Sunday, May 4, 2014

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week!

Hi, Friends! How are ya? I’m linking up with blogging pals to share about the upcoming TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale!


Because we had such a fun time working through our Peter H. Reynolds’ author study, I thought I’d give you a closer look at our creativity inspired week!  The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color are my ABSOLUTE favorite books on the planet! Want to get to know me a little better? Read Ish….thinking –Ishly allows my ideas to flow freely. Life is meant to be lived creatively!

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Before diving into the trilogy, we kicked off the week with a little Mouse Painting. After reading the book and retelling the story, we titled it Mouse Feet in order to connect to our phonics skill for the week: long e.

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We also made connections to math and grammar by using comparative adjectives to describe growing dot artwork. Of course, it wasn’t complete until it was framed in a little swirly gold!

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Creating our own gallery-ish was a LOT of fun! Students connected to the story by drawing their own –ish pictures. The best part? Crumpling it up at the end and throwing it across the room!  The best part for me was watching my students' eyes light up as we completed each story. They got it! They really got the message and were able to make connections from one story to the next as each new character was introduced and continued the storyline through the series.

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After the last friend tossed their story in, we moved to the carpet to share. Usually, we’ll share a few at a time. With such excitement in the room, we ended up sharing each and every one! They also liked the excitement of having each drawing revealed as it was opened up to reveal things like a….

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sun-ish,

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a ninja-ish,

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a robot-ish,

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and a car-ish!

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We even found our unique sky color by creating a mural. Next year, if I do this activity again, we’ll use white paper.

Seeing my kiddos so happy learning and enjoying my favorite stories on the planet was a total joy….extending the learning into literacy stations, EVEN moreso! After introducing stations and explaining what skills we would be reviewing by using them, students were eager to check in and ready to get their hands on them! And you wanna know what?! You could’ve heard a pin drop! They were working and I mean…REALLY working, involved and engaged in doing their individual best. Once the newness wore off just a bit, they also began engaging in conversations, discussing the stories and actively working together. I kept hearing all over the room….. “I get it!”...Lightbulbs were coming on all around the room and I love that they were loving what they were learning.

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In work on writing, students practiced using punctuation, writing on topics of personal interest and comparing and contrasting using a venn diagram.

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In word work, students chose from activities to practice using idioms, building words with long spelling patterns, sorting by suffix and adding to their poetry journals. One thing I try to do, as often as possible, is incorporate books in station activities. When I taught PreK, it was drilled into us to incorporate books into centers as often as possible.  It’s been a habit that has stuck with me. If I do not have a book that connects well with the activity, students can read from their personal book boxes at each station. They carry them to every station rotation.

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The little eyes on top….are there because we generally use the pocket chart to “see and sort”. =)

You can grab this little packet of goodies during the BIG Teacher Appreciation Sale at TPT! It starts tomorrow! Don’t miss it! I know I’ll be doing a little shopping to help us reach the finish line….only 23 days left!

The Dot

I’ll also have May morning work wrapped up and posted before the sale ends! Thanks for stopping by, friends. I appreciate you and will be sharing s few FREEBIES throughout the week as my little gift to YOU!

Stay tuned…..

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