This week we started our three week unit on colors. Over the course of the next few weeks we will choose a color a day (or every couple days) and use books about that color to aid in our learning in reading.
We started off the week with the color purple. On Monday we read Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevein Henkes (one of my favorites!). After reading the kids made connections to the story by making their own purple (paper) purses and filling them with labeled pictures of different things that are important to them. The boys were given the option to make purses for their mom if they didn't like the idea of making one for themselves. Here's an example:
On Tuesday we continued with the color purple and read Harold and the Purple Crayon. Before reading, we discussed using mental images to aid in comprehension. To practice this, I read the story without showing the pictures and the kids had to draw what they heard using only a purple crayon. Their drawings turned out great! I took a few minutes to show off each of the kids' drawings and we talked about how they were similar and different. The kids learned that when you make a mental image it might not be exactly like someone else's, but that doesn't mean it is wrong. Then, to finish off the lesson we watched Harold and the Purple cCayon on Discovery Streaming. The kids were so excited to see their mental images come to life on the screen. This activity was definitely a keeper! I think the kids have a pretty good understanding of the importance of mental images in reading.
On Wednesday we took a break from our color work to catch up on our daily 5 practice and get some things ready to start writer's workshop next week. We learned about the last two daily 5 choices, read to someone and listen to reading. We did a little practice with rotating though choices, and I think the kids are ready to dive right in on Monday! I'm excited to get daily 5 up and running so I can start meeting with kids in guided reading groups.
For writer's workshop we made a heart map. I found this idea from The First Grade Parade and fell in love with it. The idea is that each child fills their heart with things they love. This heart map can then be used to give the kids ideas for writing when they are stuck. I glued them down to the front of the kids' writer's workshop folders and we are ready to begin learning about the steps in the writing process on Monday!
On Thursday we moved on to the color orange and read The Orange Splot. We practiced retelling the story then made connections by coming up with our own original house that could be an extension to the story. The kids had to come up with a creative house, glue on the big orange splot, then complete the sentence, "The orange splot landed on my ____ house.". I loved all the creative ideas the kids came up with and I was quite impressed with some of their artwork. It was hard to choose just one or two to post here since they were all so good!
Today we celebrated Carrot Day since we were focusing on the color orange. I wish I could post pictures for you from today because the kids were so cute with all our fun activities! We started off the morning making carrot day headbands. I meant to take a picture of one, but only managed to get pics of the kids wearing them, sorry! We used a sentence strip to make the headband and the kids glued on construction paper carrots and used crayon and marker to draw more carrots. Super cute! After our school patriotic sing-a-long in honor of Patriot's Day, we got to business handing out carrot awards. Each student was asked to bring in a carrot to use for the daily activities. We handed out class awards for smallest carrot, longest carrot, biggest carrot, and funniest carrot. After we had awarded class awards all the first graders got together and we compared the winners from each class to hand out grade level awards in the same categories. What fun! When the kids went to Ms. Coburn's room in the afternoon they got to use their carrots in both math and science so it was a fun day all around.
Next week we will continue our unit on colors and have some fun activities planned. I am also looking forward to diving in to Daily 5 as well as Writer's Workshop. Should be a busy week!
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