Classroom recaps...

WOW! To say I am a bad blogger would be quite the understatement.  I have been TERRIBLE.  And yes, I'm going to use the same ol' excuse I always do... I've been SO busy.  You all understand. Between teaching, my husbands coaching schedule and a toddler, my poor blog has been put on the back burner.  I really love blogging and reading other teaching blogs.  I especially like *scrapbooking* the activities I do in my room.  I will continue to blog, hopefully more frequently. 

So, over the past few weeks we have learned and done a LOT!!! Sadly, I haven't snapped pictures of everything, but here are a few recaps.  

Recap 1: Verbs

A verb is a word, is an action word...If you can do it, then do it, you know it is a verb!  Such a catchy song.  I introduced verbs using BrainPop Jr. with a little bit of Annie and Moby.  Who doesn't love them?!?  Then with my students giving me verbs, I made this anchor chart.  

After singing, dancing and recording verbs for several days my students recorded and illustrated their own verbs.  We started with simple I am... statements.  

*exercising* just adorable!!! 

Recap #2 Heart Maps (An idea from a dear friend of mine) 

After talking about nouns (before verbs) we talked about people, places and things we love. Together during writers workshop we created 3 heart maps.  Things we love.  People we love. Places we love.  

After making 3 class heart maps it was time for my kiddos to make their own.  I wanted them to choose their favorite people, places and things and record them on their own heart maps.

They keep them in their writers toolkits along with their journals, blends chart and spell checks with common sight words on them.  I always tell my students to write  from the heart because they tend to write more creative stories if it is about something they have experienced.  

Recap #3  Adjectives

After verbs and nouns came adjectives.  I introduced adjectives using this anchor chart.  Using these clue words really seemed to my kiddos when thinking about describing words. 

Throughout the week were also happened to be learning about bats.  Since our theme was bats, I decided to have my kiddos describe bats using one word.  An adjective.  

We also completed a can.have.are chart to review nouns, verbs and adjectives while sticking with the bat theme.  

Then we made our little cuties using the template from Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade.

Recap #4 Punctuation anchor charts.

Recap #5  Seasons

Introduced seasons using this anchor charts as well as a few seasonal books.  

Then we made these fun little craftivities.  They traced their hand up to their elbow on brown paper.  Then depending on what season they chose they used either fall or spring leaves, snow, or apples.  (Sadly I didn't get pictures of the other 2 seasons)

Recap #6  Pumpkins
Pumpkin madness started October 1st! I absolutely love fall!! Everything about it.  Our first field trip of the year was this past week... the pumpkin patch.  Leading up to our trip we were knee deep in pumpkins.
This little craftivity was inspired by Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade. We read the story The Fantastic Pumpkin and then retold the story using this little graphic organizer.

Throughout the week we also learned the life cycle of a pumpkin so that we could be pumpkin experts when we got to the pumpkin patch.  

We wrote and illustrated each stage of the life cycle on this fun little graphic organizer. (It came from a teammate of mine... not sure where she found it.) Then we painted paper plates to look like pumpkins and attached the life cycle pictures in order on the vine (yarn). They loved it!

Recap #7 Fact Families

We started off the unit with addition and subtraction and part, part whole.  We used paper plates with the food separates, dice, counters and dominoes all week making addition and subtraction problems with corresponding number sentences.  

After learning addition and subtraction, then I introduced fact families. 

We got the dominoes out again started making fact families.  We got our 2 numbers from the domino, added them up to get our whole and then created our fact families.  My trick for teaching fact families is the story of the "family".  Daddy, Mommy and baby.  And no one can live in the house that is not part of the family.
To go along with our October activities we made these Frankenstein fact families.

(I found this Frankenstein recording sheet on Pinterest... For the life of me I can't find the original site. I did NOT create this.  I can not take credit for it.  If I come across it...I will post it)

Recap #8 Skip Counting

All of this that I caught on camera is the anchor charts... minus 5. :(  

Recap #9 Parts of a Plant

We just touched on this very briefly.  We will hit this topic again in the spring time.  We simply talked about each of the parts of a plant and what job they did to help the plant survive.  They drew, labeled and described each part. 

Recap #10 Spiders

Our theme last week was SPIDERS!!! Boy do first graders love spiders!! 

We started with a KWL chart with what they know and want to know.  Some of mine already knew spiders were arachnids?!? Awww man! I love it when they find that out. Spoiler!

We read, recorded and journaled about spiders all week.  Then at the end of the week we record our 4 favorite spider fun facts and created our spiders.   

WHEW!!! That was a lot! I am going to *try* and blog more often so that I don't have to just do classroom recaps!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!