Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Jan's New Home...Character Spotlight

We've been snowed in! We haven't had school since last Friday and I'm lovin' it! I've planned all sorts of things to go along with our story next week, Jan's New Home. The story is about a little girl that has to move to another house. At first, she is very nervous and sad about leaving, but at the end, she starts to feel excited about all the new changes. This story goes along perfectly with the unit theme of Changes. Here is a character spotlight on Jan that I am going to have my kids make. I used the Paper Dolls cartridge on my Cricut to make Jan. My plan is to go ahead and cut all the pieces and let my kids make their own Jan doll to display with their character map.

I also found a neat idea in the Teacher's Edition of Reading Street. Since the characters in the story move to a new city, I'm going to use this time to incorprate some social studies and talk about different parts of the country. Each student will pick a place to live if they could live anyway in our country. We are going to use magazines to cut out pictures that go along with the area that the student picks. Here is my example to show the kids:

Any Scott Foresman teachers out there with any ideas for Jan's New Home? I'd love to hear them!! :)

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9 comments:

  1. DanielleJanuary 12, 2011 at 10:54 AM

    Jan is so cute. Don't you just love your cricut? Do you like the paperdolls cartridge? I don't have this one but it looks so cute. I'd like to know if you think it is worth the money!

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  2. UnknownJanuary 12, 2011 at 11:44 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Ms.MJanuary 12, 2011 at 1:01 PM

    I don't use SF but I thought you could use Google Earth with your Social Studies work to check out your city, state, country & continent.

    MS. M
    www.msk1ell.blogspot.com

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  4. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2011 at 2:49 PM

    I love your paper doll. I have both Paper Doll cartridges. Did you alter the hair? I don't recall any braids/cornrows.

    To Danielle, the Paper Doll cartridge is a must-have. There are so many things that teachers can with them. It's not just dolls. There are accessories that make it worthwhile too. I used the Paper Dolls All Dressed Up for a Thanksgiving display. I used the Pilgrims, Indians, horn-o-plenty, turkey, and corn stalk for a display board.

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  5. Leslie AnnJanuary 12, 2011 at 3:07 PM

    Partis: Thank you! I did change the hair to match Jan's picture in the book. I used the Dress Up Paper Dolls cartridge and used the island girl's hair. Then I cut some of the length off. I hole punched some pink paper and used the dots to make the beads in her hair.
    Ms. M: That's a great idea! Love it!
    Danielle, like Partis said, the Paper Dolls cartridge is well worth the money! I have a plan to use them for Presidents Day too!
    Ashley: Welcome to the blogging world...you'll love all the ideas you find around here! :)

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  6. UnknownJanuary 12, 2011 at 3:15 PM

    I use Scott Foresman too! Thanks for sharing your great ideas!

    I have a brand new first grade teaching blog.
    Check out my unit on Arctic animals.

    http://teachinghappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/

    ~*~Ash~*~

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  7. hsamuelsonJanuary 12, 2011 at 4:43 PM

    What a cute idea! I love doing character spotlights. This one is very nicely put together. I patterned a "book talk" to go with "Jan's New Home"...after the brown bag idea from The First Grade Parade. I figured since next Saturday is National Popcorn Day, we'd have popcorn and talk about Jan's New Home before we took the reading comprehension test next Friday.
    You can see the downloads at
    http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/2011/01/snack-and-talk-about.html

    Thanks again for sharing!

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  8. LaurenJanuary 23, 2011 at 1:04 PM

    Hey, Leslie Ann, I just found your blog today and I am SO GLAD I did! I am an early childhood edu. major, and first grade in my preference. Your page will definitely help me with my student teaching and all of my classes. I can tell that you are so in love with your job. Keep up the great work! -Lauren

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  9. JessicaMarch 24, 2011 at 2:26 PM

    I LOVE YOUR IDEAS!!! Do you know of anyone who has great ideas for kindergarten scotts-foresman??? Thanks so much for sharing you stuff! I definitely sent this to our first grade team at my school! They are so excited!

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