Saturday, May 11, 2013

Shared writing & five for Friday


1.  Shared writing=my new favorite thing.   During our insect unit last week, we read a cool nonfiction book about fireflies.  The kids finger painted yellow dots all over their papers, and after they dried, they went back to create firefly doodles around the dots--some we glued to the firefly shared writing poster, and some we added to our "firefly jar"!


2.  Ow/ou towers!  My kids have been loving our new geoblocks, and I needed a quick and easy literacy station activity.  I used a word page of ou/ow words from Cara Carroll's Out of Towners packet--(which is AWESOME for teaching ow/ou!), and taped them to the blocks.  At word work, a pair of students would take turns choosing a block to read.  If they read the word correctly, they could use it to create their ow/ou tower!  They loved this word work station so much, I kept it in the basket for this week, too!  


3.  Hermit crabs are *kinda* cool.  Each year during my ocean unit, I read A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle, and we always do the cool retelling pieces from Kim Adsit's Ocean Animals packet (love it)!  As you can see from the picture, I was in the middle of printing Kim's Ocean packet--ha!  Anyway, this year, my kids started asking questions about real hermit crabs--and to be perfectly honest, I don't know a THING about real hermit crabs.  I mean, I've seen the painted ones at the beach, and I know they live in a shell, but that's about it.  So, we ALL decided to do a little more research about these guys, and found out that they are pretty cool little creatures--so I made another sharing writing poster, so we could remember all the facts, and the kids created their own posters, too!


4.  Fish in a cup.  We read Swim! Swim!  (SO CUTE!!!)  I just love this book.  I bought clear plastic cups and blue pebbles from Dollar Tree, and had the kids draw their own "Lerch" the fish.  They made speech bubbles with quotes from the book to add to the cup, and some even added the girl fish, Dinah, that Lerch falls in love with at the end of the book.  


5.  {My sweet family!} My sister-in-law took amazing pictures of our entire family to give to my mom for Mother's Day.  We all met at a nearby park last Sunday.  It was FREEZING and cloudy, and we were worried we wouldn't be able to get a good picture--well, she is an amazing photographer and got the most beautiful pictures!  We gave them to my mom last night, and she cried!  So special.



I love these peeps.

Well, yet again, I am late to the party--one day I will actually post this on a Friday.  Promise.
  If you are a procrastinator like me, you can still link up with Doodle Bugs to share your five randoms from the week!  :)








17 comments:

Sarah said...

Cute post! I love all the activities you always do with your kiddos. :)

Sarah
teachingiscolorful.blogspot.com

Teaching Happy Hearts said...

Such great ideas in this post! We will definitely be building some "ou/ow Towers" with our 1-2 multi-age kiddos. Thanks so much for sharing!☺

TTFN~
Victoria & Tricia♥

Miss May said...

Your family is so precious! Love the pictures.

(( HUGS ))
Tiffany

Unknown said...

Great family pictures and I love the word towers. Thanks for sharing.

Renee
Fantastic First Grade Froggies

Julie DiBenedetto said...

I am LOVING your informational Shared Writing charts! Fabulous idea and I just pinned them!
How amazing is that photo of your family on the train tracks!?! I absolutely want to do something just like that for my wedding next spring!
Have a great weekend!
Julie
Ms. Marciniak's First Grade Critter Cafe

kinder-gardening said...

Sweet pictures! We begin insects this week and I love the firefly activity! We don't have them in our part of the country and I think they'd be fascinated! Cute blog!

Mrs. Saoud said...

I love your charts, I love your ideas, I love your family pictures!!! Oh hell, I love you and your friendship! (((HUGS)))

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh, I just adore all of your ideas! Your fireflies are so very cute and your shared writing charts are precious!
Linda
AroundtheKampfire

Love, Laughter and Learning in Prep! said...

Hi Sarah,

I just pinned your ou/ow tower idea to use with my Preppies. I use cups to build sight word towers, but it makes a whole lot more sense to use blocks! Thanks for the awesome idea! :)

Lauren
Love, Laughter and Learning in Prep!

Sarah Cooley said...

LoVe you, girl!!!

Sarah Cooley said...

Thanks Linda! That is such a compliment! I just love all your ideas too!!!! Thank you so very much!

First Grade Buddies said...

We will have to check the Swim,Swim book out!
Tamra and Sarah
First Grade Buddies

First Grade Funtastic said...

I was late too! :) I ran a 5K last night...my excuse that I am using! I love all your ideas. The firefly jar is so cute!
Sara
First Grade Funtastic

Lyndsey (A Year of Many Firsts) said...

DARLING!!!!

Bethany Louise said...

I just discovered your blog and...HOLY AMAZING! You have such awesome ideas! I can't wait to read and see more! Thanks so much for sharing with the rest of us!

Bethany
Ship Shape First Grade

Madalaine said...

Hi Sarah,

Just discovered your blog, so beautiful and inspiring! I'm in the process of applying to become a teacher and I can't wait to start putting my creativity to good use!

Please can you tell me what computer software you use to create your wonderful designs? I use photoshop and I've dabbled with illustrator in the past, but I suspect you might use something simpler?

Thanks!

Madalaine

Love2Teach said...

The photos are just beautiful!!...you are correct - your sister-in-law does take amazing pictures!...I wish I had a 'professional' family picture of my own family. You have a such a lovely glow about you & you have such amazing ideas - thank you for sharing!

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