Book Activity: Cami Kangaroo Has Too Much Stuff

I have found the most adorable book that is SO realistic and relatable for students (and me)! It's called, "Cami Kangaroo Has Too Much Stuff!" This book is about a kangaroo named Cami who had to clean her room so she could be on time to a party. Her parents sent her to her room to clean and in the midst of cleaning, she got overwhelmed and very distracted by all of the cool things she found. Also in the midst of cleaning, she realized that she had to return a toy to a friend... but, she couldn't find the toy! Oh no!! The story ends with a lesson that Cami learns about being organized and a way that can also help her clean up effectively.

Here are some images from the text. The illustrations are just beautiful.

In addition to this amazing book, I had to create some fun activities for my students to do. Once I got going, my son asked to color a Kangaroo too... So, I may have also thrown in a few Pre-K activities too!

This book lends itself to such great discussion, text connections, character analyzing and focusing on story elements. It's PERFECT for the classroom. I'm thinking, it'll be our first read aloud series of the year.

Here are some of the toddler activities I created to go along with this book!

There is an adorable Kangaroo puzzle and a kangaroo coloring page with the letter K! 

My little man and I may have worked on a few other letters too! :-)

If you own this book or are about to own it very soon, here are the FREE activities for you to use with it!

You can also find the book by clicking here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/145EcrU-mopAyWcoWRIjLpDaNIdqbgMgq/view?usp=sharing

Enjoy!!

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How to Create Learning Folders!

I am sure many of you have made learning folders to hold students work for a unit of study. In case you haven't and this catches your attention, I wanted to show you how they could be made for free! There is no need to buy file folders, or real folders for that matter.

Here are the materials you need:

• Two pieces of computer paper (any color)
• Tape
• Glue
• Two half sheets of computer paper

Most of us, have the stuff I mentioned above on hand. If you don't have tape, you'll be fine without it! use glue instead! Here is how I created my learning folders for my Living and Nonliving unit of study with my first graders!

Step One: Get two pieces of paper.

Step Two: Tape the two pieces of paper together in the center. I do the inside and the outside for durability.

Step Three: Cut out pockets for the folders. You can cut out one or two pockets. Students can decorate their pockets!

Step Four: Attach the pockets to the folder - only applying glue to the bottom, left and right side. 

Step Five: Add a cover! This is a great way to let students in on what they'll be learning! They can decorate it with prior knowledge, the learning objective or they can write down new learning from your very first lesson!

Last but not least... add all the learning inside the folder!

Don't let the back of the folder go to waste either - Make it interactive, make a game on the back, make some flipper flappers! Have fun!!

I hope you found this post helpful and it sparked some ideas for your own units of study! I used my Living and Nonliving unit here in my examples. If you are interested in that, click the cover below!

Thanks so much!!

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Leprechaun Notes

If you're one of the those crazy teachers like me that allow your students to build leprechaun traps inside the classroom, then you definitely want a fun follow up for the kids!

I want my students to find something fun waiting for them at their traps from the leprechaun in the morning! I came up with notes with a picture of our crazy leprechaun that has been causing havoc in our classroom all week long!

I wrote the notes to my kids with my left hand so they didn't think that I WROTE THE NOTES! They would totally make the connection.

I also tried to make a lot of the notes connected to the trap that the kids made!

Like the one you see below, his little note said, "I saw that hole."

The little girl made a hole at the top of the box so the leprechaun would fall inside! It's behind the grass.

If you're interested in using the notes with your kids, you can find them here!

I can't wait to see my student's reactions tomorrow!

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Tooth Trouble Activity Ideas

Welcome another edition of Books Teachers Love! This month, I'm introducing a book "Tooth Trouble."  I have read this book every year since my first year teaching. I don't remember how I found out about the book, but I fell in love with it. It makes the kids (and me) giggle all throughout!

The book is about an adorable kid walrus, named Wibur. At the beginning of the story, we find out that his tusk hurts. Everyone keeps telling him to go to the dentist, but he just doesn't want to. He keeps wanting to play with his friends and do everything they do but he can't with a sore tusk. Eventually, Wilbur talks with his grandpa who doesn't like the dentist either. His grandpa actually has a broken tusk. Talking to his grandpa caused him to change his mind about the dentist. The story ends with Wilbur realizing that goes isn't so bad. Then, he tries to convince his grandpa to go!

 ;) It's adorable!

I always use this book to model making inferences. 

There are so many opportunities to practice! 

First, I like to read the book with the kids and have them focus on Wilbur. 

We work to describe his inside and outside character traits.

After we work on describing Wilbur, then we work to provide evidence!

I also like to allow students to think about a particular part of the book to practice their inference skills.

