Student of the Week

I have a beach theme in my classroom, so I do a Catch of the Week.  This is so much fun! My kids love this and feel so special when it is their week.

I made these cute forms that can be sent home to have students complete the weeks' activities.  Click on the image below!

There are 3 different forms included in the pack.  Each form also has different activities to allow you to use what you want, as well as a blank form you can fill out.  The forms include, Catch of the Week, Star of the Week, and Student of the Week. 

Here is the layout of the form I use each week.  This is my favorite!

Monday: Bring in a completed All About Me poster.  We then display it on our Catch of the Week board.  I buy my posters from Really Good Stuff. 

Tuesday: Students bring in a Show and Tell item.  They love this!

Wednesday: I eat lunch with my student. I enjoy getting to know them and not talk about school work. 

Thursday:  My students have a special reader come.  I have them come at the end of the day that way the student can go home with them.  They read their child's favorite book or any book they want:  this is always fun and the kids love having someone come to our room!  It could  be their parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, brother, sister, etc.  When their sibling goes to their school, they always love when they come in and read!

Friday: We make a poster for the student telling why the student is our friend. I use chart paper and the kids all write on the poster and sign their name.  The kids love taking this home! I have had several tell me that they hang it up in their room. I always sign it, too!

Thanks for stopping by!  Do you do anything special in your room?  I would love to hear about it.  Please leave a comment below! 

Character Analysis Part 2

I shared my week 1 of my character analysis reading workshop unit.  Now, I will share my week 2!  I am really enjoying this unit.  It is perfect for the fall season!

We read The Littlest Pilgrim.  This is a sweet story about a small pilgrim girl trying to help her family. We read this story and discussed the main charcter and the supporting characters.  

Once we determined the main character, we discussed how she felt at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  Then, we talked about how her feelings changed and why.  It's important to understand how the character might change and what might cause it.  We discussed her feelings and how these may coincide with her character traits. 

We used our Pilgrim Character Trait books to record our observations about the main character.  We focused on using  descriptive words and steered clear from words like 'happy' or 'sad.'

We finished this part of our unit by making little pilgrims.  I think creating things helps students remember what they learned.  Plus they are just so darn cute! 

Check out my Workshop Unit by clicking on the picture below! 

Character Analysis Part 1

Reading Workshop might be my favorite subject to teach!  This month, we are focusing on analyzing characters in our texts.  We want to get to know the characters as if they are our best friends! This helps us understand what we are reading and enjoy the story!

I created a Reading Workshop pack to help me stay on track this month and reach all the Common Core standards.  If you're intersted, please click on the image below. 

During the first week, we worked on determining the characters' feelings in the story. We practiced predicting what might happen next by using our inferring skills.  

We read the Little Scarecrow Boy.  This was a great story for defining the main characters' personality and character traits.  Then, we predicted what might happen to the little scarecrow. 

We even made scarecrows to help us remember this lesson.  The template it included in the pack! 

We made crow books that had our predictions and then our revised predictions.  We learned that good readers are always predicting and correcting their predictions to help them remember what happened. 

Check back for part 2 of my character analysis unit!  You won't want to miss it! 

Veterans Day

I know Veterans Day has passed, but I had to share what we did.  It is also something that can be taught whenever because we should always be honoring our Veterans.  

I got this AMAZING pack from Sailing into Second.  It was just perfect and if you don't have it, you HAVE to purchase it!  Just click on the image below to check it out.  You could also check out her other work, she is super talented! 

I loved this pack because it helped me teach what Veterans Day is and Memorial Day.  These are two days that are often confused.  This pack had everything.

We started by completing a KWL chart.  The students had a worksheet from the unit they filled out while I wrote what they said on the board.  This was my favorite part because the kiddos were so funny with what they "knew" before we learned about Veterans. 

Some students said that Veterans ate raw food, they have special bathrooms and trash cans, and all Veterans go to the White House when they come back from war.  What?! My brain was exploding! How do they come up with this stuff? 

Please excuse my handwriting, I am still not used to the smartboard! 

Then, we read these cute emergent readers from the packet.  They really helped us understand the reason for Veterans Day. 

We read another informative sheet and completed a short comprehension question activity at the end of the passage.  This helped us remember what we learned.  We were also able to state the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day after this activity!

Students also completed a cut and paste activity where they matched the job description of each branch to the proper military branch.  This was perfect because my students didn't know all the branches or what each branch was known for doing.  

We made a Flipbook with 3 facts to show what we learned at the end of our lesson.  I loved this as a teacher because it was a perfect exit slip! 

This pack also had writing templates for writing letters to Veterans.  We are planning on using those in a few weeks.  One of my student's father was just deployed to Afghanistan.  So, we are waiting until he settles in to send him some motivating cards.  We appreciate these cute templates from this packet.

Please be sure to check out Sailing into Second.  You won't be disappointed. I love her creations! 

Everyday Math Vocabulary

If you use the Everyday Math curriculum, then you are in for a treat!   One of my colleagues just shared this website with me, so I just had to share with YOU!

Even if you do not use Everyday Math, you might find this useful.

When teaching math, it is so important to teach the vocabulary words.  This can be tricky and easy to forget.  Well, I guess I shouldn't say it is easy to forget because this just might be me!  However, this is still a great resource to have!

Here is a website where you can find vocabulary word cards for grades 1-6.  They are perfect!  They are divided by unit and even have pictures to help students remember.  

Everyday Math Vocabulary Cards

I am going to post these on my math wall in a pocket chart during each unit to help me remember to review the vocabulary words.

I even made this fun worksheet to have my students fill out and place in their math binders to help them remember all the words they learn.  I plan to have them complete the worksheet everytime I introduce a new word in the unit.  They can also go back and refer to the words when they come across them during other math activities. 

Grab your copy here!

I hope you find this website useful! Thanks for stopping by. :) I have to go cut out all my vocabulary cards I laminated!