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?

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll! I love this holiday because it's an excuse to eat like a pig without anybody judging you! My wife and I are spending the day with (very Italian) family today, so it will be a non-stop eating adventure, with red wine flowing, from the moment we walk in the door. Our cocker-spaniel, Charlie, is in the doghouse with Uncle Angelo right now because he stole a piece of cheese off the antipasto while it was being delicately prepared last night. Oops!

Yesterday was our first day of Thanksgiving break, as Tuesday was a Hurricane Sandy make-up day. I decided, what better time to decorate my room for Christmas!? I've now got a delightfully tacky Christmas classroom that I can't wait for my kids to see! While I was there I took some pictures of our little Turkey project that we made just before break.  Meet my wild bunch of sight-word turkeys!

I told the students to choose 6 sight words off the word wall that they needed the most practice with! It was neat to see them reading the whole wall and deciding which words to write on the feathers!

I don't know about your students, but mine sure go gaga for googly eyes! They really enjoyed making these little guys, and it was a neat way to throw in a craft (which there's never any time for) and keep it a learning experience. Do you have any fun ways that you like to practice sight words with your students? 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Lots To Be Thankful For...

This week, I am thankful for many things!  I am thankful to have half my parent-teacher conferences done.  I am thankful for a little break around the corner.  I am also thankful to be having my first TpT sale!  Everything is 20% off, including my Thanksgiving Centers Unit!

Click to visit my store!

I'm also thankful to have 24 of the most amazing first graders in the world!  Today we were classifying dinosaurs by meat eaters and plant eaters.  I figured they would name the standards -- T-rex, raptor, triceratops, etc.  One of my girls raised her hand and said "diplodocus."  At first, I didn't know what to say, as I was unsure if it was actually a dinosaur at all!  I asked her how she knew that word and she promptly told me that she read about it in a book at home.  Naturally, as we were classifying the dinosaurs, I had to ask if she knew whether it was a meat eater or a plant eater.  "It's a plant eater because it has flat teeth."  Blew my mind and made my day for sure.

Speaking of things to be thankful for, my students have been enjoying learning all about the Pilgrims and Indians, as well as sharing the things that they have to be thankful for.  We did this little craft as a jump-start to November writing.  Each student decorated their turkey feather with things they were thankful for.

What types of things do your students do around Thanksgiving?  Always looking for new fun ideas to do with my kiddos :-)

Frankenstorm

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, I had the day off!  I decided to be SUPER productive and create my first centers unit.  This Thanksgiving themed centers unit contains 5 activities...

Click on the picture to visit my TpT store!


Counting Turkey Feathers:
Your students will choose cards containing a variety of addition sentences. They will group the problems according to the sums, then record them on the worksheet provided.

Thanksgiving Sentence Scramble:
Students will sort the cards depending on the picture.  Once sorted, the students must unscramble the words to form a Thanksgiving sentence.  When completed, they will record the sentence on the worksheet provided, and illustrate their work.

Thanksgiving ABC Order:
There are 8 cards containing different Thanksgiving themed words.  The cards must be put in order, then recorded on the worksheet and illustrated.

What's Missing?:
In this game, students will draw cards containing 2 letters of the alphabet and a missing letter.  They must first determine which letter is missing, then record it onto their worksheet.

Up Your Game:
Students will play this game in groups of 2 or 3.  They will each draw a card from the pile.  Whoever has the highest card may keep all of them.  Keep playing until there are no more cards in the pile.  The winner is the one with the most cards.

I hope you find these activities useful in your classroom - my students LOVE playing them!!