Bats in classroom!

Last week was a very short week for me, and it wasn't because I wanted it to be.  I was so sick!  No matter what I just couldn't beat it, which shortened my bat week by a lot, I missed a waiver day and the day after that!  Still, had to get what I could in because bats are so interesting and fun.  We focus our unit around the book Stellaluna which in case you don't know, is a story in which a little bat and three little birds discover that they are very alike and at the same time very different.  Our reading lesson focused on comparing and contrasting, our science lesson focused on birds, and read many bat non-fiction books as well.  This is an awesome chart that we found online, I don't remember what site but I'll ask Sandra, hopefully she can refresh my memory.  It's a Stellaluna Venn Diagram, comparing bats and birds.

 

Another really cute activity we do is a TLC cute paper bat information book.  We make this book at the end of the unit.  Each student has to give you something different that they learned about bats.  We always like to post these outside of the classroom.  The students and parents really get a kick out of these awesome little bats. After we finish displaying them we make a bat information book and let the students take turns taking it home to read it with thier family.  

 



 





 Sandra has some more bat activities she's going to share with you too.  So excited to feel better and start our pumpkin unit!

 

-Cindy :)



Apples and pumpkins everywhere!

Okay so it's been forever since we've blogged, I blame myself (Cindy), lol.  School was a little hectic with PTA membership drive, planning field trips and lots more.  Ah, the life of a teacher...We always do apples at the end of September for Johnny Appleseed's birthday.  Here are a few things that we did:

On the Friday before we start our apple unit we send a note asking each student to bring an apple.  We make graphs that tell what kind of apples they brought and my favorite type of graph is the taste test where they find out what apple is their favorite.  It's fun to see how excited they are when they realize how different the apples taste.  Here's the graph that I made this year.  I found pictures of the apples online and after the kids tasted them they cut out the apple they liked the most.  For the first time ever we had a three way tie.

After dissecting an apple we label the parts, whole group, in the daily message.  After that, they have to label an apple on their own.  Here is a picture of our "What is a label?" class chart  which I used during the lesson, students label with words if they can and label using initial sounds if they cannot write words yet.  The apple labeling worksheet is an online freebie.   

 

 Deanna Jump is one of our favorite bloggers and sellers on teachers pay teachers.  She has a really awesome ideas and these come from her apple math and literacy unit.  The first picture is a fold-able book and paper cutting activity.  The little story is, "Eat the apple, save the core, plant the seeds.  Grow some more!"  I just recreated the labels in Spanish. They did a really good job on it.

 The activity was the my favorite!  Deanna Jump made a "Who took the apples from the apple tree?" book you can do with your class.  I love using pictures in my class made books, so I decided to give each student their cut out head and had them draw their body.  This was a class labeling book so each student had to label at least three parts of their body.  In the end, the teacher is the one that took the apples from the apple tree.  It turned out really cute!

 

 

Talk to you soon.

-Cindy ;)

Our Pumpkin Unit On TPT

Hey friends - I know we haven't blogged in awhile, but we've been so busy trying to finish our pumpkin unit for TPT. It's finally finished and we couldn't be more excited. We think it turned out pretty awesome, but we are a little biased. Follow this link if you'd like to check it out http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pumpkins-Everywhere-Bilingual-Unit

Here's a few things that we have been working on for our pumpkin unit.

 Jack-O-Lantern Glyph

In dual language we teach math in English so all of the math activities will be in English only, but the language arts activities are in both languages. My students really enjoyed making this glyph.

Where's the Pumpkin book

This is a positional word book, where the kiddos move their pumpkin to the correct place on the page. We read this book over and over during the week and then on Friday they take it home to show their parents the positional words they've learned. Positional words is a very difficult concept for bilingual students, so we try to make learning this skill fun. One of the teachers at our school does an awesome job teaching the kiddos math vocabulary which I'm going to incorporate into my calendar time. The class comes up with a gesture or movement that goes with each new word and during calendar time they say it as part of their daily routine. Way to go Mrs. Dunn!!

I've also included a picture of Cindy's positional word chart. 

I See Pumpkins book

For this number book the kiddos write the number, the number word and draw the corresponding number of pumpkins on the page.

 Initial Sound Game

For this center the kiddos will select a colored pumpkin, say the word, color the pumpkin on the recording sheet and write the initial sound or for the more advanced students they can write the word. This game can be used in either language and an English and Spanish recording sheet is included in the unit. 

 How many Syllables?

In this center have the kiddos lay out the hay bale cards, select a pumpkin card, say the word, count the syllables in the word and the place the card on the correct hay bale. So if they select the word elephant they would place it on the hay bale card with 3 hay bales on it. If they are doing this center in Spanish then they would place on the board with 4 hay bales. Sorry the picture is sideways. I couldn't get it to rotate. It's so irritating!!

Graphic Organizers

We have also included several graphic organizers. Here's and example of one of them.

 If you buy our unit please let us know what you think. This is one of first units and we welcome any and all feedback. I just noticed the time and it's super late and we have staff development all day tomorrow. Time for BED!! 

Sandra :-)