Got Eggs? Turn them into a Game with this FREEBIE!

Do you have a few extra eggs floating around your room now that Easter is over?

Great! That's all you need to throw together this quick and easy grammar review game.

I'm sure your kids have perfected their egg hunt strategies and will love this activity.

First you will need to download this FREEBIE <------click here

Then you will need to find 3 buckets/baskets/cups (whatever you have) and label them: noun/verb/adjective

Cut out each word and stuff it inside an egg.

Hide the eggs around your room.

Students will have to find one egg, open it and read the word inside.

Gather together as a class once everyone has found an egg and read their word.

Students will take turn reading their word and placing it into the correct "Easter basket".

If their word is a noun...it goes in the noun basket.

If their word is a verb....it goes in the verb basket.

If their word is an adjective...it goes in the adjective basket. 

We are going to use this as a review before we take an assessment for report cards.

I have also attached the assessment if you would like to use it as well.

Hope you have some hippity-hoppity fun!

Up Feet, Down Feet, Antonym Feet FREE Lesson

How do feet and antonyms collide you might ask?

Easily, just ask Dr. Seuss!

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.

(Sorry for the glare. Chart is laminated so I can reuse again next year!)

After making our chart, I took out the 24 feet, each with an antonym written on it and laid them around the room. I must have really confused my kiddos because I got "Why are you putting out bananas?".

Yeah, they may look a little like bananas!

Each student had to pick up one foot, read the word, and find the other student who had a match to make a pair of antonyms.

If you would like to add this activity to your grammar collection, head on over to my TPT store.

I have put it together as a FREEBIE for you!

We also made a bigger than life size feet anchor chart for our learning.

So we took it a *step* further (pun IS intended) by tracing our feet.

Each pair of feet will have a pair of antonyms.

I have a feeling that won't hardly forget antonyms!

Do you LOVE Anchor Charts as Much as I do!?!?

Are you down for some anchor chart L-O-V-E?!
I wanted to share with you how I use anchor charts all.the.time in my classroom.

There are 2 different types of anchor charts I use in my teaching:

1) Interactive anchor charts--those made together

2) Introductory anchor charts--those that are pre-made

Interactive anchor charts are those that my students help me construct.

Sometimes we complete them whole group. Other times I make several of the same template and put students in groups. Normally I have a title on them or a few pre-written words, but the rest of the chart is up to them to help me fill out and create based on the lesson. 

We use these in pretty much every subject.

Here are some scenarios from the picture above where we interacted to make class anchor charts:

Insects--our schema and new learning

Bats--what we learned from nonfiction text

Verbs--squares from a verb search

Phonics--digraph word hunts with books

3 Sound of ED--partner word hunts

Things We Can Do--record individual verbs

Incorporating these into any lesson engages students and lets them take ownership of their learning!

Plus they feel like they are getting to "be the teacher"!

Introductory anchor charts are used to just that, introduce a skill, strategy, or concept.

I present these completely pre-made anchor charts in my very first introductory lesson. I keep it and display it so that I can refer to it during any follow up lessons, small group lessons, or for student referencing.

I use these in every subject also.

Here are some scenarios from the picture above where I used anchor charts to introduce material:

Vowel Pairs--list all the pairs

Rhyming Words--define and show examples

Scientist--who they are/what they do

Fiction & Nonfiction--define and add pictures

Reading Strategies--define and add an anchoring mental picture

Grammar--define and add pictures or examples

I feel like I make an anchor chart for everything. My room starts off SO bare but ends up so "charty". 

So in order to save space, I have created printable anchor charts.

These charts are 8 1/2 X 11 (normal sized paper) and don't take up a great deal of space.

Printable Anchor Charts for Reading & Comprehension

Printable Anchor Charts for Grammar

Here are the 2 products for introductory anchor charts that you can just print and use from my TpT store.

They will be on sale for the next 2 days!

Happy Charting!

Adverbs, Anchor Charts and a Giveaway!

Adverbs in first grade.

Enough said.

So we simplify them according to our state standards: adverbs that tell when.

We started learning about adverbs through writing. 

I had students write a sentence with a noun, an adjective, verb and then we would tell when with the adverb. We practiced stretching sentences out quite a few times.

Then I remembered this freebie I saw over at Smitten with First's blog.

So I adapted it to fit our adverb lessons.

We started the craft by writing two sentences together (that is after completing 5 whole group).

They had to write the last 3 sentences themselves and assemble.

Most of the students took their adverbs from our anchor chart, but some came up with their own words that told "when". 

This chart, along with all my others, led me to create this printable anchor chart resource.

I use them all.year.long. 

