Elf Diary

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

 It was sooo cold outside today!  The kid's enjoyed staying inside for recess.

For the past few years The Elf on the Shelf has visited our classroom.  This year the children named him Lucky.  They told me that he is sooo "lucky" to be one of Santa's Elves.  Each day during our morning meeting the children write in their Dairy of an Elf about where Lucky has decided to hang out for the day.

Thanksgiving Rebus Writing

After reading several stories about pilgrims and Native Americans, the children did a fun writing activity using pictures.  THEY LOVED IT!  The stories they wrote are super cute!

Veteran's Day Soldiers

Last week we honored veterans and all the people that work in the armed forces.  Together we completed a tree chart of what soldiers are, have, and can do.  Then the children made soldiers and wrote 2 complete sentences with capitals and ending punctuation.  They loved making the soldiers!

Our Thankful List

Good Morning!  It's a beautiful day, inside anyway.  It's freezing outside! My fist graders were excited to share all that they are thankful for.  It's a wonderful list.  I am very thankful for my sweet group of first graders. 

Creature Features

 The children had fun learning about describing
 properties from the book "Creature Features," by  David Drew.  After listening to the story, they made their own Creature Features book.  They also made a creature and a box for their creature.  The most fun was guessing the creatures!

It Didn't Frighten Me!

Happy Halloween! We spent the day celebrating Halloween.  The best part was making our "It Didn't Frighten Me!" book.  First, I read the book by Janet L. Gross / Jerome C. Harste.  

Night after night, a young boy sees strange creatures outside his window. None of them frighten him—except a big brown owl.

We then made our own books using adjectives and nouns describing night creatures in the tree that didn't frighten us, and at the end the one creature that did frighten us. I took a picture of each student acting frightened and glued it to the last page.

Click on the page above to go teachers pay teachers for a free download. 
 It is a wonderful learning activity that the children love!

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