Next month marks the start of our Books in a Series unit. In reader's workshop students select a series of their choice to explore in book clubs, while also creating and writing adventures about a realistic fiction character of their own in writer's workshop. What better author to use for mentor texts than the one and only, Mo Willems?! His work is dreamy (insert heart eye emoji here)! This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. I consistently choose his work each year to guide my students to explore all the potential there is with author's craft of such few words and pictures. In reader's workshop I use the Elephant and Piggie series during my mini-lessons and look to the Pigeon series in shared reading. As a culminating project, we make these sweet Pigeon headbands that make you go googley eyed at the first sight of them! I had seen them on students while watching Mo Willems speak at an elementary school at the end of one of the Knuffle Bunny DVDs. I am having a hard time locating where you can find the DVD. I took it out at my local library. You can find Knuffle Bunny, Knuffle Bunny Too, and Knuffle Bunny Free on Amazon by clicking the book titles. With this particular craft, I chose to precut the pieces for the students. I got very lucky that the blue paper and blue sentence strips that I had laying around happened to be the very same shade. Unfortunately I do not happen to know the brand of either. However, I have selected two online that I believe to be the closest match. The bright blue in the Astrobrights "bright" assortment pack gives you a great option! Students glued all the pieces for the Pigeon face. Once they were finished gluing, they came to me to assemble the "neck and body." I chose to staple these pieces in effort to save time. One staple to attach two white strips to the head. Then I separated the strips and attached one to each side of the "body." One tip- the longer the white strip, the more likely the pigeon head will lean to one side. I chose to keep them short to prevent this from happening! The body was a blue sentence strip. I did my best to match up the sentence strip color and found this multicolor neon pack from Carson Dellosa on Amazon. I measured each students head before attaching the Pigeon head. I have also seen teachers incorporating curriculum needs by adding writing to the sentence strip. Student can practice adding dialogue tags to what Pigeon says in his speech bubbles. This is the perfect way to incorporate dialogue punctuation as well. Then students can write the whole sentence including the dialogue tag on their sentence strip. Click each Pigeon book title to grab yourself a copy! The Pigeon Wants a Puppy Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus The Pigeon Needs a Bath The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?
Leo Lionni's books are such well-written and illustrated books. That is why so many are award-winning. His books also have a clear...
On of my favorite things to hear is children giggling. Even thinking about kids laughing and chuckling makes you smile, no?! An author study that I love to do in my classroom, that ALWAYS brings lots of giggles, is Mo Willems. Reading one of Mo Willems' books is entertaining no matter how old you are. {Sometimes I probably think the books are even more funny than my students do!} A few weeks ago I posted this picture on instagram. My class was having a little BIG issue with using the restroom correctly {YUCK}, so I went to the library and checked out this book. Who knew a book with the word "pee" in the title could work "Bathroom Miracles"!? :) Thank you Mr. Willems. Time to Pee! After reading the "Pee Book" {as it was referred to by my students} my kids were so excited to start our Mo Willems Author Study. We mastered many of our ELA standards, just by focusing on this one author. Mo Willems makes reading fun! Here are some of the activities that we did... We learned all about Mo Willems and examined what he does as an author and illustrator. As we worked through this unit we tried to be an author and illustrator just like him. We examined characters in Mo Willems' books and compared their adventures and problems in the stories. Of course one of our favorite characters was Knuffle Bunny! Pigeon was a big hit too! The kids loved changing their voices while they were reading to sound just like Pigeon. Probably one of the favorite characters that my students got to know was Wilbur from the book Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. They were so creative when they got to dress their own Naked Mole Rat! Piggie and Elephant {my personal favorite Mo Willems' characters} were a huge hit! The students are still selecting these books for in their independent reading book baskets! If you don't have Mo Willems books in your classroom library...they are a MUST! I recommend purchasing hardcover ones, they will be read over and over again--getting lots of wear and tear! As we read Mo Willems books we discovered that as an author he uses his characters to teach us lessons. Even though we are done with this unit, my students still refer to books and characters that we read during our author study. I will randomly hear, "You should share like Piggie." or "I am a leader like Wilbur." Melts my heart! :) If you are interested in doing a Mo Willems Author Study, I recommend this unit to you... Included in the unit is all the chart parts, printables and crafts shown in this post! Click on the picture or HERE to go check it out! The best part of Mo Willems' books are the joy and fun that he brings to reading...something that is so important as we develop our students as "Reading Lovers"! Here is a little FREEBIE to help you celebrate this amazing author!
