President's Day

After the sugar rush of Valentine's day and a few home days because of the snow, we were able to settle back in and learn about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We read a few books on both presidents and then completed some informational writing.

Favorite Washington fact - he put powder in his hair to make it white!

Favorite Lincoln fact - he kept important notes in his tall hat!   

Click below to check out my President's Day Bundle. It includes two packets that are filled with many Abraham Lincoln and George Washington activities!  

The Mitten

The past few weeks in my room, we have been talking about hibernation, bears and winter. One of our favorite winter stories to read is The Mitten by Jan Brett. This story is a fun one for kids, but also an endless resource for teachers.  

We started off by retelling the story. My students completed an activity where they cut apart the animals, placed them into a mitten and used the pieces to retell the story. They had so much fun retelling the story not only to each other, but to their families at home as well.

        

The next day we discussed our favorite parts of the story and why. Being able to tell about a specific event in the story with a supporting reason is great way to build comprehension. The big sneeze at the end was definitely a popular event!  

The rich wording that is used in The Mitten is also a great way to strengthen vocabulary skills. As a class, we discussed what the words mean, created new sentences and even acted some out. My kids then completed a vocabulary book to practice using some of these new words.

Continuing our theme of mittens, one afternoon we made our own matching mittens. We generated a list of describing words and then wrote descriptive sentences about our mittens. My kids had fun trying to guess which mittens belonged to which friend - just by reading the descriptions!

        

Click on any of the pictures to view these activities and more!

Blends

Blends are a skill that we work on during reading and writing in my classroom throughout the year. I've created these blends packets to be used in a variety of different ways in the class. 

The puzzles can be used during centers as a fun reinforcement on l blends and r blends.  

Picture cards can be used whole group or small group for sorting.  I will use these often during reading/small groups as a quick reinforcement or check.  

Since my students always love spinner games, I've included one of those too!  

Also included are practice pages for independent work.  

   

For extra practice, don't forget to take a look at my Write the Room - R Blends and L Blends.  

New Year

Happy New Year... almost!

Here is a fun activity I made last year to do with my students. I didn't get a chance to make my own for 2017 yet, but it is newly updated in my store.

Click on the picture below to download this freebie!!

Reindeer Fiction

This week we focused on all things reindeer. We started by reading a non-fiction book about reindeer and followed up with a Reindeer Fact book. These books come out so cute!

Then, we jumped right into fiction stories about reindeer. There are so many cute ones that I never seem to have enough time!

Keeping that lack of time in mind, I compiled a few of my favorites into a Reindeer Fiction pack. These activities are great for guest teachers or for a quick, Print and Go activity. This pack contains reader response activities for 4 different reindeer books. 

(Click the pictures above to check out my reindeer fiction packet.)

The last activity we did this week was a "How to Make a Reindeer" book. First, the students made a reindeer by tracing their feet and hands. Then, they had to write about it. I love how they turned out!  

We had a great week reading about reindeer!

 

Sight Word Slide

I am always looking for new and motivating ways to practice sight words with my kids.  I made these sight word slide games as a fun way for my students to practice their sight words. My kids love playing these games and they practice their sight words at the same time. It's a win, win! 

I made a few of these games from the Pre-Primer, Primer and First Grade Dolch sight word list.  Click on the pictures above to see this set.  

Scoot Math Games

We have been working on Addition Strategies within 20 in my classroom. Looking for fun ways to practice these strategies, I made a few Scoot games for my kids to play.

Yesterday we played Reindeer Doubles Scoot.  This game focuses on doubles facts to 20.  Not only did it get my kids up and moving, but they had the chance to practice their facts and strategies too. 

To play this game, I put one card on each student's spot.  Students stood behind one chair with their recording sheet and a clipboard.  They would answer the problem, then "SCOOT" (or rotate) to a new spot when the time was up to complete the next problem. They moved around this way until they completed each problem.

Tomorrow, I plan on playing Elf Number Line Scoot tomorrow.  We had so much fun yesterday, I can't wait to play again!

You can check these games out in my store by clicking on the pictures above. 

Don't forget to download my FREE Reindeer Bump game for more doubles practice!