Winter Literacy Center Activities and a Student Teacher!

We have been back to school for 3 days now.  I think we're finally back in the swing of things.  My student teacher has been with us for 2 days so far and we LOVE her!  She is the sweetest thing.  I am super excited about having her and I know she'll do an awesome job!

We started a few of our winter literacy center activities today.

Here is our word family snowman:

(Background paper: Whimsy Workshop)

 Here is our compound words snow balls:

(Background paper: Whimsy Workshop)

We have also been using this fabulous freebie from Laura Clarke.

These are only a couple of my winter activities we will be doing over the next several weeks.  Here are all of my winter units if you would like to check them out individually.  I hope to be back soon with more pics of these centers in action.

Here is the whole bundle:

I hope you guys are staying warm!  

y sounds like i - a new unit!

I've been working on a new unit!

This is our focus for the week we come back to school.  I used this same format for the last 2 years with long vowels and have LOVED it!  I am wanting to make a unit for each of the phonics focus chunks we will work on.  This one is focusing on y at the end of a one syllable word that sounds like the letter i.  

This unit is just like my Long Vowels unit I've posted about.  It's exactly the same concept just with a different focus.

Here's what the pages for "y sounds like i" look like:

I would love for you to check it out.  I am hoping to be back soon with more focus "chunks" to show you.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

5 senses with the Gingerbread Man

We did one of my favorite activities last week.  We use all of our 5 senses while making an ornament for our Christmas tree.  

(click on the pic above to see it in my store)

Each child is given a piece of sandpaper and has to describe how it feels.

 Then they have to cut out the gingerbread man and write down what they hear.

  

 Then they're given a cinnamon stick to taste and they have to write down how it tastes.

 Then they take the cinnamon stick and rub it on the sandpaper and write down how it smells.

 Then they get to decorate their gingerbread man and they write about what they see in the final product.

It is a simple craft but hits a lot of skills at once.  It has become one of my favorite activities to do with my firsties at Christmas time.  Click on the picture at the top to check it out!

Have a wonderful last week before Christmas!

Super Cyber Sale - Time to Stock Up!

It's time for a sale!!!!!!!  

(Thank you 3AM Teacher for the cute graphic!)

Oh my goodness.  I can't believe it's already December,  Where did this year go?  It seems like school just started.  I know these next 3 weeks will just fly by.

My store will be 20% off Monday and Tuesday (December 1 and 2).  Put in the code TPTCYBER at checkout and receive an extra percentage off!

Here are a few items you might want to stock up on to get you through:

Click on each image to check them out!

Happy Shopping!

Long Vowels - Finally!

I'm so excited - we finally made it to long vowels!  If you teach first grade then you know what I mean!  We open up a whole new world when we introduce long vowels.  There are hundreds of new words that my firsties can add to their repertoire!

Here's what we will be working hard on for the next five to six weeks:

This unit is actually very flexible!  You can use it with your whole class or with small groups.   I really do feel that this can be a great supplement to any reading series.

Here is how we use it in our classroom:

We will spend 2 weeks on long a because it allows us to use everything whole group to introduce before putting all of it in centers.  We really enjoy using the onset/rime cards above every morning for a quick fluency practice.  I reach in and grab an onset stick and then the class reads the real/nonsense words as quickly as they can.  They think its fun that half of the words don't make sense!  We will practice with about 5 different onsets each morning.  It only takes about 2-3 minutes but it is great reading practice!

We use the above worksheets in my guided reading groups.  My firsties really enjoy all the different activities.

I keep all of their fluency stories together in a folder.  I plan on taking a day or two every few weeks to just go back and practice reading past stories for fluency.  I love that can go back and feel successful when reading familiar passages.

I would love for you to check it out!  Just click on any of the above images and it will take you over to TpT so you can see it a little more in-depth.

Have a WONDERFUL week!

Bats, Spiders and Ghosts - Oh My!

Oh my goodness! Where has the time gone?  I don't feel like I've had a spare moment to do anything for about a month now.  Things have been crazy busy at school and all these extra fall activities are about to do me in!  We only had 2 days this week.  We had Parent - Teacher conferences last night and today is officially Fall Break!  Yeah!!!!!  Only having 2 days allowed me to bring out this unit I created last year.

I was able to give my firsties some time to explore ten frames on their own.  I made a whole class set last year so all I had to do was pass out a bag to each student.  Take a look:

 I thought it was funny how this little friend sorted his spiders out first.  :)

Since we got to practice this week, it will all go into a center next week.  Here's an example of one of the recording sheets:

What's inside:

(Click on any of the pics above to find out more!)

I hope you have a wonderful week!  I know I will! :)