Realism and Fantasy

Happy Sunday! Hope your weekend was fantastic.

Last week our reading comprehension skill was realism and fantasy. During our whole group read aloud time I read lots of Doreen Cronin books.

  

After each book the students had to give me examples of realism and fantasy from the story. Here’s the chart we created. Ignore my terrible handwriting.

Then on Friday we completed the activity below. They had to choose an animal then draw that animal doing something real, then doing something that was fantasy. I forgot to snap pictures of their papers. A few had me cracking up! I’ll try to remember and add them to this post.

Click on the picture to snag your copy. If you download how about a word of thanks or some feedback. Have a great week!

Fall Sale

 

I’m having a sale! Today through Sunday everything in my store is 20% off! Just wanted to say thanks to all my wonderful readers and followers!

First Grade Yahtzee Games and Red and Yellows

Hey! I think I sent all the requested copies of my game boards from yesterday’s post. But if you didn’t leave your e-mail I decided to post them here for you. I hope your students enjoy playing these. If you partake, how about a comment or some feedback?? Pretty please.

             First Grade Yahtzee Plus 1
            This file has both games boards for plus 1 and plus 2

                                        
                           First Grade Yahtzee Plus 2


                              First Grade Yahtzee Plus 1 w/ 2 dice

                                                 
                                 First Grade Yahtzee Plus 2 w/ 2 dice


                   Reds and Yellows. I usually make front to back copies and the students always keep one in their work folders to play of they finish an assignment early.

This Week in First Grade Fun

We have been busy this week. I’m too pooped to write a lot…but take a look and you’ll see what we’ve been up to.

This week we talked about the strategy of adding one to any number. I started using lessons from Mastering the Basic Math Facts. Click here to read this post, and you can find lots of freebies if you search for Mastering the Basic Math Facts on my sidebar.

I started by reading the book Mouse Count and then gave each student a plastic bag filled with different numbers of mice. They had to complete the activity sheet below by first adding one to the total number of mice, then adding two to the total number of mice.

Then they had to draw a picture to match their addition sentences. We did a quick little journal writing activity on what they noticed when you added one to a number. The student’s comments were very insightful and I could tell they got it!
   
We also played Reds and Yellows for Seven. The students tossed seven chips and recorded how many were red and how many were yellow. Repeated playing of this game helps with number sense and fact fluency.
 

The idea for this game came from Shari Sloane’s wonderful site. She played Kindergarten Yahtzee with her students. I created a First Grade Yahtzee, First Grade Yahtzee Plus One and First Grade Yahtzee Plus 2 to use with my students. These young ladies are playing First Grade Yahtzee Plus 1.
She has her shoes off because she cashed in a Stinky Feet coupon. Gotta love Mel D’s coupon system!

Students who were ready were introduced to a different version of First Grade Yahtzee Plus 1. They had to roll two dice, add the dots, then add one to the total. These students are playing First Grade Yahtzee Plus 1 with two dice.
    
We ended the week with our Fun Friday Editable Graphing Activity. The students had a ball graphing Teddy Grahams.



I didn’t snap tons of pictures this week but I will try to remember to take some shots of all the other things we accomplished.. I’ll try to get those posted soon. If you’d like a copy of any of the activities leave a comment and let me know!

The Week in Review and Lakeshore Update

Happy Sunday! Finally I have  pictures of some the things we’ve been doing in our classroom. But first let me tell you about this little baby.

Lakeshore Learning gave me the opportunity to test out Phonemic Awareness Plinko. We were all set to play this game on last Friday but we had a Back to School Pep Rally. That pretty much squashed our Fun Friday, but my students were troopers and patiently waited until Fun Friday this week. They loved it! I think this will make many reappearances for Fun Friday.

UPDATE: And if you stop by Lakeshore you can take advantage of their special offer of up to $15 off your purchase. Click on the link below to take advantage. I’m really loving their interactive white board software. I bought the Word Building one and my students love it!

Enjoy up to $15 off your purchase from Lakeshore: www.LakeshoreLearning.com/specialoffer

Math: For the past two weeks we’ve been developing number sense for all things five and six. I’m talking true number sense. I’ve noticed that my students can figure out 3+2, but if I say tell me all the ways we can make five using two numbers…at first it was like crickets. But we’ve immersed ourselves in these two numbers this week and it’s beginning to sink in. I can especially tell during Number Talks. For more on that post you can click here.

Here’s this week in math in pictures and a few words.

We completed our One Duck Stuck activity. The concept of plus one is a tough concept for some of my students. This week we’ll begin with some lessons from Mastering the Basic Math Facts and I’m pretty sure this will help my students who are struggling with this.

    

    

    

    

                          

 

Story Problems for Six: About two summers ago I bought these cute foam stickers at Target’s Dollar Spot. They worked out perfectly with our story problems for six.

         

     

    

    

Ways to Make Six

   

 

Weekly Morning Math Games:

Each morning after my students complete their daily story problem they can play a free choice math game or read. Well you know how you have those wonderful students who always play the same math game every. single. day.

They fear branching out so I had to come up with a plan of action which would make sure my students played all the great math games I had to offer. I created a weekly prescription of sorts.

My students will get one of these on their desks each Monday morning. I’ve listed their medications for free choice math games. They have to play all of the games listed on their scrip pad by Friday. If there is a recording sheet, they turn that into our morning math games basket, or sometimes they may have to turn in the game sheet itself.

Now I can breathe easier knowing that they get to experience everything. Click on the pic below to grab your free copy. I make these on both sides of the page. When they flip it over that have their games for the next week. I have no idea how to make my PDF editable…so you’ll have to write in your game titles.

Here’s a picture of my Anytime Reading door. Students have leveled text suited for them and they can read anytime there are a few minutes to spare. I’m not quite finished with it, I want to add some clip art. But the books are what’s most important.

The Daily 5 is up and running. My students can read for 20 minutes of Read to Self time…no joke. I credit that to the two great K teachers in my building who also do D5. Mrs. S. and Ms. B. you rock! Read to Someone is going well too. We’ve been able to work up to 10 minutes.

Literacy: We also started our sound and picture sorts. Using just the pictures at first really help my students focus in on the sounds. They have to say the name of the picture out loud then decide where it fits on the sorting mat. Some of my strugglers had a hard time with this, which lets me know they aren’t hearing the sounds. I made some great observations which will help in planning instructional goals for my strugglers.

   

I’m using these two books this year. The newer versions come with a CD of interactive white board sorts.

      

We played our first I Have Who Has Game. My firsties went bonkers! It was great to hear, “Hey, that’s one of our spelling words this week!” Or, “That word has the ack chunk!” I also made some great observations during this game, because some of my students were having problems blending CVC or CCVC words and this will be the focus of my first Word Study Group.

   

We also started our Star Student of the Day. It’s so much fun to see their faces light up when they find out it’s their day to be interviewed by the class.

  

Sorry for the long post…but I just had so much to share! Have wonderful week!