Frankenstein, Bug Invasion, and some AMAZING Chicks! What A WeekinFirstGrade!

This week was a great week in first grade!  The kids did so much great work!  They really have the basics down and we are able to do so much more!  We are still working on the chatting though - this group starts talking during every transition.  I started to up the rewards with the star jar, so hopefully we can get that under control!  

With all the build up to Halloween next week, I can't believe I have made it!  Between the kiddos at school and the Little Lady, I don't know who is more hyped up!  I tried to keep the learning (and the fun) going in my room this week.  

Here's my 5 for Friday!

1.  Halloween Crazy!

I think we have gone a little over the top for Halloween at school this year!  We have a new principal and a totally new vibe.  We are doing a whole school costume parade (fun!) and a haunted hallway for the school party Saturday night.  In preparation for the party we decorated our doors for the occasion- THANKS for the ideas Pinterest!  Here is my door:

And my sweet teaching neighbor's (and bestie) door:

What do you think?  I feel like we should do this more often.  They weren't that much extra work, the kids are LOVING them and everyone is talking about them!  Smiles all around!

To connect (slightly by coincidence) we made these mini-Frankensteins (what do you call a girl Frankenstein??).  Again this is a craft from my favorite Cupcake for the Teacher!  You can find her pack HERE!

2.  Retelling A Story Using the Characters

We started reading Chicken Little last week and used it to talk about character.  We continued that into this week.  On Monday, we compared Chicken Little and Foxy Loxy.  I always try Venn Diagrams in my reading groups and kids have so much trouble, but this big Bubble map helped the kids understand it better.  And when I did a similar activity with 2 of my guided reading groups they carried over the learning!

Then we talked about how we could make connections with the characters in the story.  The kids all made a connection with Chicken Little (they have friends, they have made a mistake, they have been tricked).  They had to draw and write their connections and it really illustrated how much they have learned already!

Finally, we talked about the importance of retelling a story and including the characters.  We retold the story of Chicken Little and put the characters in order together.  The kids put the characters in order on their papers.  

Finally, we made these chicks out of toilet paper rolls.  The kids rolled up their character lists and placed them inside.  The kids were asked to bring them home and practice retelling the story to someone at home.  Hopefully they did!  Thanks to Kim Adsit's Digging Deeper Pack for these ideas!

3.  BUG INVASION!!

In science we learned about living and nonliving things and have moved on to learn more about the habitats in our schoolyard.  To help with that (since its getting COLD!!) the district purchases materials for us to keep a sample schoolyard habitat in our room.  Yippee!  Can you hear the sarcasm!!  I don't like these bugs!  When they arrived yesterday I had to build the habitat for these creepy crawlies!  

Inside you will find pill bugs, millipedes, crickets, and bess bugs (which make noise and bite!).  Here is a close up of a cricket - They like to escape, so I'm guessing he won't be in the habitat by the time I get back on Monday!

Here is a peek at the millipede and the pill bugs getting comfy in their new home.  

Can't wait to dig through this with the kids next week ;)

4.  Sticky Notes Folder for Sharing Books With Partners

We have been working on what we can share with our partners during partner reading time (see last week's post for a picture of the poster.  This week we worked on how we can hold on to what we want to share from the time we read our books on our own to when we share with our partners.  Thanks to Kim Adsit's Powerful Partnerships pack I made these sticky notes folders.  Each kiddo has their own to keep in their book bag.  

Inside they have 4 icons (they match the things they can share) and 4 stickies.   Kids learned to draw sketches of the icon on the stickies to help them remember why they placed the stickies in the place that they chose.  They also learned where to get more stickies.  The kids LOVED placing them on their books and sharing what they noticed with their partners.  I am hoping that by the end of next week they will be ready to do all of this work independently while I run guided reading groups (right now I'm squeezing in partner reading lessons wherever I can!).

5.  Math Morning!

Every October my team invites families in to play some math games.  Our math program (mostly Everyday Math with some Kathy Richardson and CML sprinkled in) has LOTS and LOTS of games to help kiddos learn math!  What a better way to get families involved than to see their kids in action!  

Each family received one of these direction packs with all of the game directions. 

They also received a pack of materials to play these games at home too!

Here's one of the stations (before school started) that we available.

I hope you enjoyed the peek at our week!  How was your week?  What are you doing for Halloween?  We are out straight this weekend!  Family Pictures in the morning, town costume parade in the afternoon and (maybe) my school's Halloween party at night!  And that's only Saturday!

I may got to bed NOW to prepare ;)  Have a SPOOKTACULAR weekend!