Thanksgiving Addition Turkey Freebie

We love a good math craft and opportunity to show our mathematical thinking!! We have been exploring part, part whole addition strategies and connecting it to what we know about turn around facts and the relationship between addition and subtraction.

The turkey craft used above is from Jen over at First and Kinder Blue Skies. I absolutely LOVE all her themed crafts and have adapted them in many ways to find my curriculum needs. You can find everything you need from the craft here. 

Be sure to grab a copy of the addition freebie below!

After my mini-lesson, students create their own numbers for their part, part, whole addition turkeys. This is the perfect way to differentiate for each learner. I typically give my leveled groups specific number ranges to choose from (i.e. addition through 10, 20 and 100). This activity also gives students the opportunity to show their thinking more than one way. My rule of thumb is always to use pictures, numbers and words! The part, part whole digram is the "math picture," the turn around facts are the "number" and of course the explanation is the "words." Students in the addition to 10-20 range used the feathers to model the two "parts."



It's incredible to see just how much they're grown in being able to show their thinking and represent numbers with math models!!

You can find the Turkey Addition recording activity here!




I also got this adorable turkey hand activity idea from Sarah over at First Grader At Last. This is such an oldie but a goodie! We had such great fun skip counting by tens, fives and twos to answer the questions. It was even a great mental math lesson on place value for the students who were able to understand and explain that strategy!

Happy Turkey season everyone!

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October Read Alouds

There are so many great books that bring the magic of October alive in the classroom, but I've picked 10 of my favorites to share with you today! A few of these don't make their way on my classroom bookshelf or into my library book bins for good reason! I typically put away the books I use for instruction until I read them to my class. Once I do, I'll place them on the shelf and into the eager hands of my students.

This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. 

Rather than just giving you a quick little blurb of each, I thought it would be more beneficial to explain how I use them in my classroom. While I'm aware there are so many restraints on the curriculum and schedules in schools today, I'm lucky enough to work in a district that supports my creativity and design to integrate these when possible. Be sure to keep that in mind when reading. :) When I can, I look at the teaching points in my monthly content and find away to make it work!

M A T H  &  S C I E N C E

Estimation and skip counting are such important skills in the primary grades! This book encompasses both skills in one great story! It inspires you to have your own hands-on pumpkin themed counting experiment. So... that's just what I do each year! One day in the month of October, parents come in for a pumpkin filled day of fun. We read this story in the morning, list ways to explain/show our thinking when counting and estimating. Then, we rotate through science and math centers (weighing, estimating/counting seeds, measuring height, sink/float, etc.).  It's lots of fun and is sure to surprise even your highest thinkers with the results!
You can find it on Amazon here.

F L U E N C Y

Our October Reader's Workshop unit is all about teaching into reading strategies. Many lessons focus on also using a "reader's voice." There are so many fun ways to teach fluency and one of my favorites is reading/singing along to Pete the Cat Five Little Pumpkins. A few years back my class taught me how their Kinder teachers taught them the match hand gestures, which I have since adopted. :)
You can find it on Amazon here.



Pumpkin Pumpkin is perfect when teaching into fluency because of the predictable structure of the text. Students can also use pictures for tricky words and focus on how to "read punctuation." It's even great for making text-to-text connections if you study the life cycle of a pumpkin!

You can find it here.


S C I E N C E  &  S O C I A L  S T U D I E S

Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie is an the perfect nonfiction book for all your readers. The images are eye catching and facts are fun filled! I love the way National Geographic KIDS engages it young reader by asking though provoking questions in the text. It also the perfect model when asking and answering questions about a topic.

You can find it here.

How Big Can Your Pumpkin Grow? might be my student's absolute FAVORITE of the bunch! It's a definite must read and purchase for your classroom. My first time reading the story, I followed along and simply loved the illustrations,  until I reached the end and I realized there was so much more to this book than I imagined. Each page features a state in the US and a specific event, place, tale or tradition! Now when I introduce the book, I'm sure to give it a big into! Then we take the time finding the different states featured in the book on a map.  (My students know the NJ page every time! ;) )
You can find it here.

R E A D I N G

The Littlest Pumpkin is such a heart warming tale of a little pumpkin that just wants to be made into a jack-o-lantern by Halloween. It's great for discussing the author's message and making text-to-self connections. I also love that it connects to the many "Littlest" books you can find now for every holiday.

You can find it here.


The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin is another great text for discussing the author's message and making text-to-self connections. We use it when identifying and describing story elements (the main character, setting, problem and solution). It's such a classic!


You can find it here.

I wish I could have been smart enough to come up with writing a book about an adorable little pumpkin seed! I use Little Boo in the classroom to teach the "somebody, wanted, but, so, then" retell strategy. After reading, I take student responses for each part of the strategy. Then students can do it in their own words independently. This book also has elements of the life cycle of a pumpkin infused too- more text-to-text connection opportunities.

You can find it here.

W R I T I N G

Our Writer's Workshop October unit of study is letter writing. I love immersing students in texts in which characters write notes or letters to familiarize students with the concept of why we write letters. The Click Clack series might not have all of the formal parts of a letter (we use The Day the Crayon Quit books for that), it does engage my class in how much fun it can be to write letters. Click Clack Boo is just another great book in the series!

You can find it here.

F U N

I picked one title just for FUN! Scaredy Cat Splat is just hysterical! Whenever I get a quick few minutes here or there, I do love a good read aloud that's just to "enjoy listening to a good book." Let's be real here, we all need a good brain break of a story sometimes. :)

You can find it here.

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