Non-Fiction Writing

The students have been doing AMAZING in non-fiction writing this week.  On Monday we made a KWL chart for Black Bears, Tuesday we did Polar Bears, and today we did Grizzly Bears.  Each day for writing they have to write 2 facts they learned.  They are allowed to use the KWL chart for reference if they need to.  Check out some of the students non-fiction books so far:

 And our bears are still hibernating...

Bears!

Today we started learning all about bears! The children were super excited to bring their bears in and put them inside our cave (I will have to take pictures).  They were taking it VERY seriously.  They didn't want anyone to get near the cave, because they were afraid their bears may 'die' if they wake up in the middle of hibernation! 

Today we focused on black bears, but each day we will have a new bear to focus on with new facts.  We are adding our new knowledge to our bear books daily.  The students are very excited to become non-fiction authors this week! I will take lots of pictures tomorrow of the projects we are working on. For now...I have this cute little bear tracer that we used to hold up some bear facts.  But, I thought he may also be cute for Valentine's Day?! So, I am uploading a quick little Love Is...writing prompt with the tracers as well.  Click on the picture below to download :)

Penguins!

My kids have REALLY enjoyed learning about penguins this past week.  We started off the week with our can, have, are chart

 and throughout the week we read some fun penguin books, but we are trying to focus on non-fiction now with the new common core standards.  The kids can really pick up on so much information! Throughout the week they wrote about what they learned and made some cute projects!

 I also made a 'life size' emperor penguin for the hallway.  The children have loved measuring themselves against the penguin.  I have overheard so many children from other classes talking about how they are bigger or smaller than an emperor penguin!

You can check out all of our Penguin centers HERE.

 Next week we will move into our bear unit.  The children are going to LOVE it.  They get to bring in a teddy bear on Monday and the bear will hibernate in our cave all week.  We will wake them up from hibernation on Friday, just in time for pajama day! Can't wait!

Brrr!

Even though this first week back was a little tiring, the weather has been gorgeous!! It has been cold down here for us South Floridians!! I finally got a chance to pull out my boots and long sleeves...so fun! I also got to pull out a box of hot chocolate from the back of my kitchen cabinet! This week was the perfect time to do some hot chocolate adjective words...

 This was my example I made with the students, but when they did their own..it came out so much cuter! I wish I had taken a picture.  They colored their cups bright colors and even colored inside the cup brown to look like cocoa.  Much prettier than mine!! 

Even though it is warming up already down here I know some of you will still be drinking hot chocolate for awhile longer (I am actually jealous of you!) I am attaching the pattern below in case you can use it!

Hot Chocolate Patterns