Spookley Book Companion {Pumpkin Investigation}

Can you believe we are days away from October.  Where is the time gone?  This month is packed with themed content.  I will be back tomorrow to share some of my favorite October resources: Fall Leaves, Fire Safety, Pumpkins, Bats, Owls, and Red Ribbon Week.  Keep an eye out because there are many great resources and freebies...

As for this post, I'm so excited to share my newest resource for The Legend of Spookley and a Pumpkin Investigation similar to the Apple Investigation in Seed to Seed: The Legend and Legacy of Johnny Appleseed.

I will be back once we complete our learning and insert in examples like I did in the linked post above.

For now, here's a glimpse at what's available in this companion....

If you're interested, click the graphic above to access the file. 
















Here are some pictures of our theme day of activities...

Love Scholastic Magazine!























We also worked on a collaborative shared paper and made pumpkin pie.


If you love this file, I provided a link in the first graphic of this post.  I'd love to know what you think.  Happy October, Friends.



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STEM Alphabet and Numbers

This school year I decided to take a different approach to reviewing letters during the first weeks of school.  Each year I work on letter recognition, sounds association, formations and a list of words with the same beginning sounds.  The kids never seem too engaged but it's important to review since a good percentage with my school demographics come into first with limited exposure and a big summer slide from kindergarten. 

This year I reviewed the letters and formations then sent the kids to their team to work on five letters at a time.  For each day of the week, the kids would work on the same five letters; however, I rotated the stem bin in which they built the word.  They worked at their own speed and found additional ways to challenge theirselves, often trying to build the lowercase letter. 

This independent exploration allowed for me to pull for beginning of the year assessments so that I could begin to place the kids in appropriate SIPPS and reading groups. Now we are moving and grooving with 1st grade content. 

Here's a glimpse at the resources...


And a glimpse at the Alphabet STEM Resources...


The file is created with all 26 letters for each of the five STEM resources.  I had the kids attempt to build off the mats but if needed they could use the mats.  So you will see both modeled from our class morning practice. 






Here's a glimpse at the Number STEM Resources...


Since we were not yet ready for math centers at the start of the year, I set up 20 minutes after our math lesson each day to rotate the Number Stem Bins to each team.  Just like the alphabet, we worked on five numbers each week, rotating the same five letters with a different STEM resource each day of the week. 








If you're interested in either of the files, click the cover graphics below...





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