7 pages.

Celebrate Seuss with these two Grinch "craftivities". One features two writing prompts.  Students think of things that make them grin like the Grinch.  They jot these down on the left side.  On the right side, they list things that make them "grinchly and grumpy".  

23 pages.

This Woodchuck Word Work packet, provides perfect worksheets for Groundhog Day, including some tongue twisting fun, perfect for Daily 5 or your language arts block.

11 pages.

The Spin and Read Word Game packet includes an alphabetical Dolch word list for Pre-Primer, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades, plus the Dolch list of nouns.  This game is played as a whole group.

1-2-3 Come Do Some ST Blend Activities With Me

The "Stuff a Stocking" packet, includes a variety of quick, easy and fun ways to help students practice words that begin and end with the ST blend.

For one activity, children color and trim a stocking, then stuff it with words that have the st blend in them, by writing the words on the front of their stocking.

The packet includes an alphabetical list of 92 common words that begin with st, as well as a list of 64 simple words that end with the st blend. 

Before sharing the lists with your students, as a whole group, have them brainstorm to see how many words they can think of. 

Write the words on the board, and have students look up any words that are new to them, jotting them down in their writing journals.  This is a great vocabulary building activity, and perfect for Daily 5 word work. 

For another whole group activity, I've included matching mini-word cards to pass out to your students, so that they can "stuff" either a  teddy bear stocking with beginning st word cards, or stuff a moose stocking, with words ending with the st blend.

To be able to "stuff" the paper stockings, laminate & trim them.  Cut a slit under the cuff portion, and attach a large Ziplock Baggie to the back.

Call out an st blend word from your list. (Before hand, highlight words that you want to review with your kiddos.)  The child holding that card shows it to the class, everyone reads the word, and then that student "stuffs" the card through the opening of the appropriate stocking.

To help build vocabulary, ask children to define the words. When you're done with the game, simply zip the Baggie and tuck in your file.

For yet another activity, students choose 3-5 cards and write sentences incorporating the word cards that they picked. To practice alphabetizing, have students write their word cards in alphabetical order.

I've included a worksheet for this, which would be a terrific Daily 5 word work activity as well. Click on the link to view/download the "Stuff it!" ST Blend Packet.

Thanks for visiting. It's time for me to get to the grocery store.  The cupboard is indeed bare, as I hate going out in the hustle bustle of December.  

The inclement weather and crowds are a bit overwhelming to me, and I'd much rather be curled up by the fire, sipping eggnog and making sketches of stuff I want to design.  Wishing you a warm and cozy kind of day.

"Christmas Time: Snowy climes and silly rhymes, a make-believe sense of time, when the old become young and the young walk the line." -Unknown

 1-2-3 Come Play Some Long E Word Games With Me

Word work and vocabulary building was part of my Y5's every day activities.  Daily 5 came along and simplified or complicated things, and gave teachers something else to try and find "stuff" for.

To keep my students interested and semi enthusiastic about word work, I changed the theme of these activities each month, so although the skills were repetitive, there was variety because the theme was different. Doing this little adjustment was very successful and helped avoid tedium.

With that in mind, I wanted to create an activity with a November theme.  When I taught kinders and first grade, we continued to practice vowels at this time, particularly "When two vowels go walking the first one usually does the talking." so I went in search of a symbol that I could use.

A sheave of wheat was pretty prominent and perfect for the ea vowel grouping.  Some of my kiddos were often confused with that long E sound wanting to spell these words with an ee, so I decided to make up a list of words for both.  Need, became needle and the haystack idea was also born. 

The Haystack Howdy packet is a quick, easy and fun way to practice words with a long E vowel sound, which have the double ee or ea letters in the middle of the word.

The packet includes the Needle in a Haystack whole group file folder game, with 130 double ee "needle" word cards, plus an alphabetical list of the words in poster form. 

The cards are small, with 22 on a page for easy printing.  Choose the ones you want your kiddos to work on.

Print, laminate and trim the cards.  Toss them into a container and have students choose 1 or 2.  Using the list, ask for a word. 

The child holding that card, shows it to the class, everyone reads it together, then they put the "needle" into the haystack.

To make the haystack, simply print off a copy, trim and glue to a file folder. (I've included 2 color options, plus one in black & white.)

Using an Exacto knife, cut a slit wide and long enough for the needle cards to be slipped through the slot. 

