Dang, that was corny.

But, Treasures!  Wowza, there’s a lot going on in reading this week (but when isn’t there?!  Treasures, as we’ve discussed before, is a leetle beet overwhelming in the amount of curriculum they consider “day” worthy.  Maybe they mean day as in 8 hours?  I don’t know, but there’s no way I can get through their daily expectations in a 90 minute lit block.  Anyway.  I’m off track now.  What’s new?)

First off, *contractions.*  I think we should all do jazz hands every time we say it.  Try it.  It will jazz up your instruction.  (See, there I go with the corny again.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME TONIGHT?!  Several days of indoor recess will do this to a person.)

So, I introduced an anchor chart similar to this one I used last year:

The kiddos came up and put the green tape over the o’s and then wrote the contraction.  Afterwards, they used this as a resource when matching up to their “contraction kids.”  

I also did this activity last year and it is probably my most emailed about resource! So, today – everything all in one place!  I gave each kid a nametag that either contained a contraction or the words that make up the contraction.  Then, the kids had to find their match, add the nametag to a cut-out kid, and color away.  We post these in our room to use in our writing. 

On to generating questions…

First of all, we went over this anchor chart that I made and discussed how asking questions while reading keeps us engaged in the story and betters our comprehension. 

Next, we took a quick picture walk through our big book story, When I am Old with You.  I gave each child a large sticky note and told them to write a question they had about the story based on the pictures.  Since generating a question can be difficult, I encouraged them to start with the phrase, “I wonder if…”  We did a turn-and-talk, shared our questions, and then posted them up around the chart.

{Though not shown above, I did eventually underline the words curious, predict, and clear to help the students understand why questioning is encouraged.  The following day, I passed the sticky notes back to the students (after we reread the story) and they answered the question aloud to a neighbor.

Today, for our main selection, the students were encouraged to take an independent picture walk and then write a question on a little fold-over graphic organizer I made.

 

I didn’t take a picture of the inside, but it gives a student a place to answer the question and discuss what they know as a result of reading the story and answering the question.

Next, we read the story on the SmartBoard!  SO COOL.  We used Ms. Settle’s blog for this and – OMIWORD – if you’re  a first grade Treasures teacher you are going to LOVE her site, Settle On In.  One of my teacher friends from school found it and I’m addicted to it now, too.  It works GREAT with an interactive whiteboard.  LOVE.

After that, I did the most simplistic, non-creative thing ever – but the change in format was all my kiddos needed to be on task for 20 minutes, seriously discussing the story.  In advance, I took smaller sheets of chart paper, labeled them with four different questions for the students to answer, and split them into five groups.  I hand-selected one student to be the “writer” and the other 2-3 students were the “resource-ers” whose job was to help find the resources in the story for answering the questions.  And, I kid you not, full-on class-wide engagement.  Honestly, that doesn’t happen very often!  I was so pumped!

Using a resource to spell fishing…

I don’t have it in my to also discuss triple-consonant blends tonight, so another day. 

But, here are all the printables, in one place.  Finally!

Click below for the Questioning Flip activity & the generic questions I used on the chart paper.

Click below for the Contraction Kid Cut Out & the Generic Nametags…

  

Alright, friends, probably going to fall asleep on the couch watching Revenge now.  Have a great end of the week. Happy Hump Day!