It's the day that all first grade teachers in Springdale, Arkansas, {present & past} know all too well: Stick Horse Rodeo day!  It's a tradition in our town that has been going on with first graders for umpteenbazillion years....okay, maybe not that many, but at LEAST 20 years because my brother participated in the stick horse rodeo 20 years ago as a first grader. {Although I'm older, I didn't participate because we didn't live in Springdale when I was a first grader.}  It's a really big community project for our school district and it leaves us all feeling exhausted at the end of the day. And today it also left me looking like a lobster {guess who didn't put on sunscreen??? #fail}.

Here's a peek at what exactly the stick horse rodeo is all about if you aren't from our neck of the woods!

Here's what our "Full" stick horse rodeo unit included...
*First grade teachers teach economics to our firsties {like scarcity, cowboy wants & needs, production lines, assemblies, producers, consumers, resources, choice, goods and services...}
*First graders produce a stick horse {a good} using an assembly line {and several adult volunteers} with their capital resources and labor resources.
*First graders go to a district-wide stick horse rodeo and participate in rodeo events.

But now, thanks to common core, we've had to make some adjustments.  Because our FFA High Schoolers are involved with helping put on the stick horse rodeo, we couldn't reschedule the rodeo to fit with our economics unit (now in December).

So, we started tying it in to our Common Core Cinderella Unit as best we can.

This week, we have been learning about North America and reading some Cinderella versions from our very own continent!  We stumbled upon this cowboy version of Cinderella and it.is.THE.perfect marriage for stick horse week and Cinderella!

The kids absolutely adore this version and it's a great way to talk about the Wild West culture of North America and the Texan setting of this book!

We also read Cindy Ellen which is another cowgirl version of Cinderella and perfect for North America and Rodeo week!

Here's a look at our eventful day!  The Stick Horse Rodeo is held at Parsons Arena in Springdale, which is also home to the Rodeo of the Ozarks around July 4th.  The Rodeo is a great tradition around here {my husband and I love going even though we aren't even close to cowboys/girls!} and a big part of Springdale's agri-culture.

The Rodeo of the Ozarks Rounders performed for the kids in the stadium to start off the morning!


Then, we spent the rest of the day rotating through different "rodeo" themed stations.  Here are a few of them....

Pole Bending...
   

Milking "Cows"...
   

Barrel Racing...
   

Line Dancing...

Cooling off and listening to the "Singin' Cowboy" sing some songs from his trail...
   

Buckin' Barrels {the kids' favorite!}...

We also do face painting, a McDonald's sponsored drink break and class picture, and roping {we rope a metal bull head on a bale of hay}.  This year, we didn't get to do roping because they had scheduled it too late for us and we had to get our kids back to school to catch the buses! Boo!!

During our lunch break, the kids always enjoy checking out the cows in the barn next door.  They were out in full force today and louder than I've ever heard them!

MOOOOOOO!!!

Even though our kids don't make stick horses, we still wanted them to have a special souvenir to keep since it is such a great tradition for our kids.  So, the past 2 years we have made these *adorable* rodeo t-shirts for the kids to wear and take home.

This year we were also more efficient in making the t-shirts and glued the letters to a piece of scrap wood so our volunteers could stamp the the whole word at the same time instead of a letter at a time! The kids did the handprint in brown craft paint and added the eye, mane, and tail with a black sharpie! They just look perfect!

We also ordered bandanas for them to keep, but we didn't make them wear them today since it was going to be HOT outside!

If we have time, I like to do a few things from my Cowboy Mini-Pack like reading Gail Gibbons' Cowboys and Cowgirls and labeling the resources a cowboy and his horse need...This year, my kids will be doing it with a sub tomorrow!

I also plan on having them make a cowboy or cowgirl to go with their Stick Horse Rodeo narrative writing next week!  They always turn out so cute. This sample is from a few years ago when we did the "full on" unit and they wrote about what it would be like to be a cowboy/cowgirl. This craft is also included in my Cinderella Common Core Unit since it ties in with Bubba the Cowboy Prince and Cindy Ellen.

All of these activities plus vocabulary cards, matching games, and directions and supplies for making stick horses are included in my cowboy mini-pack.

