Valentine's Day Reading Craftivities and Valentine's Day Bump!

 

 We have had so much fun with reading this week!  After reading our basal story from our reading series, I had my students create a Box of Main Idea Chocolates!  Under each uniquely decorated chocolate, my students wrote the main topic, main idea, and four details from the story.  They then put a small amount of glue at the top of each chocolate so they could lift it up to reveal their answers!

   My students LOVE Splat the Cat!  After reading the story Love, Splat my students worked with a partner to create questions about the story.  They then wrote the question under the heart shaped cookie on their cookie sheet.  My students used their text evidence to write the answer to the question on the reverse side of the heart cookie.  They put a dab of glue at the top of their cookie so they can lift it up to reveal their question and answer.

On Friday, we read Splat the Cat Funny Valentine.  I had my students summarize the beginning, middle, and end of the story using the cute cupcake pattern above.  My class had so much fun this week creating all of their cute Valentine themed reading craftivities.  You can see all of the fun activities we made in the photograph above.  We can't wait to read more Valentine's Day stories and make some more fun reading projects next week!  Click on the pictures above to get all of these cute February themed reading craftivities!

In math, we played Valentine's Day Addition Bump since my students love playing bump games.  These games are fun and help them practice their math fact fluency at the same time!  

We Had "Snow" Much Fun Reading and Cute Money Pizza Craftivity!

 We have had "snow" much fun learning this past month!  I loved using Winter Themed Reading Comprehension Book Craftivities to get my students motivated about reading.

 We created our Cause and Effect Caps to practice determining the cause and effect of different events in our guided reading stories.  We also created Compare and Contrast Mittens to compare two stories that we read. 

Click on the picture above to get all of these fun winter themed reading craftivities!

 In math, we finished our money unit! 

As a fun culminating activity, students created their favorite type of pizza to determine how much it would cost.  We used the pizza shop menu to calculate how much their pizza was worth.   

 

Here are the cute posters that come with this pack!

Leveled Money Word Problem Game Cards for Your Small Guided Math Group or Math Stations

Fun Menus and Word Problem Activities!

Click here to get this fun money word problem and craftivity pack!

Cinderella Penguin Summary Craftivity!

Every January I love reading penguin stories!  My favorite penguin story is Cinderella Penguin by Janet Perlman.  My students love the illustrations and how Cinderella Penguin wears a glass flipper!  

After we read and discuss the main events of the story, I have my students summarize the story using the Somebody, Wanted, But, So Then, summary graphic organizer.  After they write their summary, they create a Cinderella Penguin or Penguin Prince to display their summary.  One of my girls had the idea to trace the foot pattern on white paper so it looks like Cinderella Penguin's glass flipper. 

 

 I love to see how creative my class can be when it comes to designing their penguins!  

 

This year my class really got into designing and creating royal attire for their penguins!  My girls made their Cinderella Penguin extra fancy with princess hats. :)

   Click here to grab this cute craftivity!

Merry Christmas with Your Favorite Picture Books!

 Merry Christmas everyone!  I wanted to share with you some of my favorite books to read during the month of December.

Gingerbread Mouse

 

Gingerbread Mouse is one of my favorite stories to read in December!

 

  After reading the story we had a blast making this cute Gingerbread Mouse gingerbread house story summary!  They then colored candy decorations to decorate their gingerbread house cover.  Each one was so unique and creative!

Olive, the Other Reindeer

 

This week I will be reading Olive, the Other Reindeer to my class.  I will then have them retell the main events on the cute Christmas themed paper and draw a picture of their favorite part at the top.  They will then create a cute Olive to attach to the top of their summary.

The Gingerbread Pirates

Aaaarrrr you ready for a fun Christmas story?  The Gingerbread Pirates is such a fun book to read!  After we read and discuss the story, students will retell the beginning, middle, and end of the story using the treasure chest pattern.  They will then color and attach the treasure chest cover.  Next, boys will create a gingerbread boy pirate and girls will create a gingerbread girl pirate.  Then, they will attach their gingerbread pirate to the top of their treasure chest retelling. 

