Showing posts with label trade books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trade books. Show all posts
Happy October!  It's starting to finally get cool here in Arkansas, and I'm ready for cardigans and scarves!  At school, October is the time where we are really digging into some good content now that our routines are {mostly} under control! :)  We learn about animal groups and the human body in Science because it ties in so nicely with Halloween and skeletons!   Here is my must-have list of science read alouds for October!

These books are fabulous read alouds for learning about parts of our body during our Animal Unit.  We use it as we chart our shared research about organs and areas of our body with our human body collaborative posters {get the details here}.  They also make great classroom library books for first graders to shop for! 

I love this read aloud and the dvd too!  We use this for our collaborative body posters when we add our digestive system!

Once we finish up the human body, we move onto comparing and contrasting animal groups!  We use these animal group read alouds to fill in our shared research anchor charts about each animal group.  Once again, these are a great independent reading level for many first graders, so they are a great addition for guided reading or our classroom library.

I got all of these True or False books by accident with a book order one time--but they are AWESOME!  They are engaging reads, super interesting, and the kids LOVE trying to guess whether the facts are true or false!




During our animal unit, we learn about shapes and geometry during math.  So, at the end of our unit we use this book as the launch for our shape animals project!  While my firsties work in groups to research their animals, they also make their animal out of shapes to display in the hallway with their animal research writing.  I love this STEM connection at the end of this unit!

One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of my first grade year is read.  It's the perfect break in between hashing out routines and procedures...and MORE routines and procedures!  Here's a look at my must reads for building community in our first grade classroom!
{This post contains Amazon Affiliate Links.}

First Day Jitters is a must read for the first day of school.  It's the first book I read with my kiddos and it's the perfect ice breaker!

Also on the first day of school, we start building our class rules.  We read David Goes To School and the kids write about what rule we should include in our classroom.  I love integrating this one into writing and it always gets tons of laughs!

Once we are through with the first day of school, it's time to start our first integrated unit on citizenship.

We read about what a citizen is with this non-fiction favorite (I LOVE timing this around September 11th so we can tie it in to our We Remember Project.)

Then, we move on to fiction stories that show attitudes of good citizens in our classroom community.  These books are so important in our classroom for building a sense of community, respect, and making our classroom a place we want to be for the next 178 days of school!  The attitudes we read and write about during our unit are...

Enthusiasm - Morris Goes To School
Independence - A Bad Case of Stripes
Tolerance - The Sneetches
Creativity - Skippy Jon Jones
Integrity - Strega Nona
Curiosity - Curious George
Appreciation - The Great Kapok Tree
Confidence - Sheila Rae the Brave
Empathy - Hey Little Ant
Cooperation - It's Mine!

As we read each story, we post them in our room...you can read about that set up here and find anchor charts to go with each story here!

Once we discuss our attitudes and behaviors, we read more about being a good learner in our classroom community--how we can get the MOST out of first grade.  I use the learner profile words from the International Baccalaureate PYP program because I started my teaching career in an IB school.  Here's a look at the books we use for each of the learner profile words.

Thinker - Look Book
Communicator - Diary of a Worm
Open-Minded - The Brand New Kid

What are your favorite books for building classroom community?
Finding a way to sift through and make sense of the Next Gen Science Standards can be a challenge to say the least! :)  But there is some good content in there with lots of opportunity for hands on learning and integration into the literacy block--which is my favorite way to teach science and social studies!

Here's a look at my newest Next Gen Science Unit on Sound Waves as well as links to all of the resources I use for this unit!
{This post contains affiliate links}

Week 1: What Is Sound?

This unit starts off with lots of exploration of sounds around us.  We chart sounds we hear...
...and then go on a sound walk to record sounds around us.

Then, we explore how to describe sounds (through pitch and volume) with sound exploration stations.  Find most of the instruments I used HERE.  Not included in this pack are drums, a xylophone, or a guitar (you will need two additional instruments besides the big pack.  You can also use what you already have or borrow from your music teacher!

