Books Teachers Love: November Edition

How is it that we are already thinking about November? This school year is already flying by so fast! Anyway, the girls and I are back to give you more ideas for great read alouds in November! Be sure to hop around to each of us to grab some great ideas for the month of November.

My book this month is one that I LOVED reading to my third graders last year! These ideas are most appropriate for grades 2-4!

The book is called, "Thank You Sarah."

You can find it online for free here.

It's an awesome book that totally SHOCKS the kids! It changes everything they THOUGHT they knew about Thanksgiving!

Last year, we did a whole slew of comprehension activities with this book! It is PERFECT for synthesizing, characterization and digging into those deeper comprehension skills.

Here are a few of the activities that we did!

The kids made this simple, but fun characterization wheel.

Then, students made a little comprehension foldable to identify the main events in the story.

The next day, students answered opened ended comprehension questions in another foldable. The kids worked with partners on these and the conversations were just amazing! 

Then, there are also additional, simple written comprehension activities!

They go over things like author's purpose, story elements and even a fun activity on Mad Libs!

You can find this entire unit here.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to enter below to win four books for the month of September.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To find more great books for November, click on the bloggers below!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Thanks for stopping by!! Happy November Prepping!!

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Our Two Day Week is AWESOME!

So, if you know me... you know my brain never ever stops turning when it comes to the 'fun stuff!' Even though I am out of first grade, I still want to make the Holidays special and an awesome learning experience for my students. It is hard to 'theme' things up in third but-the perfect book was brought to my attention and I went wild!

I began thinking of all of the fun things we can do with the book while still practicing our ever so important literary skills... "Thank You, Sarah" Literacy Resources were born! Although, I am upset that I can't get to them all... I am excited that next year-I will have an amazing book and resource to grab!

I found this book to late to be able to purchase it so I will be using the youtube version for my instruction. Thank goodness for youtube... I tell ya! Next year... we'll have the real deal!

Here are just a few of the activities included in the, "Thank You, Sarah Literacy Resources" packet that I created!

Before we begin reading we will begin with synthesizing. We will review and fill out our first box with all of our thoughts. Then, about half way through I'll pause and we will fill out the second. At the end we will fill in our last box and discuss how our thinking has changed.

This week we will also be going over Characterization once again and really digging in with this simple craftivity you see below!

 We are going to work on providing evidence to support our character traits.

We will first answer questions based on Sarah and then go even further with our craft.

We will also be working on deep thinking comprehension questions with our foldable that you see below.

 Then, we will see what else we can fit in... for the first time ever... I wish I didn't have 3 more days off school this week... I just love this stuff & I want to use it all!

If you are interested in this unit you can grab it here or enter the giveaway below!!
Rachel from The Tattooed Teacher & I are joining each other for a quick little giveaway! You can win her new Thank You, Sarah product along with mine! Just enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I've also typed up my plans for this week so you can see what else we are up to!

We are finishing up our elapsed time unit with a journal activity, interactive math activities and a menu board from Diary of a Wimpy Teacher (this girl is amazing)!

Yep... ROCKS!! I can't wait! I purchased Hope King's unit and I am also using Tanja's awesome rock unit as well!

I'll be back tomorrow with a fun debate activity that we did last week!! It's oh so fun!

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Friday Funday!!

This week we've been 'elapsed timing' our lives away and we've got it! (the majority of us) You know how that works! At the beginning of the week we completed elapsed time activities together and focused on telling time to the nearest minute and today... well... we were rockin' word problems and solving elapsed time task cards outside of the hour!! I've got a room full of hard little workers!

So, here is what we did today for our Friday Funday!

I set up four stations, each with a different task. Students grabbed a friend to work with and off they went. I did allow students to choose the order they completed the tasks and I just facilitated and helped where it was needed. The kids had fun and there was tons of math talk!

Our four stations were: word problems in our interactive math journal, elapsed time task cards, elapsed time monster cards & adapted mind on ipads.

At this station I allowed students to make their own recording forms. They were so creative and loved it! This little gal made a 'turkey' recording form! :)

Students also worked with the monster task cards to determine elapsed time when given a start and an end time.

*Pardon the fact that I didn't take any other pictures* 

After the students finished their stations they got to make a turkey and attach a recording form of their choice! Today was seriously all about review, fun and choice! Oh, elapsed time & turkeys too!

Have a happy weekend! I'll be back soon to share more fun with you!!

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Gingerbread, Native Americans & Turkeys! MISH/*MASH

Heyy!!!... So, I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving because tomorrow we get back to it!! We aren't just getting back 'to it' either... We are getting back 'to it' holiday style!

 

This week it is going to be all about the Gingerbread Man in my classroom! I created a first full unit for the week and I am Oh so excited! I am using ALL of it! Here is a peek into out week. At the end of the week I am post about this unit with lots of pictures! :)

Click here or ON my plans for a closer look at my week!

 



 

Check out more plans at Mrs. Will's Kindergarten!

 

 

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Now, onto some Turrkeyific fun from last week!

 

We did a mishmash of stuff last week to get ready for Thanksgiving!

 

First, we spent an entire day dedicated to nothing but Thanksgiving!

 

We read a book from Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving Unit and then students wrote about how they would catch a turkey!

 

 

My favorite story went a little like this...

First, I would get a trap and set it up.

Next, I would dress up like a turkey and dance behind the trap.

Last, I would catch the turkey and eat it.

 

-This cracked me up!! All I could imagine was this little guy dancing like a turkey!!-

 

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In math that day we worked on some data collection and writing about our data!

Students walked around the room and had to ask 9 different people if they liked to eat turkey. They had to color in their data and track it with tally marks! = So fun!

