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

Toss it Up: A Versatile Game for all Subjects

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!

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!

Winter Reading Challenge Freebie

Different years bring different groups of learners.

Let's just say this year my firsties need a little bit more practicing reading.

I feel consistency is one key to success so I wanted to find a way to encourage them to read over our two week winter break. I searched TpT and found a very cute challenge already created....a time saver during all of  the Christmas madness that ensued before the break! I knew it probably wasn't very motivating, especially during the exciting season we were in.

I knew I had to create a "reward" their hard work over the break so I may have bribed them by mentioning those who turned in the reading challenge when we returned would receive a prize!

What 7 year old during Christmas time isn't thinking prizes are the best thing ever...exactly!

The challenge was to fill up a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows. Each marshmallow was a different reading challenge for that particular day. If they brought it back filled up here is what they will get:

Time to make a S'more to go with their mug of hot chocolate!

You can find the Winter Reading Challenge HERE from More than a Worksheet.

AND

You can find my printable FREEBIE in my store HERE!

Save if for Next Year: Introducing Your Class Elf

As I'm sitting on the couch watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel, I'm thinking about Christmas in the classroom and how much fun we had discovering our elf this year!

Let me just tell you all about it...

We had been practicing our inferencing skills the past week and the bright idea came to me, what would be better than introducing our class elf than through a mystery box inferencing lesson of course!?

First thing I did was find my mystery box and put our elf inside with his letter from the North Pole.

Then I created 4 clues to describe our elf to use for the mystery box activity.

I played this up BIG y'all.

I was explaining the activity and looking at the clues (with this puzzled look on my face) and revealed to them that these were NOT the clues I had made for this activity! Someone must have came in and wrote new clues over the weekend...they flipped! 

So on we went.....each student got a recording sheet and 1 clue. They recorded their clue and then walked around to find and record the 3 remaining clues their peers had.

Once they collected and recorded all 4 clues, they traveled back to their desk to put together the clues and visit their schema. They recorded their inference at the bottom of their paper.

Let me just tell you how excited they were once they read all their clues and "thought" it was an elf!!!!

We shared our inferences with each other and the time had come for me to reveal the mystery!

We rationalized through why they thought it was an elf and why it couldn't be other things they may have thought.

And there he sits, inside our mystery box. 

I can not imagine introducing our class elf any other way than this in the future.

In fact, I was so excited I made it into a download just for you!

Now you can introduce your class elf through the mystery box or just practice inferring.

I've included 5 different sets of clues for the following mystery items:

 elf, candy cane, stocking, ornament and Santa hat

You can find it available now in my Tpt store or by clicking on the product picture above.

Integrating Gingerbread Week

It's officially THE most wonderful time of the year!

We always do it big in December with a little tons of gingerbread fun.

Here are a few of the books we read throughout the last week.

I use many of these stories to teach or reinforce lessons on comprehension skills such as sequencing, making predictions, retelling, etc.

Here are a few of the book responses we use,they can accompany any of the books pictured above.

One fun group activiy we did was retell the story of Gingerbread Baby.

Each group was given a part of the plot to complete: characters, setting, sequence of events, problem solution.

We put them in order and onto this chart:

I adore these tasty little cookies SO much that I created a Gingerbread Literacy unit to go along with our fun we have. Included are the responses you saw above and more! 

We've been studying adjectives in grammar and writing. I gave each student a gingerbread cut-out to decorate with cheap art supplies.

They then had to describe their adorable creations using adjectives!

(This sample is from Ship Shape First Grade---I forgot to take a picture of ours!)

Beyond reading, we have even more fun with gingerbread!

This fun science experiment from Abby is always a hit.

We have also been learning about maps in Social Studies. 

I found these mini brown paper sacks at Hobby Lobby and the kids decorate them as gingerbread houses.

We created a gingerbread neighborhood to place our houses on.

We played a "game" to place the houses on the neighborhood map.

I started off by choosing a student & telling them where to place their house based on my directions.

"Put your house north of Peppermint Lane."

That student then got to choose a friend and told them where to put their house using directions.

And who couldn't end the week without decorating AND eating some of these delicious gems!

It may just be the hit of the week!

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!