Winner and a Hallowicious Day!

First, CONGRATULATIONS to.......

Bren at The Teacher Diaries for winning our first ever giveaway!!!!  Thank you to all who entered and gave me some laughs and pins for my "Makes Me Chuckle" board.  :)



 

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Happy Halloween to all our bloggy friends.  I hope your day was as Spooktacular as our day was.  We started out the day reading an AWESOME book my Curious Friend Em had called Pumpkin Heads! by Wendall Minor.   It was SUPER cute and then we made silly pumpkins inspired by this

You can find the post HERE.   Our firsties were SOOOOO excited to make these little guys and I.HEART.THEM! 

 

The process                                          I Love this one!

Our Favorites!  :)

Most of our finished products. Aren't they "Boo"tiful???

 

Next, we moved onto Glow-in-the-Dark, Trick-or-Treating for math facts and words. This was inspired by Kristen Smith at A Day in First Grade. One little guy was so stinkin' cute.  He couldn't get enough of this activity.  He was saying, "Here's one, here's one, here's one" in his high, pitchy firstie voice.  His poor partner couldn't keep up with his glow stick. 

     

                             

Our Firsties searching for words in our writing classroom.

Found one!

Our day ended with our firsties shopping for their Halloween treats.  :) 

 

 

Just going to leave you with these ghouls.  :)  My cheetah, "good" witch, and yes.... sumo wrestler!
Oh.my.  I just realized that tomorrow starts NOVEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YIKES!

Have a Curious November 1st!

Good Job, Good Text, and Some Good Old Fall

Our district has been doing some professional development on formative instructional practices this year and it has got me thinking...

I saw a DIY success frame last week on Classroom DIY and loved it!  From the different training this year, I am constantly looking for more ways to help our firsties take more ownership for their learning.  And I thought this frame would give them a little push in that direction.

This Target box has been sitting in my basement since the summer because I knew it's pretty black design would come in handy.

I cut off just one side.

I just used some pretty font that I had downloaded and cut out the letters.

The piece of colorful paper will be used to write exactly what the student did. The whole thing is covered with contact paper.  And then a hole for their face, of course.

After some nonsense word fluency assessments today, I was able to use the frame for the first time.  The students were so excited to meet their goal and have their picture taken.  What a great feeling!

On another note...

With each new school year, comes new challenges.  One of our challenges this year has been a lack of subs. Previously, a classroom without a sub would just be split.  This does not work for us this year because we are departmentalized.  As a team, we just could not wrap our brains around splitting the classrooms or how to schedule out the day in that manner.  And we became even more frustrated with these "no-sub days" because we did not have plans to match the change in schedule.

So...like many great challenges, comes a great resolution!  We decided that we needed to create "No Sub Emergency Plans."  I decided to take it on! ( I know...planning nerd!)

Last weekend I created our first set of plans and wouldn't you know it we already used them!

I decided to go through my picture books and find some texts that I just don't get to use anymore but would love to use!  Then I went through the social studies and science standards (along with ELA common core, of course) to come up with day-long themes that revolved around one text.  It was a fun challenge (again...planning nerd).

The first finished plan was with "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" and "Bit by Bit".

The whole day connected to these two texts!  I started the day with "Bit by Bit."  They were so so so engaged!  I did not have to stop to redirect or remind them of our expectations throughout the whole book (which is a really big deal)!  It made my day!  

The day continued with the students sequencing "Bit by Bit" into a timeline (social studies standard...check).

Then we watched "Joseph Had A Little Overcoat."  It has the text on the video!  They loved it and throughout the video we watched the kids making their connection symbol to the "Bit by Bit" book without even being prompted.

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat video

Our firsties completed their first Venn Diagram for the year comparing and contrasting the two books.  Wow!  They came up with some great ideas.  (Again...super impressed).

We moved into a discussion about goods and services because our characters were tailors and they created many great products.  Our firsties completed a goods and services sort (social studies standard...check).

The rest of our afternoon focused on math.  Our firsties made the Zundel's vest (character from "Bit by Bit"). They decorated his vest by making combinations of 9.  Some of their combinations are written on the front for you to see and some are on the back.  They are pretty cute! 

It was such a productive "no sub" day!  Instead of leaving feeling flustered, frustrated, and worn out, we left feeling like we got a lot accomplished and that our firsties enjoyed the day with some great books.  Actually, it kind of left me feeling excited about our next "no sub" day.  But I don't think I should admit that :)

What's next...I have a day of lessons surrounding "Cookies Bite Size Lessons."  This weekend I hope to create lessons around "Princess and the Pizza" and "Princess and the Pea."  I am also trying to brainstorm how I could use "A is for Salad."  I love the use of illustrations in that text.  Any suggestions?

Don't forget to check out our GIVEAWAY!!!  There is not much time left!!!

This has been a long winded blog tonight.  But just one more thing.  Our Ohio fall has been so beautiful here. My little family had so much fun playing in the leaves this week.  I had to end with some colorful fall fun!

Corn box at local farm...great idea!

just love this pic!

Happy Weekend!

Em

Frustration, Writing Samples, and our first GIVEAWAY!!!

