Pilgrim Hats and Book Clubs

I am SUPER envious of those of you have the whole week off!!!

I will still be teaching 2.5 days next week.  If you are too maybe you can use these directions for making pilgim hats for boys and girls.

I started Book Clubs with my above grade level reading group. As an introduction to book clubs, I picked a pretty easy book (Sammy the Seal AR level 2.0) so they can focus on the new skill of responsibly stopping to answer  questions as they read.

I met with them Monday and they have been working at their own pace during Daily 5. If they have trouble with a question they may ask another Book Club member for help. It is pretty cute to see firsties debating literature responses. I have been checking in and they have all finished and taken an AR test. We will meet to discuss the book and their packet answers this Monday.

One of my students is reading WAY above grade level so he is reading The Chocolate Touch AR 4.7 and has his own packet.

Both Sammy the Seal and The Chocolate Touch are available in my TPT store with some others if you are interested.

Book Clubs work well for me. The only problem is our book room has not been updated or DUSTED in ??? years. My nose seriously revolts when I have to use those books. I wonder if I can get a parent volunteer to work on that?? Do you have a book room? Are the books encased in baggies or something so you don't have this problem? Do tell.

Turkey Fun & a Freebie

Sorry I have been MIA. Report cards, conferences, migraines...I know you feel my pain (at least on the first two.) 

Today I have a little quiz for you:

When your teacher takes away the paper mustache you glued to your face you should

A) glue on another one as soon as she turns away and get the other kids riled up

B) get tired of waiting to see the principal and up and leave the office

C) show no remorse and play dumb when the principal designee comes to the room to discuss A & B

D) all of the above

 

Is there any wonder why I am having more migraines than usual?

Our skill this week is sequence of events. We have the old HM basals and I often do not agree with the literature choice for the skill or that the worksheets provide any meaningful practice.  Luckily my district has backed off the ridiculous "fidelity to HM" mantra and I now have a little more freedom as long as I use the Direct Instruction model. Anyone else's district on this new bandwagon?

This week I replaced the big book story with 

Love Diane deGroat books!  Gilbert always learns a valuable lesson appropriate for firsties.

We then practiced making a flow map together in whole group instruction.

After we read the basal story, Bud's Day Out, I had partners sequence story events on their own flow map. This was a very successful cut and paste activity. The only problem is who gets to take it home?

.

We made some TLC turkeys but the kids added a sign for their turkey to hold suggesting a different food to eat.

broccoli

 I paired these on the bulletin board with the writing they did after reading The Great Turkey Race. The story ends with the turkeys escaping. Students wrote about where they thought the turkeys might go. Thanks for the paper Tammy!

Las Vegas (Don't these look like the turkeys from the book?)

 the Mayflower (yes, we have been learning about this)

 the dinosaur museum (this guy manages to put dinosaurs in EVERY assignment!)

Many of you have told me you like these making words sheets so I thought I'd share another one. I put these out as challenge work. I make sure to announce how many correct words the first person has to spur on the others to try to beat it. Never fails.

Thanksgiving Making Words

Finally, I want to thank Mrs. Patton  for posting about Class Dojo . I have been using it this week and it is pretty cool!  Check it out if you haven't yet.

 

The Great Shape Race!

We are working on geometry right now so I made a new game to add to my math tubs.

This board game practices identifying plane and solid geometric shapes. Students will be asked to identify a picture of the shape, the shape in an everyday object, the shape by name, and riddles based on attributes (sides, flat surfaces, vertices, etc.)

Every lap they collect a shape. The winner at the end is the one with the most shapes. Of course, if you pick one of the following cards you may gain/lose a shape!

If you'd like to get a copy of this game for only $2 visit my TPT or Teachers Notebook store. 

I'd also like to thank Janine at Faithful in First and Pattie at A Series of 3rd Grade Events
for awarding me the Blog on Fire Award. I believe this is one where you are supposed to write more about yourself and I had planned to but I have a MAJOR migraine (like I am about to be sick from the pain) so I MUST get off the computer NOW.  But thanks so much for thinking of me!

A Treat for You

Happy Halloween! Since we had all of our festivities on Friday, I tried to keep today as normal a day as possible. I have to admit, my kids did pretty well considering.

We read this cute book which went perfectly with the start of our geometry unit. In fact, I couldn't even get through the book without students interrupting to correct the book. "Mrs. Bates, the author called Spookley a square, but isn't he really a cube? " Another student adds, "Yeah, he isn't a plane shape." I swear I heard the Hallelujah chorus blasting in my ears. Apparently a few of these monsters DO listen to me occasionally.

At the end of the book,  the next season of pumpkins are all different shapes and colors. I LOVE art and writing projects based on picture books so...

Each student made their own Spookley pumpkin and wrote a sentence or two describing the shape and color. Some students even named their pumpkins.

I didn't get them up on the bulletin board yet but wanted to take a quick pic so you could see how cute they are. The writing paper is nothing special but you can download it {here.}


I'm off to take my boys Trick-or-Treating. Unfortunately, I broke the cardinal rule and bought candy I like. Stupid, stupid. Will I be able to resist? Doubtful. Happy Halloween!

Costume Parade Antics

Our school  decided to have our Halloween parties and costume parade on Friday. The whole school brings out chairs and sits in a giant circle, 3 chairs deep. Each grade takes a turn parading around the inside of the circle, starting with kinder. The big kids always lean over and try to get the little kids to give them 5 which then gets my little guys excited to stand up and do the same back when the other grades come around. The control freak in me hates this because they are out of their seats (because the back two rows are left out otherwise) but I try to let it go since the other teachers let their classes do it as long as they stay in our chair area. Of course, this class pushes everything PAST the limit and started going out too far in the circle. I tell them to sit back down. This is to be expected with this class.

What was NOT expected was what happened in the last parade round when ALL the teachers do a lap. I had told some of the teachers at lunch on Thursday that I was worried about leaving my class unattended. They looked at me like, "Really? No one has ever had any issues. It is only a few minutes." I start to think that maybe I am blowing it out of proportion. But, just to be safe, I announce to my parents at the end of our party that there will be a teacher walk at the end and I would very much appreciate it if they would keep an eye on the class for me while I am gone. I even make eye contact with a parent who volunteers enough to KNOW they need watching. And yet....

I am strolling around the circle, waving to my former students, when one of the teachers comes over to me and says, "Do you know you have an entourage?" I must have had a look of confusion on my face because she smirks, "Look behind you."

I turn around and 4 of my students (you know which 4, the ones that are making my year OH SO SPECIAL) are parading behind me. They even grabbed our class sign so there is no doubt which teacher has no control over her students. SIGH. REALLY? Thanks a lot parents for helping me out. Is it too early to start a Days to Summer countdown?

Due to extreme exhaustion (or perhaps depression) from constant behavior issues, I have not been doing much creating of my own. So I thought I would share (with permission) some cute things my teammate Toni does.

Remember I posted about the Mystery Bag last time? This is the follow-up activity.  Students guess how many mini marshmallows it will take fill the ghost. 10 are glued on as a benchmark. Toni has the kids use unifix cubes to count 10 with one-to-one correspondence. Then they take turns coming up to glue theirs one. I use double ten-frames.

Aren't these cute?

And look at these tear art cats. She said there are supposed to be polka dots on the cat too but the parent helper forgot. They are still adorable.

Alright friends, Super Mom has to go to 2 baseball games, deal with a car that won't start, host dinner for family tonight, write progress reports, do 7 loads of laundry, etc. so I will try to check back when I can to read all YOUR wonderful blogs. I hope you got a chuckle out of my parade story and you have no similar stories of your own!