March is Reading Month Themes

February is the time to do 2 important things.

Eat chocolate and prepare for March is Reading Month, right?

Two of my favorite themes to do with my students for March is Reading month were the Information Highway, which my whole school did last year. I made this Information Highway unit to guide my students through a month of focusing on informational text.

Here are a few pictures from our month long journey on the Information Highway.

My all time favorite March is reading month theme is Camp Read a Lot!

It was a student (and parent) favorite as well.  I liked it so much that last year I did the Information Highway theme for the whole month and we still visited Camp Read a Lot for a week.  Over the last couple years, many teachers have sent me pictures of my Camp Read a Lot unit being used as an end of the year unit as well.

Back to the grad school assignment that I've been avoiding while I watch Downton Abbey.

Have a great week!

Every Teacher Loves a Sale!

It's time for the annual back to school sale on Tpt!  This adorable button was made by More Than Math by Mo.  You can download it free from her Tpt store here.

All of my products will be 20% of during the sale, but you can use the code BTS14 for extra savings on everything in your Tpt shopping cart.

The most recent additions to my store...

Super Spelling Forms 

 forms to use with any spelling words + easy Super Spelling Power Stations

Autograph Bookmarks

bookmarks + autographs = increased accountability 

Turquoise and Lime Green Book Bin Labels

Fact Power Folder Set

Some of my other products...

Writing My Opinion 

opinion writing prompts, graphic organizers, book covers, rubrics, anchor chart pieces 

Fall Math Journal Prompts

(winter and spring prompts are also available)

Personal Reader Sight Word Stories

(Short Vowel Personal Readers Stories, Long Vowel Personal Reader Stories 

and a BUNDLE are also available)

Activity Pack for Back to School

Sharing My Writing Through the Year

No time for show and tell?  

Let students share their writing with these fun prompts and turn it into a keepsake book to send home at the end of the year.

Digraph Activities

Funky Fun Vowel Games

Funky Football Fan Fun

Daily Classroom Schedule Words

Camp Read A Lot  Classroom Campout Fun

Information Highway 

Informational Text Unit for March is Reading Month or anytime of the year.

 (passport registration for the Information Highway)

Here are a few of my favorite products from some of my teaching blogger friends.

Sight Word Poems by Jodi from Fun in First.

You can buy this set as part of a bundle as well.

Shark Close Read by Jennifer  from First Grade Blue Skies.

Jennifer has several different close reading sets that are amazing!

September No Prep Math and Literacy Centers by Annie from The Moffatt Girls.

Spring Is In the Air Digital Papers by Corinna from Surfin' Through Second.

She has several sets that I love!

Time to fill up your cart with great deals!

Happy shopping!

Don't forget to use the code BTS14!

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!

Lucky Day and Road Signs

Seriously, I never win anything just by "luck".  I only win things like races against my 8 year old or bets with my husband.  But, last week I WON!  I WON!  I WON!

Remember when Jennifer, from First Grade Blue Skies, had the Jo Tote giveaway?

I WON!!!  For real, I won!

Can you tell that I'm still jumping up and down?

I received an email one morning last week that said I won.
It was real. I picked out my Jo Tote camera bag online.

And then came...my very special delivery.
That's what the box said - love it!
I picked the pewter color because I like my camera bag to match everything.
Seriously, it's so fancy!  It has dividers inside for my lenses
and the cords (even the ones that I have no idea what to do with).
I love it!

Lucky, lucky, lucky!
Thank you, Jennifer!
Thank you, Jo Totes!
I LOVE my stylish new camera bag!
I might just stick my ipad in it (plenty of space for that)
and take it to school tomorrow!

Now, on to the road signs.  If you've visited recently, you know that my school is celebrating March is Reading Month with an informational text theme.  The name of our theme is Information Highway and we have weekly themes as well (food, music, exercise and animals).

My principal had these amazing signs made to hang all over the building to help us get the kids pumped about our road trip!  I just took pictures of a few on my way down the hall the other day.

And here are the reading graphs to track our minutes by grade level. 

I work in a K - 2 building (plus we have Young 5's). 

Each grade level has it's own road.

The vehicle on each road moves up the wall 

as the students bring in their reading logs. 

Here are some of the resources we are using for our Information Highway theme.

I'm off to bed so I can be ready to take on Monday!

How to Writing: A Peek into Kindergarten

We finished week two of our journey on the Information Highway at my school!  Our whole school is doing an Information Highway Theme (to focus on informational text) for March is Reading Month.   You can read about my food themed week post here.

Lots of the teachers are using resources from my Information Highway product.

My post about week 2 will be ready soon, but today I'm sharing a peek at the how to writing that the kindergarten classroom across the hall did during our food themed week (which was our first week).

My friend, Nicole, is an amazing kindergarten teacher! She is truly a kind person and constantly impresses me with her dedication. Nicole works across the hall from me and was nice enough to share how her class used some of the resources I made to help them do a how to writing project.  The description and the photos below are from Nicole's kindergarten classroom. I only labeled them "Funky First Grade Fun" to protect the photos.

Day 1 -
-We read and discussed numerous books about pizza, discussed how to make pizza and looked at recipe books. 

-We talked about our favorite ingredients to put on pizza and made a class anchor chart of our ideas. We called it our Class Grocery List.  We listed our ideas and spent time talking about making a grocery list, instead of writing in complete sentences.

- After we made our Class Grocery List, I explained to the kids that I wanted them to think about their own personal favorite ingredients.  Then the students made an individual grocery list of the ingredients that they would need to make their own personal pizza.

*Sundance/Newbridge has a great level C book called Making Pizza.

Day 2 - We discussed the grocery list and talked about the fact that once you have all the ingredients to make something you need a recipe to know how to make it.  I reminded the students to focus on explaining how to make a pizza to their reader . We reviewed the steps whole group and then talked about that the next step would be to add their own toppings, so their writing would be their own. The students filled out the graphic organizer sheet from the Information Highway pack to help the students focus on first, then, next and last.

Day 3- We used the information from each section of the graphic organizer to write complete sentences about each step. The students also drew a picture of each step.

Later in the day we played a math game.  First they had to total the amount of ingredients that the had on their grocery list. They then played a penny, nickel exchange game to earn the ingredients to make their own real personal pizza. The students had to roll a die labeled with the numbers 1,2 and 3. Once they got 5 pennies, they exchanged the 5 pennies for a nickel. The students had to earn 1 nickel for each ingredient. Once they earned their ingredients they were able to make their own personal pizza by following the How to Make a Pizza directions they wrote themselves.

*Since Nicole is awesome, she purchased all the ingredients from their Class Grocery List anchor chart so the children would have all their favorite ingredients to make their own pizzas.

It was so much fun to hear the excitement in the little kindergarten voices as they told me about their writing project!  Thank you, Nicole, for sharing your week and your photos! As always, you rock!  So proud to call you my friend and so lucky to work with you.