Thursday, November 21, 2013

Pattern Block Turkey

On Tuesday I posted about changing my lesson plan for American Education Week. I thought I would a do problem-solving activity using Steve Metzgers book Silly Turkey Party or doing a turkey sorting activity. But I change my mind again... I found this really cute pattern block turkey activity on Chalk Talks blog. Needless to say I got to school extra early this morning to cut out all of the shapes.

I downloaded the template from Heidi song blog here.

They turned out super cute and the kids had fun.





Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Thanksgiving Word Work

Here is one of my favorite word work activities for Thanksgiving.

Sight Word Turkeys


Download the patterns for sight word turkey's on my TpT site. Copy the feathers on a variety of different colors.  Challenge your students to put the feathers in a pattern.


Silly Turkey Party

Happy American Education Week!!! Tomorrow my school is having it's open house and knowing me I am rethinking my lessons for tomorrow.  So instead of doing our next Talent and Development lesson (which to be honest is boring) I have decided to do something turkey related.  Not only do I want to change my lesson but I am exhausted from our field trip today and can't decide what to do.  Here is what I have come up with so far...

Read Steve Metzger's Silly Turkey Party and do a problem solving activity.  Click here for a free copy of the problem solving worksheet. 

OR...

I can have students work in groups to sort Turkey's based on one of their attributes.  Then have them graph their turkey's.  



I am too tired to decide now. I guess will will pick one in the morning. :-) 

Monday, November 18, 2013

Thanksgiving-Good Reads

Here are some of my favorite books to read for Thanksgiving.

We read this book to introduce our Thanksgiving Family Project.  You can download the parent letter and turkey template here.


I love this book to teach kids about traditions.


This is a great book for counting to ten and back again.


These two books are great for comparing Thanksgiving now and Thanksgiving during the colonial days.  Check out Chalk Talk's Then and Now Sort.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Thanksgiving Then and Now

So each year on the day before we let out for Thanksgiving we do a Then and Now rotation to give the kiddos an idea of how Native Americans and Pilgrims lived.

Popcorn-
We start by reading The Popcorn Book by Tomie dePaola.  Then we use a double bubble to compare popcorn back then and popcorn now.

You can buy popcorn on the cob from many grocery stores for local farms.  Put it in the microwave and cook it for about 1-2 minutes. Stay by the microwave so you can hear it start popping. I also buy a bag or two of popped popcorn from the grocery store so that the kids can try both kinds.


Butter-
At this rotation students get to make their own butter and then spread it on some bread and eat...  To make home made butter you combine 2 oz of whipping cream, a bit of salt, and a marble in a small plastic container.  Glad containers work the best. Make sure the container lid is on the tight.  Then have students start to shake.  Keep shaking until your butter turns to a solid.  Drain off the liquid and spread it on some bread.


Native American Talking Stick-
We start by reading a book about the tradition of the Native American talking stick.  Then students add curling ribbon, beads, and feathers to a stick in order to make their very own talking stick.

Pumpkin Pie-
Start by reading a book about how Pumpkin Pie is made.  Then students get to test a homemade pumpkin pie.  To add some fun students make pumpkin pudding that they can then put on graham crackers to eat.


You can download my Thanksgiving rotations here.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

My Thanksgiving Book

Here is another Thanksgiving Favorite.

You can purchase this book and the pieces to make each page here.







Friday, November 8, 2013

How Animals Move

I have been hard at work planning my National Board Entry 3 lesson. I have decided to do a lesson on how animals move.

We are going to start by reading an article from National Geographic entitled On the Move.

Then students are going to sort different animals by how they move.  We are going to do this using Smart Notebook Software and students are also going to have paper copies in front of them.


To tie in some writing students are going to write about their favorite animal and how that animal moves.  At the top of each paper will be a shape.  This will help me group students to share what animal they choose and how that animal moves.



We are working on our speaking and listening skills in this lesson so at the end of the lesson students will evaluate how they did listening to others and speaking to their group.  You can download my speaking and listening rubric here.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves

So we have done about 3 of these active retelling activities and my kiddos are getting really good at them.  Here is another that my kiddos loved.



You can purchase the large retelling pieces and the student copy of the flow map here.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Lego Racers

We did our first STEM project of the year on Friday. We spent Tuesday and Thursday doing some inquiry on how things move and different types of cars. We started by watching How_Things_Move (2) from Discovery Streaming.

Then we sorted pictures on how they move.

You can download this sort here.

My husband being the fabulous man that he is made me two ramps to test the cars on. We used different match box cars to see which ones went down the ramp the fastest and the straightest. Here is what we found.

Then it was time to build. We watched this short video to give them some ideas on how to put Legos together to but a car.

I gave my kiddos free rein on what they used to build their car.

Here are my kids getting ready to test our cars.

Here are some of the cars that my kiddos made.