Zoo Animals unit packed full of resources! Engaging and fun activities. Chit Chat messages, close reading passages, crafts, and more! Zoo Animals Teaching about zoo animals is seriously one of the best times EVER! The littles get super excited and stay so engaged in learning. It can be hard to keep their attention at this time of the year, but it sure helps when they are having fun! I just completely updated this whole unit so it's ready to go for your upcoming zoo unit. Find it by ... continue reading...
Search Results for: label/zoo
Zoo Unit
We are working on our zoo unit. The kids are having fun learning about the special characteristics of zoo animals and where they are from. I will post more pictures of the zoo unit during the week. This unit will be available next weekend. Here are a few free downloads. For the zoo animals reader the kids should write the word has in the blank. Zoo Animals emergent reader Favorite Zoo Animal Survey ... continue reading...
Zoo unit Day 1 Giraffes
I LOVE this time of year. My little sweeties are becoming independent thinkers and learners who have blossomed into readers and writers AND all of my Favorite units are in the Spring!! Zoo animals, Dinosaurs (my fave), and Insects (my fave), What???!! I can have more than one favorite! :) I spend two weeks on each of these units. There is just something about these topics that get kids super excited about learning! Today we learned all about Giraffes. ... continue reading...
More Zoo Animals Fun!
So... I ended up getting sick last week and I missed the last few days of our zoo animals fun. :( These are the activities that the sub got to do with them. I know the kids had fun but I'm so sad that I missed out! Note: These pics are from last year. They made alligator pie and then used interactive writing to write about it. Yummy! You know you want a bite. :) Independent writing. Alligators Pocket chart syllable game. Follow up center ... continue reading...
Giraffes and Zebras: Zoo Part 2
These giraffes and zebras turned out adorable... if I do say so myself! :) I've had a lot of questions about my Chit-Chat charts. This is how I do my Morning Message. The idea originated with the Buzz Book from the K-Crew. I needed it to have a little bit more "meat" to it and I wanted it to be a way to not only cover the important skills such as phonics, sentence structure and grammar but also serve as a review for what we had learned the previous day. Another component of my ... continue reading...
Mental Images and Zoo
This is the lesson that I posted about last year. We will be doing it this week so I thought I'd go ahead and post it again. I read the first part of Jack Prelutsky's poem and then stop and have them draw their mental images. Here's a close up of their cutie patootie dogs. Then, I read the last part. They LOVE finding out that it is a crocodile! Close up of their crocodiles. This poem is so much fun and it also leads to lots of good discussion and opportunities for ... continue reading...
More zoo unit pictures
Here you'll find more zoo unit pictures. We made alligator pie and then used Interactive writing to create our How To chart. Our fun poem. This was written by a Canadian poet by the name of Dennis Lee. I'm told there are a few more verses to the poem...but this was just enough for us.. we love it! YUMMY! Alligator pie The kids wrote their own How To during Writer's Workshop Our alligators and nonfiction alligator writing. A close up of ... 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...
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...
How to Start Teaching Writer’s Workshop in Kindergarten & First Grade
Do you struggle with how to get started? Writer's Workshop in kindergarten and first grade classrooms is one of the most powerful components. In Writing Workshop in kindergarten and first grade, students are encoding words that come from their thoughts and feelings, which is a much easier skill than decoding. Successful writers become successful readers! So, how do you get started? The answer is simple. Just jump right in!! I usually start at the beginning of the ... continue reading...
Initial Sounds Activities for Phonological Awareness
David Kilpatrick said, “Phonological and Phoneme Awareness is the foundation upon which all the other layers of literacy are built.” Honestly, this quote does an incredible job of explaining the importance of phonological awareness. Since it is the foundational layer for students to read and write, it is essential for students to work on these skills from a young age. Teachers know this importance and work hard to create enjoyable activities. Thankfully, the Initial Sounds Activities for ... 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...
Engaging Readers: Getting it ORGANIZED!
Hey There! Happy Hump day! We've had a few questions about how we organize our new Engaging Readers units so I thought I'd do a quick blog post to show you! These are the supplies I used to organize mine. I used a 1" binder sheet protectors Binder pocket (one pocket holds all four books) ziploc baggies Clear packing tape Printables for the spine and fronts of sheet protectors click HERE to get yours. First, I put our cutie patootie cover (thanks to ... continue reading...