I've been teaching writing with a little bit of SS and Science thrown in there since the start of this year.  We FEVERISHLY worked on our Small Moment pieces for weeks!  We even sorted out the ones we wanted to say more about (our keepers) and the ones we had no desire to continue working on (our duds).  After all our sorting, we jumped into finishing one piece and then editing that piece.  I have tried my hardest to see each child at least once during the week.  It is impossible done with a little craftiness.  When thinking about my class this summer, I thought..... five minutes per child and I can fit in at least 6 students in 30 minutes.  WRONG!  Most conferences are taking me forever a lot longer than anticipated.  I am writing my notes while conferencing and then recapping our visit by writing notes for my firsties.  Finally, I send them on their merry way to keep on talking with their buddies writing, of course using the not-so wonderful notes I've given in their writing binder.  Are you feeling my frustrations???????? 
Many of my blue and yellow guys turned in their first finished pieces last week.  Most firsties are listening and working on the detailed notes I've given them, but some are just "done".  Here's a conversation with one firstie.
Me-- "Are you sure you don't want to go back and work on the sentences you and I discussed in our conference?"
Firstie-- "Nope."
Me (with my shocked/sad teacher face)--  "Are you sure?  Listen to this sentence, 'I saw went home'.  Does that sound right?"
Firstie--  "Nope."
Me--  "Do you want to go back and work on it or accept the grade you would get if you turned it in?"
Firstie--  "Turn it in, I'm done."
Me--  "Oh my"
Me--  I had a chat with the parent of this firstie after school.  Today...  A complete story was turned in.

Now... this is just a snippet of our conversation.  We had already discussed what would make it sound right two other times as well as revisiting his conference notes.  What would you do at this point?????  Was I wrong?????  You know how as teachers, we reflect on everything.  So.... mini lessons on complete sentences are in our future. 

Here are a few samples of the stories I've collected so far.  :)  These are my blue guys (so my high guys).  Enjoy!  The first story is called, The Sleepover

 

 

 

 Thanks for sticking it out with me during this post!  :)  Here's our FIRST official giveaway!!!!!  :)
Feel free to share it with your friends.  There is no cute sign to go with it because I don't know how to do that yet. :)  I have to learn new things everyday, so..... that'll be added to my list.  :)  I hope you have fun with this one! 
This is what we are giving away.  TADA!!!!!!

 

 

We.Heart.You

 

Be Curious this week!!

 

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Virtual Book Club Link Up!

Last week I was catching up on some blog reading and found out about the "Virtual Book Club for Kids."  One of my favorite blogs "Growing Book by Book" was linking up to the book party and this month Amy Krouse Rosenthal  is being featured.  

The first book I ever bought by Amy Krouse Rosenthal was "Cookies Bite-Size Life Lessons."  And the second book I bought was "Christmas Cookies Bite-Size Holiday Lessons."

As you can see, they are both hardback versions.  And if you know anything about me at all, I must have really liked these books to buy hardback because (for lack of a better word) I am extremely...thrifty.  

I had to join the linky party.

One reason I enjoy these two books some much is 1. they are about cookies.  Oh, how I love Love LOVE cookies and sweets.  I love to make cookies but sadly I will eat ALL of them (and I wish I was kidding). 2. The author does explain her lessons in very kid-friendly terms.  3. These books are filled with absolutely amazing vocabulary!  I have read these books over and over again with my two little girls and we have discussed the words over and over.

BUT as we know, it is one thing to read/discuss and it is another to read/discuss and do.  Well, I will never back down from an opportunity to make some cookies.  So that is what we did this weekend.  My little family decided to make some of my favorite no-bake cookies.  

Peanut Butter Balls

I can take absolutely no credit for this recipe.  I follow the recipe for these delicious, mouth watering snacks at Simply Healthful Recipes. I do use gluten-free oats and peanut butter....oh yum!!

As we made these cookies (or any other foods), my girls and I talked about the words in the book.  Some examples from the book are "cooperate" and "proud."  We took some of our cookies to a friend as a house warming gift yesterday, which focused on word "generous."

I think this would be a great lesson to do in the classroom, as well.  Any recipe could be followed but the focus could be on all the great words in the text.  There are so many great classroom recipes out there! Actually acting out the words will be more powerful than just reading and discussing the words.  Thinking about how to implement this in the classroom led to a creation of a vocabulary sheet.

Click HERE to download the vocab document.

After reading the text and making a snack, the students can illustrate one of the featured vocab words from the Amy Krouse Rosenthal book.  They can illustrate the word.  Finally, they can explain their illustration in regards to the featured word.  My hope is that they will have a better understanding of the vocabulary word because they have read about it, acted it out, illustrated it, and explained it.

Of course my brain did not seem to stop there. I started thinking about how I could link this activity to math since I am teaching both reading and math this year.  This week we are starting combinations of 9.  Perfect!  Another great way for me to sneak in some cookie making.

Students can make different combinations of 9 by adding some white and dark chocolate chips to their cookies.  Sadly, they are not real cookies for me to devour.  But they still look fun to make!

This linky party is hosted by Mommy and Me Book Club.  There are a lot of great ideas to extend Amy Krouse Rosenthal's books!  Hope you can join in the club!

Hope I peaked your curiosity about Amy Krouse Rosenthal!

Em