Tag Archives: grade school

Comprehension Unit – Scarecrow Picture Books

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Concepts to Be Covered

Scarecrow Picture Book Comprehension Unit from Kat and SquirrelFeaturing the following picture books:
Six Crows by Leo Lionni (Story Structure)
Scarecrowby Cynthia Rylant (Character Traits)
The Scarecrow’s Hatby Ken Brown (Sequence/Retelling)
The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown (Questioning)
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams (Predictions)
Barn Dance! (Reading Rainbow) By Bill Martin Jr. (Making Connections)
The Scarecrow’s Dance by Jane Yolen (Visualization)
The Lonely Scarecrow by Tim Preston (Compare and Contrast)

Goals of the lesson

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.2 With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.9 With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.5 Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.6 Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.9 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.10 With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

Kat and Squirrel - Get the Lesson!

Squirrel Away 1-6 & 7-12 bundle!

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Subitizing game for structuring numbers

Squirrel Away 1-6 & 7-12 bundle! Subitizing game for structuring numbersNow get both versions of our awesome subitizing dice game and save money!

“Can we play again – and again?”

This is an awesome game I use to help teach spatial patterns and subitizing while working on structuring numbers with my first-grade math intervention group. They love it!

With this product you also get the Kat and Squirrel story that goes with the game –
and Bonus!
Spanish language dice “covers”.
Roman numeral dice “covers”.
Squirrel Away Artwork
for both games!

Get the Game from Kat and Squirrel

Stars Classroom Theme Artwork – Part 2

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This beautiful product contains original star artwork to give you more of what you’ll need to set up your star-themed classroom: (Be sure to check out the first Stars Classroom Theme. All artwork in this product will match the first product: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Stars-Classroom-Theme-Art-838791 )

Start Theme Classroom Art Part 2 - Kat and Squirrel11 pages of color-word posters that you can use to set up your color-word word wall.

11 numeral posters (#s 0-10) which each include the numeral, written word, and a visual representation of the number.

26 letters-of-the-alphabet posters with vowels in a different color.

12 months-of-the-year headers with beautifully patterned backgrounds to fit pocket-chart calendars.

7 days-of-the-week headers to fit pocket-chart calendars.

31 numbers to fit pocket-chart calendars.

21 “special class” cards to go behind the days-of-the-week cards or the number cards.

75 “special days” cards to go behind the number cards.

Kat and Squirrel - Get the Artwork Now

Camping Science – Sound and Light Unit for First Grade

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Camping_ScienceKat and Squirrel Go Camping This is an interactive story with pauses after each ‘chapter’ to allow students and teachers time to research topics (nonfiction paired articles are included!), conduct experiments (teacher and student directions included!), do demonstrations (detailed instructions included!), discuss vocabulary (vocab. cards are included!), record observations and conclusions (recording sheets included!), and even play a fun game (rules and graphics included!). All lessons are introduced by a continuing story about Kat and Squirrel’s goofy adventures while on a camping trip. The lessons are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards for first grade. And the lessons have been created by an experienced first-grade teacher. The timing will depend upon how long and how often you have science class, but would most likely take 2-3 weeks. This could also be integrated into the reading/language arts curriculum very easily with a few creative teacher additions.
Kat and Squirrel - Get the Lesson!

Goals of the lesson

NGSS Aligned 1-PS4 Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer Students who demonstrate understanding can:

1-PS4-1. Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate. Clarification Statement: Examples of vibrating materials that make sound could include tuning forks and plucking a stretched string. Examples of how sound can make matter vibrate could include holding a piece of paper near a speaker making sound and holding an object near a vibrating tuning fork.

1-PS4-2. Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated. Clarification Statement: Examples of observations could include those made in a completely dark room, a pinhole box, and a video of a cave explorer with a flashlight. Illumination could be from an external light source or by an object giving off its own light.

1-PS4-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light. Clarification Statement: Examples of materials could include those that are transparent (such as clear plastic), translucent (such as wax paper), opaque (such as cardboard), and reflective (such as a mirror).

*Not included in this unit: (But wouldn’t this be a great time to do it?) You could have your students write another chapter to the story where Kat and Squirrel get separated and need to devise a way to find each other. Oooooh, the possibilities….

1-PS4-4. Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance. Clarification Statement: Examples of devices could include a light source to send signals, paper cup and string “telephones,” and a pattern of drum beats.

Keep Kids Communicating

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Sharing your thoughts with others helps everyone to learn.We all know that people love to talk, and we know that sharing thoughts with others helps students learn.  It’s our job as teachers to manage classroom chit chat so it is most beneficial to our students.  We also need to be sensitive to those children who aren’t ready to share in front of the whole group, but would be just fine communicating with a trusted friend.

We can corral this verbal veracity by using strategies such as:

I had the most awesome “hello” moment this spring.  My class had attended the fifth-grade science fair where they went from exhibit to exhibit and the fifth graders explained their experiments.  A week later we were making our Force and Motion lapbooks and working on the magnet page.   I pulled down my “magnet box” from my classroom cupboard to see if any of the old collected junk from the teacher’s lounge give-aways might be useful.  The kids were somehow magnetically drawn to the box and with this kind of spontaneous craving of knowledge – I could not deny them the contents of the box.  I stood back and watched with amazement as they naturally grouped up and conducted little experiments much like the fifth graders had shown them.  Then they started to explain their procedures to one another!  I felt so unnecessary, but so proud.  Allowing them to discuss important topics with older kids, then getting out of their way when they imitated and taught each other gave them a tremendous understanding of the curriculum.  And we were all learning while having FUN!

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Post Series "Making Learning Fun"