Down on the Farm

We have been super busy in first grade! I can't believe the first nine weeks will be over in two days!! Holy Cow! Speaking of cows... two weeks ago we wrapped up our farm unit. (I am behind on blogging...) We had so much fun learning about life on the farm and talking about different farm animals. 

 In language we were studying nouns. For our small language group, the kids had a noun hatch activity. I hoarded Easter eggs last spring because I knew I could find a way to use them. This was a success! If you would like the Noun Hatch FREEBIE click here! 

Each day we reviewed a different short vowel. I made large posters using KPM Doodles farm animals to help brainstorm short vowel words. Here is our duck. 

For spelling practice we made fall trees.

We also did some rainbow writing!

We also spent time talking a writing about a different farm animal each day, creating a farm book. We did some cute farm animal crafts from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits.

We used the farm spinner addition activity from Rowdy in Room 300 for a math center.

To go along with our study of conjunction "and", I created a quick mini lesson.  

For our writing center we made "Down on the Farm" books.  Here are some samples. :)

If you would like to use this farm book in your classroom click visit my TPT or TN shop!

Here is a culmination of our class effort for farm week!

(I had to play with the panorama option with the new iPhone update!)

New Writing Center!

With a brand new year comes new ideas and improvements. This is my first year to be in the same grade level and classroom as the year before. I am SO EXCITED! I feel like for the first time in I can actually improve on what I did last year!

Last year I started incorporating centers into my daily ELA routine. One of my centers is a writing center. I knew it needed an overhaul this year, but once again I wasn't completely sure what I wanted to do. I knew the kids needed some privacy, so I bought some trifold boards and cut them in half. I found this great download from TPT (A Cupcake for the Teacher) to give the students important info to remember when writing. Our district is using Saxon Phonics this year, so my kids also have a great spelling dictionary with them at the writing center. LOVE IT!

On Friday we did a sentence scramble with our journals in the writing center. Here is a view of one of the writing boards.

I found this great find a Books-a-Million last weekend! I used the words to make a sentence scramble for each writing center. Inside the "I Can Write a" folder, I put a Ziploc bag with the sentence scramble, as well as the date for their journal. They had to unscramble the sentence, record the sentence in their journal, and illustrate it!

For now we are primarily writing in our journals, but as the year goes on we will create books. Each day the kids will file their work in the "author box" using our number system. At the end of the week there work from each day will be stapled together as a book! They love some filing!

I would love to hear your ideas!! I'm always looking for new things to try! :)

The Giving Tree Unit

School is winding down quickly! Last week we finished up our basal reader, and I knew I wanted to do something special these last couple of weeks. My kids and I LOVE Shel Silverstein's poetry and have read his work all year. So this week I decided to do a unit on his book The Giving Tree.

I'm thinking next week we may focus on the poetry, but for this week just a focus on giving. On Monday when we first talked about giving, all the kids wanted to share what Santa brought at Christmas. BUT by today we were sharing ways we could give such as: helping Mom clean, picking up sticks in the yard for Dad, donating old clothes to those in need, etc. I really want my kids to have a heart for others!

We have really focused a lot on writing this week, which has been great considering how quiet we have had to be on the testing hallway!! YAY for Spring Fling tomorrow! My kids are dying to run around and actually TALK!

We put all of our writing together to create a "Stories of Giving" book.

This little girl wrote about someone she knew that was a giver. I thought this was so sweet with Mother's Day just around the corner!

For this topic the kids had to write about a time they gave something to someone else.

Here is another book we made called "My Giving Book". They had to think of four gifts they could give to other people.

I really hope my kids leave my classroom with a simple understanding of being selfless and taking time to help and give to others. AMEN?!

This unit also includes a long e sort and story element graphic organizers. If you would like to purchase this unit click here.

It's Raining Adjectives!

Ok so the year is winding down and I'm trying to review and really work on our writing skills. So last week for language we did an adjective unit. We started with an outdoor reading of Eric Carle's Little Cloud. The kids actually gave me a round of applause when I finished the book. It's funny how they think the lesson is so different when we are in a different atmosphere! We spread out in the school yard and watched the clouds for various shapes. They drew what they saw on their papers. One little girl said this was her favorite lesson of the year! Guess I should teach in an outdoor classroom more often! :)

The next day in small groups we worked on writing sentences using adjectives to describe the clouds we saw outside. Here are some finished products!

We also did some adjective brainstorming to help us write about rainy days and rainbows.

One day we used our senses to help us brainstorm more adjectives. In whole group I used an apple as an example, and the kids helped me put adjectives on the board to describe how the apple looked, smelled, tasted, felt, and sounded. Then they got to pick their own object and use their senses to describe it. Here are a few!

We also did and adjective sort and adjective search. Here is the adjective sort! The boots have adjectives that describe the noun on the umbrella.

As a culminating activity, we made "Adjective Art". The kids used watercolor to paint a rainy day scene. Here are a few that were drying!

Later, the kids made a list of adjective to describe their art. So much fun with adjectives this week!

To get this complete unit click here!