Merry Christmas, Splat

My class loves all of the Splat books!  After reading Merry Christmas Splat, they wrote a summary of the story on the present pattern.  I noticed a big difference in my students' retelling since they have been making all of these cute Christmas retelling craftivities.  I love making reading fun for them while boosting their comprehension at the same time!  Click here to get these fun book activity pack! 

 

All of the cute Christmas craftivities you see in the background can be found in the pack below.  Click on the picture below to get a closer look!

Comprehension Cookies and Let's Shed Some Light on the Author's Purpose

 Comprehension Question Cookies

In my guided reading groups, we usually read and discuss their leveled readers on Monday and Tuesday.  On Wednesday, I like to have my students complete a reading comprehension activity using their leveled reader.  Since the reading comprehension skill for Wonders Unit 3 Week 4  was to ask and answer questions, I thought this activity would be perfect!  After we each read our leveled reader, I had them create their own Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? questions about the story and write them on each cookie on the cookie tray.  They then wrote their answers on the back of each chocolate chip cookie.  They then put a small amount of glue at the top of each cookie to cover their questions on the tray.  Last, they worked with a partner to ask them questions about the story.  They then would lift the cookie up to reveal the correct answer.  My class had so much FUN making these!  

Let's Shed Some Light on the Author's Purpose

We also had some fun with Author's Purpose.  Last week, we reviewed the author's purpose for writing the story.  In guided reading groups, we read our story.  Each student received a Christmas light pattern.  Students used their leveled reader to determine the author's purpose.  They then had to use text evidence from the story to support their answer.  We then hung up our lights on our tree for our hallway.

 Click on the picture below to check out all of the cute reading craftivities!

My Life as a Pilgrim Child and Colonial Kid Fashion Show!

 My Life as a Pilgrim Child

We recently had our open house for parents and decided to add a little Colonial spin.  My two favorite books to read for this unit are Sara Morton's Day and Samuel Eaton's Day.  They are wonderful nonfiction texts that portray the day in the life of a pilgrim child.  My class really got into it!  After we read the story, I had my students pretend that they were a pilgrim child from that time period.  They then used the information from the book to write about their day.

Colonial Kid Fashion Show  

  Inside the two books mentioned above, they showed all of the clothing that the pilgrims had to wear.  My students used the diagrams from the books to create a Colonial Kid Fashion Show!  Each student worked with a partner to design a pilgrim girl or boy.  They even got to choose a name for their pilgrim from the actual pilgrims that were on the Mayflower!  They then wrote a commentary card describing what their pilgrim wore from their hat to their shoes.  They then put on their colonial fashion show for the class. 

Colonial Village

My class had a fun time designing a 3-D model of a colonial village.  Each child made a colonial style home from a milk carton.  They then made a garden, trees, and some animals to go along with their home.

Author's Purpose Pie

Since we were also studying author's purpose this week, we created an author's purpose pie.  Students read a story in their guided reading group, determined the author's purpose for writing the story, and then found text evidence to support their answer. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Dollar Tree Goodies and Lakeshore Learning Apps!

I went to Dollar Tree this weekend and found some awesome goodies for my classroom!  I had no idea that Dollar Tree made games and activities that are aligned with the Common Core Standards for each grade level!  I can't wait to try them out. 

By now you probably know that I am obsessed with Lakeshore Learning!  I love all of their products and so do my students.  On a previous post, I commented on how much my students love our Promethean Board games!  One of the games I mentioned is called Bubble Pop.  I found out that last week, Lakeshore came out with two Bubble Pop apps that are free for your ipads!  I can't wait to have my students play these during their math station.  

 

The only free game is the addition game, but at least that's better than nothing!  It will be perfect for my students to practice their addition math facts for fluency. 

There is also a free multiplication version for my more advanced students.  They will be so pumped since we have never played this one before!