Q is for Duck - Nouns and Verbs Writing Activity Freebie

 We've been learning about nouns and verbs and our standard this week was:

1.20A understand and use the following parts of speech in the context of reading, writing, and speaking:         (i) verbs (past, present, and future);  (ii) nouns (singular/plural, common/proper).

I read aloud the book "Q is for Duck" by Mary Elting and Michael Folsom.  

We brainstormed some nouns and verbs to get some ideas flowing:

Students then filled in the provided sentence stem that had the same language as the book:

Then they used line paper to write their sentences and illustrate:

Click on any picture to take you to the link to get this activity.

Happy Teaching!

Poetry ~ First Grade Style!

I wanted my students to write a poem with rhythm and they did not disappoint.

This activity was simple and we got it done in about 45 minutes from start to finish (including a little mini lesson on rhythm in poetry).

I provided a link at the end where you can grab this.

*For my Texas teaching friends:

  1st grade TEKS for this activity are 1.9B, 1.11A, 1.11B, 1.11E, 1.12A, 1.2F

(If you want to see what those TEKS are the click on the following link: Texas 1st Grade TEKS)

Here are a few of my first grader's poems with rhythm, repetition and onomatopoeia.

This last one is a little hard to read.  It says:

dirt bike on the road

dirt bike on the road

rrr    rrr

rrr   rrr

dirt bike on the road

If you would like to grab this to do with your class, click on the picture below.

Happy Teaching!

Writing a Friendly Letter

After reading "Let's Go to the Moon," I had my firsties write a letter to someone telling them facts they had learned about the moon.

Here are a few examples of our finished letters:

First, students used the plan sheet below to write their three moon facts on.  Then they used the friendly letter template to write their letter.  They added pictures to display with their letters in the hallway.

Students could write letters about any topic they are learning about.

You can grab a copy of this writing freebie by clicking on any of the pictures above.

Happy Teaching!

Writing - How to Decorate a Christmas Tree

How did I get my firsties excited about this little writing activity?  I passed out brand new, freshly sharpened Christmas pencils and threw up a crackling fireplace on the smart board that I found on YouTube and they went right to work.  They even asked if we could do it again.  That's a WIN in my book!

I grabbed this sequencing freebie from KidSparks that can be found at this link:

Christmas Tree Sequence Cut and Paste FREE

The writing printable for this activity is from Stephanie Trapp at Primary Theme Park.  You can read her post about it and get her free printable at the link below:

Christmas Writing Printable Freebie

Happy Teaching!

Penny Science and President's Writing

This past week we learned  about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Since their pictures are on money, we had fun doing a couple of science experiments with pennies.

First, we used droppers to see how many drops of water our pennies would hold.  Students made their predictions as to how many drops of water their penny would hold and then they tested their hypothesis.

Most of them found out that their predictions were too small.

Then we did an experiment to see what would clean our pennies the best:  water, water and soap, vinegar and salt, or lemon and salt.

I gave each student 4 pennies, 4 cups and 4 sticky notes.  They labeled the sticky note with the liquid that was in it and placed it beside each cup.  

We patiently waited 5 minutes. Students took their pennies out and dried them and recorded their results.

They then had to tell what they learned.

We also did some writing about Washington and Lincoln:

Happy Teaching!

Captions

Today we learned about captions.  I read the book shown below because it was rich with captions and because we will be learning about Johnny Appleseed next week.

 

I then made an anchor chart drawing a picture and putting captions in.  (I did not show you a picture of the chart because . . .well, let's just say it was subpar.  As soon as we discussed the chart, I flipped the page.  I did not want a grown up to pop in my room and even get a glance at it.  That's how bad it was.)

 

I gave each child six white labels and they went to their desks and got their journals out.  They drew a picture (I told them to draw whatever they wanted) and then they added captions.

 

 

If you can't read the first child's picture, it says:

This is a snake.  Snakes are poisonous.

This is my daddy.  He shoots snakes.

This is me.  I am scared of snakes.

 

 

I also had them glue the definition of a caption in their journals.  I took pictures of their journals before we glued the definition in.  You can grab yourself a copy by clicking on the picture below.

 

Happy Teaching!

 

First Grade Writing and Illustrations

Have I mentioned how I ♥ first grade illustrations?  First grade pictures drawn by my firsties make my heart happy, happy, happy! (For you Duck Dynasty fans, picture me saying that in my best Phil Robertson voice.)
For example, one of my firsties gave me this picture after we learned about George Washington:

While learning about Texas, we worked on writing "Did you know . . .?" sentences.  I've blogged about this before and you can check it out Here if you want to grab a copy of the writing form these were written on.  Anyhoo, I couldn't resist showcasing a few of these just because of the illustrations.

 

In the picture below, if you look closely, you can see the mockingbird sitting in the pecan tree, the Texas flag, the armadillo, the bluebonnet and the longhorn.  She tried to include as many state symbols that she could.   *LOVE*

 

I love how this next picture includes a blue ribbon beside the chili.

 

 

We've also been working on writing.  I gave my firsties the topic, "Texas is a nice state to visit"  and I got this little gem.

(you might have to click on it to be able to read it)

 

Then I gave them the topic, "Texas has many state symbols"

and I got another little gem.

And then, I just had to share this one because the dog is so cute.  Even when I provide my students with an example, they always manage to make it uniquely theirs.  The topic for this writing was, "Owning a dog is a big responsibility."

 

It's back to work on Monday after a nice Spring Break.  Only 11 more weeks of school.   Geez, how am I ever going to get in everything I want to teach in 11 weeks?