First Week Survival ~ Daily 5 Up and Running

I can't believe this three day weekend went SO fast... entirely too fast!  I would love to have just ONE more day! And even though I'm dead dog tired I told myself I had to blog and share with you a few things from our first full week back.  I know many of you do Daily 5 and we have gotten it up and running piece by piece.  I'm still not taking groups yet.  I want to make sure they are doing all activities properly and can problem solve and take care of situations without interrupting my group.  I love the first few weeks of Daily 5 because I am able to meander around the room and listen to kids read, watch them write, watch them build words and really get to know my students by having small conversations with them during this time. We start out with Read to Self and here are a few pics I took during that time.

We talked a lot about choosing just right books and using the five finger rule.  We also practice getting our book boxes and having them by our side during Daily 5.  After they all got the hang of Read to Self I introduced word work.  We began our first weekly word study last week and took our first spelling test on Friday!  I was amazed that 90% of my class spelled and wrote 100% of the words correctly!  Usually the first test is a doozy just because it's their first one.  I was blown away!  Word Work allows my students to practice these weekly words.  They always have a "must-do" and then they can choose several different activities to practice spelling and making words.  My "must-do" varies daily.  I use many of the pages from Abby's Short Vowels Pack and some word family activity pages from the great Cherry Carl .  I start out only introducing magnetic letters, rainbow words using smelly markers and glitter pens and stamps.  I add more throughout the year as I feel they can handle it.  Here are a few pics I took during word work.

As you can see our first week is short a.  She spelled "we" but as long as I see them building words it makes me happy. I love hearing them read me the words they have made.

These words were off of our word wall.  We start out with about 15 words on the word wall from Kindergarten or High Frequency words they will use a lot.  As you can see I think it's time for me to get some new ink pads!

I also have introduced writing.  I know that seems like a lot but we have writer's workshop every morning.  I like to introduce some "fun" writing choices so students can write and illustrate with markers.  One of our first writing activities is making a card.  I use the monthly premade card templates from Deedee Will's Writing Work Stations.  I also use her monthly vocabulary cards to hang in my writing center and I also use the corresponding page of the monthly words in my student's writing folders for writer's workshop.

Students are able to color and be creative during this time but are writing to their friends or their teacher.  This gives them more practice using the strategies we are learning during writer's workshop like stretching out the sounds in words.

On Friday I wanted to do something fun and yet connect it to our curriculum.  Since this week was short a and we worked with -at words, I found the cutest craftivity that allowed the students to write a story using at words and they got to make their own "Cat on a Mat".  The activity is by Mel From the Pond.  I fell in LOVE with it and my students did too! So after students wrote stories about their cat (and some were SO hilarious) we broke out the scissors and glue and began making our cats. I love standing back and watching how my new first graders use scissors and glue.

I wanted to take pictures of their stories too and forgot to take them before leaving for the weekend (it wasn't like I was in a hurry to start a three day weekend or anything ;)  I'll try to post them another time because they were so adorable!  Here is some more pics of our super cute craft!

Next week is only four days but we will be working with short i. I will be introducing more writing choices, our listening station and read with someone next week.  I love to hear how others use Daily 5!  I steal grab ideas from teachers all the time. It has to be my favorite time of the day!

Hope you had a fabulous three day weekend!  

Dr. S Inspired -ink Word Family Freebie!

I know that Read Across America Week is over, but last week our word family was -ink.  I couldn't help but make a connection with the book "Oh the Thinks You Can Think"!  So we read the book and put together these funny little guys from the book.  I drew these on a piece of paper and then copied onto construction paper. 

Students then turned them over and wrote a silly sentence using their -ink words.  Here was my example:

Sorry for the crummy picture.  You don't actually realize how filthy your whiteboard is until you take a close-up picture.  Anyway, we tried to THINK of as many -ink words as we could.

Here was our chart of -ink words we thought of after reading the book:



After we created our chart the kids got to work making their "Think Characters".  We hung them from our clips from the ceiling so we could see our words and the sentences we created.  Here are a few examples of the kids work:

Here is another example.  I just loved the faces they put on these characters!

I scanned my drawings and placed them in google docs in case anyone would want to make these cuties with their kiddos.  The scanned images are not that great so I apologize for the quality but hope you can make it work if you like the idea. I can't believe tomorrow is already hump day!  Only 3 more days and then our Spring Break begins!  The weather here has been beautiful - sunny and 70 degrees!  Hope this beautiful weather continues into next week.  Have a great evening!

Click on either picture to download the patterns or click HERE!

Take a look at these cuties!

What a FULL week!  Not only was it spirit week and Johnny Appleseed Day, but we had picture day thrown in there as well.  I have to say it was pretty fun AND we did do lots of learning.  Here is a picture of my darling kiddos on J.A. Day.  Aren't those pot hats the cutest? 

We had a ton of fun using Mrs. Magee's Johnny Appleseed Unit.  We especially liked the Johnny Appleseed Glyphs.  Take a look at how some of them turned out. 

This Johnny Appleseed might have eaten too many sour apples. :)

In addition to dissecting apples and counting seeds, tasting red, yellow and green apples, we also learned about the parts of an apple.  Ever have that spur of the moment idea where you decide - (instead of just drawing and coloring the apple parts) let's break out the watercolor paints??  Well we did and it turned out fantastic!  Here are some pictures of their awesome paintings.

Most of my students painted in red, yellow or green, but don't you just love it when you have your creative ones in the mix?  Here are a couple of my cuties with their rainbow apples.  I wonder what they would taste like?

