Beginning of the Year

So September came and went before I even noticed!  We have been BUSY, BUSY in our classroom lately learning all our new routines. My favorite new routine has to be our Kindness Challenge.  I stumbled across it on Instagram this summer and instantly knew we had to try it out this year.  

Every week we flip the card to see what our "challenge" will be for the week.  It is a great way to start a discussion about different ways to be kind to one another.  

This week I found a great book in our book order "What Does it Mean to be Kind".  It was a sweet little story about things that you can do to be kind to others.  

Today our challenge was:

It could be my favorite challenge to date because the class did a great job interviewing each other to find out 5 new things about each other.  After they were done we all sat in a circle with our partner and shared one thing we learned.  

We have also been doing all things Apple (in September) and love these activities by Linda Kamp.

We do a lot of acrostic poems at the beginning of the year because the kid get the hang of them quickly and they always turn out cute.  

We also learned a little bit about each other by making Tree-Mendous Things About Me

Writing About FALL

The weather did feel like fall but currently we are experiencing warmer than average temps here in Wisconsin.  I am LOVING the high 60's/low 70's weather!!
Nevertheless, it is the beginning of November so we have been doing a lot of fall writing.
  

The first was this adorable acorn writing activity from Wild About Firsties.  

It was a quick activity that let us practice simple sentences and mechanics.  They thought it was so cute.  I love when they add their own little touches to make the acorns come to life.

Next we read the book The Falling Leaves.  This story has a really great message about treating others nicely so we discuss that before I show them the activity.

They take a cut out of a leaf and have to turn it into something totally different.  I am always completely amazed by their ideas!

I found this idea from Yearn to Learn.  I changed up the sheet a little to give us more room to work.

 

Click here to get a FREE copy of the sheet.

Finally, we used all five senses to describe fall.  We brainstormed a list of fall things for each of the five senses as a group.  Then I had them pick their favorites from each category to do a first draft copy.  The first draft gives them practice putting their idea into a complete sentence.

After they wrote their sentence down I had them copy their sentences onto a final sheet (on cuter paper) which we then turn into a class book.

Scarecrow sheet courtesy of Fun-in-First.  

And, just for good measure I thought I'd throw in a picture of my little guy in his first Halloween costume.  Enjoy!