Christmas in July and a Blog Makeover

This month I participated in a Christmas in July book exchange.  This lovely little activity was put together by Randee at How About Them Apples?, Nicole at First Grade OWLS, and Jackie at Here We Go Loopty Loo.  We had to choose a children's book and come up with some activities to go with the it.  I chose the oh so wonderful book Olivia by Ian Falconer.  You can download the activities I put together for Olivia by clicking the image below.

Thanks ladies for hosting this super fun party.  I cannot wait to get my book! :)   Everybody make sure to check out these three fab blogs! Click here to go to Randee's blog to see what everyone else got!

Also, the super sweet Texas ladies at Peace, Love and Kindergarten have had a blog makeover!  Click their button to check out their psychedelic new look!

Story Wands- Consolation Prize

I found these super cute story wands in our school's Reading Specialist's room.  She is the Lakeshore Queen!

 

After using them whole group, I have been having my buddy readers use them while reading to each other. The students love them! Anyway, I will need to turn them in soon, and they cost $25 from Lakeshore. Here are my knockoffs:



If you are not a cheap-o like me, click here to get the real thing!

Character Traits with SpongeBob SquarePants

Who lives in the hallway on the right? SpongeBob SquarePants!

 I blogged a week or so ago about teaching character traits. While introducing them, I was inspired by a student's comment to do a SpongeBob lesson. I have several SpongeBob books that stay in the "Just for Fun" reading tub, but they came in super handy to teach character traits.

      We stared the lesson by voting on a book to read, and my FirstGrader SmartiePants picked the perfect one.  

It showed SpongeBob as a hard worker and good friend who can get a little annoyed at times.

After reading, each student wrote a character trait on SpongeBob.   Here are a few examples of what they came up with.  

"Nice Dresser"  :)
"Funny"
"Respectful"
"Good"






"Sponge"
"Jellyfisher"  <--Haha.  I love it!






Then I gave each student a sentence strip and asked them to write the definition of character traits.  This SmartiePants almost wrote  everything, word for word, that I had been telling them all week.

This was so much fun and they loved it!

Students are almost finished with the rough drafts of their writings about SpongeBob.  I still need to make a writing mat for their final draft.  I will post a copy of that and some of their writings when they finish.  My kids are a hoot!

Favorite Spot Linky Party!

Mrs. Thompson at Adventures in Teaching is hosting a Linky Party for your Favorite Area or Item in your classroom.  My favorite spot is most definitely the independent reading center.  We call it the "Reading Garden."

       I change out the books in the yellow display case every month.  These are books that I use to teach different topics and seasonal books.  Of course it is filled with Dr. Seuss books right now.  You can also see a few plant books and St. Patrick's Day books.  I put these here so students can go back and revisit their favorites after we read it in class.  By the way, my dad built the display case for me.  Isn't he talented?!
       The little white tub on the floor is for our library books that the students check out each week.  Oh, and I just love my tree with the big flowers in it.

This is the little gnome that lives in the Reading Garden.  Students read to him and tell him about their book :).

      I bought this bench at a resale shop.  It was Winnie the Pooh but I painted over everything but the seat, which has bees on it.  So, I added more bees where Piglet, Tigger, and Pooh were once upon a time, and sewed a few bumble bee pillows to make it super cozy.  The books in the tubs under the bench are leveled  readers that the students can choose from if they do not get one from the stand up shelf.

That's my favorite area in my classroom.  Go join the Linky Party!  I can't wait to see your favorite spot!

Character Traits with Synonyms and Antonyms

When we get back from Spring Break, we will be studying character traits and learning how to increase our vocabulary. (The way our curriculum words things is so funny! :)) So, I stuck the two together. I'll project this onto our interactive whiteboard.    I will probably only copy the last slide for students to complete for an assessment.  Here is a little preview of what is in the file.  Click the picture to get the whole thing.