Writing Wheels

Hi everyone- quick post...

I keep meaning to mention how much fun my class is having using the Halloween writing wheel during Daily 5 and writing time:

 

The kids can move the 3 different wheels to create a variety of stories!  It is a nice "springboard" to an entire story they can make! (K teachers say it is great for sentence structure!)

 

...and then I got a request to make more "themes"... what a GREAT idea! :)  The writing wheels pack already has Halloween (above) and Christmas.  What other "themes" or ideas do you have?  Any special requests?

 

There are 5 other wheels that do not fall into a theme in this pack------>{click to see} and there is a variety of writing paper too! (AND it is on SALE right now!!)

 

Do you have any ideas for some new wheels?  Two random people to make a suggestion will receive the original wheel pack - for FREE!! (leave your email)

 

Have a great Sunday!

p.s... another giveaway going on {here}

p.s.s... make sure you stop by the GIANT LINKY party for October {here}

 



Election, Freebies, Giveaways, and SALE!!!

Hi everyone! So my head. is. SPINNING!  Is this time of year B U S Y for you all too??  Between Halloween, report cards (due Nov. 2) and conferences (Nov. 5 and 7)... I feel like a chicken with its head cut off (OK who even thought of that icky phrase anyway...)!! Ugh.

 

Anyway... I am SO excited about our Election progress!!  If you are keeping track, we have already learned our Vocabulary (to see click here).

Now I have introduced our candidates!!

I am reading books about our candidates so we can learn more about them:

 

 

While I am reading some facts about the animals, the children are writing the facts on a sheet that I created.  It looks like this:

 

 

 

one of the student's paper

 

We talked about how important it is to learn about the candidates so that we have enough information to make a good decision.  Later we will use these facts to write our persuasive papers to "campaign" for a particular candidate!  If you want a copy of the facts sheets you see above... {click here}

 

Next week we will finish learning about the other 3 candidates, write our persuasive papers, create signs, and "debate" about their chosen candidate.  By Nov. 6th we will elect our second grade animal representative!!

Click here to see the Election Time Unit.

 

 

 

Giveaway Giveaway Giveaway!!!

 

I am giving away two things this weekend!!  It will be your choice of either the Election Time Unit:

 

 

OR my Spooktacular Halloween Pack!

 

 

How to win.... be a FOLLOWER!  Leave a comment below and tell me what you will be dressing up as for Halloween :)  I will chose a random winner tomorrow night!! 

Don't forget to leave your email address too! 

 

Want a bonus???  I am looking to get to that next milestone (500) and need some new followers... IF you send someone this way you will get to pick out ANYTHING from my store for FREE!! Yippee!

(just leave a link of the post and your email, and I'll contact you about your free item!)

 

Don't want to wait for the free stuff??

I'm HAVING A SALE ALL WEEKEND!!!

Everything is 20% off!

 

Here's my little man helping me at school (actually he was helping make more of a mess :)

 

 

 

Have a GREAT weekend!!

I'll post all next week about Election, Halloween, and Conferences (report cards)!

 



Spooky Sentences Freebie

Just whipped up this fun spooky sentences sheet that I plan to have my kiddos work on for morning work on Halloween.  It's a DOL type sheet where they will fix up the sentence and rewrite it on the lines.  Hope you can use it too!

 

Have a GREAT Friday!

 

 



click to grab a copy!
Graphics by Scrappin Doodles

 





Election {post 1} and Pumpkin Persuasive!

 

Hi everyone!  It's Wednesday... 1/2 way through the week! :-)

 

I am so excited to have begun our Election process!  I am also thrilled to be doing something not related to the current Presidency... wow do the kids have some opinions (and they are ONLY 8!!).  I can tell that they have been listening very carefully to their parents!

 

So, I have some books ready to read as we go.  Here they are:

 

 

I started off reading this book:

It's really cute and a fun read :)

 

Today we started our Election vocabulary.  I created a simple power point {CLICK TO GET} with the vocabulary and the kids wrote about the words and drew pictures (see below).

 

 

Tomorrow we will finish our vocabulary and I will introduce our "animal candidates!"

