Poetry Picnic, Word Surgery & More!

Dear week,

I am so glad you are over!

Thank you,

Mrs. Elvir

I'm so glad this past week is behind me. Me and my littles spent two days in the PE portable without desks or chairs or specials during state testing. The kiddos didn't seem to mind as much as I did ;-) We made it work, but I was happy to be back at the guided reading table on Thursday! Six weeks to go...

This week we worked on contractions, more poetry, more place value, and life cycles. We threw in some SHARK! activities and some Earth Day fun too. 

To celebrate the end of our poetry unit, we had a poetry picnic...errr...that's poetry writing stations disguised as a picnic just for fun. I covered each group of desks with some ancient gingham fabric that resembled picnic blankets. I made table center pieces out of plastic plates, plate stands, and large fruit cut-outs from Dollar Tree. I also created table cards that contained a short description and an example of the five types of poems we had learned about: rhymes, shape poems, tongue twisters, free verse, haiku, and acrostic poems. I put one card at each "picnic table." You can get them for FREE here.

"Robyn likes robot raccoons running from robot robins. Hunter likes hunting hyenas who have hundreds of pups."

The kids rotated to each picnic table and wrote a short poem in each style. Then, after all the rotations were complete, each child chose his/her favorite poem of the day to share with the class.  Actually, we ran out of time and will need to share on Monday.

I don't know about you guys, but I've been trying to get a little more creative with my classroom management techniques this week. I've got a few kiddos with summer-itis for sure! So, I busted out the 3D movie glasses. You know the ones that usually get recycled? I always keep them. I've collected a class set of glasses (between the 3D glasses and birthday party goodie bag glasses). Anyway, my student teacher passed out the "serious worker" glasses to kiddos who were working calmly and quietly and "seriously" on Thursday morning when we got stuck in 5th gear with our engines revved up.  Worked liked a charm :-) 

We read up on sharks and made a shark acrostic poem from Amy Lemons. I haven't met a first grader yet that isn't intrigued by sharks. And the kids did a great job working cooperatively. 

We made doctor lab coats out of white chart paper and them performed surgery on some words. I checked my charts and read my findings to the class. Some of the letters were sick and needed to be amputated. So the kids performed surgery to remove the sick letter/letters and then bandaged the word up with a band-aid. Good as new - minus a letter or two. 

Today was Fat Friday. About once per month a grade level(s) get together to decorate the teacher's lounge and host a lunch for the staff. This one gets the "most creative" Fat Friday of the Year Award for sure! It was prom themed and teachers brought their old prom pics and dresses for our viewing pleasure :-)

This one was my fave! I believe the owner said it was from 1985.

Every teacher got a "yearbook photo" and a superlative like "Most likely..." or "Best..." Do high schools still do that? My picture said "Most Energetic!" 

I guess all grade levels are going to need to step up their game next year for Fat Fridays. I can't wait to see who tops this!

Just reading about some of the stuff we accomplished this week makes me tired again! Thanks goodness it's Friday.

Don't forget to link up. I'd love to "see" what you were up to this week.