Pilgrim writing

Back when I posted about our Pilgrim compare/contrast activity, I mentioned that we started a writing activity. 

First, we read 2 books about life on Plimouth Plantation.  One was about a boy and all of his responsibilities and chores, and one was about a girl's daily life.  I gave the students a writing prompt which was: "If I were a pilgrim boy/girl..." and they were instructed to write about what their daily activities and lives would be like. 

First, students wrote a first draft, or sloppy copy.  When they finished this, I collected them and made corrections in purpl marker.  After a conference to discuss the changes and correctiond, they got started on their final drafts. 

I have a book of writing Tops and Bottoms that has a cute little Pilgrim Boy and Pilgrim Girl.  When the students were finished with their final copies, they decorated and cut out their pilgrim people and pasted it on construction paper so it looked like they held up the papers.

This little guy has his hands backwards. 

 We hung them all on the wall outside our classroom door for everyone to read and enjoy before Thanksgiving!

Water Cycle Song

When we were learning about water and the water cycle, I saw a great activity idea on pinterest.  It is a water cycle song sung to the sound of She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain.  Here are the words:

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does.

Water travels in a cycle, yes it does.

It  goes up as evaporation,

Forms clouds with condensation,

Then comes down as precipitation

Yes it does!

We added sound effects and body movements and practiced many, many times.  Later, the class performed it for the science lab teacher.  

I took a video of the students singing it, but removed it to protect their privacy.  Sorry!

Clouds flipbook

We have been studying seasonal changes and weather patterns in science.  This week we focused on clouds.  We read books and watched videos about different kinds of clouds and the weather they bring.  After making a graphic organizer together as a class on the board, the kids made these cute flip books.  They labeled the outside flap with the name of the cloud, described it underneath, and made a picture using cotton balls.  I love the cute things they wrote!

Pilgrims Compare Contrast

We have been learning to compare and contrast in our reading lessons this week.  I saw some great things on other first grade blogs and decided to do a Venn Diagram comparing Pilgrim life to life today.

After watching several videos on united streaming and brain pop jr. and reading a few books, we discussed what we have in common with the Pilgrims and how we are different.  I wrote several of those ideas down, printed them and cut them out.  I passed them out to the students and they pasted them in our big Venn diagram.  It was a great formative assessment!

Next we labeled the diagram and started a writing activity.  More on that soon!

Retelling with Pictures

I learned this strategy recently in the Neuhaus training.  This week we focused on sequence in the stories we read, so it was a great time to try out this activity.  As we read a story, a quickly drew some very bad pictures of what was happening.  Afterwards we put them up on the board and used them as a trigger to retell the story.  We added in sequence transition words such as first, next, then, last etc.  The students really enjoyed getting up in front of the class to speak.  This activity was successful because it got the students to summarize, use transition words and speak in complete sentences to tell a story.  We will definitely do this again and try to tie it to a writing activity soon.  

Levels of Government

This is an anchor chart we made a few weeks ago in social studies to learn about the different levels of government.  My students always have such a hard time distinguishing local, state, and national levels so this gives them a great visual reference to start to remember the concept.  

Halloween Writing Activities

I saw so many great ideas for Halloween crafts on Pinterest.  I couldn't decide which one I wanted to do, so we just did 'em all!  

We started last week with the witch's skirt.  I provided all the paper and the students made their own.  Then we thought of as many Halloween adjectives as we could to describe our witches.

On Halloween we read a book about a mummy and a skeleton.  We used our comprehension strategies to make predictions about the outcome and we also used visualizing with the adjectives in the book to make a good picture in our heads.  

After I showed them the artwork they would create, I gave them a sentence starter and we wrote a description together of a mummy on the board.  

They did a great job on their own writing!  Happy Halloween!

Adjectives

Today we learned about adjectives.  I saw this activity on The Inspired Apple via Pinterest and knew I had to do it.  The kids loved it.  They will work for popcorn!  I was so impressed with the many adjectives they were able to come up with.  After I ran out of popcorn shaped cutouts, they still thought of more!

