Five for Friday March 10th

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!

Hi! I hope you all had a wonderful week.  Quick question- Where is this "spring" I've heard about? Actually, this winter hasn't been as cold as some I remember, but I'm ready for it to be over.  It doesn't look like that's happening, at least this week.  We are actually already hoping for our last snow day on Tuesday if the forecast is right.  That's a teacher's way of turning lemons into lemonade... Our saying should be "If winter gives you snow, turn it into a snow day."  Anyway, this is my spring bulletin board for the hall., which I thought was timed better!

Our next writing unit is our Persuasive Writing.  Jillian Jiggs is a great mentor text to use to introduce a ... messy room.   The kids love to see that somebody else has a room that looks like it was lived in by pigs! 

 

Here is the video if you aren't familiar with the story.

                                

After we read the story, I like to have the children turn and talk to share why it is important to keep their bedroom clean (so toys don't break, so mom is happy, so you don't lose things, so you don't trip and fall on things) and then transition to why it is important to keep our classroom clean (pretty much the same reasons except you can just substitute in 'so the teacher is happy!').  After this discussion, I write a mentor text with the children to show how we can persuade (or convince or encourage) others to keep the classroom clean using important reasons. (I wasn't even going to share this mentor text I made with the class because of the 'illustrations'  but then I thought you might get a kick out of those ridiculous lips and teeth in the last picture...)    

My kids LOVE to use an ellipsis any chance they get.  Probably because I do, too...  

Writing this persuasive story together gives the children a good idea about how to write to convince someone to do something using reasons- very simply.  This is a good introduction story.  You can always add to and elaborate on the reasons as time goes by.  You could add speech bubbles, extra tips, anything fun like that to give the kids other ideas.  

You can have the children make a book after you model one, or they can make a poster for the classroom and write their favorite reason on the poster. 

Jillian Jiggs  is fun to use throughout the year in different ways.  In the beginning of the year after we read, we draw and label a map of our own bedroom.   First, I have the children write a sentence focusing on using neat printing, spaces, and hearing all the sounds.   I model "My   room    is   _________."   "My" and "is"  are sight words.  We hear the "r" then the two "oo's" (like they've heard in BOO all last month!) and "m" at the end of the word.  They can choose anything to write at the end- the color of their room, if it's clean or messy, big or small... 

                                                     "My room is clean." (beginning of the year)

This time of the year, I have the children draw and label a map of their bedroom, and then write about their bedroom and why it is special to them:

Another fun thing we do for Persuasive and Opinion Writing is to learn how to spell 'because.'  That's a big word, and the kids are so proud to know it!  We sing a little song:

(BINGO tune)

I know a class who writes opinions,

'Because' tells the reasons-

B-E-C-A-U-S-E

B-E-C-A-U-S-E

B-E-C-A-U-S-E

'Because' tells the reasons.

It's silly- and simple. But it works. You just have to spell BECAUSE a little faster than BINGO to make it fit. I literally make every word fit the BINGO song because that's the tune I can remember.  

Here is our vowel song just in case you don't believe me:

I know a class who knows some letters

Vowels are their name-O

A-E-I-O-U

A-E-I-O-U

A-E-I-O-U

and sometimes even Y, Y, Y.

In the beginning of the year if some children just can't remember how to spell their name, I can make almost every name fit that song, too.

I know a girl with long, brown hair, 

And Mary is her name-O

M-A-R-Y

M-A-R-Y

M-A-R-Y

and Mary is her name-O!

I'm a one-trick pony.  

                                                        

This time of year the children are really starting to take off with reading. They're using their reading strategies and growing each day!  I want to be sure they continue to grow as much as they can at home as well as at school. We don't send homework home with children (thank goodness), but we do send  books home with them to practice reading at home. I wanted to send home some ideas to help parents while they read at home with their children. Reading at home with children is such a huge benefit and important part of a child's reading success, but sometimes we forget that parents don't always know what we're focusing on or looking for as they read with their child. I made this parent note to help with ideas.  I labeled the praise points, "Wonderful," and the questions for parents to ask, "Wondering."

These ideas help parents remember to praise, praise, praise and encourage their child as they read together at home, as well as provide questions to help parents take their child deeper into the text and beyond the text. 

I thought you might like to use it with your students' parents, too.  Just click the picture below if you would like a copy!  Enjoy!

Here are some good graphics you could share with families, as well, to show the benefits of reading with their child each night at home.  This graphic is from Makayla Schenkelberg. 

This is from Perry Public Schools:

One of my former students, now in 4th grade, who I just love to pieces, stopped by my room like she does every morning.  She dug through her bag because she had something for me, and pulled out this scratched plastic ornament.  I told her how much I loved it, and gave her a hug. When I asked where she got it, and she just shrugged, I sort of knew right then and there it was probably a hot item she'd stolen from some other "World's Best Teacher." I know I should go right down to her teacher who is a friend of mine, and see if she may be missing an ornament- but for tonight, I'm just loving her sweet heart and hoping I'm wrong.

Thank you for stopping by.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Five for Friday January 8

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday!  Thank you for hosting, Kacey.  I hope all of you had a great week. Happy Friday!  

These sweet polar bears are hanging over my students' lockers.  I love doing this directed drawing activity from Whimsy Workshop. I love everything Susanna does- and I'm so happy she shared this.

The kids loved doing it, and felt such a sense of pride when they were done.

Susanna shows step by step directions for making these precious bears.  It's a perfect center activity (with an adult).