 

 This was our final product! I randomly came up with this turkey craft because it was quick, cute and easy! We don't have much time in our day for crafts so they've got to be quick!

 

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I snapped a few pictures of students working on their stations last week too!

I am loving how we are finally getting into the nitty, gritty of first grade!! I just see their little wheels turning!

 

 

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LAST BUT NOT LEAST==== MY FAVORITE!!

We finally finished up our Native American Unit and I managed to snap a few pictures!

 

Each year I love teaching my students about how Native American's used buffalo! It is such a high interest topic and it really hits that social studies standard of now vs. then!

 

To begin the unit I always pass out this paper to students and give them a little excerpt on what we will be working on to get their minds going. Students infer what they think Native Americans did with buffalo in order to survive.

After students complete this I show them this powerpoint. I love their reactions when I read the information to them! I get a lot of, WHAAAT, EWWWW, I GUESSED THAT!!!!"

 

 

Then, students complete the, "They Did What" portion of the unit to recall what the Native Americans used the buffalo for in order to survive. We compare and contract our guesses with the real information.

Students completed a writing after this but I forgot to take a picture of these! Basically, they made an outline of things that surprised them and they provided reasons why. Then, students combined their thoughts into a paragraph and illustrated what they were surprised by the most!

 

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On this day we spent the entire day just Native Americanizing ourselves!

 

We read, "Knots in a Counting Rope" and then discussed questions with a partner in order to help us come up with Native American names. I instructed students that Native American names sometimes describe the person.

 

Students then wrote their Native American name and provided a reason as to why that was their name.

(Can you tell which writing skill was hit hard this week) ;) reasons, reasons, reasons!

After students completed their discussions and Native American name paper they created their head band! This was a freebie from Mel D.!

 

 Then, students worked on the Native American vests! I pulled up some symbols, we discussed them and then I let them go! They always have so much fun! Here is a picture of one of my little girl's vest!

 

 

 We then learned a Native American song... went and performed it for the music teacher and invited our principle in and sang the song to him! Then, the students shared all the cool stuff they learned with him as well!

 

If you are ever interested in this unit then you can find it here:

 

 

 

I'd say we had a successful week with lots of fun learning!! I can't wait for this upcoming week with my kids!

 

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I don't know about you but I have really noticed my kids just 'taking off' lately... everyone can read, everyone can write, our spelling is getting better, we're becoming closer in the classroom and we are just motivated and eager to learn each day! I just love my kiddos! :) Had to share that with you! I swear, I could never imagine myself doing anything else other than teaching my little sweeties! :)

 

Have a great week with yours!

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Fun New Stations & A Freebie Peek!!!

Before I get to rambling this week and sharing some station fun I will give you the visual plans right away!!

 

Here are my plans for the week and as you will notice I am not going in tomorrow because I am sicker than a darn dog right now! I was out Friday and I am a little better but no where near ready to be in a classroom with 21 little kiddos!

 

Tomorrow I have the sub using a lot of my "Introducing Action Verbs" packet to review and introduce how to use action verbs with my kiddos. I am upset that I don't get to use it. But, it is very user friendly and it'll really make the day go smoothly tomorrow!

 

 

Click here or below to view my plans in Google docs!

 

Check out other plans at Mrs. Will's K!

 

 

On Tuesday we are starting my FAVORITE unit of all time! I came up with the idea while student teaching and I have tweaked it since and taught each year to my kids! (you know... my whole 1 other year of teaching ha ha)

 

It is a great way to get some social studies standards in as well as hit a lot of the CCSS! It is all about how those Native Americans used to use the Buffalo to survive! This is a unit that encourages lots and lots of discussion! The kids ooo and ahhh throughout the whole unit! I can't wait to post photos for you!

 

 

This week when I return I am also going to try the whole Guided Math and Math Workshop thing again. I tried it at the beginning of the year but my kids weren't able to be independent enough to complete activities on their own (no matter how easy I made them)

So, I read up on  Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits to figure out how to make this work in first grade.

 

Reading up on all that inspired me to really use the kids Math Journals even more than I already am. So, that inspired this weeks freebie for you!

I wanted to make journal activities that didn't take a lot of reading in order for the kids to figure out what they're supposed to do. Each day before rotations I am going to pass out their activity to them and have them slip it in their notebook so its already there when they go to their rotation.

 

I plan to make a great big math journal packet but for now.... these are free for you!

Just click here or below to grab them up!

I'd love a comment or a follow for the freebie!!

 

Next up!.............NEW STATIONS!!!

 

These thanksgiving stations that I just created are literally the cutest ones I've created thus far!! They were so cute that I even had to print them out in color and take pictures of some of them for you!

 

Here are some of the literacy stations that my kids are doing this week!

 

Making CVC or four letter words!

 

Using word families to make words with beginning blends.

This one is a great one for differentiation! There are a ton of different word families!

 Sorting words based on their beginning digraphs.

 Sorting asking and telling sentences here.

My kids are really getting good at these!!

 

Here are my kids Math Tubs for the week! :)

 

They will be sorting addition problems and identifying if they are less than, equal to more or more than 10!

 They will be sorting even and odd numbers this week! They still need some support for this so I made a mat with cute little manipulatives for them to use.

 In small group on Tuesday we will be sorting these cards and filling out a recording sheet.

 Sorting addition problems again--this one will be a challenge but a little challenge is always good. They will have their number grid, manipulatives and number line to use here.

 Students will use nickels and pennies here to make the amount on the card and they will record their answers. I know this is not a first grade standard but our curriculum asks us to teach it and my kids are actually doing really well this year with money!

 

There are a few more things in the Thanksgiving station pack but that's all I have printed for now!

 

Have a great week and I hope to feel better soon!

Remember if you grabbed my freebie I would love a comment or for a follow! ;)

 

 

 



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