How to Writing, Some Great Children's Books & A New Product!

Well it may seem a little late to have your students complete a how to writing about building a snowman, but around here we rarely get snow and just a few weeks ago we did get snow!
And it was enough to make a snowman or two! 
 Our kiddos enjoy how to writings, especially when they know a lot about the topic, and making a snowman is a topic they DEFINITELY know about!  We read a story, watched a short YouTube video, and are just about finished with our class how to writing.  Monday the kiddos will write their own independently.  Below is the book, video and writing template :) 

We found this book on iTunes and read it to our kids on our iPads while displaying it on our Smartboards.  They love to listen to books while they're displayed, so much larger!

It's a cute little story about Caillou building
his first snowman with a friend. 


Next we watched a short YouTube video showing a
 person making a snowman.

Finally we started our shared how to writing piece.
Our kiddos helped us glue these cards in order on the chart below.


 Here's our process so far.
We shared the pen through this process, which our kids love to do!  
We're finishing this up on Monday and our first graders are going to complete their own How to Make a Snowman writing sample using this template.  
We have several options, just click the picture below to download!

We'll update tomorrow with our finished chart and some writing samples :)   

On Friday, our school will celebrate Dr. Seuss Day (March 2nd).  During the week our kiddos sign up to listen to a reader.  Then on Friday, at the end of the day, our students get to go and listen to another teacher read stories.  They have so much fun and love it!  Every year we like to find new books to read to the kids that come to our rooms!  We thought we'd share a few books that we've recently found!

We just LOVE Mo Willems around here and this book is hilarious.  We're reading the traditional Goldilocks and The Three Little Bears then reading this one to compare.  

And then there's these sweet stories.  So ADORABLE!  Sweet little Rocket is such a cute character and his teacher (the little yellow bird) is just as cute! We love reading how Rocket learns to read and write, and are sure our kids will enjoy following him on his journeys as well.  
Rocket's Mighty Words (board book) contains labels and pictures, 
which makes this book perfect for beginning readers and writers. 
                  

 Finally, this sweet book goes well with our newest punctuation characters we've added to our store.  This story involves an exclamation point who feels that he just doesn't fit in amongst a group of periods.  After meeting a question mark, he soon cheers up and realizes he is special!  We love that the question mark always asks questions and finally gets exclamation point to say exclamatory sentences and words.

And here's our newest addition to our store!

Stop on by {HERE} and check them out!

Have a great week!