We had a fun healthy food talk after we read Bread and Jam for Frances. I always condense the book a little for my children because it's a little long for them, but I love the idea of it.  I have a few picky eaters this year, and this book is always a good reminder that trying new food is fun!  I used a piece of bread and the jam from our housekeeping play food as my prop- and I also have other healthy food that we looked at afterward and used for our discussion. 

Gregory the Terrible Eater is another fun book the kids love!

We are going to begin Opinion Writing in a while, so this little activity was a great introduction for that.  Also, some of my students are still having a tricky time with the "Y" sound- (they want to say "w").  

I thought it would be fun to have the children draw and label some of their favorite foods.  We had so much fun with this Yum and Yuck sheet!  It was so easy and such a fun way for the kids to practice stretching out words, hearing syllables, and talking with each other about food choices.  I like to use the "5" idea with the kids.  I check to see how old most of the children are by asking them to raise their hands... so of course most are five.  Then, I "decide" that 5 will be our magic number to draw and label.  We do that when I "decide" how many colors they should use in their pictures, how many details they should add... 

Here are some of the Yum and Yuck foods: (Sorry the pictures are horrible!)

The bottom brown is pork.  :) 



If you'd like a copy of the Yum and Yuck sheet I used, just click the HERE.

Another fun thing to do for morning work is to put 5 different pieces of play food up on the front table that the children had to sound out and spell.  Then, they have to write a sentence about one of the foods.  I love hearing them stretching out those words! 

I posted about how I'm using ESGI this time of the year.  I love ESGI.  It makes my assessment time so productive and so much more efficient- and ESGI creates flashcards for me to send home with each student for practice.  If you'd like to try it free for 60 days and see what you think,  click the picture below!  

I posted about my favorite anchor charts this week at PreK and K Sharing.  Sometimes it's fun to see different anchor charts people use.  I know I  always like to see if there are any different ones I can use. I hope you can find one or two!

In October, Elm Chevrolet in Elmira, NY shared a wonderful infographic about trick or treating safety.  They have shared another one about Martin Luther King Jr. , which is perfect for this week!

Thank you so much, Elm Chevrolet! I love this. 

Martin Luther King Day is a perfect time to watch my favorite video and talk about the importance being kind to everyone. 

 It may be one of my favorite moments of the year- watching the kids "get it" when one person is kind to the next, and that person is then kind to someone else, etc. etc.    You could  hear a pin drop in the room as they watched.  We watched it three times (and probably would have more if it hadn't been a half day.) I love it as an adult- and yet it is perfect for the children, too. 

One of my little girls said, "I just sort of want to cry when I watch this. " OH MY GOSH- I love her. Because I always have a knot in my throat when I watch the kids watch this.  I try to point out the kind acts as they happen, and sort of want to cry, too. 

Before we watched the video, we read about Martin Luther King, Jr.  and did lots of class sorts to show that it is just silly to say that only the blue-eyed children or brown-haired children can play with the Legos or get a drink from the drinking fountain.   "OF COURSE that is ridiculous!" the kids faces seemed to say.  Of course it is.  

This lesson is lots of fun to help the children remember that we are all the same on the inside!

We  also did our M&M lesson, where  the children get to choose their favorite color and eat it. The next time, they have to close their eyes and pick an unknown color and eat it. THEN, they have to tell me what color they ate.

(We model how it is NO FUN to cheat because it ruins the game. It is easy to tell the color when you open your eyes and cheat... They sort of need to be reminded of that. After that, I didn't have anyone even try to cheat.)

This is one of my favorite bracelets that I have. It is from Signals.  I wear it all the time.

I liked this poster, too! Yum...

This is a great book about Kindness!

  

Richard Giso made a great activity to go with Kindness is Cooler.

 

 

Another favorite book is:

If you haven't read this book, here is a synopsis from Amazon:

 Ordinary Mary is an ordinary girl from an ordinary school, on her way to her ordinary house-who stumbles upon ordinary blueberries. When she decides to pick them for her neighbor, Mrs. Bishop, she starts a chain reaction that multiplies around the world. Mrs. Bishop makes blueberry muffins and gives them to her paperboy and four others-one of whom is Mr. Stevens, who then helps five different people with their luggage-one of whom is Maria, who then helps five people-including a man named Joseph who didn't have enough money for his groceries-and so on, until the deed comes back to Mary.

We started with a good vocabulary lesson about "ordinary,"  "extraordinary,"  and "deed."  The book really got my kids thinking that they could each make a difference by doing something kind.  They also loved the fact that it was a CIRCLE STORY!  Gotta love that!

The very favorite part was the last page which shows exactly how one kind deed can touch everyone in the whole world. Mary made five people happy.  They each made five people happy, so that made 125 happy people - and so on... See for yourself...

Another similar and wonderful book is The Boy Who Changed the World, by Andy Andrews.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

The Boy Who Changed the World opens with a young Norman Borlaug playing in his family’s cornfields with his sisters. One day, Norman would grow up and use his knowledge of agriculture to save the lives of two billion people. Two billion! Norman changed the world!  Or was it Henry Wallace who changed the world?  Or maybe it was George Washington Carver?

Both books have a wonderful message, but both were a bit wordy and long for my children.  I condensed some of it so they understood the theme and message, because the message is fabulous.

This book is a simple, pay-it-forward message of kindness. 

Even the smallest acts of kindness can powerfully impact the lives of others. This truth is beautifully demonstrated as we follow the far-reaching effects of young Katie's innocent smile.
With this simple gesture, she ignites a circle of warmth that flows from person to person, touching the hearts and lives of people she may never even meet.

Have a wonderful weekend!