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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Reinder Reindeer (A Christmas themed reader)--AND a Freebie

Several years ago I created this little reader for a group of firsties I had.  They loved it! 
I have used this little reader every year since--and now that I teach Title, it is just the perfect fit for my kids.

Here is how I use this little activity.
First, I introduce the vocabulary with a read and write the room.
I not only use this as our vocabulary for our unit, but it gives us review of proper letter formation --
something that many of my students struggle with.  
We use Fundations, and the program uses the words sky line, worm  line, etc.  
We review these words and also talk about them being tall letters, short letters, and letters that hang. 

Then we work on sight words.  
There is a roll and write activity included, should that be a skill that your students need. 

Some groups use the picture matching activity.
This is also a good lips the fish activity--and teaches them to look at the whole word.
For example, both Santa and snowman are listed words.
We review that names begin with capitals as well.

I have used this activity AFTER reading the story as well.
Students go back to the book and find the matching words and match pictures that way.
What a good intro activity for having them learn to go back to the text to find answers!

Then of course, we read the story.
What's great about this little reader is it's predictable text, repeating pattern--
and to make it easier for some of the more difficult character names, when it is printed in black and white, the images align in the book and you can see it "hidden" beneath the image of the page you are reading.
It makes them feel super smart that they know what the next image is--AND can read it! :)
 
Then of course, we do the sequencing and writing component--
but I unfortunately don't have an image of that as it is tomorrow's lesson. :)
 

 


Below is an overview of what's included--

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reindeer-Reindeer-A-Christmas-Reader-427485

You can click the image above to see this on TpT--and read feedback from others.
 
While reindeer are on the brain, my first grade math group is working on tens and ones.
I made a quick activity for our lesson tomorrow that maybe you could use for a math station
 or teacher table time as we head into the last days before Christmas break. 
 
Included in this freebie is your I can statement card with center directions.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3D5Bsh09DJKdmJpWHhCcWlHZU0
 You have 12 tens/ones cards with matching feed sack numbers to help assist for self-monitoring.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3D5Bsh09DJKdmJpWHhCcWlHZU0https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3D5Bsh09DJKdmJpWHhCcWlHZU0

 And the recording sheet!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3D5Bsh09DJKdmJpWHhCcWlHZU0

I want to KG Fonts and Creative Clips for the ADORABLE Graphics in this set! 

If this is something you can use for your students, 
click on any of the images for this activity above to download your own copy.  
If you download it, please leave me a little comment so I can see where all it has traveled! :)

Happy (we're getting there) almost Friday!!


Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Photo Dump--A Few Days of Randomness

Lets start with math. Last night I shared this tens and more activity.  My students really seemed to enjoy it...and considering I am trying like crazy to hold their attention for the next 11 days, I am happy with that! Click the image below to read about the game.
http://firstgradeandfabulous.blogspot.com/2016/12/place-value-with-numbers-in-teens.html

We have also worked on sets of ten.  I had made loops from colored yarn, and the students physically looped each set of ten as they counted them out.  This was a great visual for them.  We counted by tens, and the numerals were written and placed under each set as they counted by tens.  I asked them if they noticed anything about the numbers.  They recognized that the numbers were getting bigger, and that each one had a zero.  I took that answer and ran with it.  I covered up the zero, and had them look at the first number.  This number tells us how many sets of ten we have. The number was underlined. I then placed out a few more sets and gave students the numbers and they ordered them for me under each set of ten.  I stopped at 50 and asked what the next number would be, and how many sets of ten would we have.  They were able to identify that it would be 60 which is 6 groups.  WHOO!  We nailed it!  I was worried about doing it this way with this group of little learners, but they did very well, and I believe that the visual helped with manipulatives much better than looping a group of ten from a math worksheet.


 We have worked on fact families, fact fluency, and missing addends.  Here the students were to sort number sentences by family numbers, and determine the missing addend.  AND how cute are those graphics?? Anything with a cupcake is perfect to me! :)  You can see more about these activities by clicking the images below.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reindeer-Games-Math-Activities-for-First-Grade-1003733https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reindeer-Games-Math-Activities-for-First-Grade-1003733

 We also practiced our double facts to 6.  We shake our dice in little containers picked up from the Dollar Tree (as well as using red and green dice that also came from the Dollar Tree.)  If you want this little activity, it was a freebie from a few years ago.  Click the image to grab your own copy.

Doubles to 6 Game

One way I've been working with my students with math facts is by using a deck of cards.  They were so excited when I got these out.  (I have also picked up character cards from the Dollar Tree with Minions, Frozen, and Jumbo cards.)  I shared this on IG last week.  You can read my post on my IG photo below on how we used playing cards as a manipulative for subtraction.