I have to share a few photos of our week.  Here is my class on Pajama Day:

I enjoyed being able to wear my slippers all day!

Friday was our homecoming parade.  Our school colors are black and orange so this little guy really showed off his school spirit!   

Here we are sitting on the curb waiting for the parade, bags ready to be filled with C A N D Y!

And here comes the band...

All I can say is it was a FABULOUS week!  Hope you had as much fun.  Next week is our FIELD TRIP!  Where are we going?  To the St. Louis Zoo!  Next week is also a review week and DRA testing.  I know this was a SUPER long post, but if you took time to read this, I plan on having my kiddos explore the newspaper next week and search for short a, e, o, and u words.  This is the recording sheet I'm going to use.  Grab it if you like.  Have a great first week of October!  (Wow, can't even believe it is October already!)

And I would LOVE for you to become a FB fan!  Just started my page and would really like to get some "likes".  Thanks!

Apple Activity Freebies

As I planned out the week, I decided to make a few apple activities to go along with what we will be learning.  I purchased Mrs. Magee's Johnny Appleseed Unit and can't wait to  do all the activities with my first graders.  If you haven't checked it out you should.   This week we will be making applesauce, taste testing a variety of apples, try apple juice, make our own little apple pies, and try apple cider.  We will then graph our results about which apple item is our favorite (which is included in her unit).  I will be taking lots of pictures this week since it is Spirit Week. We have lots of dress up days to add to the excitement!

Here are the apple activities I created. They are nothing fabulous, but thought I would share.  Just click on the picture to download.

I decided to create a rhyming word coloring page to go along with our -ump word family this week.  I also made a word activity page based on our last few word families.  Students have to read the word and figure out if the word is a real or non-sense word.  I made two versions to differentiate for students who are ready to read blends and digraphs.  I also whipped up another word activity to see how many words students can make using the letters in the word apples.  I love the book by Dr. Seuss - Ten Apples on Top.  So I thought why not Ten Worms on Top?  I thought my students could show different ways to make ten by drawing and recording their problems.  I found a great resource at mathwire.com that allows students to use ten frames to help organize ways to make ten. I will have them use this first before they make their worms.

I absolutely love the fall weather and hope it stays this way for a while.  I'm looking forward to all the apple activities and I hope you all have a fabulous and fun week!  

Short Vowel Review - Freebie

I feel like I've been out of the loop for days.  What a whirlwind of a week!  I wanted to share these freebies last week so I am a little behind.  Hope you can find these useful.  We have been studying short vowels for the last 4 weeks of school so I made this word work activity as a review.  It can also be made into a book which I'm having my kids keep in their writing folders to use during Writer's Workshop.  And of course I left my camera at school, so no pics today - but hopefully I can post some this week.  Here is the short vowel activity:

 

We also read and illustrated these short vowel poems.  I did not write these, but found them online and re-typed them to put into our poetry journals.  Here are the poems:

Next week is our Book Fair, Family Reading Night and Grandparent's Day celebration.  I should have lots to post about.  Hope your week is fabulous!

Check out our Folder Holders!

Good Morning!  Just wanted to share with everyone our cool little folder holders we have been using.  This idea was courtesy of Jaime from What's the Buzz in 1st?  She shared this idea this summer and when I saw them I couldn't WAIT to make me some.  Well, I did and we have been using them (and loving them) so far.  This is what ours look like:

My kiddos keep their folder holders in their book boxes and at the start of each week, we add our words to them on index cards.  Here is what they look like as you open them.

Jaime suggested using velcro dots to help them stay closed - so I added those too.  Here is a picture:

And peeking out of one of the pockets is a student's word cards.  So far we have had 10 words.  Here is a picture of one of my kiddos words from their nifty word holder.

I have to tell you WHY I love these so much.  Not only do the kids get practice writing their words, AND a place to store them.  But we can use these cards for so much more than sight word practice.  In small groups we can:

find a word with (5) letters.

find a word that starts with..., ends with.

find a word that rhymes with.....

find a word that has the /i/, /o/, etc. sound.

find a word that is a noun, verb, adjective.

sort your words into short, long vowel sounds.

OH my goodness... the list could go on forever!  I just LOVE it.  Notice how this kiddo has an 8 on her cards?  Well, each of my students has a number.  After they write the word, they write their number, so if any of our cards get dropped on the floor... We know who the card belongs to!

I'm also thinking since the word holder has 2 pockets, later down the road I may have one pocket be words that I know well, and words I need to practice.  Hmmm.... don't know yet, but I just wanted to share how we are LOVIN' them.  Thanks so much to Jaime at What's the Buzz in 1st? for this AWESOME idea.  If you haven't made these already, then go find out and whip some out soon.  They are SUPER easy to make!
Have a great Wednesday!



Spin a Word Wall Word

I happened to find these super cool word wall spinners at the Dollar Tree this weekend.  I think they would be great to use in word work this week... especially since our word wall is complete and my firsties SHOULD know what a noun and a verb are.  Take a look at these:

So when I got home I decided to create an accountability sheet to record the words they choose from our Word Wall.  I used clipart similar to the objects on the spinner to keep the kiddos on track. There are two pages that I will copy front to back.  Since there are two different spinners, I created two different recording sheets.

Here is the first one:

CLICK HERE to download!

Here is the second one:

CLICK HERE to download!

Has anyone else used these word wall spinners in their classroom?