Yummy Plant Parts, Egg-cellent word work and Texas Symbols

Well spring is finally in the air, and we started our unit on plants! We’ve learned all about the different parts of the plant this week, and then we discussed what parts of a plant you could eat. I don’t think my kids realized how many different plant parts could actually be eaten! They were loving it!

We made this little anchor chart as we brainstormed the different parts that would be yummy in our tummies.

 

After we thought of as many as we could, we made some plants to put in our “class garden.” I saw this idea on pinterest and just knew that we had to do it! It turned out so adorable!

Here are some close ups of the vegetables and fruits.

 

You can download the labels in the picture below!

Next week, we’re working on the –ump and –unk chunk. Since Easter is just around the corner, I decided to make some word work eggs that I had pinned way back when! Here’s how they turned out. I added some tape around them to make the letters more secure. The labels kept wanting to peel off.

I also made a symbol chart and data sheet to go with them. I left the chunk section blank on one copy so that you can use them with different words. If you’d like to download, just click on the pictures below! Hope you enjoy!

Freebie with the –unk and –ump chunk.

This freebie has a blank space for the chunk so that you can choose your own!

We’re starting to wrap up our Texas symbol unit. We made a few more Texas crafts. We made these cute pecan trees that I saw on my sweet sister-in-law Jaymee’s blog, Adventures in First Grade. We also made the Alamo. They turned out so cute, and the kiddos always love to paint!

That about wraps up this week! So glad that it’s FRIDAY!!! Hope ya’ll have a wonderful weekend!

-r controlled vowels and Inferencing fun!

Yay it’s Wednesday! Can’t wait for the weekend! We moved into a new house over Spring Break and we our having a crawfish boil to celebrate this weekend… I can’t wait! Crawfish are the best!

Last week, I went over –r contolled vowels with my kiddos.  We used the r- controlled vowel packet from Abby over at the Inspired Apple. These activities were wonderful for word work. We also made Abby’s –ar Pirates and had fun with all of her activities in her Pirate Mark packet.

These pirates were just too cute for words!!

We also had an –ar treasure hunt! Everything is included in her packet. I had my firsties searching all over the school for all of the –ar words. (Please ignore my ugly wall!!)

I don’t own a treasure chest, and it wasn’t pay day yet, so I made a little treasure chest out of a card board box and some butcher paper! It worked just as well. My kiddos knew exactly what it was! Once they found all of the words, my kiddos got to open the treasure chest, and discovered their candy bAR treasure. They LOVED it!!!

We also have been working on inferencing! We had fun inferencing with No David! and using some other finds off of pinterest.

First I copied Cara Carroll’s little inferencing anchor chart. Thank you Cara! You always know how to make the cutest charts!

 

We also completed her No David inferencing sheets. First graders LOVE No David, especially the page where he’s running naked! I’m pretty sure that that’s the page that most of my kiddos decided to make inferences on.

We really had fun with this activity!

Don’t Mess with Texas and the –uck Chunk

We’re still continuing with our Texas unit. We’ve been trying to create all of our state symbols. I made a little power point to introduce the unit. You can click on the first slide below to download the power point!

After we went over the symbols, we started our Texas book, and my kiddos had fun making a few Texas-style crafts!

We have a lot more symbols that I’ll post for you soon!

This week, we’ve been working on the –unk chunk, so we made these little ducks to practice our words!

Click on picture below for the –uck sheet.

 

Good luck to all of the Texas teachers who are giving the STAAR test this week! Counting down till Friday!!

A little St. Patty’s Day Writing Activity

In my writing station this week, I wanted to do a St. Patrick’s Day activity. I’m kinda bummed that St. Patty’s Day always falls during Spring Break. There are so many cute things to do with it!

My kiddos wrote about what they would do if they found a pot of gold. I wish I could take credit for this cute idea, but its another great pinterest find. I just recreated it!

Here are a few of the pictures that my students did.

If you would like a copy of the writing paper, just click on the picture below!

Learning all about Camouflage!

This week, I’m teaching the kiddos all about camouflage. I introduced the lesson with this little powerpoint. You can click on the picture below to download.

After we learned about what camouflage was, I gave each of my students a butterfly to try to camouflage in the room. I love the different places that they tried to hide their butterflies!

I printed off this coloring page for them to use. Click on the picture below for the link.

We also played a game outside called Predator and Prey. My firsties pretended to be birds searching for a meal of worms! The lesson teaches about how camouflage relates to predators and their prey. Talk about fun!

First I cut up an assortment of different colored pipe cleaners.

Then I spread the pipe cleaners all over the ground.

I let groups of children run and search for as many worms as they could grab and put in their bag for 15 seconds. We did this until all of my kids had a turn.

After we collected our worms, we came back in and did a tally chart and graph of our worms

I was so happy that my kids realized that some of the worms were harder to find because they were camouflaged, and that it would be harder to be eaten!