Saturday Snippets

I was going to call this post Snowman Sunday, but I am enjoying the weekend warm up. Here are a few pictures of how this weeks Snow-tivities came out. 

We started with lots of thematic reading. Both fiction and non fiction. After writing my plans I went to the library and found tons of nonfiction texts on snow and I worked some of them in too. 

I love that litte Acorn Snow non fic book. Perfect for my ELL kinder kids. Plus Snow Balls by Louis Ehlert, was a perfect read just before we started creating...

Lots of cutting. 

Keeping track of all those little pieces is hard. 

Here is what we work with.

Here are some finished projects. 

With and without arms... Cause I forgot wth the second group. :P

I found the perfect place to display them. 

I am really proud of how they turned out. 

Here are some other classroom going ons...

B,M,E retelling.

Snowmen at Night fun. This cutie is from the pack posted with my lesson plans. 

Kinda bummed I forgot to take pics of the kids "Snow-names" or our "Label-A-Snowman" sheet, also from the pack. The week was such a whirlwind. 

Also can't find my MLK pics. Here is the only one I could scrounge up. 

I have a few plans for posting next week. I hope that extra day off will let me get some ideas down digitally. :P It will be a whirl wind for me. Lots going on, including everything Penguins, digital poems and even a field trip...yikes. 

Enjoy your weekend.

Peek At My Week (01/13/14)

Back with my Lesson plans. Guess what? I have both kinder AND first grade done! Maybe that is because it is already Monday and I had to teach something today. :P

Kinder

This week my Kinder Kids will learn all about... snow. More specifically snow-people. Yep, no longer are the days of just snowmen, we make all kinds of snow things. 

Snow Names is a fab way to practice the letters in our names. This is a great review for the kids that do know and perfect for my new ELL kids that don't know the letters in their names.

We will read Snowmen At Night and Martin McGregor's Snowman.

We will also use our Snowmen at night companion pack. There are SEVERAL pages from this pack that we will complete throughout the week. They are noted in my plans.

Then we will try to wrap up our week with a snowman craftie.

I am going to edit this wonderful craftie because we do not do alliterations yet. We have been learning about telling stories with a Beg, Mid and End, in Writing. I will try to do some kind of min strip book that attaches at the bottom. I'll let you know how it goes.
We will also learn about the letter Ff, for fffffffffreeezing. Most of what we will do is routine and can be found in my plans.

Firsties

My Firsties will be studying MLKJr this week. We will read two MLKJr. books.

Here are some freebies I will use with my students. We will do a page or two from each pack. Again these are noted in my plans.

We will also be learning about the letter Ee and how it can say it's long name when it is next to ea, ee and ey by using several activities from Abby's pack.

That's all folks. :P Click on the image of my lesson plans to get a downloadable version.
Don't forget to check out the Peek At My Week Linky for some other fabulous lesson plans.

Oh before you go...
If your interested in some no nonsense pre-made, checklist, quick fill lesson plans check out,
A Teacher's Plan.

Snow, snow, go away...

I write this as I simultaneously ask the Gods to blow the "forecasted" snow away. That is right, we are supposed to get snow TONIGHT... as I sleep. This is terrible because it means I have to wake up early to shovel. I HATE waking up early. :/ So please, no snow.

With that said, I am here to bring you some "snow" fun.

Last week we read Snowmen at Night.

I love these books. I have the other two and love reading them at other times during the year. Snowmen at Christmas, before holiday break and Snowmen All Year Long, at the start of Spring.

Anyway, I read Snowmen at Night with my Kindergartners. We talked about "Snowpeople" and how they are made up of 3 parts, just like our writing stories. :P They have a Beginning, Middle and End. We talked about this all week long. We practiced telling our own stories with 3 parts, touching our planning pages and writing it in our 3 page books.

We also made our "Snownames"! I love doing this lesson every year. I love that by this point in the year, the kids are independently identifying and verbalizing when a name is larger, smaller, has more or less letters in it. This is huge for my ELL kids, who in most cases, couldn't say more than a few words in English, just a few months before. Let's not forget they love to make their OWN Snow Person.

Here are our pictures.

 Some close ups.

I gave each student enough circles for each letter of their name, +1. I also gave each one a top hat. Then we wrote 1 letter of our names in each circle, and made a "snow face" in the last circle. Cut them out and paste them on some butcher paper.

So now I am sharing them with you. You could have the circles printed on colored paper, but I chose white to stand out on the butcher paper. I did allow the kids to chose whatever color marker they wanted for their letters as well as color in their "snow-faces" and top hats whoever they wanted to. It was interesting to see who were the "type A's" in my class, who said "It has to be BLACK." :)

Circles
Top Hats

This week I will read this story with my 1st graders. I will have them complete the "If I were a Snowperson, I would..." sheet from last year. Actually, I updated it and am also sharing it with you.

Snow Man at Night

Last week we also read A Picture book of MLK Jr and watched an MLK video.This week we will be re-reading it and doing several assorted MLK activities. We will also continue some winter fun by reading Snowballs, and my favorite, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow.

Have a great week, and cross your fingers I don't have to shovel snow this morning.