Pet of the Day

I wanted to share a great activity that adds authentic reading and writing to the classroom and provides a bit of entertainment. I was finding that snack time was turning into more of a recess time and management issues were cropping, so I pulled out an old calendar activity from when I taught first grade.  It is a website called “Pet of the Day.”  I pull it up on our electronic whiteboard and we read it while the kids are eating snack.  Here are a few features:

• Introduces different animals.
• Animals are from all over the country and world – makes a great connection to social studies.
• Sometimes kids write about their pets and send it in.
• Students can get a sense of an author’s voice and other writing features.

This has been super motivating for my students and they love to read about the pets together.  Check it out!