Book Publishing

Another amazing teacher is Mrs. Carroll! I have spent countless hours browsing her teacher blog jotting down TONS of ideas. One idea that I have "borrowed" from her is the idea of having a Publishing Mom. This is a great opportunity to have parents become involved in the classroom and to have students really get excited about their writing. My first graders love to write stories and during any "free" time they always choose to write and create stories! I love reading what their imagination has to offer! Over the Christmas break I got to work and created the perfect little book publishing area.

This is my publishing mom basket. Everything my publishing parent needs is located in this basket, equipped with detailed instructions.

This is a look at my student's book baskets. Each basket has been labeled with their name and inside is where they will keep all of their 'work in progress.' They also have Book Luggage that has been created for The Daily Five. They have an option to place their 'published' book in their Book Luggage or return it to their book basket. We began publishing this week and my kiddos are already obsessed. Mrs. Carroll has generously given us fellow teachers a link to download a copy of the publishing parent letter. You can receive her letter and a look at her blog HERE!

Happy Publishing!

Penguins!

Not sure where you stand...but I am OBSESSED with Deanna Jump's website and all of her amazing ideas! One of the recent unit's I have used in my classroom is the unit on Penguins!

My kids have loved learning all about the little guys and the activities provided in Deanna's unit are AWESOME! Here's a look at our "All About Penguins" book we just finished.

I ran out of time to make an actual penguin to use as our chart :(, however, the kiddo's LOVED placing the sticky notes onto the Schema chart and the loved learning all about the word schema. I love getting them excited about expanding their vocabulary (one of our Daily CAFE words) by telling them they are about to learn a "high school word" (I usually use "fifth grade word).

We also wrapped up our unit on Penguins by participating in a science experiment that had to do with blubber (an activity also located in Deanna Jump's unit). Of course, I forgot my camera that day! :(

We are now working on our Martin Luther King Jr. unit I took from Chalk Talk, another awesome website!

So excited for more pictures and ideas to come! I LOVE spending my nights browsing teacher blogs while sipping a glass of wine! Such a great way to end the day!

-Mrs. McHaffie

A Peek Inside

I have been hard at work attempting to "revamp" my classroom to prepare for the implementation of The Daily Five and the Daily CAFE. What I love about teaching are the awesome fellow teachers who love to share their ideas and findings with others. Many of the things that I have done in my classroom where ideas taken from some of those amazing teachers! With that here's a peek inside Room 309!

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