Showing Some Love in February

       I am finally back on the creative train and have set some goals for myself.  I realized that I allow others' things to take priority over the things that really make me HAPPY.  I love making and creating fun and engaging lessons and activities for my classroom, but recently I have let that take the back burner. I don't know about you, but we have had so much assessing in the classroom this year that I started the question my "why".  I realized that not allowing time for the fun things in the classroom was not an option and was unfair to myself and the kids, so here I am ready to share some of my latest and greatest ideas!

    Since it is the month of February, I have been busy at work making some engaging reading lessons that the kids would love and would also hit my learning targets for the month.  If you need some book companion lessons for February these are perfect! This unit includes 70 pages of detailed lessons, learning targets, writing prompts, cut-and-paste activities, and even anchor charts to accompany your lessons.   Check out the sneak peeks below.  This unit will also be a part of my TpT sale on February 6 & 7 so you can grab it on sale! 

One of the books that is a part of this unit is The Invisible String.  This adorable read-aloud is perfect for teaching and making connections.  This lesson includes a great SEL lesson on the importance of choosing kindness and has a cute organizer for students to share what things they love and hold close to their hearts.

Students create their web of compliments as part of the SEL lesson that goes along with the read-aloud. 

The book Love Monster is also a staple in my room for February! This is the cutest book to teach kids the importance of love and is the perfect book for character traits.  This lesson focuses on sequencing events, story elements, and character traits. 

How stinking adorable is this Love Monster sequencing puppet? 

The anchor chart printables make is easy to prepare ahead of time and make for a great classroom anchor chart to hang up afterward. 

The book characters Wilford and Blue are the sweetest and are perfect when teaching comparing and contrasting.  I love this lesson activity because the students not only compare and contrast the characters but also have the opportunity to build communication skills by comparing themselves with peers. 

They even have these snapshots of a good friend writing prompts to use as a writing center after reading and an anchor chart sort to use as well. 

If you do not have Grumpy Monkey books in your classroom library they are a MUST.  My kids adore them and this did not fall short.  The read-aloud is perfect for teaching the main idea and details and the vocabulary in this book is great for context clues. I love the main idea and details cut-and-paste for this because this skill is still new and they are not independently ready to write these out on their own. 

The final book in the unit is Love Grows Everywhere and it might be a new favorite of mine.  There are so many teaching points in this book and the rhyme within the text made it extra engaging.  I found that the gesture of kindness and how it can be spread was perfect for my first graders. 

There is a great word word activity and check-point work page to use as a center choice or partner pair-up activity.

If this activity is just what you need you can grab it here at my TpT Shop: The Weekly Hive. 

If you are looking for some fun Valentine themed word work activites to add to your weekly centers this is great little FREEBIE! 

To grab this for free click the image below to take you directly to my shop! 

Students can complete a fun cut-and-paste activity to master reading and matching words with CVC, Diagraphs, and CVC_e patterns.  
 

This little mini unit also includes a fun I Spy Valentine Word sheet and a practice page for buildin compund words. 

I hope you have survived the longest month ever....JANUARY and are ready for some fun in the month of February! Happy teaching and check back soon for some more fun and engaging math activites and freebies.