One of my favorites and also of my class is the Little Red Hen.
But have you heard of the Little Green Witch?
This story is absolutely adorable and it has a cute surprise ending!
I introduced the book this week during Halloween.
There are many extensive vocabulary words to discuss before reading the book.
Vocabulary: cauldron, twisted, hollow, reek, amid, scattered, soot, gruesome, gremlin, damp, potions, grumbled After we discussed the words the students raise their hand when they hear the word while I'm reading. It keeps them being focused.
Retelling: Students loved retelling this story. The funny twisted ending keeps them laughing!
Compare and Contrast: Of course this book leads to great Text to Text comparison. Before I read I tell the class that this book reminds me of another book I've read but I don't tell them which one. It isn't long into the book and someone catches on. Use a venn diagram to compare the two stories with each other.
Writing Ideas: 1) Would you help the Little Green Witch? Why or Why not? 2)Write a recipe book for pumpkin pie. 3) If I could unclean my house this is what I would do.
On youtube this book can be found being read by some fourth graders!
Great option if your school doesn't have the book.
Another way to compare and contrast texts is to use The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza.
Grammar: I use this book to work on plural nouns. This mini unit includes a noun sort using words from the book. Then there are three levels of worksheets for differentiation and also include a writing option. Click on the cover sheet to pick this up for your class. Please leave a comment if you download.
Cooking: In the past when reading the Little Red Hen I've made bread with the class but making little pizzas is a lot more fun!
Making Pizza in Class
Materials:
electric skillet
jar of pizza sauce
mozzarella cheese
package of pre sliced pepperoni
box of Triscuits
Place the Triscuits on the electric skillet, spoon some sauce on top, add a piece of pepperoni if desired and top with cheese. Just warm until the cheese melts. Quick and easy! Yum!
Writing: Cooking is a great way to lead into "How to..." writing. If this is your first How to... writing write it on chart paper as an example. Or you can have students write the steps in their own "How to..." booklet. Stop over at this previous post about How to writing! You can pick up a How to... booklet for free. Click Here.
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And they did!
I love the Evan-Moor Series. I use the first and second grade books and I've tried the third. Some of the third grade skills were at my kiddos levels but the sentence combinations were a bit tricky!
Old and New Covers - same content (What I love about Evan-Moor and Teacher Created Materials is now you can purchase as ebooks!) Super easy way to print!
When I run off the copies I use colored paper to keep them organized. Students work on these while they eat their breakfast (yes - we eat breakfast in our rooms!)
When students get stuck they put a ? next to the number and I help them on that problem later. They are working on these independently. While they are working on this I am taking a Guided Reading Group. We only meet for 15 minutes. This morning time is used to work on fluency and comprehension. We usually do not have any word work at this time.
The class is learning short a word families and we worked on the -ack family! The funny part is I have three boys named: Jack, Jack and Jackson! What a fun way to use their names in our readings!
I have been making sure that I read and reread the book to assist with comprehension. This story is great for sequencing. The first day I read the story and we glued the pictures in order. The second day the students wrote down what the character or object did in the story.
Comprehension: Sequencing Phonics: -ack word family Vocabulary: worried, forlorn, tattered, crumpled Writing: Sequencing
It's amazing how the kids pick up unusual vocabulary. We used the vocabulary throughout the week and even into the next week as they were making connections! I stuck my foot in my mouth as I said, Oh my your shoes are looking a little tattered!" She replied, "I bought these this way!" Go figure!
Try this story out! It was a lot of fun! Click on the cover to pick up these freebies!
If you like what you downloaded and you don't want to miss more freebies ~ make sure you sign up on Bloglovin' t get my blog links!
Just completed our VBS last week. We completed an activity, where we put the Bible passage in order after we took them out of plastic eggs. Made me think! Let's use this in class to put words in order to make complete sentences. So...
This activity includes three levels of sentence lengths. Since I just made this activity I haven't tried this in my room yet but I did try it at VBS and it was a lot of fun for many ages. The kids loved looking for the eggs and they worked well together to put the sentences in order. I added the response sheet, I like the accountability. It's priced at $2.00! I'm keeping the prices low and friendly for you all! I've reduced the prices of many of my items. Check it out!
Are any of you as tired as I am??? This has been a long week and we have until next Thursday before we start spring break. The kids are ready for a break too!
We are learning about synonyms and The First Grade Parade shared her cute worksheets with us. On the post scroll down to see her in a cute chef hat!
I added some of these ideas to a promethean board lesson. Grab it here for free. Sorry no photos today! I'll try to get some uploaded soon.
We've been working on adjectives so we made this anchor chart.
In the box I drew a noun. I drew a frog because we were reading Frog and Toad books.
Then we came up with adjectives to describe the frog. We talked about how the adjective long described his tongue but not all of him.
First I drew arrows the the adjectives showing that the frog is all five of these things. Then one of my students suggested we draw the arrow back to show that these words describe a frog. Great thinking!! We then came up orally with a sentence that used one adjective. (The frog is cute) and (The cute frog was my pet.) This showed how to use the adjective in two different spots.
Then we used two, three, four and finally all five which we wrote down. Then each student visualized what they wanted to draw. Then shared the idea quickly with their neighbor and then went to draw it on their own sheet that looks a lot like the anchor chart. My co-worker made it up so I will have to ask her if she's willing to let me share. Lots of fun, descriptive sentences came from this activity!!
Today we did a little activity with compound words. Each child chose whatever compound word they wanted. They put the first word in the first cloud and the second word in the second cloud. Then they wrote a sentence with the compound word. It was fun and easy!
I've been working so hard this year on making flipcharts for my Promethean board this year. The kids get so much out of working with these flipcharts. They are time consuming but oh so worth it!
I use the Treasures series from MacMillan/McGraw-Gill for first grade. I've posted three of them on TpT. I hope to keep posting more in the near future! Check them out if these will work for you! Click on the unit title pages below to see them on TpT.
I dress up in all different kinds of clothes and items and then I come into the room to meet the kids and behave like someone else! The kids are crazy with laughter! "That's you, Mrs. M!" I put this picture in the center of the chart paper and now that I have an interactive board I will use that. Then we draw lines off of different things I'm wearing and describe the item. What fun!
What adjectives activities do you do? We're suppose to teach adjectives for three weeks and I'm running out of ideas. Next week is color words! Help me out!
