Happy Thanksgiving! Christmas Center Freebies!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their break. I know I am! Next week we will dive back in and I am all set to go all out Christmas until the break.  Here are a few centers I have ready for the week we come back:

**I Spy Christmas Adjectives and Nouns- I will be using the Christmas I Spy Book below. Students will use the recording sheet found below as they look through the book for a noun.  They will fill in the noun on the recording sheet and an adjective to describe the noun on the sentence frame: I spy a ______ ________.

You can download the recording sheet here.

** Christmas Word Work- Easy center and this is not my original idea.  I will be putting the letter tiles in a bag that spell CHRISTMAS.  Students will use the letter tiles to make words with the letters in the word Christmas and record their words on the sheet below.

You can download the recording sheet here.

***Santa's Sight Word Sentences- Students will use the Santa Sheet with sight words on his beard.  The sight words are from the first three stories in Unit 2 of Reading Street.  You can either have students just choose words and cover up the words they use the cotton balls OR they can toss a counter and write a sentence with the word it lands on.  The Santa poster was taken from First Grade Parade.  It had numbers on it and I changed it to having the sight words on it. 

You can download the Santa Sheet here and the recording sheet here.

"Picketing Turkeys"

During our Thanksgiving Unit, we compared the First Thanksgiving to how we celebrate Thanksgiving today! After comparing clothing, housing, and foods, we did this little "Picketing Turkeys" activity! The students learned that the Pilgrims and Native Americans did not eat Turkey at the First Thanksgiving! So each student created a Coffee Filter Turkey and a picket sign with a Popsicle stick. They had to write one food that was eaten at the First Thanksgiving rather than Turkey.

Link to the Coffee Filter Turkey Pattern:

http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/thanksgiving/coffee-filter-turkey.asp

Thanksgiving Cause and Effect

To practice Cause and Effect, we read Thanksgiving at the Tappletons! After reading the story, students colored the food and identified the cause and effect from the story for each piece before pasting them on a plate. So fun!

Cause and Effect / Antonym Pig Activities

A few weeks ago, we learned about Cause and Effect and Antonyms! We did several "Piggy" activities this week! We read If you Give A Pig A Pancake" and identified the cause and effect. We also read The Three Little Pigs, and wrote our own condensed version on chart paper. We used post-its to make all the antonyms we could, to make our own Antonym Story! The kids loved it!

If You Give a Pig A Pancake Freebie!
You can download the Cause and Effect Printable here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzR3AfsPZiPSMWRjYjcwNTctYWQwYS00NTE2LThiMzQtM2E0NTYzZWY2MDI3
You can also get the Pig template here: http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/animals/farm/pig-craft.asp

Here are the words I used for the condensed story. I have also included the antonyms the kids came up with in parentheses.

Once upon a time there were three little (big) pigs who went out (in) to make their fortunes. One pig made a house of straw, one of sticks and one of bricks. A big (ittle) bad (good) wold came (left) and said, " Little (big) pig, little (big) pig let me come (go) in (out)!". The little (big) pigs did not want him to come (go) in (out), so they said, "no not (yes) by the hair on my chinNy-chin-chin.". So the big bad (little good) wolf huffed and puffed and blew two of the houses down(up). But he couldn't (could) blow Down (up) the strongest (weakest) house made of bricks. The end.

Author's Purpose Sheet for "The Amazing Turkey Rescue"

This week we are going to read "The Amazing Turkey Rescue".  Since our target skill is Author's purpose and we will be discussing this all week.  After reading the story, student will have to decide if "The Amazing Turkey Rescue" was written to inform or entertain.  Then write how they know.
You can click here to pick up the freebie.

Sequence Activity for "A Big Fish for Max"

Two weeks ago our Reading Street story was "A Big Fish for Max".  The target skills was sequence.  On Friday to reveiw the sequence of the story.  We reveiwed by making an anchor chart whole group.  Students then wrote the sequence of the story on their own and created a fish since last Max went to the first store and got a fat fresh fish.  The fish were made using two copies of a fish template found on this website: http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/detail.asp?fil=/crafts/animals/images/fish-template.gif&cat=Fish&nam=Fish-Craft-Template
The kiddos decorated one side of the fish then we stapled it so they could stuff it with cotton balls and then we stapled it shut.  Last the kiddos glued it to their paper.  They loved making Max's Fat Fish.

Cause and Effect Activity

Last week the skill introduced in our Reading Street program was Cause and Effect. We used the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" to study cause and effect.  After reading the book we made a class Cause and Effect Anchor Chart.  Then student illustrated and wrote about their own cause and effect from the story.  Then students made the mouse from the story thanks to the Make Learning Fun website. 

You can find the cut and paste for the mouse at http://www.makelearningfun.com/