Small Group Reading and Civil Engineering

That's right! Once again General Delk's Army surpasses common first grade material, and go straight to college level information.
I've said it before, but we've not done first grade material in my class in weeks. See this post {HERE}. Life is too short to be wasted being merely ordinary. We in General Delk's Army scoff at the merely ordinary as we fly past to the truly exceptional.

We reached truly exceptional during reading groups. During the first story we talked about the basics of Civil Engineering. Civil. Engineering.

Are you seeing this? This child is oblivious to the mechanics of building a proper tower. Just look at the base! Completely structurally unsound. It's not covering enough surface area to create a proper base!
It's no wonder that the tower fell on the next page!

My students and I talked about what the child could do to fix the problem. They decided that the tower needs a sturdier block at the bottom to cover more area.
We continued to read and found that the child did indeed figure out the best way to build a tower.

I am so proud of my students for recognizing the basics of proper tower construction! I told them that I would call my brother-in-law, who is a civil engineer, and brag about how my first grade students can explain the importance of a structurally sound base.

After stressing our brains over basic civil engineering, we moved on to birds. Must easier topic, relatively speaking.

Check us out!

Yes, those are my students being impressive!

The next group was just as impressive, the only difference is that the book is longer, therefore the video is longer. Then I had a parent come in during the middle of the story and I had to chop the video in half. *sigh*

**I think I uploded the videos backwards- watch part 2 FIRST!!**

Here is part 1

Here is part 2

My students are much more impressive than I, but they are not doing their work at 11:40pm like myself. 

Goodnight, all!

Small Group Reading videos

This is my second reading group. I told them that if they could impress me with their reading skills, then I would video them for the blog. This was our book: Sweet Bees.

 

Typically when we read a book we only read it chorally once. After we read, we pull out vocabulary words and sight words. The next time they read it, they read it in a whisper voice and at their own pace. I lean in to each student and follow along. This was I can see who is really reading, and who needs extra support. In this video, we are reading together- kind of. :)

They did so well, I thought I'd make the same offer to my third reading group. This group is on a slightly higher level. I follow the same procedure with them when reading a book. First chorally, then independently. This group is a little more enthusiastic in their reading (and louder). :)

The title is: The Best Web of All.

Awesome job, Soldiers!

After reading the book, they traded it in for 2 new books for their 'book bags'. Book bags are just that- gallon sized baggies with books in them. My students are responsible for keeping up with the bags and the books in them. Students also make their own flash cards of the vocabulary words from the stories so they can practice them at their seats. 

Team 3 received a special deal today- if they reread the books from their bags at their seats and answer the questions from the back of the books, they will receive 5 checks on their Star Papers tomorrow! (Star Papers are what they use to buy my books on Fridays.)

My 'bookstore'.

We'll see who takes me up on my deal tomorrow!

Day 67- 'Twas the night before...

the night before, the night before.... Thanksgiving. There are two versions of this Thanksgiving tale. In one version, the turkeys are rescued and everyone eats pb&j sandwiches. In the other version, the family gathers for a traditional meal, complete with turkey. Both stories follow the rhyming pattern of the traditional Christmas story of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

 Children go on a field trip to a turkey farm and end up rescuing the turkeys.

A 'traditional' Thanksgiving with family.

My students loved the first book, and did a great job filling out the Venn Diagram that we made for both of the stories. 

We started a Thanksgiving art project today. The finished products will be given to Parkridge Hospital- one of our school's sponsors. I hope to get a picture of my students and their art tomorrow. 

Speaking of artistic things- I know you all are wondering about our Solar System Family Tree that we started last week! Well, we colored and cut out the planets and they were placed on the family tree.

 All the planets placed with care. 

Some star and comet embellishments.

The colors didn't show up well in the picture, so you'll have to come to the school and check it out for yourself! We put it in the hallway for all to see. I am proud to report that most of my students can name all of the planets, and some can even retell the story of Saturn and his idea of how to retain his position as king of the gods. (it's kind of a hard story to forget!)

