Zoohoo

Zoohoo!  Doesn't that sound like a good name for an app or a game or a book?  It's really just a combination of "zoo" and "boohoo"...because it's taken me a whole month to get to this post about the activities we did to prepare for the zoo trip in my classroom.  Better late than never...

We finished our animal research projects the week prior to all this zoo themed business.  I like the students to wrap those up just in case we need to consult an "expert" during our zoo themed activities.  You can read my previous post about our animal research books here. My students design their own covers, but we use my Animal Research Book format.

We started out the week by reading Animal Action by Karen Pandell and Art Wolfe.  This book is a great way to review verbs.  It also served as a mentor text for our writer's workshop mini lessons.

At the writing workstation, my students listened to a book called How to Ride a Giraffe.  I recorded the story on one of our iPads and put the link on our classroom Edmodo account.  That makes it easy for my students to find the link to the story and the directions for their writing work all in one place (without disturbing me while I work with small groups for reading instruction).  Their assigned task for this particular week was to write their own how to story after listening to the story.

We also read Giraffe's Can't Dance and the children created their own giraffe.  

I do this art project every year and I absolutely love how their giraffes turn out.  I call it a "get a frame for this one" project!

During writer's workshop, we worked on a sentence expansion activity.  Toward the end of the year, my students began to suffer from "I'm done syndrome"  during writer's workshop.  I decided it might help if we worked on editing and revising another writer's work, rather than our own for a bit.

My school subscribes to Reading A to Z.  I used one of the level AA books as a springboard for this project.  The book we used is called The Zoo.  I explained to the children that the author wrote the simple repetitive text in this book with the specific purpose of helping beginning readers build confidence, practice the sight word "the" and use the picture clues to help them identify the unknown word on each page.  The text on each page follows the pattern "The lion.", "The tiger.", "The elephant." and so on.

Using a book with a simple repetitive text pattern allowed us to practice different skills throughout the week.

Day 1 - adding a verb on each page (using the Animal Action book as a model for choosing interesting verbs)
*example:  The lion stalks

Day 2 - adding an adjective on each page to describe the animal
*example:  The sneaky lion stalks

Day 3 -  expanding each sentence to add details to answer the questions who, where and when
*example:  At sunrise, the sneaky lion stalks his prey at the edge of the woods.

Day 4 - add an introduction to the story

Day 5 - add a conclusion to the story

Day 6 - change the title to make your reader want to read the story

When they were done with each of these steps, they were ready to write a final draft of their story so it could be published in time to be on display with their animal research books for our Ice Cream Social/Showcase.

And...if you follow me on Instagram you already saw how excited I was for school to be out for the summer!  No sad goodbyes for me this year, because I'm looping to 2nd grade with my class!

School's out for summer!

pictured in this photo: my teaching BFF's

FYI - I'm sitting on the couch to write this post!  I.NEVER.SIT.ON.THE.COUCH from when school starts all the way to June.  PEOPLE - I'm sitting on the couch with my feet up!!!  Oh happy day!

Animal Research

My class is wrappin' up our animal research projects this week!  During the winter months, we spend some time researching penguins by using my Nonfiction Penguin Unit to model the process for researching an animal. Then each of my students chooses an animal to research.  It takes a few weeks for us to move from searching for informational texts, to taking notes, to writing the reports...but it is always a favorite project for my first graders!

My students write their reports in the form of an Animal Research Book.  

I actually did not use the cover that is included in my product this year.

 I asked my students illustrate their own cover this time. 

They also made paper plate pop-ups with the habitats of the animal they researched.

This week, we will finish some testing and start preparing for our zoo field trip and our grandparent tea party.  Love this time of the year!

Many Tpt sellers are having sales this week to show their appreciation for teachers!

You can visit my sale, by clicking on the image below. 

Don't forget to use the promo code at checkout!

Penguins as a Model for Animal Research

It felt so good to be back in my classroom with my students this week! They worked so hard and I was so wiped out by the end of the week. Glad to be back either way.

