First weeks of School

It has been a super crazy 14 days of school! My group of kids this year are so awesome! We have been jammed packed with doing beginning of the year assessments and getting to know each student as a reader! I am blown away by how well this group of kids can read!!! I mean seriously last year I only had a couple that could barely read! I started math tubs last week and the kids absolutely love them! They think its a game and I am happy they are reinforcing and practicing skills we have learned about. I  really want to implement language tubs. I have so many speedy workers this year and I think it would be perfect for them. I also want to make a "skyscrapper" this year. A skyscrapper is used in a Montessori classroom setting and what it practices is sorting different words into categories. For example, if you are talking about nouns, verbs, and adjectives then you can have different words for each with the headers (noun, verb, and adjective). The students then sort the words into the correct category and record it in their notebook or on a recording sheet. Be sure to be on the look out for this on our TPT store I will be working on getting this up in the next couple of weeks!!!! We also are working on a guiding reading group binder and a health unit!
Happy Teaching!!!
SassySistasAz

2012-2013 Fun

 Abstract Owls using watercolors!!!

We are spending the next couple of weeks learning about artists and different types of art! Our first exploration into art was talking about watercolors! We watched a youtube video that showed a painter speed painting (it was pretty awesome!!) then we talked about what abstract art is and they were off!!! They had so much fun using the different techniques they showed in the video! There owls turned out so cute!!!!

 

            Writing about furry friends

                             

Today we are Learning about animals!!! We choose four animals to focus on and come up with facts about them. We then choose one animal to write about. We copied the information from the board onto our circle maps. We then took this information and wrote it into paragraph! My kiddos had a blast learning about these animals and coming up with facts about them!

                              Earth day 2013

This Earth day my class did a lot of fun activities!! We went outside and read the Lorax. We went around campus and picked up trash! We made a pledge of what we were going to do each day! We did an earth day sorting activity and graphed our results along with answering some questions! Then we watched Plant Earth Seasonal forests! We learned a lot about trees and keeping our earth clean and healthy!!! We had a lot of fun!

                   Thursday, March 21st

Today we compared and contrast two of my favorite books!!! How I became a Pirate and Pirates don't change diapers by David Shannon and Melinda Long. First I read How I became a Pirate and we went over character, setting, problem, and solution. Then I told them that we were going to read Pirates don't change diapers and to look for how this book and the other book were the same and how they were different. After we read Pirates don't change diapers we also went over character, setting, problem, and solution. Then we made a Venn Diagram to go over the similarities and differences in both of the books. This is a fun way to cover the standards RI.1.9 and RL.1.3!!! Who doesn't love reading about pirates :)

                                               

                          Monday, March 11th

Today we learned about Antonyms!! I had my kiddos meet me on the rug and asked them what they thought an antonym could be. They had several clever guesses but it wasn't until I asked them what opposites were when the light bulb went off! We made a chart of different antonyms and then I had one of my firsties read The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss!!! I then asked them if they noticed anything about the book. All of their hands went up and they told me it was an opposites book!!! Whoop Whoop they listened!!!! I then had them do a super fun activity where they traced their feet on construction paper and wrote down the pair of antonyms on their pair of feet :) They then were to draw a picture and to glue their feet onto another colored construction paper! They had so much fun with this activity! I was inspired by http://firstgradewow.blogspot.com/ :) Thanks for the clever idea it made for a fun day!!

How To Projects

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Each student needs to pick a topic that they would like to research (ex. how to ride a bike, how to become a doctor, how to write a book). They will spend the first week of the project writing a How To Book in class on their research topic. The second week will be spent making a pizza box diorama in class for their topic. The students can bring in art supplies to work on their project and will need to take out books on their topic from the library here at the school or at the local Library. The books are the only outside requirement for the children throughout this project. 

Instructions:

How To Project Instructions

I love to do this project with my students towards the end of the year. It ties in with cc writing standards and is a great celebration of the skills they have learned over the year! To go along with the project I have listed below step-by-step instructions for you to successfully pull off this project in your classroom! Have fun!

Before Day 1

Step 1: Send home the letter below to the parents explaining the project or create one of your own if you have specifications that you need added. Explain the project to the students before you send the letter home to get them excited and help them answer any questions mom and dad might have when they get home!

Step 2: Before the first week of the project make sure to send home plenty of reminders through e-mail, letters etc. to remind parents and students to have their mentor texts in school on the first day of the project. For families who have limited means it is always nice to let the students poke around in the school library and/or offer to use Internet resources that you can find with them at school. The mentor texts are very important in that you want the student to identify the steps without you or someone else telling them what they are. Hello research skills! J

Day 1

Step 3: On the first day of the project it is good to cut out a good chunk of time. My students get extremely excited on the first day and it is really hard for me to pull them away from it. This year I had a student cry because it was time to go home! Start by having the students read through their mentor texts (books). You can have them make notes in their writers’ notebook or simply have them mark important pages with sticky notes, etc. If time allows they can start to map out their steps with the 18 stepped lined paper below.

	©SassySistasAZ

Day 2

If your students are anything like mine, by day 2 they are excited! They will start to finish up their “mapping page” listing their steps. One by one as they finish you will need to be available for editing. This is the part that I really step in to help them lay out their steps. I explain to the class before we break off that they will need to work independently and quietly ask friends for help, but it is important to stay focused because I will be busy editing with peers and they too will want my undivided attention when it is their turn. When I conference with them they bring their “folder” (or whatever you choose to have them organize all of their papers, books, etc. with and their mapping page. I use a colorful gel pen or red pen if you prefer to edit with so they can decipher my corrections from their own writing. Don’t be afraid to really help them out on this part. The rest will be easy breezy for them.

Day 3-5/6 Books

Once their mapping page is edited they are ready for their rough draft booklet. To make their booklet I use the no bordered steps sheet (it makes the final bordered steps pages seem more important). I have always premade the booklets. Just copy double sided. They will need to create their cover, dedication on the inside of the cover and a description of their book on the back. I always make sure to stress that the rough draft book needs to look exactly like what they want their final to look like pictures, handwriting, etc. so that I can look it over before I give them their very important, very fancy final book. J Depending on how fast your students work you will start to see them break off into different parts of their projects. The students who work fast and efficiently may be done with their rough draft in one day, but the slower moving students may take until day 5 or 6 to complete their rough draft. This will now give you time to edit the rough drafts and start giving those students their final booklets. I usually make the final booklets on card stock and pre cut the pages so that I can either hole punch with ribbon or use bindings to create a “real” book for them. I keep my students motivated to work hard on their rough and final draft books by telling them that they cannot start their pizza box until their entire book is done.

	©SassySistasAZ

Week 2 Pizza Boxes

This is the part of the project that I have students of all different paces working on different parts of their project. I ALWAYS ask for parent volunteers. One minute a student will need hot glue while another needs editing on their rough draft.  Volunteers, volunteers, volunteers!! I always tell my students that they must bring in any supplies they might want to use for their box themselves, but if you or your school has a plethora of supplies they might not need to. I tell all of my students to be as creative as possible! I ask them to try and avoid bringing in finger skateboards…just make one from popsicle sticks and paint it! (You get the idea!) I usually send home a letter of suggested supplies along with a volunteer sign up sheet. I have always covered my tables/desks with butcher paper to avoid any spills or tragedies, but depending on your set up you might not need to. As I mentioned earlier the first year I allowed glitter, but I don’t recommend it if you have carpets! J At this point you just need to be prepared to be bouncing around the room and put on your superwoman/superman hat on and be available as much as possible. I like to use the last hour-hour and a half of school to do it, but again just suggestions!

Have fun and enjoy!