Thanksgiving Centers (Parent Activity)

Every year before Thanksgiving I invite the parents in for  Thanksgiving centers.  At our school this is not considered one of our three school parties, so this is NOT a party, instead it is a culminating activity.  If you know what I mean...  ;) You can relate any of these activities to reading or social studies standards if you need to!!

I set the tables up with these awesome Charlie Brown Thanksgiving table cloths. I also left plates, napkins, and silverware there so we could taste pumpkin pie at the end of the centers! The decor is all from Oriental Trading.

I usually have about 5 centers going on. At each center there are directions on what to do.  The kids rotate through the centers with their parents.  But, just like center time, they can't rotate until I ring the bell.  I also leave directions for what to do if you finish early. Even with parents there, when kids finish early they feel like they can get up and wander around or do cart-wheels across the floor.  So early finisher directions are a must!

At the first center we make edible teepees.  Who doesn't love ice cream cones, frosting, and candy!? This is always the kids favorite center of the day! I used to do making butter, but I always had a ton kids that wouldn't try it.  

Standard- SS.K.A.2.1 Compare children/families today (their houses) with those of the past

At our second center we made Native American noisemakers. Students had to color in the picture and cut and paste it onto a paper plate.  Then, they fill the middle of the plates with beans and staple together! They love this! I leave a little poem at the center from my Poetry Pack for them to sing to as well! 

Standard- SS.K.A.2.1 Compare children/families today (their music) with those of the past

At our third center we made these cute turkey handprint keepsakes from Oriental Trading.  I LOVE anything that my kids bring home that I can store in their memory boxes--so any and all handprint crafts are a must for me!! This center was a stretch to make it 'academic'. I had to leave questions there for parents to ask their child as they were working recalling the Thanksgiving book we read that morning.  It actually turned out cute! 

Standard- R.L.K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 

I never made it around to take pictures on my other centers, but we did a Thanksgiving story retelling bracelet and a writing prompt activity of what we are thankful for!

Later that day we had our book buddies over to read with us and make these cute turkey hands!!

Thanksgiving at home this year was great! We continued our Thanksgiving breakfast tradition and this year I added in a new surprise! 

 My new creation was these little Mayflower donuts--they were a huge hit!!  You can also see the 'acorns' at the bottom of this picture, another breakfast favorite!

 Last year was the first year that I made a big breakfast and the kids loved it so much that we definitely will have to continue this every year. I think they look forward to the breakfast more than the dinner! (I may too, haha!)

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for YOU!

Writing Collaboration on the Mayflower [Freebie Included]

I LOVE collaboration projects in the classroom.  I start them very early on in the year and by now, they are awesome at working together, sharing, talking, making sure everyone in their group 'agrees', presenting, and so much more!

During the month of November we spend a lot of time on the Mayflower and learning about Pilgrims and Native Americans.  One of my favorite books to read (I read it throughout the week because it is lengthy) is ...If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620

Throughout the week we add all of our 'learned' Mayflower facts onto our KWL.  On Friday during our writing block we do a collaboration writing project.  

Each table group has to work together to think of at least 3 Mayflower facts and record their facts, working together to sound out their words.  

They can use our vocabulary word cards from the unit to help them spell as well (vocab cards provided HERE).

Since there can be up to 5 students in the group, we always want to make sure that everyone has a 'job'. The kids are great at coming up with jobs for one another and sharing their responsibilities.  One of their favorite jobs is tracing with a sharpie.

As the groups finished their facts, they went to the carpet while they waited for their classmates to finish up.  When all groups were ready, we presented our Mayflower facts.

They read what they wrote and when they were finished we made sure to celebrate their success!

After each group read their facts they were allowed to go over to our Mayflower and tape their facts onto the ship!

This is always one of my favorite bulletin boards! You can also add little pilgrim faces into the Mayflower from my craft HERE. You can also see a picture from my Instagram page HERE.

'There was a poop deck.' is a fact that makes it onto my Mayflower EVERY single school year! Definitely a class favorite!