Week 2: How Do We Hear Sound?

During this second week, we research how our ear works to help us hear and sound travel.  Then, we test it out with our telephone cups experiment which you can see in detail here.

We also learn all of the academic vocabulary for sound this week.  We play Find Your Partner with our vocab cards and definitions.  And then we practice independently or during stations with our sound vocab crossword puzzles and word finds.

Week 3: How Do We Use Sound?

The third week our focus is using sound to communicate.  We experiment with making sounds with our vocal cords using the Voice Memo app for iPad...

Then, we brainstorm sounds we make with a carousel activity and anchor chart.

This week we also study what life would be like without sound by researching Helen Keller and learning sign language! 

Week 4: STEM Connection, DIY Musical Instruments

The last week is all about using our new knowledge about sound for our STEM challenge!  We use our invent me anchor chart to learn the steps of building something new.

Then, we work on a step or two each day.  I have full color slides for each step with directions, materials and guiding questions or I can statements for each.  We put up the slide for the day and talk about our goals and then get to building!

The materials we used are already included on the "think" and "plan" slides, but I have also included templates for these without the materials so you can add your own!  Here are the materials we used to build our instruments:
*toilet paper rolls

Since I am temporarily out of the classroom right now, I built instruments with my 4 year old at home and he absolutely LOVED this!  He made 3 different ones...all his ideas!  All I did was set out all of his material choices and have him brainstorm his ideas...
{yes, we did this in our pajamas...everything is better that way, right?? :)}

He made a drum first which was super easy to make.  After this instrument and each one, I asked him to show me how his instrument makes sounds.

Then, he made a guitar...probably because Daddy plays the guitar at church and this boy loves his daddy!  When I asked him to show me how it makes sound, he told me, "Well, it just kinda makes this clicking sound and that's all because I can't make it do notes like Daddy's!"  Bless his sweet heart! :)

And this is his shaker!



Trade Book Resources & Literacy Connections

Sound (Ways Into Science)
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
Sounds All Around
A Picture Book of Helen Keller

Find the sound unit here!
It's the last week before Christmas break.

And it'd be super easy to cash it in this week and print off some Christmas color by number and busy worksheets and call it teaching.

But fluff stuff for the sake of fluff stuff is just not how I roll!  It's a waste of my kids' time, a waste of paper, and just flat out boring to this teacher!

So, we kept plugging away on our fables unit!  One of our last fables of this unit was Town Mouse, Country Mouse.  Even though this story isn't terribly "Christmas-y," I love doing it around Christmas time because it's so easy to talk about wants and needs with this book!

We started off reading the book and retelling the story, just as we did with the other fables.

Then, we reread the story and talked about wants and needs.  We charted what wants and needs mean and then after we read the story, discussed what wants and needs the mice had in the story. (I did not add any of the wants and needs picture cards until later...)

Students worked with partners or alone depending on preference to sort the wants and needs of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.

Then, we checked them together (notice the checkmarks and stars on this kiddo's work!) and I added the correct picture cards to our chart.

The next day, we extended this activity by writing about students' own wants and needs for Christmas....

I love activities like this that are Christmas friendly and fun, but still substantial in content!
My kiddos are in love with our fables and economics unit on life lessons right now!  Since each table group is named after a fable from our unit, the kids are on the edge of their seats waiting for us to read *their table's* fable!

The first part of this week, we read The Giving Tree.  Here's a look at all of the economics and life lessons we packed into this 3 day series...

Sequencing the Story

We read The Giving Tree.  We talked about the life lesson and posted it at the table group.

And then my firsties worked in partners to sequence the story with our sequencing cards during Readers' Workshop.

The Giving Project

We reread The Giving Tree and focused on whether or not the story was a fable or not.  We used our fable anchor chart to record whether or not we saw the elements...

(You can find this anchor chart template here.)

