Gobble, Gobble

We've been spending so much time on the important content of Thanksgiving/history, we haven't had much time for 'turkey' projects.  Today for writing workshop, students created lists of four things they will eat on Thanksgiving.  They also created lists of four things they hope to do on Thanksgiving.  (Yeppers, you saw it right...Victoria B. will be eating some alligator meat and some 'batatoes.)  Download the writing template here and here.

For an afternoon art project (that I started at 1:35...thank god for my blessing of a student teacher), we made these cute turkeys! First, we drew and painted brown circles.  Next, we watercolor painted stripes on white paper.  The kids cut their feathers from the rainbow watercolor paper.  Last they added a head, beak, gobble and some FUN google eyes! These will make great decorations for their holiday gatherings at home!

Personal Library

Aside from my classroom library, I have a "personal library," where I keep books that are near and dear to my heart-many hardback or ones I use often in all subject areas.  In the past, I wasn't really using all of my books as much as I would have liked, because they were all mixed up on my bookshelf.  I bought these tubs from RGS and organized my books according to subject area, seasons, holidays, etc...It makes it so much easier to find books when a certain skill or holiday approaches.  Happy organizing!

Scarecrow Art

We read one of my favorite fall books, Waltz of the Scarecrows by Constance McGeorge.  Next, students used oil pastels to draw the hills, sun and clouds.  Then, they watercolor painted their backgrounds.  The next day, they made their little scarecrows (ADORABLE!!).  For the last part of the project, they glued their scarecrows (and added some raffia) to their watercolor paintings.  This was a great project and thanks to a fellow art teacher blogger for the idea!!

Word Segmenting

For practice with cVc words, I went to Lowe's and got some 3-box paint samples.  I laminated them for durability.  Give each student 3 chips.  Instant elkonin boxes! Ways to use them: -Say a cVc word and have the kids push the chips up the boxes as they hear the sounds, or say a word and have them segment by pushing the chips and saying the sounds.  -Say a word and have them listen for a certain sound and place the chip in the correct box. 

To make these sound stretchers, start by going to a craft store to get some thick elastic.  Cut the elastic into strips.  Laminate a piece of light-colored tagboard or construction paper.  Cut 3 squares and staple them a strip of elastic.  Say cVc words for the kids to write on their squares (They need to use a Visa-V marker for this, because Expo don't erase on laminated paper well.  All they need to erase the Visa-V is a wet tissue).
The kids segment the word by gently stretching their elastic.  They snap it back to say the word.  *I also made 4-square stretchers for cVcE words to teach long vowels.

Behavior Wheel

We do a PBS program that we have developed ourselves over the past five years.  Every class in the school has a behavior wheel that travels with them to specials.  It's great to have a uniform program for behavior, so as students transition to different grade levels, there are no questions as to what the behavior policy will be.  It's also helpful for parents.  How the system works: Everyone begins the day on the "big green AKA meeting expectations."  I generally give my students 1-2 verbal warnings before I ask them to move their pins.  The wheel is divided into 5 parts: 1st warning, 2nd warning, orange, yellow, and red.  The first two give them a clue that they better stop what they're doing.  Orange-I do not punish students for orange; rather they have to color their daily behavior calendar orange so their parents can see they were misbehaving.  Yellow-note or phonecall home.  Red-office referral.  *As mentioned earlier, students color their behavior calendar each night. It stays in their take-home binders.  Parents can see how their children were at school each day.  I love this system! It works!

It's Election Day!

To learn about the upcoming election, we read Voting and Elections.  It's a little long, so we just discussed text features and read bits and pieces of it.  Next, we talked about the importance of voting.  Finally, the kids got to vote for their favorite picture book (all 3 are class favorites...).  I set up my "offices" that I use for testing, available here.  They used their ballots to vote.  Finally, I tallied up the results! And the winner was...CORDUROY! *A for sure class favorite!