Fall Read Aloud Activities for the Classroom

Hello again!!

    I just love a fall read aloud!  It gives me all the feels! Do you like to combine as many skills as possible into one read aloud, like I do? I have used this read aloud every year, that my students always love.  The first one is Scarecrow Magic.  No matter what age, they always like this book.  There are so many skills to cover with this book.  I have an activity pack that you will love!

I have use all of the activities in this pack.  

It covers Retell cards(color and black and white)

~Retell cards for students

~Comprehension questions:whole/small group

~Setting/Character posters with response sheet

~Short a word family sort(pocket chart)

~Scarecrow craft

Here is the link to grab it from my tpt store:    Scarecrow Magic Pack

Happy Teaching!

Spring is Coming! Get Ready!

 It's been a long time since I have blogged!  Now-days, I am a mother of three.  My youngest is one, and I have a 7 and 8 year old....ALL BOYS!  There is never a dull moment at our house. Since COVID, things have changed a lot in our world.  I can honestly say that I have never lived through something like this before... and I thought Y2K was bad!!!! Ha! Anyhew, with that being said, I am so excited that is March 1st!  Can I get an AMEN???

    I am teaching second grade again this year.  We are knee deep in graphing skills, opinion writing, and fantasies!! What are you teaching this week?  I am always curious what other teachers are up to!!!

My St. Patrick's Day pack is on sale right now!   Click HERE to view it in my TpT store.  

This pack will be the perfect addition to your St. Patrick's Day activities. I have included some printables that would be great for morning work as well as Literacy and Math activities. The following are included in this pack:

Syllable sort

Contraction sort

Regrouping activity

Number Bond activity

Writing pages

Nonfiction writing activity

I have also included activities for the book Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato as well as Strega Nona

On a different note.  Have you ever used Storylineonline??? Its an amazing read aloud source for your students.  I love this site.  It is also great for digital learning as well. Best of all, its FREE!

Play Doh Recipe and Activities

Wow! What a crazy time we are living in!  We are completely online here in Arkansas.  It is different trying to teach from home, but I am thankful that I can.  My boys are currently 7, 6 and 2 months so we are all kinds of busy doing schoolwork and changing diapers!  I am thankful that I can get the extra time with all three of my boys though.  Well, as a stay at home teacher/momma I have implemented my own activities for my boys.  While the oldest two are in First and Second grade, Play Doh is still a "fun thing" for them.  I am going to put a learning twist to it.  Here is the recipe I used to make my own Play Doh:

1 Cup of Flour
1 Cup of Water
2 tsp. cream of tarter
1/3 cup of salt
1 tbs. of Vegetable Oil
Food Coloring

Mix all ingredients together over low/medium heat.  It will start to thicken, then lay on parchment or wax paper to cool off.

 My boys wanted blue and green Play Doh.

Now for the activities...
1. Place Value with Play Doh
Since I have a First and Second Grader, I made numbers that were 2 and 3 digit.  Place Value is so important in Math.  For my  kinesthetic first grader, using play doh is the BEST! I just made simple number cards for them to "create" the number using playdoh as shown below.

2. Geometry with Play Doh

3. Greater/Less than with Play Doh

Arctic Animal Research Activities

Happy New Year! 2020 will be a big year for the Mistler family!  We will welcome our 3rd son in March!! I have been working on the nursery during my break.  I have also been preparing for a sub for my maternity leave.  I am going to try to post some things that we will be working on in the coming months.  I starting teaching 2nd grade this year, and I absolutely love it!  I thought Kinder would always be my favorite, but 2nd has really grown on me.  My kiddos have learned alot this year, and I have had so much fun! Alright, now for the activities:

My kiddos always like researching animals.  We work on Polar Bears, Penguins, Arctic Foxes, and many more.  If you are limited for time, just pick a few animals.

Here is my TPT pack that has a graphic organizer and writing paper for each of the following animals: Polar Bears, Penguins, Arctic Foxes, Walruses, Seals, and Caribou.

Grab it HERE for just $1!!!

National Geographic for Kids is a great place for students to research online:

https://www.natgeokids.com/au/

Here are also some books that I use during this unit:

Polar Bears by Mark Newman

Penguins

Who Lives Here? Polar Animals

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato-A St. Patrick's Day Read Aloud

Time keeps marching on! St. Patrick's Day is almost here!  We spring forward in Arkansas this coming Sunday, and just have one week until Spring Break!  There is a lot going on and time is definatly not on my side.  Anyway, I wanted to hop on and tell you about one of my favorite St. Patrick's Day read alouds!
THE BOOK:Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato
 Grab it here on Amazon:Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato

                                        

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato is an Irish Folktale. This book is about a man that is very lazy and has his wife do all the work on the farm.  But, his wife injures her back and is unable to work on the farm.  While trying to avoid working, he encounters a Leprechaun and finds himself in a heap of trouble.

