How's reading coming along this school year? By now I'm sure you're in full swing with guided reading. I recently went to both Indiana and Tennessee for the SDE Kinergarten and 1st grade conferences. I had the opportunity to talk a lot about guided reading (a hot topic!!) and reading comprehension in several of my sessions. If you're looking for some great guided reading phonics activities for teacher table, check out this resource full of tried and true activities I used in the classroom and read about how I used them HERE. If you already have this resource, be on the lookout for Volume 2!!! … [Read more...] about Reading Comprehension
reader's response
Thereâs SNOW Time Like Winter!
Just stopping in for a quick minute tonight to share a few things that have been keeping us busy this week. Write the Room has been keeping us up on our feet and moving around. This is my kidsâ absolute FAVORITE activity so itâs no surprise that I have to change these out quite frequently. These last couple of days my kids have been identifying word families and writing CVC words {from my January Write the Room packet}. In our sight word center, the kids have been digging through the snow to find words. Once they find a word they know, they count out the number of letters in the word and use the … [Read more...] about Thereâs SNOW Time Like Winter!
Pumpkins EVERYWHERE! And Making Connections
Weâre learning all about pumpkins this week and the kids couldnât be more thrilled!! I thought Iâd share some of the fun weâre having incase youâre knee deep in pumpkin seeds, too! We started the week activating & growing our pumpkin schema. We read a few fun non-fiction pumpkin books, gathered new learning, and added our little fact seeds to our pumpkin chart. Did you know that pumpkins are fruit?! That was a âare-you-for-real?!?!â moment for the kids. We followed up our new learning with a little apples vs. pumpkins venn diagram. We reinforced a few key vocabulary words {similar, contrast, … [Read more...] about Pumpkins EVERYWHERE! And Making Connections
Hey, Little Ant!
Iâve been slacking on remembering to bring my camera to school, so I keep forgetting to snap some pics of what weâve been up to! Weâve been goinâ buggy these last couple of weeks and I just wanted to quickly share some of our writing âantâics :) We started our little insect unit learning about our favorite little picnic pests. We read a few little non-fiction books about ants and then followed it up with one of the cutest fiction stories, âHey, Little Antâ by Phillip and Hannah Hoose. LOVE this book!! We did a little response to text writing craftivity to pull it all together. YâallâŚthese crack me RIGHT up!!!! … [Read more...] about Hey, Little Ant!
Cloudy and the 50th Day
So, my plans to post last week were thwarted when I was thrust into becoming a CSI detective. Let me just tell yâall that I would make an EXCELLENT investigator should anyone ever need a private eye. For real. I successfully caught someone impersonating someone else & TOTALLY trying to scam one of my friends on Facebook! I SO felt like I was living in a Lifetime movie last week!! I had NO time for anything other than sleuthing. Now that that whole saga is overâŚ*I think for now anyway*âŚIâm ready to play catch-up. We learned all about clouds and the kids had a BLAST!!! Actually, I think I mightâve … [Read more...] about Cloudy and the 50th Day
Celebrating St. Patâs Day!
The Irish in me is ALL.OVER St. Pattyâs Day!! I LOVE IT!!! I especially love celebrating it with the kids! I donât have many pictures to show you, but with St. Patâs right around the corner, I just wanted to share a few things Iâve done in the past to make it fun for the kids! Hereâs a fun little writing we did today. This is one of my favorites!! You can download the Loopy Leprechaun craft patterns HERE.  First we read this book⌠ Then we talked about luck and feeling lucky. Afterwards, I had the kids write about what makes them feel lucky using the prompt, âI feel lucky whenâŚâ. I got some darling responses! After they were … [Read more...] about Celebrating St. Patâs Day!
Place Value, MLK, and Snowmen!