While there are moments when I miss producing stick horses with the kids...{here's a pic from a few years back. LOL!}
Lost among the stick horses!
 ...I'm glad that they still get a souvenir and get to experience the rodeo! It is such a memorable day for the kids, no matter how exhausting for us all!
We're continuing our Cinderella Around the World Unit, learning about cultures around the world through different versions of the Cinderella story!  Each week we've focused on a new continent as we've read their Cinderella stories and learned about the culture and fact about that continent.

This map is posted in our room and we have been referring to it throughout the unit. As we read each version of Cinderella, we add the book cover to our map to show the setting of each story.  This is a great reference tool for the kids throughout the unit.

This week, we focused on Africa.  Our message time this week was about Africa.  During our message times, I write a paragraph and students help read and predict what I will write.  We reread the whole paragraph after I write each sentence.  Then, the kids get their own copy of the message to put in their poetry/shared reading binders.  {There is an informative message on each continent in my Cinderella Unit Packet.}  Since the messages are only 5-7 sentences, it gave just enough information to get the kids interested in Africa and asking questions!  So, Monday, after our message time, I gave each student a sticky note and they wrote an "I wonder" question about Africa.  Then, they posted their questions on our wonder wall in our room.

The goal is to get kids asking good questions, and then be motivated to listen for and answer their questions.  Once we find the answer to their question, they write the answer on their sticky {or sometimes I write it if we answer their question as a class} and we move their sticky off of their wonder wall "bubble" to the Key Questions board as an answered question.  Honestly, I haven't been as good at setting aside time to allow kids to write down their questions as I have been in the past.  But they were just so interested in the continents the past two weeks that I just had to make time to do it this week! And they loved it...I need to be better and making the time for this during EACH unit!  After all, good inquirers, make good learners!!

Later, we read books about Africa and charted our learning on our anchor chart.

The versions of Cinderella we read this week were Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters

and The Egyptian Cinderella.

We pretty much followed the same pattern as last week with these books and then voted on our favorite African version of Cinderella.  This is the third year I've taught this unit, but this was the first year that Mufaro's didn't when the popularity contest! Clearly, each class of firsties has a mind of its own!

Next week, we are moving on to North America and cowboyin' Cinderella up a bit!  
Once upon a time, there was a class of first graders starting a Cinderella unit. The girls squealed in excitement! But, alas! The boys ewwwwwed in disgust...

Such was the start of my week!  Luckily, since this is my third year to teach this Common Core unit, I knew the boys would be hooked soon...and they were by the end of the first day!

I bought these continent posters on Amazon. A little cutting, labeling on the back and laminating and they were ready to hang above our group tables as the new "names" for our groups! I love having new group signs each unit {and the kids always oooooohh and ahhhhh over them!} They also help give a creative spot for all those anchor charts!
The first week of this unit, we learned about Europe and the "traditional" {to us, anyways!} versions of Cinderella.  We read Perrault's version first.
Since this version is pretty long and full of "old english" terms like haughty, nobility, bore, and ragged, we used this book to build our vocabulary!  We charted all !!23!! of our *sparkle* words and discussed their meaning.  My firsties loved trying to listen for and guess the sparkle words on each page!  This is also a great chart because some of these words are used in several of the Cinderella versions!

We also read James Marshall's Cinderella.  This is a funnier/lighthearted "traditional" version....this one gets the boys interested initially.  It's their first favorite {of many favorites to come!}  

The purpose for reading this book {other than to discuss European cultures and compare/contrast it to the other version from this week} was to listen for the elements of fairytales in this book.  First, we charted the elements of fairytales.  A teammate of mine told me about this great YouTube video.  It's a lady talking through the elements of a fairytale and was much more interesting than me spewing them out to the kids!

Then, we discussed each of the elements from this story and decided whether or not Cinderella is a fairytale.  We also wrote about each of the elements together on our graphic organizer.  Click the picture below for the {{{FREEBIE}}} of this one.  The Cinderella Unit in my TPT store includes this organizer as well as color versions to use on your Smart or Promethean Board.

In phonics, we worked on the ow (as in gown) and ou (as in cloud) sounds.  

