For a little reader’s response fun, we read this book… SO darling! And then we got to problem solving. The kids had to write using the prompt, “I would get rid of a skeleton’s hiccups by…”. Their answers were pretty dang cute! I drew the skeleton face & hips and had a mom cut them out. Then the kids decided how the rest of the skeleton would look! LOVE IT!! My favorite part is how different each of them look. Too dang cute! This might be one of my most favorite writing activities of the year…I’m just sayin’. I’ve done this for the last 7 years and I always look forward to it!! And the kids love it, too!! … [Read more...] about Skeleton Hiccups
Read Alouds
Where’s My Mummy?
We had our annual Fall Book Fair a couple of weeks ago and there was the most darling little book on the shelves… Now, this book has probably been around for a while, but it’s the first time I saw it. One of my sweeties from class bought it for me and I fell.in.love! SUCH a cute story! {And it’s since become a favorite of my two boys, too!} I immediately knew I wanted to use this story for a writing activity and here’s what we did… For a reader’s response, I had the kids use the sentence prompt, “When I get scared, my mummy…”, and they had to write about something that their Mommy does to help them when … [Read more...] about Where’s My Mummy?
What’s The Weather?!
We’ve been studying the weather the last few weeks in Science and it’s been FUN to say the least! I love hearing the kids talk about the clouds when we’re outside… “Look Mrs. Carroll! That’s a stratus cloud!!” They’ve become such awesome little weather watchers, SO very interested in anything and everything weather!! Here are a few little things we did for this fun little unit! We watched a really neat video about the different types of weather and read some pretty cool non-fiction books, too! We made a little word web to show what we learned… We added weather poems to our poetry journals {no pics, but you can download them below.} We … [Read more...] about What’s The Weather?!
Stellaluna Fun!
We had SO much fun learning about bats last week! My kids are really into non-fiction this year and LOVE “fact gathering”. Kinda precious if you ask me ;) At the beginning of the week, we read Stellaluna & followed up the story with a Bats vs. Birds Venn Diagram and a story map. My kids are really into story maps this year, too! And I love having a visual to organize our thoughts. Since there were a lot of little problems and characters in Stellaluna, this was the perfect time to talk about main character & main problem. We starred those on the story map to remember the difference! I also had the kids make their own … [Read more...] about Stellaluna Fun!
Family Trees
I’m a little late to post this, but better late than never, right?! We’re getting ready to take down our bulletin boards in the hallway so I had to snap a pic before I forgot! One of our first units of study in Social Studies was an “in-depth” look at families. We did some really neat activities, but one of my favorites was this darling family tree! I LOVE! We read the book, Who’s Who In My Family?, by Loreen Leedy. It’s a great little book that does an awesome job of explaining the concept of genealogy & family trees. After reading the book, the kids completed their own family trees using their … [Read more...] about Family Trees
Reader’s Response – A Chair For My Mother
We’ve been discussing Wants vs. Needs this week and used the book A Chair For My Mother, by Vera Williams to talk about the topic. After reading the book, the kids really led their own discussion about buying things they need rather than what they want. They were so precious and sweet talking about what they thought they needed. I might’ve heard one of them say “Rip Stick”, so I was quick to interrupt and remind them how needs are different than wants :) Here’s a little peek at their entry… As usual, the kids wrote the title & author and completed the sentence prompt, “I will use my coins to buy…” This sweet little love said that she … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response – A Chair For My Mother
The Very Busy Spider
I love starting the month of October learning about spiders. We read several non-fiction books that the kids adored, but they also LOVED this Eric Carle classic…The Very Busy Spider. After we read the story, I gave the kids a writing prompt to complete… “I am very busy____________________________________ in First Grade!” Their responses were cute and some of them were downright hilarious!! Apparently we spend our time running away from girls and coloring all day?! Hmmmm… I cut out a class set of large black circles and a class set of smaller white circles to fit on top of the black {for a spider body}. I also … [Read more...] about The Very Busy Spider
Reader’s Response ~ The Big Orange Splot
What a random little book find! Have you ever read The Big Orange Splot by D. Manus Pinkwater?! I never had until one of the girls on our team was telling us about it a few weeks ago. It’s a cute little story about people who live on a street where ALL the houses look EXACTLY the same until one day a guy spills orange paint on his roof. SO…he decides not to “fix” it, but paint the rest of his house instead. Everyone tries to get the guy to change his house back to being “normal”, but he encourage people to embrace the differences! SUCH a cute little message! After we read the story, I passed out a little house template and had the kids … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response ~ The Big Orange Splot
Reader’s Response – The Napping House
We’ve been talking about families this week one of our favorite books to read is The Napping House, by Audrey Wood. After reading the story, we talked about different things that we like to sleep with. CLEARLY, we’re not sleeping with a snoozing granny and a wakeful flea…well, I hope we’re not…so we talked about different things that we take to bed, or things we took to bed with us when we were "little”. I told them how my son sleeps with 5 Mickey Mouse dolls and they thought that was the funniest thing! HA! Here’s a little peek at their entry. One of the teacher’s on our team had this cute little … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response – The Napping House
Reader’s Response Journal ~ All About Me
Today we read the story, I Like ME!, by Nancy Carlson. I’ve had this little “all about me” template for years and knew it would be perfect for today’s reader’s response journal entry. Here’s a little peek… … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response Journal ~ All About Me
Reader’s Response Journals ~ Chrysanthemum
Today we read Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes. For our Reader’s Response, we did a little compare/contrast activity using our names and Chrysanthemum’s name.Here’s a little peek… The kids compared their names to Chrysanthemum’s name, writing both along with the number of letters in each name. … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response Journals ~ Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum…Not Just A “Name” Book
When I taught Kindergarten, we usually used Chrysanthemum to introduce names. Of course, it’s a great book to discuss what it means to be unique and special, too. There are SO many different ways you can use this book! During the first week of school, we used Chrysanthemum to discuss the impact unkind words have on our hearts. I cut out a giant heart using red butcher paper. Before I started reading the story, I handed the heart to one of my kids and gave them instructions to crumple the heart every time they heard something unkind, and then pass it to the next person. By the time I had finished the book, … [Read more...] about Chrysanthemum…Not Just A “Name” Book
Reader’s Response Journal ~ If You Take A Mouse To School
Today we read, If You Take A Mouse To School by Laura Numeroff. We used this story to talk about “if”…”then” statements and then we added an entry to our Reader’s Response Journals. Here’s a little peek… I gave them a reading prompt that they had to complete.If you take me to school, I will ask you for a _________________________________________________.This would be a pretty cute little prompt to use in a class book! … [Read more...] about Reader’s Response Journal ~ If You Take A Mouse To School
