As part of our study of the Ecosystems and Living Things my class investigated four different habitats to discover the abiotic and biotic factors. A habitat is a place where an organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce. For example a pond is a frog's habitat. Different kinds of organisms live in different types of habitats because they have different needs. For example fish get oxygen from water. Abiotic factors are the non living parts of a habitat. For example abiotic factors include the following: water, soil, sunlight, temperature, and oxygen. Biotic factors are the living parts of a habitat such as animals, plants, and other organisms. Below is a picture of my students investigating two habitats that were teacher created. Ecosystems and Living Things will be coming soon to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!!!

What Stuck With You This Week?

Before dismissal of Friday's the kids get a post-it and write down one truly memorable event from the week. They jot their memory down on a post-it and they stick it to the poster, "What Stuck With You this Week!" It is is a fun way for both the kids and the teacher to look back at their learning activities from the past week!

It's been a while!

Well it has been a really long time since my last post! I just graduated with my Master's! I will have some new material coming out in my Teacher's Pay Teacher's Store in the next couple weeks! Be sure to check it out!!!

February=Kindness

You know that love is in the air when the stores are all filled to the brim with red, white, and pink. For our students the month of February is also the perfect time to teach about one of the great Pillars of Character, KINDNESS! I love teaching about kindness, the act of good deeds, and paying it forward, through reading great books. Some of my favorites are pictured below.

SALE

It's that time again--School Time Wise Owls is having an awesome SALE that you won't want to miss out on!!! Come Check it out!!!

February Common Core Packet

February will be here before you know it! Get ready to motivate your students to learn the English Language Arts and Mathematics Common Core Standards through this fun filled interactive February packet. This packet smoothly integrates teaching students to be able to read and spell two new sets of sight words. Students will notice that these sight words reappear throughout this packet. This is to help students become fluent readers and writers as they use these new sight words. Students will also learn about the H family (CH, SH, TH, WH). The math worksheets build on one another. Some sheets are also to help reinforce skills learned earlier in the year. This packet is geared toward kindergarten - first grade students, but can be used to reinforce skills for second grade too. Visit my TPT store to read the full Table of Contents! These worksheets are friendly and fun with the goal of teaching the Common Core Standards. All students will be motivated to learn with these fun sheets! When students are excited about what they are learning and the activities are fun they want to learn more! Enjoy!

FRAMEZ

These frames are perfect for your Teachers Pay Teachers products or for personal use! They are high resolution PNG images. All images are easy to resize and layer into projects! You can grab them in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Dec. Holiday Crafts!

Each of these holiday arts and crafts projects incorporated connections to math and literacy as well as awesome fine motor skills. We made a ton of snowman crafts before, during, and after reading stories about winter and snow. One of the crafts pictured shows a painted snowman with a sentence under it. During a literacy center students cut out the words and then arranged them to make a complete sentence. I checked their sentences before they pasted it onto their snowman picture. Another craft pictured is a puzzle piece picture frame. Students pasted old puzzle pieces onto precut cardboard frames. I told the students to paste at least two layers of puzzle pieces onto their frames. After they dried, I took the puzzle piece frames home to spray paint silver. Then the students glued on buttons and bowes. I reinforced some of them with hot glue. I also took their picture and glued it on the back and then hot glued on a ribbon so their parents could hang their frame on their Christmas tree or on their fridge if they did not celebrate Christmas. My students also made beaded snowflakes, candy canes, and wreathes. They practiced counting and adding as they strung their beads onto their pipe cleaners. We practiced recalling the beginning, middle, and end of a story by writing the events down in a snowman graphic organizer. Students wrote about snowmen and made a snowy town from colorful shapes that they cut out. We made ice skates, boots, and mittens, and then they wrote about winter clothes. We had so much fun learning about math and literacy as we prepared for the holidays!

QUOTES!

Native American Indian and Shapes

We learned about shapes through making a Native American Indian for Thanksgiving! This is a sample picture!

Tommy the Turkey and Phonics

My class loved reading the poem Tommy the Turkey! After we played a game called, "Tommy Tapple" to brainstorm as many words as we could that began with the letter /T/. I recorded the list on chart paper so the children could refer back to it for our "Tommy the Turkey" craft and later for journal writing. The students recorded words that began with the letter /T/ on each of "Tommy's" feathers. We had a blast!

