Cause and Effect Wintery Adventures

Sooooo, we just spent our entire last week focusing on cause and effect! Since it's my very *favorite* time of year (wintery, Christmasy, hot-pepperminty treats season!), we practiced our cause and effect skills with a few different wintery, cozy books and partner and independent activities that my little ones really enjoyed and learned from.

We started the week off with a super fun cause and effect game called "Knock Your Block Off", thanks to Emily Foltz at Big Ideas in Teaching. My kiddos totally LOVED it! It was super low-prep AND a really easy activity for me to walk around to observe. I could hear a few little tidbits from my kiddos' conversations to informally assess what they were understand so far and redirect the ones who were struggling with the concept. 

  

Then, we read a few different books to continue to practice finding causes and effects in texts. We read "A Little Bit of Winter" by Paul Stewart, "One Snowy Day" by M. Christina Butler. We used the organizers here to allow students to show what they know about the causes and effects in the stories. 

Finally, on Friday we read "The Mitten" by Alvin Tresselt. We had a discussion together as we read the story, pointing out when students found causes and effects in the story. We have been practicing using good discussion techniques, such as listening when someone else is talking, expressing an opinion, and respectfully disagreeing. We're not great at it yet, but getting better every day. =) After the story, students chose one cause and effect that stuck out to them the most to record onto their little mittens! They wrote their cause on one mitten and the effect on the other mitten and decorated the mittens however they liked the best. Then, I use the hot glue gun to add the cotton balls and little string to hang them up and then posted them onto our wintery bulletin board in the hallway. I love how they turned out! Super proud of the beautiful work my kiddos created! 

Next week, we're moving onto practicing fact and opinion using our Holly Jolly Holiday Fact and Opinion activities! We're also using the holiday fact fun from Gretchen at Lipstick and Learning's "Holidays Around the World Mega Unit 1" packet to learn some new things about different countries' holidays by taking a trip around the world! It's going to be a BLAST, complete with passports and stamps and suitcases and a map of the world. I'm so looking forward to it! And I'm sure my littles will be just as excited about their trip around the world as I am. Hooray for world travels! =) 

Hoping you all have a very peaceful, learning-filled week! I know it's two weeks before winter break and my kids are just as super-crazy-excited as yours. Haha! So, I'm thinking positive thoughts and speaking life into my classroom all week long to help my learners be the best ones they can be. Wishing all those good things for you and your kids this week too!  

Happy teaching!