Meet Harriet and Carl :)

Miss Stec's class is studying dinosaurs for the next two weeks.  What a fun unit---I think I could teach a dino unit and ocean animals unit for a month!  There are endless amounts of cute activities.  My intern did this lesson yesterday and it's one of my FAVS---had to share :)

I introduce you to....

 

Harriet (the herbivore)

 

Carl (the carnivore)

First, we read the adorable book, Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe by Brian Moses.  It's a story about different dinosaurs that sit down to enjoy their snacks at the Dinosaur Cafe when along comes a Tyrannosaurus, who is not satisfied with gobbling up the menus–he wants meat!

My intern also read some non-fiction dinosaur books and introduced the terms herbivore and carnivore to the kids.  She talked about what it meant if a dinosaur was a herbivore versus a carnivore.  After the story, she made a T-chart and had the kiddos sort different types of food into the two categories. 

Next, the kids went back to their seats and drew six foods a herbivore would eat and six foods a carnivore would eat.  The kids did awesome.  (I really liked this lesson because we were continually assessing the kids and their understanding of the two terms throughout).

After the kids had their six (labeled) pictures, we got to "feed" Harriet and Carl.  I think my kids were more excited to feed the dinosaurs than they are when they lose a tooth :)

 

Clearly as seen above, our class dinosaurs were hungry! 

I thought this lesson/activity was just darling and wanted to pass it along to my blogging friends.  Summer is insight---we are on the homestretch, people!

Happy Tuesday and Smiles :)

The Bugiest Bug

Hi Blogger Friends,

As we are continuing with our bug and insect unit, I wanted to share a really fun activity that I did with my kiddos this past Friday...

First, we read The Bugiest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields.

 

I gave the kids a large sheet of construction paper with their writing prompt attached.  The "What Bugs You" writing paper is available here on TpT (FREEBIE)!

My littles had to think of something that really "bugs" them...

I sent them to their seats to illustrate their ideas.

 

Once their pictures were drawn, they had to write about it of course!  After they described their picture in writing, they got to use construction paper to design their favorite bug or insect that they learned above previously in the week.  These came out adorable and I wanted to share :)

 

It really bugs me when my cat goes under my bed.

 

It really bugs me when my dog runs away and I can't catch her.

It really bugs me when the lights go out in my house.

 

It really bugs me when my dog runs away with my ball.

 

 It really bugs me when I see a spider in my room.

(It really bugs Miss Stec when I lose a spider in my room--yikes!)

The kids really loved talking about all the different things that bug them and I loved hearing what they had to say!

Hope everyone's had a great weekend!

-Miss Stec

Graffiti Tables...

What are Graffiti Tables?

We've all been to Macaroni Grill--right?  One of the best parts (I think) is being able to write all over the table.  I don't know if it's because I miss being kid or it makes the time until I get my food go faster?  Whichever, it's still such a creative idea and we've taken this concept to the classroom.  Here's how!

My colleagues and I recently went to a workshop that introduced this new idea of "Graffiti Tables".  Basically, it's an interactive, hands-on way to teach guided reading groups.

How does it work?  Each Friday we cover our reading table with large sheets of butcher paper.  We design our weekly tables based on the unit theme and skills for that particular week.  This idea is innovative because it can be adapted and differentiated for ANY and ALL grades.  We use our table design to teach guided reading throughout the week with our leveled readers.  Our table designs not only include our unit theme and skill for the week, but practice with word families, word building, rhyming words, vowels, etc., etc., etc. ......

You can tweek and change it up to fit the needs of your kiddos or teaching style!

Below are some of my past Graffiti Tables...

Unit Theme:  Different Types of Weather

Skill:  Identifying Main Idea and Details (umbrella=main idea, rain drops=details)

Unit Theme:  4 Seasons

Skill:  Setting (identified settings in their window)

"-and" word family in the flower

letters of the week in the sun

word building in the tree

I wanted to get this post on my blog (since I haven't been around in weeks) and introduce you to one of my new favorite things I'm doing with my littles :)  Hope you can take this idea with you...

Have a great week, everyone :)

Under The Weather....No Pun Intended

Wow!  I've been MIA lately.  Here's why....

I may or may not have been screaming so much Sunday night due to the Giants winning the Super Bowl, that I woke up Monday morning with a bad sore throat.  And.....by 10 am Monday morning, I was well on my way to losing my voice (which happens about 4 times a year).  I realized by Tuesday afternoon that there is hands down, no harder job to do than teach twenty 5 year old's without a voice.  And, as I sit here and blog Friday afternoon....I have yet to get my voice back.  If it wasn't Friday, I'd be calling a sub and writing sub plans--so, TGIF!