Then, we talked about the life lesson again and made a list of the things the Giving Tree gave to the boy {apples, branches, trunk} and I reinforced that the giving made him happy.  Then, we talked about the fact that the tree gave things she already had....giving doesn't have to mean buying things.

We brainstormed a list of things we can give that we already have...without spending money...

We chose two of those ideas {because we couldn't agree on just one!!} to work on as a class giving project: cards for a nursing home and participating in our school's canned food drive.  We will be working on cards later this week, but we started collecting cans on Wednesday!

To help my firsties understand how good it feels to give to others in need, we set a class goal for collecting canned foods!

Scarcity & Opportunity Cost

We reread The Giving Tree.  We reviewed our economic terms goods, services, and resources from our Little Red Hen series.  Then, I introduced the terms scarcity and opportunity cost.  We talked about the connections. {When resources are scarce, we have to make choices...which means we have an opportunity cost.}

We charted the scarce resources the tree gave {which we listed on Day 2} and then discussed the choice the boy made with that resource and the opportunity cost he gave up because of his choice...

Finally, during Writers' Workshop, my firsties wrote about whether or not they agreed with the boy's choices and why.

I love love LOVE this story during the Christmas season.  Even though it's not a "Christmassy" story, it's the perfect addition to our Life Lessons Unit during the holidays!  I love how it really brings out the true giving spirit in my firsties...and I'm quite sure they will meet their goal of 34 cans before Christmas Break!

Grab The Giving Tree mini-unit  or get the full 200+ page Life Lessons Unit with this plus many more fables and activities!
One of my favorite units to teach is fables.  My Common Core Unit I use for this is Life Lessons.  I love teaching kids to read and learn from characters' mistakes!  Plus, let's face it: fables are just some of the best stories to read...that's why they've been around so long!

I especially love when fables or other stories make it easy to weave in some economics into first grade because that means I can "kill 2 birds with 1 stone."

Last year, I blogged about how I use The Little Red Hen during Thanksgiving season.  But I love this book...and I just didn't have time to blog about everything I do with this book...so I'm back again this year blogging about more of the economics I tie in with this fable.  {Read last year's blog for more of the Thanksgiving stuff!}

We spent all last week reading this book...with a new purpose each day!

Day 1

We read The Little Red Hen with the purpose of deciding if it was a fable or not.  We had already discussed the elements of a fiction story and how even though this story was about animals, it was not a non-fiction animals book like we were used to from our previous animals unit.

{Grab these fiction anchor chart cards along with non-fiction anchor chart cards here.}

Then, we discussed and charted what a fable was and how it was a special genre of fiction...

After we read the story, we used our fables anchor chart to decide if it was a fable or not.

Day 2

The next day, we reread the story with the purpose of deciding what the life lesson or moral of the story was.  Then, we added our moral to our group sign....{each of my table groups are named for a fable from this unit}

These covers and moral cut outs are included in the Life Lessons Unit.

Day 3

On day 3, we reread the story and listened for goods and services the hen used to make her cake.  We charted them, and then they sorted in partners.  Then, we sorted and checked together on the anchor chart.

Day 4

Day 4 was a repeat of day 3 except with resources instead of goods/services.

Here's some partner work....

Our big idea board is already filling up with anchor charts after only a week into this unit!

Day 5

On the last day of the week, we reread the book and wrote about the characters, setting, beginning, middle and end and the life lesson of this fable.  We did this graphic organizer as a guided writing activity where they copied everything we wrote together...but by the end of the unit, they will be able to do this independently!  It's so fun to see the transformation!

Yes...this was a drawn out process for this book, but I've learned over the years that slower is better sometimes with fables.  My first year with this unit, I tried to cram in as many fables as possible and it just wasn't as effective as picking a few good ones and doing them well...this process will speed up to about 2 fables each week (or a new fable every 3 days) once we get better at the routine though!

Grab all of the materials for this fable HERE.  Or get the whole Life Lessons Unit with all 8 fables and SAVE!
   
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