NOUNS
The kids were introduced to nouns this week. We were all about sorting and identifying those people, places, and things. Here are a few fun ideas if you are rolling into this grammar piece anytime soon . . .
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| Make yourself a pocket chart sort with real photos. The kids loved playing with this throughout the week. |
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| We completed our first Hunt The Room Activity. This fall flavored Noun Hunt is a FREEBIE in my shop 🙂 It’s editable too! #teacherscore |
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| Our BIG BUDDIES helped us make noun mobiles. I like to teach that you can TOUCH a noun. This ditty helps reinforce this tip:) It’s easy to pull off when you have extra hands one day. |
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| I’ll be honest . . . this is what my mobiles look like right now. We ran out of time with our buddies last week and I forgot about them. I have a date with these tonight when I watch my stories . . . The Strain, Fear The Walking Dead, and The Leftovers. |
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| This is what they will look like when I get done. These will get hung later this week! |
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| Beat the Clock is a glorified sort. Add a timer to anything and your students will be engaged as all get out. I’d toss a photo card under the doc cam. They would have 30 seconds to copy the word under the correct column! |
My kids did great with all the noun stuff that I tossed their way. As I stated earlier, you can easily make these activities to run with in your room. If you want a package that is all ready to go, I do have a Noun Pack in my shop. It even comes with a free Noun Song from Ron Brown’s Intelli-Tunes 🙂
THE WRITE STUFF
We continued our writing studies this week and rolled into the three kinds of sentences. Stay tuned for more information on this one later this week. I am going to FINALLY post the second installment of my writing series. I am so close to finishing it . . . I think I can . . . I think I can 🙂
Obviously I am an absolute sucker for pocket chart sorts. This one the kids wrote in the punctuation with white board marker and sorted it for the class. We didn’t just identify the sentences . . . we WROTE them. I believe this is key to really grasping the punctuation differences. We picked a topic and wrote three related sentences. We talked about how much the punctuation mark changes the sentence and it’s meaning. Of course, we picked Halloween as one of our topics . . . Mrs. Dolling isn’t stupid 😉
If you want more activities similar to this, check out my Punctuation Has Personality pack. It’s filled with fun ideas that are kid tested and teacher approved 🙂 It comes with a full stop version for my Australia friends 🙂
SHORT E
I like to take my time in the phonics department at the beginning of the year. After we make our way through the alphabet review and handwriting practice, we spend a week on each of the short vowels. This week was all about that wonderful short e sound . . . whole class activities and levelized within groups. Here are a few of the “out of the box” phonics actives we found ourselves mixed up in . . .
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| Pen It In This is just a word identification activity. However, you add a smelly marker and it’s a magical game for firsties. I would call out a short e word and the kids would find/trace it on their sheet. #nobrainer |
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| To keep it interesting we would exchange pens. I would put on a music track and they would boogie around asking their classmates to trade. It was a great team building and manners activity too. You can use this idea for just about anything . . . SMELLY MARKERS drive learning 🙂 |
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| I still heart Wikki Stix. This is an oldie, but a goodie . . . the kids love these things! Each group received a “just right” set of words to build, trace, and write. My hot shots wrote short e sentences too . . . Dolling is a bulldog 😉 |
If you are interested in low-prep and “out of the box” short vowel activities, games, and more . . . I have quite a few of them up for grabs. Check these packets out HERE.
KITTY DRAMA
I’m not sure if I have spilled this tidbit about me before, but I am all about cats. I swear if I could have 6 or 8 of them and not be labeled as completely out of my gourd, I would jump on it in a second. Yep. I am just special like that . . . and possibly showing my age a bit 😛
Anyway, I was out giving my old guys (Henry and Okay Kitty) their morning loves when Henry tried to claw my eyes out. I was all bent out of shape when he ran away. After going back inside and working for a bit, I came back out to attempt to make peace with the cranky old man. He wasn’t moving much and then I noticed that my little sweet guy had a horribly misshapen bottom. OUCH!! I rushed him to the vet and they found an abscess. Even though it is pretty common, this momma cried a little when she had to leave him with the doc. To make a long story somewhat short, my kitty is just fine. And, you can bet that he has been getting oodles of TLC today. But, his mommy is extra tired today as she was up most of the night making sure he was okay. Hehehehe . . . I am turning into a crazy old cat lady.
CONFERENCE WEEK
I have to go now. You’ll understand why with one little sentence . . . I am rollin’ into CONFERENCE WEEK at my new school. I gotta settle in for the week and screw my head on straight this evening. A good night’s sleep is a must.
Have a great week all you alls. I will see you again soon. Thanks for taking the time to pop in for a little visit 🙂
