Thanksgiving Literacy and Math: Reading Response, Interactive Journals, Graphing, and more!

First of all, I'm happy for those of you who have next week off. I'm not gonna lie, though... I'm a little jealous, too. Yesterday I told a friend, "I'd rather add three days to the end of the year than work next week!" But y'all know I'll be changing that story come May!

I spent some time updating my Thanksgiving: Math and Literacy for Primary Grades pack that is available on TpT. It's even more full of seasonal goodness! It's a cornucopia of Common Core activities!



 

The unit now includes several activities that you can just print and use. Immediately. No prep required. I've included activities to support Informational Reading and Literature standards. Simply print, read the book, and your kiddos will be good to go. And think. And work. And write.

Check the library or your own collections. These are some of the Thanksgiving books for which I've included lessons aligned with CCSS.







 

 

Thanksgiving at the Tappletons has a couple of different versions of illustrations, but they all have the same hilarious story!





 



I've been using Interactive Journals with my students for a couple of years now. This year, last year, and the year before, that is. At first, I was very, very careful about what I wanted to include. Everything that was added met my own, self-imposed, ridiculously strict criteria. Now, though, I include a much wider variety of activities, skills, formats, etc. I love looking back to see how much we've accomplished and how much my students' skills have improved. I've adopted the attitude that I can make almost anything into an appropriate entry for students' interactive journals. Last week, students added information about what life was like on the Mayflower. We read, and read, and discussed, and made a chart of important words/ideas, and then the students did their own writing. Did I mention that this year's class absolutely goes nuts for any kind of writing?! They love it!

I added some activities for Interactive Journals when I updated this pack. Check out the preview!

To my friends on vacation--- enjoy! You KNOW how fast it will fly by, and I hope you can savor every moment. For the rest of us--- our time is coming! Just a few more days until the long weekend!

 

Halloween Week Activities

Well, I'm a little late on this, I know. But perhaps you need just a few activities for the week. Your students might love the number order picture puzzles in this unit, or you could have some fun with The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin.



Or perhaps you need an alphabetizing activity for your literacy block or a way to practice place value.

Then this is for you!



It's taken much longer than I anticipated, but my Pumpkins! unit is finally ready to go. You've got everything planned for this week already, you say? Well, you could always think about next year!

This unit is on sale in my TpT store until Halloween. Three dollars?! Yup. It's my way of saying, "So sorry I didn't get this to you sooner!"

And now off to do report cards... Have a great weekend and ... boo!

 

Talk Points

I'm so, so excited about my new Talk Points!

One day, I was exploring all over the web and I came across these little gems. I saw this picture on Amazon and read the descriptions.



Talk Points are little recordable devices. There's a switch on the back that you flip to record a message. Then move the switch to "play" and press the button to hear your message. I saw them and thought that they would be so useful at literacy centers. Sometimes when the activity is new, students need a reminder about what to do, even if I've already given directions. If I had Talk Points, I thought, students could press the button, hear the directions again, and get on with their work.

I began reading reviews... and honestly, they were mixed. Some people said that the Talk Points were really useful for classrooms, that children thought they were fun and engaging, and they were easy to use. A few people said that they were great for giving students directions. Others complained that it was too easy to erase the recorded messages on the Talk Points, that they were not made well, or that students played with them rather than using them for their intended purpose. A few reviews said that the time limit, ten seconds, wasn't long enough to be useful. (I got out my iPhone stopwatch and recorded myself giving a few different directions that I might use for literacy centers. I figured that if I was going to need more than ten seconds, then perhaps I need to teach the center better to start with.)  So those negative reviews sounded more like management issues than product issues to me, and I decided to order the Talk Blocks, anyway.

Of course, that two-day, Amazon Prime shipping was a little to slow for me. Haha. I was so excited thinking about the possibilities that every time I heard a truck drive by I nearly ran out to the front porch!

And two days later...  they arrived, right on schedule! Here's a photo to show their size.



I unwrapped them immediately and began trying them out!

Though I haven't used them with students, yet, I think they are going to be just exactly what I wanted! No, the sound quality isn't nearly as good as the Bose speakers in my car. And no, ten seconds isn't even close to an entire lesson. But for a quick review of instructions (for students who can't read instructions!) they will be great.

