Which witch?

Aren't these just adorable??

I totally stole this cute craft idea from Ms. Leslie Ann over at Life in First Grade! Well, not totally. I bought some Halloween scrapbook paper from the dollar bin at Target. I cut each sheet in half and that's what we used for the dresses. She now offers patters, but we didn't use them. Also, Ms. Leslie Ann ended up tying this craft to a sequencing activity. I went another route and had my kiddos further experiment with descriptive writing. I asked them to write 3 or 4 sentences describing what their witches look like.

Then I displayed the witches and their writing on a bulletin board. (I made sure they wrote their names on the back of each item.) The small pink square on each witch is a number I added using post-its. When people walked by they could read the descriptions and try to find the matching witch. After noticing the number, they would fold up the bottom half of the description and check the number on back. If the number of the witch they thought of was the same as the number on the back of the description, it's a match! 

My sweet kids had SO much fun showing these off to the older students and making them guess which witch was theirs! If you want to give it a try, feel free to download the writing sheet. I did make a few design changes because well, that's what I do. Always perfecting... never satisfied... I'm sure next year it'll be something even different!

Best wishes.

There Was An Old Lady Who...

Don't your students just love these stories?! Mine get so excited every time they find an Old Lady book in our library. Feels like no matter how many things that woman swallows, it'll never get old for them! Well, I recently purchased There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books from our school book fair. I read it to the kids and they were (not surprisingly) just as entertained as ever. That's when it hit me... Why not have the students write their own Old Lady story?! I became even more convinced that this would be the perfect assignment once I realized how much non fiction writing we have been doing (thanks Common Core). I can't wait to get started on this tomorrow and see their imaginations run wild!

 

If you're interested, you can pick up a copy for yourself at my TpT store. Or you could be one of the first five to leave a comment. Be sure to let me know about your favorite Old Lady activity and you'll get one for free! Don't forget your email address!!

Looking forward to letting you all know how it turned out!

Best wishes,

If Santa was stuck in my chimney...

This is absolutely one of my favorite writing activities to do throughout the year!! At this point in the year, the kids know what to expect when we begin the writing process and are really beginning to enjoy it. Although we have not finished our paragraphs yet, I predict they will be absolutely outstanding! Here's how we got started...

On Monday, we began by discussing Santa and what we know about him. The students were more than willing to tell me stories about what he has brought to them in the past. Some of them even swear they've watched Santa fill their stockings! Such storytellers!! Afterwards, I gave each student a bubble map and asked them to imagine they actually found Santa... stuck in their chimney! What would they do?! I took a few quick responses and then asked the students to quietly write or draw their own plan. I really wanted to see how creative they could be. On Tuesday, we turned these ideas into sentences. Together we wrote the topic sentence and conclusion. Then they got with their shoulder partners to read everything out loud. Today we revised our sentences. I always have the students help me revise my paragraph first (one sentence at a time) and they allow them to work on theirs. Again, they met with their partners to read it aloud.  They're really good at finding their own mistakes when they do this! We'll proofread tomorrow and publish Friday. I can't wait to show off the final product!

If you would like a copy of this activity, you can get one for free! Just click on over to my TpT store!

Also, I just finished up my holiday centers. Right now there are 4 math and 4 literacy centers, but I'm working on more. So, hurry and pick them up now so you'll have plenty of time to prep them. 

I can't wait to get started with these centers!! And for my loyal followers, I'll give away 5 copies to the first 5 who comment with something they do in class during the holidays.

Lastly, I have one more freebie for you! In my class, we practice our sight words constantly. So, I'm always looking for different ways to do this. One of the ways my students like best is our Sight Word Scramble. It's simple... the kids read the words and put them in order to make a complete sentence. I have such freedom to make up sentences using any words we're working with... sight words, holiday words, Science vocabulary, the list is endless! 

Here's the worksheet the sentences get glued on. Of course there's room to illustrate! What kind of teacher would I be if I left that out??

This sheet is where I type the words to be used in the sentences. In the spirit of protecting our natural resources, I fit 4 on a page. Each sentence I make up has 6 words or less. When the students get this sheet, they color all of the boxes in each row a different color. This helps them know which words go in which sentence after they cut everything apart. 

Then they unscramble, glue and illustrate. Here are a few finished copies...

You can grab your free copy here. I think that's all I can give tonight. Have a great rest of the week!

Best wishes,

I'm on a roll...

A new blog, 4 posts AND two new products in only one week?! I have no life. I'm having way too much fun with this (and my hubby is out of town)!! I had originally wanted to post today about my year in review. Then I decided to check my email "real quick." I should have known better... Checking email led to reading feedback, blog hopping, online shopping (hubby was obviously out of town) and lots of new, a-dor-a-bul graphics. My mind was racing with all the things I now feel empowered to do and I just had to create!! So here are the fruits of my labor...

Polka Dot and Owl Writing Process

I mean come on! How do you see these little guys and not want to hang them all over your classroom walls? So click on over to TpT and pick them up! It's my gift to you!! Don't forget to take a second and let me know what you think. Pretty please!!

Hubs is back in town tonight, but leaving again soon. When that happens, I'm willing to bet I'll be back in the creating and posting mood. So, be on the lookout!

Best wishes,