faulker099

Hello Everyone!! This post is a mix of writing, math, and a downloadable editable lesson plan template.So hold on tight and stay with me!! The case for using mentor sentences or sentence imitating begins with the premise that students are more motivated to organize sentence construction through the use of well crafted sentences from books we read rather than teaching a grammar lesson and using a “find the mistake” type activity.    Mentor sentences serve as examples for students of what good writing is all about.  Mentor sentences can help students identify all those elements of writing you are working on. In the primary grades, they might highlight good nouns, verbs, verb usage, capitalization, punctuation, etc.  Kids can also see how adjectives,adverbs, and other parts of speech are used effectively. In my first grade classroom, I have adopted a mentor sentence component to my writers workshop time.  Before I begin my workshop mini lesson and modeling, ...

Howdy All!!! Place value is always a tricky math concept to teach little ones.  We worked very hard on this objective this week.  The kids already had a sense of what it was all about because we have included a "place value" piece during calendar time every morning.  (You know the whole bundling straws thing!) But to bring it home I created giant pick up sticks using pieces of wood and a paint bucket.  On one side of the stick I simply drew 10 black dots.  On the other side I drew one red dot.  When the sticks are dropped we look at the "up" side and sort,  the tens together and the ones together.  We can then easily see the value of each place.  Writing down the value of each place was an important component. After practicing whole group, the kids got to make their own "place value pick up sticks." They used popsicle sticks. After creating their own, they got to play with a partner. The kids loved having their own set!! :) If you want specs ...