Photo Problems, Valentine Freebie

Greetings Everyone! I'm sorry that some of the pictures are not displaying properly. I just realized it was a problem and am working on it. From what I can gather it has something to do with my Google+/Picasa. I will try to fix the missing photos in the next week. Just for fun, I am including a free Valentine printable and a link to my latest TpT listing. It is a set of Doodle Border Stationery for Writer's Workshop.

Click here to download.

Click here to see this on TpT.

Have a great evening.

Behavior Bingo Freebie

Have your students been torturing you with their behavior.  Mine have been a little, rambunctious.  I am sure you have probably seen this on pinterest.

Don't you love pinning...  my husband has threatened to throw my iPad into the toliet, because I am constantly pinning after my little monsters go to bed.  Sorry hubby...

Here is how it works...When a kid is doing what he/she is supposed to be doing and you see him/her, that student then gets to sign his/her name in a box. At the end of the day, you roll a dice for the letter and the number. The student gets a reward....

So here is my version of behavior bingo.

 CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!

Happy Day and Writer's Notebook Cover Freebie :)

I am linking up with Manic Mondays at Classroom Freebies!

It is a beautiful day! I hope you are doing something relaxing and fun where you are today.

I'm sure you have picked up on the fact that I love, love, love Nikki from Melonheadz Illustrating. This is a little Writer's Notebook cover I made this week that we are using next year. It features one of her darling sets and borders . . .

 Click here if you would like a copy

Hot Chocolate Graph

I saw this graph that I just have to do with our Polar Express Mini unit later this week on Pinterest, from  First Grader at Last.

I am sooooo not an artist so I found some clip art and plan on copying it on construction paper and having the kids use scraps for the chocolate chips and marshmallows. I can't wait to see what it turns out like. If you are sooooo NOT and artist like me click here for a copy for yourself.

Friendly Letter

After our iPads arrived I thought it would be a good idea if the kids wrote thank you notes to the people who helped make it possible for us to get them. So I whipped up this writing form.

Click here to get one for yourself.

Then I realized I needed to cover the parts of a letter with them, since we hadn't done that yet. So I whipped up an anchor chart for them to look at.

(sorry about the magnet)

 What a perfect opportunity to give the kids an authentic reason to write. I could tell that they had a purpose because they were concentrating so hard on their writing and making sure that their handwriting was legible (another authentic purpose). I love it when we can give the kids a reason for why we teach what we do at school. It makes all of the difference.

Capitalization Anchor Chart

Yes, I know it is late in the year, but my little ones are still struggling to know what and when to capitalize something. I found this example of a capitalization anchor chart at First Grade Fresh and decided to make one on the computer (since I am NOT an artist of even the basic kind--that is my little sister's job).

Here is what I came up with:

Click here to get your copy. Enjoy!

Sentence Anchor Chart

I have several ESL students in my class this year, so we are working really hard on what a sentence is. I found this lovely on pinterest and decided to make one of my own. (Sorry I don't have the original source, if you know where it is posted please let me know.

Pinterest link

Here is my version:

Click here to get one for yourself.

Make an "I Am Thankful" list

With Thanksgiving upon us, it's a great time for the children, (and the teacher) to think about what they are thankful for! Here is a color version and a black/white version. . .

Click here to download "I Am Thankful . ."

Printable Writing Paper

In planning a Fall writing project today, I realized I wanted a nicer copy for the kids to write on. When that happens, I normally find one of my handwriting fonts that allows me to create blank lines. I am never completely happy with the results, but it works.

I just wasn't in the mood to try and format something on my own and thought that someone else surely must have created something better than what I could create. Sure enough I was in luck! DonnaYoung.org had what I wanted. And it looks like there are many more things that I might want to use as well.

Pumpkin Brace

We all saw this great pumpkin brace (scroll down a bit) on pinterest, and immediately wanted to do this with our kids. We couldn't find the instructions, so we made up some of our own.

Here is what we came up with.

For the "whole pumpkin" each student will need: 1- 9x10 orange construction paper, 1- 1x2 brown construction paper. I had the kids cut their own pumpkin out, add the stem and then glue it on the left hand side of a 12x18 piece of black construction paper.

For the "parts of a pumpkin" each student will need: 1- 2x9 orange construction paper (skin), 1- 2x9 orange copy paper (flesh), small handful of shredded orange copy paper (pulp), 1- 3x4 white (cut multiple seeds from), 1- 1x2 brown construction paper (stem/peduncle). As we put the "parts of a pumpkin" side together, I showed the kids a cross section of a pumpkin we had left over from some of our pumpkin investigations from the day before. It made it easier for me to reinforce the different parts with the real thing in front of them.

Here are the words we used to label our pumpkins.

This is a definite addition to my yearly pumpkin unit. It was sooooo much fun!

Nouns and Verbs

HaPpY ThUrSdAy!!

As Becca mentioned in an earlier post, we use the book, Month by Month Trait Based Writing Instruction by Walther and Phillips.  It has a lot of great ideas and recommended read alouds. One activity is about Nouns and Verbs and helps the kids to learn the difference between a noun and a verb and involves matching the noun and verb that makes sense. I wanted it to be fun and inviting and something that the kids could match up on the floor or in a pocket chart.

Click here to download Nouns and Verbs Match Up

Monday?

Wow! I can't believe it is Monday tomorrow-AlReaDy! The weekend sure went by fast. (Hmmm, that always seems to happen) Hope yours was great! Just for fun, here is a practice page for writing numbers from 1 to 50. Oh, and if you've enjoyed any of the stuff I've put on Teachers Notebook, please consider leaving a rating. Thanks a bunch! (sorry that black line is showing in the picture, it won't be on the download)

Click here to download Writing to 50. 

Grandma and Grandpa went Trick or Treating too!

Isn't it funny how children think grown ups were never children themselves? They find it hard to believe and yet love to hear about what parents, teachers or grandparents did when they were young. Here is a little activity that the kids can do with either or both grandparents!

Click here to download from Teachers Notebook!