One Book...Multiple Lessons

Hello everyone!  I'm back today to share another favorite book (and I think I like this one even more than the Hungry Thing).  Lately I'm loving Dear. Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School.  It's about a naughty dog, Ike, who is sent to obedience school.  Ike writes letters daily to his owner trying to convince her to let him come back, and then he ends up escaping.  This story has so many potential teaching points. 

Here's some ideas I came up (and the list isn't limited to this).

-Different perspectives (between the dog and the illustrations).
-Character analysis: What is Ike like?  A lot of my students came up with the word dramatic.  The obedience school really didn't seem so bad according to the pictures.
-Compare and Contrast: Compare what Ike writes to the illustrations.
-Inferencing: The ending of the story is perfect for this.
-Patterns in text

And there are writing connections too!
-Writing a friendly letter
-Persuasion: Ike is good at this!  Possible prompt: If you were Mrs. LaRue, what would you do?  Would you let Ike out early? Why or why not?

And for phonics we really worked on the vowel digraph spellings for _ue (LaRue) as well as o, oo, ew, u, and others.

Library

How do you organize your classroom library?  My first year, it was simple.  I didn't have a whole lot of books (only about two crates full), so a shelf like the one below was perfect for me at the time.  I changed out my picture books about once a month.

This was the library my first year.  The books weren't on the shelf yet.  Even though it was small, the kids loved it.

Fast forward six years, and this is what my library looked like this school year.  The books are sorted by genre (the ones with the red tags).  There are also books sorted by reading level.  Students had book baggies with books they would read on their level, and change them out about once a week (the ones with the puppy tags).  Once I switched to sorting by basket in year five, I knew I needed a good system so books could be returned to the proper basket.  That was the reason I was hesitant to organize my library in this way... I was afraid that the books would be all over the place!  The leveled books have their letter in the corner on the cover.  The picture books have a label that matches the label on the basket.  Almost all of the time books were returned to their home.  I must say a system needs to be in place so they don't end up anywhere.  Next school year I plan on adding about ten more picture book baskets as I have more books that weren't out.  Needless to say I'll need another large shelf like the ones on the right side.

I ran out of shelves and baskets!  I had to use different ones and (gasp) three different baskets that don't match! LOL

I still have that pillow and bench.  Those have always been a big hit!

What a difference a few six years can make.  I LOVE reflecting on how I use to do things and compare to what I have evolved to today! 

Aloha, summer! {And classroom decor, too}

Aloha!  Even though it's summer, I've already come across decor I want to use next school year.  It's funny, I say next school year, but it's actually only a few months away.  I love having a nicely decorated classroom for many reasons.  One, I do spend lots of time in the room on a regular basis and want it to look nice.  Two, I've learned from reading through research that children enjoy and learn best in an aesthetically appealing environment.  This past year I had dog and cat decor and I liked it, but I felt like I wanted to change it up this coming year.  I am going with a Hawaiian/luau look.  I was inspired by schoolgirl style's theme.  You can read her amazing post here.  I have lots of bins in blue and green which will fit in nicely.  I have already bought most of the decor, and the best part is... wait for it.... I only spent about ten dollars so far!  Woo hoo!  I went to my local Dollar Tree and found these bulletin board goodies featured below.

There are 8 cutouts in this package.  I'll come up with a use for these!  Perhaps for the door or to add some flair on a bulletin board?

This little cutout is different than the one above.  It's larger and when connected stands about 5 feet tall.  Perfect for a reading corner!

Palm trees are a must in any beach themed room! 

 

This puts into perspective how large the flamingo is.  I love the Hawaiian lei!
 

What it looks like assembled.



The grass skirt would be perfect for the front of a desk!

Big tropical flowers!

These are cups I had found at the grocery store, which match the hibiscus cutouts I have.  I'm thinking I'll use them for sharp and dull pencils.

Lastly, my cat Buddy was wondering what I was doing!

So, what else will I do with this theme?  I'll probably buy some leis and use them to decorate bookshelves.  The combinations are endless!

Ka-chOO! Anyone have a tissUE?

It's pretty obvious the word patterns we were studying a few weeks ago, right?  When it was time to teach words with the ewwww sound (or o, oo, ew, ue, etc...) my teacher friend and I planned to read Farm Flu by Teresa Bateman (this book just so happened to have lots of ewwwww words, hince the choice). 

While reading, the kids pretended to say "ka-choo" every time they heard a word with the sound.  They even got to have a tissue in their hand.  I recorded the words on the tissue box chart and in the days following we did some independent work/center activities.  Needless to say, it was fun teaching the sound pattern in this way.  The kids were so smart to pick up on all the spelling patterns.  Did you know there's 8 ways to spell "ewwww?"  Hey, there might even be more!

I created some of the phonics activities below in a little pack called ka-choo!.  I am also working on a separate reading response pack for Farm Flu.

