Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Cat in the Hat

Wherever you are, I hope it's not gray.
Because it's not fun to stay in all day.
But if it is, here's something to try.
Your students will love it and you'll see why.


This won't make a mess, there's no need to fret.
It will help your kids read, oh you'll see just yet!


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut

It's not that hard to read, you see,
With my eyes closed and a book in front of me.
It's even more fun, I swear,
To read this partner play in pairs!

Reading with expression, reading smoothly and reading at a good pace,
Will surely put a smile on any teacher's face!

Come back tomorrow, I've got one more!
You'll love who is knocking at the door...


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Green Eggs and Ham

Would I like them on a plate?
Would I eat them at half past eight?
Why yes I would, oh yes siree,
And here is something special and free:

Yes this gem is really free,
So all you have to do is click me.

A short little play, that's only for two
Would you try it, oh say it's true!

If you like it, I have more.
Just come back tomorrow and see what's in store!






Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Mystery Kick Off

My high readers are going to dive into the Mystery genre this week.  Cue the music!

I've wanted to create a Mystery chapter book unit for a while.  I wanted it to be useable with any chapter book and I finally took all those ideas floating around in my head and put them down on paper.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, as one of our Daily 6 groups, I will meet with my recruits and they will receive detective training.  Next week they will get their first assignment, in which the entire group reads the SAME mystery chapter book, so we can meet to discuss, share and work on our 'Case File'.

I still need to find a cute detective hat so I can take their pictures and put them on the outside of their 'Case File'.  I've already got the trench coat!

P.S.  This blog post will self-destruct in 5 seconds. :-)



Monday, February 17, 2014

Valentine's Day. . . . .yes a bit late!

What do you get when you have parent-teacher conferences + a full moon + Valentine's day + an inservice + a class?   A VERY busy week and no time to blog :-( 

someecards.com - Parent-Teacher conferences, a full moon, Valentine's Day AND an inservice? Oh, THAT'S why my week was CrAzY!

We did have some Valentine's art fun that I wanted to share.  During our reading groups, my students made some cute hearts that I saw on Pinterest.
The process of rolling up paper is called "quilling" and I think the end product looks like flowers.  
First students traced a heart onto tagboard and then cut it out.
After rolling several quills, students glue them onto the heart.
Students used paintbrushes to put lots of glue onto the heart.
One of my students faced her quills the other way.
This project could be adapted for other holidays or projects: Mother's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Spring, etc.

And I asked my students to create their own Valentine container.  Here were a few of the cute ones:
a LEGO container
Chewbocka
a dragon
a shark

Have a good week after Valentine's Day!


Sunday, February 2, 2014

A cute snowman craft and a FREEBIE!

February is here, can you believe it?
Snowmen was our theme for January and we ended the month with a really cute craft I saw on Pinterest.  All you need is an old CD, white paint, googly eyes, orange paper and black paper.  
This is my awesome fold out art table!
We do our crafts during our Daily 5 groups on T, W and Th this year.  So on Tuesday, students painted their CD white.  I just happened to find a bunch of old CDs in our art closet!  Then we finished up the snowman on Wednesday.

The nose is just a piece of crumpled orange paper, stuck through the hole in the middle. 
Aren't they super cute!  I love how each one has its own expression :-)

Now for the FREEBIE!
I read the Jan Brett story 'The Hat' the other day to my students and they asked about doing it as Readers' Theater but I told them I didn't have that script. But, lo and behold, I did have it on my computer and forgot I had written it a while back!  So go grab it, it's FREE!

Happy February everyone!