Since there are so many *royal* words with ow, we charted -own words on our "crown" word family chart.  

Next week, when I have a sub, they will build-write-draw __own words independently. 

{{As an adorably cute side note, is there any little boy that looks cuter in a paper crown, than this one??}}
from last July, after Prince George was born!

After learning about Europe and all of its historical landmarks and awesome castles, we created a composite shape from 2 dimensional shapes....

...or in real people terms, we built our own dream castles out of pattern blocks during math yesterday! The kids had a blast dreaming up some precious castles and they turned out perfect...bat castles and all!
                    

Follow me on Blog Lovin' or Facebook.  You're not gonna want to miss the rest of this fairytale unit

After we finish reading all of our silly, exotic and crazy versions of Cinderella and after we finish all of our fun-filled fairytale projects, we will definitely be sending these first graders off to summer with their happily ever after! 
It's the testing season (testing season)
And ITBS is coming back,
The Benchmark test is here next week.
When teachers stress and try not to scream!
They'll be bubblin' their answer sheets!
Bubblin' their answer sheets!

It's the testing season (testing season)
So whoop-de-do and hickory dock
And don't forget to watch the clock
'cause just exactly at 8 o'clock
They'll be bubblin their answer sheets!
Bubblin' their answer sheets...

Okay, can you tell that I've just finished 3 days of standardized testing and I'm a little delirious???

I'm apologize for my terrible rhyming, but that tune has been in my head all week and I just had to have a little bit of fun after staring at booklets of bubbles all. week. long!

For my non-teacher friends, ITBS week is when 6-8 year olds get to sit still for up to 2 1/2 hours at a time and bubble in answers to questions that are read aloud only twice (if they are lucky).

You didn't hear me, sweet child? Too bad if you didn't hear me the first two times, it's not written down for you to read and I can't repeat it or else I go to teacher jail...

You want a drink from your water bottle, sweetie? Too bad, wait until the next break.  If you drink from your water bottle now it might spill on the holy test booklet and that would send me to teacher jail too...

You want to use your crayons to help you multiply 8x3 since you don't have scratch paper for that one, sweet firstie? Sorry.  You're in a pickle there.  I know we use manipulatives and paper in class, but you can't during the bubble test.  Put that crayon box away super fast and solve it in your head so I don't have to go to teacher jail...

You want to use our resources around our room to help you with this question like I've trained you to do all year, precious girl? Nope, sorry. I had to cover our room with awesome bedsheets that totally welcome you into our classroom and make you feel at home for the test! ;) Using those resources gets me sent to teacher jail....



Isn't it beautiful?!?!  I'm always so excited to tear those old childhood bedsheets down as soon as our last day is over!  Makes this OCD teacher cRaZy!
It's the end of our American Contributors Unit {tear}.  But the end of this unit also means the start of Spring Break for me this week {happy face!}  No alarm setting, playing the stay-at-home-mom again, quiet morning trips to Wal-Mart, ahhhhh....

*cough* Back on track... After finishing up on our inventors for this unit {Edison & Bell}, we began talking about how inventors come up with inventions.  We read I Am Inventing an Invention.

This is a cute little book that tells about some kids trying to invent something for a school project.  It does a great job explaining what an invention is and the process of inventing.

Then, we charted how to make an invention.

And I LOVE this anchor chart, but to save me some time, I went digital with this one!  The digital version is now included in the unit!


The next day we read an adorable book I discovered at a workshop a few years ago...

It's about a bunny who gets asked about his box and he keeps saying, "It's not a box!" because he has turned the box into something else with his imagination.  The kids loved inferring what the bunny's invention is!

I also found this YouTube ebook of it.  That's what we used this year.  It's fast so we read it once all the way through and then listened again and paused in between pages.

Then we spent some time brainstorming ideas for inventions...checking to make sure they had not been invented before and that they had a useful purpose.  Not only does brainstorming out loud help encourage even more ideas that build off of each other, but it also helps me see who my creative inventors are so that I can spread those kiddos out as leaders for my groups.  Other than having to gently nudge them away from every kind of robot imaginable, my firsties always shock me in how easily they come up with things to invent.  And they come up with great ideas.  Every year!

