Lightning Does Strike Twice!

Hello Everyone!
I'm going to start of today with a little picture.

This is one of the chimneys on my house!  Last week we got struck by lightning in the middle of the night!! It totally fried most of our electronics, pool equipment, garage door opener, one of the air conditioners, and probably more, let alone it scared the jeepers out of us!!!  We are still discovering things that don't work.  But!!!   No fire! The house is still standing! Praise the Lord, we are all safe.  It could have been pretty bad.  You had better believe we are counting our blessings!!! The crazy thing is, this will be the third time we will be replacing a chimney due to weather!  WOW!!! Lightning does strike twice!!!

Needless to say, it has taken some patience as we get everything up and running again.  I have the hardest working "do it yourselfer" type hubby!!  He has been at it for days!!! First up, was the all important computer network.  Took some doin, but he did it!!!  Thanking God for my sweetie!!!

All this got me to thinking about some of my school units. I decided that I needed to "strike again" with my beginning of the year unit on "Me and My School." It included some downloads using "David Goes to School."  That is still one of my favs to start the year. I also love "Chrysanthemum" and "Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon." So... I went ahead and cleaned up and combined the three books into one unit.

Here are some pics.

The unit is about 55 pages long with poems, chants, reader's response, hands on visual, posters, bubblemaps, and puzzles. These ideas were successful the first couple times around, so, let's strike again!!

You can get your download if you STRIKE HERE!!! :) 

OOPS! Gotta go! The air conditioner guy is here!  YAY!!

It's all good!! 

Thanks for stopping by!! Don't forget to leave a comment and let me know if you can use this unit, or if you need anything else.  Up next? Sight Words, I Can's, and a few more things!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Words DO Hurt

Hello Everyone!
I am so looking forward to doing our Superhero unit with our new group of Superlearners! As I was thinking about the beginning of the year, I knew I wanted to incorporate the "Wrinkled Heart" activity that I've done the past 9 or so years.  We always spend time talking about bullying and how we always need to think before we speak. I like to use Chrysanthemum or Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon for this activity.  Take a giant paper heart and have kids crumple it up each time something is said that hurts the main character. After the story, try to smooth the heart. You can't get get the wrinkles out.  A great hands on and visual activity to help kids understand that words do hurt. Have kids place band aids on the wrinkled heart as a symbol of their commitment to thinking before they speak! Here are a few pics from previous years. It has evolved!!

Well, to go along with our Superhero unit, I decided to try using a paper superhero cape!! I think it will work. I redid the little poem as well. Take a peek!

For Reader's Response Journal

For your own little unit with the heart and cape ideas, CLICK HERE!

Have fun with this!!  And have a Super weekend!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Great Start!!

Hello Everyone!!
We have had a wonderful start to our year!  The past couple of days were filled with  establishing routine, schedules, expectations, goal setting, and getting to know each other. Yesterday we enjoyed learning about school expectations through our little friend David. You know him! Little David in David Shannon's book "David Goes To School."  I love the little David's my kids made this year!  They all turn out so different!!

 

 

You can get the David literature connection activity in this little unit.  It also includes other reading/social studies ideas for you to use at the beginning of the year!

Just click here!! :)

 

Today we tackled the tough subjects of bullying, and respecting ourselves and others using one of our fav characters, Kevin Henkes' Chrysanthemum!  We have done this connection activity for many years and every year, it hits home with the kids.  They make the connection that you can hurt another's heart with words. There's that old chant we used to say, "Sticks and stones may break  my bones, but names will never hurt me."  Well, I don't believe that to be true.  Words can sometimes hurt even more than other things.  As we read the story we crumpled a large paper heart each time little Chrysanthemum hears words that hurt.  That heart got pretty crumpled. It even tore a little! We tried as hard as we could to smooth it back out. Of course we couldn't get it perfectly smooth. We decided to put some bandaids on as a way of driving the point home.  Even words can hurt!

 

 You can get this little reading/social studies connection in my Chrysanthemum unit.

Click here for this mini unit!! :)

 

 

I am so excited about tomorrow!  Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse!!

 

Till then, thanks for stopping by for a peek! We appreciate you!

