So many teachers out there got an extended holiday break because of the frigid weather and snow. However, I was not one of them up here in NY. I think I could have definitely used the extra days, but at the same time, having unforeseen days off can throw off the game plan for the whole week. I was kind of glad to get this full teaching week in because even with the 5 full days, I STILL didn't finish everything I wanted to (or everything I made copies for. Who else makes way more copies of activities than they actually use? :/ ). Thank you TPT..... :) :)
*On a side note - I think my Mac book is wayyyy too overloaded from all the resource downloads. I decided to take it to the Apple store to see if they could figure out exactly why it's so slow because I'm hoping it's not from all the downloads! I COULDN'T stop downloading. Here is a picture of my husband and the cutest baby in the world. I was insane enough to think that if we just walked in with my computer to the Apple store Genius Bar, we would have to maybe wait like 2 or 3 minutes until someone got to us. Uh...there were 4 full tables of people waiting. That was so not happening. I'll have to go in another time.
My week was jam packed with activities. I have an 80 minute ELA block, which really is too little. 80 minutes for reading, writing, grammar, spelling, centers, individual help, etc.? I feel like it's impossible to cover everything I need to.
I started off the week reintroducing Author's Purpose. I made some Author's Purpose posters to shed light on the concept in another cute way. THESE FREE posters introduce Penny Penguin the Persuader, Igor Iguana the Informer, and Edgar Elephant the Entertainer. You can download them on TPT.
For every comprehension skill that I do and have plans to use read alouds throughout the week to cover the skill for, I have the kids make little mini books. The front tells the skill that is being covered, the second page gives the definition, and then there are blank pages reserved for one book a day. After hearing the read alouds, they go into the booklet, write the title and author and explain something related to the skill. This week they had to tell what the author's purpose was for each book and why.
The books I used to teach Author's Purpose this week included:
On to VERBS! This is my second favorite grammar skill to cover after adjectives. One main reason is because of an "Angry Verb," activity that we will be doing soon.
A fun way to review this skill is by having students find one picture in the magazine of a person or animal that is doing something. They glue that to the center of a paper and write 5 verbs around it to describe what is happening or what could happen with the characters in the picture. Then, they use those words to write a story about the picture on the bottom. Click on the verb poster picture below to go to TPT for the template. It includes a poster on verbs as well.
I was also able to use activities from a pack I made that corresponds to the Reading Street Series by Scott Foresman. It is made up of "sidekick," activities to cover the skills that deal with the story for the week. This week was "Pearl and Wagner." The students wrote the summary of the story and attached it to a robot craft (a character in the story). If you want to check that out, click on the picture below. I think I may do this for each story. This is the first one I've done and it's helped out because I really find the workbook pages for the skills pretty dull and don't do them if I can find an alternative.
We also took the whole week out to practice, practice, practice, and practice some more with double digit subtraction. I teach them the rhyme
"More on top, no need to stop.
More on the floor, go next door and get ten more."
This has helped them TREMENDOUSLY to know when and when not to regroup. I used a bunch of printables from my Snowtastic Double Digit Addition and Subtraction Review pack that spirals some older concepts like odd and even and place value. And even though they can find double digit addition and subtraction tedious, I made sure they loved it at the end by having a "SNOWBALL FIGHT," indoors! I got the idea from someone I saw on Instagram, (Gosh, I love that APP. I've taken so many screen shots of activities I want to do; they fill up more space on my phone than pictures of my own kids). Anywayyy, students wrote a double digit subtraction fact on a white piece of paper and crumpled it up. Then they threw it around the room, picked up someone else's and solved the problem on a different sheet of paper. We continued this multiple times, so they kept on getting other problems to solve. They had a blast, although it WAS chaos.
ANOTHER freebie for you! To review environments and habitats, I had the students do a project where they chose an environment such as a desert or rainforest. They drew what it would look like on a long construction paper. Then they put together the house template on it to understand what a habitat is. I used a "house," to represent the needs that need to be met inside a habitat which is like a home. They drew an animal that belongs in the environment and under the flaps of the house panels, they wrote or drew about how each of the needs are met for that animal. Click on the picture for your free template of the house and labels.
As I'm writing this and thinking this post is soooo long, I am also kind of happy that I got so much done this week!
We were able to do my New Year's Writing and Craft. They brainstormed and wrote about 3 goals they have for the new year and made the cute craft below. Click on the picture to get to the writing and craft template on TPT. It's only $1.00!
But the best part of the week was the writing and craft they did associated with "Snowmen at Night."
