October Week 3
Welcome to the third week in October!
How is October going for you? This is one of my favorite months of the whole year, but it also makes me a little sad to know that a long winter is ahead of us.
But we are having a blast with all things fall and pumpkins, and I love the crisp mornings and warm afternoons.
We have made so much progress and are almost ready to finish up our first sounds unit, and the kids love the Halloween themed reading activities this week.
Let’s get started!
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Whether you’re in the classroom, teaching online or homeschooling, these plans and lessons can work for you!
If you’re new here, you can go back through my weekly blog posts to see how I set up my calendar time, teach routines and procedures with centers, set up reading groups, etc. on previous weekly posts:
Here we are, preparing for the third week in October. Print my FREE lesson plans shown above HERE
I love that we are settled into a routine now, and I am not so exhausted at the end of each day anymore.
Halloween is right around the corner!
I am sharing this fun freebie at the bottom of this blog post.
Let’s get started!
Last week, I talked a lot about setting the tone for your lessons with I Can Statements.
This is the easiest way I have found to post my daily objectives and to help children take ownership of their learning.
The subject headers are free, and if you missed all the info on last week’s blog post, CLICK HERE to learn more.
How are your mornings going? This week, our morning work focuses on letters K-O, numbers, counting, 1:1 correspondence, syllables and rhyming.
Don’t you love how students can be independent with these now?
Quick tip: for your fast finishers, copy an activity from the no prep pack on the back. If you let them go play with blocks, centers, etc. when they are done, it distracts the other children.
Many students will rush through their morning work if they know they can get up and play. Having a specific activity copied onto the back of their paper keeps everyone in their seat, quietly working during morning work time.
My morning work is now compatible with Google Slides as well! Print a free week and learn more HERE
This digital calendar and morning meeting kit will transform your mornings.
I explain more on this blog post, but if you CLICK HERE you can watch a video and learn more.
PHONICS
We are focusing on sounds /z/ /c/ /y/ /n/ this week.
Small bursts of practice, multiple times a day/week will give you better results with five and six year olds rather than one hour long lesson.
Keep your lessons short and sweet to keep engagement high and behaviors low.
I warm up with phonemic awareness activities. This week on the lesson plans, it says, “Blend three sounds” on the daily lessons.
I tell my kids that their job is to figure out what the robot is saying (I am the robot!)
I just say a CVC word broken up into three sounds and they must blend the sounds to figure out the word.
This is building their phonemic awareness and their ability to manipulate phonemes (sounds.)
I can save your voice and teach this for you with my Boom Cards!
Kids love this game!
You can play these Boom cards on your front board whole group, or if you’re virtually teaching, show them on your computer screen. If your kids are learning at home, these Boom cards can be played on a tablet, computer of even an app on parents’ phones!
What I love about Boom Cards, is that children are practicing so many skills that they need to become good readers, but it feels like a game to them and they love it.
Do you use Elkonin boxes?
They are an excellent visual for students to use to break up sounds in words.
During phonemic awareness practice, I don’t attach letters to sounds. But, what is incredibly helpful for so many students is to have a visual to go along with the sounds.
I start introducing these colored boxes, so as I say each sound, I move my finger to the next box.
This will lay a great foundation for when we are learning middle and last sounds in CVC words (middle sounds are generally the hardest for children to hear and isolate.)
These colored boxes are included in my first sounds unit.
We warm up with phonemic awareness activities for about 3-5 minutes, and then move on to our phonics lessons.
By now, my kiddos understand the format of our first sounds unit.
I love this because I do not have to waste precious time explaining expectations or how to complete the activities. There is no loss of instructional time at all.
All of the resources I create follow a routine - and this saves you so much time explaining directions and expectations, and the children love knowing what to expect.
Every week is set up similar and we learn four new letter names/sounds.
When we are learning new sounds, we start by sorting picture cards.
I have them come up and place it in the correct spot, because it gets them moving. I like to focus on two sounds at a time while sorting.
After doing /z/ and /n/, they have been sitting still long enough, so have them get up and wiggle and sing our favorite phonics song with Jack!
After the quick brain break, we come back and do the other two letters /y/ and /c/.
