Recap of Penguins in Antarctica

So I’m kinda totally blogging about this week and last week. Is that bad??  Our unit of study on Life in Cold Climates has just been AMAZING and I have to share!! I mean, who doesn’t love the freezing cold temperatures and blubber??

So, last week I had the pleasure of having 7 scary administrators come into my room to see what we were doing. Ha! Well, not that scary, except that they all come looking so serious. Plus, they’re all taller than me. Well, I’m 5’1” so most people are taller than me. 

I asked students if they thought fat could keep an animal warm. We then watched a scene from The Magic School Bus: In the Arctic and discussed blubber (one of the penguins' adaptations). I had just sent my kiddos back to our seats to begin our blubber investigation when our visitors walked in. Have you seen Aimee Salazar’s Penguin Integrated Unit? It’s kind of the best! It had more than enough resources for me to use throughout the week. Anyway, it includes directions for making blubber bags and a page to record observations and reflections. Each team conducted their investigation (the administrators pulled up chairs). My kiddos slipped their hands into the bags and counted for 5 “alligators” or seconds. For once, I was not nervous about having grown ups in my room because the kiddos were all so engaged, on task, AND having fun. We completed the recording sheet together because there is a wide range of abilities among my students. My kiddos couldn't stop talking about the investigation.

Excellent detectives!

On of our close reads for the week was Penguins by Anne Schreiber. Tara West has a Penguin Close Read freebie for this nonfiction text. It’s intended for kindergarteners, but I was able to make it work for my firsties. We discussed whether or not we’d be able to have a pet penguin where we live, and practiced locating evidence to support our answers. I copied a few pages of the text in order for students to use when answering the question.  

I sent home my That’s Not a Snowman take-home project! They were all so cute! I love seeing what my students and their families come up with. Here’s one of the snowmen that came back.

Apron from Etsy Seller Foodphyte

Did you see my Instagram post about my new teacher apron?! BEST. IDEA. EVER. I just don’t know how I ever lived without one. My day pretty much goes like this… Oh, it’s time for Freddy to go to Reading intervention. I owe Bobby, Johnny and Becky a ticket. What did I do with that black marker? Where are my keys? Now, it’s all so handy because it’s in one of my pockets. Each item I carry has a designated pocket (hooray for efficiency). I found this apron on Etsy and got to pick the colors.

I finally updated my fan freebie button on my Facebook page. I added my ink friendly No Homework passes. Head to my page to check it out! Tomorrow there will be a math freebie, so be sure to come back. I printed them on bright pink paper and my students loved them.

Well, that's all for this Five for Friday Sunday. I'm ready to relax before the week begins. Tomorrow there's no school, but we do have a full day of profressional development. I'm crossing my fingers that it's a good one. Have a lovely week friends! 

Five for Friday: Lots of Reading and Grammar!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share what my language arts instruction has looked like this week and a few other things. 

So I think this week was less crazy, but more stressful than last week. It's report card time. Yeay! The time when I realize I don't have enough assessments to judge how students are progressing towards meeting the end of the year goals and trying to figure out how the benchmarks align. Ay yai yai!

Despite all of this we have been getting so much work done in the classroom. We have been focusing more on non-fiction as of late. I know it's early in the year, but we've been learning how to approach non-fiction books (which my kiddos LOVE). I just noticed I left a word out in that chart. ARG!

We did a close read of Ponies by Laura Marsh this week. Thank you Tara West from Little Minds at Work!!! I've been using her format of close reading and it's going so well. I am loving it! I've been able to differentiate instruction for my readers and non-readers. 

You can see above that my students became detectives this week. They were so excited when I whipped out those magnifying glasses. They searched for evidence within the text and photographs to answer the question: How are ponies and horses different from one another? This was their first time citing evidence and I know they are going to get better at it. Can't wait!

Our focus for Grammar was asking questions. I began to worry once we started brainstorming question words. There were a few kiddos that offered me words, but I was getting the craziest responses from the rest of the group. So, I decided to take the reins and give students clues. Crisis averted. Phew! Once we had a bank of question words it was smooth sailing (for the most part). 

We got a new student on Halloween. Yeup, Halloween!!! So, I thought it would be fun for students to ask him questions. Luckily, he's not shy and was willing to sit in the hot seat. I gave each pair of students a question word and they practiced saying questions. Then, they asked our new student.

We summed up our week by heading outdoors with all the other firsties and asked each other questions. They loved walking around with their mustaches and asking their friends (and teachers) silly questions. #toocute

Click {HERE} to see the pack in TpT shop.

Now technically this was last week, but I wanted to share my Halloween costume. I was a minion! The kids at school sure got a kick out of it.

Well, it's time to print my turkey pack and prep for next week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Five for Fraturday: My Batty Week

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 random things about my batty week and a freebie! 

Fridays are always the craziest! Every other Friday i open my doors for 30 minutes. Students who topped the clip chart or had the most team points are invited in for Lunch Bunch. I knew I wanted to do a Halloween craft, but i had to throw this together at the last minute because I forgot about it. I cut up some orange and black construction paper. Easy peasy. My kiddos cut the orange paper. I'm always amazed when that HUGE piece of paper turns into the tiniest thing. I gave them a few directions for the face. Triangles and rectangles.:) I went around and cut and matching back piece for each student. Once all the pieces were glued on, I stapled the back of the pumpkin and began stuffing each one with newspaper. Voila! A puffy jack-o-lantern!

It's Bat Week in my room! We kicked off the week with a KWL chart. I was pleasantly surprised by how much my kiddos I'm kicking myself for not having taken any photos!! Arg! It's so hard to remember to break out of the camera. You can snag the chart by clicking {HERE}. #freebie

These are some of the books we've been using to gather information about bats. These non-fiction texts have been perfect for reading aloud to my firsties. And let me tell you... my little friends just eat up those photos! They love anything scary, creepy, or just plain gross. Do your kiddos like the scary, yucky stuff? #yuck

We've been doing a close read of Stellaluna. I had never read it until this week and LOVE it. The language is just rich and my students are eating up the story. We've discussed new words we heard, verbs, and next week we'll begin comparing and contrasting Stellaluna and the birds. I shared this with my students and they immediately began raising their hands to share similarities. I had to ask them to hold onto those ideas for next week. I'll do my best to come back and share photos next Friday.

It may be October, but our stockings are here! My husband loved Pottery Barn's knit stockings, so he ordered them. I love that they're personalized with a decent font! #fontsnob #sorrynotsorry

Well friends, I'm off to enjoy some pumpkin patch fun. I have to relax a little since next  is going to be cray cray! Red Ribbon Week, Halloween party, plus a Faculty meeting... oh boy!