Urban vs. Rural in the fall

Whew!  The 1st quarter was busy.  We just wrapped up a ginormous unit on urban and rural communities in the fall.  It was a lot of work getting everything coordinated but I am so so happy to be back to teaching in integrated units.  It just makes more sense to the kids when there's an overriding theme that everything is connected to - as opposed to remembering one thing for writing, then abruptly moving to math, then moving to another disconnected topic for science, etc.

As we learned about urban and rural communities, we studied plants and animals in science.  We focused mainly on life cycles and plant & animal needs.

How cute are these farm animal projects that the kindergarten teachers did?!

In social studies we talked about why we need farms and how things from the farms are harvested to be made ready to go to the grocery store and eventually our houses.  We also touched a little on wants and needs and how they're different in each community.

Venn Diagram from Mrs. Russell's room

Flip book: what we get from animals (ex: milk from a cow)

We wrote about exploring fall through our five senses and the life cycle of pumpkins.  We also went to the farm and wrote about what we did and saw there.

I feel chilly.

I taste nachos as the football game.

I hear cutting the pumpkin.

We ended our unit with group research projects.  The kids chose farm animals they wanted to learn about and we watched video clips and read non-fiction books to make notes in our notebooks.  Then they chose their favorite fact to write a sentence and illustrate.  I took videos of their presentations and hooked them up to Aurasma - our parents are going to flip out at Open House next week when they see our work come to life!!  :)

September Homework Calendar

Happy September...it's finally Little Glamour Baby month!!!  I don't think I ever seriously thought that my stomach could get this big...

And while I wait for my little miracle, I also have a fun gift for you!  I volunteered to do our team's homework calendar this year and once I sat down to start writing it up, I figured I may as well make it good...and cute...and meet Common Core objectives.  And if it's going to be that good, I may as well share it, right?!  ;)

I only have September done for now because I've been at the computer all day & need to start helping my husband with the housework.  :)  Since I'm technically a week late, it's yours for free!  Either send it as is or just white out last week before making the copies if you don't want to send it with homework tasks for past dates.

{click to download}

We aren't sending ours home until this week after our Curriculum Night {Open House} which is why I didn't get it to you sooner.  I also assigned our weekly sight words in the Sunday column but didn't want that to prevent any of you from using it because I know our words {and holiday breaks} are likely not the same for the year.  You can always write yours in before copying, though!

I'm hoping to get the rest of the year put together soon so I get the whole packet to you soon.  However, that is all up in the air for now.  This baby is due on Monday...like, 2 days from now...so while I would love to get it put together & make it available soon...just stay tuned & don't get upset if it only comes out month to month, okay?!  ;)

fall = time to integrate science & literacy.

Our hallway tree is updated!

Today I added our leaf books to the apple books.  We recorded our observations from our leaf walk combined with using the word wall.  Boom.  Super lesson.  Also super easy.  Just find some good fall vocabulary cards or make your own by drawing pictures and labeling!

Then we used our fall collections to make leaf creatures.  Thank you Lois Ehlert, we LOVE the Leaf Man!!  Actually, we started with the printable leaves from the Harcourt website.  And tomorrow we're going to choose some items from our collections to jazz 'em up a little bit.

We're also going to do some writing.  Either labeling the parts or writing a sentence...haven't quite decided yet.  ;)  Watch for updated photos tomorrow!

In the meantime, you should probably go over to Lanier's Lions to get this adorable Roll & Record freebie.  We played it today {"1st grade math?! You guys are too smart!"} and look forward to using it the rest of the month.

I love finding great activities to add to the rotation!  If you're looking for more, you're welcome to follow my Fall or Halloween Pinterest page!

fall fun {and cookies!}

Heather at TeachingMy3 is hosting a fall blog hop and you know I could not pass that up!  Here are a few of my favorite fall things to do in the classroom...plus a yummy bonus at the end!

{fall journal books}
I love these little babies.  Obviously, because I make them into apples, pumpkins and leaves!  You can use them in a writing center, word work center, during writing instruction or recording observations during science.  Sometimes I make them with plain paper and other times I use the printables.  Just depends on how I'm feelin!

