Thanksgiving freebie & a sale...why not?!

I totally wasn't going to post anything else for Thanksgiving. Then I started planning out our 2 day week and I realized I didn't have anything brand-spanking-new this year {gasp!} and the perfectionistic teacher inside of me wasn't okay with that. So I made a few things, which turned into a few more things....which turned into a 15 page Thanksgiving Packet for you!

I posted the unit on my Facebook page this afternoon with the exclusive info that it is ON SALE {50%} until Tuesday at 9pm EST! That still gives you over 24 hours to get it for only $2. It's a 15 page unit that includes the following activities {and the Common Core standards they meet}:

counting syllables {K.RFS.2b}

making words from the letters in THANKSGIVING {K.RFS.2e}

creative writing {K.W.1 & K.W.2}

making a personal connection {K.RIT.3}

listing activities {K.L.2}

labeling a menu {K.SL.5}

graphing favorite foods {K.MD.3}

distinguishing between wants & needs {K.MD.3}

explaining how to share & think of others  {K.SL.6}

identifying symbols associated Thanksgiving {K.L.6}

PLUS the sample download is an additional 3 page game that works on number identification {K.CC.3} and recognizing color words {K.L.5} which results in a feather headdress to wear!

Happy Thanksgiving friends!  I am truly thankful for all of you!  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so excited that there are only a few days left until Thanksgiving break!  Do you get the whole week off or only a few days?  We will be at school on Monday & Tuesday but do you want to know a secret?  I'm okay with that.  Because it is the perfect amount of time to do pilgrim & native american theme days!!  :)

I just made all of my copies & put our vocabulary books together today.  It's one of my favorite Thanksgiving activities because it makes the kids recall information about the 1st Thanksgiving but it also makes them really think about all of the new vocabulary!

Click on the title page for your free copy...word bank included.  Students fill in the vocabulary words then draw a picture to illustrate the fact on each page.  Go ahead and do this as a class.  :)

And what's a fun holiday celebration without a festive treat?!  :)  Oreos, Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cups, Candy Corn, Whoppers and frosting needed.  First, split the Oreo.

Spread frosting on the "clean" cookie half and stick it into the frosting side.

 Add a Reese's mini to the frosting for the body.

Add candy corn to the frosting for feathers.

Use frosting to stick a Whopper {any malted milk ball} to the Reese's cup for a head.

There you have...a candy turkey!!  :)  You can add a red hot for the snood {ie the red wobbly thing over the beak} but the kids typically spit those out so I've decided to skip that step!

Also, dear friends, please please do yourselves a favor and check out Scholastic for your Thanksgiving units.  Their website has phenomenal Thanksgiving resources.  Check out the parts of the Mayflower {while wearing your pilgrim bonnet if you so choose!}...

 ...learn how the passengers of the Mayflower felt and research all they had to do while traveling...

 ...chart the journey of the Mayflower across the map...

...and take some virtual field trips through the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation!  Your students will totally understand what it was like to make the trip.  If you will teach anything about the 1st Thanksgiving, you have to let Scholastic help you!

I've also updated my Thanksgiving venn diagram.  Thank you for the reminders!  ;)  Instead of putting the current year, I just put "Thanksgiving today" so you can keep a copy in your file to use year after year.  Click for your free download.

Happy feasting!

Mister Seahorse {Eric Carle}

This week we hosted Family Literacy Night for our parents and each grade level was assigned an author to study.  Kindergarten got Eric Carle...woot woot!  All of the popular books were snatched up so I ventured to the library for something different.  And that is how I met Mister Seahorse.

This is actually a really cool book!  It teaches kids about different types of fish and how they carry their eggs.  Bonus if you really pay attention: all of the egg caretakers are the dads.  Interesting!

I knew I wanted to do something with camouflage because a really cool aspect of the book is that there are acetate pages {ie old school transperencies} that you have to look through to find the animals.  It's a neat lesson in camouflage because you can peek behind the painting to the fish that's hiding then cover it back up to see if you can see it once you know it's there.  The kids loved it.

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas had a neat seahorse activity so we got some white paper and started using watercolors.  I was a little nervous but the kids did great.  They had total freedom to use whatever colors they chose and I love how different they all turned out!

I cut them into seahorses after the painting was dry.  If we were doing this project later in the school year I totally would've done this camouflage activity from Mrs. Parker but it was a little too advanced for us at this point.

Instead we water colored blue paper with the same set of paints and the result was still beautiful colorful camouflaged seahorses!  {complete with sparkly dots of course}

Here are some other Eric Carle ideas from my teammates.  Feel free to pin them to your literacy collections.  I had so many author study ideas that I had to make a separate Book & Author Study board!

