Fairy Tale Craftivities

WHOOO HOOO !  I can't believe I finally finished a project I started last year during our Fairy Tale Unit.  I absolutely love teaching Fairy Tales and when I couldn't find a craftivity to go with fairy tales I decided well maybe I can do this myself.  I started with Goldilocks and  Papa Bear but this project mushroomed into a total of  9 crafts over the past year.  During the past two weeks my kitchen table has looked like Edward Scissorhands met craft central and my kids have asked "Will we ever eat at the kitchen table again?" Well the mess is gone and we are back to eating at the table once again and here's the end product............

   

Just a couple samples

         

My Fairy Tale Craftivities will be on sale  through Tuesday night.  You can snatch em up here. 

If you would like a chance to win a copy of this unit as always leave a comment and your e-mail address. I will pass along at least one copy of my Fairy Tale Craftivities. 

Comment Topic for Today

 Athough I sometimes don't care for facebook I do feel like it has its place.  I find myself checking out my favorites on there more than on blogs anymore,  it's just easy to scroll through during down time while waiting on appointments and such.  Let me know what you think. DO YOU FACEBOOK?   We have a facebook page but don't utilize it like we should, maybe that will change.  

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   A Tale of 2 First Grades   

Alison

January Freebies and a Sneak Peak at a MLK Freebie for Tomorrow

   Oh Boy has the last month been a crazy one around my house.  We have experienced two different snow storms, basketball games,  Christmas;including programs and multiple family dinners, basketball games, and my mom had two back surgeries which kept me away from home for most of December.  Did I say basketball games?  I have been a little frazzled to say the least.  I finally got my tree up three days before Christmas and down about a week ago so blogging really hasn't been on my radar.  My new years resolution  for this blog is to post more, giveaway more, and neglect less.  Teachers are so under paid and give so much of themselves I want to help as much as I can by posting regular freebies. I will not always post them to my store so you will need to check back to take advantage of the freebies.  I will also have items to post to my store but I hope to always have something to give away as well.  Today I want to share with you two items from my 

The possibilities are endless for this freebie during your January Writer's Workshop.  

   Here's a calendar that students can use to fill in the days of the month. I like to start out by having my kiddos look at a December calendar and recall the last day of December, then we discuss what would be the first day in January.  We also say our song about how many days are in January.  You know the one.....Oh wait another freebie.........Here's a copy......

                     

After a short discussion of what the last number should be in the month of January, your kiddos will be ready to  complete their calendar independently or as a group depending on your class.  There's another calendar with question related to the days in my January Printables Pack .  You can check it out here...... 

48 pages for $4

Check back tomorrow for another great freebie.  I have created a 

Martin Luther  King True/False freebie similar to  the very successful Veteran's Day True/False Freebie that can still be  downloaded in my store.  Here's a sneak peak.....

Have a great Monday!  Don't forget to check back tomorrow!!!!

Alison 

Fall Freebies

Fall is definetly in the air and after last weeks post for  my "fall addition color by number freebie" I decided that I had to do something more with Krista's adorable clip art.  As the result of the fall wind storm blowing through my head, here are a few more fall freebies for you to enjoy.

 

 

 

If you have freebies you would like to share please remember to link up with

 

 

Happy Fall!

Alison

 

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Five For Friday, Poetry Writing, and Dilly Bar Adjectives

I am so excited to link up with  for the first time. 

 

 

Although I did not use my GOOD camera this week, I do have some things to share. 

1. After visiting Maria Walther's Classroom last week I was excited to return and dive into some Poetry.  I have always used Writer's Workshop in my classroom but never quite felt comfortable teaching Poetry.  I know, I know it's not in the CC but I see it as enrichment. I guess the most important thing I learned is that with teaching poetry simple is best.  We have also been reviewing adjectives so each student made a poem using adjectives to describe themselves. 

 

 

 2. One of my students that struggles with making good choices wrote me this note,

CRACKS ME UP!

 

Mrs. Funk I'm sorry for the badness I done.  Do you forgive me yes or no?  He wrote,  circle yes or no but crossed out the OR NO.  How smart  is that?  This little guy is one of those that makes you so mad sometimes but it doesn't last long because of the adorable things he says. 

 

 

 

3.  We took ITBS last week so as  a reward for working so hard our PTO bought the students  DILLY

       BARS, alright I had one too.  I could resist the opportunity to integrate a little learning into our fun reward.    I will link up a copy next week because I forgot to put it in my Dropbox. 

4.  On Friday's we always meet up with our friends in third grade for some peer tutoring, sometimes students read together, work on math facts, spelling, or a fun activity like we did today.  Since we only have about one more meeting with our third grade friends we made friendship bracelets today. 

 

 

5.   It was field trip week for my daughter so on Wednesday I took a personal day and went with her on her 3rd grade field trip to the St. Louis Arch.  I am telling you what she was one excited little girl and it couldn't have been a more beautiful day. 

 

 

Now off to check out what everyone else has been doing this week. 

