Bat Magic

Bat Magic Week

At my school it is so hard to teach something new that the students have not been exposed too.  That is why I like bat week.  Bats are a new topic for the children.  Most of the children could share personal experiences about bats however most of the students have not read the stories about bats. Our favorite bat stories were:  Stellaluna, Night Song and Daft Bat.

We made black bats to hang up in our classroom and a couple in the hallway.

Each student wrote a little report about bats.  I found the idea in the unit by Reagan Tunstall.  

We went to the zoo for the Bat Magic program.  It was so cute.  They set up a cave in the classroom.  They even bring a live bat into the classroom for the children to see. 

At the Bat Magic program the children make a cute brown bat.  This is a fun way to celebrate Halloween.   

Owl Babies

Owl Babies

I just love the book Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and so do my students.  Every year when I read this wonderful book my students beg for me to read it again and again.  I think the kids like it so much because they can relate to the characters, especially Bill. 

One of the elements my first graders and I discussed was the setting and how the illustrater added details to make the owls look fuzzy. 

I had my first graders create an art project to go along with the story. 

1.  They sketched the owls with pencil on white paper.

2.  Then they traced the owls with a black sharpie.

3.  Next, they water colored the owls.

We let the owls dry over night.

The next morning we took paper scraps and created a background for the owls.  We cut out our owls and arranged everything.   

Another great owl book I use in my classroom is, Little Owl Lost. by Chris Naughton.  The illustrations in this book are wonderful. 

This is another book that my students love as well.  .  I use this book to talk about the character and what it means to be helpful.  I wish I could read to my students all day.  There are so many wonderful owl stories.    

And With A Light Touch Chapter 10 & 11

This week I read Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 in the book And With a Light Touch.  Carol writes about the importance of reading-aloud to your class.  She has so many good points and benefits for reading to children.  We all know it is important however I know I am guilty of missing a story here and there because if I am running behind it is so easy to skip. 

However I need to make a point of making read-aloud a focus in my classroom.  Carol reads to her student first thing in the morning just to make sure she makes it a priority.  Not only do my students benefit from the rich language they hear as I read they also are exposed to the structure and organization of the stories.  Most importantly I need to spend more time talking about books and authors.  The hows and whys of stories are very important. 

“I’m teaching them to get in touch with their thoughts about what happens in stories and express their responses..”  This is the goal of every reading teacher.  Reading discussions are all about “sharing ideas, questioning text, making connections, striving to understand different perspectives”, most importantly to develop individually listening and thinking skills. 

When I choose my books for read aloud I tend to pick stories that reinforce and go along with what I am teaching that day.  I try to find the best stories and award winning literature. However I also like to pick stories that I know will motivate my students to challenge themselves as readers and writers.  

Chapter 11 is about responding to literature is a touching subject.  I don’t like to give busy work and I don’t like to give work that is going to take away from the enjoyment of reading.  With that said I know it is important to teach children how to process what they are reading. 

My favorite way to check on what the children are learning is through a letter.  Each week I ask my students to pick a book and write me a letter about the book their reading.  As the year progresses we add more to the letter.  We start out simple with title, characters and setting.  Then we move into story sequence, next personal connections and so on.  Carol also writes about how she works through the same concepts in her own way.  I liked how she wrote about making connections.  She had three types of connections:

·      Text for information

·      Text to self

·      Text to our world

I
It is similar to what we have all read here on blog world.  There are great resources available for free on pinterest.  I know I have downloaded a few for my classroom.  Here are my favorite charts from pinterest as well.  I like that the second one adds media.  

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Apples

I don't know about you but my school year has been so busy.  I thought this year would be easier now that I had a year under my belt in first grade but that was not the case.  I still feel like I am working day to day.  

Last week I took my first grade class to the apple orchard.  In order to prepare for our trip we created some apple art.  It was hard to find art that our kindergarten program had not already done however I did find this idea from Deep Space Sparkle.  I didn't have my first graders trace apples I had them draw their own.  We looked at apples and talked about their imperfect shapes.  I didn't want to purchase burlap for the background so we used some scrapbook paper that I already had and sticky tape for the stems and leaves.  My first graders loved mixing the paint and painting their apples.  

For Social Studies we read from a pre-made book from 1st Grade Hip Hip Hooray.    I purchased this unit at the last minute and didn't have time to do all the wonderful ideas.  Next year I will be prepared and have more time.  I highly recommend this unit.  The first graders enjoyed the true and false questions after the story.  Who would have guessed??

There are lots of wonderful books to read about apples however this year the first grade favorites were:

Believe it or not most of the children said they had never heard these stories before.  It is really hard for me to find stories they are unfamiliar with.  

If you are interested in my kindergarten apple ideas Click Here.