I love how cute the bald eagles turned out! This is a picture of our Chit-Chit message. These messages are how I teach and review phonics, reading and language skills. There is no better way to teach letter sounds and sound chunks than in the context of authentic reading and writing. We read a sentence just as it is written and then use our schema and other context clues to help us figure out what would make sense in the sentence. Once we think we have it figured ... continue reading...
Search Results for: label/chit chat
Close Reading Passages for Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grade
Fall themed close reading passages to teach your primary students how to annotate a text. Your students will love this color-coded method using DOTS! Close Reading Passages Close reading is all about reading to uncover the text to deepen comprehension. Students engage with the text and focus on the information the text provides. With these close reading passages, students will dive into the text and learn about some fun Fall topics. Read about how you can use this resource in your ... continue reading...
Dinosaurs, a Freebie and Instagram, Oh, my!!!
Woot! Woot! I LOVE our Dinosaur unit. We started our unit last week. Here are a few pictures of some of the things we do during this unit. We start with a HUGE paper mache egg. I give clues about what's inside and the kids make inferences. Student inference sheet. RAWR!!!!!! While they are at specials a Tyrannosaurus Rex hatches! Schema chart in progress... One of our chit chat morning messages. Student journal ... continue reading...
Lunar New Year
If teachers ask students to name a favorite holiday, responses often include Christmas, Halloween, and the Fourth of July. Indeed, holiday celebrations are a significant focus in the United States. However, students often do not realize how countries worldwide celebrate holidays. As the Lunar New Year approaches, it is the perfect time to show students how a well-known country rings in their new year. The Lunar New Year Packet will be an excellent way to ensure students have everything they need ... continue reading...
African Animal Activities and Lesson Plans for Kindergarten & First Grade
African animal activities that are perfect for a zoo unit! Your students will love learning about African animals with these nonfiction book activities. Engaging reading lessons about lions, giraffes, elephants, and meerkats. African Animal Activities Are you ready to begin a unit about animals in kindergarten or first grade? Maybe you are focusing on zoo animals, too? These African animal activities are just what you need to keep your students engaged and excited about an animal unit of ... continue reading...
Explore Holidays Around the World in Kindergarten and First Grade
Holidays around the World! Travel around the world and learn about 10 different celebrations. PowerPoints, anchor charts, writing responses, and a fun Holidays around the World craft! Holidays Around the World Studying celebrations and different countries around the world is always fun with little learners in kindergarten and first grade. It is so neat to explore different cultures and beliefs in various countries. In my Holidays Around the World unit of study, students have fun learning ... continue reading...
American Symbols
American Symbols are one of my FAVORITE units to teach. There is just something about teaching kids about our history that fills me up with pride. I think it is so important for kids to know about some of the unique statues and symbols that symbolize freedom, strength, and hope. I LOVE seeing some of the projects from my America unit in other people's classrooms and the display above and below took my breath away. These pics were found on the Rainbows Within Reach blog and they are pictures ... continue reading...
Peek at my Week {a look at my day}
My sweet friend, Deedee Wills has been doing her Peek at my Week for three years and asking others to link up as well. I love how helpful this is for teachers. It gives us the ability to peer inside each other's classrooms and borrow little nuggets of inspiration here or there to help make our classroom instruction the best that it can be. I've made it a goal this year to link up every Sunday and share as well. Before I start sharing my weekly plans I wanted to first start with my daily ... continue reading...
Insect Learning Fun, Freebies and a Sale!
We read lots of Eric Carle books and created our own papers to use in his style. No patterns, please! The kids use rectangles and squared to create their own unique insects. I LOVE the results. Much better than if I had given them patterns to trace. Building insects with pattern blocks. The unit includes a sheet for them to tally, graph and add the pattern blocks they used to build their insect. We always start out by charting what we think ... continue reading...
Classroom Rules and Misc. Freebies
Hey Y'all! I have had a crazy few weeks and I just haven't had the time to take pictures and blog like I want to. I have the sweetest class but shoo wee... you know how exhausting Kindergarten sweeties are at the beginning of the year! My sweet brother, J.R. is in the hospital so please pray for him. He has an infection and he just needed a little bit of extra care. Anyway, I wanted to drop in and post a few freebies and let y'all know what I'm working on. We start our 2nd week of Farm ... continue reading...
Zoo Unit Zebras
Aren't these zebras the cutest things ever? This is a picture of our venn diagram about giraffes and zebras. Our zebra information chart. Chit-chat Charts from Tuesday and Wednesday.I've received a few questions about how I do these so let me see if I can explain it. When the kids come to school the message skeleton is already written. We complete the message together as a class during our morning meeting.This is almost always a review of what has previously been taught so that ... continue reading...
Leonardo the Terrible Monster Reading Lesson Plans for K-1
Leonardo the Terrible Monster reading comprehension lesson plans with student response activities. Print and teach lessons to engage your students in reading! Leonardo the Terrible Monster This story by Mo Willems is one of my favorite stories to read, especially in October around Halloween. If you are not familiar with this book, it is about a monster named Leonardo. Leonardo is not a scary monster, no matter how hard he tries! He does some research and thinks he finds the perfect little ... continue reading...
FREE Spine Labels for Binders: Getting Organized!
This is a throwback post that I did awhile back about getting our Guiding Readers units organized. Since this post, I've had quite a few requests to make matching spine labels for the Writing and Math units. So HERE YOU GO! Sorry, it took me so long! We also have a Free Year-Long Curriculum Map for Kindergarten and First Grade. (Scroll to the bottom of this post to grab the map and spines) If you want to read the throw back post carry on! If not, Happy Organizing. ... continue reading...
The Gruffalo Lesson Plans | Reading Comprehension for K-2
The Gruffalo lesson plans for K-2. Engaging 5-day lesson plans with differentiated reading response, vocabulary, sentence study, and a craft for this fun story! The Gruffalo A clever mouse outsmarts some woodland animals who want to eat him with the story of a Gruffalo. Little does he know, a Gruffalo is real and loves to eat mice. Your students will love this award-winning story! Through our engaging lesson plans students will strengthen their reading comprehension skills and have fun ... continue reading...
Inferring with Primary Students: The Case of the Missing Toy Sack
Inferring with Primary Students: Christmas Inference Detectives Activities for Kindergarten and First-Grade Inferring with Primary Students: Kindergarten and First-Grade Inferring is an important comprehension skill for young readers to have and I love giving them lots of practice with this skill. We infer each week with the story we are reading, but I also like to give them opportunities to infer outside of the text. Inferring is just putting clues together and using that voice inside ... continue reading...