 Here's a fun little place value activity I made for my kids to do in their math tubs last week. Itâs a snowman place value spinner!  Graphics courtesy of Digi Web Studio  Last week we were working on place value with teen numbers, so thatâs what this particular activity reinforces. The kids spin the spinner on the middle portion of the snowman and collect that amount of ones cubes...or whatever kind of counter you want! Then they spin the spinner on the bottom portion of the snowman and collect the same amount of ones cubes as well. Then they count their cubes and see if they can make a set of ten. I always tell them, âIf you can … [Read more...] about Place Value, MLK, and Snowmen!
Happy New Year!
Happy new year, friends! Itâs been a busy week! Isnât the first week back from breakâŚand every week thereafterâŚbusy?! HA! We started the week talking about goals and resolutions. I told the kids my resolution was to be healthier this year {aka: lose about 10 lbs. of holiday weight. MERCY!} I had my kids make goals for themselves either at home or school. They LOVED this activity!! I used the lined paper from a new year template one of the teacherâs on my team gave to us. I found this super fun scrapbook paper and used that to make the hats, glued on a fun little pom pom, and busted out the Dollar Tree party blowers for some sass! … [Read more...] about Happy New Year!
If Take A Mouse To The Movies
One of my favorite holiday books⌠And thereâs SO much you can do with it! We had a little âIf You Take A Mouse To The Moviesâ day the other day and the kids had so much fun!! Of course, we started out reading the book. After reading, we talked about cause & effect and made a diagram to show the chain of reaction. I also assigned each kiddo to a story event and had them illustrate it. Then we came together as a whole group and I had the kids work together to sequence the events on a giant filmstrip! I really wanted a text to self writing activity, so I gave them the prompt, âIf you take me to the movies, I will ask you for someâŚâ. … [Read more...] about If Take A Mouse To The Movies
Gingerbread & Christmas Stuff
OkayâŚstill SO behindâŚbut here are just a couple of things weâve been working on! Weâre still going strong with fact families, so I had my kids make fact family gifts. They rolled dice to get the numbers to add together for the sum. I also had them roll the dice twice and add those numbers together to practice working with higher numbers. As you can see, they made their own bowsâŚbut real bows would have been a great âadditionâ too! ;)  Speaking of gifts, this is one of my most FAVORITE writing activities. I started doing this my third year of teaching and have been doing it ever since! I think itâs so precious and sweet and really gets … [Read more...] about Gingerbread & Christmas Stuff
If You Sailed On The MayflowerâŚ
Today we celebrated âMayflower Dayâ!! OkayâŚso I made that upâŚbut I thought that sounded pretty fitting for our day today :) We started by reading a non-fiction book about the Mayflower. I canât remember which one, but I checked it out from our school library and it was really good!! It was a great book to review Table of Contents also :) Each âchapterâ was only a page or two long. After each page, we stopped to jot. During our stop to jot time, the kids gave me a few facts they learned from that chapter. We learned a lot of really cool facts!! Did you know that the water was so unsafe to drink that everyone on the MayflowerâŚchildren … [Read more...] about If You Sailed On The MayflowerâŚ
Pumpkin Fun For Everyone!
Such a FUN week!!! I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!! We had a pumpkin themed week and we learned SO much!! We started the week out with a pumpkin shaped KWL that the kids helped me fill out. They are SO into non-fiction and loved helping me fill out the âWhat we Learnedâ part of the pumpkin :) {No picsâŚBOO!!} We were working on sequencing this week, so I put a little sequencing activity in the pocket chart & they had to sequence the life cycle of a pumpkin. They loved it! I found the real life pumpkin photos HERE & they matched them to sentences that I typed up on the computer. After they matched the pics to the words … [Read more...] about Pumpkin Fun For Everyone!
Skeleton Hiccups
For a little readerâs response fun, we read this book⌠SO darling! And then we got to problem solving. The kids had to write using the prompt, âI would get rid of a skeletonâs hiccups byâŚâ. 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 yearâŚIâm just sayinâ. Iâve 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
Whereâs 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 itâs 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 itâs since become a favorite of my two boys, too!} I immediately knew I wanted to use this story for a writing activity and hereâs what we did⌠For a readerâs response, I had the kids use the sentence prompt, âWhen I get scared, my mummyâŚâ, and they had to write about something that their Mommy does to help them when … [Read more...] about Whereâs My Mummy?
