Skeletons and Other Fall Fun!

My littles and I began our study of skeletons today. They were excited to learn that bones grow as we grow! We read the book Your Skin and Bones from the “Your Body” pack by Scholastic. Click on the picture to see the set on Amazon!

The kids enjoyed reading this simple book about bones. They were particularly fascinated by the names of the bones and the skeleton diagram in Chapter 2! After we read the book, I asked the students to draw a skeleton! It was a simple activity that my littles really liked! I gave them white crayons and black construction paper and let them go! The drawings are adorable. Check them out!

I love the finger and toe bones! :)

He drew his skeleton's teeth!

It looks like this skeleton only has one eye...but check out that neck and back bone!

Love the ribs!

There are lots of ribs on this one!!! :)

He drew his heart inside his skeleton...I am also loving the pelvic bones!!! Or are those "butt bones"....?! Ha ha! He also told me that he wrote his name using a "skeleton style"!

I just love her simple skeleton! So cute!

I also had the students practice writing sentences today. I wrote the sentence, “The leaves are falling!” for them and asked them to copy it. I reminded them to use finger spaces and to use a capital “T” in the word “the” since it is the beginning word of the sentence. I asked them to draw a picture of either themselves or their families underneath their writing.

Then, I gave them some foam leaf stickers and asked them to place the leaves onto the paper to make them look as if they were falling off of the trees and blowing in the wind! I threw in why leaves change colors in the fall but it pretty much fell flat! Ha ha! Anyway…here are some pictures of the results!!

Too cute, right?!

Tomorrow we are continuing studies of our bones!

Happy Monday everyone! J

P.S. – I found this cute font on Font Space! It is by “The Butterfly”. 

Hibernation Books Past and Present!

While cleaning and packing up my classroom for the summer, I came across something that made me smile!

I found one of my first forays into creating resources for my classroom! Inside of a folder marked "Bears" from my years teaching Preschool, I found a book that I had made about animals that hibernate.

I remembered making it! I had started out by typing the sentence, "The _________ will hibernate." Then, I printed out coloring pages from the internet and cut them out. Can you see where I'm going with this? You're absolutely correct! I glued those pictures onto the typed pages! I couldn't find the  cover page I made but I took pictures so you could enjoy them! 

The pages almost seem primitive to me! I do remember my little preschoolers LOVING to "read" this book! It inspired me to make a new and improved reader using all the awesome clipart I've acquired in the past year! I put it on TpT. Click the picture to check it out!

I took a few other pictures of the book in case you were interested in seeing them. The product has a printable/projectable book AND a black and white version so students can color it and keep it in browsing bags! I'm pretty proud of this product and I'm finding that making emergent readers is A LOT of fun! 

I'm always looking for ways to increase my students' fluency and confidence. These readers are perfect for Preschoolers to First Graders! Waiting to use this reader until Fall will be REALLY difficult! I'm very excited! 

Mary

Antlers Forever and Common Core Standards!

So far, I’m keeping my word about blogging more! 

My hubby and I ran several errands yesterday and ended up in Cabela’s. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it is a large outdoor sports store that specializes in all things guns, hunting, camping, etc.

I can’t lie. I wasn’t jumping for joy when we pulled up to the store because as most of my good friends know, I am NOT an outdoorsy person! I eventually found my way to the children’s section and started to enjoy myself a little bit! J

I found a really cute book folks! It is called “Antlers Forever”. It is written by Frances Bloxam and illustrated by Jim Sollers. It is about a young moose who doesn’t realize that his antlers will fall off every winter and grow back each spring. It features rhyming words and a really funny scene where a wise owl tries to help Frances by “screwing his antlers back on”! I snatched the book up right away because I thought it would be PERFECT for a science lesson!

The book even has a section in the back that teaches you about how and why moose antlers (even adults!) fall off and grow back each Spring! I’m telling you, this is a GREAT book! I've included some pictures so you can have a little preview!  Here is a link to the book on Amazon so you can check it out!

Also, in my commitment to blog more and share more, I have typed up the Kindergarten and 1^st Grade Common Core Standards for my own personal use but thought someone else may benefit from my format! 

If you can use them, please download them! Click the links to download the Google Docs!

Both documents include the ELA and Math Standards! I hope they are useful for you! OH!! And let me know if I made any mistakes!

First Grade Standards

Kindergarten Standards

Hope everyone is enjoying (or very close to enjoying) their summer breaks!

Mary