Tackylocks, An Emperor Penguin in Disguise

I took a break from all school related "stuff" to enjoy my family and loved every minute!  Now, it's to time to get back to reality. :0)  I finished a fun, meaningful and student engaging unit on Penguins.  I can't wait to use it with my firsties! 

 

This unit has three components:
* A penguin glyph: patterns and pictures included with a bulletin board and anchor chart ideas

 

 

* An Emperor penguin scrapbook created by the students based on research:

Scrapbook Unit Plan
 Day 1: Read aloud nonfiction book about emperor penguins. Create Scrapbook cover.
 Day 2: The Emperor Penguin Family
 Day 3: Our Extended Family
 Day 4: Mom Penguin
 Day 5: Dad Penguin
 Day 6: Baby Penguin
 Day 7: Family Dinner
 Day 8: Home Sweet Home
 Day 9: The Family Trip
 Day 10: Our Colony.
 Day 11: Brrr…It’s Cold
Common Core Alignment: W 1.7, W 1.8, RI 1.1

Internet Resources to help teach about emperor penguins.

 

 

* A book study based on Tackylocks and the Three Bears:
 Multiple Meaning Words L 1.4
 Higher Order Thinking L1.4a
 Author’s Purpose
 Retell RL 1.2 Extension: If you have the Screen Chomp app students can take a picture of their paper and record their retelling
 Compare & Contrast RL 1.9
 Character Description RL 1.3
 Context Clues RL 1.4 & L 1.5c
 Setting RL 1.7
 Write the Room RF 1.3f
 Craftivity
 Writing 

  The study incorporates tons of student engaging activities.  One of my favorite activities in this study is the Tackylocks craftivity.

Go HERE or HERE to get this freebie.

To purchase the whole unit go to Teachers Notebook or to Teachers Pay Teachers.

I'll be posting more pictures as I complete this unit with my own class.

Wrapping it Up!

Three more days until our break....lots of wrapping it up going on at home and school!!!  I'm literally wrapping gifts every night and at school I'm wrapping up three different units!   Tis the season!!!!  We have loved working on There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell.  We finished it last week and began If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.  Trimming the tree with nouns was a big hit and they loved making their mouse craftivity!  For the past month they have seen the little mouse and have been begging to make him.  And last but not least we are still travelling the world to see how other countries celebrate Christmas.  Today we learned all about Old Befana from the book written by Tomie Depaola.  Here are some pictures of all our activity!  :0)

I thought this was so cute! It is one of the writing activities included in the unit.

Trimming the tree with nouns, an activity with the book study for If You Take a Mouse to the movies.

These scrapbooks are adorable!  I am very proud of how hard my firsties are working!  

I Believe

I have tried to write this post several times over the weekend but could not find any words to express how I felt.  Numbness seemed to be prevalent, but as I was leaving for school today the news started to scroll the pictures of those precious babies.  I left for my classroom with tears streaming down my face.  How do I answer my precious first graders' questions, Father?  How do I keep my composure?  How do I calm their fears?  BELIEVE!  I believe that I did not have the answers but God provided.  I believe that I was called to be their teacher. I believe that 19 children needed to see me as much as I needed to see them.  I believe that my 19 babies left school today feeling loved and safe.  Being a family is ALL that mattered today!  

Sandy Hook Elementary: Day of Silence

The Old Lady and the Daily Five

Quick post tonight....a little worn out!  Yesterday we worked on our craftivity for The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell.  It turned out so cute!!!! Take a peak...

I have also been tweaking the Daily Five in my classroom.  I am all about decreasing management and allowing my firsties to become independent learners.  I am a newbie with this Daily Five thing. :0)  I admit I tried to control where they went and I was still managing stations until recently.  I finally let go and am in love with this system.  I posted a picture of the Daily Five on my Smart Board and then had my firsties take a pic with their ipad.  Yes, each child has their own ipad and it is making a huge difference in my classroom!!!!  Anyway,  we then make this pic their background in Doodle Buddy and they mark each Daily Five they have been to.  It is so simple and holds them accountable.  Here is a screenshot of one of the ipads. 

Enjoy the rest of your evening and rest up!   Christmas is one day closer and we all know that means a little more excitement in the classroom.  ;0)



Christmas in the Classroom

We have been so busy this week!  We started our trip around the world to find out how countries celebrate Christmas.  My firsties are loving it.  The question of the day:  "Where are we going today????"  Love it!!!  So far we haven't journeyed too far from home.  We have made stops in America and Mexico.  This upcoming week we will visit Israel, Italy and Sweden.  They can't wait.  We are making a scrapbook so we can remember our trip.  Here is a picture of our page for America. 

 

Our covers are suitcases and we get a flag stamp for each country that we visit.  I found the scrapbook pages HERE.  I love these pages.  My firsties draw the country's flag, create something they might see ( for this page we drew Rudolph), draw a pic of something they might eat, and write about a holiday tradition. 

We are also having a great time with our book study on There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell.  In the picture above they cut out and glued -ed words inside her mouth.  Tomorrow we have a craftivity waiting on us!  They love these books.  You can get a copy of the book study HERE  or  HERE.

Finally,  HERE is a free copy of the amazing words for the story, Honey Bees. Enjoy your week and your firsties!!

Class Dojo and My Firsties

If you haven't heard about Class Dojo go immediately and check it out!  I LOVE IT!!!!!! Class Dojo is a digital behavior system for the classroom.  Each child has his or her own avatar and parents can log in to their child's acccount to check on behavior.  You can also email reports to parents.  I am all about streamlining in the classroom and this is incredibly easy to use.  Best of all I didn't have to create anything!  Points are given for positive behaviors.  Love, love, love this feature!!!! We reward those babies that absolutely deserve it!  Points can be taken for negative behaviors.  :0(    I reward my kiddos with these  classroom coupons.  You can get it HERE for free.

I always have the Dojo window up on my smart board.  If we are working on something I downsize but it is always just a click away.  I even have the app on my ipad so when we travel outside of the classroom I have access.  :0)



CHECK IT OUT!

Amazing Words Life in the Forest

If you teach from Reading Street then you know that each week we learn several new "Amazing Words."  My kids love learning these new words and I have noticed that they are much more "word" aware when reading something else.  Currently we are posting these words up on our wall after learning them and keeping count.  If you would like a copy of the Life in the Forest amazing words click the link under the picture.  :0)

TN Freebie  
TPT Freebie

Teacher's Notebook Store

I just recently discovered teachersnotebook.com and I love it.  So....I decided to open a shop on this website along with teachers pay teachers.  You can find all of my units on both sites.  Take a look at my new shop. 

HERE

HERE

 HERE