Pigeon Fever-Mo Willems Part 1

Warning... This post may cause Pigeon Fever.  Don't worry.  If you feel it coming on, run (or maybe take a bus?!), don't walk to your nearest library or book store and get a few Pigeon books.  You might want to stop for a quick bite (maybe a hot dog??  or a cookie??) but don't take too long because you don't want to stay up too late.  Oh, and make sure to read through this post and watch out for puppies!  They have BIG teeth, ya know!  ;)  {And of course if you get it REALLY bad, you might want to check out my newest packet on TPT or TN!  hehe}


As you recall, we had a great time studying Robert Munsch.  We then read some Froggy (and did research).  What is the next logical theme?!  Mo Willems, of course!  We spent our first week with Knuffle Bunny.  We did a lot of comprehension things (that I did not create, but just copied from what I have---it's not included in the fantastic packet I will be telling you about in just a few short sentences!)

Then we moved on to Pigeon.  Oh, my.  It was love at first laugh for my littles.  Of course, most of them have read the books before.  But, now that they are bigger and better readers---they understand more and boy, do they ever have a fantastic reading voice!

Enter, my gigantic Pigeon Packet!

In short---this is what we accomplished in just 1 short week:
*Somebody, Wanted, But, So for each book.  It was great because poor Pigeon...  He doesn't really get his problems solved so much---so this graphic organizer what a great tool to use for these!  {Click HERE to grab yourself a freebie for it to try it out in your room!}
*We wrote letters to Pigeon, Duckling and the Bus Driver (depending on the story)
*We discussed pets.
*We learned more about contractions.
*We learned/reviewed pronouns.
*We learned/reviewed the 4 types of sentences first graders are supposed to know (according to the CCSS)
*We created some shape composite Pigeons in math!  

*We had a Pigeon PJ Party to end the week!  We read in the dark (well, lights off anyway) and created one of the best bulletin boards I have ever seen, in my opinion anyway!  ha!  :)  The kids came up with their own excuses to stay up late.  I took their pictures of them "begging" and put them all together!  Is this not total cuteness?!?!  (wish I didn't have to blur them out.....)

{Excuse the lack of title.  In the speech bubble will go "Don't Let the KIDS Stay Up Late!"}

*We had a little brain break of "Duck, Duck, PIGEON!" 

This is going to be a multi-post session for Mo.  We've carried it over into this week.  I'll be back soon to share more!

Leave me a comment and I'll be choosing a few winners to get this fantastic packet for FREE!  Don't forget to leave your email addys, and remember I changed my settings so you HAVE to be a follower to comment----I want to reward my fab followers!  =)   Congrats to Heather, KLyn and Jessica!  Heather, contact me so I can get you your packet to you!  KLyn and Jessica, I will be getting the packet ready to be sent to you tomorrow, if that's okay?!  I think it's too big to email, so I'll be setting something up for you to download.

More Daily 5---Word Work

I thought I'd share how I work my Word Work area.  First, my students are given a folder with prongs and pockets.  I check my students and highlight words they know from the Dolch Word List---that's what we're using this year.  Since I have the higher reading kids in first grade, I am testing them on all the words.  I have a little highlighting system:  YELLOW if they can read the word.  BLUE if they can SPELL the word.  GREEN (is made from the other 2) if they can read AND write the word.

 {They keep their folders in these containers.  Boys are in one and girls are in the other}

 {Click HERE for a copy of the word lists}

Now, they are given jobs (my literacy games) to do during a week or 2 (depending on the work, time of year, etc.).  I pass out all work that they need to finish during the week or 2 on day 1.  They label where they can find the games on the paper as we go over directions.  I use baby wipe containers to hold my things, unless it's a full page spinner.  Those go in paper trays.  My rule for the jobs is that they may only finish ONE page per day.  They may take more than a day to complete it, but I do NOT want them speeding through all 3-4 jobs in a day.  When they finish a job and have more time left, they use the folders with the words.  They spell the words with one of the MANY different things that they have---cardboard cutout letters, magnetic letters, alphabet beads, etc...

