Noun Neighborhood

As a part of our grammar study of common and proper nouns, the students created a "Noun Neighborhood" during Daily 5. Each day they drew a picture of their favorite store, restaurant, vehicle, and then themselves. After they were completed, they created roads and grass and put them together on blue bulletin board paper. They then added their pictures. I typed labels of all the things they drew. They sorted the labels into common and proper nouns and then added them to the collage.

Family Traditions Quilt

In Social Studies we talked about various family traditions. Each student then created a quilt square to illustrate and describe one of their family traditions. We then put them together on bulletin board paper to create a Family Tradition Quilt.

Pumpkin Patch Place Value

Each student was given a bag of candy pumpkins to count during a Place Value lesson. They used a ten rod sheet to help sort the candy in rows of tens. We discussed that it is quicker to count by tens than by ones because ten is a larger number. After making their pumpkin patch with the candy, they recreated it on the ten rod sheet by thumb printing pumpkins. They then completed a recording sheet to identify how many tens and ones were in their pumpkin patch as well as the expanded notation. Their work was bound into a class book to use during Math Tubbing. The templates can be downloaded from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Spider Descriptive Writing and Art

The students wrote to describe spiders with the help of Thinking Maps. After writing, we had an art lesson on how to draw a spider web. The students colored in each part of the spider web a different color. They then created a spider out of construction paper. I love how they are all similar yet so different.

Bat Descriptive Writing

The students worked on using their Thinking Maps to come up with more details to describe objects. This time they described a bat. Instead of just adding details like "black" to describe its color, they had to add more details like "black like coal" for more complex sentences. After writing, we had a short art lesson on how to draw a bat hanging upside down. I think they did a great job!

Place Value Initials

To practice building larger numbers, the students used printable base ten blocks to build the first letter of their name. They then counted how much their name was worth. The pages were later bound together as a class book so the students can practice counting the larger numbers during Math Tubbing. You can download the template here.

Skip Counting Puzzles

The students worked in small groups to create skip counting puzzles. Each group was given a sentence strip, a beginning number, and a rule card for what number they would be skipping by. On their sentence strip, they wrote their skip counting pattern down. They then covered three of the numbers with Post-It Notes. Each group them presented their puzzle to the class for their friends to solve the missing numbers.

Candy Corn Place Value

To assess the students' ability to represent numbers in various forms, they created candy corn place value art. Each student was given a different number. They wrote the number in the top portion of the candy corn. In the second portion, they had to draw a pictorial model of the number. In the bottom portion, they had to write the expanded notation of the same number. The kids loved it and had no idea I was assessing their understanding.

Pumpkin Descriptive Writing

The students used Thinking Maps to organize their ideas of how to describe a pumpkin. They then wrote three sentences using those Maps. Each week I model for the students how to use Thinking Maps to help them with their writing. Then they write independently for the first three days. On the fourth day, I sit down with each student individually to do one-on-one editing. When I see an area that needs to be corrected, I ask the students a guiding question such as "What goes at the beginning of the sentences?" and they answer. I think this helps them take more ownership and leads to better writing the next time. After we edit together, they go back and rewrite a final draft which is what is displayed in the hallway. While I work with students one-on-one, the other students are  working in Daily 5. Occasionally I will have an independent art project that they can do to go along with their writing.