Five for Friday April 15

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

We had lots of fun this week- and here are some highlights.  

 I absolutely LOVE this book!

It is perfect for learning punctuation marks and for Writer's Workshop.  My kids love it.  I should say, "MY KIDS LOVE IT!!!!!"

I had my class each write a  Question Mark book after we read this book, because we're working on those right now. They could use markers and have a ball, so it was extra fun.  My main point was for them to really learn what a question was and practice writing some of them. 

I love how she answered the questions with speech bubbles!

He said, "I already know the answer to this, Mrs. Kisloski- your best friend is ME!"  

We play games on my Writing Prezi all the time. We used to use it on the Smartboard, which I loved, but now we have Smart TVs and I airplay it onto the TV and the kids play on the iPad so it comes up on the TV for all to see.  The kids LOVE these games for making sentences and using punctuation marks. 

Children usually just stick a period at the end of a line of text and call it good.   This activity really helps them to hear when a complete thought ends and when they naturally come to a stop when reading.   I made up a paper with sentences, but no periods. I did this activity in a small group, and it worked beautifully.  Everyone got a pack of Smarties and 6 of these awesome little stickers. 

I found these stickers at a Teacher Store, and they just look like a hand saying, "STOP!"  Perfect for a period!

I tried to write simple sentences that did not always end at the end of the line, but sometimes in the middle of a line, so they could hear when a sentence ended and not just stick a period at the end of the page.  Learning that a sentence is a complete thought- and that a sentence does not always just end at the end of the page- is the trickiest thing about learning to use a period.  (Well, that and remembering to actually USE one! :) 

I have also used Fruit Loops for this activity, but Smarties seemed perfect.  Of course they need to eat one before they begin for Smartie Power!  Then, after we put on the Smarties, we read the sentences together and clap at each period (Smartie).  Next, the child can eat the Smartie and replace it with a sticker. 

We also  played Four Corners with punctuation marks.  I have a bag full of different sentences that require different punctuation: statements, questions, lists of things that need commas, and excited sentences. The four corners of the room are labeled with a paper  that says Period., Question Mark?, Exclamation Point!, and Comma, .  It is played like all Four Corners games.  The children choose and run to a corner. I pull out a sentence and read it.  Whatever punctuation mark it needs, is the corner that has to go sit down.  Then, the rest of the class runs to a different corner, and we keep playing until there is one person left. 

I wrote a post about sentences HERE with a couple other ideas I use to teach how to recognize sentences.  

I posted all about Birds HERE at PreK and K Sharing and HERE with a lot of Bird Nest and Bird Freebies on TpT.  We made our bird nest kits this week and  are  hoping to see some beautiful bird nests with some of our yarn in them.  Wouldn't that be so great?

I really needed our books sorted and organized in our classroom library, so guess what?  We had a Library Center for free choice.  Those books look amazing now.  I got out the calculators, cash registers, old gift cards the kids love to "scan", old phones, paper, pens- and the kids had a ball. Books were everywhere. Kids were reading, sorting them by topics or however they wanted, checking them out, talking about the books. It was great.  When we were done, they put those books back so they looked better than ever.  

Finally, I made these little writing books a few years ago, and I love them for a quick writing lesson. I have pictures of a dog, flower, clown, policeman, farmer, snowman, and doctor.  I took pictures of the children one day, and printed seven small pictures of their face.  I cut the faces out and put them in each picture. This was a little time consuming, but I just did it one day during my break, and it was all done.  You could just print the kids' pictures and have them cut them out and glue them on, too. 

 Every day, we read a story that goes along with the picture they will be writing about, for example we read 3 dog stories yesterday when we wrote about the dog, Chrysanthemum when we wrote the flower, Office Buckle and Gloria for the policeman... and then they write.  They have to tell all about themselves as that picture.  I also read all of the kids' stories the following day before we write the next one.  They love this- and it has really encouraged them to add lots of fun details when they know the class will hear all they wrote. 

