Tuesday Rewind???

Ok…so I am a tad late, but Sunday kinda turned into Monday and well…Monday into Tuesday! You get the idea. Anyways, before I blab on about all things procrastination, here is what we were up to last week {minus Valentine’s Day…see other post!} :)

  Since we had WAY too much fun playing “detectives” as we chased that little Sweetheart Snatcher, we continued on with the mystery theme for the remainder of the week. We read several Nate the Great books and learned how to use clues in our story + our schema to make inferences. Of course, we kept all of this new information in our detective tablets.

  Over the past few weeks, Amy Lemons has saved my life! Seriously, her units and ideas are super amazing…plus her little kiddos are my little kiddos pen pals! We love all of our sweet letters that we receive from her class! If you have not checked out her Black History Month pack, you are truly missing out. Last week, we spent several days integrating her unit into our genre study. I would have to say that a class fave was definitely the PB&J writing integrating informational text and George Washington Carver! We also enjoyed learning about Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges as we studied biographies and autobiographies…and if you ask my kids…apparently a bibliography is now a story about someone’s life as well! It just seems to “fit” now doesn’t it?!? Oh geeze! :)   

Then as we moved into learning a little history in preparation for President’s Day, I really wanted to do some unusual activities. You know…not just your average Washington and Lincoln things! My kiddos are super familiar with George Washington and Abe Lincoln, so I really wanted to stretch their thinking and possibly expand some of that academic vocabulary! Once again…Amy Lemons pulled through for me. Ha! Check out these AMAZING Washington Monuments! My kids also wrote an informational piece about George Washington to display with their creations!

After this little activity, we really started digging for information about other presidents from the past! I had the students research and create Presidential Trading Cards to expose them to many different presidents in a short amount of time. I forgot to take pictures of our finished trading cards, but here is the format that we used. Click on the picture to snag a copy. We will be laminating our cards and placing them into a class book to add to our classroom library.

This week, we are onto dictionary skills. Folks…today was a little rough…I’ll just be honest! It’s just something about those dang guide words! I am hoping lots of exposure, modeling, and practice will do the trick! Along with that wish, I am also hoping to post two new units in the next couple of days! Here is a little sneak peek!

Speaking of dictionary skills!

 

Keep an eye out for a little chocolate lovers giveaway with Mrs. Lemons and her Chocolate Fever unit!

Happy FAT Tuesday! ;)