Time for some “team work” or collaboration! On Tuesdays I will focus on how my team or my students “team-up” to make learning better for everyone.
First up is my first grade team. We are 4 very different people who are all extremely busy with our personal lives but have managed to plan weekly for the year. This is a first for me and it has been AMAZING. Two of my teammates are new to first but not new to teaching. They are able to bring some amazing ideas down to the first grade level as well. Whenever you work together great things can happen.
So for years we have been doing an owl unit in first grade. We love non-fiction and our little brains are like sponges just absorbing everything we are taught. Here are a few things that we did in our class.
We invited our third grade buddies to come and complete a non-fiction text features hunt on owls. We love our third grade buddies and it is always fun to do a cooperative learning activity with them. We do this every Wednesday!
We used the mini book to find all of the non-fiction text features in our packet!
We also finished up Chapter 5 which was all about shapes. So I made a shape owl to add to my packet. Each part of the owl was a different shape. Once we made our owls, we had to record the shapes. Great writing practice and shape review.
We also complete this directed drawing of an owl moon. I LOVE this project and it has been in my file for years. The kids all panic at first but I remind them that they are supposed to all look different. I think they are beautiful!
Here is the link to the craft. We didn’t do the reflections, we just drew the owl.
A few of my favorites up close!!
So what was different this year! Because my team worked together and planned, we were able to dissect owl pellets. As gross as it was, the kids LOVED it! One of my teammates did this project in 3rd grade and since we still taught owls, it is now a 1st grade activity. We called a local place, Nature’s Nursery to purchase the pellets. Each child had to send in a dollar. Here are a few pictures from our dissection. The activity I prepared is also in the Owl packet.
This is what we found in our pellets. We had two animal skulls.
So we “Teamed-Up” and had a great week learning all about owls.
All activities were found in this packet!
