Writer's Workshop Story Starters

My little friends can spend an entire Writer's Workshop just thinking of story ideas. Does that happen to your class also? I am not a fan of staged writing prompts from the teacher, so getting them to pull from their own experiences can be difficult. That is why I send home a special letter at the beginning of the year. Read on to learn more and grab it for free!

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Reader's Theater via Google Hangout

Hi friends, welcome to the Punchbowl! Sarah from Mrs B's First Grade here to talk to you about a fun twist on readers theater today. Want to take yours up a notch with technology? Read on to learn how!

We have all used readers theater in our classroom to work on important reading skills such as fluency and expression. It usually involves a few students performing for your class or possibly another class in the school. Although this is fun and an effective strategy for working on these skills, it has been done time and time again. With amazing technology at our fingertips, why not try it a different way?

Readers Theater from Sarah Barnett on Vimeo.

In my classroom we have been performing readers theater with other classes via Google Hangout or Skype. How do we do it? It's simple! Follow the steps below!

Step One - Find a Class

The first step for a virtual readers theater is to find a class to perform with. You can do this through social media (my favorite avenue is Twitter) or you can simply find a teacher friend from another school that is willing to try it out with you. Don't be afraid to ask - most teachers love to give new technology ideas a try!

Step Two - Select a Readers Theater and Plan a Time

The best reader theater scripts have two characters or roles on them. That way your class can take one and the other class can take another. There are a lot of fun ones on Teachers pay Teachers, or you can also use the books from the You Read to Me I'll Read to You series.

After you have your script selected, plan the day and time you are going to "meet" on Google Hangout or Skype. Don't forget about timezone differences! You will only need to plan for 15-20 minutes. That can include an introduction and a goodbye. One more thing you don't want to forget is to get the Google Hangout or Skype name of the other teacher. It is also a good idea to test your connection before your planned date.

Step Three - Practice!

After you choose which class will read which part, practice with your class! I usually do this whole group.

Step Four - Connect and Perform

The last step is to connect with the class and perform! Don't worry about it if your kids are not perfect, just have fun with it! If you can, have someone video your class participating. My class always loves watching how they did once we are done. It's also a great way to access your fluency!

It's as simple as that! If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me at mrsbarnettfirstgrade@gmail.com.

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Valentine Book - Hugs from Pearl

Hi friends! Sarah from Mrs. B's First Grade here! I am here today to talk to you about one of my favorite Valentine's Day books and give you some freebies for a follow up activity!

I am a HUGE fan of finding quality literature to both read and teach with in my classroom. Hugs from Pearl by Paul Schmid is a perfect book to read during this time of year...and really any other time! In the book Pearl, a porcupine, loves to give hugs. Her friends loved to receive hugs from her, but they hurt a little. Her teacher kept a box of band-aids handy to help with this. So, Pearl decided to do something about it. She tried a few things but finally created a rose dress out of a pillowcase. It worked as the perfect protector for her friends!

Reading this book to your class can be the starting point for some great discussions. Some talking points include:

• What was Pearl's problem?
• What solutions to solve her problem did Pearl come up with?
• Would you have thought of any other solutions for Pearl?
• What kind of friends did Pearl have? Were they kind?

One of the most obvious talking points is the question if you would hug Pearl or not. When I read this book to my class, we took this question a little further!

First, I had my students fill out the sheet below. It got them thinking about if they would hug Pearl and why or why not. Just click the picture to download it!

Click to download!

After my students finished thinking about whether or not they would hug Pearl, we made a class graph using the data. The graph was a perfect talking point to discuss the book but also to get in some key math vocabulary including more than, less than, most, least, equal, and in all. To grab my headings to create your own chart, just click below to download!

Click to download!

Have you read this book to your class? I would love to hear about activities you have done with it!

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Holiday QR Cards

Hi, friends! It's Sarah from Mrs B's First Grade. I'm here today to teach you an easy way to change up your holiday cards for parents this year. Have you ever thought about having your students record themselves saying their message and attaching it to a QR Code? Read on to find out how my class will be making them!