If you use them in an independent center, students can use them as vocab books, writing & illustrating vocabulary terms.  {our leaf books usually have fall words...squirrel, acorn, leaves, scarecrow, crops, etc that they copy from our chart}  If you use them during science, they can hold predictions & observations {how much the pumpkin weighs, if it floats, how many seeds there are, etc}

{johnny appleseed}
Can you tell this is a pot?!  lol  This was one of those spur of the moment ideas but I have to tell you, I think they're adorable!  :)

I was looking for a pattern to make pot hats for the kids but decided to just make my own & use it as a writing display instead.  No pattern to share...because it is easy.  Cut rounded corners on a gray piece of construction paper & cut strips of brown paper.  Ta-da.  The apple I used gave my early writers a little trouble so I'll use this one next time...bigger lines!  ;)

We used Teri's Johnny Appleseed bubble map after reading about him to figure out what to write.

{leaf painting}
I just saw this on Pinterest this morning and had to add it to my Fall board!!  How beautiful are Kelly's shaving cream painted leaves?!  Attempting it this week...probably not in nice clothes.  ;)

And now the bonus...making my favorite fall yummy ever.  They are delicious and I end up making batches and batches each fall because everyone loves them.  Here's the recipe.  You're welcome.  ;)

{oatmeal pumpkin chocolate chip cookies}

Link up with Heather for lots more fall fun ideas!  :)

apples & pumpkins {and leaves & candy corn...}

I love fall!  Apples, pumpkins, Halloween, Thanksgiving, sweaters, random warm days, bonfires, cider, hayrides, corn mazes...I love it all.  So {of course!} I have to bring it into the classroom as well!  As my entire team loves this time of year, we incorporate fall things into just about everything from September through November.  :)  Rather than repeating similar activities that you've already shared or seen elsewhere, I thought I'd pick just a few to showcase that might hopefully be new or inspire you to make a change to an old favorite.

{apples}

We started by just using the five senses to see what we could learn from the apples themselves.  I wish I could put up pictures of my kids because they were so funny with the apples right up to their eyes, smelling them intensely and listening so closely I'm surprised no one walked away with a bruised ear!  We used their observations to record in an apple journal that I hung on their cubbies to double as nametags.

We had an apple tasting after learning all about how they grow and what products can be made from them.  I had my students label the parts as I was getting out all of their snacks.  I love a science journal...shows so much info at the end of the year! {Like if you need evidence for a teaching evaluation or some such thing...hint hint!}

{pumpkins}

We do the same experiments that many of you do but I like to have the kids write in another journal instead of circling answers on a worksheet.  {not that it's bad - don't send hate mail!}  We estimated and double checked how many grooves were on the pumpkin, how much it weighed, how many seeds were inside, how big around it was {using yarn} and if it would sink or float.

While they thought about which jack-o-lantern face to put on the front, we used the SmartBoard to see all of the different options available.

Then we pulled out the seeds to count while also separating the seeds from the guts.  {I mean, come on, you can't be technical with everything.  yuck!}

We had sugar overload from our pumpkin tasting!!

{leaves}

We like to send family homework projects every so often and in fall we always use the Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert to get the ball rolling.  Students are sent with directions and a piece of paper {and a bag of leaves from the school grounds if requested by the parent} for their projects.  I often get a lot of leaf people back but was really pleased with this year's variety!

leaf Rapunzel

leaf dog

leaf snake

{candy corn}
How did I forget about one of my favorite fall things?!  I love the story The little old lady who was not afraid of anything by Linda Williams because I always teach my kids to act out the story as I read {when the shirt shake, shakes and the pants wiggle, wiggle...}  But to work on story sequencing and making predictions I started to retell this story on candy corn outlines!  I only read up to the part when the little old lady goes to answer the door then I stop and do this activity.

The top of the candy corn is the beginning when she goes for a walk.  The middle is the middle where she encounters all of the parts in the forest.  Then they predict what she'll see on the other side of the door by drawing a picture {and writing if able} on the bottom of the candy corn.  Once everyone has made their predictions we read the story again from the beginning {to do the fun motions} and check our prediction to see if anyone was correct!

It's always a favorite.  Hope you enjoy!