A Babbling Abby Inspired Lesson

When I read the fabulous Babbling Abby's post about her making inferences lessons, I knew I had to do it in my classroom. It combines two of my favorite things: handbags and teaching! How can you go wrong? :) Check out her amazing lesson here. The lesson originates from a book called Comprehension Connections and it has many other fantastic ideas to use in the classroom.

The Bag:

Here's the chart we created, which was again, completely copied from inspired by Miss Abby. 

I feel that making inferences and drawing conclusions go hand in hand so this lesson was the PERFECT intro to our skill this week, which was drawing conclusions. After we did the lesson, we completed a  sheet where the kids had to use all the clues from my bag to draw a conclusion about what kind of person I am. Their responses were really cute:

Thanks again for a wonderful lesson idea Abby! :)

Groundhog Day!

Have y'all ever read this book? It's the best book to read on Groundhog's Day. There's a ton of information presented in a funny way that engages kids. There's so many possibilities for activities! I love it :) I've created a packet for Groundhog's Day based around this book, but even if you don't have the book, you can still use the activities. Check it out here:

Included in the packet is the pattern for Professor Groundhog:

Isn't he cute? :) My kids are so excited about Groundhog Day and I have to say, I kinda am too! 

***First three to comment get a free copy of this packet!

Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine Literary Companion

Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine might just be my favorite book in the series. I think it's such a cute and sweet story. My kids always love it too. I created a literary companion to go along with this adorable book Click the pic or here to get it!

**First three to comment win a free copy!! Just be sure and leave your email address :) 

Last Week in Pictures

Here's a look at what we did last week in pictures! 

Our reading story was Jan's New Home, so during social studies, we talked a lot about the differences and similarities between the country and the city. We made a venn diagram to compare and contrast these two places and then each student picked which they liked better and we did a little writing activity.

We discussed what the theme was and then identified the theme in Jan's New Home

While we were reading the story, we realized that the author never said why Jan and her family were moving, so we brainstormed possible reasons why they could be moving. 

Friday after tests we read The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, which went along perfectly with our reading and social studies lessons

We made Chinese dragons in honor of Chinese New Years

Is it too early to break out valentine's centers?? Maybe, but my kids and I were ready! They are loving these centers. 

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! :)

Valentine's Day Fry Phrases...TPT!

Just uploaded Valentine's Day fry phrase flash cards. Click the pic to get them!

Writing Activity

Today's question of the day really interested the kids, so we decided to do a writing activity. The question was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and went along with our weekly story Ruby in Her Own Time. We made an older version of ourselves to go along with the writing activity.

We also made little Ruby ducks to add to our board:

We finished our SWBC chart that helps us with helping the plot of a story. We used favorite read alouds like Aliens Love Underpants and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. They loved doing this.

If you want the people pattern or the duck pattern, let me know and I'll post them! :)

Valentine's Unit...TPT!

***Forgive me if this post contains numerous spelling errors!!***

I have just uploaded my Valentine's Day math and literacy center onto Teachers Pay Teachers. And right now, my eyes are about to pop out of my head since I've been staring at the computer screen ALL DAY LONG. Once I started working on them, more ideas came into my head and before I knew it the unit had become 120 pages!!! My largest yet. And I think it's my favorite ( probably because it contains a lot of pink :) ) Anyways, I wanted to hurry up and get it posted before my sales ends tomorrow so you can get the 20% off....ROLL TIDE! Who else is wearing their houndstooth tomorrow??

***First three to comment win this unit!!! But let me warn you now, as soon as I click post, I'm going to bed so you won't know who got the freebies until I send them tomorrow :)

Phonics Tales Freebie Posted and some classroom happenings

I've just posted the freebie packet for Phonics Tales. Click here to get them. I'd love to hear from you if you can use them in your classroom! Hopefully there are no errors in it, but if you find some, just let me know and I'll fix them. :)
And I thought I'd share a few things we did in our classroom last week (or I should say the last three days since we were only there Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)
We made New Year's resolutions.***I plan on using these to compare and contrast our holiday with the Chinese New Year when we learn about that.
This is one of my *favorite* activities. I can't take credit for this adorable idea though. That would be the fabulous Cara!

Aren't these adorable??

We also started talking about plot. This is a comprehension skill that we haven't talked about before so I thought our 3 day week would be the perfect time to get a jump start on covering next week's skill. We used the story The Three Little Pigs. Here's the chart we made to help remember what plot was.

We also made our own little pigs

Then came my kids' favorite part. We divided into three different groups and each group made a house. This really helps teach teamwork and how to work together. They *loved* it.

And for you Reading Street Teachers, we are on Ruby in Her Own Time next week. I love this story! I'll be back with some other things we are doing, but I thought I would share how I'm teaching plot. I found this great strategy a few months ago and a lot of you might already be familiar with it but it was new to me. It's the SWBS model:

To practice this method, I plan on completing this chart with my kids next week .

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Don't forget about my Roll Tide TPT Sale happening now!