December Poems and Songs

December Leaves

Holiday in the Sky

The Best Present

Holiday Alphabet

Word Family Houses

Large Group we created a list of the "at" chunk

Word Family House Set Two Word Family Houses

Grace Lin

We started a new author's study this week Grace Lin. This is very exciting because she will be visiting Bates in a few weeks.

Some of the books we have read this week by Grace Lin. Her books are great to use for writing workshop mini-lessons.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Sharing favorite parts and readings some of her books. This is something I just started doing at the end of an author study. I let the students decide what book they wanted to comment on. For the students who are readers, I asked them to pick a book to read a few pages from. If you are not familiar with her books I LOVE them! They are short enough to read many times and the stories are so funny. She has such a clever style of writing. I have not read all of her books and I can't wait to.

This Plus That

What comes after 1 + 1? Just about anything! In this fanciful collection, Amy Krouse Rosenthal puts together unexpected combinations that always add up to something special. Whether it's "wishes + frosting = birthday" or "birds + buds = spring," each equation is a small delight. This Plus That shows again and again that life's total experience is always greater than the sum of its parts.

We made our own version of This Plus That This Plus That Venn Diagram Looking at similarities and differences.

During large group time we have been reading many Amy Krouse Rosenthal books! The following are WOW words we talked about from her stories.

Yes Day!

Writing Portfolios

I love this book No More I'm Done. I loved the idea of keeping a few books each month and sending the rest home. In the past I have always held on to all of their stories. This book suggested having a My Best Writing Book and putting the child's best book that month. I bound together a few folders and labeled the inside with the months. My kids have not written to many stories so I have not sent any home yet.

This is what the book looks like

This is the inside for the month of September and October. I got the labels from the Calendar Pack by Kinderworks. Below you can find a copy of the cover. I laminated the cover and stapled it to the front. Writing Cover for Portfolio

Sticky Dot

Sticky Dot Lesson Click on Sticky Dot to get this lesson from the author Lori Jamison Rog

Sticky Dot Details

I found a great anchor chart on Pinterest that had the FEELINGS, WHO and WHERE with the pictures. This is another example...

For the last few weeks many of my mini-lessons have focused on Sticky Dot details. I got this lesson from Marvelous Minilessons for Teaching Beginning Writing K-3 by Lori Jamison. This is the best book!!! The book gives a ton of suggestions for lessons you can do using the six traits. I use this book ALL the time. The mini lesson uses a sticky dot as an incentive to add details to a topic. Once the child tells you the detail you put the sticky dot on the back of their hand as a reminder during writing time to add a detail. When the child is writing they put the stick dot at the end of the sentence.

Fall Art Trees

The art teacher in my school Jacqui Martell made these beautiful trees with the kindergarteners. I love the different colors she used for the background.

Thanks A Lot

We have been learning the song Thanks A Lot by Raffi. This week the children worked with a partner to illustrate a part of the song. We will make this into a class big book when it comes down from the b.board.

I am Thankful for....

This was a perfect activity to do the week of Thanksgiving.

I am Thankful for...

Thankful For

Voice Thread Mo Willems

We did an author's study on Mo Willems. I decided to put some images of books and Mo Willems and let the class make comments about him. I would probably have the kids make the illustrations next time.

Voice Thread What Do Scientist Do?

Voice Thread Counting Pumpkin Pattern Blocks

This year I decided to buy a class account for Voice Thread and it is so easy to use. Each week I make a Special Person book but I am trying to do more subject areas. For this thread we counted pattern blocks using least, most and all together.

Turkey Pattern Blocks

I saw this idea of Pinterest and just loved it! The kids had to make a pattern ...the tricky part was making sure that the pattern was the same all the way around. They recorded their patterns. I cut out a brown body and they had to decorate nose, eyes and beak. The kids LOVED the idea of making a bird. This came from the First Grade Parade

Thanksgiving Alphabet

A Thanksgiving Alphabet

Funny Bird

Funny Bird Thanksgiving

Turkey Poems and Songs

Thanksgiving Day

Turkey Number line Counting by 5's