I'm A Little Cowpoke!

As one of our Reading Celebration days, we picked the theme of cowboys.  Cowboy themes are very popular here and this celebration of reading ended up going all week and not just one day!

Our school had decided to not do AR (Accelerated Reader) any longer (read about that decision here), so we pick a day once a quarter to celebrate reading instead.  Everyone gets to participate instead of just part of the school.  We pick a theme, read books that go with the theme, eat snacks that go with it, make a themed craft, and of course READ, READ, READ!  

I couldn't find the right level of books for my younger students, so I found some cowboy poems and made them into books.  The poems were great for comprehension, rhyming, and working on our fluency.

I had the students illustrate the poems to show me that they were comprehending the poem.  

This little poem- I'm A Little Cowpoke is what I used for my kindergartners during cowboy week.  You sing/read it to the tune of I'm A Little Teapot.  I added the picture cards to the pocket chart poem to scaffold those students who needed a bit of help.  

We also made some letter Cc headband hats.  The kids really enjoyed this and cowboy was a great way to remember the letter Cc!

Kindergartners created an interactive chart on Cowboys can....then rebuilt their cut up sentence in their journals.  First graders practiced their poem together and found rhymes before reading it independently in book form.

My second graders did a Rounding Up the Rhymes activity with their poem, An Armadillo.  We looked at spelling patterns after the rhymes were found, keeping the words that rhymed and matched in their spelling pattern.  Then we used those words to spell new words.

These are 3 literacy center activities carrying on with the cowboy theme!  Line Up, Little Doggies has students practicing putting their letters in ABC order.  The other two center activities work on beginning and ending sounds- just what my students are needing!

My next door teacher neighbor has a brother who likes to draw and he graciously always decorates our door for each theme!!  We are so lucky!  All we have to do is put the background paper up for him and he takes care of the rest.

We used the train he made from our Polar Express theme last year in this years Cowboy theme.  

I hope you enjoyed all of our cowboy activities!  I wish I could show you all the cowboys and cowgirls that showed up that day in their best cowboy gear.  It was a lot of fun!  Click the pictures or here if you wish to check out my Cowboy Literacy Unit.

Enjoy your Sunday!  I will be attending a Marre Reading Conference.  I can't wait!  There are so many talented presenters and I always learn things to bring back to my room that will hopefully help me be a better reading teacher for my students.