Book Character Parade

On Halloween we had a "Book Character Parade." The students could dress up as their favorite character and show their costume and book off for their fellow students.

 

Place Value Initials

***UPDATE: You can now download the templates on my TPT store.***

The students practiced building larger numbers using paper Base Ten Blocks by creating the initial of their first name. After building their initial, they recorded how many tens and ones their letter contained and then wrote the expanded notation.

Place Value Pumpkin Patch

The students created Place Value Pumpkin Patches to help them count larger numbers by tens and ones. They first built various numbers using candy pumpkins. They then took a gallery walk to count one anothers' pumpkins. They then recreated the pumpkin patch number on paper ten rods by painting with their thumbprint. The students then wrote how many rows of ten and how many ones were in their pumpkin patch and how much those numbers were worth in expanded notation. Fellow teachers, you can download the templates for FREE on my TPT store.

The Berenstain Bears' Trouble with Pets

We recently read The Berenstain Bears' Trouble with Pets to practice retelling stories including the beginning, middle, and end. The students retold the story on a three-flap foldable and then illustrated each part.

The Love of Reading!

Each week our class visits the library. After the students check out their books, they sit down to read quietly while the other students finish up. I love how excited they are to read new books. This picture is too cute not to share.

Our Buckets Are Running Over!

As a part of Capturing Kids' Hearts, we have affirmation buckets in our class. When students finish work early or during our Guided Reading/Daily Five time, the students can write one another positive notes. Right now we are working on using the phrase "I like the way you..." to start the affirmations which leads them to be specific in their compliments. As you can see, writing affirmations has really caught on. These are just from one day!

Skip Counting Puzzles

The students worked in small groups to put number cards in order following the skip counting rules of 2s, 5, and 10s. After putting them in order, they wrote the patterns down on sentence strips. They then took the sentence strips back to their tables and covered three of the numbers up with Post-It notes to create skip counting puzzles. The students then took turns solving one anothers' puzzles to find the missing numbers in the patterns.

Comparing Numbers to 50

In math we have been learning to compare and order numbers to 50. One way that we have been practicing is to use our Promethean Board to build numbers with Base Ten Blocks. The students take turns building the numbers and counting them. They then use text boxes to put the numbers in order from greatest to least and least to greatest.

Ch-Ch-Chocolate Chip Cookies!

To help the students learn about the purpose of informational versus entertainment texts and to make a real world connection to the digraph /ch/, all of the first grade teachers and classes joined together to make chocolate chip cookies. We read the recipe, in both English and Spanish to the students. As we read, the students took turns following the steps. As we made the cookies we discussed that recipes are meant to inform or teach you something. Then while the cookies baked, we read The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins and Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar by Viviana Garofoli. As we read these books we discussed their purpose: entertainment. And, of course, the students then enjoyed eating the cookies.

 

 

Red Ribbon Week: Drugs Won't Drive Us Batty

Below is our class poster for Red Ribbon Week. The bat with their names was created using Tagxedo and our poster maker. Using our Promethean Board, I taught the students how to draw a bat one step at a time. The students added their bats to the poster. As they worked on their bats we talked about the word "batty" and how it can mean "crazy." We discussed, in basic first grade terms, that it is important to stay away from drugs because they can drive you "batty."

Apple Writing

Using our writing program, Write From the Beginning, the students wrote to describe apples. They brainstormed descriptive words on a Circle Map, transferred them to a Tree Map, and then used the Tree Map to write sentences.

Bat Writing

Using our writing program, Write From the Beginning, the students wrote to describe a bat. They brainstormed their ideas on a Circle Map and then transferred those ideas to a Tree Map in logical order. The Tree Map was then used to write sentences. After editing and writing a final draft, we had a lesson on how to draw a bat. The students had to listen and follow multi-step directions in order to complete the drawing and I think they did a fantastic job.

Additive Patterns

The students practiced creating additive patterns with pattern blocks. After creating several, they chose their favorite to recreate on a sentence strip with paper pattern blocks. I am so thankful to have parent volunteers who cut out all of the paper pattern blocks we needed for our pattern lessons.