Two Hoots and A Holler: Down on the Farm & Word Work

Hoot #1
This past week, we went to the farm! We had a blast going through the corn mazes and picking pumpkins.

We even went on a hay ride! How cute are these little punkins?!

Here we go! Running through the corn maze!

 We got to go through the petting zoo and feed the animals!

 We got to ride a train around the farm.  
Even had some time to stop and pose for some silly pictures!

We got to pick a pumpkin out of the patch.  We told the students, just be sure your pumpkin can fit in your backpack and make sure it is not too heavy!  Well this lil' guy was sure that this pumpkin was perfect and going home with him!  And believe it or not, he was right...it did fit in his backpack!  haha

We had a fun filled day at the farm with our students and parents!
The weather was perfect, and it was such a great day filled with wonderful memories!

Hoot #2 

I have had some issues with students and morning work this year.  In the past, I have used binders with pages in page protectors for students to practice writing letters, writing numbers, writing his/her name, practicing addition/subtraction, etc with dry erase markers.  The binders worked great!  I tried it with this year's group, and they got bored with it quick!  I had to come up with something that would hold their interest!  I tried a few other things, and within 2-3 weeks they got bored with it too!  I also was having issues fitting all of the word work practice I wanted them to get during literacy centers.  I tried out this idea of  "morning word work", and my students are loving it!  They never get bored because they have multiple choices.  I made this in power point, and then turned it into a poster for students to use as a choice board.  If you don't have a way to make it into a poster, then just project it onto your board for students to see.  

 Students know which sight words they are studying each week because they have a list in their book box.  Some of my students aren't quite ready for sight words, so I put an alphabet strip in their book box.  They do the same activities as everyone else, they just do letters instead of words.  I think the top 3 favorites are stamping, word detective, and phone-a-word.  For word detective, the students get his/her book box and a magnifying glass.  They use the magnifying glass to search for sight words or letters in the books they have chosen to have in their box.  Phone-A-Word is popular because my class LOVES to talk!  haha  I use old hotel phones and they have to find the letters that spell the sight word on the number pad and "call" their word.  Once they "call" their word, they are to say the word in the phone 5 times.  Here are my students in action with some of their word work activities...

Stamping

Magna Doodle/Dry Erase Boards

Magnetic Letters

Clothespins with letters on them to spell words

Wikki Stix

Typing/Keyboarding

Phone-A-Word

This Week's Holler...

This week's holler goes out to Em and Maria at Curious Firsties! We have really enjoyed stalking their blog this week! We totally love the "Mystery Box" activity! What a great way to get students engaged in asking questions!  By the way, we will definitely place our order to The Pencil Grip, ASAP!! Everyone stop by and check out Curious Firsties! Em and Maria have a lot of great ideas!!