I had another thought, as well. The set I got has five Talk Points, all different colors. I was thinking that I could record a different math problem into each one, and put all five at a math center. Students could listen to the problem, discuss with a partner, listen again to clarify and solve together!

I just know I'm going to come up with tons of ways to use these! I can't wait to try them out with my students!

 

French Fries Literacy Center

I just loved the little French fry boxes at Target, and I had to figure out a way to use them! I took the "fr" from "French" and "fry" and made a set of french fry-shaped cards that teachers can use to help students learn and practice blends and digraphs.

All the word cards have pictures to go with them, and every one is shaped like a French fry! The set includes cards for the digraphs sh, th, ch and wh... plus lots of consonant blends! There are suggestions for use and storage.





Click on the picture above to get your own set. My students are going to love these! Just imagine... french fries without the grease!

 

Target Dollar Section

I went to Target yesterday for three items: dental floss, hair rubber bands, and Kleenex. Simple, right?

Apparently not. I got home with a big bag of goodies, but no dental floss! Just three items to remember... and I failed. I ended up walking to a nearby drugstore after dinner to get that elusive dental floss!

But back to my afternoon at Target... First I got an iced nonfat vanilla latte. Because this Target has a Starbuck's. And I was thirsty. And why not?! DID YOU KNOW IT'S SUMMER??????!!!!!!!

So after I got my coffee, I started to head straight to the hair accessories aisle. But do you know what I saw on the way? The dollar bins! I knew it would be completely irresponsible of me to walk by without looking, so I detoured. This particular aisle didn't have any of those Back to School items we all love. Not yet. I think it's a little early for our area because many of us just got out of school! But that's not to say I didn't find any items to use at school...

First, these cute little French Fry boxes caught my eye. There was another set of boxes just like this, but they were red and there were hamburgers on them. I started to get caught up in the excitement and tossed them into my cart. But then I realized that this kind of box is what fries come in-- not hamburgers. So darling as they were, the idea just didn't make sense to me, and I put them back. My brain was instantly going full-speed with the fry idea, and tomorrow I should be finished with the darling French Fry Literacy Centers that I've been working on. I'll post as soon as I'm done!



The other thing that I couldn't leave on the shelf was this cute half-sheet-sized clipboard. Okay, I actually bought four of them. The clip part is teal-colored plastic, and has the word "list" on it. It's really easy to clip and unclip, which will be a big plus for my darling little first graders' darling little fingers. And I love the half-sheet size. I've already started working on some Common Core literacy activities to go with the clipboards, too. My students love clipboards, so it will be fun. I love rigorous activities, so it will be educational, too!



I stayed up way too late last night working on the French Fry centers! I can wait to share them!

 

Fun with Fingerprints!

I love love love the Ed Emberley books! It's probably because I don't know how to draw very well. I just never learned how, really. Maybe I should take a drawing class...

But in the meantime... Thanks, Mr. Emberley!

The concept is so simple and the process is forgiving. That's what makes thumbprint pictures *perfect* for young children! All the results look great, and skill is not really a factor at all.

I created a way to use these books and still teach and practice standards from the Common Core. It's a book that students make using their own thumbprints for the pictures! My students absolutely loved doing this. The process was fun, and they adored their little books so much that they were eager to practice reading them.

I included lots of options when I created this. You can use one of my sentence starters, repeat it several times, and have a nice little emergent reader. Or you can vary the sentences on the page. Or you can have your students write their own sentences. I've included several different sentence starters, and there are corresponding pocket chart cards. And since differentiation is pretty much the most important thing ever, there is a list of ideas for differentiating this project! All you have to do is choose your options, make a few copies, and this literacy center is ready to go!



 

Fun With Contractions

My class is so, so crazy about everything Pete the Cat! I have several kids who wear "Pete the Cat" shoes all the time, and on the occasional day when I wear my red Converse, WATCH OUT! Their excitement cannot be contained!

So when I was putting together some goodies for working with contractions, I decided to use graphics that hint at the Pete the Cat theme. Most people will look at the word cards I've made and think, "Hmmm... shoes."

But my class completely freaked out! "Pete the Cat words!!!"

At any rate, reading and writing contractions are one of the skills that we've always taught, and they are on the Common Core State Standards (unlike some of those skills that have mysteriously disappeared!) My students use these cards over and over for matching and sorting.And they are available on TpT. Click below!