For my small groups, I made this... (with the help of Mr. Russell who donated the cereal box, and Ms. Hill who colored the Old Lady)

I found the idea at Making Learning Fun, and it goes with our story from last week. (I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie)

This is a sight word game made from a cereal box. Students read the sight word and feed it to the Old Lady! Of course, we will create a little competition and see who can read the most words in 30 seconds and see who wins.

In TIER II today, we played a little game with the book that we had been reading. It's called Come in the Grass. (not a very thrilling story, I have to admit. Still working on sight words) Here is a little video of our activity!

Basically, I wrote each page on a sentence strip and cut the words out using crinkly-cut scissors. Students had to be the first to put their sentence back together and read it to me to get a ticket.

Impressive, right?

Our Daily Brain

** Reminder** No school Wednesday- Friday. 

Tomorrow is a special Cub Cash event! Students with good behavior, and $30 Cub Cash, can enjoy popcorn and a movie in the afternoon! Woo-hoo!

TIER II videos

I wanted to take a minute to show off how wonderfully my students are doing in our TIER II group.

TIER II is our extra reading intervention time. We have been working on building our sight word fluency and building vocabulary. I've mentioned in a previous post that we had been working on a book called Spots.

For an extension activity, I typed up some of the sentences from the book, printed them and cut them out. Now it's up to the students to put the sentences back together. I was so impressed with how my soldiers jumped into this activity, I had to share their brilliance!

Must have gotten his words mixed with another student's bag. Had two 'mug's on his. Oops!

Don't you just want to reach through the computer and pinch their cheeks? Great job, Soldiers! You made this General proud!

Day 46- Countdown... 1!

We made it! Fall break is here! I can let down my hair, kick up my heels, and... wait. I still have 3 small children at home. Never mind. I get to try to get caught up on laundry, clean the house, and keep my kids from killing each other. *sigh. At least I don't have to deal with lesson plans! :)

I was good to my word. I promised my students that we would have math games today since they had such a jam-packed day yesterday. Of course, the games had to be educational, and they had to be things I already had on-hand. Here's what we did!

 Sorting attributes. We studied attributes earlier this year, so my students were taking objects and sorting them based on either size, shape, or color. Once they had things sorted, they drew what they did and explained why.

Domino Addition. Students chose dominoes out of the tub and wrote the addition facts that went with it. Bonus points for subtraction facts too!

 Top-It. It's a game left over from when we used Everyday Math. It's like playing the game "War". The players lay down a card and the highest card wins. The game works on identifying numbers and the vocabulary 'greater than' and 'less than'. A twist to the game might be to write down the addition facts of the cards.

Tangrams. Love these! Critical thinking skills! Students use their shapes to the create pictures at the bottom of the page. Students have to use reasoning skills to think through which shapes need to be used, and where. Here was my example for this team:

I talked them through the process I used, then I let them go! Here are some of the pictures we created!

Notice the handsome gentleman showing off his picture? It's his birthday! Happy Birthday, Soldier!

Last, but not least,

Geometric Art. Students had to create a picture (on paper) using only geometric shapes. This was probably the 'free-est' math center.
Each team had 8 min at each center, then we rotated. When we had rotated through them all, we played an addition game on the board.

I got a picture of the sentence strips I created for one of my small groups. It is for my first group. We have read and re-read the story, so now they are ready for an extension activity at their seats.

Re-read book with a teammate at their table, then glue cut up sentences back in order.
If you are familiar with the book, you'll notice I added a special sentence. The last sentence introduces the past tense of 'was', and includes a new vocabulary word, 'shoes'. I did this sentence because the next story we read had the word 'shoes' in it and I wanted to see if the students would recognize it in a different setting.
I'm tricky like that! :)
If you'd like a copy of the sentences, you can download it HERE.

