Magic Reading Glasses...They Really Work!

I have to share these cute pics of some of my kids using "Magic Reading Glasses" at the buddy reading center. I buy a ton of reading glasses at the Dollar Tree ($1 each...can't beat that!)and pop the lenses out. I told my kids that these special glasses help you read and understand what you read better. The first day that we started using them this year, one of my little boys came to me and said, "Ms. Leslie Ann, these really do work!" I love seeing them sitting with a book while wearing them...they are concentrating so hard! :) :)

2010 EduBlog Awards...Go Vote!

It's time for the 2010 EduBlog Awards! This is my first time voting for these awards and I encourage everyone to go vote! Here's the link that provides instructions for voting:
http://edublogawards.com/
Here are my nominations for the following categories:
Best teacher blog: First Grader At Last! by Sarah Cooley
If you are a follower of my blog or have read some of my previous post, you'll know how much I love this blog. It's filled with creative ideas and inspiring pictures that are sure to get your creative juices flowing! Check it out..
Best educational Wiki: B-7 Bobcats I don't think I've ever mentioned this wiki on my blog before, but you HAVE to visit it! I found it this past summer and after spending hours looking at all the projects the teacher, Traci Blazosky, has done with her class, I created my wiki. She is beyond talented!

Dino Facts

In reading this week, we read a story called "The Big Circle". It was about a herd of triceratops protecting their baby from a T-Rex. My kids, especially my little boys, really enjoyed this story and loved learning about dinosaurs. I checked out some nonfiction books from our library and put them in the buddy reading center for the week. We read about T-Rex, Triceratops, and Long Neck dinosaurs, which we learned were also called Ultrasaurus. Here are the dinosaurs we made and displayed the facts we learned on.






We have one more story about dinosaurs in the next unit of our reading series called Mr. Bones and it's a biography about Barnum Brown who was a paleontologist. I would love to do some neat projects or activities about paleontologists and more dinosaur activities. Any ideas??

Nouns All Around

We've been talking about nouns in first grade. To help my kids better understand these naming words, we made a noun board. I did this last year and I would like to do something liked it when we start learning about verbs. They really like doing it and they love showing everyone which nouns they made.

Building Background...Fishing Trip!

As part of our reading series, we complete building background charts with the students. The charts have something to do with the story or topic for the week. It is suppose to build background and allow the students to think about what they already know about the topic. This year I decided to make a bulletin board to showcase these charts so the kids could look back and remember what all they filled out. It has really helped them understand WHY we are doing these charts and they love seeing their work on the wall. I usually have them make something that goes along with the chart.
A couple of weeks ago we read a story called Max and Ruby: A Big Fish for Max. We had to fill out a bubble chart about what we would take along if we went on a fishing trip. The kids really got into this, especially my little boys! They made sure they told me EVERYTHING that we would need, right down to fishing wire, scissors to cut it, and a bucket for any fish that we might catch! It really made them stop and think about what they already knew about that subject.
Afterwards, I had them make their own fish. I thought they turned out really cute!