For all you Reading Street teachers out there, our class just finished up Mama's Birthday Present last week. If you aren't familiar with this story, it's about a little boy who doesn't know what to get his mom for her birthday. Throughout the story he asks people what to get his mom and at the end, everyone comes to a birthday party. It's a super cute story and every year, we have a fiesta to celebrate all that we've learn. My kids LOVE this event and this year was no exception. Here's some pictures I took throughout our week long study of the Mexican culture.
We made a circle map to help understand the story better. It can be a little confusing to remember everything that Fransico (the main character) did and everyone he talked to, so creating this chart really helped!
We learned different Mexican symbols and words. I displayed these vocabulary cards on our front board so the kids could use them during Writer's Workshop
The kids LOVED playing Fiesta Phrases. You play it just like This is How We Roll, except the die (dice) has Mexican symbols on it
Friday was our fiesta! While the kids were at PE, I covered each group of tables with a different colored tablecloth.
In the middle of each group was a basket of chips and salsa, just like at a Mexican restaurant :) This was the first year that I also had Mexican music playing in the background, which the kids loved.
During this week, we learned about cascarones, which are confetti eggs. We made a quick little craft using tear art and then the kids wrote a fact that they had learned about them.
During the fiesta, we made our own cascarones (now's the perfect time to stock up on those Easter eggs!). We filled them with confetti and cracked them over our friends head to bring good luck :) This was the kids' favorite part of the week BY FAR!
This is entirely too cute, Leslie Ann! :0) I can not wait to try it out with my classroom! :) Your ideas always make me feel like I'd like to be a student in your classroom...just because it always seems like there's a joy for learning in every lesson! :) Thanks for sharing your ideas with us! I never leave your blog without something really neat to take back to my own firsties! :) You're just fantastic! ;)
ReplyDeleteTamara
www.tamaravrussell.blogspot.com
Mrs. Russell's Room-First Grade
I do the same things with the story. I filled up Easter eggs with that Easter grass that's superl clingy. I remember one year, one of my boys was cleaning it up and it kept sticking to the broom and he said, "mrs. Addington, it ain't worth all this!" We are doing this story this week. Last year I had a piñata. A brawl almost broke out so I'm not sure If I'm going to be that brave this year. I bought one last night just in case.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! What fun! The fiesta looked really fun.
ReplyDeleteStacy
Live Love Laugh and Teach!
What fun ideas! Thank you for sharing! This will be great to do for Cinco de Mayo! Do you sell this packet?
ReplyDeleteKim
Also, I looked for the story on Amazon. Is it only available through Reading Street?
DeleteHow fun!!!! I am a first year teacher and I love getting ideas from you. I can't wait to do this next year!!! Thank you SO much for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteIs there somewhere I could find the symbols and word cards? My Hispanic kids loved that story - it would be fun to do more with it next year.
ReplyDeleteLast year I had students and their families make pinatas to bring to school. I was amazed at how creative they got. I had some that looked like bunny rabbits, one made out of a clothes hanger, and one that was absolutely huge! At the end of the week, we took all the pinatas to the gym, hung them up and let the kids break them. It was awesome! Can't wait to see what they look like, this year.
ReplyDeleteLast year my students and their families made pinatas. They were absolutely amazing! I had some that looked like bunny rabbits, one made from a clothes hanger, and some that were just huge! They came in all shapes and sizes. At the end of the week, we took them down to the gym, hung them up and let the kids take turns breaking them. We had an awesome time! Can't wait to see what they look like, this year.
ReplyDeleteLast year my students and their families made pinatas. They were absolutely amazing! I had some that looked like bunny rabbits, one made from a clothes hanger, and some that were just huge! They came in all shapes and sizes. At the end of the week, we took them down to the gym, hung them up and let the kids take turns breaking them. We had an awesome time! Can't wait to see what they look like, this year.
ReplyDelete