Science & Writing FREEBIES!

Happy Saturday! 

I'm just popping in to share two fun FREEBIES with ya'll today. 

This first one has been highly requested so let's start off with a Science freebie!

We've been learning all about Daily & Seasonal Changes and had a bit of fun with this activity:

I hand-drew these adorable little creatures based on one of Pixar's animated short films, Day and Night. If you've never seen it, check it out...it's too cute!!

We watched this during our Daily & Seasonal Changes unit in Science. One of the curriculum expectations is to understand that "changes occur in daily and seasonal cycles" by "assess(ing) the impact of daily and seasonal changes on living things." This video sums up our learning PERFECTLY!

So anyways, the kiddies could either choose a scene from the film or create their own scene depicting the differences between day and night and the various activities that can take place during each. Let me tell you, they were *all about* this activity. 

Click the pic below to download your copy!

I use this last freebie during our descriptive writing unit and the kids LOVE it! I've never seen them more engaged in a writing activity:

After reading one Robert Munsch's (LOVE him!!) infamous books, 

we wrote down all the words we could think of to describe poor Thomas' snowsuit. Then, we dragged our own snowsuits into the classroom to get to work! The kiddies got to colour their snowsuit first, and then we wrote our descriptive writing pieces to match. 

(UPDATED 15/03/2016: this activity has since been updated and is now included in my Writing Focus #3: Descriptive Writing pack)

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And if you haven't yet noticed, we are already almost one full MONTH into 2014!! Which means love is in the air, and Valentine's day is right around the corner! If you're looking for some engaging and authentic literacy & literacy center activities for February, have a peek at my newest product:

(To get a better description of what's included, you can click the pic above or right HERE!)

I hope you enjoy the freebies! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy New Year! (Hot Chocolate & Symmetry)

Happy New Year!!!

...she says on the18th, about half way through January...

So yes I'm a little late, but you know what they say: better late than never! 

Our first week back was a jumble of melancholy, excitement, reviewing rules & procedures, and...HOT CHOCOLATE! 

Yes, it was once again our hot chocolate week. Each morning we read Snowman Soup:

This week, we also learned about ABC order. Pocket Chart centre and Word Work 1 had kiddies practicing their knowledge of ABC order:

(from my Hot Chocolate mini-unit)

(from Cara's Back to School pack)

At Word Work 2, the kids took all of the letters from "hot chocolate" and mixed them up to see how many words they could make:

(also from my Hot Chocolate mini-unit)

Of course, at the end of the week we enjoyed describing and drinking some delicious hot chocolate with marshmallows. For a few more hot chocolatey activities you can check out the pack in more detail by clicking the pic below:

*2016: THIS PRODUCT HAS SINCE BEEN UPDATED*

(pictures in this post do not reflect the updates)

Lastly, we have been cruising through our 2D Geometry math unit, and we had some fun creating our own symmetrical paintings:

(I was just quickly and "abstractly" throwing paint on the paper when creating my example with the kids, and they ended up totally convinced that I made an outstanding African statue! ...I totally see it, though. What a bunch of smarties!)

To make our symmetrical paintings, all we did was fold a big piece of paper in half to create a crease (we also talked lots about the concept of half throughout this unit), loaded lots of paint on to one half, and then folded and pressed both sides together to transfer the paint to the opposite side. *I say you have to load on lots of paint on since tempra paint dries quite quickly, and otherwise the paint will not transfer as effectively*

All of their symmetrical designs turned out so neat and are now hanging brightly on our hallway walls!

And that's all for now, folks! Stay tuned for our week of consonant blends, 5 Senses Frankie, and an engaging "northern style" descriptive writing activity.

Merry Christmas!

School is officially OUT for Christmas break!!! 

