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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Snapshot Of Our Room

Hi there,
I have not really disappeared but I have been missing for a few weeks. The year started off with a bang and I have been really busy planning activities to keep an active and chatty group of children busy and engaged in learning. This is no easy job as many of you well know but I have given it my best shot. Here are some photos of what has been going on in September and October...

September was all about apples and exploring their understanding through both Science and Social Studies. We saw lots of  You Tube videos on Johnny Appleseed and the life cycle of an apple. I made several apple readers that they loved too.
 I am all over subitizing and practicing it with my students. This has really made a difference in their ability to recognize the number of dots on dice when playing games. I made a Power Point where I click through the dots at top speed and they love "racing" to tell me the answer. This has been so much fun and can be changed throughout the year depending on our theme. It is really building number sense quickly.

 I introduced a variety of sight words but used apple images to help to build their academic vocabulary. This game was a huge hit but I got tired of playing it (the kids were fine with it) so after about a week I had to change it or go nuts! Yup,it's all about me!
 I cut up a variety of apples and read stories about apple orchards so naturally we labeled a picture but mine is super simple to cut apart since not all children have mastered this skill yet. No one got a hair cut that day so I felt in control of the whole situation. They are so cute that I put them up around the room. We also did a guided drawing of an apple which they loved.
 Yup, Chef Kramer showed up with her crock pot and showed the children how to make applesauce from the apples our parents had sent in. I only added a little sugar and some cinnamon and it was a big hit. Most kids loved it but some would not even touch it which surprised me. How do you handle students who refuse to taste something. I try not to make a big deal of it. No one likes to be forced to eat something. Right?
Our school does not celebrate Halloween in any way. We don't read about witches, ghosts, zombies, or Frankenstein. However, I do a huge unit on Autumn and a lot of science around the life cycle of a pumpkin. Here a just a few pictures of what we did and I have many other activities that the kids loved. Many of them come from my activity packet that is in my TpT store: Click on the picture and it will take you there: It has lots of great activities but the best is a retelling bracelet with a matching little book for the life cycle of a pumpkin. My students wore that bracelet for an entire week! 
Parents sent in lots of pumpkins and we naturally did a Bubble Map to describe it both inside and outside and they loved it! I threw it together quickly just using graphics from Susanna at Whimsy Workshop because her clip art rocks! She has made me gorgeous graphics that my students adore.
 I also made a fluency chart with my Sparkle Reader called I See a Pumpkin that is also available in my TpT store. Click on the pictures to fly over there.
 We practiced important but basic skills with simple games I created that made learning more fun.
 On our Fall Activity Day the moms came in to help and the children made a pumpkin mosaic using beans and pumpkin seeds. They loved do this project.
There is so much more to post but now I need to work on other projects to get ready for the week ahead.  Look for more pumpkin fun later in the week.
Have a great week of teaching.

4 comments:

Mrs. Lang's Literacy Corner said...

Love these ideas! I NEED the sight word activities included in the apple theme. Do you have here available?? Are there similar activities in the pumpkin packet?

Fran Kramer said...

Yes the pumpkin packet has similar words and the apple one is not in my TpT store yet. Thanks for asking.

Anonymous said...

These are great ideas! I am still in the education program and we are learning how we can take one subject and infuse it into our other lessons. This post really embraces that idea and I think any student would be excited about it. Thank you for the ideas in my future classroom !

joshua54 said...

These are superb ideas!! Thanks for sharing my friend. I loved those apple picking activities. Great way to teach counting to the students! My daughter also goes to the Phoenix pre-k and her teacher took them to a farm for strawberry picking. They really had great time there.