WHooooo's Been Busy in First Grade and a freebie!

We have been busy in first grade finishing up our Nocturnal Animal Unit while beginning our Circle Story Unit and squeezing some Native Americans and Pilgrims in when we get the chance.  I don't know about you, but I am ready for some Thanksgiving Break.  Time to relax and get my shopping on!

Anyway, I wanted to share with you the owl anchor chart we used.  I got the general idea for the anchor chart over at The First Grade Parade.  Cara made the cutest bat with her kiddos and I adapted it for our owl discussion.  You can find her chart here.

This is how our owl turned out.  Note that some of us had more schema coming in than others.  One of my little girls was so proud to tell me that "Owls can't cook!  It true!"  :-)   I just LOVE first grade!  Well after reading Owls by Gail Gibbons, we know everything there is to know about owls.  You can find the packet we used to accompany the book below.

 When we were finished with our owl, the class wanted to make little mice running away from the owl before he made them dinner!  While we were busy learning about owls in our reading classes, our art teacher was teaching the first graders about warm and cool colors and making beautiful owls to add to our hallway display.  They turned out so cool!  Don't you love them!

Circle stories were introduced this week with If you Give a Dog a Donut.  We retold the story in words and then we illustrated what happened and labeled our donut with the pictures to show us that a circle story never ends.  They loved it! (I got this idea from a colleague who made a very neat retelling cookie for her mouse!)  We then got to do Erin's  packet and they got to get into the cause and effect reading skills in other Laura Numeroff books. 

Erin's packet can be found here.

And now the freebie. This is a math freebie we used this week to review related addition and subtraction.  It really was telling when I corrected them.  This a great way to determine who really has a solid grasp on the related facts and who doesn't.  Enjoy!
 

click on the pic for your freebie!

We have linked up with Manic Monday at classroom freebie this week. Don't forget to check all the other great ideas linked up here! Have a great week!