Here's a peek at some of the festivities from the last 2 weeks:

For our parent gifts this year, I picked up dollar-a-glass wine glasses and a set of paint markers from Walmart to personalize gifts for moms and dads:

To go along with our glasses, we made these adorable little thumbprint ornaments cards:

All of our literacy centres were of course holiday-themed. At Word Work 1 we played this editable sight word board game:

At Word Work 2 we played a simple sight word Memory game:

At Pocket Chart, the kids sorted sight words by the number of letters:

We are working on descriptive writing right now, so I decided to do a fun descriptive guessing game with the kids. First we decorated a christmas tree template (which I found HERE by googling) and then we described our trees using lots of "5W" details:

After that, I hung up all of the trees and read the descriptions out loud one by one. The kids got to guess which tree I was describing by matching the description to the correct tree. They were totally engaged. This was actually a great activity to help the kids understand how a great description can really help us to understand a writer's vision:

(6 drawings weren't hung up yet...if only I had just 14 kids in my class! hehe)

(Click the pic above to download your FREE copy of the writing paper and tree template!)

We also did this adorable dot art craft:

Their artwork turned out JOYfully ;)

On the last day of school, we had a PJ and Polar Express-themed day. We obviously read this book:

And, after reading the book, we made our very own Polar Express trains with chalk:

(I wish I took more pictures because they all turned out SUPER cute!)

At the end of the very end of this insanely chaotic month, we took a moment to watch the Polar Express and enjoy way too much popcorn and sweets. What a fun day! 

And now for a much-needed 2 weeks of relaxation. Bring it on!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Hello! I'm still here!

Hey'all! I'm back after a little blogging vacation!! (yes, that is what I'm going to refer to as my temporary "life-is-crazy-and-it's-kicking-my-butt" leave!). So without further adieu, let's jump right in to some fun!

I'll start off with a quick little reading comprehension FREEBIE!

I use these cubes often during whole group after reading any story (the actual cubes are from a teacher supply store...maybe Lakeshore Learning?? I can't remember). I also use them in small group/guided reading, and am now planning a centre activity for next week where the kiddies can use the cubes on their own:

Here is a screenshot of one of the worksheets for our centre activity (I have included 3 different versions: one for just writing, one for writing and a picture, and one for just a picture). 

Click HERE (or the pic above) to download the FREE cube inserts & extension worksheet!

Next I thought I'd share the reading program I run in my classroom. Our school has a school-wide reading program called "Reading Rocks." Each student gets one of these bags to take home for a week and bring back to school each Monday. At the beginning of the week, the kids choose 3 new books to take home (one levelled reader, one guided reading book, and one general book from our classroom library--does not have to be a book they can read. I also send their sight word rings home every once in a while)

In my classroom, I have an added reading incentive to get them reading, reading, reading; Also in their Reading Rocks bags are their reading log duotangs, where parents record any books read with their child:

Click HERE to download my FREE reading log!

For every 10 books read at home, the student gets to choose one bead to add to their necklace:

This is the reading bulletin board, displaying our necklaces.

Like I said, for every 10 books read a student gets 1 "regular" bead (seed beads). AND for every 50 books read, the student gets to pick out a "special" bead. I have a massive collection of beads from my childhood and a "special bead" is one from my collection:

The beads on the left are regular beads and on the right are the special beads:

The kids are SO excited when they have read 10 books and I usually hear about it first thing in the morning and throughout the day...they are *obsessed* with putting beads on their necklaces! Love it. At the end of the year, the kiddies get to keep their reading necklaces as a token of how much progress they made in first grade!

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And, since I haven't blogged since LAST MONTH!!! I figured I should throw in a festive activity to welcome December:

This little writing craftivity was inspired by one that we did last year. Rather than just using red and green, I had my kiddies choose from brightly coloured paper...I love the final product so much more!!

First we read this book:

and discussed how getting toys and lots of other presents is not at all the true meaning of Christmas. 

(click the pics to enlarge)

Their answers were so sweet!

That's all for now. I will hopefully be back at the end of this week for another update. Have a great week, everyone!