Anyhoo, over the past two weeks our reading and language arts unit has been all about weather and the four seasons.  So, I wanted to share some of the fun activities we have taken on while Miss Stec has clearly been under the weather....

Our unit story was A Rainy Day

Our unit skill for the week was identifying the main idea and details.  I made this response sheet above for our story.  We put the main idea in the umbrella and all of the rain drops were details from the story that supported the main idea.  This (freebie) response sheet is available here on TpT.  I uploaded it in Power Point so you can change it up to fit your needs!

 

The kids drew pictures and then labeled the details.

We read the story, Socks, Hats, Mittens and Caps

...and talked about different things that happen in each season.

Then, we made these fun, "My Favorite Season Windows"

 

My favorite season is winter because I can build a snowman.

 

 My favorite season is fall because I like to watch squirrels run up trees.

I used white construction paper and drew black lines to make it look like a window.  Then, I cut out different color curtains for the kid's to "hang" on their windows.  They drew a scene of their favorite season inside. These came out really cute!

Seasons/Weather Table Graffiti...

 

My colleagues and I recently started this new table graffiti project that we use to teach skills, letters, sounds, words, etc. etc. etc. during our guided reading block.  Above are some of our weather and season graffiti tables.  My next post will be all about this beneficial idea and how it works!

Until then, HAPPY HAPPY WEEKEND everyone!  

-Smiles :)

Me on the Map!

Hi Y'all!

Monday's over--hoooray!  Just wanted to share a quickie activity we did when we were finishing up our community/neighborhood unit.  I wanted to share it because I think it's a great way to introduce some of those science/social studies standards that can be integrated with different reading and writing units.  Gotta love those cross-curricular activities!  The kids gained a really good understanding of themselves in comparison to different maps.

First, we read, Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney

 

It's a cute story about geography and showcases a young girl putting herself on a map of her room, her room on the map of her house, her house on the map of her street--all the way to her country on a map of the world.  The text and illustrations allow the readers to really get a feel of how big their world is in comparison to their continent, country, state, city, and finally their house and/or room.

 

 

Materials Needed:

1) Paper Plate

2) Four different sized di-cut circles

3) Scissors

4) Glue

5) Hole Puncher

6) Ring

7) Crayons

We used the paper plate and colored it to look like our "world"...

Then we used the biggest circle and glued down our continent...

Then our country, state, and city on top...

And ended with the kids using the smallest circle to draw themselves at their house.

(I hole-punched, stuck a ring through and TA-DA!)

I actually saw one hanging from a mom's rear view mirror in the dismissal line the other day (I'll be seeing my project on the Allstate commercials as the new "blind spot").  Guess the fridge was too full!

Have a great night everyone!  Talk to you later this week :)

-Jenna

100th Day Fun!

Happy Saturday Morning!

It felt so good to sleep in today and it feels extra good to not have a lot to do this weekend. 

This past Thursday was our 100th day of school and we had so much fun!  There needs to be more hours in the day on that 100th day of school or any day for that matter!  There's so much to do and never enough time to do it (I guess that's really the story of any day though....right?)

Anyway, here's what we did on our 100th day at school....

We made portraits of ourselves at 100 years old.  These are hands down one of my favorite projects we do during the year.  So much personality in each of them :)

 

 

This next project was a new one I decided to do this year.  I gave each child a di-cut 1 and two 0's (making the number 100).  They had to use the 1 and two 0's to make some kind of picture and then write about what they made.  I have some pretty creative kiddos.  Just LOVED these...

A girl wearing glasses

 

A music note

 

A cool car

 

A butterfly

 

A car with big wheels

 

A boy with glasses

Then, we made a 100 things trail mix....

 

 

 

I made these 100th day mats for counting out 10 different kinds of goodies.   

Of course they all wanted more gummy worms.  I would've of too.

 

And then we poured all of those goodies into what I call "Sugar Buzz" bags.  

Sorry Mom's and Dad's!

We read some fun 100th day of school books and completed our "100th Day Activity Pack" that is available on TpT.

 What a day!  And after all that, I was at school giving a presentation until 9:00 that night.  So, that explains why it felt so good to sleep in this morning :)

Happy, Happy Weekend Everyone!