Friday, June 30, 2017

Fluency with Hameray Publishing

In today’s classroom, there is a lot of focus on fluency! Children are supposed to be able to read to us as if they were talking to us. So we begin in the primary grades to focus on fluency using easy text.

In my room, I wanted my children to read fluently but not just fiction books. I wanted them to read nonfiction books as well. This is why I love the ZooZoo series by Hameray Publishing!

This series have a nonfiction section as well as a storytellers section. This allows us to bring in various texts that will peek their interests and ones that we can use during our guided reading groups as well.

The books we read were Zebras, Oh Zebra, Frog and Frogs Play.


As usual, we began by reviewing the vocabulary! Each book had some awesome words to review with my kids! I love having my kids come up with synonyms for the vocabulary words. They always surprise me with their ability to inference! I will review vocabulary two ways: just give them the word and allow them to try on their own and then build on to what they are saying or I will use the word in a sentence and have them use their context clues to figure out the meaning!

I love using fiction and nonfiction books together. It allows them to compare and contrast. They are also able to tell the difference in fiction and nonfiction using the texts as examples. These are common core standards in First Grade.

So before we read the fiction books, the kids made inferences! They looked at the cover and told me what they thought would happen. We would then read the stories to see if their inferences were correct.

With the nonfiction stories, they shared all that they thought they knew about the animal. We completed can, have, and are charts using the nonfiction texts.

The text in both the fiction and the nonfiction books  were perfect for my small group and my low readers! But all of my kids gravitate towards these books! They love the pictures and the easy to read text!
As I read the text to them, I stop and ask them questions. I also allow them to ask questions and to talk with a partner throughout the book.
I love these pages!!!!!!!!! Look below and click on the picture for the link to the series!
The Nonfiction Texts



The Fiction texts





I love how we can compare and contrast the two series. That is a common core standard for first grade. Comparing and contrasting two texts about the same topic. But we could also compare the texts against each other frogs and zebras. They were able to discuss the differences in environments and storylines as well as diet and life cycles.
 After we discussed the books we then completed some activities! The pages that we completed are below!  click on photos for link to worksheets





Have an awesome day!



Sunday, June 25, 2017

Fourth of July Love!

If there is one holiday that is near and dear to me, the Fourth of July would be one of them! 

My father was a marine during the Vietnam War and we were brought up the ideals of the importance of this holiday. 

Honoring the brave men and women as well as our forefathers who created this great nation is an awesome act! 

The stream of red, white and blue that we see everywhere is amazing!

Oriental Trading has such an amazing selection for you to choose from to decorate your home for this important day!

I had access to some of these products and am sharing with you how I used them to create a patriotic look to my home!


Here is their patritotic banner rolled and placed into my glass candle holder with some of their mini flags as a centerpiece. It was quick, easy and very inexpensive! It gave my table a patriotic look without going overboard!



Here I made my food service area! I love how the mini patriotic buckets can be used for the patriotic red plastic silverware! It is a one stop area for my guests and family to get all they need to eat the scrumptious goodies that will be on this kitchen island the day of the fourth! 

These little buckets are so useful and you get 12 of them in a package! I love how you can just combine them with the small flags to add a little patriotic feel to different areas of your house! Here I have added these buckets and flags to several areas of my home!




 


If you have a second floor and just need a little something to add a little patriotic feel, then these buntings from oriental Trading are just what you are looking for! They look amazing hanging on my railings upstairs! 




They not only have these bright and joyful patriotic decorations but they also have nostalgia looking ones as well. Here is their nostalgia pinwheel centerpiece! It just adds a little flair to my mantel!



Finally, you can't have a party nowadays without a photo booth!!! I love the patriotic photo props, American symbols back drop and the giant Statue of Liberty  to create the ideal Fourth of July Photo Booth!!!






Oriental Trading is amazing for any and all of your holiday decoration needs! 

I was given these products by Oriental Trading and was not paid for my opinion or my post! These opinions are my own! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Teacherfriends Chat Anniversary

Good afternoon everyone!!! I hope you are all enjoying your time off or that it will soon be time for you to be enjoying your time!

As most of you know, we have a chat on Tuesday nights called Teacherfriends! 

We have had some amazing guests be a part of our chat and this is our third year! Hard to believe it is three years already! 

Last year, anniversary chat trended and we were blessed with so many people donating prizes for our lucky participants to win! 

Well, this year, we are so excited because we have over 8000 dollars in prizes from so many amazing people and companies! Our participants are going to have so many opportunities to win some awesome prizes. 

So please check out the prizes listed below and mark off June 27 on your calendar so you can be a part of this amazing chat. It will be from 9pm to 10pm and the hashtag is teacherfriends! 






 







































And these are just some of the prizes we have! We are still making graphics for the others and these will be tweeted and added as we get them done!!!

Chat with  you all on twitter at #teacherfriends on Tuesday night at 9pm!!!!!