1-2-3 Come Feed The Very Hungry Caterpillar With Me

Review Eric Carle's story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by feeding him a variety of "food" story cards and a whole lot more, with this fun-filled caterpillar packet.

Use my template to make this cute caterpillar for a whole-group review game, or have students color the pattern and make their own.

I made mine out of construction paper.  You can run the master off on red construction paper and students can cut eyes out of yellow and green scraps if you want to make them that way.

Cut a hole for the mouth, Scotch tape a small Baggie to the back and you’re all set to feed this hungry boy all sorts of traceable cards.

The packet includes traceable number cards from 1-30, skip counted numbers: 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s, upper and lowercase letters, all 14 adjectives used in the book, the days of the week, the months in the year, + covers so that students can make Itty Bitty booklets to match all of the categories!

There's also cards for everything that the caterpillar ate in full color as well as in black line, so students can color their own little "My Itty Bitty Very Hungry Caterpillar" booklet, which includes the rest of the story telling cards as well.

Review more concepts by using the word cards from my other free packets, such as the Dolch words, CVC words, Shape words, Number words or Color words.

Decide which cards you want your students to work on and run those off.  Make all the sets for yourself, so that you can play “Flash Review” to nail all of those standards.

Besides "feeding" the caterpillar, students can also play Memory Match or “I Have, Who Has?” games.

I’ve also included several "What’s Missing?" worksheets for upper and lowercase letters, as well as all of the skip counted numbers + a blank template so you can program your own worksheets with whatever.

Students can also color a pattern on their caterpillar or play the "Caterpillar Creeps" dice game reviewing the life cycle of a butterfly.  I’ve included traceable life cycle cards as well. 

Click on the link to view/download this 50-page fun-filled packet: Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities.

If you're looking for more caterpillar and butterfly FREEBIES, click on the link to pop on over to that section of my blog.  I also have an entire pin board for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and another for butterflies, with lots of creative ideas, cute crafts and other other FREE activities.

Thanks for visiting.  It's time for this caterpillar to morph into a butterfly.  It's a better way to flit through the day getting things done, rather than be a slow slug-a-bug; certainly no time for a nap in a chrysalis or anywhere else.

Sigh....So much to do with so little time to get it all done. I can't believe Easter's this weekend.

"The beautiful spring came; and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also." -Harriet Ann Jacobs

1-2-3 Come Do Some Gingerbread-Themed Writing With Me

Writing is a lot more fun for your students if you incorporate it with a theme that you're doing.  Since gingerbread seems to be really popular, I decided to design a few writing activities involving this sweet December treat.

My students really enjoyed making class books.  They are a quick, easy and fun writing prompt for them.  Completed projects, were favorite books during free reading time. 

For the Gingerbread On The Run class book, students complete the writing prompt and illustrate their page.  Collect, collate and add the cover to make a sweet class book.  There are 2 options for the student writing page. 

This class book, is also an interesting and fun way to review action verbs as well as nouns.  I've included a completed sample that you can use to help explain the lesson to your kiddos.  Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread on the Run class-made book.

While I was working on this activity, I thought it would be helpful to make some gingerbread-themed parts of speech anchor charts. 

The posters include one for nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns and adverbs.

For more writing practice, I made up several simple descriptive writing worksheets, which basically help review the use of adjectives in a fun way. 

I've included completed samples to share with your students, such as the one pictured, which asks them to use their 5 senses to write sentences about a gingerbread man. 

Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread Descriptive Writing Worksheets.

Finally, you can use the adorable gingerbread house craftivity, as a writing prompt (If I were a gingerbread cookie...) , or send it home, as a home-school connection for the entire family to take part in.  

 A note home is included in the packet, along with a "Merry Christmas From Our House To Yours"  template.  Children glue a family photo inside and have all of their family members sign it. 

Completed projects make a sweet December bulletin board. Little ones, especially enjoy seeing a family photograph while they're at school. 

Click on the link to view/download the Gingerbread House Writing Prompt Craftivity.

Thanks for visiting.  The sun is shining and it's not too cold out, so it's time to take my poodle pup, Chloe, for a brisk walk.  Wishing you a fun-filled day. 

 "Enthusiasm is contagious, so start an epidemic." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Haunted House Activities With Me

I love Halloween.  Some of my favorite childhood memories surround this holiday. Although I don't care for horror movies, some of the old classics like Abbott and Costello and the Haunted House are fun.  There's nothing like the idea of a haunted house to get students excited about writing.