A blog about teaching, lessons, decor, organizing, interactive notebooks, literacy stations, math stations, classroom set up, etc...
One of my absolute favorite units to teach throughout the year has got to be my Eric Carle author study. Usually my little nuggets have bee...
On of my favorite things to hear is children giggling. Even thinking about kids laughing and chuckling makes you smile, no?! An author study that I love to do in my classroom, that ALWAYS brings lots of giggles, is Mo Willems. Reading one of Mo Willems' books is entertaining no matter how old you are. {Sometimes I probably think the books are even more funny than my students do!} A few weeks ago I posted this picture on instagram. My class was having a little BIG issue with using the restroom correctly {YUCK}, so I went to the library and checked out this book. Who knew a book with the word "pee" in the title could work "Bathroom Miracles"!? :) Thank you Mr. Willems. Time to Pee! After reading the "Pee Book" {as it was referred to by my students} my kids were so excited to start our Mo Willems Author Study. We mastered many of our ELA standards, just by focusing on this one author. Mo Willems makes reading fun! Here are some of the activities that we did... We learned all about Mo Willems and examined what he does as an author and illustrator. As we worked through this unit we tried to be an author and illustrator just like him. We examined characters in Mo Willems' books and compared their adventures and problems in the stories. Of course one of our favorite characters was Knuffle Bunny! Pigeon was a big hit too! The kids loved changing their voices while they were reading to sound just like Pigeon. Probably one of the favorite characters that my students got to know was Wilbur from the book Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. They were so creative when they got to dress their own Naked Mole Rat! Piggie and Elephant {my personal favorite Mo Willems' characters} were a huge hit! The students are still selecting these books for in their independent reading book baskets! If you don't have Mo Willems books in your classroom library...they are a MUST! I recommend purchasing hardcover ones, they will be read over and over again--getting lots of wear and tear! As we read Mo Willems books we discovered that as an author he uses his characters to teach us lessons. Even though we are done with this unit, my students still refer to books and characters that we read during our author study. I will randomly hear, "You should share like Piggie." or "I am a leader like Wilbur." Melts my heart! :) If you are interested in doing a Mo Willems Author Study, I recommend this unit to you... Included in the unit is all the chart parts, printables and crafts shown in this post! Click on the picture or HERE to go check it out! The best part of Mo Willems' books are the joy and fun that he brings to reading...something that is so important as we develop our students as "Reading Lovers"! Here is a little FREEBIE to help you celebrate this amazing author!
We have had so much fun with our Kevin Henkes Author study!!! I really did have plans to blog about each day… it just didn’t happen! I always forget how exhausting and time consuming those first few weeks of school really are! So… I’m going to share a few of my favorite things! Here is […]
Another activity that we did for our Mo Willems Author Study (see more here) coincides with Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus.
