Writing with Play-dough

Need to get your kids excited about practicing writing sentences?

Well then bring out the Play-Dough!

We have been learning about using question words and question marks.

I had modeled writing questions for several days and now it was time for my firsties to practice.

In my mind I thought, ugh how boring is this going to be and knew I had to make it engaging.

Enter Play-Dough.

They had to write 3 questions and once they did, they could create their question marks out of Play-Dough!

I was shocked how hard they worked!

We may just pull out the Play-Dough more often.

I'm sure they would'nt mind, especially when they get to play with it after their hard work!

#letthembelittle

Letters to and from Santa

I'm sharing my {hands down} favorite activity we do all.year.long only because it is probably the one thing that brings the kids the most joy during this time of the year. 

Faces...priceless.

Memories...priceless. 

Teacher high...priceless.

Next, have your students compose their letters. This is normally a 2 days process.

Mail off those letters!

Your letter "from Santa" will arrive back.

This is the BEST part of the whole process.

The joy is unimaginable. I wish I could share pictures of their faces and comments from the past.

After they each get their letter, we sit in a circle and if they can read their letter they do, if not I help them out.

You can find my Letters to Santa pack in my TpT store.

It includes 25 editable letters you can personalize to each student. 

The majority of the letters are typed...all you have to do is add each student's name!

Spread the joy and magic of Christmas to your students!

Learning through Literacy: December

I love teaching in October, but December runs a very close first place!

Did I just say December?

This year is flying by, said no teacher ever. But really, it is!

Each month, I use these easy to prep and explain activities to review previously taught skills as centers or stations for my students. 

They always include some type of the following activites:

phonics -- word study -- grammar -- writing -- sight words

Catch the December set ON SALE for the next 2 days. 

You can also find the bundle for the entire year in my store for a discounted price!

OUCH! Did you say freebie!?

I love when learning lends itself to cute little memory tricks like this one we learned last week.

In phonics, we learned about the sound 'OU' and called them our "ouch words".

I was astonished at all the words they came up with....on their own...on day 1!

We recorded our brainstorm on a band-aid anchor chart to anchor our learning.

I found a cute poem in Shel Silverstein's book of poems called Band-Aids.

Precious poem that talks about a boy who uses band-aids just because he likes them.

We wrote down why we use band-aids on our 'What Makes You Say OUCH!' paper.

**Download this for FREE {HERE}**

The following day, I had them choose 4 things from their paper that made them say ouch, and we turned them into an 'OUCH' poem...the the shape of a band-aid of course!

To top of our week of OU words, students will go on a word search with the books in their book box and find as many words as they can that follow the phonics pattern. 

This helps me to understand who grasped the phonics pattern and who doesn't.

Students who find words such as "should, could, would, trouble" obviously need a re-teach.
I'm hoping all the connections made to the real world really anchored their learning!

Thematically Planning--President's Week

You know those quotes that stick with you...the really important ones? 

The ones we find most meaningful?

At the I Teach 1st conference Cara referenced a quote in one of her sessions that blew my mind.

"97% of students will retain information if it is taught thematically."

Then what on earth have I been doing the last four years!

Operation: change how I teach

So of course, I came back from the conference and have been planning out our weeks thematically ever since. It makes the weeks more fun and more engaging for the kids.

I do believe their brains pick up on more as they are hearing it all throughout our day!

This last week we learned about the President, well because we were off for President's Day. 

Hello! I'm sure they had absolutely NO idea WHY there was no school Monday. 

So I read a short little mini book on President's Day.

Intrigued they were, so I went on to introduce our poem for the week. 

During whole group reading time, we read a book called If I Were The President.

My kiddos LOVE telling me their schema so that's what we recorded first.

I  gave them 3 minutes to record 3 things in their schema about the president. 

We came together to share then we read the book. 

This is a great book because it has kid-friendly facts and terms. 

{book pictured below}

We recorded our new learning together and then on their paper. 

Throughout the week, we read several other fiction books.

We made connections to Arthur Meets the President.

We made our campaign posters after reading Grace for President.

We held our election after Reading Duck for President.

Once students were well aware of the many jobs of the president, we held a class election.

They were pumped!!!

Step 1: hang campaign posters around the room

Step 2: make voter registration cards

Step 3: vote!

Step 4: count votes and make pictograph

Step 5: declare a winner, graph results and tabulate data

We also incorporated writing into this day of fun.

After I was declared the official winner {what can I say--they LOVE me}, we pretended they were chosen as the president!

"I would play with my dog. Sign bills. I would make laws and rules to help people." 

Let me just say that I packed a lot into their little brains and LOTS of it stuck!

If you stayed tuned in this long, I've managed to throw in a FREEBIE for you loyal thing you!

Snag this with most of the templates (that I created) seen on this post in my TpT store!

As I began to think about our theme for next week, I based it off of our science unit: Objects in the Sky. I found several fiction and non-fiction books, scoured Pinterest for relate-able craft ideas, and pulled in as many other things I could--like our poem and math unit on time.

Check back at the end of next week for more on how week 2 of thematic planning went!

Experiencing Letters to and From Santa

I'm sharing my {hands down} favorite activity we do all.year.long only because it is probably the one thing that brings the kids the most joy during this time of the year. 

Faces...priceless.

Memories...priceless. 

Teacher high...priceless.

Next, have your students compose their letters. This is normally a 2 days process.

Mail off those letters!

Your letter "from Santa" will arrive back.

This is the BEST part of the whole process.

The joy is unimaginable. I wish I could share pictures of their faces and comments from the past.

After they each get their letter, we sit in a circle and if they can read their letter they do, if not I help them out.

You can find my Letters to Santa pack in my TpT store.

It includes 25 editable letters you can personalize to each student. 

The majority of the letters are typed...all you have to do is add each student's name!

Spread the joy and magic of Christmas to your students!

Five for Friday

Friday, Friday, Friday...

let's talk about what this week brought us.

We learned all about the life cycle of a chicken this week.

Today we read the book Chicks and Salsa (a must when teaching about chicks). 

In the story the chickens/pigs/ducks are tired of eating thier food so they have fiestas!

Our reader's response was to think about what we are tired of eating and what we want to eat instead.

I'm tired of eating...

salmon

pizza

lasagna

Instead I want to eat...

macaroni

healthy food

raman noodles

This is our second week writing how-to papers. 

This week we involved a favorite food and taught our peers how to make a PB&J sandwich.

We actually turned our paper into a sandwich book!!!

If you like the above activity, you can find the templates (plus 10 more) in my TpT shop.

Vowels pairs ai/ay were are spelling pattern for the week.

We sorted words and played a school appropriate version of "spin the bottle".

They each got to spin my empty water bottle and then use the word in a sentence.

Funny how something SO simple can be SO fun!

Last of all, here are the ladies that keep me:

laughing

sane

positive

smiling

going

They make this job worth it!

Love them BIG.

HAPPY FRIDAY