Monday, November 12, 2012

Turkey Trouble: Literacy Centers

Anyone ready to go back to school tomorrow?  OHmyGosh!!  I could definitely  use another day!  Between working extra on Saturday, running errands, and an eye appointment today (getting color contacts - yippee), I feel like I was constantly away from my computer.  Okay, I sound like I'm addicted to this thing!  LOL!   I cannot wait until Thanksgiving break so I can get caught up on all my products and school work.  Okay, I really think I may need some therapy!  LOL!!  It's not a bad thing to want to work, right? We have 6 more school days until break, which means that my firsties will be working on my new Thanksgiving literacy centers: Turkey Trouble.  The centers have elements from the story "Turkey Trouble" but does not require you to read the story in order for students to understand the centers.  You can simply use these centers as a fun Thanksgiving/Turkey filled week.  Click on any of the pictures below to download these fun turkey centers. 




 Don't forget that all products on my Teacher's Notebook store are 30% off.  Take advantage of those wonderful prices now.    Click on the pictures above to access both stores.  Have a fun turkey filled week!!


Sunday, November 11, 2012

"WINNERS!!" and "Math and Reading Unit Plans"

It's Sunday night and my "Characters in Action Giveaway" has come to a close.  Congratulations to our winners Lori and Rachel.


As stated in a post over the summer, I was part of a unit design team that helped create our county's first math unit: "Number Sense and Place Value".  We recently concluded the unit and the foundation in numbers that we created over the past 8-9 weeks is absolutely amazing! We have noticed that our first graders are so much more prepared for addition since they know numbers inside and out.  

Since then, my first grade team has worked diligently in completing the next math unit ("Addition, Subtraction, and Word Problems").  We have also completed the "Characters" and "Nonfiction" units for reading.  Click on the links below to access each of the units that we created for FREE.  

MATH PLANS/RESOURCES


READING PLANS/RESOURCES

If you have any questions about any of the units or resources above, please ask.  I enjoy creating these  documents and it has been very helpful when lesson planning each week.

Have a great week everyone!!


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

NEW!! Characters in Action GIVEAWAY!!

Hello everyone!!  I've been working hard on this 105 page "Characters in Action" unit and have finally posted it!  It is jam packed with full page color printables, anchor charts, and character printables for any character book you may be using.  Click on the picture to preview all 105 pages!!  :-) 



Here is what this unit includes:

~Character Essential Questions: 12 Essential Questions with Full Sheets of Question strips for Reading Journals

~“Characters” Anchor Chart: What Are Characters? - 5 statements about characters on word cards for use on a pocket chart.

~Character Stories: 6 character stories about a fictional character. Contains a recording sheet to tell about the character.

~Character Labeling: 6 character pictures to label with describing words about what the characters are like based on the character story.

~Character Compare/Contrast: Open ended character Venn diagram

~Build a Character Game: FUN Character Game where students move around the game board picking up character trait cards to build their own character. Students will also be challenged throughout the game with character inferencing cards. The recording sheet lets them draw a picture of their character using the cards they collected during the game and write a story about their new character.

~Character Photograph: Students will draw a picture of a character from their story and write describing words in the box that tells about the character.

~Character Traits Poster: Students will use the character traits poster in an open ended activity. They can write a story, play bingo, or even find characters with those character traits.

~Character Map: Students will draw a picture of a character in the middle, write the characters inside/outside traits, and tell what the character says and does.

~Character Thinking Stems: Use these Inferencing and Character Thinking Stems with your students during read alouds to guide student thinking. This also comes with a sticky note template to print the thinking stems onto sticky notes for students to use independently or with a partner.

~Prove it!: Use these Prove It! thinking stems with your students to guide them to find the text evidence that tells them about the characters. Text evidence magnifying glasses are also included.

~Characters Mini Book: Students will draw pictures of the characters they read about and write complete sentence about what the character say, what they do, and how they feel.

~Connections to Characters: Students will think of a time that they felt like the characters in the stories they read. They will make a connection to the character, draw a picture of themselves, and write about it.



Characters in Action Giveaway!!!
I will be giving away 
2  FREE "CHARACTERS IN ACTION"
 units to 2 different winners
in this weekends drawing!
The drawing will be held on Sunday, November 11, 2012.

You can enter 5 times for doing each of 5 things
1.)  Follow my blog
2.) Follow me on  Facebook
3.) Follow me on TeachersPayTeachers
4.)  Follow me on Teacher's Notebook (everything is always 30% off there) 
5.)Post about this giveaway on your blog 


GOOD LUCK!!  I HOPE YOU WIN!!  Be sure to leave your email address in each of your posts!