There is one part in the book when Wilbur realizes that he should probably go to the dentist.
It's when his grandpa tells him that he never wanted to go with the dentist either. Students can really infer here by looking at the characters face and grandpa's missing tooth! :)

You can grab the printables here.

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Peek at My Spider Week with FREEBIES!!

This week, it's all about those creepy, crawly spiders! My kids are just going to eat it all up!!

Through our study of spiders, I am also going to begin to introduce different text features to the students using this packet. We aren't going to do a whole lot this week with text features, just introduce them and make an anchor chart. We'll really dig in once they're all introduced.

In math, it's all about place value. We started last week, and the kids are having a blast with this game:

In reading stations, we are going strong. I have my kids using a checklist when they're not meeting with me for guided reading. This is the only thing that I've found to work this year. We are so limited on time. Thank goodness for Fabulous in First (I am totally obsessed with her teaching style & ideas)!

You can grab the checklist and bin labels by clicking here or below. 

Andddd.... here are my visual plans for the week. There are a TON of freebies embedded. So, if something looks interesting, just click on the cover to go to the activity!

This week, I am most excited for our new book station! I taught this one to students on Friday and they are already obsessed! You can grab the book we are using here for free.

Have a fabulous week!!!

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Books Bloggers Love: October Edition

The book I am talking about this month isn't an 'Octobery' one. It's one that can definitely be incorporated into the October fun, but can also teach students a great lesson. This book was introduced to me in college, and I fell in love. I've read it every year! I don't do anything crazy with it, but the possibilities are just endless! I wanted to share some ideas with you this month!

The book is called, "Paper Bag Princess."

Here is a little summary of the book:

Elizabeth is a beautiful princess who is going to marry a prince named Ronald. One day, a dragon takes Ronald away. Elizabeth sets out to get Ronald back from the dragon. Because the dragon had burned all of her clothes, the only thing she could find to wear was a paper bag.

Princess Elizabeth went to the dragon's cave but the dragon would not let her in. Elizabeth tried talking to him and asking him to show her what he could do. He showed her how he could burn down forests and tried to impress her with how fast he could fly around the world. Elizabeth giggled. She had outsmarted the dragon by getting him to use up the rest of his fire and energy.

When the dragon fell asleep, she walked into the cave and rescued Ronald. When Ronald saw how Elizabeth was dressed, he told her to come back when she looked like a proper princess. Elizabeth realized her unappreciative prince was not the one for her and she didn't marry him after all.

I love to use this book for respond to reading activities. It has great situations that can really cause students to think. There is also a great moral to the story!

This book can be used to work on summarizing skills!

I love to tell the kids that they are going to pretend to be newscasters! They have to fill in the TV screens with the major events from the book.

Then, students use those events to write a summary!

I also like students to think about a 'what if?' situation!

It's great to get those wheels turning and to get our pencils writing!

A little grammar doesn't hurt either! ;-)

Then, to top it all off.... you can't read this book without talking about the meaning of the story!

Does it really matter that the girl wore a paper bag? Does this make her a bad person? NO!

So, as always...

Use these as simple bookmarks. Have students think about this and write about what it means on the back! Laminate these for durability! :-)

If you love all of these activities, you can grab them here for FREE! :)

To read my past posts about other books I love, click the post links below:

Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship

The Night Before First Grade

Now, it's time for you to read about even more fabulous books!!

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Multiplication Duo - A Free Card Game!

Hey everyone! I just posted at Owl-ways Be Inspired! It's all about this fun multiplication card game that is SO MUCH FUN! Hop over to learn more about it and grab a directions printable too!

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Implementing Literature Circles & Day 6!!

I have been toying with the idea to introduce Literature Circles all year long and doing a lot of reading about its benefits. I've read articles, pulled out the college books and purchased groups of books to get me going. I decided last week to just dive in and give it a shot. I was scared. I took it slow... and crossed my fingers that we didn't crash and burn. 

I introduced my kids to the way it works and told them this is something new that I think they'd really enjoy (they do). They said they were game and so we went with it! This post will be breaking down how I introduced literature circles to my students. If I told you everything I've done so far... we'd be here for years! I will post a little bit each day so we aren't all overwhelmed!

 Here are the books my students chose from:

Each group has 5 students in it and one group has 6. I have 26 kids (yep.. a lot - but, I couldn't imagine having any less)!

After students picked their books they read a chapter or 2 together just to practice and decide on how they would like to read. I really am taking this process slow.

 I am having them read the book at the exact same time so we are always on the same page.

After students read their book for the first time I just had them talk about it. Yep, that's it - just talk!!

I would go onto more... but, it would be a LOAD of information! So, I will be back tomorrow and tell you about how I introduced their first job to them using a read aloud!

Now, you can grab a literature circle freebie below by entering our Day 6 giveaway!!

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