Now for a little freebie!  We only have school Monday and Tuesday this week so I wanted to have a little fun with the students before we leave for Thanksgiving break.  I thought this dice activity would be perfect for a little 'bonding' activity.

We are going to sit in a circle and take turns passing the dice.  Students will have to roll the dice and answer the questions that they rolled. 

This freebie includes a make your own dice template as well as inserts for the pocket dice seen HERE. Download the freebie by clicking on the image below.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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November Centers

I have NO idea where the time has gone, but November is already off to a great start!! This month we focus on maps, wants/needs, and comparing children of the past to children now.  It is easy for me to tie in all of those skills while learning about Pilgrims and Native Americans!

One of my students' favorite activities is always using white boards.  I leave the writing and word work cards at the word work center and students are allowed to write thematic words/draw pictures on the white boards when they are finished with their work. 

 I love sneaking over and catching them in action! They are so cute!

 We are also working on reading and spelling our sight words.  They did an awesome job with this 'Serving Up Sight Words' activity from the November Word Work pack.

This is the second time we have worked on building sentences in the pocket chart and ALL of my students were successful in completing this independently.  I LOVE to see that!

 At the writing center we continue to use Deedee Wills' writing pack. I prepped this pack last year and my life is so easy this year!! 

 Magnetic letters are also a class favorite!  

 Students chose to either work on beginning/ending sounds or CVC words or both! ;)  Again, they completed these activities last month with my October Word Work pack, so this month they all are acting like pros! 

On Friday I am hoping to get our Pilgrim craft made and hung to spruce up our bulletin board! They always turn out SO cute!!

November Centers

We have been BUSY learning all about the Pilgrims and Native Americans! I have really enjoyed watching my kids learn so much and be able to compare and contrast themselves to the children/families then.

I had all my students practice/review letter/letter sounds this week during their centers.  Even my readers need this practice occasionally-they still tend to confuse a couple letters now and then!

From the November Word Work pack

I usually don't use the activity sheets at the word work center, but this one I just had to use--it was easy for me to see who needed work on what letter! For instance...the K and Q below ;)

I actually never used some copies that I made last month (please tell me I am not the only one that does that), so my students built their Fall sentences this week...it is still fall so I am good ;)

From the October Word Work pack

 This was difficult for some of my kids. They weren't reading the sentence to make sure it 'made sense'. This is definitely a center I will need to do again!

I have been building CVC words with my kids every week and they are becoming pros! It is definitely time for me to move on to more difficult words!

From my November Unit

 I put some of Deedee's activities in my writing center this month. Love this list one of my girls made! Thanks Deedee!

My students are making me look good with writing this year. They are seriously all becoming so independent! I had to share two writing pieces that were completed totally independently! 

(and this turkey is way better than the ones I draw!)

 I love the little Pilgrim boy below! Too cute!

 We are still enjoying our Pilgrims up on the wall! I can't believe it is almost time to pull these down and hang up some holiday crafts!! Where does the time go?

Next up...Merry Christmas Craftivities!

Formal Observation

I had my formal observation on Friday and I am so glad to be done with it!! Hopefully it went well enough that I won't need another :)

I wanted to share my lesson with you because I absolutely loved it and the kids did SO well with it! We use Marzano for our observations, and this lesson was designed with that in mind--lots of Marzano tallies! ;)

My formal observation was on Friday, but I started teaching about children now/children then on Monday. We always start by going over our learning goal. The learning goal correlates to one of our social studies standards.

 Then we discuss where they feel they are on the learning scale. When I say 'status check' the children reply with 'status check' and then they hold up their hand-displaying a zero, one, two, three, or four depending on where they think they are on the scale. You can find my learning scale HERE for free. As you can see below, on Monday 17 students felt as if they were at a two and three students felt as if they were at a one when it comes to comparing/contrasting children now/then.

 Throughout the week we read Sarah Morton's Day and Samuel Eaton's Day. I only read a couple of pages a day. As I finish reading, I have children turn to their buddy on the carpet. I clap my hands twice and say 'teach'. They clap their hands twice and say 'okay!' When they turn to their buddy they discuss anything new that they have learned. When they are finished I call on different buddies to share what they discussed. I wrote down their new learning onto a post it note and give it to them to 'splash' onto our anchor charts. Here is what our anchor charts looked like by Thursday.