I wanted to add a little data from my class about this.  When I had my kids start with this folder, I went through and assessed my kids on ALL 220 dolch words.  In September 5 of my students already knew 95% of the words (209 or more).  3 of my students knew 40% or less of the words (82 words or less).  The rest were between 85-190 out of 220.  I had to test my kids last month due to it being my professional student goal for my students.  (My goal was to have all of my kids knowing 95% of all the words...  so 209 or more).  ALL but 1 student had met that goal by the end of February! (I haven't checked them again yet)  The biggest growth was my student who went from 84 words in September to 217 in February!  My one student who did not make the goal only needs 4 more words to make the goal!  I can tell you that I did not add in extra word work, other than what I am posting about here.  I did not send word cards home for them to practice.  Since it was almost individualized, it was MUCH too difficult to keep up.  They had ownership of their folders and words---and they learned those words through plain old reading and also their word work station!

I started mixing it up a little bit.  I am including a word work Tic-Tac-Toe.  I have a freebie listed {here}.  But, I created a themed one in December all related to Christmas:  I call it Ho! Ho! Ho! Word Work Tic-Tac-Toe.  I also had one that is Winter Themed called Tic-Tac-Snow!  And I now have one called Tic-Tac-GROW! (I'm in the works for more, but am falling quite far behind unfortunately with everything going on...)  Both that are posted and what will be have everything you'd need to complete the station.  My kids are LOVING it!  They are spelling their words with flowers, bugs and clouds, creating raindrops with their words, putting their word in ABC order in a caterpillar... I haven't been including "jobs" that I would normally have them do.  The first week I gave them words to practice, which are all based off the Word Sort they are on in Words Their Way.  After that, they'll use the same tic-tac-toe, but will use different words that they chose. 

Starting next week, I think I'm going to be switching things up yet again...  Since we switch kids, we have transitions.  A LOT of them.  I think that I will be having them work on their Tic-Tac-Toe boards for about 10-15 minutes when they first come in.  This will free up time during the daily 5 to work on other word work activities that we have been lacking and need to find time to practice!  Nothing like waiting till we have about 40 days of school left!  :)  

 {This is how I am an organizing all of the papers for the Tic-Tac-Toe.  All papers are included in my packet on TPT}

Here are some other pictures of my newest packet:

 

I'll have more pictures after we start working more this coming week!  You can find all of my Word Work Choice Boards {HERE}

 

Homework--Let's Reflect

Okay-this has been a pet peeve of mine this year, especially, with having my own son now in school getting homework.  If anything, I want this blog post to make you think.  I'd love to hear your thoughts too!  I was thinking of turning it into a linky, but wasn't sure what would be out there yet.

Homework-what do you do?  I've done it all.  Homework packets, "themed" days for work such as Math Mondays, etc...  No homework.  I've even had kids complete special projects at home with their family, such as decorating a scarecrow, or turkey, etc... but found it was more of the parents doing the work than students...

Reminder----I'm a first grade teacher!  While you may not teach that age, I still challenge you the same below.  :)

Okay-off that soap box.  Onto my other.  When you assign homework, is it meaningful?  For ALL of your students?  Or are you giving them all the same thing (such as a spelling worksheet, where a few students may already know the words from the beginning---so the paper is just "busy work"?)  Do you give 50 problems of math, or 5?  Think about this.  If they can do 5 correctly---does doing 50 really matter?  (Now, I'm not talking about those kiddos who struggle and need LOTS of practice--but even still--they can't do the 5, does not being able to do the 20-50 problems really prove anything that you didn't already know?)  Are you assigning kids who are advanced MORE work than others just because they can do it?  (For example, just because they can read chapter books---is assigning 3-6 chapters to read in just ONE night beneficial for being more successful in the classroom?  More than just reading 1 chapter and discussing it the next day?)