So, the days of school are down into the teen numbers.  Wow!  I can't believe it...this year has gone so quickly.  We will be busy up through the end!

Rhyming with The Hungry Thing

Have you read the Hungry Thing?  If not, I highly recommend it for K-1.  It is perfect for rhyming words.  In short, it is about a "thing" who is hungry, but can't correctly pronounce the food he wants.  For example, he says "shmancakes" when he really wants pancakes, "boup" for soup, etc.  The characters first all try to figure out what he wants, and then finally one of the characters always "gets it" at the end.  Here's how we broke it down:

Day One: Read for FUN! No activity tied to the book. This step can't be skipped.  

Day Two: Visualize what the characters thought the "thing" meant.  You have to see the book, but for an example, when he asked for "tickles" one of the characters mentioned it's curly tailed hot dogs in a row.  This book was GREAT to listen to that language and work on this strategy.

Day Three:  Listen for all the rhymes in the story, and then we recorded them after reading.  The kids loved joining in the story and it became shared reading.  We discussed spelling patterns among the word families. {ing also came up from "thing" and it would be a great time to introduce vowel y as a long e if your students need it!}

Day Four:  My ABSOLUTE favorite!  I brought out the "thing" and the kids fed him rhymes.  Instead of feeding him the real word, they had to generate a rhyme (real or nonsense).  This is because the "thing" in the story only ate the food he asked for, not the real word.

After day 4, the "thing" remains in my classroom library and is used often!

If you're still reading, you rock!  And if you don't have the book, what are you waiting for?  Go get it!  It's awesome!

~cutesycraftyteacher

Mother's Day Fun

I can't believe it's May!  Seriously this year has gone super fast.  Mother's Day is right around the corner too.  Back in March I decided that after 5 years of doing the same things with my first graders, I wanted to do something different this year with them.  This year we are making hand print poems, coupon books, and a book about our moms.  All of these activities are found in my Mother's Day Packet on TPT.  Tuesday-Thursday (May 7-9) it will be 20% off!  Squeeze in these activities while you can!

 

Click here to see this product

Enjoy teacher appreciation week!

~Cutesycraftyteacher

Measurement Fun

In my district, one of the last units of the year we teach is measurement.  In years past, it's focused on length, area, capacity, temperature, and time.  We usually compare lots of objects to each other  (Which object is shorter? Which object is longer?) before actually measuring.  This year I'll be using some activities I created called "Measure ME! (and you too!).  Students will trace each other (or I may use a traced drawing of me) and we'll measure length, width, and height with nonstandard units.  I also created an area and perimeter unit that I'll try to squeeze in as well.  It will be fun!  If you're interested, visit the freebie in my TPT shop.  I have the full product available as well!

The Measure ME! (and you too!) Bundle Click here to see the product

I also have the freebie!

The freebie is available for download in my TPT shop.  Click here to download

A new unit posted!

I've finally had time to make something new.  It's been months!  Here's my latest creation...

Click here to learn more!  Teachers pay Teachers

The first person to make a comment with their email will have it emailed to them!  All I ask is that you follow me in return in my TPT store and blog.

Cheesy Math Chants...

Academic vocabulary is big in my district (and I'm pretty sure elsewhere as well).  To help my kiddos learn some important words in math, I made up an addition and subtraction chant.  I must admit it's pretty catchy, and something I whipped up in my head one day on recess duty.

Addition:
When you add
The addends make the sum
part-part-whole
ADDITION SENTENCE!

Subtraction (said like a rap):
Hey, are you ready to go?
When you subtract
The answer is the difference!
Start with the whole and get the part-part!
SUBTRACTION SENTENCE!

I feel funny just typing this.  My hubby has been making fun of me.  Yes, these chants are silly, but they will help my students learn the language of math! OK, I'm off to begin much needed work on my comprehensive final!  Wish me luck! 

Getting the classroom ready...

This time of year is busy, exciting, and exhausting.  Did I say exhausting?  There are so many little details that go into getting the classroom ready.  Although I am not "officially" back at work, I am going in this week because I won't have all the time I need to get ready next week.  I am excited with the way my room is coming together.  It's the first year that many of my things (border, paper, bulletin boards, bins, etc.) coordinate.  My room has a mix of white, blues and greens (LIME! Love it!) and it feels calming.  As for a theme, I have cats and dogs.  You may be wondering how that goes with the color scheme, but let me tell you... it works!  I don't know how, but it does.  I didn't want to go the primary color route that would have worked well with cats and dogs too.   I am also realizing just how OCD I really am.  I actually took down part of a bulletin board because the border wasn't straight enough.  I also spent an hour tripling the border around my math wall!  Ugh!  I drive myself crazy.  Pictures will come soon.

Do you have a theme or color scheme, or both?