Poetry: If You Smile at a Crocodile

I have been searching all morning for books and ideas to teach about the Wetlands in Science this week.  I am sad to say I really did not find much.  However I did find a cute poem for the week and a couple of stories to read.   It is perfect for my phonics lessons.  I am starting digraphs and we can do a search for them in the poem.  

As always I made a copy for my poetry basket, a copy for my students to put in their poetry books and a homework sheet for them to search for letter sounds and read to their parents.  

Click Here for a Freebie

 I found a couple of books I plan on reading during shared reading and during the afternoon bathroom break about animals that live in wetland areas.   

Woodland Animals Poems

Click Here for your copy

Next week I am going to start teaching about habitats in Science.  My partner teacher and I are going to divide the topic into four areas, forests, wetlands, oceans, and deserts.  I have absolutely nothing planned or in my file folders.  I have a lot of research to do.  I found this poem for next week.  It is super cute.  I found it in the book, Pick a Poem.

Five for Friday -- Oct. 18

“Make A Big Deal out of the Little Things”

Erin McHugh

One Good Deed

I am learning so much this year.  I barely have time to do my household responsibilities because I am constantly reading what I need to know for the next lesson. 

It is very challenging to bring a new twist to some of the same old subjects. 

I am linking up my favorite five things from the week.

First I went back to my spider project from last week.  I liked the project however I just thought it needed something more.  The orange paper was so plain looking.  Then one of those duh moments came to me, a spider web. 

I love how they look.  Each spider web is different and unique.

In the number two spot for the week is the spider writing the children did.  It was our first report of the year and the children did fabulous.  They worked so hard using the graphic organizer.

We read the story Anansi and the Spider and we made bright spiders with bright designs on them. 

Then for a break during the week my daughter and I went out to a painting class.  We had so much fun. 

I finished the week with a bat art project.  They turned out a bit smaller than I wanted, however they are cute.

Look at this pumpkin display on the bookshelf.  This was at the place where we went for the painting class.  There were all these pumpkins everywhere.  It was so cute.  I just thought I would share with you.  

Please stop by Doodle Bugs Teaching and read more Five for Fridays!

Halloween Is Coming

Where does the time go????  I feel like I do school work all the time however I rarely take the time to write down what I am doing.  I am determined to share one freebie a week.  This week I am doing a poem my daughter did when she was in first grade.

Click Here for a free copy.

Bats in First Grade

There are few things in life that creep me out: mice, snakes, spiders and bats.  I must be batty because this week I am teaching my students about bats.

I found a wonderful bat unit by Kristen Smith that I highly recommend if you are teaching about bats. 

There are some wonderful ideas in the unit for science, math and literacy. The link about will take you to her blog, A Day in First Grade.  Kristen's blog is amazing and so are her products.  

I plan on reading the following books:

and my poem of the week is Spooky Bats. 

Let me know if you have some other favorite books about bats.