THE ACTIVITIES: There are a few activities that I have put together for this book.  As always in the primary grades, we want our students to be able to retell the story from beginning, to middle, and to end.  So below is a picture one of the activities included in my St. Patrick's Day pack.  I have also included anchor chart pieces for you to teach compare/contrast by using Jamie O'Rourke and Big Anthony from Strega Nona. I also have my students research Ireland during this unit.  There are many interesting facts to be learned about Ireland and the culture.

Sample Math Center:

Grab this pack here(while its on SALE!) : St. Patrick's Day Activities on TPT

                                                

Small Group Tips and Tricks...and a FREEBIE!

Hi Friends!  February is rolling along!  This week is super busy and fun in Mrs. Mistler's Class!  We have a Field Trip to our High School tomorrow and Valentines Party on Thursday!  So with that being said, here we go!  First of all, this is the time of year that I start getting a little nertsy(family term...means crazy!) about my students growth.  Ok-I need to clarify, teacher friends you will relate-I am always concerned with student growth, but this time of year... it's getting close to what I call CRUNCH time!   This makes my heart race just thinking about it!  Ok...Mandy...CALM...DOWN!! WHEW!  Wow, ok, now I can proceed with my previous thought! I just completed all of my Parent/Teacher Conferences last week(They went really well!! Yay!!). Anyway, now its time to move forward and keep driving on!  I feel like I am small group crazy kinda teacher.  Anyone else out there?  My students and I have been working hard in small groups and growing everyday.  I recently attended a state mandated training that helped me to remember some key fundamentals about teaching reading.  Now, before I continue, I know that this can be a hairy subject for some teachers.  Teachers have a wonderful gift(being passionate) and sometimes, because of that gift, we get a little sideways on our opinion. I am talking to myself too!  I want to just say how important small group teaching is.  I remember when I first started teaching, how scatter-brained I was.  I really wanted to rock small group time, but a lot of times found myself, wanting to work on word families, but would spend my time with my first group, trying to find the right letter tiles for the word family I was working on. Or, waiting to pick out the book for the current group that I had, until they were sitting in front of me.  I was a young teacher and was just trying to keep my head above water.  OK, I am almost down with my soap box kind of post... Anyway, when it comes to teaching small group reading, here are a few tips:

1. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN-Before you teach your groups.  I cannot tell you how important planning your small groups is.  Now, I know that TIME is not on your side as a teachers, and when I say plan ahead, you are thinking...I know , but I am already a lot of extra time weekly, planning whole group lessons, let alone small group. WHO has the TIME for that?  Well, let me tell you with time and practice, planning for your small group lessons, won't take very long, I PROMISE!  So, with that being said, here is a small group lesson plan template that I use.  Its simple and effective.
                                     
Grab this template for FREE HERE.


Now, I only have time for 3 groups a day, so I meet with my below level group every day, and then I meet with 2 more groups that day.  My schedule does not allow for meeting with all 3 groups in one chunk.  I meet with some of my groups in the morning, and some in the afternoon.  I just meet with my high group ONCE a week.  I meet with them on Fridays.  These students just need practice with higher level text, vocab, comprehension, etc.  It works out best for me to meet with them on Fridays.  Bottom line...you plan your groups to best fit your kids and your schedule. :)


2. Pick out your books BEFORE you teach your small group.  Read through your books that you are planning to teach, before your call your groups.  When you do this, you can be sure to build background, plan critical questions, and comprehension strategies.  Just a quick read through will help so much!  Knowing the story is important for so many reasons.

This is what have used in the past to store my magnetic letters.  I have also used a shoe organizer hung on a door.  I have a tackle box that has all of my letter tiles organized in it. 

3. Prep your materials.
I always make sure to have my whisper phones, pointers, googly eyes, etc. available and ready before I start groups.  Also, if you are planning to work on word building with tiles, magnetic letters, etc, go ahead and group the letters for each student prior to meeting with them.  I keep snack size Ziploc bags in a bookshelf right behind me for that reason.  While planning my groups, I can easily pull letters and place into bags prior to the lesson.

I am planning on posting more tips and tricks later on the month. I feel like I have typed a novel!  Anyway, Happy Teaching!

Lesson plans Journey's and Arctic Animals

Well, January is quickly ending! We are working on everything Arctic Animal this week!  I have a lot lined up to do and hope to get it all done.  Although, we do have several interruptions this week. Here are my lesson plans:

Our school system has adopted Journeys for our Reading and Envision for our math.  We also have Saxon for our phonics program.  I have created a Journey's supplement pack to go with this week's story: Where Does Food Come From?  You can grab this pack HERE.  I am also planning on working on Polar Bears and Penguins this week.  Here is a book I ordered from Scholastic a couple of weeks ago. I just love finding new books.  We are researching polar bears and penguins and will be writing about them this week.  Take a peek below!  

I have also ordered Instant Snow from Amazon to do an experiment on how animals survive in the cold.

 

Instant snow