favorite October activities.

I've been Boo'd by Special Teacher for Special Kids!  Thank you!  I love a good shout-out.  What what!!  {haha...I'm such a nerd}

Here are my favorite October activities!

{pumpkin & jack-o-lantern exploration}

Weighing the pumpkin, estimating it's grooves, pulling out the seeds, voting on how to carve it, etc.  I love all things pumpkin & jack-o-lantern at school!

{farm unit}

My farm unit takes us from September into October so that still qualifies, right?!  ;)  I have lots and lots and lots of fun farm favorites but my newest love is these adorable handprint farm animals!  I saw them on Pinterest and adapted it for school by having my students add more to the picture and writing a sentence!

{costume writing}

My kids are going crazy for this labeling activity.  They can't wait to see which costume comes next...and since there are 16 costumes to choose from, I can pass out different sheets and eliminate the temptation to copy from a neighbor!!  ;)

{Shake Dem Bones}

You must read this book in a jazzy little book.  It is just too cute!  At the end of the year when we go back and read our favorite books this one always come up.  :)

{candy corn retell}

Another book I love is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.  I use it each October to teach retell to my kindies.  Candy corn is the perfect template for teaching beginning, middle and end thanks to it's 3 parts and the way the story is written lends itself to retell so nicely.  We read most of the story up until "and what do you think she saw?" then stop to make our project.  They retell the beginning & middle of the story, then write their prediction in the bottom third.  After they share their predictions we read the rest of the story and find out what happens!

{I've updated it to get the colors in the right order but forgot to take a new picture!}

Here are the 5 bloggers I am scaring next.  Be sure to check out their tricks & treats!

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas {for her handprint farm idea!}

Oh Boy 4th Grade {because Farley loves a Linky party}

Confessions of a Homeschooler {for her fab freebies}

Sailing Through 1st Grade {because I repin her pins all the time}

Snippets by Sarah {for her guided reading goodness}

{click the pic for the entire Linky Party of people who have already shared their ideas over at Tori's Teacher Tips!}

scarecrow glyph.

What are your thoughts on glyphs?  I go back & forth. Sometimes I think they're adorable and allow for fine motor practice {that less & less kids seem to be getting at home} but without much academic weight.  Other times I think they fit right in the curriculum.

I'm still deciding.  So I experimented again.

{click on the picture to download}

Deanna Jump has the cutest scarecrow I've ever seen in her Scarecrow unit.  But instead of using the booklet on the front, I used her template to try my hand at another glyph.  We read lots of non-fiction books from the library and gathered as much "research" as we could about farms, asking ourselves questions as we went.  After our brains were full of farm goodness, we created these glyphs to show our data.

After they were finally finished {I recommend 2 social studies blocks for this one} we brought them to the carpet during math to classify, sort & count our data.  {Common Core K.MD.3}

Since we pulled them back out in math to really look at their choices and talk about the differences, I think they understood that the scarecrows aren't just cute {although they're adorable!} but that they also tell us information.

You could also use this in literacy as a follow-up activity to a book.  In that case I would probably use Common Core K.SL.3 {ask and answer questions in order to seek information}.

You're welcome.  ;)

So...to glyph or not to glyph in kindergarten?  Are they successful and rigorous and differentiated {and all those other buzz words} enough to be quality instruction??  Thoughts on all sides welcome!

Growin' crops on the farm

I. love. the. farm.  So much so that we're extending our Social Studies curriculum to teach "On the Farm" for 2 weeks {who can do it in only two 45 minute lessons?!} plus doing fall leaves, apples and pumpkins separately in science from pretty much now to November.  :)

We used Shannon's farm circle map to record what we saw on the farm as we watched Let's Explore: Around the Farm on Discovery Education.

We, of course, had to learn about baby animals and the various animal types so we made a farm book to tell each name.  {click for file.}  Farm Animals: A first look was another great Discovery Ed video to give us the information before we recorded it in our books!  Enchanted Learning also has a list of female/male/baby animal names but BE WARNED: the female dog is listed as a B*.  Thankful today that my kids can't read yet since I pulled it up on the SmartBoard!!!!  We just called both adult dogs "dogs."  LOL

  

I also made a Farmer, Farmer, What do you see? book based on Bill Martin.  Students fill in sight words I, see, a & me as they read the predictive text to practice colors, one-to-one correspondence and sight words.  {click the pic for the file!}

I'm all over the animals and apples and pumpkins {coming soon!} but realized that I never really did a great job of teaching the crops and produce that come from a farm in the past!  So after seeing Kinder by Kim's garden unit, we decided to spice it up a little bit by learning about crops.  If you haven't read it, Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens is a GREAT place to start!

We created the above bulletin board after reading the story and categorizing crops by how they grow and what part we eat.  I got pictures from the internet and the writing structure says ____ is a _____ I can eat.  {click for the file}  We added a little something extra to everything to jazz it up:

The apples got glitter for shine.  The tomato got a tissue paper stem.  The peapods got pom pom peas stuck inside.  The celery got green yarn for strings.  The potatoes got googly eyes for eyes.  {yes, I know this is totally inaccurate but I just couldn't help myself!}  The lettuce got glitter for some leaf depth.  The carrots got orange pipe cleaner ridges and the corn got tissue paper husks.

And what's a great garden without a scarecrow to protect the crops?!  We completed this scarecrow glyph {click the pic} to tell all about our favorite things of fall.  You'll notice the drawn crops and popsicle stick post.  ;)  I might blow it up next year to make it a little bigger because some of my kids had a hard time cutting out the small pieces but I think it's still cute!

How do YOU celebrate the farm???  :)