With that in mind, I designed some interesting haunted house-themed activities.   I hope you find them spine tingling! 

If you're looking for some Common Core lessons for Halloween, the Haunted House Activity Packet might be just the thing. 

It includes alphabet activities, adjective practice, vocabulary building, plus writing prompts, which are great for Daily 5.  

You can complete the Haunted Houses ARE and Haunted Houses HAVE worksheets as a whole group, or have students make up their own. 

I've included finished samples for you to share.  For more practice, students can look up the words that they don't know, or alphabetize my list.

I've also included upper and lowercase trace & write worksheets, as well as assessments for both, plus a "Spooky Letters" alphabet game.

Use the game as an independent center, or whole group game.  Pass out a lowercase letter pumpkin card to each student. 

Call for a letter. The child holding that card comes up and opens the matching uppercase "window".  

You can also use this file folder game as a different and fun way to independently assess a student. 

I've included upper and lowercase assessment recording sheets for this.  

For more creative writing, I've also included the writing prompt: If I lived in a haunted house... Click on the link for the Haunted House Activity Packet.

Since the apple and pumpkin senses writing craftivities were such popular downloads, I thought your students would enjoy doing one for a haunted house. 

This is a quick easy and fun way to review the 5 senses, as well as work on adjective usuage for more descriptive writing. I've included a completed sample for you to share, or make one up of your own. 

Students color their haunted house, trim, and cut the roof off, which they attach to the top of their writing prompt.  The base of the house goes on the bottom. 

For that finishing touch, have students put their school photo peeking out a window.

To add to the fun of writing about haunted houses and get students in the mood, dim the lights and play some Halloween music or a soundtrack from a thunderstorm. 

Completed projects look terrific as a border along a hallway wall, or hung back-to-back suspended from the ceiling.  Click on the link for the Haunted House Writing Craftivity.

Well that's it.  I'm trying to keep my blogs shorter, so the other two Haunted House-themed activities will be in tomorrow's article.  Hope you can pop by to pick up those FREEBIES.

I'm off to pack for a little get-away time with my hubby.  Wishing you simple pleasures and heartwarming moments this weekend.

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." -Thomas S. Monson

1-2-3 Come Do Some Apple-Themed Vocabulary Building With Me

Apple-themed week, continues with some interesting vocabulary building activities.  Part of all of the themes that I did with my Y5's, included the vocabulary that they needed to learn that would help them understand apples, pumpkins, butterflies etc. 

The science aspect of what we studied, provided a plethora of new words.  Having children label the parts of an apple, is a quick, easy and fun way to reinforce a few of them. 

To visually show the "peel" or "skin" of an apple, I made this "craftivity" as a flip open.  The "skin" is flipped off to reveal the inside of the apple.

Students add a bit of color, cut and glue the words, or write them.  If you look closely at my sample, you can also see the front that says: Kelli's apple, as an interesting way for students to write their name. Click on the link to view/download the Label An Apple Craft.

Another way I reinforced vocabulary was for students to write the words.  To cover yet another standard, I often had them put the words in alphabetical order. 

I designed a sweet apple knOWLedge bookmark, with a list of apple related words on it, plus a worksheet on the side for students to write the words in alphabetical order.  Click on the link to view/download the apple vocabulary bookmark. 

Word finds are also fun for students.  These not only reinforce vocabulary, but help increase spelling skills.  This one features 18 apple-themed words. Click on the link for the apple word find.

No matter what grade I taught, I always encouraged my students to use adjectives in their writing to make things more vivid, and to incorporate them orally when they were describing something.  

Having children think up words as they use their senses to feel, taste, and smell an apple, also helps increase vocabulary. 

As they share the words that they come up with to describe their apple, list them on the board. 

Use the  apple adjective worksheet before or after your brainstorming.  I've included a completed sample that you can also share. Click on the link to view/download the apple adjective activities.

As a part of our science requirements, we also studied the 5 senses, which fit in perfectly with adjective use.  I challenged my students each month to increase their use of adjectives by using all of their senses when describing something. 

To make this easy, I designed a simple and quick worksheet for them to fill in each month.  I called these Sensory Word Anchor Charts.  Each month I chose a different word that would be appropriate for that time of year. 

For example, for September, I used an apple.  Click on the link to grab a copy of the monthly sensory adjective writing. 

