The Kissing Hand Connections

We read The Kissing Hand a while back to practice making connections. We talked about how Chester felt in the story. After reading, the students shared with a partner one thing the story reminded them of from their personal life. They then wrote a sentence about it and illustrated it.

Daily 5: Work on Words

We use the Daily 5 process in our class to help the students learn to read in fun, engaging ways. While I work with small groups on reading, the rest of the students rotate through five student chosen lessons. One of those is Work on Words. The students practice reading, spelling, and writing a word wall and phonics words. They also work on alphabetizing and matching rhyming words. Fellow teachers, you can download my Word Family Buildings and Word Family Train Sort from my store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Name Alliterations

During our study of alliterations, the students wrote their own name alliterations. As a class they brainstormed words that start with every letter of the alphabet. We charted these on the Promethean Board. Then, in their journals, they used the chart to help them write their own silly sentence. Once  they were finished, they peer checked them and then  I checked them. After making any needed corrections, they rewrote their sentences on construction paper and illustrated it.

Rhyming and Alliteration Poems

Several weeks ago the students worked in small groups to write rhyming and alliteration poems. They wrote them together on scratch paper first or the Promethean Board and then transferred them to  chart paper. They then illustrated their work as a team.

This Summer

Last week the students drew a detailed picture of at least one thing they did this summer. They then wrote a personal narrative about their summer.

Shaving Cream Fun

To have a little fun and clean off their desks, we played in shaving cream during the last week of school. The students practiced writing their word wall words, solve addition and subtraction problems, and drew pictures in the shaving cream.

Animal Habitats

In science we have been learning how animals are dependent on their environment and the specials characteristics they have to make them suitable for that habitat. We looked at pictures and discussed the tundra, ocean, desert, grasslands, and rainforest. We then charted what physical features each habitat had. We followed that up by listing animals that live in each environment and what features they had to help them survive there. The students then chose four of the habitats to write about. They also drew one animal that could be found in each.

Letters to Kindergarten

The students have been learning how to write friendly letters. This was a great opportunity to have the students write to the Kindergarten students about what to expect when they get to first grade. First, the students brainstormed their favorite things about first grade and we wrote them on a class Circle Map. Then, they learned about the features of a friendly letter using the Letter Generator from ReadWriteThink. Next, the students wrote first drafts of their letters. After revising and editing their letters, they rewrote them and practiced reading them aloud to their classmates. Finally, they got to visit one of the Kindergarten classes to read their letters to a partner. This was their favorite part!

 

Inventors Research

In the computer lab the students used PebbleGo to research various inventors of their choice. I love PebbleGo because not only can the students read the information themselves but they can have it read to them as well. There are also various pictures, videos, and timelines to help them comprehend the material. As the students learned about their chosen inventor, they recorded facts on a Circle Map. They then used those facts to help them write a research paper about their inventor.

Comparing Stories by David Shannon

As a part of our study over David Shannon books, we read Too Many Toys and A Bad Case of Stripes. As you can read about in previous posts, the students analyzed the characters, wrote about the beginning, middle, and end as well as the story elements. In this lesson, the students created a Double Bubble Map to compare the two stories. They then wrote at least one way the two stories were the same and two ways they were different on a four-tiered foldable. The foldables were displayed along with artwork they created for A Bad Case of Stripes. The students traced their hand and arm and then colored it with stripes.