Have a great evening!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse mini unit

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by this little "Window On Wonder."  A first grade classroom is wonder-filled place to be and first graders are simply amazing little learners . I love starting off the year with Kevin Henke's books as they are so relevant to the lives of our little cuties.  Chrysanthemum and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse are perfect to teach classroom behaviors.  Last year I shared my Chrysanthemum unit. You can get it HERE!! :)
This year I want to share a little Lilly mini unit with you.  The unit is an integration of ELA and SS. At the beginning of the year, we include lessons on rules and leaders in our community as well as laying the foundation for beginning reading strategies.  
Here's a quick peek into my Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse unit.

A little picture/word matching game

Make a little purse to store your game pieces

HOV (Hands On Visual) connection

Thinking map

To get your free 20 page Lilly unit, click here!! :)

The unit includes patterns to make Lilly's Purple Paper Purse and a little Lilly.

Hope you can use even a little part of this unit!  I can't wait to introduce Lilly to my new little ones!!
Don't forget to leave a little comment if you have time.  I learn so much from you!!
Till next time!
Have a joy-filled day!!
Nancy

It's Hard to Fix a Wrinkled Heart

Howdy!
Welcome back! 
Today we read one of my favorite beginning of the year books, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  It has become a fav of the kids too. Many of them said they have the book at home or their kindergarten teacher read it to them. I told them that's why books are so special. No matter how many times you read a book, each time is like opening a gift.  This time we were going to really think about the main character's feelings and the author's message.  As we read the book, I passed around a large paper heart.  Each time Chrysanthemum was teased because of her name, we crumpled up the heart.  Every time someone did something nice to her, we tried our best to smooth it out. By the end of the story, the heart was a wrinkled mess that could not be smoothed out perfectly. 
The kids got the connection that our own hearts feel wrinkled and crumpled sometimes when we don't like what someone says.  Words do hurt. We then tried to put bandaids on the heart as a way to show that we can own our mistakes and apologize.  The heart will probably still be wrinkled, but it is healing.

I, then had the kids do a mini version of this in their Reader's Response Journal.

 

Always Use Kind Words!

You can find this activity along with a few other things to do with this amazing book if you click here!

Including the little heart poem in the center:

Before you speak,

Think and be smart.

It's hard to fix

a wrinkled heart.

Here's to Happy Hearts!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Chrysanthemum...What a Perfect name!

Hello Everyone!
Hope you're about to have a funfilled weekend!  During tutoring today, one of my little sweeties reminded me of the cutest book. She remembers me reading it to the class a couple of years ago and still loves it!!  I know there is a lot you can do with the Kevin Henkes book, "Chrysanthemum" especially at the beginning of the year. We will do a lot of the letter counting, comparing, etc, but I also love to make sure kids realize how Chrysanthemum felt while the kids in her class were making fun of her name,  We spend a lot of time discussing how much it hurts when someone makes fun of something as simple as your name! I put together a little mini-unit which contains directions about how to create the "Wrinkled Heart." I also included a poem, an anchor chart for vocabulary, a couple of student recording sheets for reader's response, and a cute little craft connection with patterns if you need!
This little book has proven to me that kids remember the important lessons an author is trying to teach us through his stories. Thanks, Kevin Henkes, for helping make my job so easy!!

A Poem For Our Poetry Folder

An Anchor chart for the wonderful vocabulary

Cute Craft Connection-
Notice the mouse is made from hearts! :)

Always Use Kind Words Wrinkled Heart

for your free 16 page mini unit, click here!! :)

We've been doing these Wrinkled Hearts for the past
7 or 8 years and I can't wait to do it again!
Just like Chrysanthemum, your name is perfect!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

No Bullying- crumpled hearts

There has been a lot of talk about bullying the past few years.  Kids are being taught strategies for what to do when bullying comes to play in their lives.  One very good visual is to read the book Chrysanthemum.  I love this book because it shows that mean words can and do hurt. They hurt hearts. As Chrysanthemum enters school she is bullied by classmates about her name.  As I read the book to the class, I pass around a large paper heart.  Everytime one of the characters in the book makes fun of Chrysanthemum, the kids take turns crumpling up the paper heart.  As it turns out, at the end of the story Chrysanthemums teacher has an interesting name as well.  She announces that she might name her child Chrysanthemum!  The other characters stop bullying Chrysanthemum!  In class we try to smooth out the crumpled heart, but it never is quite the same.  I let the kids put bandaids on the heart and hang it up as a yearlong visual to the importance of using kind words!!