I love doing author study with my firsties! This is a great way to get them interested in books! This is a picture of my author study board. There is velcro on the wall and on the back of all my authors. The sign that says the author's name is actually just a border that I laminated to make a frame. It is stapled on the bottom and both sides, but it is open on the top. I slide the name of our author into the frame. I use gallon size zip-loc bags to display books. I cut the top off the bags and staple them on both sides. This board is super easy to update! My author study lasts between one week and four weeks depending on how many books and activities I have to with with the author. If I have a class that is really enjoying an author, we may spend more time on it than a class that is not that into it. This week, we are celebrating the works of Bill Martin Jr. I have had the pleasure of meeting several great authors. I always ask them if I can take a picture with them because this helps my kiddos understand that books were written by REAL people. Unfortunately, I was never able to meet Bill Martin Jr. He worked with John Archambault on several of his books so I use this week to share a picture of me with John Archambault. It is as good as I can get! We do some fun activities this week. Of course we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We make a story bracelet. This is SUPER easy and the kids just love it! We read the story then I pass out pipe cleaners. We go through the story again and I give the kids a bead for each character. We use a larger bead for brown bear because this is also the title of the book. We use a heart for the teacher because their teacher loves them all. We use stars for the children because they are all stars. After the beads are on, we just twist them into a bracelet that is loose enough to be pulled on and off. Kids seriously wear these for weeks! OF COURSE we do the Brown Bear Watch, Think, Color Bundle! This set has nine games - one for each character. These games are designed for number sense to 120. This is perfect for the beginning of the year! After my kiddos have done all of these games, most of them are ready to move on to another skill in WTC games. I use this set to get the kids accustomed to the games and they become VERY familiar with the patterns on the hundreds chart and how to locate numbers to 120. These games are also nice for the beginning of the year because there are not many colors used in each design. This is the perfect way to train them to play Watch, Think, Color. We use the finished pictures to make books for each student. We also make a "First Grader, First Grader, Who Do You See?" class book. This is great for sight words and predictable text. The kids just write their names and the name of a classmate. I have to tell them who to write to make sure that the pages will flow in order. I use their number order to make this easy. (Do you number your kids? This makes SO many things easy!) To do the pages, I have the student who is number 1 write the name of number 2. Number 2 writes number 3's name and so on. The last student writes Mrs. Morrison. I make a page and write "First Graders". I add a class picture with all their names as the last page in the book. I laminate the pages and bind them. My kids take turns taking the books home to share with their families. This book will be sent in a tote with "Brown Bear" and some activities. Once all the kids have had a turn taking the book home, it goes in our library. Click here to download the pages used to make this book! We read "Chicken Chuck" and then made our own blue feather headbands. This was a spur of the moment project. I just cut sentence strips in half and stapled feathers to them. I was able to whip out 24 hats in less than 5 minutes. Those are my favorite kinds of projects! The kids loved wearing them and they looked cute when I sent them home. Thanks for reading! Hope you have a happy week!
Every year, each grade level team hosts an Author Study evening for our students and families. For the past several years, we’ve featured Kevin Henkes. Here’s a 3-page resource pack to send home with your students! Please click here to read more and download your own packet. Thanks! Jen from Positively Learning You Might Also Like:It’s March ... Read More about Author Study: Kevin Henkes
This is just a very simple idea I wanted to share about making author posters for your classroom. During the book study recently, some of us were talking
We are just finishing a Mo Willems author study. The kids love all of his books. This group especially loves the pigeon books and the Knuffle Bunny books. I hope to make a Voice Thread with the class about what we like/learned about Mo Willems. His website has tons of interesting things. Words to describe the pigeon... Don't let the pigeon drive the... We made pictures of the pigeon with cray pas. Favorite Books The Pigeon Knuffle Bunny Special Object Favorite Mo Willems Book Trixie
A blog about a Kindergarten classroom.
Tomie dePaola is the November Virtual Book Club for Kids author! Tomie dePaola is best known for his books for children. He’s been published for over 40 years and has written and/or illustrated nearly 250
It's the last few weeks of first grade, which means it's time for little blue pigeons to cover the walls of our classroom! And, in case you...
An entire unit filled with extension activities for Robert Munsch's books. (Includes 12 files below; answer keys not included unless noted in the description below) 1) Author Study Booklet: Students create a booklet about the author to serve as a keepsake memory. 2) Author's Fingerprints: Print and ...
A collaborative blog by Pre K and Kindergarten specialists. Child growth and development, information, free printables.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this week we have started an author study on Eric Carle...another one of my favorite authors and illustrators! Here are some pics of our week so far! We started the week off learning about who Eric Carle is. My kids are already referring to him as if he is a close personal friend. We read Today is Monday, and sang the song. During math we used the book The Tiny Seed as a springboard for some "seedy" addition practice. I let me kids paint a flower. I was using this craft as a "test run" to see how this group of kids would do painting in an "unsupervised" setting. I'll admit that although painting is something that my students absolutely LOVE...it is not something that we do too often...and if we are being really honest, painting usually means me dipping their hand in some paint and stamping it onto a paper. However, when it comes to learning about Eric Carle I feel like painting is NECESSARY. Since my day doesn't allow tons of extra time for painting, this was an activity that I expected my students to do independently. I went to Michael's and got some supplies which have turned out to be very helpful. The sponges are really easy to paint with and give great texture! The flowers came out so great, I decided that we had to keep them as part of our Mother's Day gifts. On Tuesday we read Little Cloud. After we did a sorting activity, we did word work with clouds {shaving cream}. The kids also drew what they would be if they were a cloud. We did a little Water Cycle investigation and even did some cloudy addition! Today we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It is a favorite FOR SURE! We did a little butterfly research and created our own beautiful butterflies. {From Spring into Nonfiction} The kids wrote about a time they were very hungry. One of my favorites included cereal and throw up. :/ {Due to the graphic nature of the illustrations I didn't post that one! ;)} {One day I was very hungry. I ate pizza and sour patch kid extremes. But I was still hungry.} In math we worked with making numbers using the food from the story. A few months ago I found these stickers at Dollar Tree, and bought a bunch! I let the kids use them to create math problems. At the end of the day we created some window art using coffee filters. SO much fun! I hope you enjoy Eric Carle's books as much as my students and I do! Here's a little freebie for you to get started! {Click pic below!} If you are looking for more Eric Carle activities, make sure you check out this unit!
