Learning Lessons with Molly Lou!

Hi all! Loooooong time, no update. I've got Sweeney Todd rehearsals pretty much every day of the week at this point. Free time is few and far between. As we get closer to the show opening, I'll share some pictures... It's gonna be pretty epic.

ANYWHO, I wanted to share some things we've been doing lately!

I'm sure many of you know my good friend Molly Lou Melon. She's a peach. Love her.

Anyways, my principal told me he was going to do a formal observation during reading. I do reading group, ten minute mini-lesson, reading group, ten minute mini-lesson, etc. So he said he'd come for one mini-lesson and one reading group. I read them Molly Lou Melon the day before then when he came, we focused on Common Core standard RL.1.2 (Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson). So, we went back through the story to try and figure out what Molly Lou learned about herself. I was getting "so-so" responses such as "she learned to stand tall and sing loud" and then out of the blue, one of my BOYS goes "she learned to believe in herself." *BOOM!* I could not have said it better myself. I love those moments when they REALLY bring it when you're being observed. After figuring out the lesson she learned, I really wanted to focus on details from the text that helped us realize what she learned...

Again, it was going well, then one of my little ladies said "the letter that Molly wrote to her Grandma at the end said 'you were right.'" *DING DING!*

This week in Reading Street we read Peter's Chair, which I LOVE. I wanted to take this skill and have the students review the story, looking for the lesson that Peter learned, as well as what details in the text lead them to realizing that. I had them work in pairs using a graphic organizer from this Common Core graphic organizer pack. If you don't already have it, get it. It's been a lifesaver. Lyndsey from A Year of Many Firsts, if you're reading, this pack is amazing.

I hope you're enjoying the sunshine wherever you are... It's a little chilly in PA right now, but sipping coffee with the heat on while seeing the sunshine is making me THINK it's almost summer. I'll take it.

Here Write Now

Sorry. My wife and I went to see Ghost The Musical a few weeks ago, which was literally the most comically terrible thing I've ever seen, and the song "Here right now" has been stuck in my head. I was feeling witty. Hence, Here Write Now. Look at me go.

ANYWHO. I've really been thinking about how I teach writing in my class lately. In talking to the second grade teachers in my building, I didn't feel that we were doing a great job preparing our students to write in second grade. As soon as our students get to second grade, they are expected to respond to writing each week, in a typical "opening sentence, 3 details, closing sentence" format. I did NONE of this with my kids, because I was way more focused on writing in complete sentences, making sure that the capital letters ended up in the right place, and trying to get them to express personal feeling through their writing. SO, I decided to start throwing in SIMPLE writing prompts to get them in the habit of writing 5 sentences around a single topic. The first few times I've done it, I have heavily guided my students through the pre-writing process.

My pre-writing page is nothing fancy, but I really wanted to provide my students with a way to organize their ideas.

For our first try, I had my kiddos simply think of 3 reasons why they love Thanksgiving. Our opening and closing sentences were all very similar... Things like "Thanksgiving is the best holiday" or "I really love Thanksgiving" or "I can't wait for Thanksgiving" etc... (The turkeys are sight word turkeys that I made last year... I blogged about them HERE.)

We wrapped up reading The Big Circle in Reading Street last week, so on Friday, I had the kiddos think of 3 reasons they would want a dinosaur as a pet. They had SO much fun with this writing project, and even MORE fun making the dinosaurs to match! The dinosaur pattern is FREE on TpT by the fantastic Ms. Leslie Ann at Life in First Grade! Love her stuff.

Do you have any tricks for getting your firsties ready for independent writing prompts?

The Lady in the Moon

Hello! We use Reading Street at my school, and are reading Lady in the Moon this week. Don't get me wrong, I really do like our reading series, but every once in a while a really boring not as fun story pops up. For me, this is one of them. There were some fun bits that we enjoyed reading, but other than that, my kiddos were a little restless in reading groups. SO, I decided to spruce things up in our room with these Chinese lanterns. We really enjoyed reading about the Lanterns, so I KNEW my firsts would absolutely love this little craftivity. Very easy, and definitely a fun one!

Here's whatcha do. Find some Chinese clipart to spruce up the page (I like to use an oaktag because it holds up a little longer). The most important part is the row of dots at the bottom of the page. About an inch from the bottom, and about an inch apart. These will be very important later, so tell the students NOT to color over them with a dark color. Let the students color the page until their little hearts are content.

When they're all done coloring, have them fold the page in half, hot-dog style. Then, starting on the side with the fold, cut straight up to each dot. TO MAKE THINGS EASIER, I folded the pages and made the first cut for my kiddos, just to make sure they didn't chop it in half! Once it's all sliced up, open it up and staple the top and bottom to form the lantern!

Super easy. Super fun. Kiddos will love it! Happy almost-weekend!

Barf City

Oh my garsh. Flu season is in full swing at my school. I had 7 kids out yesterday AND my aide was out too. Needless to say, the day was a little nuts! We just read Ruby in Her Own Time, and I was planning on having my little firsts make time-lines. Well, it's a little hard to start a project when you're missing 1/3 of your class! I felt like we were SO unproductive. Today I only had 3 out, so we were able to start the project this afternoon. 

HOWEVER.

Some of my kids who WERE there should NOT have been there. This afternoon, I swear half my class was complaining that they were about to throw up. I've gotten pretty good at determining whether or not a child is about to vomit in my face, and these kiddos weren't faking it. Praise baby Jesus, none of them got sick in my room. Been there, done that, not fun.

While working on time-lines, I was checking what they had written (their homework a few days ago was to list one thing they'd done each year of their life). One of my kiddos had written that he had his tonsils out, so I was just making small talk with him while checking his spelling. 

Me: "Oh, you had your tonsils out?"

Student: "Yeah, cuz I puked on the couch."

Seriously?

I'll snap some pictures of our time-lines when they're finished. In the meantime, here's a fun little craftivity we did the other day to spruce up our L.A. focus board. Ruby the duck learns to do things in her own time, so we made some ducks to hang out on the bulletin board. I found the pattern online for free here... Check them out!

Here's to hoping your students are healthier than mine this week!

Honey Bees

Hello, all!  We use Reading Street at my school and I was thinking of a way to spruce up my reading board. Since we're currently reading Honey Bees, I decided to have my little firsts make some bees for the board! They had a blast making them, and I think they turned out pretty fun! I had them cut out the stripes BEFORE they cut out the bee, so that the stripes would fit perfectly. We're all about avoiding sloppy messes! I also gave the students a half sheet of paper that I had drawn 2 wings, 2 eyes and a stinger onto.

LOOK at how fun they look on our reading board!!

Here's a few pictures of what our Elf on the Shelf has been up to... He turned our homework bin into a marshmallow hot tub the hung out on top of our Christmas tree. Stay tuned - tomorrow he starts using props!