Whatâs The Weather?!
Weâve been studying the weather the last few weeks in Science and itâs been FUN to say the least! I love hearing the kids talk about the clouds when weâre outside⌠âLook Mrs. Carroll! Thatâs a stratus cloud!!â Theyâve 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 Whatâs The Weather?!
Readerâs Response â A Chair For My Mother
Weâve 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 mightâve heard one of them say âRip Stickâ, so I was quick to interrupt and remind them how needs are different than wants :) Hereâs a little peek at their entry⌠As usual, the kids wrote the title & author and completed the sentence prompt, âI will use my coins to buyâŚâ This sweet little love said that she … [Read more...] about Readerâs Response â 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 classicâŚThe Very Busy Spider. After we read the story, I gave the kids a writing prompt to complete⌠âI am very busy____________________________________ in First Grade!â 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
Apples, Apples, Everywhere!
My kids this year are SO very much into non-fiction stories. I LOVE IT!!! We started our week of apples with a KWL. I set out this little KWL and fill it out with the kids as we go along⌠After reading a few short non-fiction books about apples, we filled out the âWhat You LEARNEDâ apple and had the kids complete their own KWL to keep in their Readerâs Response Journals. They LOVED this activity! I told them to choose 1 thing from each apple to write down.KWL Printable: APPLE KWL And we labeled the parts of an apple⌠I also had the kids fill out their own version. I found it on Mrs. Nelsonâs Apple Unit Page. We also start out the week … [Read more...] about Apples, Apples, Everywhere!
Readerâs 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. Itâs 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. SOâŚhe decides not to âfixâ it, but paint the rest of his house instead. Everyone tries to get the guy to change his house back to being ânormalâ, 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 Readerâs Response ~ The Big Orange Splot
Readerâs Response â The Napping House
Weâve 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, weâre not sleeping with a snoozing granny and a wakeful fleaâŚwell, I hope weâre notâŚso we talked about different things that we take to bed, or things we took to bed with us when we were "littleâ. I told them how my son sleeps with 5 Mickey Mouse dolls and they thought that was the funniest thing! HA! Hereâs a little peek at their entry. One of the teacherâs on our team had this cute little … [Read more...] about Readerâs Response â The Napping House
Readerâs Response Journal ~ All About Me
Today we read the story, I Like ME!, by Nancy Carlson. Iâve had this little âall about meâ template for years and knew it would be perfect for todayâs readerâs response journal entry. Hereâs a little peek⌠… [Read more...] about Readerâs Response Journal ~ All About Me
Readerâs Response Journals ~ Chrysanthemum
Today we read Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes. For our Readerâs Response, we did a little compare/contrast activity using our names and Chrysanthemumâs name.Hereâs a little peek⌠The kids compared their names to Chrysanthemumâs name, writing both along with the number of letters in each name. … [Read more...] about Readerâs Response Journals ~ Chrysanthemum
ChrysanthemumâŚNot Just A âNameâ Book
When I taught Kindergarten, we usually used Chrysanthemum to introduce names. Of course, itâs 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 ChrysanthemumâŚNot Just A âNameâ Book
Readerâs Response
Every kid in our classroom has a Reading Response Journal. Depending on the entry, weâll usually work our Readerâs Response into the writing station OR weâll etch out a little time during Writerâs Workshop to add to our journals. I usually complete an entry under my ELMO so that they can watch the process. I talk my way through it as well. This is a great opportunity to reinforce various writing/reading skillsâŚneat handwriting, use of capital letters at the beginning of every word in the title, underlining the title, author/illustrator, two-finger spaces, punctuation, etc. This is an awesome way to document their … [Read more...] about Readerâs Response