Tips for Doing Author or Character Studies Choose books, authors or characters the kids already love. Maybe they heard No, David! last year, or the librarian read Chrysanthemum to them. Find an author they will connect with. Ask the kids to compare and contrast what they see before ever opening a book. Look at covers, titles, illustrations, and see what they notice about similarities and differences. Read at least one book a day. DON'T save these units until the end of the school year. We all get bogged down with the requirements of the year--but the kids get SO much out of these units, including reading skills and a love of books that will increase their reading skills. Busy schedule? Do Author Mini Units several times a year. Have an area in your class dedicated to the Author Study or Character Study books so that they're always out and available for the kids to read. Use the last 10 minutes of the day to read, do an activity from the author's website or show a read aloud video. Use it as a reward for getting packed up and ready to go early. Combine Author Studies with other units. David Shannon books are great for beginning of the year themes, such as following school rules. Jan Brett books lend themselves perfectly to a Winter Unit. Mo Willems books are excellent for teaching Fluency. Olivia and Skippyjon Jones books encourage imagination. Doing a unit on Becoming Writers? Try incorporating David Shannon, who wrote No, David! when he was a child, or Jan Brett who has several videos on how she creates her books. A Few of My Class's Favorite Author and Character Studies Olivia by Ian Falconer Books and Comprehension Questions Olivia by Ian Falconer Olivia Acts Out by Jodie Shepard (adapted by) Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer Olivia and the Missing Toy by Ian Falconer Olivia Forms a Band by Ian Falconer Olivia and the Fairy Princess by Ian Falconer Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer Olivia Counts by Ian Falconer Olivia and the Babies by Jodie Shepard (adapted by) Olivia Goes to Venice by Ian Falconer Web Links Olivia the Piglet site Olivia Printables and Activities on Nick Jr. Olivia Crafts on Nick Jr. Ian Falconer site at Simon and Schuster Ian Falconer KidsReads site Comprehension Questions Questions for Olivia Questions for Olivia Acts Out Questions for Olivia Saves the Circus Questions for Olivia & the Missing Toy Questions for Olivia Forms a Band ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kevin Henkes Books Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes Lilly's Big Day by Kevin Henkes Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes Owen by Kevin Henkes Jessica by Kevin Henkes A Weekend with Wendell by Kevin Henkes Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes My Garden by Kevin Henkes A Good Day by Kevin Henkes Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes Junonia by Kevin Henkes Old Bear Board Book by Kevin Henkes Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes (a middle grade chapter book) Birds by Kevin Henkes All Alone by Kevin Henkes Penny and Her Doll by Kevin Henkes Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes Penny and Her Song by Kevin Henkes Lilly's Big Day Read Aloud on YouTube Web Links Kevin Henkes Web Site Kevin Henkes bio on Scholastic **Also Check out: Author and Story Websites** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mo Willems Pigeon Books Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems The Pigeon Has Feelings Too! by Mo Willems The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie Books: Elephant and Piggie Books by Mo Willems We Are In A Book! by Mo Willems Can I Play Too? by Mo Willems There is A Bird On Your Head by Mo Willems Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems I Broke My Trunk! by Mo Willems Elephants Cannot Dance by Mo Willems Leonardo, The Terrible Monster by Mo Willems Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems Knuffle Bunny Too by Mo Willems Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion by Mo Willems (there are several more Mo Willems books) Web Links The Pigeon's site Mo Willems site The Pigeon on Twitter Mo Willems interview on YouTube--a great way to start of your Mo Willems unit. Activity Ideas After reading several Elephant and Piggie Books, make a Venn Diagram for Elephant and Piggie. Have a discussion about their friendship, and how we can be friends with those who are both similar and different than us. Make a class Rule Book for Pigeon. Each child gets to write and draw one rule a pigeon needs to follow. Elephant and Piggie Books are great for teaching kids to read with Fluency. Use these books for class read alouds--focusing on expression, tone, and the feelings of the characters. After reading the Knuffle Bunny series, discuss the different kind of illustrations the author used in these books. Have the kids make their own by making black and white photo copies of various setting. On a separate sheet of paper the kids can draw themselves, or one of Mo's characters, cut them out and glue them to their "photograph." The pictures will make great story starters for writing! Parents and homeschoolers: Check out the Mo's new app: Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App. There are printable coloring pages on Mo's site. Go to Pigeon Presents, then Fun. