We Give Books

I stumbled upon this great site called We Give Books! WOW! There are so many children's books that I can project onto my SMARTboard and read with my students for free! YES I said FREE!!! I found it when I was searching Pinterest for ideas for Two Bad Pilgrims. Imagine my surprise when I was able to view the entire book, but many more. All I had to do was create a free profile and BAM...I was in! Check it out for yourself by clicking on the image below!

Best Summer EVER!

This summer has been the best ever as I  have spent my time with my AH-MAZ-ING 3 year old daughter.

We have spent time swinging, playing outside, learning our alphabet, swimming and of course...

playing with HER pet duck!

Yes, you heard my correct.  We have a pet duck.  It all happened when we were hatching duck eggs in our classrooms last year. One of my dear teacher friends was getting ready on her wedding day.  Ashley and I stopped by to check on her eggs and to our amazement, a duck was hatching right before our eyes.   The duck, now known as MR. Peeps, even though I am pretty sure he is a MISS, came home with us for the long weekend. Well, he/she has been with us ever since.

Mr. Peeps thinks Ashley is his mother.  He will literally hug her back, sit in her lap, and "cry" when she walks away.  He is also developing a GREAT friendship with our 11 year old Lab Drake.

Drake and Peeps in the Kennel.  Mr. Peeps is hard to see, but he is to the right of Drake.

I have not blogged lately about anything school or really done anything other than pinning...SORRY! This year it is my goal to grow my blog and make it more of a priority.  Like, I said earlier thought, I have been working with Ashley on letter recognition.  I made a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree in our living room.  

Each night we put an empty coconut in her room. 

When we wake up there are letters inside.

We identify the old letters we know.  Then, we add the new letters.  

After the letters are done we have been singing the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom song as we point to the letters.

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Kinda Golden

Well today is my birthday and I am not ashamed to say that I am 33.  Since, I don't remember turning 3 on my golden birthday, I am designating today as my golden birthday.  Boy have my students made it something to remember and it is only 9:00.

Some of my sweet little firsties came in this morning with gifts. 

I love handmade cards...they are the BEST!

I even got a hand wrapped gift plus a handmade card.

Love reading their precious words.

Love what was inside!

I think it is safe to say that my students really know me well!  Chocolate is the way to an A in our room.  Thank you Wonderful Whales for making me feel super special!

Now on to my trouble making colleague and friend. She convinced my students that I am really 38 today.  She told them that I just did not want them to really know how old I am. Her plot started yesterday.  To support her story, she sent up some of her students with a gift for me.  Noticed what she wrote on the card!

Mrs. Wanke's Wonderful Whales: Amazing Animal Projects!

I can't say how proud and excited I am with what these kids did!  Can't wait for round 2 of their presentations tomorrow!



Mrs. Wanke's Wonderful Whales: Amazing Animal Projects!: Today day we showcased all of our hard work for the past few weeks.  When I started this project with my firsties, I had a list of expectat...

Read Works...works!

I have been working really hard with my students on using evidence from a text to support their answer.  Today, I gave each of my students a copy of an article about koalas that I found on ReadWorks.org  I also put a copy of it on the Smart Board.

I first had my students use their red, yellow, and blue crayons to highlight answers to questions that I asked in the text.
Use your blue crayon to highlight the two things that Koalas eat.
Use your red crayon to highlight where Koalas get their water.
Use your yellow crayon to highlight what the work Koala means.

Then I asked my students, What would happen to a koala if all of the eucalyptus leaves smelled bad? (This question came with the passage, which you can download for free at ReadWorks.org)

I asked my students to first give their answer.  Then, I had them use part of the question in their answer. Next, they had to add the word because and evidence from the text to support their answer.

Check out some of their answers...pretty good for first grade and only our second time doing this sort of activity.

After my students had attempted their answers I modeled for the students how I would write my sentence.  I used three different colors to break down the three parts of the answer.  Black for my answer, blue for the part of the question restated in my answer, and the green for the evidence from the text.  (They will be using the fancy colors from now on when we do this together. It really seemed to help them visualize what I was asking.)

Here is my answer...

The Koala would die if all the eucalyptus leaves smelt bad because they will not eat eaves that smell bad and eucalyptus is a Koala's food source.  

I explained to my students that you can add more information from your own head or schema, after you have provided evidence from the text. 

ReadWorks.org is a free website where you can download grade appropriate text and lesson plans.  You should totally check it out!

Art Party

What do you get when you combine, the coolest art teacher, watercolor paints, and Alka Seltzer?
Exploding Art!
My class earned an art party from the art teacher for having the highest attendance at the art show.  They had so much fun!  I think I will be doing this with my daughter this summer.  I wonder if it would work by mixing chalk paint and Alka Seltzer?  I will report back this summer!

Persuasive Writing

We read the book, I Wanna New Room by Karen Kaufman Orloff. In this story a little boy and his dad write letters back and forth as the boy truss to convince his dad that he needs his own room.

We were inspired to write letters to our parents to convince them that we should have a later bedtime. Check out these two, I literally laughed out loud.