First Grade Poetry

During the last two weeks, my kiddos have been writing lots of poetry.  I think that poetry is something that they are naturally drawn to and pretty easy to write.

We've read lots of children's poetry-- including my favorite Shel Silverstein.  My kids can't seem to get enough of him this year!

I started out teaching this unit by reading "Writing Dino-mite Poems" in the Learn to Write series.  This is a great tool for teaching writing.  There is a teaching book with printables and a read-aloud book for each type of writing.  You don't have to purchase the whole set.  Individual books are sold at my local parent teacher store. 

I've found that it's easiest to have structured poems for the kids to practice with each day.  I bind these in a little book to take home.  Click here to download a copy of my poetry book.  Many of these poems were inspired from the Dino-mite Poetry book.  Others were found online.

I hate that I let my kids take home their books without taking pictures first.  I'll do my best to describe each poem with an example.

Animal Riddle Poem- inspired by "Shanna's Animal Riddles"

1st Line- one sentence describing animal

2nd Line- another sentence describing animal

3rd Line- It rhymes with ___

4th Line- sound or action word, repeated three times

5th Line- It is a (name of animal)

*Make sure children pick animals that have rhyming words!

How Do I Know?

Students should pick a time of day, a season, a month, or holiday to write about

Simile Poem

Students can pick any object to write about.

Spring Is...

First Line- Color or colors to describe something "springy"

Second Line- Name of object

Third Line- a phrase starting with -ing

Fourth Line- Any thought pertaining to topic

A few other sping ideas (bumblebees, flowers, butterflies, basketball, baseball, grass, sandals, dresses)

I Can

On each line, the children will tell something they can do like an animal

The Book of Poems also includes an acrostic and a free verse poem.

How do you teach poetry?  I would love some new poems to try next year!

Penguin Fun

I found the cutest penguin activities this summer on First Grader At Last!  I'm so glad I saved the idea-- and actually remembered it!  The kids learned about penguins today and had lots of fun.  We started by creating a penguin schema chart.  I was really impressed with what the children already knew.  They weren't super excited about sharing until I started writing their names next to the fact they gave (on the sticky notes).  After that, there were hands flying high!  Next we read Penguins by Gail Gibbons.  As we came to "facts" that were incorrect, we moved the sticky notes to the Misconceptions fish.  I also wrote new facts on our penguin chart as we found them in the book.

My favorite part of the day was making pink penguins.  We read Pink! by Lynne Rickards.  What a cute book!  Afterwards, the children used construction paper and scrapbook paper to make their penguins.  I didn't give them any patterns.  They had to listen and follow directions as we made each piece.  I love how different they turned out.  The last part of our project was to write about their pink penguin.  This is probably the best they have done with writing all year!!  They were so excited about it.  Most started out the same way "My penguin's name is ____".  After that I allowed them to write anything they wanted (a description of their penguin, about their penguin's family, activities their penguin likes, where their penguin lives...).  After I modeled mine they got started.  It was SO quiet in the room as they created their descriptions. 

Next week the kids will measure themselves against an Emperor Penguin, complete a graph in their math notebook ("Have you seen a real penguin?"), and read more fiction and nonfiction penguin books.
Click here to download the graph.

We will also complete the activity below.

It's Snowing in Alabama

Since there's a good chance we won't be seeing any real snow in Alabama, we started decorating the room to make it look like a winter wonderland.  Here are a couple of my favorites for winter:
Snowman Writing Activity
I first give the kids a cut out snowman and let them decorate it with construction paper.  We talk beforehand about what should go on their snowman- hat (what kind--toboggan, baseball cap, top hat..), stick arms, maybe gloves or mittens, a scarf, face details, buttons...  I remind the children that each snowman should look different.  I have found that when they create the accessories from construction paper the finished product turns out neater than if they use markers.  Although I give in a little because a scarf can be hard to make from paper. 

 

After they have created their snowman, they each write four descriptive sentences about it.  I give them a couple of sentence starters like "My snowman has _____" or "He/She is wearing ______".  The assignment is to create a LOST poster with a description of their snowman so that we can "find" their snowman.  We discuss using color words, size words, numbers, and other appropriate adjectives.
I like to display these on a bulletin board with the snowmen and posters seperated a bit.  Once they're up, we'll go back and read the descriptions and see if we can match the snowmen to their descriptions.

