On the third week of school we like to discuss friendships with our students. There are so many great books to use for this unit, it is hard to pick. Our comprehension focus for the week was retelling. We focused on beginning, middle and end. The first story we read was Peanut Butter and Cupcake. I love how the author didn’t use Jelly in the title. We discuss why he did that at the end of the story. This book is hilarious filled with puns for even the adults.
We discussed things that go together like peanut butter and jelly. We matched a few and then came up with our own list. Finally, we did this cute little craft. The children really enjoy all of the activities.
Next we move on to my all time favorite author, Kevin Henkes. I love all of his mouse stories. For this week we read three of his stories, Chester’s Way, Chrysanthemum, and A Weekend with Wendell. I have also taught an author study on him in years past. This year we are more theme based.
We started out with my favorite, Chester’s Way. We reviewed characters from the week before and wrote about what each character liked and what they all liked together. We had to dig deeper in the book to remember. They made the three characters to add to their writing. I think they turned out cute.
Then we read Chrysanthemum. This story talks a lot about how to treat others and how we are each our own unique person. We looked closely at Chrysanthemum and discussed the different ways she felt in the story. We also made this cute character and put our own good luck charms in her pocket.
Next we read A Weekend with Wendell. He is a little stinker and super bossy. We discussed how no one likes to be bossed around. It is hard to be friends with someone who acts that way.
We packed a bag full of goodies for our sleepover. We worked on our writing skill, making a list.
Also this week we worked in our new Science notebooks. We learned about Science, how to treat our notebook, and what scientists do. The children are really getting excited about Science thanks to Babbling Abby and The First Grade Parade. Check out their amazing resource.
Finally, we focused on the short i sound this week. We did many fun activities all week but the best was the spelling assessment. Check out number 7! It looks like we need a little more practice.