We brainstormed on Wednesday.  On Thursday we started creating our not-a-boxes.  I was so proud of how well they worked.  We worked for an hour and 15 minutes on Thursday and continued working for another hour or so on Friday.  They were all engaged, cooperating and I even heard kids encouraging each other about their ideas.  It made my teacher heart so happy!

After kids thought about what invention they would like to create, they shared their idea with me and then I gave them paper to plan...


When their plan was complete, they picked out their box and got started.  I also had a table completely dedicated to "accessories" {construction paper, balloons, random left over craft supplies like circle die cuts, pom poms, craft sticks, foil and pipe cleaners}.  As you can imagine, some of them knew how to use the supplies in an effective way...and some groups were a tad more liberal with their accessorizing! *wink*

Here are a few of our favorite not-a-boxes!

Meet the "Flying Bed."  It takes you places while you stay in your pajamas and in your bed.  {Interestingly, I've had a similar invention two other times in other years!}  I loved that they turned the Amazon "smile" into the boxes mouth and added a mustache above!

As Mr. Grinch is modeling for you, you can ride comfortably and you even have access to your iPhone, the internet and your iPod {errrr....pipe cleaners for each of these} through a power line {errrr...yarn! I was so excited that made those connections to our electricity studies!}

Here's the "Dragon Plane."  It delivers food straight to your house so you don't have to get groceries.  There is a fire booster that will cook the food for you also!  LOVE!

Check out this part!  It says, "Food line.  Pull!"  You pull on the red pom and it sends an apple down!

Here is the mini-dragon plane in case your house is hard to get to!

Once they had built their not-a-box, they wrote about their invention and drew a detailed replica of their box.  They shared and presented their invention to the class and then we took pictures of each group with their boxes to publish by hanging in the hallway!

They were so proud!

I'll be enjoying my Spring Break next week and then diving deep into fairytales....which of course, for me, means the downhill race to summer will begin!
I thought I'd combine my next Kids Say post with my 5 for Friday for this week...

As I said in my first Kids Say post, I'm obsessed with kid cuteness and love sharing the funnies they say.  And since not everyone wants to hear about it, I'm blogging about it.  You've been warned!

1.  On our field trip last month, one of my girls asked, "Mrs. Shaddock, do you know why I'm wearing my Monitor Elementary shirt and not my Turnbow shirt?"  "No.  Why?"
What can I say? Girl's got some crazy hair.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

2.  Same girl.  Same field trip.  {This girl was on top of her game that day!} Our bus driver was had the radio playing on the way to see our show.  Prince's Raspberry Beret came on.
 Of all the songs in the world, I had no idea Raspberry Beret was it...

3.  So, I was following behind a second grade class on the way to an assembly one day when I overheard a precious conversation.  A little boy had a tooth that had come out and was bleeding.  He was holding a kleenex over it.  He kept checking it and said, "It just won't stop bleeding." The second grader behind him said, "I know just what to do...."
He proceeded to tell him the Bible story he had learned at church...Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. "They walked around the first time.  Nothing happened!  They walked around the second time. Nothing happened!" he continued to tell him about each of the six times, getting more excited with each time.  "But on the 7th time, they went around and the wall came down, Dude.  Really! It did! So all you have to do is keep praying and the 7th time it will work!"

Oh, the sweet faith of a child.  It just warms my heart!

4.  And finally, yesterday...This sweet girl walked in saying, "I really wish my dad were still a doctor." {Her dad never was a doctor!} "Why?"
She continued, "And this is going to be the 4th time I've had it!!"  5 minutes later, her BFF had rechecked her throat and it had turned all white.  After lunch it was all pink. "This is getting serious now, Mrs. Shaddock.  I think I really need to go see the nurse!"

5.  How's this for a random number five?  I just posted my new Common Core Fairytale Unit in my TPT store.

143 pages of weekly visual plans, daily detailed lesson plans, Common Core standards tied to every activity in literacy, social studies and math!  All the materials you need and photos too!


This is a class favorite...even for my boys.  They especially love our end of unit Fairytale Ball that our grade level puts on.  Follow me on Facebook or on Bloglovin' to catch all the details of how this unit plays out in our classroom this year!


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