Hold up the file folder, by putting a small basket in the back.  The cards will drop through the slot and into the basket.  Keep the cards in an envelope, in the folder and tuck into your file drawer.

The Sheaves of Wheat game works the same way,  with 107 ea "wheat" word cards to choose from, plus an alphabetical list of those words. 

There are plenty of other ways to use the cards as well.  For writing practice or a Daily 5 activity, have students choose 3-6 cards and use those words to create sentences. Afterwards, have them select 10 cards to alphabetize. 

If they are not familiar with a word, they can look it up and add it to their writing journal or student dictionary.  Children can also work with a partner and play Memory Match, Slap, Speed etc.  I've included a 4-page tip list of ideas.

For more teachable moments, there's also a background page about the idiom "needle in a haystack" as well as a definition page for the word sheaf.

Finally, whenever a nursery rhyme fit in with a particular theme, I'd plug it in, so I could also review rhyming and this genre. 

I used to have an entire week for a nursery rhyme and fairy tale theme, but as standards became more demanding, I ran out of time.  I'm sure you all can relate with "so much to do, so little time to do it in..."

Adding rhymes here and there, solved the problem.  Because a haystack is featured in the Little Boy Blue nursery rhyme, I've included some activities for that in this packet. 

There's a poster poem of the rhyme in black and white, as well as color, plus 8 pocket chart picture word cards, and a paper "strip" booklet for students to make. 

I call these "strip" booklets because I fit anywhere from 5-8 "strips" on one page that students complete, trim and collate into a mini booklet. 

My kiddos LOVED making these emergent readers that they could take home and practice with.  Click on the link to view/download the Haystack Howdy packet.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

This Nana is in serious need of some snuggle time, with her new grand baby Kaitlyn and little grandson Kaiden, so I'm off to visit my daughter. Wishing you a love-filled day.

"One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men.  However, no machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." - Elbert
 Hubbard  

43 pages.

This haystack packet is a great way to review words with a long E vowel sound, which have the double ee or ea letters in the middle of the word.

10 pages.

Help students learn to read and write family words with this quick and easy pumpkin patch craft.  Students assemble their pumpkin and write the names and relationships of the members of their family that live with them on the back of their pumpkin.

11 pages.

You can do this as a whole group activity and jot down UP phrases as your students think of them, making one poster, or use this as an interesting activity for your Daily 5 word work and have students each make up their own. 

1-2-3 Come Review Vowels With The Cat and the Hat and Me

As you add vocabulary words to your word wall, it's a good idea to continue to reinforce vowel sounds with your students.  With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to do something with a Seuss theme to review vowels.   The Cat in the Hat seemed like the perfect helper. 

Using the sweet clip art of myclipartstore.com,  I designed Seuss's tall cat to represent long vowels, and then made a shorter cat for the short vowels. 

There's a template with all of the vowels on one page, (upper and lowercase versions) as well as patterns with all of the cats showing one letter.  This way you can choose to work on one vowel at a time, or all five, picking your pattern accordingly. 

Run the cats off, trim and then glue them to the appropriate short and long vowel boxes.  I used turquoise paper for the long vowels, and yellow paper for the short vowels.  Glue them together, laminate, trim and attach to a Popsicle stick with glue dots.  

To easily sort and differentiate, use a different colored Popsicle stick for each vowel group. (For example, all of the A's are on red sticks, the E's on yellow etc.) 

I've included a comprehensive list of words for all of the long vowels, as well as a list for all of the short vowels.  I drew from elementary word wall lists, as well as the Dolch lists (PK-3rd) so that you have a nice variety to choose from.

Pass out whatever vowel cat paddles that you want to work on, call out a word from your list, and have students flip and hold up their cat paddle with the answer.  You can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

If you want to cover all of the vowels at the same time, only the students with that vowel cat hold up their stick.  Click on the link to view/download the Vowel Cat in the Hat Paddles packet. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I have an entire Dr. Seuss board on Pinterest.  Click on the link to pop on over.  

To see more Dr. Seuss articles, packed with FREEBIES, simple scroll down.   

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one. " -Dr. Seuss

6 pages.

There is so much new vocabulary associated with teeth.  I've included an alphabetical list of 101 words associated with dental hygiene, several dental hygiene word searches, plus a dental hygiene word journal, where students can write new words as well as their definitions.