Transportation is All Around Us!

After reading mulitple types of literature, including Max Takes the Train from our Scott Foresman Reading series, we brainstormed and labeled all types of ways to get around. We talked about what traveled by air, water, and on land.  We also used tally marks to see which of us had ever been on a subway train, a horse, a helicopter, etc.   

The sentences above are examples of what travels by air.  I'm so proud of the way they remembered to use capitalization and punctuation while writing!

The following pictures are examples of what we've been doing in our literacy centers during small group guided reading time. 

 We used geometric shapes to make forms of transportation then labeled the objects and wrote sentences about our pictures. Nathan and Jadyn both liked the idea of things on water.

Here Tuff and Hayden are writing in their Dr's Journals (our letter for the week was Jj).  We followed up our discussion on cause and effect by explaining that Dr.'s must diagnose patients then decide the proper type of care that is needed to make the person better.  They had to write at least 2 sentences decribing what they found.  I love using Lakeshore's Vocabulary rings in the dramatic play / writing center.  

Bobby, Hailey, and Emma used books to help brainstorm what type of transportation they would take and where they would go. 

Jessie and Hannah did an amazing job drawing and labeling their airplanes.

James sorts the given pictures into where they belong (air, land, water), then labels the items.

These vowel puzzels are great for review.  Sydney and London take turns reading the words to eachother.

This week, we're building word family words then naming 3 others words that rhyme!  Mason and Bree did such a great job!

We LOVE Center Time!

Literacy Centers and Math Stations are the students favorite times of day.  Literacy centers take place during the morning after our whole group reading workshop time.  This year, I've changed the schedule up a bit and am doing writing right before the kiddos break off to their centers.  This allows me to meet with each leveled reading group and not only practice with our guided readers, but work on punctuation, phonemic writing, and handwriting all at the same time.  

I start off with 5 leveled groups at the beginning of the year then divide the children up into 4 groups after Christmas. They simply bring their writing to the kidney shaped table when their reading group is called.  I start with my lowest leveled group since they struggle the most with writing; we 'help' eachother sound out and write out the answers to the prompts given.  Most of the other groups are capable of completing the writing prompt; we work on spacing and some finishing touches like adding details and punctuation.   

At our writing center, London is putting together blend words then practicing writing them between the head line, mid-line and base line.

Bree and Tyra are using buttons to add numbers together then make a puzzel.

Sydney and Hannah are at our 'Stamp Station'.  This week we're stamping out Cat In The Hat vocabulary words.

Our letter for the week is 'e'.  All the students have the opportunity to be a vet, choose an animal, then write sentences detailing what the purpose for the visit is and how they will help cure that animal. 

Tuff does a great job 'buttering' our Popcorn words.  Afterwards, the students circle all of the letters and words we are studying for the week on our Scott Foresman Song Chart.

More Suessical Fun

We participated in a school wide 'Fishing for Good Books' Day.  Of couse 'One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish' was involved.

Emma, Nathan, and Kaleb work hard on their graphs.

We LOVED reading 'Fox In Socks' and celebratings with a Silly Sock Day.  First we counted how many feet we had in all; then we counted how many toes we had in our entire group.

Next we divided up into pairs and practiced counting my two with our feet, ten by 5s with our toes!

This is Mrs. Jody, our class angel and life saver. She's Haden's sweet mommy with the patience of Job and the skills of a master teacher!

Roman is SUPER excited about cooking Green Eggs and Ham.

Before we began, we ordered the steps to make Green Eggs and Ham. Then we got to tell Mrs. Jody exactly how to make them.  Hailey did a great job sequencing the steps.

Gotta wear Green on 'Green Eggs and Ham' day!

Dr. Suess Silly Times

We've been studying a different Dr. Suess Book each day!

Love this ABC Order Activity.  Cute and fun!

This is our word wall.  We use our names and environmental print that the children cut out at home to study everyday words.  There is a separate 'Popcorn Words' chart in the room with our sight words.  I empahsize that these words must 'pop' out of your mouth; we can't sound them out!

This is part of my new Dramatic Play Center.  I LOVE these easy, fun writing ideas.  We take turns using different 'themes' that correlate to the letters we're learning.  Lakeshore makes some amazing word rings that I also put in this center.  I've laminated advertisemnts (grocery fliers, WalMart, Walgreens, etc.) so the children can look up words and prices for items.  The used expo markers to find popcorn words and letters and the begnning of the year.  Now they're writing sentences!

This is an example of one of my favorite games, SWAT.  You can use anything, money, words, pictures for beginning sounds, etc., for the children to 'swat' at.  I put the kids in teams of twos.  Sometimes if we're working on a particular skill, identifying teen numbers, etc, we'll have SHOWDOWNS where the kiddos can battle eachother.

Had to add this picture from my son's Chick-Fil-A birthday party today.  We had a great time with some very sweet friends.