Author of the Month -- Jan Brett

Jan Brett is one of those author's that has so many books that you could introduce her wonderful books in December or even January.  I like to introduce Jan Brett in December with her Gingerbread Baby book.  

Jan Brett is an amazing author who continues to write and illustrate books each year.  If you want to read her basic bio Scholastic has an excellent page about her.

Otherwise Jan Brett has her own webpage with countless resources and author videos to share with your class.  

I created several FREE POSTERS for my listening center with QR codes so that the first graders can listen to several of Jan Brett's stories from youtube. If you do not have ipads in your classroom you can find the links on my Author page at CK Primary. 

Here are some cute ideas on found on Pinterest that would make great lessons:

This first one is a great idea for a follow up activity for guided reading.  You could use this idea for more than just The Mitten.  

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I love making classbook with my students.  The next three ideas would fun and exciting ways to extend the stories in your classroom.  

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PS  Don't forget to have your students find the hidden hedgehogs in the illustrations of the Jan Brett books.  

Author of the Month -- Doreen Cronin

Doreen Cronin
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Doreen Cronin is the Author of the Month for November in First Grade.   I thought it was the perfect choice with the elections, her book Duck for President is hilarious.   

I collected some free resources and have a link for them here.  I also have some links for the stories I found on youtube.  
 
I put together some qr cards with books jackets for the listening center.  You can pick those up free here. I mount them on colorful card stock and hang them up in the reading center.  What I like about the posters is that they serve two purposes:  1.  decoration and 2.  They have qr codes on them that the students can use with the ipads as a listening center.  

Below are some great ideas I found on Pinterest.  I really like the last activity.   

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Fire Prevention Ideas

It's time to start planning for Fire Safety Awareness.  There are so many wonderful books to read to the class however a rare one to find is my favorite by Felicia Bond, Poinsettia and the Firefighters.  I checked on Amazon and it is only available to purchase as a used book.  The kids love the story most of them can identify with the character Poinsettia.  

I added the poem Ten Little Firefighters to my Poetry Basket this year.  As always I made a homework sheet for the children to share with their families.  I believe I found the poem on Pinterest, however I did not have anything marked down in my notebook from last year.    

Click Here for your FREE copy

My main resource for the week are these videos I found by the Ocoee Fire Department on Youtube.  I have them on my teaching site CK Primary.    They are super cute with puppets and firefighters.  My class loves them.  I also used a free Fire Safety Pack by The Clever Classroom as a follow up.  I do not use all the pages.  I pick and choose which ones  that are the most important to me based on the time we have together that week.   

Finally, I found some free apps that I am looking forward to checking out.  They all can be downloaded on the Apple App Store.  

 

Author of the Month -- The Best Kevin Henkes ideas

 Kevin Henkes in the Author of the Month in First Grade right now and I thought I would share the top ten ideas I found on Pinterest. 

1.  First find all your books by Kevin Henkes and look for more at the library.   

2.  These are my favorite author posters..and this packet has a Kevin Henkes Poster.

Becca Carlton Teaching Resources

3.  This is cute Kevin Henkes art project by The Educators Spin on it....

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4.  After I read Chrysanthemum I love to have the kids draw a portrait and make rainbow names.  

5.  This is by far my favorite anchor chart at the beginning of the school year.  

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It helps set the tone for the whole school year as we talk about how to get along with all our new friends. 

6.  On my CKPRIMARY teaching site I added some links to stories on youtube by Kevin Henkes.  They are great for snack time.  I will be updating this site as the year goes on.  

F is for First Grader

This is not a new lesson to me, I did a similar lesson a couple of years ago when I taught kindergarten.  I just updated it a bit for first grade. 

On the first day of school I read the book, A My Name is Alice, as a way to begin introducing everyone in class.  

Most of my students do not understand cities or states yet so we just say our names and something we like that  begins with the same letter.  It is a tricky assignment for the first day and it gives me an idea of their alphabet knowledge.

Then each child picks a sticker from my leftover sticker collection for the first letter of his/her name and completes the page for the class book.

Then I put the class pages in alphabetical order and assemble them in a binder.  I do not laminate them, I use page protectors.  I like my binder system a lot.  The books do not tear apart and they are easy to take apart at the end of the year and give back to the students.

If you would like a copy of my F is for First Grade I have it at my TPT store.