(I love her "Warning- do not pick me!)

If you'd like a copy (it's simple- and yes, the cover is comic sans because I've had it a while, so you are welcome to make a new cover if you just cannot stand it... :)    just click HERE or the picture below!

Thank you for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Five for Friday March 18

I'm linking up with Kacey for her wonderful Five for Friday.  Thank you, Kacey!

My husband and I  just finished watching Season 4 of House of Cards this week.  W.O.W!  An episode or two of that show, and you feel so much better about any mistakes you've ever made in life- because they really don't compare.  Anyway- the  day after we finished, this was a page in one of my group's guided reading books- and I just had to smile to myself.

Here we go with Five for Friday!

Here we go!

Each year, we are so lucky to have bagpipe players come to play for us up and down the halls for St. Patrick's Day.  It's very quick- just up and down the halls- but it makes such an impression. One of my student's fathers plays. They go around to several local schools as close to St. Patrick's Day as they can.  If you know anyone who plays, they may be willing to come to your school if you ask.  The kids love it.  I do, too. 





Here is a plant update for you!  I sent home the beanstalks and the Silly Hair People with the kids on Open House night on Wednesday, so they had a better chance making it home than on the bus.  This is the growth after about a month, just to give you an idea.  HERE is my post all about Jack and the Beanstalk and the activities we did to go along with it. 

Everyone got a golden egg of their very own to go with their beanstalk.  That's why Easter is a great time to grow these!.



Here are our morning glories!  They are climbing their little hearts out.  Again, this is about a month's growth.  I am hoping they will be in full bloom for grandparent's day in May.

These ALWAYS amuse me.  When I show the kids their hair updates, I always tell a story to go along with their expressions.  They love it.   I am thinking I should have cut the top rim off the cups.  Next year...

 

Most of my girls wanted little barrettes for their hair, before they gave haircuts at home.

My class had so much fun with this activity that I wanted to share it with you.  I posted all about my Words with Friends writing and shared the book I made for it HERE.

It's a great activity for working on questions and using question marks in writing.   I work with a little girl after school who lives near me, and as we were reading we came to a question mark.  I asked her what it was, and she said, "It's just a little mystery."   I LOVED that explanation, and now I can't NOT think that every time I think of a question mark. 

Another way I like to have my students practice writing questions is whenever we write thank you notes.  I have my kids write thank you notes a lot.  Not only is it great writing practice (and they must be neat so the receiver can read it!) , but it's a life skill that so many people no longer have.  My hope is that even one or two of the kids remember our lessons about writing a thank you note when someone does something nice for you.  You can write to the band or chorus after they put on a concert, the lunch ladies if they serve a meal your class really likes a lot, the custodians for keeping the school clean, bus drivers for keeping the kids safe every day... The possibilities are endless!

This week, my kids wrote thank you notes to the leprechauns for their surprise visit!  I loved seeing them add those  question marks in the letters all by themselves. 





I wrote about some ideas I love to do to go with Good Job, Jelly Bean- and some other fun Easter activities HERE.  Here are some of the things we did that are in that post-

 This cute letter to the Easter bunny paper (with a surprise bunny tail left as a surprise!)-

These sweet little bunny necklaces-

Our bunny hats and "If I were the Easter bunny" stories-

I found these little chocolate carrots (CHEAP- Palmer chocolate, so they were only $1) that I bought to save for when we do some activities with The Carrot Seed after Easter- so go get some if you want them! The won't be around when I actually want to do my lesson with carrots after Easter.

I found these cute pictures from Miss Lee that will be great for sequencing the story.

"How to Grow a Carrot" would be a great book for the children to write using first, next, then, and last. 

I always read The Carrot Seed and Tops and Bottoms together. 

This art project from Art Projects for Kids   really shows how the root vegetables grow underground.  It would be great to use with  both these books!  Don't you love the colors?

Here is another fun activity from Along the Way!

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Thank you for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend!