Bear Says Thanks {Read Aloud Lesson}

Good morning! I wanted to share a post that I wrote over at Classroom Tested Resources, a collaborative blog that I'm part of! I was featured just yesterday with this post!

In case you haven't read it there yet, I wanted to share it here too! PLEASE be sure to head over to the CTR blog though to see tons of awesome ideas that a collaboration of teachers share DAILY! There are a variety of topics and grade levels covered...and some GREAT ideas!

I'm always looking for fun ways to teach (and review/practice!) nouns. I'm going to share how to use a simple read aloud and have your students help you find nouns in the story by recording them in their reading notebooks. Also, you could easily modify this by you (the teacher) creating an anchor chart as more of a shared lesson. It would depend on the age of the kids. My second graders can be kind of in between when it comes to the ability on this. Sometimes it's just easier for me to do a shared anchor chart together, rather than wait for each kid to "keep up" with us in their own notebooks. In doing this, I would have my own notebook under the document camera and I'd be working right along with the kids, so it would still be a "shared/guided" lesson.

First of all, I love The Bear Books by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. My girls at home love them and my students love them. They are adorable and fun stories! (They are pretty quick reads, too!) For this lesson, I used "Bear Says Thanks".

I started by doing a quick mini-lesson with my students about what nouns are: person, place, or thing. However, I did add in ANIMALS to my list, too.  This can be kind of a questionable subject I have found, some teachers think you should just put animals under THINGS, which I agree with since they are THINGS. However, for this particular story, it worked well for me to actually add the extra category of ANIMALS because this book is all about animals and there aren't any PEOPLE included in this story. So, in this case, I had to show them that you won't always find something for all of the noun categories in a story because sometimes people or animals aren't included. I did keep the PEOPLE category on the simple chart we made though. We have done other activities where they have practiced finding PEOPLE as nouns, so I felt comfortable doing it this way.

Next, I started the read aloud and told students to listen for nouns that they hear in the story. But, I reminded them that we will read it a second time, so they won't if they don't remember all of them! (I just wanted them to enjoy the story first!)

Next, I asked students to just verbally name some animals, places, and things that they remembered from the story. We are sitting on my carpet (where we always do read alouds) and they raise their hands and share with the class some nouns that they can recall from the story. They could name quite a few!

After that, we head back to our desks and take out our reading notebooks. In my own reading notebook, I model how to draw a quick, simple chart (nothing fancy!!) and they copy it into their notebooks too.

Then, we opened up the book (under the document camera) and I started rereading the story while the students followed along, and we searched for nouns. We stopped on each page and started filling them into our chart together. They helped me and I helped them. 

We all worked together and my students loved it! I found it to be a fun and easy way to "come up" with nouns instead of just trying to think of them on their own. Especially because authors of some of these awesome books use such GREAT vocabulary in their writing that students would most likely not think of on their own. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't think of them either!!

Obviously, this idea could be used with ANY book that you choose at any time of the year! I also think this has helped my students with not only knowing what nouns are, but giving them some ideas for better vocabulary when it comes to their own writing! 

I've created a freebie to go along with this story as a special gift for reading my blog post today! You could easily put it into a workstation after teaching this lesson, just to reinforce the skill. Also, if you notice some students just not quite grasping the concept, this would be a fun and easy activity to do afterwards in a small reading group or one-on-one. 

If you really enjoy this book Bear Says Thanks, please visit my store for a full literature companion pack that contains multiple centers and activities to go along with the book. It's coming soon!

Don't forget to check out the CTR blog for some awesome ideas from a great variety of bloggers! Click below to head over there now!

Prepping for a New Month in the Classroom

One of my favorite things (when I'm in the classroom, that is!) is to change things out for the new month. I love changing the calendar, the literacy and math centers, and I usually change out table cloths that I have around the room with themes for each season/month. I love it! Something new for me and new for the kids! Well, with the new month approaching, I wanted to share all of the NOVEMBER goodies that I have and LOVE to use in my classroom! Plus, I'm putting my whole store on sale this weekend, so now is the perfect time to stock up and get ready for the new month!

