Free President's Day Poem!

OK, so I was inspired to make a mini book for the poem that I wrote for President's Day.  I know!  We will study this poem as a class for sight words, rhyming words and punctuation and then add it to our Poetry Journals. Anyway, I will try to make a reader for the kids to go with the poem but for now, here goes... President's Day Poem

Apples!

Well, tomorrow is the last day of September and we are off for our field trip to the pumpkin patch so I HAD to get my apple unit posted!    Of course, we are incorporating all content areas in this study, that is what makes these units so much fun, year after year!  Lots of pictures, so hang in there with me...

This is where it all begins...

Every few days, we have a new apple for a snack.  One day, Granny Smith, another day, Golden Delicious and the final day, Galas. Simple...green, yellow and red.

Now, we use this cute graph from Deanna Jump's Apples Unit to graph which apples were our favorites.

The red Galas were the favorite overall! We used this opportunity to talk about More and Less-our Topic Two concept for EnVision Math.

We broke out the Math Journals to illustrate this concept.

My example.

Our apple poem from Jessica Meacham for our Poetry Journals.

We will practice identifying sight words, punctuation and rhyming words using different colors of highlighters for each.  The first time we do this will be in small group.  It will take a few times before they are able accomplish this independently but they will get it!

We will also make an Apple Book...this is the cover.

Good Job!

Art work for the Kindergarten Scrapbook.

We wrote our first sentence for this scrapbook page using mostly sight words. It was good practice for phoneme segmentation for sounding out apple.

We learned about the parts of an apple.  We put on our pretend lab coats and talked about how scientists research an object they are studying. We talked about labelling and making a diagram.

We have also learned about Johnny Appleseed, of course.

We finished a sentence about Johnny Appleseed.

Hard at work...

We sounded out the sentence together in small group.

We talked about important details to include in our illustrations.

Once we complete our Johnny Appleseed artwork, this page will go in our Famous Americans Book.

Naturally, we dressed up as Johnny Appleseed!

This photo will go on our Apple page of our Kindergarten Scrapbook.

We have read The Apple Pie Tree and will make a page for the Apple Book
about how an apple tree changes through the seasons.

We read Ten Apples Up On Top! and tied in More and Less easily!
We will also make a page for the Apple Book from this story. 
Look for that in a few days...

Apples Cover Script
Apples Diagram Labels

Apples Scrapbook Script
Apples Ten on Top Writing
Apples Parts Writing
Apples Life Cycle Writing

Apples Diagram Script

Famous Americans!

I thought I would share our finished Famous Americans books with you. 
 I really like their covers...I tell them that THE most Famous American that needs
to go on their cover is THEM!  They love it!! 



Ok, while I am happy with our finished product, I know I fell short on this book.  My aim for next year is to try and have one famous American that we study each month and then add to our book.   We'll see..if wishes were fishes and all that.  I had wanted to include a child (Ruby Bridges), Eric Carle (since we did study his work for a solid month!), women (Mae Jamison, Helen Keller-both from Alabama) and George Washington Carver (also from Alabama).  I have gathered books on all of these historical figures and will work to get my patterns, lessons, activities compiled over the summer.   That being said, I am still happy with all that we did accomplish with these books and how they tie in with our Course of Study.




The artwork for Martin Luther King Jr. is based on a TLC unit. The Johnny Appleseed
patterns were made based on a project that I saw in an Oriental Trading Co. catalog! 
I get some great ideas from them!! 



The George Washington and Abraham Lincoln artwork came
from Deanna Jump's American Symbols unit. 

OK,  for Dr. Seuss, I just used the same patterns that I used for Martin Luther King Jr.! 
I didn't think he would mind.  :)



Here is one of our favorite Famous Americans, Mrs. Lawson!  She selflessly has come to my room every Monday for the past two years to read to my students.  They absolutely love their time with her!  I cannot express what an invaluable gift this is that she so freely gives to these children.  Thank you, Mrs. Lawson!




Here is another Famous American, one of my fabulous Peer Mentors, Kionna!  This is a huge perk from having a K-8 school.  We are able to request some of the best middle school students to help in our classrooms for one period a day.  Kionna has been assisting in my room, however, since she was in the fourth grade!  How lucky am I?!




Brittney, another wonderful Peer Mentor, came to say goodbye after her 8th Grade Graduation. 
There were tears...




...and some laughter!  We will miss her terribly but wish her
well as she moves on to high school.



More Eric Carle and Famous Americans

I love the way these crayon resists turned out! 

I really enjoy seeing how they took the same basic picture and made it their own.

I used a graphic organizer from Deanna Jump as a pre-writing tool for our butterfly facts.  I'm trying to use these organizers more often.  I think they truly help the children organize the information in a very concrete way.  I believe this skill will help them progress in the writing process as they move up in grades.

Here we wrote "butterflies" in the circle in the middle of the paper and wrote one fact in each box surrounding the circle. So simple. This enabled them to feel successful as opposed to feeling frustrated when I handed them a sheet of paper today and told them to write butterfly facts.  We want success!!  Please go to Deanna Jump's blog and her tPt store to purchase these organizers and so many other great units.  You won't regret it and no, I am not getting paid to say this!

We read our Hungry Caterpillar word problem and made this time page. 
I am going to post the scripts and materials needed for these pages very soon. 



Doesn't he look handsome in his new glasses?!



The cover of our Eric Carle books.  Of course, we have to use tissue paper!

I loved this butterfly life cycle project from April Larremore at Chalk Talk!

We used white pony beads for the eggs, pipe cleaners for the caterpillars, felt for the chrysalis and pipe cleaners and tissue paper for the butterfly.  We completed this project whole group and
I called them over to me in groups to show them how to make the butterfly. 
I hot glued the caterpillar on for them and threatened them with their lives if they touched the hot glue!! 
They handled themselves beautifully, I must say.

Today we wrote butterfly facts in small groups.  It was SOOOOOOO much easier after having used the graphic organizers yesterday.  Wow!  We then added both of these works to our book.

I decided to staple the life cycle project on the top of the page-a sort of lift the flap book if you will...
Our first week of Eric Carle was a success...next week we will begin with The Grouchy Ladybug and our study of beetles.  Did you know they are the largest insect group in the world?  

Maisha Booker has completed this wonderful book on Important Women in History. 

She used a Deanna Jump graphic organizer and the kids really seemed to get the hang of it!

So proud.

Don't you think by the end of this unit, they are able to organize the facts
they have learned in a simple, concrete manner? 
Thank you Deanna Jump!