Seasons

We had a blast going more in-depth with each season. We spent one day per season and discussed weather changes and how our lives change because of it (clothing, activities, etc.).
After brainstorming the different changes, the students decorated a tree to correspond to the season and drew themselves in the right clothing doing an activity of that season. After making all 4 trees the students had to put them in order starting with their favorite season.

Anyway, I thought they turned out so cute and wanted to share with you all!

What the cover looks like

Here is a sample page

You can grab the PDF version here
and the Word version here.

I added a thermometer to the pages (wish i did that for my class) so the students can roughly show the temperature of that season. Fonts used: DJ Fat Chat, Abcprint, DJ Light.

Merry Christmas!

Not a school-related post, but just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

My little 10-month old reindeer :)

Idea from pinterest. This was actually MUCH easier than normal Christmas wrapping with all the ribbons and bows.

Light 'em up - random act of kindness for the day

I just saw this idea on pinterest from the blog Lil Light O' Mine:

and decided to create my own version for our classroom! I plan on having a child pull an act of kindness out for us to work on each day until we leave for Christmas break. I don't know about your classroom but some of my kiddos need a refresher on how to be kind. Here is what I came up with:

You can grab your copy here.
If you would like the word version so you can change it up, you can find that here.

Clipart: DJinkers
Fonts: smiley monster, pea hollee (kevin and amanda fonts)

updates

I cannot believe it has been over a month since I last blogged. I just wanted to post an update on a few of the things we have been doing in class.

Daily 5:

I looked up from my guided reading group and saw that he had taken the paper for the alphabet font sorting and was using it for his puzzle. What a great idea!

Added a writing piece that the students MUST finish sometime that week for work on writing. I like how it makes the students accountable in this area. I write each student's name on the top so I know exactly who hasn't finished.

I saw lots of bloggers with amazing labeling lessons (especially for their apple unit) so we made and labeled our pumpkins!

Letter Formation

I have gotten some comments asking what I do when I introduce a new letter and wanted to share my response. Other than reading a ton of books and singing frog street press songs (love those!), one of the big things we do is learn how to correctly form each letter. I show them EXACTLY how to write that letter. They each have an ABC handwriting Book with the letters in the order that we learn them (see sample page below).

I show them on my promethean board (or you can use the overhead) how to form the capital letter, then they practice writing the capital letter next to number 1. While they are writing I am going around checking to see if they are forming the letters correctly and if they are touching the right lines. I make sure to have a yellow marker with me so that I can write it for the struggling students and they trace what I wrote with my marker. Then next to number 2 we practice writing the lowercase letter together. On number 3 we usually do a pattern (capital, lowercase, capital, lowercase). For numbers 4 and 5 they come up with a word that begins with that letter and we write it together. In the box is the mystery picture. This is our FAVORITE part. I tell them exactly what to draw, one thing at a time. Ex: Draw an oval in the middle (I draw it and they draw it in their books), draw a triangle above the oval, etc. until the picture forms. The picture begins with the letter we are studying. Then at the bottom on the longer lines we come up with a sentence together (short!) that is about the picture (Ex: I see an apple.)
It is extremely important that the students are quiet during this time so I have "table team points." If I see them writing, working hard, etc. I give their table a tally mark. At the end, the table with the most points gets to go to the treasure chest (or you can give theirs a sticker on their page). I make sure to rotate it so every team gets a chance to get the most points :)

Here is the abc book, if you wanted it!

Letter Books

Part of our ELA time is spent working on letter books. When we learn about a specific letter, each student comes up with a word that begins with that letter and makes a page that says "___ is for ___."  In the beginning this is a shared writing time where they write part of the sentence and I'll write the rest. For example, they write the first letter and I write "is for ____." Then the next week they will write the first letter and the word "is" and I'll write "for ___." until they get to the point where they are writing everything on their own. They illustrate the page and highlight the focus letter with a yellow crayon. When everyone is done, we compile a class book. The fun part is that the students get to take the books home (and bring it back the next day) so they can show off their work/other students' work to their parents and siblings. It's a great chance for the students to practice pointing to and reading the sentences with their parents. The finished product is below.

You can get the explanation page to parents here and the letter book covers here.
The letter book cover font is a Kevin and Amanda font - Pea Hollee, and the border is from DJ Inkers.

Daily 5 - Word Work

I think Word Work is my favorite Daily 5 choice to introduce. The kiddos LOVE choosing it and there's a lot of variety in what they can do (just check out the picture below!). 

I have a hard time getting the students to call this station "word work" instead of "playdoh" :)

The big oil drip pan is GREAT for having the students sort magnetic letters. I got the idea off of pinterest and it was super easy to make.  I put magnet tape on the back of the letter headers but if I could do it over I would use tape instead so the students can't get them out of order. 

Here are some pictures of them in action:

Letters from Lakeshore Learning

letter sorting by diff. fonts

Playdoh names! They can make their own name or a friend's. 

Playdoh names and playdoh cookie cutter letters

File folder game

file folder game

Environmental Print match-up (you can also play this as a memory game)

building words/names

When I first introduced this station, I had every table group (I have 3 table groups) assigned to a different word work choice. Ex: I had group 1 work with magnetic letters, Group 2 work with playdoh names/cookie cutters, Group 3 work with the file folder games, environment print and letter font sort. After every group had a chance to work with each of the tools, I let them choose whatever they wanted.
As the year goes on I switch a lot of games out and put in new games/puzzles.

The letter headers for the oil drip is an already-made dj inkers set.

Environmental Print cards are free printables from Hubbards Cupboard.

Good luck with your Daily 5!