Click here to download the snowman template
Click here to download the LOST writing paper

3D Snowflakes
I love to hang things from the ceiling, but I'm not a huge fan of it hanging in my classroom.  Two other first grade teachers and I hang artwork in our little corner of the hall.  Each month we swap it out with something that fits the theme.  In August and September I hang the first letter of each child's name, in lots of different colored paper.  In October, the kids paint candy corn to hang.  In November, I hang their turkey glyphs.  The children make poinsettias to hang in December.  And that brings us to January.  For the past 7 years I've had the kids make these 3D snowflakes.  They are really simple to make and pretty to hang. 

All you have to do is have each child cut out two snowflakes.  Then line them up on top of each other and staple on the dotted line (I use three staples).  Fold back the paper so it becomes 3D, and volia... a snowflake!  Click here to download a copy of the snowflake.

From Turkeys to Reindeer

This will be a smorgasbord of ideas all rolled into one post. 

First up... Turkey Word Work

Yes, I know, it's almost Thanksgiving now... and there's no way you could possibly use this idea this year...but I thought I'd share because I really liked it.  Maybe you can tuck it away for next year.  I found some word family turkeys last year on a blog.  I loved them, but they were designed to practice long vowels.  Since we're just now wrapping up short vowels I created some new turkeys to use as a short vowel review.  My kids loved them.  This project was one of their reading tubs a few weeks ago.  Each child chose one turkey (each with a different word family) and six feathers.  They wrote words for their word family on the feathers, colored, cut, glued, and voila...word family turkeys.

Click here to download the turkey bodies
Click here to download the feathers

Moving on to Reindeer... because Christmas is right around the corner.  Now, I'm not one of those Christmas fanatics who puts up Christmas decorations the second week of November.  But-- I do like to do these reindeer during the first few days of December so we can use them all month.  I call them Reindeer Mail.  I send home a letter to the parents requesting that they send in a small item (candy, Christmas pencil, small notebook, other junk from the Dollar Store) for the reindeer pockets.  The children also spend a little time each day writing a note to each child in the class.  For the notes, or Reindeer Mail, I tell the children who we are going to write a note to for that particular day.  Within 17 days we have a note for each child.  When I pick your name, you get to write a note to me :)  By the time our Christmas party rolls around each child has a reindeer pocket full of little treats and special notes.  We open them on the day of our party.  Each first grade teacher does this and we all use our bulletin board outside the room to hang the reindeer.  The kids are so excited to see what's inside.

To make the reindeer pockets: fold a 12 X 18" piece of brown construction paper twice- until you have a V shape.  Staple a few times on the back.  I use the large circle di-cut for the eye balls and nose.  We have a smaller circle di-cut that I use for the eyes.  I always give them a choice of blue, brown or green for the middle of the eyes.  I use a 4" di-cut 0, cut in half for the bridle.  I like the look of glitter on the noses, but I do that part myself-- for obvious reasons :)

Since I'm obviously not good at blogging each day-- or each week-- I'll share another idea.  This is one of my favorites!  Each year my kids make Christmas books for their parents. 

These are similar to the Mother's Day books I wrote about in May.  I order little blank books from a company called Bare Books.  The kids create a Christmas book, called "Christmas Is..."  We read Gail Gibbons' book, "Christmas Is..." first and start a discussion about Christmas.  Then the children map out their book (click here for a copy).  Each page starts out "Christmas is____"  They fill in the blank with an -ing word and a noun.  Some examples:

baking cookies

sitting in Santa's lap

celebrating Jesus' birthday

listening for reindeer

decorating gingerbread houses

singing Christmas carols

hanging stockings

decorating the Christmas tree

opening presents

giving to others

After doing the planning page, they write the words in their book.  I type out the sentence frame,  copy onto 3.5 X 5" labels, and stick in their books ahead of time.

Then for the next 10 days, the kids illustrate one page a day.  I buy them the 64 count box of crayons to use for the second semester of school (because the 24 count is all yucky by this point).  They LOVE all the color choices and always do a really nice job illustrating.  We also decorate the cover and dedication page.  Lastly, I have each child sit with me and I type the About the Author info (I've found this is so much faster than having each child write it themselves, bring it to me, and then try to decipher their writing).  I also take a picture of them with a Santa hat to put on the About the Author page. 

We spend a little time wrapping them in class (which is a hoot, because none know how to wrap).  Then they go home as a present for their families.

 

Most years I have one child who doesn't celebrate Christmas.  They will do a book called "My Family."  Their sentence frame says "My family _______."  This book is much harder for the kids to write, but it still works fairly well.

Last on the blogging agenda...

I've created some Christmas Math Centers. 

You can find them in my TPT store for just $5.  These activities were made to cover Core Curriculum content for "real classrooms."  My kids will be using them the next three weeks in their math tubs.  If you check them out, or purchase them, I'd love to know what you think.