 I introduce each new type of grammar with them, carry them with me to our small group table, put them on our chart stand during our whole group writing lessons and then refer back to them.

I'd love to giveaway a set of my printable anchor charts!

Leave a comment below with your guess of how many school days I have left. 

The 2 closest people will both win a set of the charts for FREE!

We ARE Learning Tomorrow...with an Egg Hunt of Course {and a FREEBIE for you!}

Do you have a few extra eggs floating around your room?

Great! That's all you need to throw together this quick and easy grammar review game.

First you will need to download this FREEBIE <------click here

Then you will need to find 3 buckets/baskets/cups (whatever you have) and label them: noun/verb/adjective

Cut out each word and stuff it inside an egg.

Hide the eggs around your room.

Students will have to find one egg, open it and read the word inside.

Gather together as a class once everyone has found an egg and read their word.

Students will take turn reading their word and placing it into the correct "Easter basket".

If their word is a noun...it goes in the noun basket.

If their word is a verb....it goes in the verb basket.

If their word is an adjective...it goes in the adjective basket. 

We are going to use this as a review before we take an assessment for report cards.

I have also attached the assessment if you would like to use it as well.

Hope you have some hippity-hoppity fun!

BIG State=BIG Ideas, TEXAS Teachers Read This!

Texas, our Texas...how we love learning about our state!

Rodeo season is in full swing and we've got our boots cleaned and ready to learn.

Our poem of the week is one of our favorites and I find them reciting it subconsciously throughout the week. Catchiness as its best!

We kicked off the week learning about all the symbols of our great state.

Some we already knew and some we didn't.

L is for Lone Star is a fabulous book that taught even this devoted Texan things I didn't know!

After recording our schema and new learning, we made a flip-book with 3 of our favorite symbols.

Each day throughout the week we dove deep into talking about 5 important symbols.
We read about them, asked questions, and recorded facts in our Texas Symbols book.

{You can find this in my TpT store}

On the day we learned about Bluebonnets, I taught my firsties how to make their own!

You can too:
Fold a white sheet of computer paper in half.
Color the top half blue, bottom half green on BOTH sides.
Cut the blue into small strips.
Roll at a diagonal and tape.
Done!

Themed books about our state are always fun to read. 

Here are a few we practiced making connections with.

Text-to-text

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly--There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Anth

Text-to-Text

Little Red Riding Hood--Little Red Cowboy Hat

We did a little comparing and contrasting with 2 stories this week too. 

Most of my kids knew the story of Cinderella.  I had them retell the story out loud for those who didn't. 

So we compared it with this laugh out loud story: Bubba the Cowboy Prince---a MUST read!

 We compared the 2 stories in a Venn Diagram boot and made it look a little fancy-shmancy!

In writing, we've explored the 5W poem this week during our poetry study. 

It answers the questions "who, what, when, where, why"?

We wrote a class poem about an armadillo together and they got to be the illustrators. 

Then we brainstormed ideas/animals/people that represented Texas. 

They chose one to write their own 5W poem about. 

We also wrote 5W poems that describe ourselves. Grab this FREE template in my TpT store!

During our grammar time this week we reviewed adjectives. It just seems that these little words won't stick in my firsties brains! A sign to the teacher...I need to use it more ; )

We colorfully decorated these big ol' boots.

I gave them 3 sticky notes to describe their boots and glue at the bottom. 

"bold"   "vibrant"   "pretty"

To top it all off, we celebrated our week with FOOD! Our state dish of course....CHILI!

I'm always SO shocked when some of my friends tell me they've never had Chili!!!

To incorporate writing, we made the chili together and then wrote a recipe for them to take home!

After our taste test, we again, used adjectives to describe our Chili.

{Click on the picture for a FREEBIE}

I hope you found some Texas sized ideas to add to your Texas sized vault!
#texasteachersdoitbigger

A Game of Contraction Toss

Who's kids love to get up and moving?

I know mine do and boy do they need it. We require them to sit, listen, be quiet, whisper.

Lord knows sometimes it's okay to make a little noise when learning!

We have been tuned into contractions the past few weeks. 

Here is a fun way to review or even assess your students.

Prep is easy: paper, marker and something to throw (we used a bean bag).

Each student had the chance to toss the bean bag onto the paper. 

They were to read their contraction and tell us the two words that made it.

They then chose a friend.

From this activity, I could pretty much tell who my strugglers were.

My other firsties listened intently and helped their friends when needed. 

This game is SUPER versatile and could be used across any content area:

compound words

categorizing nouns/verbs/adjectives

phonics/word families

rhyming words (read and generate)

fact fluency

This may just become a staple game in our classroom!