HELP with writing!

Ok, I need your help!  My students are not understanding what makes a complete sentence.  They are either not using any punctuation at all, putting a period after every word, or putting a period at the end of every line.  WHAT?!  (It might help you to know that 16 of my 24 firsties are ESL students.)

Everyone always has such wonderful ideas in the teacher blogging world so I'd love to hear any lesson/activity ideas or tricks that you can offer!  Thank you!!

--Mrs. Pollard

Skip Counting-- Freebies!

In a few weeks, we'll be starting our math unit on skip counting.  We've been verbally skip counting since school started, but we haven't really stopped to look in-depth at the pattern of counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. 

To verbally skip count, we do a little rhyme called "Ringo Rango".  (Here's a link to check it out: Ringo Rango.)

A fun way to emphasize skip counting by 5s is doing painted handprints!  In the past, I've used a long strip of bulletin board paper and divided it into squares.  I paint the students' hands and they put it down on the paper.  Then, we go back and label the numbers under each handprint.  I hung this up along the top of my wall and the kids referred back to it all year.

For skip counting by 10s I tell the kids that crabs have 10 legs.  You can open by reading a book about crabs to grab the kids' attention.  I've uploaded a freebie presentation for you to go with crabs and 10s.

Skip Counting by 10s Freebie

I use this cut and paste activity as a quick assessment at the end of the skip counting lessons.

Skip Counting Cut & Paste Freebie

What do you do to teach skip counting??

--Mrs. Pollard

CVC Spelling Mats

I have a large ESL population in my class this year and they are really struggling with medial short vowel sounds.  I made this station to give a little more practice with this skill-- it is also helpful for vocabulary for my students.  Check it out in my TPT store!

Thanksgiving Number Order

I just uploaded a math station for November-- Thanksgiving Number Order.  Click {here} to check it out!

Welcome to Noun Town!

This past week, we have been learning about nouns.  We started by labeling items in the room-- this was a huge success because I let each student choose an item (AKA: noun) to label.  Now they are all very aware of this print in our classroom.  We read sentences and identified the nouns and wrote our own sentences using nouns.  The biggest success of all was definitely Nown Town.  I found the idea on Pinterest.  I gave each student a blank piece of paper and they could draw any noun they wanted for our town.  They also had to make a label for it.  They have not stopped creating things-- every scrap of paper and free minute is used creating something for Noun Town.  I even have some students creating their own Noun Town at home!  Awesome!

Here's our Noun Town:

*I love that our town has 2 Walmarts and that all of the cars are driving to McDonalds.  :)

And a little freebie for you....

Click {HERE} to download the sign
"Welcome to Noun Town".

--Mrs. Pollard



Thanksgiving Writing Pack

I just uploaded my newest item to TPT.  Check it out on TPT for a full item description!

--Mrs. Pollard