 

 

By the end of the week, we will be fully immersed in books about these candidates!  Next week we will be writing about the candidates and campaigning for their chosen candidate!  I can't wait! :)

 

If you are interested in this unit... click {HERE}

 

Quick share... we pretended we were PUMPKINS!

 

The kids wrote a persuasive type paragraph trying to convince the pumpkin shopper to buy them!  They needed to include good details and adjectives to describe them as a pumpkin.  Also, they needed to tell why they would be the best pumpkin!  They turned out super cute!

 

 

If you are interested in this activity and want the support sheet to help your kids, click below:

 

I leave you with some fall pics of my little man :)

Have a GREAT rest of you week (more election/Halloween to come!)

 

 



Poster freebie!

Unfortunately this will be a quick post...but I have a FREEBIE for you! :)

 

Do you ever have students peer around the room for the answers?  Do they ever so secretly try to look on their "neighbor's" paper?

 

I KNOW YOU DO!!

 

This is something that I say DAILY to remind my students to keep their eyes to themselves!  Now I have a cute poster to hang too!

 

Click pic to get a copy!

 

I hope it is helpful for your classroom too!  If you do grab a copy, can you please leave me some feedback?  THANKS!!

 

Have a great week!  Be on the lookout for my election day posts coming soon!



Landforms (Day 2&3) and Election {giveaway!}

Wow, did this week go fast!  My hubby was out of town for several days this week... boy is it hard to do it all!  Needless to say I'm backed up on posts... sorry!  First I'll cover day 2 and 3 of our landforms.  Read about day 1 {here}.

 

So the kids had a BLAST sculpting their landforms!  First, we had the choices up on the SMART board.  Random name generator picked the order of the kids, they chose the landform they wanted and I tallied next to the landform.  When three tallies were next to each landform, that landform was closed.  (this way I had a variety of landforms).

This was also a nice visual to have up when the kids were sculpting.

 

 Also, before we began sculpting, I had a parent cut 8"x8" cardboard squares.

 

Then I passed out their bags of "dough" and the creating began...

I gave them a Popsicle stick to help them add texture.  Of course the kids had to visualize where they wanted everything to be once they were painted.

 

After this step, they need a least 2 days to begin to harden.  Then we painted!!  I again had a parent helper create a station out of my room (sorry I forgot to take a pic of this).  The finished products are AMAZING!

 Island with a volcano!

 

Waterfall (love this one!) 

Mountain with lake running down (and a volcano nearby)

 

The last thing we did was create a dictionary page for their landform (we have been doing dictionary studies all week).  The page looks like this:

Landform paper (click to get)

 

We then propped up the paper behind their landform for a great display:

 

 Monday the kids will "present" their landforms and their information to each other!

 

ELECTION TIME!!!

Sorry for the subject switch... but I'm gearing up for one of my favorite units!  If you haven't yet... you can get my unit at TpT now on sale... (but also giving one away here!!)

 

I mentioned in my last post that this can take up to about 8 days (give or take). I'll try and update you on my progress as we go.  But first, you have to prepare your posters and vocab words:

 vocabulary for unit

 

 Our animal "candidates" (this unit has 3 animal sets for different grade/age levels

 

 posters we will need for Election Day!

 

Papers we will need when we "campaign" for our candidate!

 

 

This unit is so much FUN!! The kids get to do exactly when their parents are currently doing but in a more meaningful way.  I don't like to bring the "politics" into the classroom, but yet want the same experience for the children. 

So a rough timeline is:

 

Day 1- read an election book (intro vocabulary)

Day 2- vocabulary sheet

Day 3- intro animal "candidates"

Day 4- read about all the candidates

Day 5- choose a candidate to "campaign" for- begin writing about/make posters

Day 6- finish writing and persuade class

Day 7- learn about the election process

Day 8- ELECTION DAY (mock election)

 

I will try and share as much as I can in pictures to help you along in the process!

 

Want in on this great unit??  I am giving one away TODAY!! 

1. you HAVE to be a follower

2. Guess my birthday month and DAY (not year! ;)  If no one gets both, I will give it to the first person to guess the right month :)

 

Good luck!

Happy weekend my friends!!