Comparing Eric Carle Books

In addition to reading The Mixed Up Chameleon, we also read The Grouchy Ladybug. The students created three-flap foldables for this book as well to write the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They also created Story Maps for the book. As a class we compared The Mixed Up Chameleon and The Grouchy Ladybug on a Double Bubble Map. The students then created their own Double Bubble Maps. They used their own Double Bubble Map to create a four-tiered foldable to write one way the books were the same and two ways they were different.

The Mixed Up Chameleon

As a part of an author study over Eric Carle, we read The Mixed Up Chameleon. The students created a three-flap foldable to record the beginning, middle, and end of the story. They then created a Story Map to record the characters, setting, problem, and solution. We also talked about how Eric Carle is both author and illustrator. The students painted a drawing of The Mixed Up Chameleon to display with their Story Maps.

Chicken Life Cycle Diagrams

The students drew the life cycle of a chicken on an egg template to assess their understanding:

Fact Family Flowers

A former teammate of mine had a great idea to have the students create Fact Family Flowers. Each student was given a set of three numbers that would create a Fact Family. They had to decide what two addition sentences and two subtraction sentences they could create with those numbers. They recorded their numbers on the flower petals. Their flowers were added to the garden display along with their garden research and frog life cycles.

Frog Life Cycle Diagrams

The students created these frog life cycle diagrams to go along with their garden display:

Garden Habitat Shared Research Writing

The students researched the garden habitat a while back. These are the final products for their shared writings over their research.

Comparing Area

To practice comparing area, we created large rectangles and squares on the tile floor. The students were asked to all stand in the rectangle that they thought covered the least area. They quickly realized that they could all barely fit inside the rectangle. They then moved to the rectangle they thought had the largest area. They realized then that they had much more room to move around and were not as crowded. They then counted how many floor tiles each rectangle contained to confirm their findings of which covered the most and which covered the least area.

Rainbow Days

Each Monday a volunteer from Rainbow Days comes to each first grade class to teach character education and life safety lessons to the students. Ms. K., our fantastic volunteer, teaches the students lessons such as who the boss of their body is (their brain), the safest seat in a car (the back), when you become an adult, and ways to say "no" to drugs and alcohol. The lessons are taught through engaging stories.

Life Cycle of a Chicken

As a part of our study of life cycles, the students created a diagram of the life cycle of chickens. Here is one of the examples:

 

Sorry the picture is sideways. I tried to rotate it a few times but it was not cooperating. But, you get the idea.

Earth Day Book Swap

Each year the first grade teachers host a school wide Earth Day Book Swap. The students bring in books from home that they no longer read and trade them with other students. It is a good way to promote reusing materials and literacy at the same time. As a part of our commitment to Rachel's Challenge, we also collect books for one of our local family shelters.

Life Cycle of a Fish

The students demonstrated their knowledge of the life cycle of  a fish by drawing the stages on a paper plate.

Frog Life Cycle Shared Writing

In science we learned about various life cycles. To assess the students' understanding of the stages of the frog life cycle, we wrote a Flow Map together on the Promethean Board. The students then worked together to write on chart paper the various stages in sentence form. After they completed the shared writing, each student wrote their own sentences on frog shaped paper. They then colored a frog cover page to display with their individual and shared writing.

Introduction to Area

To introduce the concept of area to the students, they were each given crackers of various shapes and sizes to cover with cheese. As they covered the crackers we discussed that area measures how much space something covers. We also discussed which cracker required more cheese and which required less to cover.

Measuring Length

The students worked in small groups to measure a lizard family with various non-standard units. They used pop cubes, paper clips, beans, etc. They then ordered the lizards from longest to shortest and compared their findings with other groups.

Technology Savy: Flower Diagrams

The students created diagrams on flowers on the computer using Pixie 2 software. They used the various painting and clipart features to create their pictures. They then used text boxes and our class Brace Map to label and write about the function of each part. All of their diagrams can be seen on their KidBlog. The students export their work independently as I model it on the Promethean Board and then upload their work into their own blog.