After listening to the story, they had to come up with 4 things they believe snowmen do at night, and then use those ideas to construct a paragraph using transition and sequence words. Afterwards, they made the cute snowman craft I see all over Pinterest. During their rough draft process, I had to send many students back for revising. A lot of kids will just list details and not explain them. I try to tell them that they have to give me picture sentences rather than telling sentences. A telling sentence just states what is happening, such as, "The snowmen had a snowball fight." A picture sentence SHOWS what is happening, such as, "The snowmen grabbed snow from their bodies, rolled it into a snowball using their stick hands, and aimed at each other's round bellies." Some of them really have the hang of it, but some of these kids need to constantly be pushed to give more.
The display came out pretty cute. Most of the kids designed and made their snowman skillfully,
and then a couple of them did stuff like this....
Not everyone has art in their future. :)
HERE is the FREE template to the Snowmen at Night Writing paper!
So as I'm finishing up this blog post, I just noticed my baby took everything out of my kitchen cabinet and is lining it all up. Time to go!
 |
| To entertain |
 |
| To persuade |
 |
| To inform |
 |
| To entertain |
On to VERBS! This is my second favorite grammar skill to cover after adjectives. One main reason is because of an "Angry Verb," activity that we will be doing soon.
A fun way to review this skill is by having students find one picture in the magazine of a person or animal that is doing something. They glue that to the center of a paper and write 5 verbs around it to describe what is happening or what could happen with the characters in the picture. Then, they use those words to write a story about the picture on the bottom. Click on the verb poster picture below to go to TPT for the template. It includes a poster on verbs as well.
 |
| Don 't judge my anchor charts! I know you're judging! |
I was also able to use activities from a pack I made that corresponds to the Reading Street Series by Scott Foresman. It is made up of "sidekick," activities to cover the skills that deal with the story for the week. This week was "Pearl and Wagner." The students wrote the summary of the story and attached it to a robot craft (a character in the story). If you want to check that out, click on the picture below. I think I may do this for each story. This is the first one I've done and it's helped out because I really find the workbook pages for the skills pretty dull and don't do them if I can find an alternative.
 |
| Click to get to the pack on TPT |
We also took the whole week out to practice, practice, practice, and practice some more with double digit subtraction. I teach them the rhyme
"More on top, no need to stop.
More on the floor, go next door and get ten more."
This has helped them TREMENDOUSLY to know when and when not to regroup. I used a bunch of printables from my Snowtastic Double Digit Addition and Subtraction Review pack that spirals some older concepts like odd and even and place value. And even though they can find double digit addition and subtraction tedious, I made sure they loved it at the end by having a "SNOWBALL FIGHT," indoors! I got the idea from someone I saw on Instagram, (Gosh, I love that APP. I've taken so many screen shots of activities I want to do; they fill up more space on my phone than pictures of my own kids). Anywayyy, students wrote a double digit subtraction fact on a white piece of paper and crumpled it up. Then they threw it around the room, picked up someone else's and solved the problem on a different sheet of paper. We continued this multiple times, so they kept on getting other problems to solve. They had a blast, although it WAS chaos.
ANOTHER freebie for you! To review environments and habitats, I had the students do a project where they chose an environment such as a desert or rainforest. They drew what it would look like on a long construction paper. Then they put together the house template on it to understand what a habitat is. I used a "house," to represent the needs that need to be met inside a habitat which is like a home. They drew an animal that belongs in the environment and under the flaps of the house panels, they wrote or drew about how each of the needs are met for that animal. Click on the picture for your free template of the house and labels.
As I'm writing this and thinking this post is soooo long, I am also kind of happy that I got so much done this week!
We were able to do my New Year's Writing and Craft. They brainstormed and wrote about 3 goals they have for the new year and made the cute craft below. Click on the picture to get to the writing and craft template on TPT. It's only $1.00!
But the best part of the week was the writing and craft they did associated with "Snowmen at Night."
After listening to the story, they had to come up with 4 things they believe snowmen do at night, and then use those ideas to construct a paragraph using transition and sequence words. Afterwards, they made the cute snowman craft I see all over Pinterest. During their rough draft process, I had to send many students back for revising. A lot of kids will just list details and not explain them. I try to tell them that they have to give me picture sentences rather than telling sentences. A telling sentence just states what is happening, such as, "The snowmen had a snowball fight." A picture sentence SHOWS what is happening, such as, "The snowmen grabbed snow from their bodies, rolled it into a snowball using their stick hands, and aimed at each other's round bellies." Some of them really have the hang of it, but some of these kids need to constantly be pushed to give more.
The display came out pretty cute. Most of the kids designed and made their snowman skillfully,
and then a couple of them did stuff like this....
Not everyone has art in their future. :)
HERE is the FREE template to the Snowmen at Night Writing paper!
So as I'm finishing up this blog post, I just noticed my baby took everything out of my kitchen cabinet and is lining it all up. Time to go!
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