I Think Mice are Nice

This post will share with you some of the lessons I recently taught this week connecting literacy and math.

 Last week we read the story Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh.  This week we have been using this story to create mice story problems. 

During Shared Reading Time, we learned the poem I Think Mice Are Nice and made little mice.  We added this poem to our Poetry binders. During word study time, we recorded words with the ICE chunk.



Shared Reading

I Think Mice Are Nice

Ice House
Counting Jar

The jar changes with a different week. At this point in the year, I have some students who this station is too easy for, so I created a +plus five/plus six sheet. 

If there are 12 objects in the jar, they add to the objects and make a number sentence. 

I still have many students who still need practice counting and recording, so those students use the counting only. 

I added the numbers to these sheets because I have so many students struggling with double-digit identification. 

You can download the counting jar sheet below and the counting jar sheet plus five/plus six. 

The Counting Jar is a simple stations!

Mice Story Problems

This week we added story problems to math workshop. We went back to Mouse Count and created mice problems. 


 We added a number line to solving problems too.  This gives my students another visual tool to use. 

 You can download a problem-solving sheet with or without the number line.

How many Mice in Jar Number Line Mice Jar Counting Jar jar plus 5

Rosemary Wells and Voice Thread

We made illustrations of the characters from Rosemary Wells Books.The kids loved that! If you click on the Voice Thread below we focused on problems and solutions in her stories. 


This is a very easy way to share some of the books we have read in class and some of the work we have been doing with retelling. 

 

 

100th Day

I saw this great idea on Pinterest for the 100th day! I love it!!!

Source: alyciazimmerman.com via Melissa(Joyful Learning in KC) on Pinterest

My friend Jess, who teaches across the hallway, came up with the idea of creating a bunch of different boards for the bulletin boards in our hallway. 

On our 100th day, we have all the K's and 1's get together and go to different stations in 6 classrooms. 

We have at least 23 stations. We have parent helpers take the kids around in small groups. 

These boards pass by all the classrooms. 

Here are some of the things we came up with. We laminated the sheets so we can use them next year. We plan on having students use  Post-Its and tape to record their answers.

Story Maps

Some of the activities focusing on Rosemary Wells books.

Retelling the Characters, Setting, Problem, and Solution

I took the idea of a Tree map and tried it out with story characters. We listed words to describe how the character was feeling during the story. I listed them at the easel and then typed up the words on labels.

We read Hazel's Amazing Mother on the second reading we talked about the word Fantasy and recorded things that happened and things that could not happen.

We read this story a few times. 
These are the WOW words from the story.

I like to show the class the words before I reread that book,  that way the group zeros in on listening to where the WOW words are. 

We talk about what the word means  and we act out the word.

We have had lots of discussion on how we notice her main characters are animals but act like people. 

Her stories often have problems and solutions. 

We have been making  text to self-connections and text to text connections. 

This week we focused on reading the books connected to Timothy and the students from Mrs. Jenkins class. 

We love reading books starring Yoko. 

Below are some of our problem and solution responses from the story Yoko's World of Kindness.

Each chapter in this book focuses on a different problem happening in the classroom.

Retelling Problem: Solution

Color Stamping Book!!!

We just started focusing on color words in my class. I do the songs from Heidi Songs. We just moved into her second CD which has the color songs...my kids LOVE her music!! They are starting to ask me if I know personal questions about her which is funny and cute. So, I created a stamping book that has all the color words from the poem I LIKE HEARTS. You can download this song below, it's from Nellie Edge. We did an Interactive Writing lesson for this song! This will be a must read tomorrow at Daily 5 Time!

I made a little stamp book for color words. You can download below.

When stamping it really drives me crazy how messy it gets. I had stamps all over the place!!! I have tried the ice cube tray and some other ideas I have seen on Pinterest but nothing has worked. I finally had an AH HA moment. Last year I labeled this tool shelf for some of my magnetic letters. I love and use those small Avery labels on everything!!!! So you can see below I have letter labels in different fonts. I realized why don't I put my stamps in there too!!!!!! I think this will solve the problem!!

red dots vowels

Heart Poem I Like My Color Words Book Pink and White.cwk (DR)Yellow and Green.cwk (DR) Blue and Purple.cwk (DR) Red and Blank