For reading, here are some fun things we've been doing.  Of course I have to refer back to my sight word fluency reads.  I have passed these out to coworkers, and parents to use at home.  I see a huge difference when these are being used.  These little triangles are by far one of my favorite go to activities, and the students really feel successful when they read them as well. It's a great way to work on sight words IN text, and NOT in isolation. They have been made in both Dolch and Fry Words.  I do use both of those sets as the words may overlap between the two lists, BUT the fluency reads are DIFFERENT in each set. You can click below to check them out. I also have a few blog posts on them HERE.

Sight Word Fluency Reads

One of my groups of kiddos are still working on CvC words. We are using activities in the Reading Detectives pack. We tapped out/read all the CvC words and colored/highlighted the words that followed the vowel sound we were focusing.  Then we transferred that sound into a story where we read it, and illustrated it for simple comprehension.  The next day, we read the story again and answered the comprehension questions (not shown).  If you are interested in checking these out, there is a blog post with a freebie HERE.
You can also check these out on TpT and see what other teachers are saying about these packets--just click the images below. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/First-Grade-And-Fabulous/Search:reading+detectivehttps://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/First-Grade-And-Fabulous/Search:reading+detective


Finally, this game was a HIT with my kiddos. 
They had so much fun reading the sentences and determining the missing word.
Great for skippy frog activities, sight words, cloze exercises, AND comprehension.
They wanted to play again and again.  Hey, when they are reading, who is to argue with that? :)
You can check this game out by clicking on any one of the images below.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rockin-Reindeer-Literacy-Stations-for-Your-Little-Deer-Learners-1022031https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rockin-Reindeer-Literacy-Stations-for-Your-Little-Deer-Learners-1022031
 And just look at those ADORABLE graphics!!!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rockin-Reindeer-Literacy-Stations-for-Your-Little-Deer-Learners-1022031


Okay, well my phone, I think has been cleaned up for now.

I hope that you have a GREAT rest of the week!! 







Monday, December 5, 2016

Place Value with Numbers in the Teens

Yep.  This is my current situation.
I. AM. TIRED.

My mother-in-law and I had a discussion about working  this weekend.
There is something so different between mental exhaustion and physical exhaustion--
but when you're struck with both...it is brutal.  
*Side note--I will talk about all this exhaustion on my personal blog later this week--


Today's blog post is going to be a bunch of random--
basically I feel like that's my job in a nutshell.
A bunch of randomness.
Not that I don't plan for my job, I do.
But I get these spur of the moment last minute ideas that 
MAY kind of not be what I wrote down--at all--
and somedays--I think that's okay.

I mean technically, this is what is written in my plans for the next three weeks.



Just kidding--kind of! 😄

Now, where was I?
Oh yes, lesson plans.

My first grade group is working on place value.
Our adopted series is McGraw Hill--My Math.
The unit they are working on begins with numbers 11-19--but I focused our game on 10-20.
This is ALWAYS such a hard concept to remember the numbers in the teens.

I made a Bump game for my kiddos.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-with-Numbers-in-Teens-2909878
I had asked on FB if you would perhaps want this as a freebie, 
and many of you mentioned that it was a hard concept for your students as well.
So--I tried to think of some other ways you could use this activity to get in more practice.

For example, you can use these cards for a game of Memory.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-with-Numbers-in-Teens-2909878https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-with-Numbers-in-Teens-2909878

 You could place the tens frame cards in a pile, and students could read it, self check, and color the corresponding number with this activity page.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-with-Numbers-in-Teens-2909878
This would also work great as an independent or small group station.

Or,  you could do what I did--and play Bump.

How we played:
  •  I printed and laminated two sets of the ten frames cards.
  •  The cards were placed in a draw pile for the students. 
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-with-Numbers-in-Teens-2909878

  • On their turn, they drew a card and read the bottom
  •  They identified the number aloud and self checked themselves with the images at the top.
  • They found the corresponding  number and placed a unifix cube on top.
Now the fun part of the game--the Bumping.
If Player A has a cube on the given number, and Player B draws a card that matches the same spot, Player B can bump Player off of the matching spot. (Remember I made TWO copies of the cards.)   However, if Player A draws a card, and then on another turn, draws the matching card again, he can lock his spot by joining two unifix cubes together.  Once two unifix cubes are joined, that player can no longer be bumped.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-with-Numbers-in-Teens-2909878

The cards were placed back into the pile.
After the spots were "locked," if a tens frame card was drawn for a matching locked number, 
we put the cards into a reject pile and the player lost their turn.  
This added to the excitement of the game, I think. 

My boys, because I only have boys in my math intervention group, (how did I get so lucky? 😂) truly enjoyed this game.  We thought maybe your students would like it too. 

You can click HERE to download your own freebie! :)
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Place-Value-with-Numbers-in-Teens-2909878








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