Farm: week one

We have just finished our first of three weeks learning about the farm.  So far, it's been a huge hit!  They love all the animals and learning where things come from.  We read a great book that was kinder appropriate and loaded with facts.  Short, sweet, and rhyming! 

We have also been reading the emergent reader that I created.  The kids love that they can read an entire paragraph by themselves, and have been using the book as a research tool for their writing.  Seeing them use the resources around them and being excited about it is awesome!

After reading the book together, we have also been using thinking maps to organize our thoughts and get ideas for writing.  Here is one we did about hens.

This type of thinking map is simple and familiar, so it's easy for them to create.  The only thing I've found that I don't like, is that when students use it to write, they start all of their sentences with the same word.  To encourage variety in their writing, we use this activity to organize thoughts as a group, but I take it off the SMART board when they write.  When I model writing, I also use different words to begin sentences and talk my way through that process.

To get my mini-unit farm pack with all the Language Arts and math goodies, go to my TpT store here.