 

 

Snowman Fiction Writing and A Freebie

So I was going to post last weekend but life has been a little hectic.  Both of my little guys got that yucky snotty gross cold thing going around and it has been TONS of fun at my house!  J

When I got back from maternity leave, I really wanted to get my kids going on writing more stories.  Have I mentioned I love teaching writing???  My sub did a fabulous job getting them going with writing using a 4 square plan so we were able to take right off.  I noticed that they were having a problem writing imaginary stories so I came up with a graphic organizer to help them plan their story before they wrote.  Here’s a freebie of it if you want to try it out! 

To provide some background, we read The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, a wordless picture book.  We worked together on a larger version of the graphic organizer first.

The next day, I read Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner to help them brainstorm some ideas for their own snowman story.  I passed out the graphic organizers and we went through each area step by step.  We talked about the characters, the setting, and then the beginning, middle and end.  I did this one section at a time so they had time to think about their story, not just write something quickly without a plot.   

Here is one of my kiddos plans:

We talked about how a lot of imaginary stories start.  Many wanted to write “Once upon a time.”  We decided it would be good to tell the characters and setting on the first page so readers know who and what they are reading about! 

Then we were on our way to publishing their own book.   I have “books” made by stapling half sheets of paper together.  I don’t have lines on the pages because I let them put their words where they wish, just like an author and illustrator would in a real book.  I let them illustrate their own books.  It’s great to see the different levels of writing and drawing in my room!

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After they wrote and illustrated their story, I introduced the idea of a blurb.  What is a blurb???   I honestly didn't know the name of this until I started teaching first grade!  It is what the author puts on the back of the book so people can find out what the story is about.  My kids are all about blurbs now.  Here are a few of my favs!

Enjoy!

Caroline

Nouns and Snow Writing Freebie

Oh, How I do  love my job but going back to school after two full weeks of  being home with my own kiddos made me think of this e-card

                                                                    

Came out a little blurry

              It says the first five days after the weekend are the hardest,

      what it should say is the five days after Christmas Break are the hardest. 

  We actually had a beautiful snow the day after Christmas and boy was it fun playing in the snow.  We were snowless last year so we had SNOW MUCH FUN riding four wheelers and sleding, not to metion taking pictures in the snow are the best. 

After going back we started our week  with a writing activity about the ten kinds of fun  we had in the snow. First,  I modeled about all the fun I had in the snow using a Four Square Graphic Organizer.  My team decided to move the middle rectangle that is used for the lead sentence to the top because those little kiddos always get confused about what sentence to write first, no matter how many times we've went over it....... and why wouldn't they we teach them to read and write from left to right and top to bottom.  RIGHT? 

                      Click on picture to get a four square organizer and snowflake writing paper. 

Later in the week we spent time going over Nouns.  I am such a visual learner  I try to make learning as visual as possible, regardless of my inability to draw a straight line.  In the past I have made noun anchor charts on plain paper(which I love beacause of the lines, ha!) but this year I branched out and made a cutout for each type of noun............person, place, and thing.  

                                                                 What do you think?

Once we finished brainstorming and charting the different types of nouns students hustled back to their seats to come up with their own nouns.  I never allow students to copy off of the charts we make.  What type of thinking does that require?   I am telling you what these kids were done with this follow up activity LICKITY SPLIT and did they have some outstanding thoughts.  Here's one that absolutely stole my heart.......

                                        

Check Out the last two under person, Awwww!

      (Click on the picture for your copy)

Well there's so much more I'd love to share but there never seems to be enough time in the day!  Come Back Soon!  We are 17 followers stronge!  Yippie!!!

 

I leave you with another picture of the fantastic snow we had last week, well maybe more than two weeks now.  I love when the snow sticks to the trees, GORGEOUS!

 

 

                                                                         ~Alison

Elf Yourself Measurement Activity Freebie

This week we have been wrapped up in  all sorts of elf fun.  Our elf craftivity was Pinterest inspired and also the center of a math lesson on measurement.

Once my kiddos had every possible inch of their hands covered in glue and cottonballs we moved on to  work on a little measurement activity using Mr. & Mrs.     Elf. 

You can grab your copy of Elf's Measurement Activity by clicking the picture.  If you would like to do this activity but don't have time for the Elf Yourself Craftivity I also made this little guy so students could just color and measure. 

Once we learned just about all we could about Elves, student had to think hard about how they would be a good elf as they filled out the Elf Application Cara made a few years ago. 

Tomorrow we will end our week with our first visit from you know who.......

TGIF ALMOST!

 

 

~Alison

New Write the Room Activities

I don't know about you but I am super excited for Cyber Monday! I just added a Write the Room pack to my (itty bitty) tpt shop.....
 
 

 
 

I have so many units I made before I started blogging that just need some finishing touches before adding them to my shop. I am more excited about prioritizing the 57 items I have in my shopping cart at TPT. I'll fill you in on my top purchases when I get that figured out. Now off to set up my first SALE! Here are a few other items to check out. My TPT button does work so you can click on any picture to go to my store.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

                                                             ~Alison