An Assortment of Happenings!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend! I took a much needed nap this afternoon...isn't it nice to catch up on sleep?! Here is a picture walk with explanations of what's been happening in the classroom lately:

For Dr. Suess's birthday, the students made Thing 1 and 2 glyphs. I got the template from Kimberly Edgerton's TpT's shop. To introduce this activity, I created a Prezi on hieroglyphs. I asked the students if they had ever heard or seen the word 'hieroglyphs'. Then I showed them a picture of hieroglyphs, which turned a light bulb on in some of their brains...one student said, "Hey, I've seen those in Scooby-Doo!" I explained to the students a brief history of hieroglyphs (how 5,000 years ago people used pictures to communicate and tell stories, etc.). Then I explained how pictures are used to communicate information in our world today, typically in the form of graphs. I accompanied this explanation with an infographic. Then they created and shared their glyphs! If you click on the Prezi link above, you can see the pictures and glyph key I used. 

The students planted sunflower seeds! Some of their seeds have already begun sprouting! We did this activity while learning about George Washington Carver since he studied agriculture. I poked holes in the bottom of the cups and set them on plastic paper plates for them to drain excess water. The students love checking on their plants!

Compound cards! Before the students created their cards, we did the the Compound Boogie by Dr. Jean. They loved it and were singin' and dancin' right along! I love to get them up and moving!

I Spy time! I got this idea from Teacher Tipster. I placed ten mini Judy clocks around the classroom, and the students had to find all ten clocks and record the time in their math journal. 

We'd been having a issue with mixing up the tag pens with the wrong set of books (the tag pens only hold a certain amount of memory). I did have each pen in a bag with a set of books but that just wasn't working out even though I had modeled and modeled how to take care of them. So Dollar Tree to the rescue! I got these baskets from the Dollar Tree and they have solved our problem...the tag pens now stay with the right books!

Poem for the week that I created and the students wikki stikked: short oo. They always notice when there is a new poem up and are eager to read it!

I implemented Writer's Workshop this week! The students are writing stories about our Noun Town we created the other week. I have emphasized to the students that we become better writers by writing. Everyday I asked them, How do we become better writers?" and they respond, "Just keep writing!!" (the way they say it reminds me of Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.") On the first day, we brainstormed what they could write about. Then over the following three days they planned their stories with a story map and a beginning, middle, and ending map that I got from The Teacher Wife. I created my own planning maps and story too to serve as a model for them. Once they had their plans and checked them over with me, they began writing their stories. They're really getting into their stories! I just love reading about their ideas!

The Mystery Box (labels from Babbling Abby) is one of my favorite activities. I got the box at Hobby Lobby for $1. The students get so excited when I bring it out! I've been using the Mystery Box to introduce our themed story for the week. I give the students clues as to what might be in the box, and they have to use their inferencing skills to make an educated guess. Examples of what I have put in the Mystery Box are a toy red-eyed tree frog (for the story The Red-Eyed Tree Frog), friendship necklaces (for the story That Toad is Mine!), and a bear puppet (for the story Lost). 

If anyone has any suggestions on Writer's Workshop or would like to share how they implement Writer's Workshop, I would love to hear about it!