I wish that this blogspot could be a little forum tonight.  I'd LOVE to hear other ideas and bounce them off of you!  I've grown a lot over the past 10 years of teaching---and I never believed it when people used to tell me---that things and perspectives change once you have kids...  were they ever right?!  Of course, I like to always challenge people's thinking----so maybe that wouldn't be a good idea!  lol  :)  I was guilty of giving busy work.  It was all I ever knew!  It's what I did as a kid.  But, we have been introduced to this new thinking this year, and I can't disagree with the thinking.  Less is more---that's what really stuck. 

I challenge you to look at what you are currently doing and reflect!  Are you giving busy work--which, by the way, YOU have to take time to correct!   I am not officially assigning homework this year, other than to read each night for 10-20 minutes.  I do not have parents fill out charts.  I don't need them to.  You know who is reading and who isn't.  {Correction, I do have them assigned to read to the class 2 times a month---so they are preparing for that---more details about that in a post coming up soon!}  Of course, if I taught a grader higher than first, I would be finding ways to assign homework to keep the kiddos accountable and to teach responsibility.  The only thing I hold my students responsible for this year on a daily basis is having their folder at school.  Now, since having my own child in school, I realize more and more that it isn't the first grader's fault when they forget things---however, I do still have chats with them to remember to keep it in their backpacks each night, etc.  So that I can start that foundation of being responsible. 

Do you have an engaging and new{er} way of assigning homework?

PS-I've changed my blog settings so that only followers can comment.  I was getting WAY too much spam that I needed to change this.  Hopefully it will work okay! :)

Possessive Nouns and Frogs

Well, again, I must apologize for my absence!  My boys have birthdays exactly one month apart.  March 15th and April 15th.  SO---while I've been planning for school----I've also been planning for those and my nights have left me e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d.

After we learned about Robert Munsch books (which we received a letter back and a story from him already!!!  My kids don't know yet--I need to type up the story using the rest of the kids in my class before I do that so I can send it home with them all at the same time), we naturally moved on to FROGGY!!!!!  Perfect--because they were all pros with onomatopoeia!  It has also been quite a bit since we have researched too, so my one team member LOVES frogs--so we had to do a little bit of researching.  I put everything into a packet that you can find at TPT and TN.  I tied in our possessive noun common core standard with the Froggy books that have "Froggy's" in the title (Froggy's sleepover, Froggy's Baby Sister, etc..)  The packet it chock full of frog themed comprehension pages and a research packet like my others for kids to look in books and draw/write info about frogs.  I also included EQ posters.

This activity is also included in my packet, but it is something that can be done with out it.  After we worked with possessive nouns all week, I gave each student 5 post-its to start with.  I told them they are going to label the room!  They walked around and labeled everything they could reach.  It was a great activity that helped me see if they REALLY knew what it meant (and it was difficult to "copy" since they couldn't label the same thing someone else did!)  After they wrote their 5, they could get more post-its from me.  I had kids coming back for seconds, thirds and fourths!  They LOVED it!  :)

{ha ha!  Mrs. Rubin's "bad words"  LOVE it!}

I had originally only planned for about 5-10 minutes of this, knowing my class.  However, I would say I let them go 15-20 minutes instead due to their engagement and how well they were working!  I LOVE how they now use the words "possessive noun" :)

Easter Math Review Freebie

I don't have class pics of this yet, but wanted to post it for all of you last minute planners (like myself).

Easy prep math fun!  Print out the math slips 1-10 on the first page 11-20 on the second.  Copy the recording sheet (double sided).  Cut and place the slips into eggs and hide in room, or have in a basket.  Students can work in pairs, groups, independently.  It can be a competition or not!  Click {HERE} to grab your freebie!

Oh!  and I wanted to share that the family whom I'm donating my proceeds to (for the fallen officer-read more here)  Lyndsey had her baby today, Brad Jr.  Mom and baby are doing well. Thanks again for all of your support too!  I can't wait to give them a donation to their family.  (And-just to clarify, I do NOT know this family at all.  I only have heard things through a friend on Facebook--of course!)  Article about the birth {HERE}.