Here are the activities for the week, and the order I use them in.
The kids have seen these same activities (with different letters) in previous weeks’ lessons, so you don’t have have to explain directions - they just get right to work.
If you haven’t used these yet and are new to my program, HERE is the complete blog post on first sounds and you can print all of the activities show above for free for letters p,m,s,l.
MATH
Last week, we worked on more than/less than. How did that go for you? It can be trickier than it seems, right?
Number lines are a life saver! We started with counting objects and simply telling which group has more or less last week.
This week, we are moving to telling which numeral is greater than/less that. To provide scaffolding and make this transition easier, the activities shown above has students count the objects in the picture, then write the numeral below.
I also provide a number line right on the paper for students to refer to. This is the perfect way to transition students to telling which numeral is more/less because they have both a picture and a number line to help them.
After we do these, you can move to the numeral only.
To help solidify this concept, I give students a real-life problem.
“Would you rather have 4 candies or 1 candy?”
The key is that all three resources are tied together with the exact same pictures, sight words and vocabulary - so all week students are building their confidence and fluency.
You can use these in a whole group format, small groups, for virtual learning, homeschool and so much more.
I use these three resources throughout the week. Personally, I prefer this schedule:
Monday: introduce theme, vocabulary/sight words, I read the passage, we read it together
Tuesday: review words, we read together, they read on their own (whisper/buddy), answer comprehension questions
Wednesday: Sentence Builder
Thursday: Mini book, Review CAP skills - front cover, turning pages, holding a book properly, I read the book to them
Friday: We read the book together, buddy read, answer comprehension questions
To learn more and try a FREE WEEK visit my blog post HERE
ALL ABOUT PUMPKINS
Our theme for the month of October is All About Pumpkins
Each week, we have a new read aloud, and our activities revolve around this read aloud. I love thematic teaching for so many reasons, and the kids are always so engaged.
We are on week three of our unit, and we have so many fun things planned. This is a great way to incorporate science, social studies, math and language arts together.
Week 3 - Too Many Pumpkins
This is such a cute story about a lady named Rebecca Estelle who does NOT like pumpkins… she plants her garden every spring but does NOT plant pumpkins.
Then a pumpkin truck accidentally drops a huge pumpkin in her yard! She buries the pumpkin to get rid of it… but then in the next spring a pumpkin plant pops up.
She is determined not to take care of it, but alas pumpkins keep growing and growing.
The story continues about all the things she does with the pumpkins… baking pumpkin cakes, pies, muffins, treats and making jack-o-lanterns. The kids LOVE this and love to share what they do with pumpkins.
This story leads us into a FUN week with all things pumpkin!
We start by making a class book.
Every student gets a page with a number on it.
For example, “If I had 5 pumpkins, I would….” and they finish this sentence starter. Included are numbers 1-25 plus a blank page so you can add more numbers if you have more than 25 students.
This makes an adorable class book and every student gets to share what they would do with their pumpkins.
Please note: the front cover and poem page come in both color and BW versions.
With all this counting, we then do this color and count pumpkins activity. This works well for practicing 1:1 correspondence and numeral recognition.
Next we do this super fun poll to see which pumpkin treats students like. Their answers always surprise me!
You can ask volunteers to send in different treats and the class can taste test them.
Rebecca Estelle made all sorts of pumpkin treats in the story, so it is a fun week to have the students try pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, etc.
Then you can take a class survey and graph the results.
Finally they use the word bank to finish the sentence about which pumpkin treat they liked best.
***Ask parents to donate the treats!***
Finally, our last activity for enrichment this week is our sequencing practice.
I love using interesting topics and seasonal ideas to practice reading skills. Sequencing is no different.. so we are using Pumpkin Pie to practice putting events in order.
I display this adorable anchor chart and we discuss the steps.
Then students can complete the cut/paste activity that coordinates. I love watching their little brains work through this problem solving task.
Learn more on the blog - All About Pumpkins HERE
The blog also has this pumpkin lifecycle freebie!
OCTOBER NO PREP PACK
This is, by far and away, my most requested pack each month. These activities can work for pre-k, kindergarten and first grade students.
They target the standards we are working on while using adorable, monthly themes.