As a first grade teacher, my students do not have the writing ability that can match their expressive language. My students have wonderful and funny things to say about their parents that they are unable to write down on paper. So, why not record them saying those things and turn it into a QR Code for them to send home? Below is a step by step guide for making Holiday QR Cards!

To start making your cards, have your students record themselves sending a holiday message to their parents or families. I let my students take an iPad and flip the camera so that they can record themselves privately. They take their iPads around the room or out in the hall. If you do not have iPads or other devices in your classroom, you could record them using your phone.

Once you have all of their videos recorded, you need to upload them to YouTube. I have a YouTube channel attached to my school email. I keep it private. When I upload a video to the channel I choose to keep it "unlisted." This means that only someone with the link can view it. I also use my students initials as the video title. I am not afraid of anyone looking, I just like to keep things as private as possible!

After you have uploaded your video to YouTube, you need to attach it to a QR Code. This is more simple than it sounds! You can take the link to the video straight from the browser, or you can click the share button and get the link that they give you there.

From there, you insert the link into qrstuff.com. You simply place it where it says "Website URL." Then you can choose a color for your QR Code and click "Download QR Code." Voila! You are done!

The last step is fun! Print out the QR code and give it to your students to decorate. They can decorate or write anything they want on the front or back of the card. They just can not write anything on the QR Code itself. After this step they can take it home and have their parents scan it. They will be able to watch a video recording that is priceless! 

What other special things have you done with QR codes? I would love to hear about them! 

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Bean Plant Investigations!

Hi friends, Sarah here from Mrs B's First Grade. I am SO excited to be blogging for you today about a fun science project I have done for years in my classroom! I don't know about you, but I have trouble finding a lot of time for science and social studies. I have to be creative with what I do and involve as much reading and writing as I can into quick, short and simple activities. I hope you find my bean plant investigations useful for your own classroom!

To begin our learning in science, I always begin with an ICE chart. ICE stands for: Ideas - My beginning ideas. What I think might happen. Claims - What I found out! Evidence - Data or observations that support my claim. This year I was surprised to find out that my friends did not have very much faith that our bean plants would grow and thrive. At the bottom we took a vote as to how many people thought they would grow...only 3!

When we finish thinking about how our investigation will go, I like to teach my friends a little bit more about the bean plant. They are always surprised to find out that the embryo is already inside the bean. I soak a few beans and then give them to students to open up and check out the inside for themselves.

After looking more closely at the bean plant, I teach my students about the life cycle. This always leads to a great discussion about various other life cycles. We then complete the bean plant life cycle page that my students have in their bean plant journals. To grab my bean plant life cycle to use in your classroom, click the picture below!

Next comes the fun part, it is time to plan the beans! I find the best way to plant beans with a class of first graders is to be prepared ahead of time. I put their names on a ziplock bag and lay out all of the supplies. You can either have the students come up and plant with you one at a time, or display what you are doing through a document camera and have everyone plant at once. When you are done, hang the plants in an area where they will get sunlight. I always hang mine on our windows.

After planting my students document what they did and then observe their bean plants over the next days. I have my students practice some procedural writing by writing about how they planted their beans. My students also keep a journal about how their bean plant is progressing. 

Watching the bean plant grow is the best part for my students. They love coming in each morning and checking out their plant. Once we have a few plants take off, I introduce the idea of gravitropism. We turn a few of the ziplock bags upside down and discover about how roots respond to gravity. This is always a great way to enrich the mini unit with my kids that are ready for some higher thinking. You can learn more about gravitropism here!

After we are done watching the bean plants grow, I usually throw them away in the classroom. I am always worried that a friend will decide to open their bag up and there is usually mold in it...

Thank you for reading about our bean plant investigations! If you would like to grab the journal pack that I use with my students, you can find it in my Teachers pay Teachers store by clicking the picture below!

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