Santa Claus and sight word-see

Its Christmas time again! Time to spread cheer and joy and indulge in lots of sweet goodies :)

Well i really don't need the excuse of Christmas to indulge in sweet treats but nonetheless.

This is the best time of year not just from the "sweets" perspective but also because each day at school is full of fun. Thanks to all the Christmas related activities, games and crafts that a teacher can plan during this time. 

I did exactly that and spiced up the sight word-see with some Santa magic.

I made an emergent reader called 'Santa, Santa, what do you see?' based on the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?" by Eric Carle. I threw in Christmas related words and the repetitive text made it easier for children to get acquainted with the the word-see. 

I made copies of the book and children did shared reading.

The sentence strips were read together during whole group time and it helped in reinforcing the word.

After children explored the word, we made a Santa craft and children wrote what their Santa sees.

It gave them practice of writing the word and they got to express themselves creatively.

If you would like to download these activities, please click HERE

I will be back soon with more Christmas fun.

Under the Sea

The cool misty mornings that October brings with it always make me happy as it suggests the onset of winters. And if you live in the part of India that i do, you would understand the importance of winters and good weather.  I also look forward to the month of October  because its full of festivities and holidays. But the best part of October is that i get to teach my favorite unit of sea animals. Did i say that i love the sea and everything that goes along with it ?

No wonder my excitement level in school at this time is at its peak. It rubs off completely on my kids and i can sense enthusiasm and pure joy on their part to learn.

This year our annual event of exhibiting students work also falls in the month of October. Even though i am all charged up to do this unit , i can literally feel myself in the deep waters with all the work that i have taken upon me. But no complaints, I am thoroughly enjoying the process and i know the end product is going to be extremely gratifying.

So without further ado, i will share pictures and activities that my kids have been doing.

A lot of ideas have come from Deanna Jump's Ocean unit and of course everyone's favorite- Pinterest.

I zeroed down on pirates for the class door. The kids made pirate faces by assembling the cutouts and used white paint to make polka dots on the bandannas.

We made a schema of what we know about the ocean. We will add the new learning as we go along.

For the bulletin board, we made Orcas. We read a non fictional book about Killer Whales and did interactive writing on the big cutout of the Orca. Children had a blast making the Orca craft.

We studied about the Great White Shark. and made comparisons with the whale.

We read the book 'Sharks' and wrote facts.

We did shared reading of the poem, "Smiley Sharks" and found sight words . Children drew their own version of the Great White Shark.

We also did directed art and made sharks. The template of the shark came from Deanna's Ocean unit.

I will be posting more fun stuff related to this unit. So do come back for more.