First Grade Common Core Literature

Introduction to First Grade Common Core Literature

-Common Core English Language Arts CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1-1.10, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1-1.6, and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1-1.5

Jack absolutely loves Mo Willems’ pigeon books. For this First Grade Common Core Literature project we got 6 of the pigeon books to study the first grade Common Core literature standards. We compared these fiction books with a rhyming book, a weather book, and a book about the seasons.

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You can purchase the books we used by clicking the links in this list:

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!

The Pigeon Needs a Bath!

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy

The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? (Pigeon)

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly!

After completing the worksheets for this lesson, we put together felt boards, which we used to write our very own pigeon stories! A full lesson for this project, including worksheets, an in-depth project description, assessment, and lesson plan, can be found in our Teachers Pay Teachers store. Here are a few sample pages from the 80-page First Grade Common Core ELA lesson:

Materials List for First Grade Common Core Literature

–felt
–fine marker
–glue gun
–canvas panels
–tan flannel fabric
-Mo Willems books above

Step 1: Collect all the materials for making the felt boards, draw or trace the pictures you want for your boards on white paper, cut them out and transfer them onto the felt

First I purchased package of felt. I made sure it had the colors: yellow, blue, white, orange, green, off white, brown, and tan. I traced the pictures I wanted to make into felt characters onto white paper and then cut them out. Then I used a fine marker to trace the pictures onto the felt.

Step 2: Attach small pieces using a glue gun

Some of the smaller pieces had to be attached with a glue gun so we didn’t lose them.

Here are some of our completed characters! I saved the paper tracings so we could have some fun coloring them in and gluing them to cardboard.

Step 3: Use the glue gun to cover the canvas with the tan flannel

Now it was time to make the flannel boards! We decided to make three, but it is up to you how many you want to do. We started by getting the canvas panels and tan flannel fabric. You can figure out how much fabric you need based on the size and amount of boards you will make. Just be sure to account for a good amount of extra fabric to fold over the back of the board so the fabric stays tight when you glue it down.