October Ideas in a Nutshell

It's October!

I'd love for you to go back and read my past posts on all the great things I do in this fun month.

For the sake of time, there's no need to do that because I've brought it ALL to you right here in one post!

Pumpkins {check}

Bats {check}

Spiders {check}

Halloween {check}

Let's dive into all of the great activities I do in my classroom using Pumpkins first!

I love bringing in a real pumpkin for my class to explore. It's hands-on learning at it's finest.

It's all about the math and science when it comes to the class pumpkin.

We also read some non-fiction books about pumpkins and record our pumpkin schema beforehand. 

{If you would like to read more details about each activity, click on it's link}

The Great Pumpkin Investigation

Pumpkin Schema

The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

Pumpkin Noun Search

Pumpkin Literacy Centers

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Next up, Bats!

We go batty for bats!

We again read some non-fiction about bats and record our schema and new facts on a large bat.

We also use labels to label a giant bat!

We read other books like Stellaluna and craft it up using plot. 

{If you would like to read more details about each activity, click on it's link}

Stellaluna Craft

Bat Schema

Bats Can/Have/Are

Parts of a Bat

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These creepy, crawly things are so interesting to firsties. Here's a few spider ideas!

When learning about spiders we always fill out a KWL chart because there is always so much they already know but even more that they want to learn! We read plenty of non-fiction during our study of spiders.

Making our spider web shaped book is always a hit and a few fun spider shaped crafts are always fun too!

{If you would like to read more details about each activity, click on it's link}

Spider Book

Spider KWL

Spider Poem

Spider Blends Craft

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The very end of the month brings us Halloween. We don't necessarily celebrate it at our school, but we still do a few fun things. Check out the Halloween ideas!

{If you would like to read more details about each activity, click on it's link}

Noun Tree

Candy Corn Contractions

Trick or Treat Craft

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I hope from all of these ideas, you are able to implement a few. 

I have implemented every single one of them at some point and time and lover every one!

May October treat you and your students well!

Spider Blends

Creepy. Crawly. Spiders.

Or should I say...

Cute. Crawly. Spiders.

Last week we finished up blends in phonics.

So why not craft it up? That's just what we did!

I paired students up and gave them a book. In the book they had to find 8 words that started with an S blend. They wrote them down on the manila sheet before making the spider.

They wrote one on each spider leg.

 Now our hallways is creeping with 's blend' spiders!

Trick or Treat!?

Who has eaten way. too. much candy this week?? That would be me! Haven't even been trick or treating but I did take a trip down the candy isle while grocery shopping and those darn pumpkin spice hershey kisses just happened to find there way in my cart.  I am a sucker for everything pumpkin spice flavored!

Since I have no kids and won't be going trick or treating next Wednesday, here is a cute little craftivity that plays off of the 'trick or treat' saying. I found this super cute idea over at Doodlebugs Teaching and added a writing portion to go with it.

 

I'm going to have the kids write 4 clues about themself:

1. Are they a boy or girl.

2. What color hair they have.

3. Something they like to do.

4. A favorite of theirs. 

 

They will illustrate what they look like and then cover their picture with a 'sheet' to make thier diguise as a  ghost!

 

Click on the picture below to download the question printable.

 

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We've been studying all about spiders this week. Here's a peek at what our learning looks like.

 

We recorded our learning on a KWL chart.

 

 We put alot of what we learned into a spider booklet.

 

 We wrote spider facts.

 

 Drew a diagram of a spider and labeled it.

And wrote an acrostic poem using words that describe spiders.

 

We also put what we knew about spiders into a spiders can/have/are chart. 

 

 

We used the organizer to create a friendly spider art activity and sandwich poem!

 

Click on the picture below to download the organizer.

 

  

Tomorrow is FRIDAY and storybook character day at my school. Can't wait to see just how cute my kiddos look!

A Batty Week and a Spider Preview

Last week was our bat unit. I'm not quite sure what it was but my kiddos literally drove me batty! Here is a peek at our 'batty' week in pictures.