{The Grouchy Ladybug}

{The Very Hungry Caterpillar}

{The Very Busy Spider}

{Eric Carle inspired art}

Happy Reading!  :)

Common Core for 1st Grade

In case you missed it on my Facebook page, I did create the same Common Core tool for 1st grade that I posted for a Kindergarten a few weeks ago.  {you're welcome!!}

Kindergarten teachers are finding this to be oh so helpful for Parent-Teacher Conferences as well as a way to keep themselves accountable to teaching each standard.  For 1st grade there are 3 pages {literacy, math, science & social studies with a large section for student-specific notes} and you can use all 3 or only print the one you want your families to focus on at home.

{click any page to download}

If you're a kindergarten teacher who's already found it to be a helpful Common Core tool, please share with your 1st grade friends!  :)

 

election results.

Let me just give a little shout out to Cara Carroll at The First Grade Parade.  Besides being the absolute cutest thing I've ever seen she makes fab-fab-fabulous units.  I've purchased many and have had no complaints.

My latest download from her was the Presidential unit...full of mock-election printables.  I'm teaching about characters this week so I was looking for some good read alouds when I realized I hadn't planned a darn thing to do with the presidential election!!  Luckily, I double whammied both with these activities.

We read Duck for President, My Teacher for President & Grace for President then talked about each character and what proof we had {from their book} about why they would make a good president.  Then we made our campaign posters.  Don't you love how my little girls have started drawing me in high heels?!

Seriously cute, right?!  I hung them in the hall so they would see them the next morning and be thinking about their decision.  Then we filled out our ballots and chose a winner.

Peanut Butter M&Ms will be acceptable breakfast food as soon as I can pass my first law.  ;)

Because of my slack planning we only had time to squeeze in a few of these activities but I recommend it to you.  There are voter registration cards {hilarious} and lots of other presidential games in there as well.  If you download it, tell Cara I sent you.  But maybe leave out the part about how I want to be her when I grow up!  ;)

goin batty.

It's bat week in science!  Here are a few funsies we'll incorporate:

{rhyming bats}

These picture cards are from a Mailbox magazine reproducible but you can use any picture cards you have.  Or instead of cutting and gluing pictures down, your kids could draw their own!

For more bat rhyming - can you tell what we're working on?! - we're going to do this cute activity from Rhonda at Classroom Fun.  Instead of using each child's name I'm going to challenge them to come up with a rhyming word for something else.  It's free on her blog!

{Stellaluna}

We're also going to read Stellaluna and compare bats with birds in a Venn diagram.  One page has the facts to cut out & glue down and the 3rd page has a place to write and illustrate a fact for each.

{click the picture to download}

{vowel bat}
Just try to show this to your kids and not sing along.

{echo-echo-echolocation}
Another great song the kids love to sing along with that will help them remember bat facts.

{going batty}
If you don't know much about bats yourself you can always leave it to the Magic School Bus to introduce the basics!

And happy Currently time!  I love how adorable this theme is...cute and fun just like Farley herself.  Be sure to link up over at Oh Boy 4th Grade.  Check out her pumpkin book characters while you're there.  Amazing!

we declare war.

I love games.  Especially board games but card games at times, too.  {like during Christmas break when you have the time to drag it out for days at a time because nobody has to waste their time working or taking a shower.  I mean, that's not just us, right?}

Today I introduced a childhood favorite to my kids.  War!  Our lesson in Investigations was to count and compare numbers and to look at the numerals and say which has more and which has less.  But...that's boring.  So we covered the same concept {Common Core K.CC.7 by the way} by playing war.  They loved it!  And because we only used number cards 0-10 today there were a ton of battles.  I made a big deal about it happening when I modeled how to play the game because I wanted them to really pay attention to the 1-2-3-flip part so it was clear that whoever wins the battle gets all of the cards on the table.

Well, I did a great job of getting them excited but they then felt the need to freak out when ever their cards were equal.  "Mrs. Young!!  It's EQUAL!!!"  At one point we did stop and all watch one game because they had 3 battles in a row!  Hilarious.  And they were such good sports about losing their cards.  Love my kids.

We also played Stack Tell Roll & Win which we now call Break the Tower because many of us are trying to learn English and it's much easier.  ;)

It's officially November - the month of Thanksgiving - and I want to be sure you all know how thankful I am for you!  I started this blog with no expectations and no real plans of longevity, I just wanted to see if I could help a few people.  Now I can't imagine not being a part of this community!  I appreciate my faithful readers {thank you for clicking that blue button!} as well as those of you who read secretly.  ;)  I am thankful for the friendships I've made in the blogging community, for the way it's reenergized my teaching and mostly for the positive impact it's had on my students.  I am thankful for all of you!  Thanks for allowing me to express myself in this little corner of the world!  :)