I made the poster during my ancillary with just the red bag, and I also made the popcorn shaped cutouts.  We made a quick pitstop outside the teacher's lounge following our afternoon bathroom break so that I could pop the popcorn.  We discussed what an adjective is and I gave each student a piece of popcorn so that they could think about descriptive words.  I gave another piece to them when they came up with an adjective that we could add to our poster.  By the end of the activity, we had popcorn spilling over the sides of our bag!

Soil Layers

This week in Science we are teaching about earth materials and products that come from the soil.  This activity was great for my kids because it was hands on.  We discussed each layer of soil and the composition of that layer as we added layers to our cup.  Afterwards, I had them describe the layers to me as a formative assessment.  I have attached a video below of one of my sweet kids explaining her soil cup!

We used marshmallows for the bedrock, because they are chunkier.  Cheerios served as our subsoil.  The children left some whole and crumbled some near the top of the layer.  They used chocolate rice crispies for the topsoil and mixed some mini m&ms in for the humus.  They topped it off with gummi worms!

I expect that they will remember the soil layers and their compositions better after completing this activity.

Gallon Men

This week we learned about volume and capacity.  We watched a brain pop video about measurement and then did this activity, inspired by pinterest (I will tag the originator soon) to go with it.  I cut the paper in advance in different colors and sizes.  I passed out the gallon piece first.  Students were asked to label it with the appropriate abbreviations.  Next we did quarts.  I passed out a different color paper in the same size as the gallon and students had to cut it into 4 pieces to explain that 4 quarts are in a gallon.  We continued this strategy with pints and cups and labeled each one.  Finally, we put it together in the shape of a robot.  

 We have not finished with this activity yet.  I took photos of each child and printed them out so that they can attach their heads to the gallon men before we hang them outside for everyone to see!

Literacy Work Stations

Here are some photos of our work stations.  Students go to 2 work stations a day for about 10-15 minutes per station.  For the first couple of weeks of school, we did the station activities together as a group and discussed what can be done in each station.  We made "I Can" lists, from Debbie Diller, which I posted near each station so that students can consult them if they don't know what they can do next.  

Students go to stations in pairs.  I try to pair them up by ability level, but I also sometimes group students together based on who will need a helper and who needs someone to focus their behavior in independent work.  I update some of the station activities once a week so that students have different tasks to do, but some stations stay the same all year.  If some stations get boring for the students, or if they are not being productive, I will have to switch them out with something new and challenging.

This photo shows students working on versatiles.  They have to read the instructions to complete the puzzle.  They can check using a picture and must correct their mistakes before going on to a new puzzle.  This station is great for practicing sounds and spelling patterns.  

This is the library station where books are sorted by genre and reading level.  Students can read independently or to their partner.  I encourage them to read A.R. books so that they can take tests and earn points when they have free time during the day.  They enjoy sitting on the bean bags!

This is the listening station.  I switch out the story each week.  They listen to the story a few times and then read it to themselves.  They also have phonic phones in this station so that they can listen to their fluency.  

This is the sight word station, where students are practicing identifying and spelling sight word and vocabulary words.  This activity came from Lakeshore, and will have to be replaced with another activity when we run through all of the cards. 

This is the word study station where students are making words using onsets and rimes.  They can also add words to each word family and write sentences with the words they make.  This is another activity from Lakeshore which will need to be eventually replaced.  

This is the pocket chart poem.  Each Friday we choral read a poem that reinforces the spelling pattern we studied that week.  The next week it is in this station so that students get continued practice to reinforce a spelling pattern even after we have moved on to another one. Choral reading the poem several times in various voices and tones helps the students to identify the words automatically so that they can read it themselves when they get to the station.  I write the poem on sentence strips but I also give them a copy of the original, so that they have to sequence it when putting it back together.  

This is the GeoSafari station.  Students play against their partner to practice identifying sounds and vocabulary words.  It is a very popular station.  

This is the writing station.  During the first weeks of school, we have a handwriting packet that we are working on in this station.  Next we will introduce sticker stories, friendly letters, and book reviews.