Emperor Penguins: Close Read

EMPEROR PENGUINS and EMPEROR PENGUIN CHICKS CLOSE READ with craft I am so excited to present this packet to you! I am confident that both your students and you will enjoy learning FUN FACTS about EMPEROR PENGUINS and EMPEROR PENGUINS CHICKS! For example did you know that emperor penguins are the largest of all the penguins or that emperor penguin chicks stay in groups called crèches? ELA Anchor Standards: Key Ideas and Details: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. Craft and Structure: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. I have differentiated every aspect of this packet. This allows you to easily differentiate the close reading passages (Emperor Penguins and Emperor Penguin Chicks) to your students diverse learning levels. I also differentiated each of the close reading questions. This allows you to easily accommodate your high flyers, average learners, and those who need more scaffolding. As teachers we know that one size does not fit all! Included in this product: -Color and black and white versions of every sheet! 5 Versions of Emperor Penguins Close Read: Color, BW, smaller and larger fonts, longer and shorter versions, all with pictures -9 sets of Close Reading Questions including differentiated versions 4 Versions of Emperor Penguin Chicks Close Read: Color, BW, smaller and larger fonts, longer and shorter versions, all with pictures -12 set of Close Reading Questions including differentiated versions -Penguin Craft Sample -Penguin Craft Directions -Fact Box Recording Sheets- 3 different versions -Penguin Craft Template Tracer

December & January Writing Prompts for the Common Core Classroom

This December and January Writing Prompts Packet for the Common Core Classroom is an awesome writing resource for teachers K-6! The writing prompts can be differentiated according to your students need and level. Additionally I included 16 pages of prompts with 2 prompts per page- totaling 32 writing prompts altogether! I also included a color version and a black and white version of each page. Types of Writing: -Realistic Fiction -Informative -Description -List Writing -Imaginary/Fantasy -Memoir -Explanatory -and more! These writing prompts are perfect for motivating ALL students to write during the holiday season -- even your most reluctant writers! Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to purchase your copy! Have a very Happy Holiday Season!!!

FALL-ing into the ELA Common Core Standards!

Fall is the perfect time to bring your class outside to spark new seed ideas for writing. First, I want to introduce seeds for writing to those who are not familiar with the concept :-) If your district uses Lucy Calkins or Fountas/Pinnell than you already know about teaching your students to gather "seed ideas" for their writing journals in the beginning of the year. This can be done by giving each student a photocopy of a heart or a photocopy of an inverted watermelon. Inside the heart or watermelon the students write all the things they like. Outside the heart or watermelon they write all the things they don't like. Students should just write words- not sentences. Throughout the year students will refer back to this for seeds to write about when they have "writers block." In an article titled, Using the Environment as an Integrating Context: ELA Common Core Standards and the Kentucky Environmental Literacy Plan (KLEP) by Vivian Bowles it discusses ways for teachers to provide authentic implementation of ELA Common Core Standards for writing. While you can use print and the internet to provide authentic learning, you can also bring your class outside the walls of your classroom. It does not matter if your school has an elaborate outside classroom. Give each of your students a clipboard, pencil, and a few sheets of notebook paper. Tell your class you are taking them outside to gather more "FALL SEEDS." You can take them for a walk around your school or have them sit in one spot. Have your students use their 5 senses to write down observations they see, hear, smell, (taste- depending on your lesson), and feel. These observations can provide inspiration for real or imaginative narratives, informative/explanatory texts, and substantiated arguments.

The dog ate my homework!

First of all, now that I have a puppy I realize it is REALLY possible for a dog to eat a students homework! My puppy eats everything! She eats paper, sunglasses, shoes, remote controls... I could go on but the list would be endless! When I was a kid I heard my friends use that famous excuse for not having their homework, but I will admit the teachers never believed them. Of course I didn't either. Now that I am a teacher I will say I have yet to really hear any of my students say, "My dog ate my homework and that is why I do not have it." However, I do find it funny that it is REALLY possible!

Don't Let the Turkey Sail the Boat!

Don't Let the Turkey Sail the Boat is adapted from Mo Willems Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Don't let the Turkey Sail the Boat will be a hit with your children! They will want to read it over and over again! It is perfect for guided reading and teaching specific strategies such as reading for comprehension, accuracy, fluency, or expanding vocabulary. It is great for your emergent readers. The book is a total of 20 pages. I included a vocabulary page in the beginning and a reading response question at the end. This book comes in a color version and a black and white version. I also included lined writing paper with a colorful turkey border and the same lined paper with a black and white turkey border. Check it out in my TPT store! Might I add this book is also perfect for reading in November!!!

Superhero Powers in Teaching

I believe other than a child's parent or guardian a teacher is one of the most significant role models in a child's life. Children look up to their teachers for guidance and support. They come to us when they have a problem with another child or even at home. When young children are first learning to read they see us as superheros with exceptional reading powers. By giving a child who is first learning to read a special wand or a magical cape all of the sudden he feels like he has the same superhero powers that you do as a teacher and his confidence for reading skyrockets! Use your superhero powers as a teacher to help your students succeed!!! I love teaching for all these reasons.

 

 Visit my TPT Store to purchase these Back to School Headers!!!

Fall ABCs