 

 

We started our unit off reading a few non-fiction books about bats and filling out a Bats Can-Have-Are chart.  They then picked 2 facts from each category and made their own can-have-are chart.

 

I also introduced the concept of labeling to my firsties using this 'Parts of a Bat' chart.  I showed them a diagram of a bat in a book we read and talked to them about all the different and interesting parts of a bat.  I then had them help me label the parts. We also drew our own diagram and labeled the parts but....let's face it, my drawing is horrible and isn't blog-worthy!

 

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We have been talking all about story elements the past few weeks. I chose to read Stellaluna to my kiddos because I just love the book...such a sweet story. 

 

 

We broke down the book and talked about these story elements: character, setting, problem, solution, and main idea. I had them make a little craftivity to go with it.

On one side the had to fill in the characters and setting.

 

On the opposite side, they wrote the problem and solution.

 

And when they walked in the next day they saw this:

 

You would have thought I won a teacher of the year award or something ya'll! They were beyond excited about their bats hanging upside down from the ceiling.

 

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We have been working hard on our short vowel sounds.  I made these assorted vowel word work pages.  They help me know whether or not my students understand the concept of the short vowel sound in a word since they are generating their own words in the circles and drawing a picture of their word. 

 

Click on the picture below and it will take you to my original post with the assorted vowels packet where you can download 3 different worksheets!

 

 

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Up next week is our spider unit! There's 4 things I strongly despise in life: snakes, roaches, junebugs, and spiders.  There is just nothing cute about these creepy, crawly things but there is just something about the brain of a first grader that absolutely LOVES learning about them.  So all fears aside, here goes nothing.

 

 We definitely won't be making any creepy crawly spiders. Only cute ones that have descriptive 'sandwich poems'. Here is one activity we will be doing to go in our hall.  These 2 wonderful ladies {Doodlebugs Teaching} & {Amy Lemons} inspired me to put their 2 creations together into 1. 

 

And when my little loves walk in tomorrow this is the spooky scene they will see! We had a spider invasion over the weekend...boo-ha-ha!!!

Here's to a creepy-crawly 'drug-free' red ribbon week!

Spiders, Bats, and Vowels OH MY!

If these next 3 months of school aren't the BEST time of the year, than I'm  not sure what is...well ok there is this one day called the last day of school, but that's a whole different story!  October is full of pumpkins, bats, and spiders.  Then November brings my birthday, fall weather, and our Thanksgiving feast.  Last comes December when we go all out for The Polar Express, and Holiday parties (I hate we don't call them Christmas parties) and a 2 week vacation! 

But backing up to October...in the next few weeks we will talk about bats, spiders, and pumpkins.  We have been learning about the short vowel sounds since the second week of school.  Our district is implementing a new phonics program, so it has been a little v-e-r-y slow getting started...but none the less, we are truckin' now!  Next week we will finish our last short vowel {Praise the Lord}. 

I created a pack of short vowel word work for the month of October to go hand in hand with all our fun units! Included is a pumpkin, bat, and spider themed vowel sort.  I have included directions at the end of the packet so be sure to make your way all they way to the last page : )

 

Click on the picture to download!

 

Here is a peek at what you can expect!

 

I can't wait to share with you what we are doing for our bat, spider, and pumpkin units!  Here's one thing I'm super excited about:  Another teacher and I bought a mini pumpkin to plant and watch grow...only it takes 95 days for it to mature (they made sure to leave that off the packaging)! 

 

I am going to leave you with a question and 1 more freebie!  Have one of your student's ever asked you if they should spell a word with a 'c' or a 'k'?  It's only my 2nd year of teaching and I can count on both hands (and toes) plus some more how many times I've heard that question.  Well here is a cute little saying I learned from our phonics program that helps the kids remember which to use:  "K takes i and e and c takes the other 3".  Confused yet??? 

 

Here is a visual I made for my kiddos to refer to when writing. You can click on the picture to download!

 

 

So clever, so cute, AND so glad I now have the answer to their questions (if I didn't already know how to spell the word of course!)