Our Perfect Names - Part 2

Don't Miss Part 1 - Our Perfect Names

Talking About Our Perfect Names

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes is a great book to read as a starting point for talking about names. In this book, Chrysanthemum starts school and some of her friends begin making fun of her because of how long her name is. Throughout the book Chrysanthemum discovers all the things she loves about her name and why her name is perfect! After reading the book, ask students what they love about their name. A discussion prompt can be sent home with students asking parents to talk with their child about what their name means, why they chose that name, and why their child's name is perfect. 

Wheels on the Bus - Phonemic Awareness

Use the song "Wheels on the Bus" to increase your students phonemic awareness! The beginning sound in thumpity thump is replaced with the beginning sound of a student's name. I combine each students bus and song page in a binder using page protectors to create a class book. The students love singing the song with all their friends' names and learning their sounds. You can purchase the song page in my tpt store. 

To make the bus, I precut the yellow bus, the white windows, and used a die-cut for the first letter of each student's name. The students cut out the black wheels for the bus, drew people in each of the windows, and then glued the bus together. I used a small picture of each child to show them driving the bus. You can find out how to create small pictures from my tech tip post. 

Shared Writing with Names

Our first shared writing activity each year has to do with our names. It's repetitive and my students love using the pointer to read the poster. This also helps them learn their friends names. I use different colors for each word in the sentence because it helps my students be aware of the repetition and separation of words. 

Happy July!

Pete the Cat Inspired Beginning Reader

Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin, is a fantastic book. It's a must buy (with CD). My kids couldn't get enough of it last year. I can pretty much guarantee you all my kids could retell it word for word. So this year, I'm going to use Pete the Cat as my main book for my colors unit. In previous years, I've used Brown Bear, Brown Bear. 

I created a beginning reader to use for our shared reading to go along with Pete the Cat. It's very simple and follows the, I love my (insert color here) shoes, rhythm. My hope is that this book will;

1. teach & reinforce color recognition to my younger kids.

2. introduce color words (the written print) to my older kids.

3. build their confidence as readers.

Here are some pictures of the beginning reader, I Love My Colorful Shoes. You can download it at my tpt store. Clip-art is by KPM Doodles, and font is by Kimberly Geswein. 

Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Science "Rules" Poster

I've been busy today (well really the last two weeks) getting everything ready for the new school year. I love the start of a new school year. And I go back three weeks from yesterday! I laugh every time I see these statements on pinterest.

I feel like the guilty newish teacher at the back of the room, raising my hand timidly and saying, "actually . . I'm ready for summer to be over." Not that I don't love summer, but with no kids, my husband at work, temperatures over 100 degrees, and being stuck in my apartment with my adorable but often times annoying puppy dog, I'm ready to go back to school.

Couldn't resist adding a picture of my puppy. (Although he's about 20 pounds heavier then when this picture was taken)

So, back on topic. I've been spending most of my waking hours the last few weeks working on back to school stuff. Today was no different. I made a "science rules" poster to accompany my super scientist badges. I used quotations, because I don't really like the word rules, but I never know what else to call them. I presented my expectations in a very positive way, by wording the "rules" as things that scientists do. We will read our poster about what a scientist does before our experiments and inquiry lessons. After reading the rules, my students will put on their scientist badges and be ready to be scientists.

The poster and super scientist badges can be purchased at my tpt store for $1.00. I debated charging for items on my tpt store or keeping them free. I decided to sell my items for only a dollar. Hopefully this will help fund my new found clipart obsession. I'll see how it goes. Might as well try right?

Here's a picture of my super scientist badges. Click here to read my post about these.

Do you have a tpt store? Do you charge for your items or keep them free? I would love to hear how this went for you. Please leave a comment. :)