“Not” Contractions Mini Unit

 

We spent all last week really working hard on not contractions. I made some cute little superhero activities to use with this skill.  This little mini unit is listed in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Here is the link:

NOT CONTRACTIONS MINI UNIT

Here is what is included…

Word Cards/Flash Cards. We used this each day last week in groups. I basically used them as flash cards. But, we put them in ABC order one day and I gave each child a card and I would call out two little words- and they had to stand up if it was their contraction.

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There are 15 read the room cards and a recording sheet.

I put the 15 word cards up around the room and they have to walk around and find the words- and write them beside the correct number.

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There are 6 worksheets included in this packet.

We did some together and some independently. They are a great review of the contractions.

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There is also a great matching activity that fits perfect in a pocket chart. We did these together one morning in groups at the table {so, you don’t have to use a pocket chart}. Then, they had to do it with a partner in the pocket chart.

 

Here is the link again if you are interested:

NOT CONTRACTIONS MINI UNIT

May Calendar Cards {free download}

May is almost here and I have a new set of calendar cards free to download in my TpT store.

Quick Link: May Calendar Cards

There are also cards for the months of October-April in my TpT store as well to grab for free!

The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog Project

 

I love a good project- but right, smack in the middle of it.. I always question myself if it was such a great idea. This Big Wide-Mouthed Frog project has been going on for days…

This is a precious book that I read every year with my first graders when we talk about frogs. I have multiple copies (bought from Scholastic a few years ago).

It’s about an wide mouthed frog who meets other animals (kangaroo, koala, possum, emu, and crocodile. The frog smarts off to each one and calls each animal a name.

He always asks the animals “What is your name and what do you eat”. They tell the frog what they eat… he hops off and says, “I am a big wide mouth frog and I eat flies.

UNTIL.. he meets a crocodile who says, “ I am a crocodile and I eat big wide mouthed frogs.” And the frog has to run off quickly! So cute!

So, I took each animal from the book and drew them on big white paper {bulletin board paper}.

My students had to trace over my pencil marks first with black markers then start coloring.

This took a little longer than expected.. I thought I would be able to finish this in 2 days. .. um, NO! But, my little ones never lost interest and would ask me every day if we were going to work on our animals. They loved every minute of it.

I told them they had to make it look close to the pictures in the book. This helped so there was no arguing over what color things should be. The pictures in the book are fun so they were happy to make their animals look like the ones in the book.

I cut around the animals yesterday afternoon and I made the little word clouds.. that told what each animal eats.

I originally planned to hang these in the hall outside our classroom.. but I realized that was going to be a chore to tape all of this to the wall and I really didn’t think we would have room after we got finished and saw how large the pieces were.

Luckily, we have a large bulletin board in our cafeteria that our art teacher keeps artwork on. She was more than happy to let me take over and put something up for the rest of the year.

And, it barely fit on this huge bulletin board. It’s a little bit crowded but it looks great. My little ones were the proudest little people ever at lunch today!

I question myself for doing a project like this.. but once it is over and we are finished.. I am so glad I took the time to let them do something like this. They love it and we really did have a good time!

 

Go find this book! It’s one of my favorites!

xoxo, kacey

Wordless Wednesday

Teachers Pay Teachers Banner Contest

 

Teachers Pay Teachers is having a friendly little banner redesign contest. Even though, I don’t think I have a chance {some of the other entries have LOTS and LOTS of votes!!} I would love for you to vote on one of my entries.

Here are the three that I have entered.

To vote all you have to do is click the LIKE button beside each one. They are listed on facebook.

Click each picture to go straight to it to vote.

Thank y’all so much!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Mini Unit

We are still reading and enjoying fairy & folk tales in my class. Sometimes, I just read the stories. Other times, we do a mini unit on the story. Tomorrow we will read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and spend a few days talking about this favorite book.

I have listed this unit in my TpT store:

Quick Link: Goldilocks and The Three Bears Mini Unit

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Here is what in included this unit:

ABC order activity

Put the cards in ABC order and then write them on a recording sheet in the correct order. There are 2 recording sheets- one has 14 blanks one has 10. In case you don’t want to use all 14 cards.