Oh how I love Saturday mornings without anything on the schedule. My son is busy doing batting practice in the basement. My daughter is using the living room as a dance floor to practice ballet.  My husband is cooking breakfast, so I thought I'd sneak in a little post.

We started our penguin research this week. We research penguins as a group so my students have a model for how to do their animal research later in the year. We started out by doing a close reading activity with this book. It's my favorite nonfiction penguin book.  We spent the whole week digging into this book during our reader's workshop lessons.  I have a whole collection of penguin books (which are available to the students), but really digging into one or two helps my students understand the importance of using good strategies with informational text.

Throughout the week, we added details to our can/have/are anchor chart.

 Any words that were new, unfamiliar or super interesting to us during our reading were added to our penguin vocabulary anchor chart.  At the beginning of reader's workshop time, I give the classroom iPads (we have 2) to students who will be in charge of recording the special vocabulary for the day.  That allows me to keep reading/teaching while they use the Educreations app as a white board to keep a list of the vocabulary we should add to the anchor chart for the day.   Then I can take a screen shot of the new vocabulary words to use it with a small group later or email it to parents so the students can discuss our new vocabulary at dinner.

This is a screen shot one of the iPads
 after one of the reader's workshop lessons this week.

Here's another one.  This student chose to write lots of words that we
discussed even though we
knew the definitions of some already. 

We'll add more to this vocabulary chart next week
as we continue our research.

When the anchor charts are complete, I'll take pictures of them and add them to our Reader's Workshop Anchor Chart book.  Then students can go back to reread and  revisit the things we've learned long after I've taken the charts down in the room.  We have a writer's workshop anchor chart book as well. They are  favorites in our room!

The students also completed their own can/have/are sheet and a vocabulary wheel for one of the words from our chart.  They choose their own word from our Penguin Vocabulary chart to use in the wheel and I ask them to write down things that will help them explain the word to a partner.  When their wheels are completed, they find a partner who has a different word and share/discuss their thinking. I move around during that time to make sure students are accurately defining the word since they may or may not have included the definition we discussed in their descriptions on the wheel.  

The resources I use for this unit are all found in my Nonfiction Penguin Unit.  It even includes pieces to make the anchor charts.  You can check it out by clicking on the image below.

When we finish this research project, the students will be well prepared to do their own animal research project.  They will choose their own animal and we'll use my Animal Research Book to guide them through the same kind of process we used to study penguins.  This was my very first Tpt product and it's my best seller.  I should probably update the cover...ha!  Add that to the to do list.

It's sunny and 10 today, so it's finally nice enough for a long dog walk. Not kidding... these poor dogs really need some exercise (and so do I)!  Happy Saturday!

Informational Text Themes for Reading Month

At my school, we've been busy planning for March is Reading month. 

We decided we wanted to focus on informational texts to increase the exposure our kids are getting to nonfiction books. I created the Information Highway for my staff to use. It is full of resources to use with students as they travel on the "information highway"!

The resources are geared toward 4 different themes (food, music, exercise and animals), 1 for each week in March. The Information Highway includes teachers planning pages, a family letter, an official passport, bulletin board/anchor chart pieces, two different reading logs for each weekly theme, writing activities (how to writing, poetry, opinion writing and research writing), class book covers, a sticky fact form, a vocabulary builder and two learning snapshot forms.

 
Stay tuned as my class travels on the Information Highway.  I'll be sure to post pictures throughout the month!

I'm still going to take my own class camping (during March) too!  We'll use the Camp Read  a Lot resources for that adventure.  There are lots of good informational texts about camping.  So, it will go well with our Information Highway theme. Last year, lots of teachers said they used my Camp Read a Lot unit at the end of the school year as well.

 Back to resting I go...
 

Time for a Super (Bowl) Sale!

The groundhog says 6 more weeks of winter...that's SUPER. Ughhh...

 So, let's focus on all the Super (Bowl) Sales!

Here are some of my favorite products...

Writing My Opinion

(includes rubrics, motivating student prompts, anchor chart pieces)

 (based on the common core, but can be used even if you are not using the common core standards)

 Camp Read A Lot Classroom Campout Fun

Great for March is Reading Month and end of the year celebration!

