To begin spider week we talked about how a KWL helps us set a purpose for reading. On the head of our anchor chart spider I wrote what the students already Know about spiders. On the body I posted questions about what we Want to know. The class had a lot to share about spiders which got our minds thinking before reading. I introduced the nonfiction book Spiders by Gail Gibbons to the class. They did a wonderful job stating the text features that make this book nonfiction. After reading the story the class gave eight facts that they Learned and we posted them on the spider legs. I am so impressed with what the students know about reading nonfiction text. We reviewed verbs and adjectives together as a class. Each student got a spider card to share. They read their card and put it on the verb or adjective web. After brainstorming a list of spider adjectives and verbs the students wrote their own spider poem. We read a few spider poems together as a class and then partner read them to build fluency.
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This week we used the theme of pumpkins! Each child created a Pumpkin flip-flap book (shown above). On each page, the students completed an assignment involving the theme of pumpkins. On the first page of their book, they had to write a fact they learned about pumpkins after listening to Gail Gibbon's nonfiction book about pumpkins. The second page had letter tiles and the students had to build words using only the letters in the word pumpkins. We read both fiction and nonfiction books about pumpkins this week. We reviewed nonfiction text features (headings, labels, diagrams, captions) and identified them in the books I shared with the class. The students labeled a diagram of a pumpkin in their flip-flap books. They also labeled the life cycle of a pumpkin. I picked pumpkins with my family on Sunday and brought in a pumpkin for each table. The students studied the pumpkins and made a list of adjectives describing pumpkins in their flip-flap books. The students completed two writing assignments in their books. After listening to The Littlest Pumpkin (a story about a little pumpkin who has a big dream of being a jack-o-latern), the students wrote an explanatory piece telling how to make a jack-o-lantern. While listening to the story, we paused often to make predictions, ask questions, summarize, and clarify. I'm am so excited that these strategies seem to becoming "second nature" to our first graders already! It's amazing to hear them use these comprehension strategies so effectively. We read several more "pumpkin" stories and then the students had to independently choose their favorite story from this week and write about the beginning, middle, and end in their flip-flap books. It was a fun week with lots of learning!
![]() I'm so proud of the students' progress this week with time! The first grade standard is to be able to tell time to the hour and half-hour. Each student graphed their progress on assessments throughout the week. At the beginning of the week, they wrote a goal for themselves and they were very motivated during small group instruction to practice telling time so they could meet their goal. While I met with each child in a small group to provide instruction and guided practice at their level, the students spent time at the other MATH Rotations. The M stands for math facts. Each students worked on their addition flashcards. The A stands for at your seat. The students worked on a telling time activity. Both of these rotations are differentiated so that each child is working on skills that are just the right level for them. The T stands for teacher. As I mentioned, each child met with me in a small group so I could provide intervention and enrichment as needed. Finally, the H stands for hands-on. Students worked on the i-Pod touches to practice their math facts. The students love their time on i-Pod touches and definitely look forward to that rotation. We do the MATH rotations at least twice a week with different instructional focuses throughout the year. Look under the student links tab for the time songs we listened to and the parents tab for more practice with telling time. Have your child look for opportunities to tell time. Try to find analog clocks in stores or on wristwatches if you only have a digital clock at home. Talk about and point out the time on clocks for activities in their day to day routine: breakfast, leaving for school, favorite tv show, football game start time, bedtime, etc. For a challenge, you can ask them "What time will it be in an hour? What time will it be in a half-hour?" Next week, we will read several stories that involve characters telling time and we also be studying time in social studies. Today I read the story Spookley The Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano to the class. Before reading the students asked great questions and made thoughtful predictions about the story. I read the story orally to the class stopping throughout to clarify unknown words and continue with our predictions and questions. After reading we discussed the theme of this adorable story. The students determined that the theme was "you should not treat others mean just because they look different." What a great message!! We made an anchor chart to describe the main character Spookley. We also focused on how a character can change throughout a story. In this story Spookley was sad in the beginning because he was different and the other pumpkins were teasing him. At the end of the story Spookley felt happy and brave because he saved his friends and the pumpkin patch was full of different pumpkins. ![]() The students worked with a partner or a small group to sequence the events and retell the story. ![]() I read the story Oh My, Pumpkin Pie! The students looked for adjectives throughout the story to describe pumpkins. We added additional adjectives to our list. The students made their own pumpkin to add to Spookley's pumpkin patch. Watch the video Spookley The Square Pumpkin. Enjoy! What do you think about Spookley The Square Pumpkin?
This week we focused on the sound of qu. We learned that q and u stick like glue. I gave each student a q and u to glue together. We brainstormed a list of words with qu. The students made a quilt full of qu words. I attached all of their papers together to make one large quilt. ![]() In continuation of our apple theme we learned about Johnny Appleseed. We did an anticipation guide to activate our prior knowledge and generate questions. I read a story about Johnny Appleseed to the class. Together we did a character analysis. The students had a lot of fun creating a hat that looks like the pot Johnny wore. ![]() We learned how to identify facts and opinions. First we worked together to sort statements on apples into fact and opinion baskets. Then the students worked in small groups to color apples with a fact red and apples with an opinion green. The students wrote an informative writing piece about Johnny Appleseed. They learned that the purpose of an informative is to inform/teach. The class got to visit their old kindergarten class and share their hard work. Great job first grade! We used apples as our theme this week to inspire some fun learning! We made a KWL chart about apples. We first made a list of things we know about apples and then made a list of what we want to know and learn about apples. The students learned about the difference between fiction and nonfiction. We started talking about nonfiction text features and looked for them as we read nonfiction books about apples. One of these features that we noticed a lot in our nonfiction books is pictures with labels. So the students each made their own apple and labeled the parts of the apple. I brought in three different kinds of freshly picked apples for the students to taste. We made a list of adjectives to describes the apples. The students made a tally chart to show their favorite kind. Finally, the students did such a great job writing an opinion piece about their favorite kind of apple. They had to have an opening sentence, two to three reasons using adjectives, and a closing sentence. Doing all of this in the first week of October in first grade is pretty impressive! We are so proud of how hard they worked! |
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