Primary Chalkboard

Veteran's Day Activities with Mrs. Russell

Happy Veteran's Day to all who have served and continue to serve! :) You are so loved and appreciated! :) I wanted to share with you some of what I did with my little learners to introduce the concept of Veteran's Day!

First up...

We read the book

A dear friend of mine is a Veteran and partners up with me to teach phonics, so I had her talk about her experiences in the army and read the story to my firsties!

We got misty! :)

Such a sweet story! :)

Next up, we worked on printables from my Veteran's Day freebie! :)

We brainstormed about veterans based on our in class interview and the book we read.

*I thought it was adorable that several of my girls decided to make the clip art boy into a girl! :)*

We practiced this fluency passage I put together for them! :)

I went over the comprehension questions too, to help them add to their background knowledge about Veterans. This is the 'mid' version. I have an easier version and a more challenging version that I will send home too. I didn't include those in the pack. I think I'm going to just make a bundle of the ones I've made this year into a whole pack! :) The kids really love them!!

Next, we used the organizer to help us put together a 'quick write' on veterans.

Student Text: Veterans are heroes. They wear uniforms. They have a home. They could be in the army. They could fight. They are amazing heroes.

Text: Veterans are helpful and does a lot of dangerous jobs in the army. They have a strong heart. They love their families.

I was really excited about how well they did. Typically, we take several days to publish something. These were all published in one day! :)

In the afternoon, I used the math sheets in the pack to review some previously taught skills! :)

We had a really good time using these printables! :)

If you'd like a copy of them for your room, please click HERE to download the freebie! :)

I also have a super cute craftivity for Memorial Day that I enjoyed using with my kiddos last year! :)

You can check that out on TPT by clicking HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! :)

XOXO,

Tamara from

Mrs. Russell's Room-First Grade

Thankful Saturday!

Happy Saturday everyone! It's Leslie from First Grade and Flip Flops!

SO excited to be blogging with you today! It's the month of November and it's a month that we all say what we are most thankful for-- well, really, we should be thankful every day, right? LOL! So here are some things I am thankful for!

I really do love this month in my classroom because I get to do some of my favourite activities with my first graders. One of them is the Disguise the Turkey project and the other is my Thankful Hearts project. Can I just say, heartwarming tears and hearts!!! I pass out hearts to all the families with a simple letter and families are to write what they are more thankful for in their child. Here are a few examples:

This is the one I did for my own son who is in first grade! xoxo

I always read them during writing block and call the kids up with me as I read the hearts. They beam and shine as they listen to the words their families write. All you need is a large heart (I used the large heart die cut from our Ellison machine) and attached the parent letter. Simple, easy and very heartwarming. Here is the letter I used if you'd like a copy:

Click on the pic to grab yours!

I am also extremely thankful to work on a team that I call family! I love the girls I work with! They are truly my family. It totally makes coming to school so much fun! Some of us have come and gone but we have remained great friends and sisters. Do you work in a school like that?

Then there's my family and boys. Love them to pieces.

Thankful for these after school. I call them Brownie Crack. Seriously, you need to try these! Especially after a very trying day at school!

Lastly, thankful for the fabulous ladies of the Primary Chalkboard and our equally fabulous followers! Here is a freebie for you! I created it to help my students with l-blends.

Click on the pic to grab your FREEBIE!

I hope that each and every day you find the little and big things to be thankful for! Have a great Saturday and hope you see you back here, on our blogs, and on our FB pages!

Love to you!

Leslie

Report Cards, Student Feedback, and a Freebie!

Happy Hump Day Everyone! It's Marie from

I'm not sure when you have your first batch of report cards/conferences, but I'm just finishing up mine for our first trimester. Every year around this time I feel an odd sense of calmness because I've just finished a week-long marathon of parent-teacher conferences. This year, I had 38 conferences!!! Don't feel too sorry for me...I don't have 38 students....I do, however, have 24 in my regular homeroom and we switch for math and so I meet with those families too.

Anyways...when I'm giving my students their scores and handing out report cards it always reminds me that it's time again to give my students a chance to GRADE ME! :)

I started doing this a few years ago, and believe it or not, I got some really good feedback! You know what they say, "Kids say the darnedest things!"...but they also speak the truth (for the most part!).

Here are a couple samples from this year:

Now, I'm not sure how well this would go over with an older crowd, but my guess is...if you give this to Kinders, 1st, or 2nd graders, you are going to be just fine :)

I always tell students that they are NOT to put their names...this way they are more likely to tell you what they really think. AND...I encourage comments! I read each line and then give students time to put in their answers. Then, I have them put them into our finished work box and promise not to look at them until the end of the day when they've all gone home.

After that, I sit back and settle in to read all about what they think I'm doing well and not-so well...

I shared this on my FB page and so many of my followers seemed interested that I wanted to share it here with ya'll! AND....I made a freebie for you guys so that you can all let your students grade you!

I hope you'll give it a try!

Just click the image above to grab your free TEACHER REPORT CARD!

Don't forget that throughout the month of November all of us Chalkies will be posting some fun ideas and resources for you as we work our way up to a BLACK FRIDAY surprise! Check in often and PIN what you like to save it! :)

Marie

Election Day Fun

Hello Chalkie friends!

All of the 20 fabulous ladies from Primary Chalkboard will be working on a blog post this month for November! You will get to read 20 new blog posts this month from us, then a FUN surprise at the end of the month for a Black Friday celebration. Keep your eyes open!

I'm kicking off this month of blog posts with a fun blog post on Election Day!

My name is Jessica and I am the first grade teacher blogger from First Grade Nest!

This year's Election Day won't be as big of a deal as last year since it isn't a presidential election year, but I still want to teach Election Day and the process of voting to my first graders.

Check out the voting process we did last year.

We started by reading a nonfiction text on voting and Election Day so that students were familiar with the process.

Then, we read three fun Election Day books!

Grace for President

My Teacher for President

Duck for President

I then put students on campaign teams. They must make campaign posters for each book they choose.

Here are My Teacher for President posters.

Duck's posters...

And Grace's posters....

Grab the freebie campaign posters to label your 3 candidates here!

Grab them for free here!!

Then, we registered to vote and went through with the entire voting process.

Both of these documents are FREE here!

I didn't have time to craft up the ballot box into something adorable and patriotic. Please forgive me. You guys know how absolutely crazy October is!!

After our Election Day process, we completed a fun craftivity book!