Sunday, November 25, 2012

Moose Munch (Winter Party Sign-Up)

To keep the mounds of food, sugar, and messes to a minimum at our Christmas Party last year, I sent home a "Moose Munch" sign-up sheet for parents to send in supplies for a fun trail mix.  I thought maybe someone else could use it!  Click on the images below to download the sign-up sheet and reminder slips.



Also....If you would like to try the paper-free route... you could try TimeToSignUp.com!  I used this for my Fall Party and it was SOO easy and hassle free!  I had all of my party supplies and volunteers accounted for within an hour of sending the link out to parents! 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Updates and an Angry "Verb" Freebie!

So, school was just cancelled because of... FOG!?  That's certainly a first for me, but I'm not complaining!  Now I actually have a moment to post.  :) 

Here are some things we've been up to:

#1. Spiders
We finished our Spider Reports!  The kids did an AWESOME job...definitely exceeded my expectations!  
 We used the adorable spider templates from Amy Lemons to add to our display.  :)
(Click HERE to download the materials needed for this project!)


#2. Presidents
The students wrote their presidential speeches and created posters to promote themselves as candidates for class president.
(Click HERE for the presidential speech planning page.)


#3. Johnny Appleseed
We read the Johnny Appleseed play by Pleasant DeSpain and did some fun apple activities to go along with it!  We made a display of Johnny Appleseed facts, compared and contrasted two versions of the story, and made homemade applesauce!  (Click HERE for the recipe and How-to-Writing template.)

#4. Turkeys
The kids disguised turkeys!  (I used the Turkey is Disguise product from Clutter Free Classroom.)  They then wrote persuasive pieces trying to talk me out of eating their feathered friends.  :)


Next week we will be focusing on verbs in language and writing.  We did the "Angry Verbs" display last year, but I found some great ideas HERE for incorporating writing, as well!  I combined the ideas I found to create a story planning template for my students to use.  I also created a "Angry Verbs" word bank and a story writing pages.  You can grab it for free below!

I'm off to enjoy my "Fog Day"!  Happy Thanksgiving!  :)

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Spider Research, Plural Nouns Pack, and an Election Freebie

I found the COOLEST spider books at my local library last week!  Click HERE to check them out.  I've been trying to come up with a "research project" of some sort to do with my class and these books are going to work out perfectly.  I've assigned research partners and specific spiders to pairs of students.  I created a Spider Research Packet for them to use when recording information about their arachnids!  I also made a Glossary and Table of Contents Hunt to preteach the vocabulary and to give the class extra practice with nonfiction text features.  After they have gathered all of their information, they will write a report about their spider.  I plan on walking them through the editing/revising process after they've written their first draft.   I made a spider writing template for their final reports.  We will end the week with reporting our information to the class, as well as displaying our reports along with Amy Lemon's adorable spider craft!  I've uploaded my research packet to my TpT shop.  Click any of the images below to check it out!



I also finished up a packet for reinforcing plural nouns.  It includes plural rules posters, a SCOOT game and Scavenger Hunt, and an assessment.  A preview is below.  Click on any of the images to download the pack in the TpT store!


I've really been slacking in the freebie department lately, so....the first person to leave a comment will get both of these packets for free!  The next two people to comment can choose between one of the two to receive for free.  :)  Be sure to leave me you email so I can send them your way!

And last, but not least, we've been working on our Class President Speeches and campaign posters. Click on the image below to download the free template I created for the students' speech writing.
 
More ideas and photos from our election activities will be coming soon!