Hi, all. I'm linking up with Doodle Bug's Five for Friday linky party. My very first linky party ever...kinda nervous. Hope I do it right!
1. We were learning about making inferences, and I just could not find a graphic organizer that I wanted to use, so I created this little one for my firsties. Feel free to click the picture and grab yourself a copy if you can use it too.
2. Our students are learning how to find our country, state, and community on a map this week during social studies. Of course we pull out the globe and explore, pull down the big maps and explore, but this is still difficult for them to keep straight sometimes. Thanks to an idea from my sweet friend at a neighboring school, I got maps from http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/reference.html#list and had the kids use three crayons to outline the US, Texas, and then place a dot just south of Austin to represent our little city of Buda. Then we practice tracing the crayon lines with our fingers to get a little more kinesthetic input in there. I also used said maps to create the tracers you see below. (click to get a copy) The students use the tracers to draw the outlines of the country, state, and city, and then they add labels and decorate. This really helps them remember where the borders are. Plus, they are adorable to hang outside our classroom!
3. I am trying to get (empty) cereal boxes to create the valentine containers you can see here on Mrs.Morrow's blog for a change from my usual this year. I have had the notice in my newsletter for two weeks, and I only have 5 boxes. I'm starting to get worried. I'm about raid all of my friends' pantries, Ziploc bag their cereal, and take off with the boxes.
4. I am the sucker who said yes yearbook coordinator for my school. :) Ever since the yearbook company sent our bill, and I saw how much we owed, I have been stressing about these orders all week! But here they are: opened, recorded, counted, and balanced. I am happy to be done with that! (for now anyways)
5. Last, but not least, we used the Magic e Read and Write the room from my last blog post. My kids love this, y'all. I'm serious. I want to find a way to make a read and write the room for every part of my day. Okay, maybe not THAT much, but still. ;) You can pick this little activity up in my TpT store here.
All in all, it's been a great week. I'm not gonna lie though, I'm pumped about the three day weekend ahead of me!!! Hope you have a great one too!
I don't know about you guys, but my students **LOVE** any time we do read and write the room! They are on task, focused, and just plain in the zone when we are doing it, and all with a smile on their faces. I guess it doesn't hurt that I give them a time limit, and make it a competition either. ;)
In the past I have used several versions of read and write the room activities from various teachers, and I have created some small ones for my personal use. I decided that I would make a larger packet of read and write the room words for magic e, because it is such a huge concept for our little firsties. You can click on the picture below to pick it up in my TpT store. We will be working on magic e for several weeks, and I can use these babies at least once a week during that time. Also, once we've covered all the vowels separately, I will mix them up and use them as review during guided reading for the students who are still struggling with the concept. For this read and write the room, I combined the usual word cards, with the magic e wand I saw on Pinterest. I made a version of the wand that is included the packet. You will need to print one wand for each student and tape it to a popsicle stick. (I laminated my stars before I taped them to help them last longer.) The students will hold the wands up to the word cards to read the word, and then write it on the recording sheet.
For those of you who have never done read and write the room, this is the way we do it in our classroom. I copy the words I am using on colored paper, laminate them, and then cut them out. (That way I can put them in a baggie and save them for next year of course!) Then (usually while the kids are at lunch) I hang the words around the room. When they get in and see them they are so excited, and I start to hear the buzz. You know the one I'm talking about. The little whispers from several different students saying things like, "Look over there!" "Oooo...we're gonna read the room!" "Yay!" Iabsolutely love that sound. I know they are just as excited to do it, as I am to watch them. Makes my heart happy! The kids each get a clipboard, a recording sheet, and a pencil. They put their name on the sheet and wait for the me to give the okay to start. I set the timer....usually for five minutes, but it can vary depending on the kids' ability levels and the number of words. Then I say go. They walk around the room searching for the words. They whisper read the words to themselves, and then write them on the recording sheet. Then they keep looking. They are not allowed to talk to each other during this time. If they finish before the timer goes off, they line up by me so I can check it over. The other students continue to work until the timer goes off. The person who got all the words first (or the student with the most words when the timer goes off if no one is finished) is the winner. Then we go over the words as a whole group. I'm telling you, they think it's one of the funnest things we do in our class.