Nonfiction Penguin Unit 

 I use this unit to introduce animal research.

We study penguins as a class in February to prepare for our animal research in March.

 Digraph Activities 

(literacy work stations, literacy centers, working with words, 

small group work, individual word work)

Animal Research Book

My students use this book as a framework for their own animal research projects.

Funky Fun Vowel Games

(literacy work stations, literacy centers, working with words, 

small group work, individual word work)

Wanna have some football themed fun with your students?

Funky Football Fan Fun

(how to writing, list making, poetry, opinion writing, making words)

Everything in my Tpt store is 20% off today (2/2) and tomorrow (2/3)!

If you stop to visit my store, please become a follower.

You'll find lots of freebies there!

 
 

My Plans for Teaching Informational Text

Hope you are all staying warm and safe if you have stormy weather at your house.  We had at least 12 inches of new snow yesterday (on top of the snow we already had on the ground). 

Not sure if we'll be going to school tomorrow either because wind chills are predicted to be around -40 degrees. What?!?!  When I do get back to school, I need to start working on teaching informational text features.  I use my Exploring Informational Text unit to help guide my reader's workshop lessons.  It goes well with Lucy Calkins unit: Nonfiction Chapter Books that we'll be working on for writer's workshop.

Then my students practice the new skills we learned about informational text features while we do a little penguin research.  I made the Nonfiction Penguin Unit last year and my students loved it.  You can check it out by clicking on the image below.  One of my goals in creating this unit for my students, was to provide a little more depth of knowledge (the focus of the common core standards) before each student writes his/her own animal research report in the spring.  This unit really helped me model how to research, while practicing the skills we learned in the Exploring Informational Text unit.

As I mentioned, in the spring my student write their own animal research report.  My students LOVE doing their own animal research reports each year!  They choose their own animal and then they use the Animal Research Book below as a guide for writing their reports.  You can check it out by clicking below.  It's my best seller on Tpt.

I guess I should bundle up and start the 4th big dig of the last 24 hours.  Fingers crossed that the city snowplow did not push the snow from the whole street into the end of my driveway again.  Stay warm!

Holiday and Winter Themed Products (sale + freebies)

The Tpt cyber Monday/Tuesday sale starts tomorrow!

I'm posting about some of my winter and holiday themed products. 

I use this penguin unit to model nonfiction animal research with my students.

My students always love the nonfiction penguin unit!  

After this unit, the students do their own animal research projects 

with my Animal Research Book to guide them through the steps to writing research.

Animal Research Book (best seller)

Jolly Moose Short Vowel Sort - perfect for word work, literacy centers or individualized skill practice!

Merry Monkey Digraph Sort (word work, literacy center activity or individualized practice)

Holiday Making Words Pack (literacy center, word work)

 Winter Math Journal Prompts (I also have a fall and spring set of math journal prompts).

I also have several freebies in my store that are winter or holiday themed.

If you visit my store to download a freebie, please follow my store if you don't already.

Here are some of the freebies...

Addition Math Boxes (winter themed)

Snowman Addition Sort

Snowman Subtraction Sort

Winter Themed List Writing

 

Bring on Spring Sale!

I love sales! I think you're supposed to clean in the spring...

but I decided to bring on spring in a different way.

I'm having a sale at my Tpt store!  If you've made purchases from my store in the past, please know that I truly appreciate it.  The money I earn in my Tpt store allows my two teacher family to give the college savings accounts for our children a big boost.  The Gillow family is grateful. Thank you!

Here are some of my best sellers...

Animal Research Book (can be used with any animal)

Informational Text Unit

Short Vowel Centers

Sight Word Stories for Beginning Readers

And here are some spring products 

that might be helpful...

A memory book for your students to complete and take home as a keepsake!

A Mother's Day book that your students can give as a gift 

(or you can use the individual pages).

Spring Math Journal Prompts (I have a fall and a winter set as well.)

My most recent additions...