Cauldron of Words! A fun engaging activity and FREEBIE!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share a quick activity that I am doing this week! You know how we have "THOSE IDEAS" that just hit us either in the shower, on the toilet, in traffic, or me.. early in the morning when I've woken up and can't go back to sleep?? So, yeah, that SO happened this morning! 

This week our phonics pattern is short /o/ and I was thinking of a fun and engaging way for my students to learn this pattern and it hit me! I'll get a big pot and have them scoop up words! I don't know about you, but I am always thinking of ways to incorporate everyday items or props to make learning fun! But then I took it even further, and this year, I am lucky to have a class that celebrates a certain October holiday so I decided to create a cauldron of words! 

It is super simple and I used what I already had. 

This cauldron or a large pot, if you cannot use this prop can be used, was one I had wayyyyy back in my play room. You can't see it but it's slightly warped. Ok, a lot warped. 

Then I bought some ping-pong balls. I found mine at Target. 36 ping pong balls for $10. 

Write whatever word pattern you are working on. I wrote short /o/ words and the HFW words we are working on and added ones that are repeat offenders for being read and spelled incorrectly. I colour coded them. I wrote the phonics words in black and HFW in green. 

For extra fun, I threw in some plastic spider rings and bugs, eye ball candy (all Dollar Tree items) and purchased some cheap spoon ladles from the Dollar Tree and my insomnia filled idea has come to life! 

Both my boys (my 3rd grader and 1st grader) were SO EXCITED to play with my center! They love Halloween as much as I do and couldn't wait to "try out"my center to make sure my class would like it! I *think* they did! 

The center is what you make of it! I made response sheets for you. There are 2 versions. Click on any image to download both! 

Hope this creates a fun and engaging activity for you! 

Native American Week in First Grade, Sharesafe TV, and so much more!

This week we learned all about Native Americans! It is one of my favorite weeks to teach! You can see what we did last year here. There are some links for a video and an idea to help create an ambiance to your learning! I used the resources from my Native American Learning Pow-Wow resource! It is packed with cultural learning resources for your classroom! 

Click on the pic above to take you to my store to check it out! 

Sorting cards for Native American Life. 

Writing our Native American Names. 

Making Native American Baby Papoose's and using symmetry in our art!

The students had a blast learning about Native American culture. We made our vests, too! Sorry for the lack of pictures-- sometimes we just get too engrossed in our learning that I forget! We also read our story Baby Rattlesnake. See the link above for my blog post on that. The kids really got into the story and learned a little bit more on being responsible. 

Next week we will be starting long vowels with silent e! Eek! Such a difficult skill! I try to incorporate song as much as I can into my lesson so that my kiddos can sing to remember. I learn something easier if there is a catchy phrase or tune!  Before I start telling you about the videos, I NEED to share with you a great site to share videos with your kids! It's called sharesafe.tv (for some reason, the link isn't working for me. Just google sharesafe tv). 

(Please don't laugh at all the windows open!! I have at least 5 open at all times!!! Zoinks!)

These silent e videos are NOT shared via Sharesafe TV but it would be a good way to practice linking them!!

Here is a little freebie for you, too, to help you practice long a! I am a HUGE football fan although my team this year is not doing so well. 

Click on me to download your freebie!! 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Mid-Week Update!

It's Hump- Day!!! Just imagine the camel walking thru my classroom making such a ruckus!! LOL! We have been so very busy (as I am sure you all have been!). We just finished our 1st grading period and it was report card crunch time. I had to hurry and get last minute grades into our online grading system. Do you all have that? I have a love/hate relationship with it. It's nice because it calculates your grades for you BUT like all computer systems it gets glitchy! I'd love to know how you all keep track of your grades and how are you required to enter grades (formatives/summatives, how many of each, weights, do you do a total points system or do you have standards based grading?? I am sure I could open up a big can-o-worms with this one!) So, yeah... that kept my panties in a bunch last week. 

This week we worked on some fun and cute projects. I finally got my "The Biggest Pumpkin Ever" bulletin board up! Too cute!

We started by reading the story and then brainstormed ways to grow the biggest pumpkin ever.

My sweet friend and room mom, Shawna, did this for me! She had it perfectly set up for me and I was a dolt and didn't realize that she put the numbers ON THE BACK-- I had them write on the back! So she improvised my dumb mistake. I think it came out beautifully and I am eternally grateful for her!!!

And to keep my biggest pumpkin ever, my bloggy friend, Laura from Peace, Love, and First Grade had this adorable craft idea for a Jack-o-Lantern lantern! It is the cutest! Click on her name to get the directions on how to make this festive craft!

We also finished up our studies on nocturnal animals. We made our Owls in the moon and dissected our owl pellets. The looks on their faces were priceless when they saw and heard what they were but once they started digging in, they were totally engaged and in love! They couldn't wait to get home and share their bone findings with their families!

If you'd like to learn more about owl pellets, click on the pic above to see where I got them! 

Too cool! I love doing this project with them.

We are learning about Pumpkins this week to celebrate our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch next week. I plan on using my 

next week when we start my pumpkin math and science unit. It is always so much fun! If you downloaded it already, please go back and re-download it-- I added a circumference page to it! Just click on the picture to grab it at my store! 

We are also working on digraphs this week /sh/ and /th/ and I know that they will need extra practice with it, so I created a fun, pumpkin themed phonics game for this week to help them practice

If your kids like pick up sticks then they will LOVE this game. I just wrote /sh/ and /th/ words on Popsicle sticks and they had to drop them down and sort them for /sh/ or /th/ at the beginning or end of a word. 

Click on the graphic above to grab your FREEBIE today! 

And that's not all! I just couldn't let the creativity stop there! I guess I am just not a fan of phonics practice where you have to rainbow write words/write them 3 times each, bubble write your words-- sometimes those are great but it's fun to play a game and learn, too! I like to create phonics games for them and I was so tickled when my brain concocted this one:

The kids all flocked to this center! They were like ants all over my room looking and reading for clues:

I haven't quite polished it up yet-- I just had it classroom ready but as soon as its ready I will post it up! So as you can see, we have been pretty busy! We are working on Key Ideas as well in reading. I always theme my week and tie in the Common Core standard for the week. If you are working on Key Ideas, please check out my Key Ideas Pumpkins freebie as well (click on the pic)! It has helped my guided reading groups tremendously this week. 

Hope you all have a great rest of the week! Don't forget about the giveaway that ends Friday!! Click here to enter!

Love to you all!