Habitats

Doing my first research project with my firsties has taught me what works well and areas that I can improve upon for next year!  I have recently been drawn to open-ended anticipatory sets to hook my kids into a new unit.  I gave each student an image of an animal and then placed the habitats around the room and let them go!  When given the freedom, the discourse between the students is so much better than a teacher centered instruction method.

As an intro to the six habitats we did a fun printable: Which Habitat Am I?

After that I paired the kids with a higher ability and a lower ability.  TIP: My most struggling students also received assistance with myself during our small group time.  I then let the partners choose which habitat they would like to learn about; making sure all six were covered.  The partners read their informational text and answered the question sheets independently.

We took this VERY slow and if any group got behind we did not move on.  After all groups had a good understanding of their habitat's basic characteristic we moved on to note taking.  Once again this process was taken VERY slow and was modeled so the kids understood the difference between notes and sentences.  The most struggling students received extra assistance in a small group here and throughout writing the research paper.  I asked them to write at least two sentences for each section; weather, animals, and plants.

I provided the students with black line images of animals found in their habitat to illustrate the cover of their research paper.  The final products were shared with a pair and share method!

Check out this pack in my TPT store!

Saturday Stray

Like many other schools we didn't spend that much time actually in school this week due to the snow!  We knew it was coming on Wednesday so they cancelled school and then had us out Thursday and Friday.  So this may be a bit short but here it goes!  If you are interested in sharing some randomness from your week you can link up at the bottom!

We started our week off with a Mystery Reader a day for our Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration!  Sadly, we only got to two days but it was still fun.  I simply sent an email to the parents asking for volunteers and told them with only five slots to fill, it would be first come first serve.  The spots filled quickly and after a bit of shuffling the schedule was ready the next day; quick and painless!

Check back later this week after we catch up with our Dr. Seuss fun to see all the activities we do!

One of my most favorite weekly or bi-weekly activities we do is our making words!  We usually do these on test days to squeeze in a bit of fun.  It is amazing to see how they barely make three letter words anymore!  I am hoping to get them all compiled for a resource on TPT some day....  The copy for the students has the letters of the word(s) at the bottom and then we have the pocket chart so they can come build their word.  They keep their word a secret until I check it and then allow them to come build it, just to make sure it is spelled correctly. This picture is not this week but gives you an idea of how our class pocket chart and letters look.

On this particular day we were working with the letters in CURIOUS SCIENTIST since we had been reading about Ben Franklin in our reading and George Washington Carver in our Scholastic Readers.  

This was one of those geeky teacher moments when your heart goes thump thump when the kids have stumbled upon something magical!  Simultaneously as I was checking students' words they wanted to share I had three students spell the word sent, cent, and scent.  It was awesome when the first sent went up there and the other kids said, "HEY MINE IS CENT/SCENT TOO!!!"

One thing snow days are good for is getting projects finished that you have been too lazy haven't had time to do.  It has been months since I purchased the materials to make the black out curtains for my daughters new room.  It really took almost an entire day but I got it done!

I also found time to work on TPT products that have been on my list.

I added to my yearly nonsense words: 

This coming week we are also moving on to our habitats unit and because I couldn't find anything I really liked on TPT I just decided to make my own to fit.  It has taken up A LOT of time but I am really excited about what it will look like when it is finished.  Check back to see the finished product in the next week or so. It will included informational text for six habitats: Desert, Ocean, Forest, Grassland, Tundra, and Rainforest.

We finished off our week with fish at our school fish fry.....mmmmm!  That is literally the highlight of each week....Fish Friday!

Thanks for taking time to visit my blog and read about my week.  If you are interested in sharing some stray things from your week please link up below!