Pumpkin Week is in the Books!

Pumpkin week...always one of my favorite weeks of the year to plan!

I always forget how awesome things turn out when you integrate. 

 We recently learned about non-fiction text and schema.

So we started off the week talking about what kind of pumpkin schema we had.

Before I taught anything about pumpkins, we recorded our schema on pumpkin seeds & put it on our chart.

The next day, we read a non-fiction book about pumpkins. We learned lots of new information and also recorded it on a pumpkin seed. 

{Anchor chart inspiration from The First Grade Parade}

Our poem this week was I'm a Little Pumpkin. Perfect for the occasion!

It goes to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot.

We also read about the life cycle of a pumpkin and put the cycle in order using these cards from The First Grade Parade.  You can also watch this song...beware your kids will LOVE it!

{pumpkin life cycle song link}

Throughout the week the kiddos brought in mini pumpkins for a grammar activity.

The room began to look like a pumpkin patch!

We used our senses to describe our class pumpkin.

Each student wrote their descriptive words on their mini pumpkin.

What!? We get to write on our pumpkin!?!?

Total hit! Talk about concentration...you could hear a pumpkin drop!

We read the cutest book, The Littlest Pumpkin. It's a great book for making connections so we did just that.

We had a quick art activity too. Funny face pumpkins turned out adorable! 

Then it was time for our GREAT pumpkin investigation.

We headed down to the Science Lab.

First we labeled the parts of a pumpkin. 

Next up, will it sink or float.

Out of 42 kids...about 5 thought it would float!

Boy were they surprised!

We recorded our data on our Pumpkin Investigation log.

{Find it here}

We cut into the pumpkin so that we could count the seeds.

I put butcher paper down over their desks and gave each student a handfull.

They had to put them into groups of 10 for us to count.

Their predictions were anywhere from 20 to 101. But we actually had....408!!! They were shocked!

We also measured how tall our pumpkin was with cubes.

Everything that we did during the investigation we recorded as a class on this chart:

It's very similar to their personal ones that we glued in their science journals. 

At the end of the day I love hearing..."Mrs. Griffith, today was the best day ever!"

Totally makes all the hard work and planning I put into a moment like this worth it.

5 Wardrobe Staples Every Teacher Should Own

This post isn't going to offer you any great lessons.

But I do hope that you find some of my fashion tips useful!

By NO means am I a fashionista of any sort.

I like to look cute.

I like everything to coordinate.

But most importantly, I like to be comfy.

So here I am sharing some of those cute, coordinating and comfy duds with you!

All the items I've picked are not only what I mentioned above, but they are very versatile and can pair with pretty much every item in my closet. Who doesn't love that!?

Below are the links where you can find each of these staple wardrobe pieces:

Teach shirt

Leopard kimono

Gap jeans

Tory Burch sandals

Kendra Scott earrings

What about you? Is there anything you love or adore that you think I should add to my list...or closet?

Focusing on Non-Fiction

It seems as though this year lends itself for the PERFECT time to teach Non-Fiction!

 To this point in the year we have read plenty of fiction books. 

So when introducing a new "genre" of books, the kiddos are enthralled!

To kick off our unit we watch a Brainpop on fiction vs. nonfiction.

We create these anchor charts together. 

And then we take a look at a few books from our class library and sort them to go with our charts.

Each day over the past week we learned one or two new features that we see in non-fiction books.

We created this chart with each feature, an example and its purpose.

It will hang in our room all year long.

I was thinking of a way to have my kiddos kind of show me what they learned when I came across the perfect idea from Smitten with First! It's like my friend just read my mind and gave me just what I needed.

So using her idea, I wrote the name of each feature on a different color paper and hung them around the room while the students hunted through their Kids Time Magazine to hunt for the features.

Once they found a feature, they wrote that page number on a sticky note and went to place it on the paper.

It was a great way to get my little firsties working while getting up and moving at the same time!

This is definitely an activity I will be incorporating into our non-fiction study every year.

Check back shortly for more ideas in our non-fiction study!

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!

It's Fall in the Hall

One thing I love to do whether it's at home, in the classroom, or school hall is decorate!
And tis' the season for adding a little touch of pumpkin to every aspect of life.
It may not quite be October yet, but last week we broke out the pumpkins and got down to business.

I'm sure you can tell by the picture below what we have been studying, grammar wise.

We've been practicing sorting nouns into categories of person/place/thing.

One activity we did this week was illustrate our own nouns.

Each day I gave them the category: person, place or thing.

They came up with their own idea, illustrated it and wrote the word for it.

We put them on the big green chart. Now we have 20 people, places and things to refer to. 

Here's a close up look of our noun pumpkins.

They had to search through magazines to find pictures of 4 people, places and things. 

They turn out super cute and gave our hallway just the right amount of  "fallish" feel! 

Let's Do Literacy with Pumpkins

It's Fall y'all!

Time to break out all things pumpkin, including literacy centers.

This summer I totally revamped one of my very first creations I made for TpT. 

Here's peak into what is include in my Pumpkin-y Literacy Centers pack:

{Click picture above for link to TpT store}

These simple centers are great for the beginning of the year.

I can't wait to put mine into action this week!

Setting Up Your Math Block

I'm so thankful that teachers are teachable too!

I took it upon myself  this summer to do some at home professional development. 

The end result...I revamped my math block and teaching style (go me!).

In the past, I taught math whole group. I would teach, they would watch. We would practice. 

I started out doing math tubs just as a fun way to practice while I pulled students I needed to "tutor".

Over the years this evolved to me realizing I NEED to be meeting with ALL my students, not just those in need! 

Fast forward 4 years and I'm here to share with you what I did for the FIRST time today.

And just how absolutely fabulous it was...on DAY 1!

Here is how it all flows:

Here is each component in detail:

Calendar time is short and sweet.

We go through the parts of the date and use the number of the day to count place value and money.

For Target the Question, students are given a picture for the week.

Each day there is a different word problem that goes with the picture and we discover the answer together.

During whole group instruction, we sit on the carpet and I explicitly teach the content.

For this specific lesson we were focusing on ways to make 10 if given one part and the whole. 

I talk. Students listen.I may have a few of them interact with me for example problems. 

Many times this is followed by guided practice for an extra 5 minutes.

We break up into small groups using our CATS MATH rotation chart. 

This comes from Reagan Tunstall. If you would like to read more about how it works you can following these links to her blog HERE and HERE and HERE. 

{This is where I did my at home professional development from to come up with this math block}

Students go to 4 rounds each day (pictured above). 

During the small group instruction students meet with me.

In this time, I dig deeper into the topic we discussed in whole group. 

Normally this involves getting out manipulatives and working on things "hands-on". This allows me to correct anything the students are doing wrong. It is so much easier for me to catch and correct their mistakes when I am working with groups of 5 students rather than 20!

I KNOW my kiddos are going to appreciate math time SO much more this year and get lots more out of it too! If you're thinking of taking the small group math step...let me tell you, it's WORTH IT!