideas!

AR ideas

OR ideas

Are You Smarter than a Surgeon?

Are you smarter than a surgeon?

Well, a 1st grade surgeon that is.

I knew my firsties were bright enough to perform surgery as soon as I got out the gloves and bandaids!

This past week we have been learning about contractions.

What better way to make learning interactive than surgically removing letters and "stitching" them back up?

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First we prepared by putting on gloves and gathering our supplies.

 Next up, we went to work buy removing the 'O' from our 2 words.

 Then we replaced the letter with an apostrophe (bandaid).

Sometimes things got a tad bit sticky!

But in the end, all was successful, and FUN!

Do Your Kids Struggle with the "And Disease"?

The And Disease.

Sitting down during writing conferences I have noticed and influx of "and" being used in my students writing AND it is driving me crazy AND I finally decided to address it AND it went like this.

I came up with a simple story to show the class during a writing mini-lesson. 

I read it putting major emphasis on the word AND.

When I read it they {laughed and laughed and laughed}! 

They thought I was crazy for using the word AND so many times

Their response "That's a lot of and's Mrs. Griffith".

They were surprised when I told them that --they-- were actually the ones who were consumed by this disease!

We came up with a solution: When we reread our stories and find that we have the "and disease", we will erase the word and add a period in its place.

 I had them go back and edit their papers for the "and disease", capitalization and punctuation. 

Problem solved, hopefully!

How Many Feet Will You Meet?

How are feet and antonyms alike?

To find out, we take a look at this Dr. Seuss book.

Left foot, right foot.

Wet foot, dry foot.

Low foot, high foot.

Are you catching my drift? This book is a fabulous introduction for teaching antonyms!

After reading, we make a class anchor chart for antonyms.

We take it a *step* further (pun IS intended) by tracing our feet.

Each pair of feet will have a pair of antonyms.

Then we make a second anchor chart with all of our antonym feet!

And that is how antonym are like feet!