This is the computer station.  Students go to the literacy work station page on my class website, sites.google.com/site/mrsfeinmansclass and have various reading and language arts games to choose from to help them practice skills.  They also have the option to take A.R. tests at computer station.  In addition, each child has a blog on kidblog.org which they love to use to practice writing!

This is the magnet letter station where students use magnets on the Eno Board to spell out words and write sentences.  They are encouraged to practice making their sight words and spelling words for extra practice.  

Addition Math Activity

This is an activity we did that I found in Kathy Richardson's book.  The kids took turns working with their partner to make addition number sentences.  The materials were number cubes, ten frames, and unifix cubes.  One partner rolls a number and putting their cubes on the ten frame.  Their partner fills in the rest of the ten frame and they list the different combinations of 10 that they made.  We will play several versions of this game in the coming weeks and add them to math tubs which I hope to get going in the near future!

Homework Collection

Collecting and checking homework has always been tedious for me.  I used to have the students bring me their homework one table at a time during morning work and I would check it and return it to them on the spot.  This was not really time effective.  I have also had the students turn their homework into an "inbox" for me to check later, but I was not always able to check daily and then could not address problems when students did not turn their homework in on time.  

I came across this idea while browsing on pinterest.  I have a bin out in the classroom where students can deposit their homework each morning.  There is a sign on the front that reminds them to check that their name is on their work and that they have completed all the problems.  It also reminds them to move their name clothespin to the other side when they have dropped off their homework so that I will know I have theirs.  

This has been very effective for me.  If a student's pin is not moved, I can speak to them and discuss a consequence.  I still do not always check the homework in time to return it the same day, but I can easily keep up with checking and returning homework, by simply moving the clothespins back to the next side for the next day.

Me Bags

I always do a welcome back to school activity so that the class and I can get to know each other.  On the first day of school, kids came in to find a large paper sack on their desk.  I had one on my desk too which I had decorated with a large self portrait.  As the kids came in, I instructed them to get started on drawing their own self portrait.  This gave me time to greet students and parents as they arrived and also collect materials.  In the afternoon, I shared some items in my bag with the class (I had some photos, books, souvenirs from trips etc.)  Next I explained their homework assignment for the first week.  They did an excellent job and shared their Me Bags with the class today!

My Classroom

Here are some photos of my classroom.  I have moved things around every year, but so far I am loving my new setup!  

This is the bulletin board that you see when you first walk in the room.  I use it as an organizational board.  I keep my conduct system on it, my homework monitoring system, my helper board, my smarty pants motivational tool, and copies of the pledges on this board.

I got the ideas for the smarty pants and conduct system from browsing on pinterest. I will post links to the originators of these ideas as soon as I have some more time.  This is my favorite conduct system I have used so far because it has positive behaviors as well as warnings and consequences.  The smarty pants have been a lot of fun.  I bought the jeans at Target and stitched the legs closed so I could fill up the top part with Smarties candies.  When a student shows that they are learning new concepts or vocabulary words, they get a smarty pants!

This is my word wall.  We add about 5 sight words to the wall each week.  All week long we practice reading them and using them in sentences.  Students are expected to use this wall to spell the words on it correctly. 

This is my calendar math bulletin board.  I use Everyday Counts Calendar Math.  Each day we add the number of days we have been in school to the number line, add a dot to our tens and ones board, and add discuss the patterns of the calendar piece.  I also have the students come up with number sentences in a fact family to describe the number of the day.  We us this in the Frayer Model activity, which I will post about later on.  Later we will add hundred chart and clock activities to our daily routine.  

This is the rug area where you can see my easel and author's chair.  This is where I will sit to do group reading lessons.  In the background you can see my Eno board projecting my class website: sites.google.com/site/mrsfeinmansclass

Here is the library corner.  I have my books sorted by genre and by level so that students can find books they are interested in as well as books that they can read easily.  We keep bean bags and pillows in the library corner to make our time there more comfortable and enjoyable.  You can also see the listening station and work station management chart in this picture.  I will post more on our work stations later on.