Eric Carle Subtraction!

Eric Carle Subtraction

Eric Carle Graphic Organizer Freebies!

I have photos but wanted to go ahead and post these graphic organizers for our Eric Carle unit. They are making such a difference with the children's writing for this book. Once they write their four facts for each topic, we take time in small groups to edit their work. The next day all they have to do is copy their facts onto the final paper.  They are able to focus on their handwriting, spacing and correct capitalization and punctuation at this point. I am loving their work!! Eric Carle Bee Graphic Organizer Eric Carle Graphic Organizer Eric Carle Ladybug Graphic Organizer Eric Carle Spider Graphic Organizer Eric Carle Butterfly Graphic Organizer

Brown Bear, Brown Bear...Eric Carle Fun!

All I know is...you can't miss with Eric Carle.  Just a hard, cold truth, people. :)  The kids always enjoy Brown Bear, Brown Bear! Due to scheduling and adjusting to a new math program and the way it fits into the schedule, I condensed my bear unit (part one, anyway) to one day.  So, last Friday was Brown Bear, Brown Bear Day, officially! Of course, we start with reading the story just for fun.  Then we read it again!

I have these picture cards from last year to use as our story map.

Check out this post from last year and the variation on the story map that we made then.

This little guy made sure we recited the story in the correct order!

They did a great job retelling and no, we didn't get loud at all...

We colored character pictures to make our own Story Bags.

We told the story together and laid out our pictures one at a time.

They were very serious about getting their pictures laid out just right...

I usually use paper bags for this project but low and behold, the cupboard was bare.  Baggies worked just fine.  The kids wrote their name on the front of their baggie with a brown sharpie.  I think that was almost their favorite part! At the end of the day, they took their bags home so they could retell the story to their family.

I brought this poster back out from last year for the kids to use as another retell activity.

These small  pieces were from the bulletin board set that I bought last year (and totally forgot to use this year!).  I attached them with velcro and numbered them on the back.  I also have word cards to be used in addition to the picture cards. 

We also used gummy bears for a sorting activity in our math journals that afternoon.

This activity was also good practice for writing color words.

One to One Correspondence.

Of course, there HAD to be an art project!

This project is from my friend, Suzan, at Krazy for Kindergarten.  She used this as a Five Senses activity.  Amazingly, no one ate their gluey Big Red gum....

Their job was to fill in their name and their partner's name into the Brown Bear script
and then illustrate their partner. This writing activity came from April Larremore at Chalk Talk.

Brown Bear Scrapbook Writing

Brown Bear Scrapbook Script

Making their bears with googly eyes, crinkled brown paper, pompoms and Big Red gum.

Here's the finished page that will be added to their Kindergarten Scrapbooks.  I added the Brown Bear caption to the page after the photo was taken.  It was a fun day and I felt we did justice to Eric Carle... for now.

The Very Busy Spider, American Symbols and Matchbook Sentences

We just finished our third week of our Eric Carle unit with The Very Busy Spider. 
Such a simple little story but they love it!

Of course, if Gail Gibbons has written a book on a subject, I want it!! 
 Her books are simple and full of facts just right for this age level.

We charted our spider facts and tried to be as specific as possible!

I completely forgot to make copies of a real graphic organizer so I improvised! 
I really wanted to follow the same process I've used for the past few weeks because I
have been so happy with how well they are progressing in their writing following these steps.

Day One:  Read a fictional story on the subject-whole group.
Day Two:  Read a non-fictional book on the same subject-whole group.
Day Three: Chart facts-whole groups.
Day Four:  Use a graphic organizer to write three or four facts on the subject-small group. 
(This step involves the most time-editing, sounding out words, check for spacing
and proper use of upper and lower case letters.)
Day Five: Write final copy-small group.

We added our art work to the writing for our Eric Carle book. 
Next week we will add our final page to the book as we study The Tiny Seed.

I wanted to show you all how our American Symbols books turned out.  Remember, I bought this unit from Deanna Jump and started it in February.  This is a great unit that you can buy on tPt.  It also includes lessons on Abraham Lincoln and George Washington but I am adding those pages to our Famous Americans books!

I used an Alabama die cut for them to label where EXACTLY they live!

I got these pages from Musings of Me and her wonderful unit that she is making for each state!

I LOVED the directed drawings in this unit and will definitely use this unit again next year!

I also wanted to show you a cute little activity we picked up at a workshop a few years ago. 
I am making sentences from our Scott Foresman readers that the children have read the week before.  (This was from some random page that I had on hand as I was improvising at my table one day this week!)  

Cut a sheet of copy paper into thirds.  Fold almost in half but leave a small strip at the bottom to fold UP.

Students are given a baggie with the matchbook sheet and a cut
up sentence that they have to piece together.

They glue the sentence inside the book and then write it themselves.

They write their name on the small flap and illustrate the cover.

You could also use this with any story and have them write their favorite part on the inside or they could write about the characters, setting, beginning, middle, end-whatever you choose. If it is a non-fiction book, they can write facts on each flap inside.

I think I will use this as a go to activity during our fairytales unit.  Stay tuned!