On Monday we also 'splashed' on our new vocab words for the week. Everyday before reading I remind my students of the words and tell them to put their thumb up if they hear a word during reading. If they hear a word we move it over the the left side of the Word Splash and we discuss the meaning. (I don't like to put pictures on the vocab cards because I want students to figure out the meaning.)

Now fast forward to Friday ;)

Friday morning my observation was at 8:15. Before it began I quickly went over the learning scale and reminded students that today was the day we were going to do another 'status check' to see if they moved up on the scale!  I had the children come up with their own goals. They decided that in order for them to hold up a three at the end of the lesson they should know 4 facts. In order for them to hold up a four they should know 6 facts, etc. 

When my observation began I read over the learning goal again. I asked students why that goal was important. They responded with things like, 'the Pilgrims were one of the first to live in America and we also live in America'. Then I reminded them that on Monday 17 students felt they were at a 2 and 3 students at a 1. I told them I can't wait to do a 'status check' today to see if they have gotten better! 

I then said that before we started the lesson for the day I wanted a couple of students to review what we had on our anchor charts. I called on a couple of students to share some differences between children then/children now.

Then I sat down and we went over our carpet rules. You can find these rules HERE. I say 'mirror' and they say 'okay'. As I read the rules, they repeat after me. 

 

I reminded students to listen for a Word Splash word while I read. Then I read one page from the book, If You Were On The Mayflower. The page discussed the chores that Pilgrim children had. (I only read one page because I wanted to make sure I got through the entire observation before my vice principal left!) On the page they heard our vocab word Pilgrim. When they did they put their thumbs up. I paused from reading and had them remind me what Pilgrim meant, then I continued. When I was finished I had children turn to their carpet buddies and discuss whether they learned anything new that was NOT already on our anchor charts. They came up with a couple of things and we quickly talked about it. 

I then told the students that it was time for their challenge! It was time for me to see whether they have met their learning goal!! I explained that I was going to give each group a bag of statements and that group had to decide where it went on the Venn Diagram. 

If you look closely at the photo above, you will see that in the corner of each statement there is a shape. This is so I know what group put the statements on the Venn Diagram in case they put it in the wrong spot. Each group took their bag to their tables. They had to work together to figure out where it went. (Keep in mind...I did this lesson before for practice with bats/birds) Each group had their own tape too. So after everyone agreed they taped their own statements onto the Venn Diagram. At their tables you could hear them reading the statements (one reader in each group), asking each other where they thought the statement went, and finally asking if everyone agreed. If they did, then the 'taper' went and taped it onto the diagram.

These statements are from my November Unit on TPT here.

When everyone was finished they met me back at the carpet. I invited one group at a time to stand up next to me. I read their statements and the rest of the students had to give a thumbs up if they thought the group had placed it correctly and a thumbs down if it was incorrect. We celebrated the groups success and then I called the next group up, etc. 

I really wanted someone to put a statement in the wrong spot so we could have a mini debate, but they got them all right! 

I told them I was so proud of them and then we did our final 'status check'. This time one person felt as if they were at a one, four people at a three, and sixteen students at a four. I then explained to the students that it was okay that 'little Timmy' felt as if he was at a 1 on the scale because 16 students thought they were at a 4! That meant that they knew at least 6 facts AND they could help a friend! So if they can help a friend, they can help 'little Timmy!' 

I then told them that I had an extra challenge for them!!! Since so many students were at a 4 on our scale I wanted them to go back to their groups and write one fact (as a group) that we did NOT put on the Venn diagram. When I gave them their papers some of them were like 'wow this is a challenge' it was so cute! They all got right to work and I went over to 'little Timmy' and asked him a couple questions about children then/now. He answered all of them and I told him that I think he knows more than he realizes and gave him a high-five. 

At this time my vice-principal closed her computer and headed out! She told me it was awesome! HUGE relief!

Believe it or not we did ALL of that in about 40 minutes!

...and I am done! YAY!