FRAMEZ

These frames are perfect for your Teachers Pay Teachers products or for personal use! They are high resolution PNG images. All images are easy to resize and layer into projects! You can grab them in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Dec. Holiday Crafts!

Each of these holiday arts and crafts projects incorporated connections to math and literacy as well as awesome fine motor skills. We made a ton of snowman crafts before, during, and after reading stories about winter and snow. One of the crafts pictured shows a painted snowman with a sentence under it. During a literacy center students cut out the words and then arranged them to make a complete sentence. I checked their sentences before they pasted it onto their snowman picture. Another craft pictured is a puzzle piece picture frame. Students pasted old puzzle pieces onto precut cardboard frames. I told the students to paste at least two layers of puzzle pieces onto their frames. After they dried, I took the puzzle piece frames home to spray paint silver. Then the students glued on buttons and bowes. I reinforced some of them with hot glue. I also took their picture and glued it on the back and then hot glued on a ribbon so their parents could hang their frame on their Christmas tree or on their fridge if they did not celebrate Christmas. My students also made beaded snowflakes, candy canes, and wreathes. They practiced counting and adding as they strung their beads onto their pipe cleaners. We practiced recalling the beginning, middle, and end of a story by writing the events down in a snowman graphic organizer. Students wrote about snowmen and made a snowy town from colorful shapes that they cut out. We made ice skates, boots, and mittens, and then they wrote about winter clothes. We had so much fun learning about math and literacy as we prepared for the holidays!

QUOTES!

Native American Indian and Shapes

We learned about shapes through making a Native American Indian for Thanksgiving! This is a sample picture!

Tommy the Turkey and Phonics

My class loved reading the poem Tommy the Turkey! After we played a game called, "Tommy Tapple" to brainstorm as many words as we could that began with the letter /T/. I recorded the list on chart paper so the children could refer back to it for our "Tommy the Turkey" craft and later for journal writing. The students recorded words that began with the letter /T/ on each of "Tommy's" feathers. We had a blast!

Emperor Penguins: Close Read

EMPEROR PENGUINS and EMPEROR PENGUIN CHICKS CLOSE READ with craft I am so excited to present this packet to you! I am confident that both your students and you will enjoy learning FUN FACTS about EMPEROR PENGUINS and EMPEROR PENGUINS CHICKS! For example did you know that emperor penguins are the largest of all the penguins or that emperor penguin chicks stay in groups called crèches? ELA Anchor Standards: Key Ideas and Details: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. Craft and Structure: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5 Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.10 Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. I have differentiated every aspect of this packet. This allows you to easily differentiate the close reading passages (Emperor Penguins and Emperor Penguin Chicks) to your students diverse learning levels. I also differentiated each of the close reading questions. This allows you to easily accommodate your high flyers, average learners, and those who need more scaffolding. As teachers we know that one size does not fit all! Included in this product: -Color and black and white versions of every sheet! 5 Versions of Emperor Penguins Close Read: Color, BW, smaller and larger fonts, longer and shorter versions, all with pictures -9 sets of Close Reading Questions including differentiated versions 4 Versions of Emperor Penguin Chicks Close Read: Color, BW, smaller and larger fonts, longer and shorter versions, all with pictures -12 set of Close Reading Questions including differentiated versions -Penguin Craft Sample -Penguin Craft Directions -Fact Box Recording Sheets- 3 different versions -Penguin Craft Template Tracer

December & January Writing Prompts for the Common Core Classroom

This December and January Writing Prompts Packet for the Common Core Classroom is an awesome writing resource for teachers K-6! The writing prompts can be differentiated according to your students need and level. Additionally I included 16 pages of prompts with 2 prompts per page- totaling 32 writing prompts altogether! I also included a color version and a black and white version of each page. Types of Writing: -Realistic Fiction -Informative -Description -List Writing -Imaginary/Fantasy -Memoir -Explanatory -and more! These writing prompts are perfect for motivating ALL students to write during the holiday season -- even your most reluctant writers! Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to purchase your copy! Have a very Happy Holiday Season!!!

FALL-ing into the ELA Common Core Standards!

Fall is the perfect time to bring your class outside to spark new seed ideas for writing. First, I want to introduce seeds for writing to those who are not familiar with the concept :-) If your district uses Lucy Calkins or Fountas/Pinnell than you already know about teaching your students to gather "seed ideas" for their writing journals in the beginning of the year. This can be done by giving each student a photocopy of a heart or a photocopy of an inverted watermelon. Inside the heart or watermelon the students write all the things they like. Outside the heart or watermelon they write all the things they don't like. Students should just write words- not sentences. Throughout the year students will refer back to this for seeds to write about when they have "writers block." In an article titled, Using the Environment as an Integrating Context: ELA Common Core Standards and the Kentucky Environmental Literacy Plan (KLEP) by Vivian Bowles it discusses ways for teachers to provide authentic implementation of ELA Common Core Standards for writing. While you can use print and the internet to provide authentic learning, you can also bring your class outside the walls of your classroom. It does not matter if your school has an elaborate outside classroom. Give each of your students a clipboard, pencil, and a few sheets of notebook paper. Tell your class you are taking them outside to gather more "FALL SEEDS." You can take them for a walk around your school or have them sit in one spot. Have your students use their 5 senses to write down observations they see, hear, smell, (taste- depending on your lesson), and feel. These observations can provide inspiration for real or imaginative narratives, informative/explanatory texts, and substantiated arguments.

The dog ate my homework!

First of all, now that I have a puppy I realize it is REALLY possible for a dog to eat a students homework! My puppy eats everything! She eats paper, sunglasses, shoes, remote controls... I could go on but the list would be endless! When I was a kid I heard my friends use that famous excuse for not having their homework, but I will admit the teachers never believed them. Of course I didn't either. Now that I am a teacher I will say I have yet to really hear any of my students say, "My dog ate my homework and that is why I do not have it." However, I do find it funny that it is REALLY possible!

Don't Let the Turkey Sail the Boat!

Don't Let the Turkey Sail the Boat is adapted from Mo Willems Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Don't let the Turkey Sail the Boat will be a hit with your children! They will want to read it over and over again! It is perfect for guided reading and teaching specific strategies such as reading for comprehension, accuracy, fluency, or expanding vocabulary. It is great for your emergent readers. The book is a total of 20 pages. I included a vocabulary page in the beginning and a reading response question at the end. This book comes in a color version and a black and white version. I also included lined writing paper with a colorful turkey border and the same lined paper with a black and white turkey border. Check it out in my TPT store! Might I add this book is also perfect for reading in November!!!

Superhero Powers in Teaching

I believe other than a child's parent or guardian a teacher is one of the most significant role models in a child's life. Children look up to their teachers for guidance and support. They come to us when they have a problem with another child or even at home. When young children are first learning to read they see us as superheros with exceptional reading powers. By giving a child who is first learning to read a special wand or a magical cape all of the sudden he feels like he has the same superhero powers that you do as a teacher and his confidence for reading skyrockets! Use your superhero powers as a teacher to help your students succeed!!! I love teaching for all these reasons.

 

 Visit my TPT Store to purchase these Back to School Headers!!!

Fall ABCs

 

Spelling

Word Work during Daily 5!!!

Hands on and Fun!!!

Activities to Engage and Teach to LOVE Learning!!!

*some activities are not pictured

~Magnetic Letters, Letter Tiles, Write the Room, Boggle, Letter Detective... 

~Word Families~ Rhyme Time~Sight Words~

Crayon Bulletin Board

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree

Wall Display!!!

Sink or Float

Sink or Float Experiment!!!