When I printed these, I printed them 2 per page {that is an option when you print from adobe} to use less paper/laminating. I printed six sets of these. So, I could use them as an independent activity when we do groups one morning.

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Sequence of events. There are 7 sentences to cut apart and glue in order to retell the main events from the story.

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Do these words need a capital letter?

Again, I printed these smaller and I printed three sets of these. I will pair my students up to do this activity.

There are 20 cards with words and a recording sheet where they write the words under YES or NO.. if the words need a capital letter.

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This activity above will be one of my weekly centers. Students have to read the cards then hop over to the paper to answer the question about the sentence they read on the card.

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2 Different Writing Papers and a word reference sheet for students to use when writing.

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There are 3 different worksheets also included in this packet. These will be great morning work or early finisher work. There is a

{1} Color Goldilocks paper.. my kids love these. They have to read the

written directions to color the picture.

{2} Word Search- using words from the story

{3} Did it Happen? paper. Students read and write yes or no after each sentence if it happened in the story.

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… and a cute little art project!

All the patterns are included to make this little guy!

Here is the link again if you are interested in purchasing this mini unit.

Quick Link: Goldilocks and The Three Bears Mini Unit

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I pulled a few other bear activities out of my “bear box” and we will spend a few days on bears. We will also read Corduroy. Which fits in PERFECT with our phonics skill of OR this week!

Busy, busy times! School is almost over! And, I have so much left to do! Eeeek!!!

Happy Sunday to you y’all!

xoxo, kacey

 

Frogs- Part 2

 

We spent the past week learning about frogs. I didn’t get to all the “science things” that I would have liked to do. We did discuss amphibians and we learned the life cycle of a frog.

We never made it to the differences between frogs and toads. Just simply ran out of time.. and I debated about going on again next week with a 3rd week of frogs. But truthfully, I am ready to move on!

One of our weekly centers this week was an activity I have listed in my frog centers pack on TpT. 

There are 12 months of the year question cards and a recording sheet. The questions ask what month comes before/after a certain month. It was great practice.

Here is the link to purchase: Frog Centers

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This next center is also in the Frog Centers pack. Students have to order numbers from least to the greatest.

When I look at this picture I see something we talk about all the time..

To spread out.. give each other some room. But I swear, my kids must love each other. Because, they squish together in the smallest of places. They are assigned an area of the room to do their center- but they have room to spread out. Why would they try and gather up so close? But, this is something we “discuss” all the time!!

{And one of my sweeties broke her left arm this week.. I have broken my arm and I know how much you truly rely on both hand/arms to do everything I know how she feels!!}

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Counting by 3’s! We are getting sooooo good at this!

This counting by 3’s activity is centered around The Frog Prince. We enjoyed reading it this week too!

You can purchase it on TpT too. The recording sheet is included.

Link: Counting by 3’s Frog Prince Center

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We also did this frog life cycle that came from Amy Lemons. It is simple and was an easy project for mine to do one afternoon.

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We did this frog unscrambling activity this week too.

I printed several sets of these and paired my students up to unscramble one morning in groups.

I just realized that the second sentence is not right in this picture. They must have caught their mistake- because when they sentences back to me they were all correct!

These are in my frog centers pack too.

Link: Frog Centers

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Another weekly center this week was this easy little life cycle project.

It can be found here.

 

I hope you are having a nice weekend. I finished up my next mini unit… Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I laminated it this morning and will cut everything tonight. I should be able to share it with you tomorrow.

We will do a quick Bear Unit.. then move on to butterflies/insects. My caterpillars have been ordered and should be here next week. When they get here we will jump right into BUGS!

We only have 3 1/2 weeks of school left! Can you believe it??

I should also mention that I am terribly jealous of some fabulous girls that I got invited to spend the weekend with but could not work out the details. Cheryl at Primary Graffiti asked me to come to Atlanta this weekend and meet up with some great teachers. Weeks ago, I checked on flights and I could not make any of the options work. Oh I so wish I could have been there! I did send a big care package with Cheryl full of Doodle Bugs Paper products as special gifts that she could give to the teachers. I hope they are having a fabulous weekend!

 

xoxo, kacey

{Wordless Wednesday}