Groggy Groundhog Predictions

Do you celebrate Groundhog Day with your class? 

 

Although I feel these little furry friends have no official weather predicting skills I do enjoy joining in the fun and teaching about this holiday.  Many teachers use this holiday as a springboard into teaching about shadows and others spend the week talking all about groundhogs.  Either way I like to spend the actual holiday talking about Groundhog Day itself.  Here's a look at some of the things I'd have planned for a day of Groundhog fun!  

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This story by Gail Gibbons is my go to book for Groundhog Day.  It is filled with great information about the holiday, the history, tradition, and even some facts about groundhogs.  I really like to start the day with this book and create a facts chart about the holiday.  

After this students would get my Groundhog Day emergent reader to color and read on their own.  We'd add this to their reading baskets for the week.

For math and writing I'd plan to ask the question "Will the groundhog see his shadow?" and then have students graph and write about their own prediction. 

 To jazz up their writing we'd complete and add this little groundhog craft to create a writing display.

And to add in science we'd talk a bit about shadows!  We'd start by reading this book by Clyde Robert Bulla.

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Then we'd start exploring.  I created a little printable explore and fill book for students to record their observations.  In this printable book we'd start by defining "what is a shadow?"  

Then from there we'd continue our learning by answering the following questions in the book:

How is a shadow made?

How do we make our shadows bigger?

How do we make our shadows smaller?

What has a shadow?

To answer these questions I'd tape up a large piece of white butcher paper to the wall.  Then I'd turn out the lights and we'd use a flashlight as the light source.  Some students would become the "objects" and others would manipulate the flashlight to answer the questions.  At the end I'd send students off in groups with flashlights to see what else has a shadow.  

What do you think of these activities?  Do you do similar Groundhog Day activities in your class?

If you like anything you see above be sure to check out my Groundhog Day Mini Unit:

Spider Week!

If I were in the classroom next week I'd be teaching all about spiders! I'm not really a fan of these creepy, crawly creatures but I LOVE teaching about them.  To help with the littles learning I'd definitely be pulling activities from my spider unit.

*Side-note: The spiders here in England this year are HUGE!  I about scream every time I see one and am crazily spraying them with bug spray in hopes that they stop crawling. YUCK!  

So Spider Week... Do you do one?  I find that kids love learning about these creatures and their excitement gets me pumped to teach about them.  I like to start spider week off by placing fake spiders all over the classroom to get the chatter started on the first day!  Then right away we'd sit down and begin discussing all we know and want to know about spiders.  It cracks me up to listen to students responses when you ask "do you like them?"

From there the week is filled with bits and bobs of spider themed activities.  One of my favorites is making this spider glyph craft.  It's so simple!  I start by writing the glyph questions out on a large chart and then we get to work answering them and gathering our materials.  Next we build our spiders.  The spider body pieces are made from squares and I guide students in cutting off the corners to make the body round.  We add 8 legs, eyes, and a bow or bow tie and Tadaa!  Spiders!  For glyphs I like to write the questions out on a large chart that can then be displayed next to our craft on a bulletin board when finished.  And as a follow up math activity we'd discuss and tally our data.

To help students learn about spiders we'd read a ton of nonfiction books!  The week is spent talking about facts and opinions, the parts of a spider, the difference between spiders and insects, and learned information is added to "our learning" on the K-W-L chart.  We'd also address any misconceptions the students may have had.  This is a simple printable emergent reader about spiders that I like to include in students book baskets for the week.

My centers for the week would be filled with spider themed activities.  Not only do I like to include activities like those shown below but I also like to hunt the local dollar store for fake spiders that lead themselves to be included in fun counting and phonemic awareness activities. 

Measurement Center Activity 

Follow Up Activity to a Beginning Sounds Center

And of course my nursery rhyme for the week would be the Itsy Bitsy Spider!  This is a great nursery rhyme that all kids know so I like to put in a pocket chart and use it for simple sequencing practice.

Spider week can be so much fun and I hope that if you do spider week it's filled with lots of creepy, crawly activities!

Here's my Spider Unit if ya want to check it out :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Peek at my Week (8) Magnets!

Hi Everyone!  So I'm a little late, but here is a Peek at what my Week might look like if I were in the classroom.

This week I'd focus on magnets!  I really enjoy teaching about magnets and think it can be great fun for the kiddos.  I think it pairs great with discussing nonfiction texts so we'd dive into learning all about nonfiction text features as well.  I would use posters to introduce the different text features and we'd hunt for these in real nonfiction books.  To guide our discussion on magnets we'd create a whole class K-W-L chart and add to it throughout the week.  Our learning would come from nonfiction books about magnets.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Our afternoons would be spent exploring magnets.  We'd identify what's magnetic and not magnetic, experiment moving objects with magnets, and decide which magnet shape attracts the most paperclips.  We'd even create a magnet robot out of soup cans!  Man, do I wish I were in the classroom.   It'd be so fun!  I created a small set of printables and activities that'd compliment this theme perfectly.  Check them out by clicking on the picture below.

In writing we would really start to talk about how to "fix it up."  We would put our writer's checklist to use and practice re-reading our writing before saying "we are done."  In the past I've used pair work for editing, not so that one is editing the other but so as a student is editing their own work they can talk it out with a partner and do it as a team.  It has worked really well for me and it gets the kids talking.   In math we'd review numbers 1-10 in stations, begin talking about 1 more, and start learning about the number 11.   This week would also be major because we'd be finishing up our first entire alphabet set and I'd begin assessments to see where students were at.  Concepts of print and blending of CvC words would be a major focus all around, as well as identifying beginning sounds.  

Whooo!  I don't know how much more I could pack into a week!  I haven't even completely typed it all out and I'm getting tired.  It truly is amazing how much we educators teach and do each week!  So here's to all of you!  I'm wishing you a wonderful week!

Book Talk Tuesday: What is Science?

Hey Everybody!  Today I decided to link up with Mrs.Jump's class for Book Talk Tuesday!  

I wanted to share a fun little story that's great for getting little learners to think about science.  The book is called What is Science? Written by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa.  It's a simple rhyming book with great illustrations.  I love how it relates science to the study of "so many things" and it's perfect for starting a discussion all about science time in your class!

Here's a look!

After reading the story I'd hold a class discussion about "What is Science?" and create an anchor chart like this:

I might even have students draw/write their own ideas and hang them up around the anchor chart using a form like this.  (Click the form below to grab your own)

Want to see more great books or have one to share? Check out and link up by clicking the image below.