Pumpkin Life Cycle

Our class has had a wonderful time learning about pumpkins!  I love how the bulletin board display came altogether.  I could have easily spent another week on this topic.  Here are a few ideas that I used last year.

This year, we focused on the Pumpkin Life Cycle.  I created two projects which my class completed that I am sharing with you.  First, we made a Pumpkin Life wheel similar to the one seen on our bulletin board display.  For the student version, they had an orange cover which when all put together looked like a pumpkin.

I also made an emergent reader for my students to read independently during Daily 5.    

Here are a few books that we've read so far.

Grab your Pumpkin Life Cycle goodies here.  If you like them, leave a comment, follow my blog or Facebook page.

Happy Teaching!

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The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

Of all the books that relate to the Fall season and/or Halloween, this is my absolute favorite.  Why?  I love how children naturally begin to participate and read with me.  You can not help to get involved with the story.

Listen to my class from a few years ago reading the story.  :)



Last year, I shared how I love to use this book to teach prediction.

Towards, the end of the story, the Little Old Lady hears a knock at the door.  The narrator asks, "Should she answer it?  What do you think she saw?"  At this point, I stop and have the students make their predictions.

Click here for your copy.

The students draw their prediction using this template that I created.  Afterwards, we see if our predictions matched what actually happened in the text.  Many times, students will draw a few parts of the story but not the entire scarecrow.  The conversation is always lively.

This is a

Happy Reading!

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Fall Is Here

Fall is my favorite time of year.  Inspired by this, we painted the trees using wine corks instead of q-tips as our medium.  The kids did great! Better yet, not one child went home wearing paint.


Today, we made sight word trees.

Each year, I begin the unit singing Leaves are Falling; a remake of a popular song.

Click here for your copy.

Later, we make a class book.

Each child will write their name and draw a picture of themselves.  


Happy Fall!

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Our Treasured Words

This year, we are implementing a new reading program, California Treasures Reading.  It is a very comprehensive program that I am adjusting to after many years of another reading series.  Along the way, I am tweaking and adding components which I feel meet the needs of my students.  One of the things that I am adding are Rapid Automatic Naming Boards; which I call Fluency Boards.  I first read about them here and used them successfully with my students all last year.

Here is how it works in my classroom.  
I create the Fluency Boards for the skills (letter(s) or high frequency words) we are learning.  In class, I project the Fluency Board and we quickly read it as part of our daily morning routines. Some days, we go over more than one Fluency Board.  This depends on our needs and time.   I also send the Fluency Board for homework.   On Friday, I use the homework Fluency Board to quickly check if they can read the words or letters.  I send home a quick note to parents about which need additional practice.

Click image for link.

Using these Fluency Boards has helped to keep me and my students accountable to our learning.  Since we practice these often, most children are successful.  For those who are not, I can meet with them during small group instruction to help close the gap in learning.



I love them!  Would you like a copy?  I created two sets; a teacher and parent version.  That is 30 weeks of Fluency Boards organized by Unit and Week.  Free just for you.

Click image for link.

As a thank you, please leave a comment or better yet, Follow my blog or Like my Facebook page.


Happy Teaching and Learning!

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