The Dot

Our story this week, well actually last week, is The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. It's about a little girl, Vashti, who doesn't like to draw. It's a really cute little story and my kids loved it. Her teacher puts her drawing of a dot in a swirly gold fame. This inspires Vashti to make more dot paintings- big dots, little dots, etc. Today we did two art activities. They made a small painting of their own dot and they painted a gold frame. The frames came from Michael's. I saw some that were swirly but they were $4 each. Nah. Couldn't do it. These were cutouts- I think 6 in a pack for a dollar.

Here they are painting their frames with glitter paint- oooh!

 

Some made a dot by NOT painting a dot like Vashti does in the story.

I worked with them in small groups with the painting. My sweet momma helped us today. She comes on Thursdays. While we were painting, the rest of the kids were drawing a picture from a dot. I got this freebie from TPT. Here's the link. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Can-You-SPOT-the-DOT-A-book-art-activity

The idea is to create a picture from the dot. The dot can be anything- an eye, a head. These turned out sooooo cute. My favorites- the duck and the pirate. Can you spot the dot?

     He wasn't quite finished but I snapped a picture anyway.

                                        This is a "caterpillar balloon."

    This duck cracks me up. He looks like he has on sunglasses.

If they finished that (which some of them did), they worked on my comprehension activity which I have on TPT. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Dot-Comprehension-Questions-and-Writing-Station-Reading-Street

It was a pretty good day. They had a lot of fun. We don't have Art or Music anymore so it was nice to see them creating something. I heard, "I'm going to make a dot by not painting a dot, just like Vashti."

Mama's Birthday Present

This is just a quick activity we did for our story, Mama's Birthday Present, this week. Actually, we're supposed to be on The Dot but I'm behind! We'll start that one tomorrow. I asked the kids what would be a good present for Mama. They came up with some interesting gifts. Then they wrote their answers and glued them on their present. I had some scrapbook paper left over.

Animals in Winter

We just finished up our Animals in Winter mini unit. This is the bulletin board we made. We are studying seasons in science. We started off with winter because it goes along with our Reading Street story, Where are my Animal Friends?. The kids had a lot of fun with this unit.

Readers' Theater

The kids favorite center activity is the readers' theater basket. I use it as part of the reading station because it's not very long. Over the years, I have collected lots of different toy animals and puppets. I put a new readers' theatre once a week. Sometimes I turn our stories into scripts. This week was Frog and Toad: The Garden. It's a little late but I just found another frog puppet. I like to use figures because one student can act out all the parts by herself or with a partner. This is a little clip I took today.

Last week was Where Are My Animal Friends? The week before that was The Frog Prince. I didn't get pictures of it.

Where Are My Animal Friends?

This week we finished up Where Are My Animal Friends? It's such a cute little story that's actually a play. In the reading station, there's a readers' theatre each week with different characters for the story. I just put them in a binder. Last week was "The Frog Prince" (I typed that one up myself). You can find it here on TPT.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Frog-Prince-Readers-Theatre

 

I used a topsy turvy frog prince puppet. They LOVE those kinds of puppets. I also have a puppet like that for Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood.  I had a little Red Riding Hood topsy turvy puppet when I was little and I used to love that thing.

ebay topsy turvy flip over doll Goldilocks

This is the EXACT same one I have, except I got mine for $5 at a teacher workshop. Score!

 

Anywho, I printed this week's story from soundcityreading.com which, if you don't already know, has all of the Reading Street stories. I've been gathering animals for a long time in different places- Parent-Teacher Store, Walmart, Dollar Tree, Michaels- so I have a whole bucket full. Usually pretty easy to find all the characters for each story. I took pictures today. They were having a really good time with this activity. I had a really great hummingbird but somebody lost it last year. So we made do with a parrot :(

 I forgot to remove his tag.

Also, for this story, I created some comprehension questions and a cut and paste writing activity. We will probably do that on Friday. You can find it here.

 Where-Are-my-Animal-Friends-Comprehension-QuestionsWriting-Center

That's what we've been up to this week!

Oh Dollar Tree!

Have I mentioned I really like Dollar Tree? Here are a few of my finds from today...

 

teeny tiny bags for manipulatives- 50 in a pack

I like to use these beads for counters. The kids can use them while they do their paper and they have enough room on their desks. Not so with unifix cubes. I am going to make small ten frames to go with these.

 

More pirate "gold"

The little counters in the teeny bag. I like all things smallish. There are 22 beads in this bag.  

Cheap Pirate Center

This is going to be super short. I am all about saving some money. I was at Walmart yesterday and saw these adorable pirate napkins. I think they were 99 cents. So I bought them and took them home not sure what I was going to do with them. Then I saw my super cool laminator I got for Christmas from my most awesome husband. Who is great at getting hints, by the way. Everytime we'd walk by a laminator - "ooh, what a great gift that would make for someone who's wife is a teacher..." Anyway, I've never tried to laminate a napkin before, but it works! I did have to leave about a quarter inch border so the layers wouldn't come apart. I'm going to use them for On/Off game with "gold" coins I got from Dollar Tree. How cheap is that?

Speaking of pirates, this is the anchor chart I made for the /ar/ sound. "Arrgh, arrgh! I'm driving me car!"  The kids thought that was hilarious.