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Shannon Books No, David by David Shannon David Goes to School by David Shannon Alice the Fairy by David Shannon A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon The David books by David Shannon Too Many Toys by David Shannon How I Became a Pirate Illustrated by David Shannon (written by Melinda Long) Pirates Don't Change Diapers Illustrated by David Shannon (written by Melinda Long) Duck on a Bike by David Shannon Good Boy, Fergus! by David Shannon Jangles: A Big Fish Story by David Shannon The Rain Came Down by David Shannon Web Links David Shannon bio at Simon and Schuster David Shannon bio and video interview David Shannon info on Scholastic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan Brett Beauty and the Beast by Jan Brett Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Jan Brett The Mitten by Jan Brett The Hat by Jan Brett Mossy by Jan Brett The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett Hedgie's Surprise by Jan Brett Hedgie Blasts Off! by Jan Brett Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett The Umbrella by Jan Brett Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett The First Dog by Jan Brett On Noah's Ark by Jan Brett Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett Comet's Nine Lives by Jan Brett Honey...Honey...Lion! by Jan Brett Web Link -- Jan Brett's website includes printables, videos and lessons. Jan Brett site Activity Ideas Before beginning a Jan Brett unit browse through her website. She has tons of printables, from coloring and activity pages to flashcards, posters, postcards, bookmarks and much more. There is also a lot of printables and ideas for your bulletin boards. Watch her videos and choose a few to show your kids. Jan Brett is a very detailed illustrator. Show the kids the side panels in her books and see what secret or hidden things they can find. The illustrated side panels in books like The Mitten and Armadillo Rodeo often tell a story on their own. Have your kids explore these drawings and write out what they think the story is. Go to Activities on the website and print out several how to draw pages. *This always worked great when I modeled how I would follow the steps and draw the character first OR by watching her How to Draw videos. There are several printable and online games that go with the stories. Make a hedgehog book. Instructions are listed under the Activities tab. Hedgehog pdf pattern Make a paper plate armadillo. The Hat Readers Theater. (Instructions are listed under the Activities tab.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Laura Joff Numeroff Books If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff If You Give a Pig a Party by Laura Joffe Numeroff If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Joffe Numeroff When Sheep Sleep by Laura Joffe Numerous What Mommies Do Best by Laura Joffe Numeroff What Daddies Do Best by Laura Joffe Numeroff The Jellybeans and the Big Dance by Laura Joffe Numeroff Beatrice Doesn't Want To by Laura Joffe Numeroff Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers by Laura Joffe Numeroff Web Link Laura Numeroff's site Activity Ideas Print coloring pages from Laura Numeroff's website. Let these be story starters for the kids. They can name their character and try to write a story similar the books. Write a class book similar to What Mommies Do Best. As a class, pick a theme and each kid creates one page including illustration and sentence. It could be What Teacher Does Best, What Principal Does Best, What Librarian Does Best, What Friends Do Best, What Kindergartners Do Best, etc. For older kids, let them write their own version of What Mommies Do Best--choosing the subject they want. See if they can come with 10 sentences and illustrations to go with them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dav Pilkey Books Kat Kong by Dav Pilkey Dogzilla by Dav Pilkey The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey The Dumb Bunnies by Dav Pilkey The Complete Adventures of Big Dog and Little Dog by Dav Pilkey 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey The Hallo-Weiner by Dav Pilkey Dog Breath by Dav Pilkey The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey (a series) Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot by Dav Pilkey (a series) Captain Underpants (books 1-5) by Dav Pilkey (a series) Dragon Gets By by Dav Pilkey (a series, Dragons or Dragon Tales) The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung Fu Cavemen From the Future by Dav Pilkey Web Link Dav Pilkey site Dav Pilkey's YouTube Channel Book trailers, behind the scenes videos and how to draw clips. Activity Ideas Compare Dav's graphic novels, such as Captain Underpants, to his other books. Compare black and white illustrations, photographic illustrations like in Kat Kong, and colored illustrations. Discuss and show other appropriate examples of the Graphic Novel. There are lots of great printouts on Dav's website--for both older and younger kids. Check the backs of some of his books for discussion guides. Download The Ultimate Epic Guide to Using Dav Pilkey books in the Classroom by Scholastic -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the RBE Library next week, 2nd grade students will be doing an author study over Robert Munsch. Robert Munsch is a favorite author for children. He has written 54 books! During this author's stu...
