Earth Day Activities

Earth Day is coming up!

Here are some fun grammar and writing station activities 

for first and second graders. The activities are rich in vocabulary and will definitely teach the children how to take care of our precious planet, while reinforcing important foundational skills.

Parts of Speech Sort

Students sort the word cards on the mats 
and then fill out the recording sheet.

Sentence Editing

Students read the cards and discuss the mistakes on them. There are errors in spelling, conventions, and grammar. Then, they choose any 5 cards and write them correctly on the recording sheet. Cards also come in black and white.

Picture/Sentence Matching

Students read each sentence and match it to the picture it describes. When they finish reading and matching, they can copy some of the sentences or write their own on the recording sheet. The cards come in color and black and white.

Scrambled Sentences

Students put six sentences in order. Then, they write them neatly on the recording sheet or in the booklet, or copy the sentences, in order, onto the included stationary, making a nicely organized paragraph.

ABC Order

Students put the cards in ABC order and then fill out the recording sheet. You can choose 6 or 12 words. The cards also come in black and white.

Trivia Game

Students read 21 cards and decide if the statements say something that is good for the Earth or that hurts the Earth. An answer key is included.

Here are images of some of the other activities included.

To see these fun and engaging activities in my store, click here or on the image below. Have fun celebrating Earth Day!

Five for Friday {Linky Party.. April 26}

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs!

Here's my week in pictures...

One of the most important things going on this week is a fundraiser to help raise money for a sweet man who is fighting bone cancer. He is a dad to one of Reagan Tunstall's little first graders. If you would like to help out, you can read all about it here.

I spent a small fortune on a ton of baskets for my new Daily 5 classroom next year. I can't believe I'm already thinking about next year! How many of you are already planning ahead? Please tell me I'm not the only one! By the way, my yorkie, Max, is really way cuter than he appears in this picture. He was a tad scared and intimidated by the tall tower I made him sit next to!

My other yorkie, Buddy, got jealous that Max was in my blog post, so I snapped this picture of him with a great book I read to my classes this week.

It was recommended by my good blogging buddy, Kristen. The book is about a little dog who really loves books and wants to make one of his own, but he can't think of a story. So, he takes the advice of a little yellow bird and looks closely at the world around him for inspiration. Buddy and I highly recommend this book for all teachers! Click here to check out this book!

This week, my students thoroughly enjoyed this original story by another blogging buddy of mine, Lyndsey, from A Year of Many Firsts.

It's such a cute story about a Litter Monster who changes his careless ways. 

My first and second graders wrote the cutest letters to the Litter Monster, thanking him for taking care of our planet. My kindergartners wrote about what the Litter Monster learned and made their own Litter Monsters. They came out so cute.

*Please note that the litter monsters and sentence starter are not part of Lyndsey's pack.

The last picture I have for you today, are two images of thank you letters my first graders wrote to me. Today, I assessed them to see if they remember the 5 parts of a letter. They were told to write a thank you letter to anyone they wanted. They came out precious and I had tears in my eyes as they shared their heartfelt letters. We all decided that we don't thank those we love nearly as often as we should.

And there's my week in pictures!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

My Week in Review

We are just about done with our insect theme. Thank goodness! Although we've been doing some really fun activities, insects are high on my list of "things that turn me off!" But, every year, I put on my big girl panties, and pretend that I'm as excited about creepy crawlies, as they are! As long as I don't have to touch anything that is crawling or look at any images except for the cutsie ones, depicted in all the adorable clip art, I am fine!

Here are some pictures of some of the activities my students worked on.

Kindergarten...

Drawing Insects

Labeling the parts of a butterfly and writing sentences.

Insect Rebus Stories

We brainstormed facts about butterflies and then filled out this graphic organizer.

First Grade...

Life Cycle of a Butterfly Scrambled Sentences

Spring Digraph Sort

Insect ABC Order and Sentence Writing

Butterfly Essays

We are still working on these.

Second Grade...

On Tuesday, I had my formal observation. 

I had to teach something new, so, I taught my my students how to conduct an interview.

Twelve minutes into my observation, the fire alarm went off! Obviously, it was not a planned drill, so, we all quickly exited the building. Turns out, someone pulled the alarm! We got back about 20 minutes later and, thankfully, my students just picked up where we left off. However, I didn't get to finish the whole lesson because of time constraints. We are still not done with our final interviews because I was out sick one day and we had an assembly. So, next week, we will finish for sure! Here are some pictures of my students interviewing each other. It was so cute!

This is a fun activity for students to utilize all of the writing strategies they have been taught all year. Plus, we found ourselves learning new information about each other. I've been their teacher since kindergarten, and was amazed at all the new information I learned. Once we are done, I will bind all their finished articles into a book. You can find out more about this activity by clicking here.

Next up...Earth Day!

Last Chance to Enter Samson's Giveaway! And some pictures from my week.

Okay, folks, we're coming down to the wire! My Samson's Classroom Giveaway contest ends at the stroke of midnight. Well, not really...it ends when I wake up tomorrow morning! Good news for all you night owls! My students have really been enjoying my free account. It's now officially their favorite computer activity. If you would like to take advantage of this giveaway, please click below for more information.

Do you all play scoot in your classroom? Whenever I tell my students that we're going to play scoot, they literally stand up and cheer. There is something about this game that really excites them. Is it the movement? Is it the fact that I move all my tables into one long line? Is it that every word I say while they are playing begins with an S? Stand, Scoot, Sit, Start, Stop! Do they realize that they're doing work? I don't think so! Scoot really came in handy last week while we were cooped up in our classroom during FCAT testing. Here are some pictures I took of my first graders playing plural nouns scoot.

My version of scoot is not as cute as the one I have at my store.  Today's weather was REALLY bad, so I took advantage of a stay at home day, and cutsied up all my scoot games. I liked them before, but now, wow! I also bundled them to make it a better value. If you are interested in checking them out, please click on the link below to see my bundled game. Once you get to my store, you can find all the games sold separately, too.

In addition to scoot, my first graders were also learning about Earth Day. They wrote expository essays about why Earth Day is important to them. First, we planned our essays on a web and then, after I conferenced with each student to edit and revise, they copied their essays onto publishing paper.

The web and publishing paper are part of my Earth Day Activity Packet. You can check it out here.

The last thing I want to share with you today is a lesson we did on sentence fragments. My first graders needed a little reminder about how to write complete sentences, so I did a group activity where I gave each table a sentence fragment and they worked together to turn it into a complete sentence. They love to write on sentence strips. I don't think this activity would have excited them as much if they had to write it on plain old paper!

Well, that's it for today. I hope everyone has a great weekend!