Here are a few pictures of how I change out my table clothes around my room. I don't put them on tables that kids actually have to work because I feel like that'd make life difficult. I put them on some tables that I have made into more of a "counter" to keep my small group materials, etc. on, then under the table I store things, so the table cloths cover up those items! Also, I put one over the table that I have my projector, doc camera, etc. on. I always purchase them after the holiday for the next year, super cheap and they have all lasted me years! I love them.

Here's how I prepare my centers. I do this once, and they have last through two Novembers, hopefully they last through this year too. But if not, the time it takes to put them together and prepare them is worth it to last at least two years! It just depends on your class, I've found, and how they are with materials. Some classes are much better than others. Also, I find that if you have A LOT of centers/games to choose from, instead of just a few, the wear and tear isn't so bad because they "spread the wealth." {Haha}

I have a lot of people ask how I put my stuff together. After printing, the only thing I cut before laminating is the cover page, to put on the front of an envelope, and I don't even glue it on, I just stick it on the envelope, and slide them both in between the laminating sleeves. Also, another common question is about the metal prongs on the manila envelopes. Yes, I leave them on and sent it right through my personal laminator. Works fine! I've probably put hundreds of them through and no problem! Here are some pictures that show me preparing my Thanksgiving centers a few years ago! These are totally RAW pictures, taken at my kitchen table and in my classroom. Real life, nothing special! :)

Slide envelopes into laminating sheet. (these are larger envelopes and I have to cut the top off, so they don't close, the pieces will later just slide in the top, no big deal!)

Laminating!

Laminating, I only put them in Ziplock bags to transport to school, otherwise they just stay in the envelopes and are nice and sturdy!

Here is an example with the smaller envelope, you can see how I put it through. This cover I just left full size and lay the envelope on the back in the laminating sleeve. Again, I don't even take the time to glue it. The lamination will hold it all together. No wasted time! :) 

When it comes to the game pieces/cards. I DO NOT cut those out BEFORE laminating. No way! No extra work for me! I laminate the WHOLE sheet, then cut afterwards. They all stay together just fine! I see a lot of teachers post pictures that have cut out each piece, then put in lamination, then they have to cut that all out again. NO WAY! Call me lazy...but I only cut once! I've never had a problem w/ the lamination using this Purple Cow laminator or the Scotch Brand one. (I like that one better!)

Here's a good shot of how I just slide the game pieces into the envelopes (I slice the envelope open with the end of scissors after laminating is done.) The envelopes don't close, but the pieces stay in! You just have to teach the kids to put them RIGHT SIDE UP in the bin/baskets when they put them away!

At my last school, here's how I would set up the envelopes on display for kids to choose. Math one one side of the shelving unit, reading on the other.

I've BUNDLED all of my FAVORITE November items. That way, you can purchase one thing and have everything that I use from my own store in my classroom in November! I honestly love all of these products and this is my FAVORITE month when it comes to centers and activities that I pull out of my NOVEMBER box. :)

If you already have some of the products in the bundle, or if you just don't want all of them. See each products below individually. Also, some examples of pages from each product!

  

Coming soon*** A blog post about my newest literature companion pack that goes with the book Bear Says Thanks. It will include a freebie! Stay tuned!

Fall Freebie Friday #3

Here we go, Week #3! How are you liking the hop so far?? I'm so happy to have been asked to be part of this. Great teachers, great blogs, great ideas, plus FREEBIES!

First of all, just go to my store, FOLLOW me for future *FUN* things. I'm always trying to think of some new freebies to post!! Here is the link to the freebies I already have in my store: Stuckey in Second FREEBIES

My kids are loving my October/Halloween centers right now. But I need to start digging out my Thanksgiving stuff! They are almost ready for the change!

Check out these Thanksgiving Centers in my store!

 

 

 

 

Here is my FREEBIE!!!

 

 

Don't forget to check out my friend Abbie's store too! Here is an adorable Thanksgiving freebie!

Thanksgiving Nonsense Words

 

 

To head to the next stop on our HOP, click on the picture below!!! Have fun!!!

New Thanksgiving Centers!!!

I've been working on adding some Thanksgiving math centers and literacy centers. I think they turned out really cute, if I must say so myself. :) My 2nd graders started working with the math games today and loved them. I can't wait to introduce all the rest. Only a few more weeks until Thanksgiving!

Check them out below. Please let me know what you think!

Don't forget to follow my TPT store!