Owl S'more Writing Fun!

Gosh, time has gotten away from me and I realized that I have not blogged in a while.  Now that I am on Fall Break, I will have some time to share with you what has been going on in my classroom for the first nine weeks of school. 

One of the activities that had my kids SUPER excited about writing this week was my How to Make an Owl S'mores writing project.  I am not sure that my kids have ever been SO motivated to write.  Here are a few pictures of the kids in action. 

I have this activity available in my TpT store.  If you have already purchased the packet, I have recently updated some of the material and added a cute Owl S'mores craftivity to compliment your hallway display.
Click here to check out this activity. 

Happy Fall Ya'll!  :) 

Cursive Writing

Now that we have been in school a little over a month, I am guess I need to bite the bullet and start teaching/reviewing cursive writing.  This past summer, I was searching the Internet for resources to use and really couldn't find anything that suited my needs.  Well, I happened to be friends with the wonderful and talented Becca Sutton from Teaching First . She has some wonderful handwriting packets for teaching print in her store.  So, I contacted her about making a cursive handwriting packet for me.  I am SO excited to share with you that the packet is completed and is ABSOLUTELY perfect!  I am no longer dreading cursive writing instruction.  I am SO excited about using this resource!  If you are in the market for a handwriting packet, you definitely will want to check this out! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cursive-Handy-Handwriting

Woohoo!  Cursive instruction starts tomorrow!  :) 

Awesome Resource

As I was preparing my bubble gum unit, I stumbled across this AWESOME website.  It's called Read to Me.  It can be found by clicking here.  This site offers books that are read online with videos.  One of the books that I plan to use from this site is The Bubble Gum Rattler to go with my bubble gum unit. 

I have always been a fan of Storylineonline as well.  Since I was mentioning the new site above, I thought I would share this one as well.  I am sure that most of you have used this site, but if not, you definitely need to check it out as well.  It offers books read aloud by celebrities, too.  If you have never visited this site, you MUST do it NOW!  It's FAB-U-LOUS! Click here to visit this site. 

I hope you find these resources valuable and useful in your classroom.  If you are like me, I am always searching for great sites to use.  I can't wait to show some of these great stories on my Promethean Board.  :) 

Happy Labor Day, Friends!

Bubble Gum Fun Freebie!

I am actually prepared to enjoy the long weekend.  I did my lesson plans and turned them in before I left school on Friday.  I have nothing I HAVE to do (school related anyway) this weekend.  I must say that does not happen often.  I LOVE the feeling though and I am definitely going to make a goal to stop doing lesson plans over the weekend.  :)  I'll let you know how that goes. 

I wanted to share with you all the plans I have for next week.  I have actually based my reading activities around......are you ready for this????  BUBBLE GUM!  Yes, bubble gum!  I was inspired last weekend when I purchased an absolutely AH-DORABLE writing unit!  It is a collection of how-to sequencing writing activities from K-2 Texas Teacher.  After purchasing it, I decided to do a how-to blow a bubble writing activity next week.  Currently, I am teaching explanatory writing common core standards.

Anyway, my mind starting going ninety miles an hour on ways that I could incorporate the topic of bubble gum into my reading class.  I found a few nonfiction resources and fiction resources.  So, I am going to review fiction and nonfiction, text features, main idea and supporting details, and integrate writing summaries.  It should be LOADS of fun!  And of course, you really can't teach about bubble gum without chewing it, so next week in reading class, students will be chewing bubble gum....every day!  :)  I am sure that will be motivating for them to learn all about the history of bubble gum and chewing gum.  It really is quite interesting!  In fact, I learned A LOT just preparing my unit!  I must admit, I have always used the terms chewing gum and bubble gum interchangeably.  When in fact, they really are two different things. 

So in case you are interested in doing a bubble gum unit with your kiddos, I am sharing some free resources with you.  You can click here to download it from TpT or here to download it from Google docs. 

Check my blog again next week for pictures and more ideas for how to have fun with bubble gum!  :) 

Have a restful long weekend!