We're Falling Into Fun Learning!
Don't you just LOVE fall? I love all the smells of pumpkin spice candles. I love the taste of pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin bars. I love the feeling that's in the air as you walk outside and the feeling that Halloween and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I love to see all the beautiful fall colors of orange, gold, red, green, and yellow. I also LOVE to do fall activities with my first graders through reading, writing, math, science and art. It is so fun to read fall books, do fall projects, fall investigations, fall math problems, and just have some fall fun!
In this blog post I'd like to share with you some easy and fun activities that I like to do with my class. I'll share the mentor texts that I use and the activities for each subject.
Let's start with reading! Here are some fall books that I use during Reader's workshop and Writer's Workshop:
Here are some activities that I do with these books:
Owl Moon: We compare realistic fiction and fiction books about owls using a Venn Diagram and then label the parts of the owl. If you want to check out my Owl Moon resource, click here
Stellaluna: We make a lapbook using a moon, bat, googly eyes and toothpicks on the cover. Inside we write sequence of events and complete a characterization template. If you want to check out my Stellaluna resource, click here
The Littlest Pumpkin: We make a spooky pumpkin and then write a story about it!
Spookley the Square Pumpkin: We make a 3-D cube of Spookley and then write a story about him! If you want to check out my Spookley resource, click here
Scarecrow Pete: We make a scarecrow and then write a scarecrow adventure story! If you want to check out my scarecrow thematic unit, click here
Here are some books that I read for math workshop:
The Leaves Are Falling One By One: We go outside and gather leaves on the playground in baggies. We sort, count and graph them. If you want to check out my Leaf Investigation resource, click here
Ten Timid Ghosts: We talk about ways to add three addends together using Witches Brew. I put together candy corn, indian corn and candy pumpkins and the students sort them add three numbers. If you want to check out my Witches Brew resource, click here
Here are some mentor texts I use for science:
From Seed to Pumpkin: We make a craftivity of the life cycle of a pumpkin and then write the sequence of it. If you want to check out my pumpkin thematic unit, click here
Why Do Leaves Change Color: After we have graphed our leaves and sorted them, we make a leaf man! We even add acorns for the eyes!
How Do Apples Grow? We do an apple investigation about the parts of an apple. We cut open an apple and look at the core, seeds and star. We taste four different kinds of apples and then decide which is our favorite. We do an interactive notebook template about the parts of an apple and glue it into our science notebook. If you want to check out my apple thematic unit, click here
Pumpkin Jack: We carve a pumpkin on Halloween and then save some parts of it into jars with three different environments: sand, air and water. We watch what happens as it decomposes. We write our investigations in our pumpkin journal.
Barn Owl: We also do a feather investigation with owls. We talk about how the feathers help them fly with silent wings using force, motion and energy. We investigate different types of feathers and then illustrate and label them. If you're interested in my owl thematic unit, click here
Owl Babies: We also talk about the owl life cycle and make this craftivity:
Corn is Maize: We investigate with Indian Corn in 3 different natural resources: sand, soil and water. We predict which corn will grow the fastest and which will not grow at all. This is so fun to watch and its amazing to see the differences in the three corns! We record our investigation in our corn journal. If you are interested in my corn resource, click here
We make a craftivity about what we learned about corn and glue popcorn on it too!
We also have a pumpkin patch day on Halloween! Each student gets to decorate a pumpkin of their favorite storybook character, and they also get to dress up like their character at school! We have a blast seeing all the pumpkins and costumes!
And...you can't forget to decorate your door for fall!
I hope you got some great ideas of how to include some fall activities with your students. Happy Fall Ya'll!
Love,
Kara
Don't you just LOVE fall? I love all the smells of pumpkin spice candles. I love the taste of pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin bars. I love the feeling that's in the air as you walk outside and the feeling that Halloween and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I love to see all the beautiful fall colors of orange, gold, red, green, and yellow. I also LOVE to do fall activities with my first graders through reading, writing, math, science and art. It is so fun to read fall books, do fall projects, fall investigations, fall math problems, and just have some fall fun!
In this blog post I'd like to share with you some easy and fun activities that I like to do with my class. I'll share the mentor texts that I use and the activities for each subject.
Let's start with reading! Here are some fall books that I use during Reader's workshop and Writer's Workshop:
Here are some activities that I do with these books:
Owl Moon: We compare realistic fiction and fiction books about owls using a Venn Diagram and then label the parts of the owl. If you want to check out my Owl Moon resource, click here
Stellaluna: We make a lapbook using a moon, bat, googly eyes and toothpicks on the cover. Inside we write sequence of events and complete a characterization template. If you want to check out my Stellaluna resource, click here
The Littlest Pumpkin: We make a spooky pumpkin and then write a story about it!
Spookley the Square Pumpkin: We make a 3-D cube of Spookley and then write a story about him! If you want to check out my Spookley resource, click here
Scarecrow Pete: We make a scarecrow and then write a scarecrow adventure story! If you want to check out my scarecrow thematic unit, click here
Here are some books that I read for math workshop:
The Leaves Are Falling One By One: We go outside and gather leaves on the playground in baggies. We sort, count and graph them. If you want to check out my Leaf Investigation resource, click here
Ten Timid Ghosts: We talk about ways to add three addends together using Witches Brew. I put together candy corn, indian corn and candy pumpkins and the students sort them add three numbers. If you want to check out my Witches Brew resource, click here
Here are some mentor texts I use for science:
From Seed to Pumpkin: We make a craftivity of the life cycle of a pumpkin and then write the sequence of it. If you want to check out my pumpkin thematic unit, click here
Why Do Leaves Change Color: After we have graphed our leaves and sorted them, we make a leaf man! We even add acorns for the eyes!
How Do Apples Grow? We do an apple investigation about the parts of an apple. We cut open an apple and look at the core, seeds and star. We taste four different kinds of apples and then decide which is our favorite. We do an interactive notebook template about the parts of an apple and glue it into our science notebook. If you want to check out my apple thematic unit, click here
Pumpkin Jack: We carve a pumpkin on Halloween and then save some parts of it into jars with three different environments: sand, air and water. We watch what happens as it decomposes. We write our investigations in our pumpkin journal.
Barn Owl: We also do a feather investigation with owls. We talk about how the feathers help them fly with silent wings using force, motion and energy. We investigate different types of feathers and then illustrate and label them. If you're interested in my owl thematic unit, click here
Owl Babies: We also talk about the owl life cycle and make this craftivity:
Corn is Maize: We investigate with Indian Corn in 3 different natural resources: sand, soil and water. We predict which corn will grow the fastest and which will not grow at all. This is so fun to watch and its amazing to see the differences in the three corns! We record our investigation in our corn journal. If you are interested in my corn resource, click here
We also have a pumpkin patch day on Halloween! Each student gets to decorate a pumpkin of their favorite storybook character, and they also get to dress up like their character at school! We have a blast seeing all the pumpkins and costumes!
And...you can't forget to decorate your door for fall!
I hope you got some great ideas of how to include some fall activities with your students. Happy Fall Ya'll!
Love,
Kara
