Our new mystery letter this week is T! Watch the Letter T Song here!

Our mystery letter this week is "M"! Watch the video here!

Today we learned what it means to "label" something. The students got a kick out of labeling Mrs. Meager!  Throughout the week, the students will be labeling their "apple art". Stay tuned for more fun!

Our first mystery letter has arrived! Watch, dance and sing along!

Open House!!

Welcome to our Open House!

After reading the story "Click Clack Moo", the students used q-tip art to create farm animals.

After reading many versions of Mrs. Wishy Washy, we made our own Wishy Washys and wrote letters to her (from the animals) and also did an awesome reader's theatre!

Students did Tangram art as well as barn math by rolling dice, adding and illustrating the farm animals.

One of my favs as always.... our chicken coop! Do you remember those chickens? We made those the week we read "The Little Red Hen". The students wrote chicken facts inside the flap.

After reading "Down on the Farm", the students retold the story by picking pages of the story to illustrate with oil pastels and water colors.

Our beautiful farm mural! When you lift up the cows and pigs, you can read facts about those animals.

Grant Wood Art.... another fav.

Barn Mobiles- The students wrote what comes from each animal (wool, mittens, scarves etc comes from a sheep).

Another fav (ok... I have lots of them!) Our Trader Mates bags. After the students learned all about different types of fruits and vegetables, they wrote about them in their stuffed grocery bags. On the right you can see a cow: each spot contains a math fact that the students wrote.

Our favorite farm animal barn graph

The Three Little Pigs

This week, we have continued our farm unit by studying all about pigs with informational texts as well as fictional stories about pigs. After reading the traditional "The Three Little Pigs" books, we read the always entertaining "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka. If you haven't read it, you are in for a treat. This is a hysterical, clever book that twists the point of view and perspective from the pigs to the wolf! The story is retold by the wolf and boy does he have a different version to share! When reading a story like this, it simply begs for  a "Project Act Hot Seat" activity. And so we did.

We held a trial with the pigs and the wolf.

These students were the detectives attempting to get to the bottom of the story. Was the wolf truly guilty? Or were the pigs spinning the story. You be the judge!

Of course we had to write in our journals after. She wrote to the pig from the detective's perspective. "Why didn't you answer the door?"

"Dear Pig, I wasn't trying to eat you, I just couldn't leave a sweet pig out there!" This piece demonstrates excellent comprehension. He remembered true quotes from the story.

Another example of a student who remembered actual quotes from the story.

"Dear Wolf, I am sorry that I didn't give you the sugar that you wanted. Love Pig" More details from the story! I love his speech bubbles!

"Dear Wolf, go away! Dear Wolf, you are bad." How cute is her wolf?

In one of our centers, the students alphabetized farm animals.

We made our own pop-up "Three Pigs" books, to retell the story.

Students found the matching equations and "sum barns".

The Little Red Hen

As a part of our farm unit, we read The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone. This story is about a hardworking little red hen who lives in a house with 3 lazy animals. As her roommates spend their days napping, the little red hen is busy cooking the meals, washing the dishes, mending the clothes, and tending the garden. One day, she finds a grain of wheat, and although she asks her roommates for help, they all refuse to help her plant, grow, harvest, and grind the wheat. They also won't pitch in when she takes the wheat and uses it to make a cake. However, when the cake comes out of the oven, the animals are all ready to help the little red hen eat it! After reading the story several times, we decided to a "Project Act" activity called "The Hot Seat". We began by reviewing the chores that the Little Red Hen did throughout the story. We discussed how the pig, the duck and the cat were lazy. This lead us into a discussion about why it is not good to be lazy! Next, we held a trial! We put the cat, the pig and the duck on trial and had them sit in the "hot seats". The rest of the class sat around them and acted as "The Little Red Hen". Each student took turns inquiring why each animal did not help to weed the garden, water the plants, harvest the wheat, or bake the cake. The students in the hot seats got to come up with any "excuse" to defend themselves. Their responses were hilarious.
After performing the "Hot Seat", we wrote apology letters in our journals to the Little Red Hen!

After being asked why the duck did not help the Red Hen with the chores, the duck explained "I was too busy taking a bath in my pond." When asked why the cat did not help to water the plants, he replied, " I don't like water!". The pig stated that he was too busy building a mud house to keep himself cool!

After performing the "Hot Seat", we wrote apology letters in our journals to the Little Red Hen!

We created our own tear art "Little Red Hens".

We wrote hen facts inside of our hens!