Word Work

Fall Adjectives - Word Work/Work on Writing

Last week we came up with a list of Fall adjectives.  We called them "WOW" words.  After making an anchor chart of Fall adjectives, the children picked one of the words. 

During word work they wrote the word using a white crayon and painted over the word with water colors.  They turned out beautifully.  The children had so much fun.

At writing time, the children wrote two sentences using the adjective on their leaves. 

Fall is cool.  I wear a jacket in the fall.  

Fall is pretty.  There are pretty leaves all over town.

Fall Leaves

Down, down,
Yellow and brown,
Leaves are falling,
All over town.

The children loved using crayons and markers to color autumn leaves.  They made cute rakes to display their leaves and the poem.

Fun with Apples!

Apple Adjectives

We had a lot of fun with apple adjectives this week.  We read a cute book APPLE FARMER ANNIE by Monica Wellington.  The illustrations are wonderful!  We then brainstormed apple adjectives and wrote them on an apple anchor chart.  The children wrote apples adjectives on apples and used the adjectives to write sentences about apples.

Fun with Fish

We have been learning about animals including sea creatures.  We did a great fish writing activity!  The children colored a fish and then wrote describing sentences about their fish.  The also got to write about what their fish like and what their fish would say if they could talk.  Their writing is super cute!

Number Games

Today I taught the children how to play a fun number/strategy game Bump!

The children love this game!
The children play "Bump" with a partner. Each child takes 10 unifix cubes of one color. His/her partner should have a different color. The first child rolls 2 dice and puts a cube on that number. If another player’s marker is on that number BUMP it off. If your marker is on that number, link the cubes together and it freezes that spot. The winner is the player that uses all of his/her markers first!

Below is a link to a the game board provided by Shari Sloane

http://www.kidscount1234.com/bump.pdf

Daily 5 Rotations

All of the daily 5 rotations have been introduced and practiced, and we are excited to get started next week!

Read to Self

Read to Someone

Work on Writing

Word Work

Listen to Reading

Read to Someone - EEKK

Today I introduced EEKK, (Elbows, Elbows, Knees, Knees) during Read to Self which is part of the Daily 5 rotations.  The kids did a wonderful job reading with their partners.  

Number Line Squeeze

For Daily 5 Math, I will be introducing a few games each week. 

Number Line Squeeze

Object:

To identify a mystery number in as few 

clues as possible.

                                                

Players:

2 – 4 players 

Directions:

Player one chooses a number as the mystery number, 
for example,

13, and says “I am thinking of a number between 1 and 30. 
What’s my number?” The other student(s) act as bracket holders 
and covers the numbers 1 and 30. 

The same student (or other student if there are more than 2

players) guesses a number; 15. Player one says, 
“No, my number is smaller than (or less than) 15, 
or 15 is more than (or bigger than or

greater than) my number. The right counter is then 
moved to cover the 15.  Another player guesses 4. The leader says that the mystery 
number is greater than 4. 

The left counter is then moved to 4. Players continue to guess. 
Eventually, the mystery number will be“squeezed” between the colored counters. 
The player who guesses the mystery number becomes the next leader. 
 

The Name Jar

The first few days of school have been filled with fun activities to help us get to know each other.  

The first day of school I read "The Name Jar." The Name Jar is written by Yangsook Choi and is a great beginning of the school year story to read to students to help them to be accepting of themselves and others. It is a story about a little girl from Korea and her first day at her new school in America. She is welcomed warmly by her classmates even though her name is different and hard to pronounce.  After reading the story, we did several name activities.  One of our favorites was making our own name jar book. 

Each child wrote about something that they like to do and drew a picture.  We then compiled all the pages into a class book.   After reading the book together, we took different letter tiles and replaced the first letter in our names.  So using letter tile S, Jorge became Sorge, and Nick became Sick.  The children had so much fun with this silly game!




You can find this activity and many more name activities
in my store at teachers pay teachers.   Have fun!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Name-Jar-Back-to-School-Fun-with-Names-794141

Name Wall and Name Poem

I love my desk.  I had so much fun decorating it with the chevron stems and the black and white flower collection.  It turned out great!

I love chevron!

I love, love, love, chevron!  I found these great chevron designed folders at Walgreens.  The best part is that they were 2 for 99 cents!

Daily 5 Math

I have been using Daily 5 and CAFE in my classroom for the past few years and I love it!  So, I decided to try Daily 5 Math this year.  The "sisters" came up with 5 categories that I call the "Daily 5 Math Menu."  They are Paper Practice, Number Games, Fact Games, Strategy Games, and Math Tools.  The 5 rotations are Math by Myself, Math with Someone, Math with Technology, Writing about Math, and Math with a Teacher.

Below is how it will look in my classroom.

 

Classroom Tour- 2013

Classroom Tour
For my 2013 classroom decor, I went with the primary colors, chevron stripes and polka-dots along with an apple theme.  My red desk with white chevron stripes, gray chevron reading table, and my polka dot shelves are perfect.