Instead of Said

Hello Everyone!
Just another quick post tonight. (I know all my posts have been quick lately) Today we worked a little more on dialogue in our reading and writing.  We worked on different ways to say "said."  "Said" sometimes gets a little boring and the pictures in our heads are not as clear as when we use words like "hollered" or "whined." We brainstormed other words to use instead of "said" on to our newest anchor chart. The kiddos then had the opportunity to become Sentence Surgeons again.  This time they had to choose a sentence (the patient), and cut out the "said."  Then they selected a new word to use instead of "said." After performing the surgery, they had to share their new improved sentences with the class.  Great job, Doctors!!! 

for the entire unit click here! :)

printable of Quotation station and Instead of Said mini poster click here

Thanks for taking a peek today!!

 "Stop by agin soon," said  pleaded Mrs. V. :)

Joyfully!

Nancy

Inches are a Cinch

Hello Everyone,
We've been working hard on our measurement unit in math. We have brainstormed many different ways to measure the length of things using nonstandard units of measurement. Now we are comparing those with standard units. Today we investigated the inch. We compared the differences between an inch ruler and some of the nonstandard units we have been using. Kiddos had fun measuring their feet and hands!

Our length measurement anchor chart

A mini unit includes these pages plus a poem, and a written expression component.

Or click here! :)

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope our ideas measure up!!! :)
Joyfully!
Nancy

Quotation Station

Hello Everyone,
Thanks so much for stopping by to take a peek into the wonderful world of first grade!  Just a quick post tonight!  We still have company at our house!! :)  One of our objectives this week is to introduce dialogue in text and in our own written expression.  We had fun learning about when to use quotation marks and what they are for.  We then experimented a little with some sentences about Earth Day, using TRIX cereal for the quotation marks. Why not??? We hung our dialogue sentences with quotation marks up near our giant earth that we made last week.

for a printable of our mini poster and a couple of other things click here!

Or click here! :)

"Have a wonderful evening," said Mrs. VandenBerge.

Joyfully,
Nancy

Happy Earthday To You! Happy Earthday To You!...

Hello Everyone!!
I know Earthday isn't until Sunday, but in our classroom we think everyday should be Earthday!! So I'm going to post about a couple of things we did this week!  We decided to make a giant paper earth out of old magazines that would have gone to the landfill.  We drew a huge circle, put in some of the continents, and got busy finding and cutting out pieces of blue and green from the magazines. Then came the gluing!!  We all worked on this project together...just like we should work together to help the earth stay healthy.  We think it turned out great!!!  Hooray for the Earth!!!
Hooray for First Graders!!! Hooray for working together to accomplish great things!!

A treat for working so hard this week was Earthday Cupcakes!  We have been working so hard on compound words, with "cupcake" as one of the more fun ones!  So of course, we had to make cupcakes that looked like the earth (saw this idea on Pinterest, and knew I needed to do these!).  The kids loved them.  They had the choice of whether or not to add "clouds" or the "atmosphere" frosting.  So yummy!  Happy Earthday To You, Happy Earthday To You! We didn't have time today, but we will do a descriptive writing about cupcakes using all of our senses next week!  :)

Many hands make light work



We finally got it done!!! Here's our hallway display!

Earthday Cupcakes!! MMMMM

Atmosphere Frosting

 Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!  Next week? Field trips and testing!!! Fun week! ;)
Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

A Cupcake Full Of Compound Words--Sweeeeeeeet!

Hello Everyone!
Just another quick post, as I have company coming in a bit! We read the very fun book "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" today, and again I wanted to celebrate our favorite author, Laura Numeroff, by doing a literature response including her use of compound words!  The kids are so tuned in to compound words, they are finding them everywhere!!  Of course because of the title of this book, we had to do something with cupcakes and compound words.  So we slipped into our "Smart Cookie Bakery aprons again and baked up some wonderful "Cupcakes full of Compound Words!  We used some striped scrapbook paper for the cup and scrunched tissue paper for the frosting.  The sprinkles were the perfect place to write some of those compound words the kids have been finding!  When the kids were finished, they had to read their "sprinkles" to me and a friend and then Tah Dah!...a cherry (red sticker) was added on top!!  I think the kids did a great job on these and I know they have extended their knowledge of compound words...in a yummy way!!  Way to go, guys!!!

Have a sweet evening! Stop by again for a peek at some Earth Day Activities!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Eat Your Words- Your Sight Words!

Hello Everyone!
Just a quick post today.  This week we are working hard at reviewing the sight words that we are responsible for reading and spelling!  I want to be able to see evidence of mastery of these words in written expression.
I am a firm believer, as you can probably guess, that involving all the senses helps kids make more profound connections with learning.  So, of course, I had to come up with a way to involve senses into our word work today.  I decided to use Alpha-Bits for an "Eat Your Words" activity.  I have used Froot Loops, Cheez-Its, Chips Ahoy cookies and a couple of other things to help practice our weekly chunks, so I knew the kids would love this.  It turned out they it was a bit more challenging than we thought it would be,  Some of the letters the kids needed were not included in the cereal mix so they had to "problem solve" and create the letters needed out of other letters.  They did it!!! I was so proud that they stuck with it and thoroughly cemented those words!!  Let them play with their food!! :)

Want to try this at home or with your class? Here's your printable

Or here it is on Googledocs. Thanks! Click!


Thanks for taking a quick peek into a small part of our day!!  Looking forward to the rest of the week!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Flippin the Flapjacks- and Compound words!

Hello Everyone!
Another fabulous day in first grade! Today, the hands down favorite learning opportunity came with our study of compound words.  Who would have guessed that Laura Numeroff (our newest favorite author) used so many compound words in her work??  If You Give a Pig a Pancake is a perfect mentor text to use for teaching compound words.  We, of course, had to go big on the pancake theme!!  We learned about what compound words were using our new anchor chart (a stack of pancakes, of course) and learned how to find the two words that make up a compound word.  We divided words...with forks of course, read a poem with compound words in it, and set off to find compound words in some books.  Then it was time to become the chefs!!  During word work time, the kids got to wear an official "Smart Cookie Bakery" apron, create their own pancakes with compound words, and then practice flipping them!  They were pretty good.  After checking all their words with a friend, the stack of pancakes was stapled to the pan!  I think we have some future professional super reading chefs on our hands!! :)

A Stack of Compound Words Anchor Chart

Great job, chefs!!!

divide the word with a fork!!

Stackin up some compound fun unit mini poster

 enjoy a copy of our pancake compound word unit click here!

Or click here!


Hope you enjoyed your peek into our day!  Stop by again soon to see what we're cookin' up next!!
Joyfully!
Nancy