Practicing Main Idea in Fiction Books

We have been working on main idea in our books.  To help us with our main idea, we found the beginning, middle, and end of the book.

We read Three Cheers for Tacky and then used our flip book to help us find the beginning, middle, and end.  We focused on looking at what mostly happened at the beginning and what mostly happened in the middle.  I often find that my kids pick one thing at the beginning, middle, and end instead of summing it all up.  We did this activity together.  I've been trying to provide a lot of modeling for my class with this topic. 

We practiced using the title of the book and using the beginning, middle, and end of the story to state the main idea.  We found what all of these things had in common to state the main idea.  The kids helped me do this, and they did a great job!

How do you review main idea in your classroom? 

Reading Superpowers!

My classroom is FULL of super readers!  We learned all the different reading strategies using the reading super powers from Lucy Calkins' units of study.  Then, each student showcased his/her best power by creating a poster to share what the power does.  Each student set up their poster and got in their super power poses ready to share with other students all the different powers we use when reading.   

We had students from all different grades come and learn about our powers.  We LOVED sharing with them, and it helped us remember our powers.  It also allowed us to practice our listening and speaking skills. 

I bought the "capes" from Dollar Tree.  I used the tablecloths, cut them in half and each student used one for their cape.  Then, I used paper to make their masks.  We had so much being super readers!

Secret Santa Blog Hop {with the Elementary Entourage}

I have joined my fellow blogging friends to share with you some fun, secret santa treats!  Check out this fun gingerbread counting activity I did in my classroom. :] 

I love how my student's gingerbread men turned out!  We worked so hard on learning our shapes, so I thought this would be a fun way to review them!  This activity also allowed my students to practice one-to-one counting.

I did help with some of the preparation.  I wanted them to focus more on identifying shapes and counting them.  Therefore, I cut the small shapes out before they started decorating their gingerbread men.  I gave each student a gingerbread man, and then I laid the shapes on the table.  The students glued them on and completed the shape worksheet to go with it. 

You could also have them color and cut out the shapes.

You can find this cute activity for FREE in my TpT store.  

Here is my hallway display!  They did a great job decorating them!

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to check out my other friend's post by clicking below. Merry Christmas! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Advent in Kindergarten

During the Advent season, I try to teach my kids the meaning of Advent and Christmas.  We talk a lot about preparing our hearts for Jesus and getting excited for Him to come on His birthday.

Here is our Religion bulletin board.  We have the poster that came with our religion curriculum.  There is one small chapter about Christmas and Advent, so I've done a lot of supplementing. 

We completed this page together as a class.  I found scriptures that go with each candle and we read them from the Bible together.  Then, we talked about what each candle means and why this is so important.

We also talked about the colors of the calendars and how the Christ candle is white because Jesus is pure.  We discussed how our wedding dresses and Baptism dresses are white also.  Then, we talked about the meaning of candles and how Jesus is the light of our life.  The advent wreath is made of evergreen leaves because they are everlasting like God and Jesus. 

Each student also wrote what gift they are going to give Jesus this year.  Since God and Jesus give us gifts every year, we wanted to give back to them.  These little papers are placed on the Religion board.  We talked about all the things we can give Jesus and how we love Him so much!

Merry Christmas!