Here is what we are planning on using this week:
Please note: if you are following my October lesson plans, you do not have to do the exact activities I show for no prep centers each week. These are the ones I am doing, but all the skills can be practiced throughout the month.
The worksheets from the pack that are not shown on my plans are used for fast finishers, intervention groups, sub tubs, etc.
Here is a tip when doing the Pumpkin first and last sounds:
Copy these two pages front to back. I start with the first sounds as we have been working on first sounds a lot.
I display these color elkonin boxes (I actually cut them apart so the three boxes can actually move.)
As I say a sound, my finger picks up and moved to the next box.
So for the first box, the picture is pan. When. say /p/ I touch the red box, when I say /a/ I move my finger to the green box and when I say /n/ I am touching to yellow box.
This is an incredible tool when teaching phonics, because now I am using a visual, plus for the kinesthetic learners, you can have them touch the boxes themselves as they say each sound.
So then when I ask, “Okay, what is the first sound in pan?” I pick up my finger (or theirs if I am in a small group) and touch the red box and say THIS SOUND. Watch the lightbulb go off in their head when you do this. They will practically shout /p/!!
Continue this with all of the pictures. Then the next day, repeat this with the last sounds activity and this time, you’re focusing on the yellow box because that is the last sound.
I always start by connecting new to know, so I quickly review yesterday’s lesson and show them how we stretched out the word and touched the boxes.
Then I say, “Okay, but today instead of focusing on the red box with first sounds, we are trying to find the last sound in the yellow box!”
So for the first box, the word is fan.
When you touch the red box, you say /f/ the green box is /a/ and the yellow box is /n/ - leave your finger on the yellow box and say, okay what is THIS sound.
This will help your students really understand what last sounds are, but it will be tricky for a bit.
If you’re in small groups, you can give each student their own elkonin boxes to touch.
Read more and my October No Prep Pack HERE and print freebies! This will help you forever say goodbye to laminating and the color pieces and explaining directions non stop! No prep printables are perfect for centers, sub tubs, fast finishers and more!
JUST ADDED - FALL 2022 OCTOBER POCKET CHART CENTERS
I am adding a new centers rotation this year! I am so excited to incorporate bilingual pocket chart centers.
These work so well for whole group lessons, small groups and independent centers.
Numbers, counting, ten frames, tally marks, capital and lowercase matching, the pumpkin lifecycle, concepts about print, editable sight words, onset and rime… plus so much more!
I love that follow up activities are included so you have accountability during center time.
Another idea for math and literacy centers are self-checking BOOM CARDS.
“My students loved this for their center time. They were engaged 100% of the time, and wanted to keep playing them. I have seen an improvement in remembering letter sounds and letter recognition.”
I target the exact skill we are working on this month in reading and language arts - including sight words, first sounds, segmenting and blending CVC words, numbers and counting, measurement, and more!
“I am so excited to try using Boom cards! I know my students will love these cards. They are so engaging and will be great for helping students practice specific skills. Thank you! “
PRIMARY WRITING
This week, we are doing handwriting lessons 33-37.
For writing, we are still working on writing lists. They have the hang of it now and it is absolutely adorable.
I am planning doing these list activities this week:
Eight pictures/words are given, and students choose their favorite 5. It is cute, because their list turns out different from everyone else’s and they love to compare and share.
There is enough scaffolding that even reluctant writers will join in, and we are learning that words can be grouped together based on their meaning and category.
Try a FREE LIST HERE
Did you miss my tips and tricks for teaching the first week of October? CLICK HERE
The second week of October plans can be found HERE
I hope these teaching tips make your week go smoother! My goal is to share ideas and tips every week on a blog post for the week coming up. This will hopefully take some stress off of you.
See you next week ❤️
Blessings, Michala
FREE HALLOWEEN TOPPERS
Kiddos think these are hysterical!
Ghost Poop: Mini Marshmallows
Witch Warts: Raisinets
Monster Scabs: Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
Pumpkin Teeth: Candy Corn
These adorable Halloween Favor Baggie Toppers fit perfectly over standard sandwich baggies. They are also editable to add a little message or your child's name! All four designs are included - use one or all of them.
