Kevin Henkes!

This post should have happened a LONG time ago.  I just finished up my Kevin Henkes packet, however we have been done with him since September!  We started off our year with a "friendship" theme, which is perfect for the beginning of a school year.  We spent some time reading Kevin Henkes books and talking about friendship.  I have to say I wasn't so good at remembering to take pictures during this time of year... so here's what I have to share!

 {My teammate made this lovely bulletin board with the project!}

We spent about 2 weeks with this unit.  The kids loved the books.  {This was also the time where I used my freebie to help kids learn what character and setting mean--as well as know the difference.  You can find that post HERE.}  My unit with the kids concluded with them picking their favorite book, creating a mouse to match and writing a retelling of that book.  (First, next, then and last)  Unfortunately, I am unable to find the picture examples of these right now...  I've looked on every camera I have!  I know it is somewhere!!

This packet also includes a fun beginner research packet about mice!  It is set up like the rest of my research packets and can be completed whole group, small group or even independently, depending on your classroom abilities!

This packet includes activities for these books:  Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Sheila Rae the Brave, Chrysanthemum, Chester's Way and Wemberly Worried (as well as a few generic graphic organizers to use other books you might have of his!)  If you'd like to check out my newest product with all the Kevin Henkes goodies---click on the picture below!

Nocturnal Animals and more Frightfully FUN hunts!

We've officially started off one of my favorite units this week.  Nocturnal Animals!  It was the first "research" packet I made last year, and now I have turned just about everything I can think of into some kind of researching!  If we read Froggy books, we'll research frogs.  Pete the Cat?  We'll research cats!  {Most of my lit packets--with the exception of Mo Willems and Robert Munsch--and my Click, Clack DO pack have research built in--though, don't be surprised when you notice a "download" again blinkie because I just may have added a little research into those too!} ;)

Here are some pictures of owl researching this week.  I didn't get too many.

Next week is Bats!  Can't wait!  {You can get all of these sheets in my Creatures of the Night pack on TPT}

On a different note---this is what I spent last night doing:

{Notice the Matchbox cars nearby....  I do what I can do with those little ones I have at home!  I gotta say, my 3 year old is one of the best cutters I have seen!  I think he may cut even better than some of my firsties!  He's not quite ready to help ME cut though!}

I got this laminator from mybinding.com.  I gotta say, I never thought I would need a laminator at home.  We have one at school, that usually lasts all year.  When I was offered this, I thought it was an offer I couldn't refuse!  And, now, I'm SO glad that I did take it!  It is SO convenient!  SO easy to use.  It laminates different thicknesses and even has a cool laminating setting.  (I really am still new to those.  I've just kept it on the one it tells me!  HA!)  It also has a release button if anything gets jammed, though I haven't had to use that yet! :)  I'm finding it quite convenient and am not quite sure why I haven't had one in the past!  It reminded me of when I first got an iPhone.  I just couldn't see needing such a fancy thing!  NOW---I can't live without it either!  THIS is the laminator I have.  I've used it a lot for home things too, such as photos, but also those adorable drawn artwork my boys will do on rainy days!

Last, here are some pictures of my kiddos going on their "hunts" today!  I had them bring in flashlights and they just had a BLAST!  It was awesome to see them SO excited!  I actually did a math and reading one today (at different times, of course!) BUT, I had all cards hanging up keeping the kids in anticipation all day as to what we'd be doing with the cards!  I have more of these in the works!

Leave me a comment and I'll send these to a lucky winner on Sunday night!  (get your comments in by 9pm EST on Sunday!)

The Great Pumpkin Project! {read for a freebie!}

So, I'm slowly getting into a routine and finding time for my outside-of-school-life.  If you haven't been on my Facebook page, you've missed out on seeing my newest work work packet-Tic Tac BOO!  I'm going to be using this the next few weeks of school for my kids to learn their word sorting words!  (We use Words Their Way)

Now, what we've been up to the past 3 weeks.  We are teaching through "units" that were teacher created.  Our last unit was Harvest.  So we've been reading and working with apples, pumpkins and everything fall!  I've been able to TPT-ify my pumpkin stuff and will share what we did in pictures below!

Pumpkin Measuring

 Digging inside the pumpkin!  {And THIS teacher didn't have to touch a thing!!!!}

{Since we can't have food at school... I had each student take home a baggie filled with a group of 10 seeds} 

Pumpkin Investigation worksheets:

 {I LOVE that most of them "learned" that pumpkins were "gross" or "gooey" inside! ha!}

Pumpkin Researching:

{We read pumpkin books together to complete this research packet.  We learned that we can read informational books "out of order" to find information that we need!  It helped them distinguish between books that give info and books that tell a story.  I've found that they struggle with this because they think that if a book (such as Chrysanthemum) TEACHES them a lesson, it gives them info!}

ABC Order!

We started the week learning how to put the ABC's in order-first will all ABC's then with ABC's with letters missing!

Then we worked on putting words in ABC order and recording on a worksheet (sorry--forgot to snap pictures!!!!)

And-then after that, we did a fun activity where we walked around the room to 10 cards that had 3 words on it.  The kids had to write the words in ABC order on each card!  {Forgot pics there too} :(

 

And last, we cut out words and glued them in ABC order into a pumpkin vocab booklet!  We talked about whether each word was a noun, verb or adjective.  The kids wrote the definitions and then illustrated it!

Click {HERE} if you'd like to use the pumpkin vocab book with your class!  You will need to make enough copies of the pages to create the book!  I double sided them.

If you'd like to check out my complete packet, click on the picture below to see it!  {everything you see above and lots more-including comprehension activities with pumpkin themed books--is included!!  As well as Essential Question posters!!}

Happily Ever After-A Fairy Tale Unit

Hi all!  This post has been in the making since May.  I just have not had it in me to finish the packet that I'm going to show you, nor could I find the time to get the amazingly cute pics loaded from my week!!!!  This summer is flying by, and I know many of you are getting ready to head back already!  We only got out mid June... so we have till the last week of August yet before heading back for some PD.  Make sure you read the the end of this! ;)

I LOVE Fairy Tales.  It's something that I always read growing up.  Maybe it's because I always wanted to be rescued by a handsome prince... or live in a castle with all those dresses and shoes?!  ha!  However, it's something I didn't do very well in my classroom.  Till now anyway! :)  (Still incredibly thankful for TPT!!!)

We spent the week looking at different Fairy Tales (Might I add, there were a few munchkins that did NOT know some of the stories I took for granted that they did?!)  The first day we read a familiar one--Cinderella.  We talked about all the different things that the book had that other stories did not have.  We displayed the posters.

Then we completed a "checklist" worksheet (it's what I called it, though it isn't really a checklist, but it's things to look and see if a book had!)

The rest of the week was similar.  We completed the checklist for each book, gradually getting to the point where they completed it independently.

We created some fun things with some of the books. 

 {Checklist we did for each}

 {WANTED posters we completed at the end of the unit}

 {What would be at the top of your beanstalk?}

Fairy Godfather applications:  (forgot to take a pic of the godmothers!)

 Wolf Research:

I just uploaded this packet to TPT.

Here's what you'll get:

{The packet also has math integrated into it---which I didn't take pics of, but you can see the sheets in this picture}:

Leave me a comment and I'll give this packet away to a few random people!  I'll pick Sunday night!  GO! Congrats #1 and 11 for being my random numbers generated--I'm emailing you now! :)  (PS-don't forget to click and follow this lil blog on bloglovin'!)