Leaf Man

I love fall!  

The smell in the air, the change in temperature and the beautiful leaves.  Lois Ehlert also loves leaves and she collects them.  She has written a beautiful book, illustrated with her collected leaves.

We loved the book so much that my students wanted to make their own leaf artwork, like Lois Ehlert.  One of my goals this year is to do more art in the classroom and this project was great!

If the leaves are still on the trees where you are, get out there and collect some and try this fun project!

An elf sat in a tree, painting leaves to throw at me...

I'm known for having the neatest, tidiest classroom at my school and I hardly ever do art projects in my classroom.  I shudder at the thought of paint in my room and break out in hives if there are scraps of paper on the floor.  But I'm trying to change my ways because I've come to realize that art IN the classroom is valuable and important and because I see lots of cute projects on Pinterest :-)

The project my students worked on this week was a mixed-media tree with an accompanying poem.  

I luckily had a parent volunteer who cut out and glued together the brown and white backgrounds for all of my students.  On Tuesday, during my reading groups, students did part 1: Make your tree by cutting or ripping paper and gluing your poem onto the front (and highlighting the rhyming words).

On Wednesday they first cut out and colored their little elf and then used wine works to paint/stamp their leaves on.  The final step was putting their little elf in their tree.

The prep and clean-up were minimal and very easy, perfect for me!

Now I'll hang them up in the hall and impress my colleagues.

Here's the poem:

A little elf sat in a tree,

Painting leaves to throw at me.

Leaves of yellow and leaves of red,

Came tumbling down upon my head.

I found it on this GREAT website for kid poetry:  www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems.html

Guest Blogger

I'm so excited and honored to get the chance to be a guest blogger on the 1st of every month this school year for Charity Preston over at the Organized Classroom blog!

My job is to share great teaching ideas that I use in my own 1st grade classroom.

It's October 1st and I'm sharing an idea for eliminating hand raising when students have questions or need help (during writing time, for example).  All you need are plastic cups.  Check out my post by clicking below

To download the labels, click below

When printing, use the Avery 5163 label setting (4" x 2").

Writing is in full swing!

We've jumped into the writing pool and the water is just fine!

I revised my student writing journal to incorporate the Common Core focus on the three types of writing: opinion, informative and narrative.  Last week we started by doing an opinion piece about fall.  The sentence stem was either: I like fall because, I love fall because or I don't like fall because.  Then, after reading 2 non-fiction books about leaves during Storytime, we started an informational piece on leaves and will wrap that up today.  Tomorrow we'll start writing a narrative piece about an autumn memory.  

Before we even started writing, Writing Dude visited us and taught us about the 3 Types of Writing.  I also have a poster that I display at our Writing Station to remind us of the types of writing.

  

It's a freebie that I'm sharing over at 

If you'd like to see what my writing journal looks like and what it's all about click below

Slugs

Slugs....they're not my cup of tea.

But my daughter (5) and I saw one last night and stopped to watch it and talk about it.  It's been raining for weeks on end and this was the first day that we've gotten outside in our yard to play in I don't know how long because there was a break in the rain.

I used to teach 2nd grade with a fantastic colleague named Misti and she LOVES slug....gross, I know. I came across a book about slugs one summer and thought of her.  So I thought I'd share some more slug books because it could fit into a science unit or it could be a writing piece:

Informative:

A slug is a snail without a shell.  It leaves a smelly trail behind it so it can get back home.

Narrative:

Once upon a time there was a slug named Sally.  Sally, like all slugs, leaves a trail of slime behind her so she can find her way back home.  But one day...

Opinion:

I don't like slugs for many reasons.  First of all, they are ugly and creepy looking.  Secondly, their slime doesn't wash off your hands!

Read to Self

I do not speak Japanese nor can I read it.

Don't worry, this will make sense a moment.

I started doing the Daily 5 in my classroom last year.  I actually call it the Daily 6 because kids do: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, Reading Games, Listen to Reading and Computer Time.  Guided Reading with me is also a group.  So last week I launched Read to Self and it has gone really well!

The first lesson I did was "The 2 Ways to Read a Book".  Reading the pictures and/or the words are key for me.  I know you can also retell the story, but I like to keep it simple and go with 2.  I don't think kids really believe that reading the pictures is truly reading.  To prove that pictures CAN be read, I borrowed a children's book in Japanese.  Remember what I said about Japanese earlier?

I read this book to my students and only read the words.  I still have no idea what the title is but I had a BLAST reading the pictures to the kids and they loved it!

I do speak French and used to teach 2nd grade at a French immersion school, so I have lots of books in French.  I'm thinking of bringing them in so my kids can read the pictures....and I know my very bright kiddos will even try to read the words!

You can download my Two Ways to Read a Book POSTER here for free:

I also created a SmartBoard file that I use to conduct and manage my Daily 6 groups and it makes life SO easy!

私は読むのが好き

Watashi wa yomu no ga suki

Trick -or- Treat in the Heat!

Halloween is 53 days away, but here in Anchorage we get ours a little early!

Several years ago, a caring neighborhood banded together to give a terminally-ill 5-year-old something he loved before he died.  This act touched so many that it's now a yearly tradition.  There are now 4 neighborhoods in the Anchorage area that participate and kids simply buy a $10 wristband to participate.  All proceeds go to charity and this year there were 3 different charities that benefitted.

We recently moved into a new house, in one of the participating neighborhoods, so we got to get in the spirit and hand out candy!  My daughter and I decorated our porch and driveway and then the kids and I dressed up as pirates and hit the pavement.

But just as the festivities began....it started to RAIN!  We've had rain for more than a month straight but it was sunny and dry all day, so I thought it would be Trick -or- Treat in the HEAT....but it turned out to the Trick -or- Treat in the RAIN & WIND!  Both kids were troopers but we were soaking, cold and tired and didn't last very long.  But the underlying cause made everything worth it and I'm proud to be part of this neighborhood community!

Even though there are still 53 more days until Halloween, you might be an early planner or on the prowl for some Halloween fun now.  If so, you can check out:

Happy Halloween!