Friendly Letter

After our iPads arrived I thought it would be a good idea if the kids wrote thank you notes to the people who helped make it possible for us to get them. So I whipped up this writing form.

Click here to get one for yourself.

Then I realized I needed to cover the parts of a letter with them, since we hadn't done that yet. So I whipped up an anchor chart for them to look at.

(sorry about the magnet)

 What a perfect opportunity to give the kids an authentic reason to write. I could tell that they had a purpose because they were concentrating so hard on their writing and making sure that their handwriting was legible (another authentic purpose). I love it when we can give the kids a reason for why we teach what we do at school. It makes all of the difference.

Santa's Workshop Story Starter

Just for fun . . .

Click here to download . . .

Fun Stuff fROm ThistleGirl Designs

I am SOOO excited for this . . . from the thistlegirldesigns.com website . . .

"Are you feeling the holiday spirit yet? I sure am, and I want to share it with you!

Starting the 14th of December, I'll be uploading some new surprise to this section every day until Christmas. Though you aren't allowed to peek, I have created a PDF that will tell you more about this fun time at ThistleGirl Designs. So mark you calendars and start the countdown!"

 . .

I have started to teach my little firsties adjectives.  I wanted to have an anchor chart for my students to refer to when they are writing.  So I decided to make an adjective web with the different types of adjectives: size, smell, colors, ect.  So I made these headers, so I could keep them from year to year.

First off we read some adjective books.  These are some of my favorites...

Then as a class we brainstormed words to fit under each header.  I had my students think/pair/share before actually telling me what to write under our header.

Think-Pair-Share is a cooperative discussion strategy.

Think.  The teacher asks the students a question.  The students thinks about the question, I usually do 30 seconds to a minute.

Pair.  Using designated partners (such as the baseball partners), or just nearby neighbors, students pair up to talk about the answer each student came up with.  They identify the answer they think is the best.

Share. After students talk in pairs, the teacher call for the pairs to share their thinking with the rest of the class.

I do this strategy a lot, because I believe that students learn best when they are able to talk about the content.

I was amazed with some of the words they came up with.  Some I hadn't though of.  After we had enough words for a whole page, I pushed print and put it under our header.  I am so excited to report that during work on writing I have noticed my students getting up to use the adjective web.  They love using the "NEW" words to make their stories better. 

Nope, haven't posted for a while.  It seems that November and part of December have past me by....  I have been meaning to post this, but haven't had the chance.  I don't know how Lori and Becca do it.

Anyway, this goes with Becca's anchor chart she posted a while ago.  She also made this amazing activity to go along with it (she forgot to take pictures).  We posted these around the room on clipboards.  Then we broke the students into groups of two and assigned them a spot to go to.  Each student was responsible to look at the picture and decide if "an" or "a"went before it.  Then they would write the word on the paper.  I set the timer for 30 seconds, when the timer went of all the students moved to the next paper and repeated the activity.  This was just a quick way we could assess if students had mastered this skill.

We do a lot of GALLERY WALKS, so it you have not done one in your class, make sure you model the behavior you are looking for, or else it will be crazy.  I like it, because it gets them out of their seats and discussing the concept, PLUS they love it....:)    

Becca will be posting a link so you can download this activity.... so watch for it.....

They. Are. Here!

This past Wednesday during lunch we were presented with a wonderful surprise:

Notice the really shiny black thing? Our iPads came! Finally! We are soooooooo excited. 

The kids are really excited as well! Who wouldn't be? 

Now that we have overcome the hurdle of HOW to get at least one into our 

classrooms, we need to find some really good apps for the kids to use. 

Any suggestions?

P.S. A big THANKS needs to go out to the Iron County School District Foundation and our principal Mr. Moyle for making this possible!

ar Words Freebie

We have been practicing the ar sound this week. I taped words around the room, both ar and not ar words. The kids walked around with this paper on a clip board and had to read and find the ar words and record them in the boxes on this sheet. After the kids finished, they read their words to me and to someone else in the room.

Click here to download ar paper. 

FuN BoOk!

 

This is a book I bought recently, and we read it in class today. We loved it! It is a really cute, rhyming story with whimsical pictures.

Fun Survey

We decided to do this just for fun today because we had a little time in our schedule!

GIngerbread Story Starter

We have spent all week enjoying gingerbread stories. They loved all of them! We did this as a little followup activity. They came up with some cute ideas.

Click here to download the gingerbread story starter!