Captain Hook and His -ook Coins...TPT!

Just uploaded my new sound sorting activity for this week to Teachers Pay Teachers, which deals with the "ook" word family. Captain Hook has made a special visit to our classroom this week to deliver this 'game' Check it out by clicking the picture above or click here!

Fairy Tales Glog

Check out my class wiki to see more projects from our fairy tales unit!
Ms. Leslie Ann's Class Wiki

Fairy Tales Unit....Cinderella and The Wizard of Oz

I haven't shared pictures of some of the activities we've been doing with fairy tales lately, so I thought I would. Last week we talked a lot about Cinderella and did an activity from Babbling Abby's Wizard of Oz Unit (which you must check out!). She has the most adorable pattern for the ruby slippers that I modified for glass slippers. Then we attached the writing activity "If I had a fairy godmother..." Check out their cute responses!

"If I had a fairy godmother, I would have a heart attack!"

"I would freak out!"

"I would see if she would turn me into a princess"

"I would hug her" :)

We've also started reading The Wizard of Oz. I wasn't so sure this would hold my kids attention because of how long the book was, but they are lovin' it! I've used Ms. Abby's unit to make the adorable ruby slippers and then I created Emerald City and my kids predicted what Dorthy and her friends would find once they got to their destination. 



Scout the Grouchy Hound Center Activity...TPT!

I have just uploaded my activity for next week at my word work center onto TPT. It focuses on the diphthong /ou/. Students have to sort bones and record their findings. Click Scout above to go to my teachers pay teachers listing or you can find it here! :)

SmartBoard Help!

I need help yet again! This year I was lucky enough recieve a Smartboard for my classroom. I love this piece of technology and use it every day, but I'm stuck on how to use it as a center. I've seen it used as a center where kids play a phonics game. I really want to start using it like this, but I have no idea where to start. Please, please, please share if you have a smartboard and let the kids use it. How do you use it? Where do you get the activities to use on it??

Check out Glady's blog Once Upon a Time in First Grade! She's hosting a giveaway that includes my Princess and the Pea packet and Anna from Crazy for First Grade's Fun in the Sun Math and Literacy centers. These are wonderful teacher blogs if you haven't found them...Go enter the giveaway now! :) :)

Testing, Testing, 1, 2!

After one of my sweet followers told me how to upload documents on here using scribd, I have been trying to figure it out. I think I have it, so I'm testing it out by trying to upload this graphic organizer that I created last night. I used it in my comprehension center today and it worked really well. Download if you would like it and if you have problems, just know that I'm trying to fix them... It's a work in progress! :)


Here it is (hopefully!) :)
characterplotsetting

Down on the Farm /ow/ Packet Revised on TPT

Hey everyone! If you purchased my Down on the Farm diphthong /ow/ packet on TPT, I have just revised it. Before, the words were under the cows and it made it hard to cut out each cow. I didn't realize this until I had converted it to a PDF file to upload. I have changed it to make the words appear on the cows instead of under. If you have already purchased this packet,  TPT should let you download the revised copy. If you have problems, just email me! :) And if you want to check out this packet, you can find it here.  Thanks again! :)  :)

Meet Farmer Brown and his /ow/ Cow!

Well, since the picture uploader is not cooperating with me right now, I guess you'll have to meet Farmer Brown and his /ow/ cow sideways! This week's sound skill is the diphthong /ow/ so I decided to create some helpers to teach us this new sound. I also created a center about these two characters. The students must help Farmer Brown sort all his cows that got mixed up  and then record their findings. I've uploaded it to Teachers Pay Teachers and you can get it here!
Since review week is over and we start back with a weekly reading story, there won't be as much time for fairy tales but I'm hoping to get some in during the afternoons if we cut snack a few minutes. Coming up this week is Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, and The Wizard of Oz. I just purchased Babbling Abby's unit and I'm so excited to teach this story!! If you haven't checked her unit out, you must! It's beyond cute!

The Princess and the Pea Center Activity in Action!

The first week of our fairy tales unit and we are lovin' it! We've discussed The Frog Prince, The Princess and the Pea, Sleeping Beauty, and Rumpelstiltskin. I've already posted our Frog Prince activities. We did several things with the Princess and the Pea.

Here is the center activity I created called "The Princess Wants Peas". At this center, the kids had to sort /ea/ words, which were written on the peas. Peas with /ea/ went in the castle, while peas without went in the royal trashcan. After sorting, the kids had to record their results so I could see that they were actually doing the center and not just playing. This center is included in The Princess and The Pea Packet and you can find it here!

We also made these. Under the craft the kids wrote the name of their princess and finished the sentence "She is as delicate as a___________." They loved this!

I used all of these to make our door.

Kicking off Fairy Tales Unit!

Slight change of plans today. We did not begin our fairy tales unit with The Princess and the Pea. Instead, we opened with The Frog Prince. Since this is a review week in reading, I had to give the end of the unit benchmark test today, so there wasn't going to be as much time as I would have like to discuss The Princess and the Pea. We enjoyed The Frog Prince though. We discussed how the princess changed throughout the story, filled out a graphic organizer, and then made our own frog princes to complete the project!

After that decided to take a class poll and decide who would kiss a frog. They just thought this was beyond funny! Check out our results!

The Princess and the Pea...TPT!

Tomorrow in my classroom we will kickoff our fairy tales unit! My kids were so very excited when they heard that we would be learning about this genre and I have to admit, I'm so excited to teach it! After having our *last* Saturday makeup weather day yesterday, I spent the entire day today working on activities for tomorrow. That equals one tired teacher! :)
We will begin this fairy tales unit with The Princess and the Pea. This is such a cute story that I know my kids will love! I created a packet that has activities that go along with this story and uploaded it to teachers pay teachers. Check it out here! Perfect for a fairy tales unit..just in time for the royal wedding! ;)
Included in the packet is a 'My Funny Fairy Tale' printable. I was planning on uploading this as a freebie here, but just realized I have no idea how to do that. Help! If soneone could tell me how to upload documents on here, that would be so helpful! :)
I'll post pics tomorrow of some of the activities we do, so stay tuned!

Sight Word Tales Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! I was supposed to announce the winner Wednesday night, but of course, I'm just now getting to it! :)

Congratulations to Tess, who was lucky number 15 on my giveaway list! Tess, I will email you later on :)

I used the random generator to get a number, but could never figure out how to make it appear in this post, so this will just be a pictureless one...I know, don't you just hate that? Pictures make everything prettier.

Several new activites have been added to our class wiki! Check it out!
http://msleslieann1stgrade.wikispaces.com/

***On a completely different note, next week I'm kicking off a fairy tales unit in my classroom. I thought this would work great with the royal wedding coming up. :) My kids are beyond excited. One of my little girls said, " I didn't even know there were real life princesses!" :) Even my boys are excited to learn about this genre. If anyone has any ideas or units/activites on TPT, please let me know! I'm  finishing up creating and gathering all my ideas and activities this weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend...I'll be spending mine in school...Saturday make up weather day :(