Throw Back Thursday!!

I am linking up tonight with Cara's throwback Thursday! I haven't been blogging long so I did not have many 'good' blog posts to choose from... but, I did decided on a lesson I did towards the end of the school year! It was by far my favorite lesson that I did all year! It is one I am going to create a pack for Tpt but haven't quite made it to that yet! Anyway.... Here is the throwback!

 

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Our week in first grade was all about the zoo! Sadly, I failed at taking good pictures of all of the action but I will show you what I got & try to explain it the best I can!

 

Last Friday I asked students to fill out a form and write down their three favorite zoo animals that they would like to study. After students wrote down their favorites I split students into groups depending on the zoo animal in which they wanted to study. I created this black poster & when they walked in the door Monday morning they were so excited!!

 

Each group had a bag full of books and a research packet like you see below.

 

My class loves to share what they learn so to help them with this and make it still educational I told students they each could share one cool fact a day that they found about their animal. I had stickies available on the board and they could take one and put it in their animals bubbles. The kids loved reading these!

 

 When students were finished gathering information on different topics I taught them how to combine certain information to form a topic. We had a pre-writing sheet that helped them first organize their thoughts which made it very easy to organize their paragraphs!

 

 Next, I got students on the computer to type up their paragraphs! They made expert necklaces where they stored their typed up information. They were to wear these expert necklaces to the zoo and share their information with their group members when they got to their animal!

 Sadly, the weather in good ol' Ohio called for thunderstorms so we did not make it to the zoo today... so my colleagues and I knew we had to make it into a fun day so the kids weren't too sad. We had a scavenger hunt!! We made booklets, hats and binoculars! Kids had so much fun!! Then we brought in pop-corn and four different movies. Kids got to pick a any one of the teachers room to watch a movie!! Very fun day for kids and teachers!

 When we found out we couldn't go to the zoo I had the kids write their parents a note about it since I couldn't make it to the copier to write up a note and make copies! Read below to see what it said! (another teacher did type up a more professional note with details about why we canceled but not what we were doing)

 

I can't wait to get this packet together for you all!

 

 

Right now I am trucking away with literacy and math stations! My team and I have met all week and we have 6 weeks planned so far and I am making stations for us that go right along with the concepts we are covering! I just finished my fall one tonight & guess what?!! I have it discounted! There are a whopping 11 stations in the packet! PERFECT for firsties & great for whole group kindergarten lessons! I would also use this for any second graders who need intervention!

 

Here is the link to it if you want to check it out!

 

 

Next up... Halloween literacy stations are in the works now! :)