Pictures of literacy centers today:

 Phonemic Awareness: matching beginning sounds (from 1+1+1=1 website)

 Spelling Texters and Read, Build, Write cards.

Awesome job, Soldiers! I hope everyone has a great Fall Break! And don't forget to check the blog tomorrow to see who will be the next Celebrity for Celebrity Story Saturday!

Our Daily Brain

* Parents who already signed up for a Parent/ Teacher conference- I wrote down your conference date and time on your child's behavior form. There are times still available! Remember- report cards are given out at the conferences!

Day 45- Countdown...2!

One more day! One more day!

I want to take a minute to brag on my reading small groups- they are all doing great! We are adding new vocabulary and having in-depth discussions every day! Let me give you an example.

In my first group we are working on letter and sound recognition and building our sight-word fluency. I am using some sight-word lessons from the 1+1+1=1 website. Their printables are fun and the sight words are common enough that we can find them in any of our leveled readers. We read our leveled books, look for sight words then play a 'make the sentence' game. (I write simple sentences from the book on sentence strips, cut the words out, scramble them, then the kids have to put them back together)

Tomorrow I'm going to give them THIS worksheet for an extension activity. The students will cut and paste the sentences back together then illustrate the sentence. The story is about 'Spots', if you didn't notice. :)

My second group has graduated from the short 'a' word families to the short 'i' families! -it, -in, -ick, -ip
Our story at the beginning of the week was on summer activities. We are now on a book about fall leaves and the seasons. We collect vocabulary  from the books and play the 'NOT' game.
(all the vocabulary words in a pile. A card that says 'not' in the pile. Go around the table and students read the words. If they get the word right, they can keep the card. If a student gets the 'not' card, he or she gives back all their cards.) I put 2 min on the timer so the game doesn't last forever.

My third group is reading a book on the water cycle. Our vocabulary cards include words like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, water vapor, water cycle, and weather. We learned the Water Cycle song, and had an important conversation about what not to wear in different seasons.

Me- Look at the pictures on this page. What do you see?
Student- A coat and some shorts.
Me- Which would you wear in the winter?
Student- The coat. (I asked why) Because it is cold in the winter and you need a coat to be warm.
Me- Good! When would you wear the shorts?
Student- In the summer 'cause it's hot.
Me- That's true, you do wear shorts in the summer. However, you would NEVER wear those shorts. 
(students look at me in wonder)
Student- Why?
Me- Because they are ugly. Please promise me to never wear ugly shorts.
Students- Promise!

My students are getting the best education ever! :)

 My phonemic awareness center. I found these Clip-and-Learn wheels on the 1+1+1=1 website. Students are identifying beginning sounds. Once they clip everything they put the words into sentences and they can illustrate.

 Vocabulary Texters and Read-Build-Write cards.

We worked on a new poem in whole group today. Ms. Leahy found us a poem on Ladybugs. My favorite part about the poem- it counts up instead of down! Most of the poems I've found count from 5 down to 1. This poem counts up! Yea!

Of course we found the numbers and tomorrow we'll find our sight words. After reading this, we looked back at 5 Green and Speckled Frogs and created a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast.

One of my students stated that the poems were like turn-around facts in math. They just turned the numbers around!

Speaking of math- we took our Unit 5 test today. For the most part, everyone did well. I made a deal with the kids: If we did the test and the reteach section today, we would have a math game day tomorrow. It is unanimous! So, we worked hard today, and they will get to play tomorrow. (highly educational math games, of course)

Here is the graph from yesterday that I promised. We graphed the colors of the students' shirts since the lesson was on collecting data.

Yeah, I pretty much wasted a whole sheet of chart paper, but the kids had a good time and learned something, so that's what matters!


*I sent home the Parent/ Teacher conference sign-up sheets today. Please mark your top 3 choices and I'll let you know what time is the best! Report cards will be given at the conferences!

Sorry about the last of Daily Brain. The end of the day was a little off since we had to split another class. (we had teachers going to a training) But I promise, we learned lots!