FREE Azra Jack Keats Author Study
first grade teacher blog
Activity ideas to go along with many books by Donald Crews.
To wrap up our animal unit, we learned all about insects and life cycles! I used activities from my Insect/Life cycle unit if you are interested! We had already learned about insects back in kindergarten so we reviewed insects and did a sort in our science journals. The kids remembered lots of great characteristics such as six legs, three body parts, lays eggs, etc. They also remembered that a spider is not an insect! We then read books on insects and learned facts about different insects we were interested in. The kids then wrote 2 or 3 facts in their own insect books. They really enjoyed going to our classroom library to read insect books to use to find facts. Yay for research! :) To move on to life cycles, we started with the life cycle of a butterfly. In their science journals the kids illustrated the missing stage (pupa) and labeled all the stages. We also talked about the life cycle of a frog and did a similar activity but I forgot to take a picture! :) After talking about animal life cycles, we talked about how we have a life cycle also. The kids illustrated their own "I Grow and Change" books: At the beginning of the second week of our unit, I sent home a note asking parents to send in three pictures with their student (one of their child as a baby, one of them as a toddler and one of them now). I even showed them baby/toddler/kid pictures of myself and they LOVED THEM! I included some below so you could see :) I was so cute....what happened?? haha :) On Thursday, we used these pictures to write stories of what we were like at each stage of our life. The kids wrote what they looked like and could do at each age and drew a picture of the photograph they brought. Then they wrote a story about that time in their life. Here are a few examples: The kids really enjoyed learning about life cycles! We raised caterpillars last year so I didn't do it again....I wish I had taken pictures! I will try to remember to do that next year! :) We are about done with our Texas unit so I will have that up soon! And believe it or not we only have 9 school days left so we are right in the middle of our countdown to summer fun! Stay tuned for pictures!
Here's a simple math game you can use as a book-tivity with any of the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. The newest Pigeon book was released today, April 1st!
Create cool end screens for your YouTube videos within couple minutes with Colorful YouTube End Screens from Andrew Skoch. It's so easy! Colorful and nostalgia style, 90s turbo colors, y2k inspiration.Great for video bloggers, video makers, video creators, YouTube creators, podcasters, talk shows, YouTube podcasts. Special places for new video, related video and YouTube profile avatar. Features:- 3 YouTube end screens- 3 Colors for each screen- Resolution 4K 3840×2160 px- Fully layered and editable PSD Files- Free fonts- Help File- Author SupportWhat you get:- 3 PSD - YouTube end screens- 3 JPG - Example images- PDF Help file – instructions and fonts links
Kids learn to spell their names with ice cream cone puzzles.
One of the best places to learn about phonics (other than here, of course!) is the book “Phonics from A to Z” by Wiley Blevins. It is one of my phonics favs, and provides tons of great …
Read books by Todd Parr and extend the learning by creating faces and feelings with play dough and loose parts.
Kids love learning all about chickens, they especially love to learn all about the chicken life cycle. Find 5 SUPER fun printables and activities to teach chicken lifespan through this post!
Do you love using this book in your classroom as much as I do? The Mitten, by Jan Brett, is a perfect read aloud for those winter m...
