Inferring with Frank!

We haven't yet gotten into that hard skill of drawing conclusions and making inferences. I don't know about y'all, but that's always a tough one in my classroom. Sooo I made a little introduction activity that we did last week to kinda preview this skill. We created a Frankenstein and made inferences about what some of his favorite things were. The main thing I wanted to get across to my kids was that you used clues that you were given (like the fact that Frank was a Halloween symbol) to decide the answer. I didn't go too far with this skill, but I welcomed the chance to have the time to do a mini introduce lesson for it. Hopefully when this skill comes around in a few weeks, my darlings will have an easier time with it. 

***I left the pattern for Frank at school, so I can't upload it now, but if you want it let me know and I'll upload tomorrow!

*** 10/6/12: This freebie can be found in my TpT store by clicking here! :)

A few classroom happenings

After having review week last week and having only a two day week this week due to Fall Break, we are going on two weeks of no reading story. Y'all have no idea how ready I'm (and my kids!) are ready to get back to a story. We need structure in first grade! These two days have given us the opportunity to get in some Halloween activities though and  I'll share those tomorrow! Here are a few things that we've been doing.

We created a character spotlight on the witch from Room on the Broom. Then at the reading center, the kids had to fill out the same graphic organizer on another book. We are loving Room on the Broom. To see the literary companion for this book, you can click here

We made a bubble map of the penny. This was inspired (aka totally copied) by the always fabulous Cara

This was a bubble map that we created during the last story of our reading series, Animal Park. I forgot to take a pic of it to share with all your Reading Street teachers out there so it's a little late!

This is a new center that I'm using. I found a pic on Pinterest of something similar and didn't pin it (hate when that happens!) Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies blogged about something similar and it may have even been her pic that I saw. You can buy these, but I just made my own using clip art. You just cut out the middle, laminate, and you're good to go! I was a little hesitate to just put these out with several word lists and not have the kids write anything, but they did great! Didn't have anybody playing with them. They used them correctly and they were a hit! 

Be sure and check back tomorrow for some really cute Frankensteins!! :) :)

Witch Pattern...Freebie! and Room on the Broom Mini Unit Coming Soon!

Here are the patterns for the Cute Little Witches. And below is a sequencing activity for the story Room on the Broom. It is in my Room on the Broom mini unit that will be available on Teachers Pay Teachers later on today :)

Let me know if you have download problems!

Dress

Hat

Head

Witch Pieces

Room on the Broom

Isn't this a great Halloween read? My kids loved this book! I thought it fit perfectly for teaching Sequence. We read the story and created an anchor chart to help remember was sequence was. Then we did a follow activity to identify the sequence in the story. 

This activity is included in the Room on the Broom mini unit. It will be on Teachers Pay Teachers later on today.

Cute Little Witches

Aren't these little witches cute? My sweet kids had a blast making them! Let me know if you'd like the pattern and I'll post it :)

*** The small black thing that they are holding are cauldrons. Yes, I know they look like purses HAHA! If you make these, it would be better to make the cauldrons bigger! :)

******** Updated!!! I have posted the patterns for these. They can be found here :)

It's Hocus Pocus Time!

We've started making a few "Halloweeny" things for our classroom this week and the kids are lovin' it! We made witches feet today, along with a writing activity. The kids wrote about what their favorite part of Halloween is. Witches feet are my favorite Halloween symbol and I absolutely love making Dorthy's red slippers during our Wizard of Oz study last spring (I used the wonderful Babbling Abby's Wizard of Oz unit....soooo good!) I also brought out my purple Halloween lights and put them on the cubbies with our witches feet. Take a Look!

*** The pattern for this craft is in my Halloween Unit on TPT. You can get it here I have a poem featured on the craft in the unit, but we decided to use it with a writing activity today.

You can't really see the purple lights, but it looks really cute. :)

Halloween Nonsense Words...TPT

Why is it, when you put clip art on a word, the kids are so much more excited about it? My kids use to complain at small groups when I pulled out our fry phrases, but when I started putting them on cute clip art, the kids began BEGGING to do them. It was a complete turn around. Here lately, my kids are doing the same thing about nonsense words. They are hating them. So, I thought I would do the same thing with nonsense words that I did with fry phrases. And thus, Halloween Nonsense Word flash cards were created. I just uploaded these to TPT. There's 25 pages with a total of 100 cards. Click the pic to get them! :)

Halloween Math and Literacy Centers...TPT

Halloween Math and Literacy Center Packet uploaded to TPT. This packet includes 53 pages of Halloween fun! This is my first "big" packet and I'm so happy with the way it turned out and I hope you will like it too! Click the pic to get it! 

***First 3 to comment will get it free! Be sure and leave your email address! :)

Meet Frank the Frankenstein!

It's officially Hocus Pocus time. :) We finished up learning about apples yesterday and decided to make our frankensteins so we could go ahead and put them up. Next week is our review week in reading, so I'm planning on using some Halloween books to reteach skills that we learned in unit 1 of Reading Street. Check back for more Halloween activities next week!

Thanks sooo much for everyone who has purchased my Halloween Fry Phrases on Teachers Pay Teachers. I've gotten a couple of emails asking what Fry Phrases are exactly, so I'll post about that later on today. 

Johnny Appleseed week and a few Halloween things..

I must confess...I'm more than ready for Halloween. And so are my kids. I'm trying really hard to wait until this weekend to start decorating the classroom for my favorite holiday, so I decided this week we would learn all about apples and Johnny Appleseed. We're having fun with this, but I may have started sneaking in a couple of witches and black cats :) Here's some apple learning that we've been doing...and a few Halloween things :)

Aren't these caramel apples fun?? We made these and then had real caramel apples for a treat at snack.

Since we were talking a lot about Johnny Appleseed, I used this as an opportunity to introduce the genre of Tall Tales. We used this chart to help remember what tall tales are and what they must have in them. 

We also measured how tall we were in apples and graphed it, but I forgot to take a pic of it!

Switching gears...we started the comprehension skill Cause and Effect this week. This has always been a hard skill for my kids, but this group seems to understand it pretty well. Here's our helper chart we've been using:

Is anyone else having trouble teaching comparing number values?? My kids can order numbers great, but are really struggling with telling me which is greater or less. I made this center game to help. I'm working on a packet of Halloween themed math centers so hopefully it will be ready soon. This will be included in it :)

Oh my goodness gracious! These clip art fry phrases are a HUGE hit in my classroom. So far, we've worked on Aliens and Forest Friends. We've learned around 40 already. Today I introduced Trick or Treaters. They are loving them! We go over each one everyday at small group. Then at the end of the day if we have time, we play "Boys v. Girls" The kids form two lines (boys and girls) and I show a phrase on the Elmo. The first boy and girl compete against each other to see who can say the phrase first. They get so excited playing this and they have no idea they're practicing Fry Phrases. We had to stop the game today because they called for car riders and my kids actually asked to stay and keep the game going instead of leaving. Isn't that nice to hear?? :) :) I love when my kids are loving school! :)