Finally, another way to build vocabulary and increase writing skills, is by teaching antonyms and synonyms for the words that your students use and are learning. 

In keeping with the apple theme, I made up antonym apples with synonym leaves.  Cut them into puzzles to play all sorts of matching games. 

The apples provide 132 words to help build student vocabularies.  There's also a blank apple template to fill in with whatever, plus 80 synonym leaves with 2 blank leaf templates. 

Encourage students to make up some of their own antonym apples and write in synonyms too.  For more practice with antonyms, be sure and check out my list of 290 antonyms.  I've included a cover in this packet, so that students can make their own antonym word booklets.

Thanks for visiting today. Time to clear the clutter on my desk and in my mind.  I'm off for a walk to soak up some sunshine, with the tail-wagging Chloe. (My black poodle pup!)  The air smells so fresh from the down pour last night.  Wishing you a happy day.

 "If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach them the way they learn." -Ignacio Estrada

 1-2-3 Come Do Some Viola Swamp and Miss Nelson Activities With Me!

“The kids in Room 207 were misbehaving again. Spitballs stuck to the ceiling. Paper planes whizzed through the air. They were the worst-behaved class in the whole school.” 

Thus begins the story of Miss Nelson is Missing, one of my all-time favorite back-to-school books.  This cute classic was first published in 1977, but is still relevant today, as a lighthearted reminder of how important it is to show our appreciation of others.

When I read the story to my students, I wore a reversible "cape".  (A lovely pastel floral print was on one side, when I became the sweet Miss Nelson.  When I "transformed" into the terrible Miss Viola Swamp.  ("...the meanest substitute teacher in the whole world!") I easily flipped it to the solid black, ugly side.  

I've also donned a plastic witch nose, along with a few long black fingernails for my left hand, while pretending to be Viola.  She is the crazy substitute teacher in three children's books by Harry Allard (illustrated by James Marshall). The books are entitled Miss Nelson is Missing!, Miss Nelson is Back, and Miss Nelson Has a Field Day. The latter is by far my personal favorite.

At the start of the story, Miss Nelson’s students are very disrespectful and naughty. They constantly take advantage of her good- natured personality, and haven’t a clue of what a wonderful and sweet teacher they really have, ’til she doesn’t show up one day and is replaced by the horendous substitute, Miss Viola Swamp.

Days pass and FINALLY, to the utter joy of her students,  Miss Nelson returns to class with a "little secret" as to her disappearence.  By this time, the children have become wonderful and very appreciative students.  I highly recommend this great read aloud, and always kept a copy in my sub folder. 

Because the book is so popular, I thought teachers would enjoy some activities to go with it.  You can do some of them with your students and/or tuck others into your sub folder, to be plugged in as emergency lessons. The Miss Nelson is Missing packet, includes a variety of writing, language arts and reading activites.  Plus some adorable "craftivities" to review even more standards.

Here are a few of the FREEBIES.

There are 76 word cards, plus a blank set to program with your own.  Great for vocabulary building.  You can also use these as an opportunity to teach synonyms, antonyms, and adjectives, while reinforcing their importance in writing. 

One way to use the cards is as an assessment game.  Students make a Popsicle stick puppet with Miss Nelson on one side and Viola Swamp on the other.  I enjoyed sketching these memorable characters, particularly Viola. 

Hold up a word card and read it. Children decide which character they think that word describes and flip their Popsicle to the appropriate face.

For added pizzazz, I glued the facial circles to pink and green construction paper and then glued them back-to-back.

The teacher then shows the correct answer and asks students if they know what the word means.  If not (s)he defines it.

Because Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp are certainly "opposites" you can have a teachable moment, and ask students if Viola's qualities are antonyms for Miss Nelson's. 

I've also included several other adjective activities as well, including a sort of graphic organizer, where they jot down words that describe their teacher, Miss Nelson, and Viola Swamp. 

The packet has 7 writing activities, including 2 class-made books.  One book is entitled The Case Of The Missing Students. 

Children write about what happened to their entire class when their teacher came to school one day, but no one else did!

The other is entitled Our Teacher Is Missing.  As with the original story, students try and figure out what happened to their teacher, and write about one of their conclusions. 

Other writing prompts have students explaining why they wouldn't want Miss Swamp to be their teacher, what qualities they feel a really good teacher pocesses, and 5 things they think their teacher might be doing if (s)he disappeared.

For good measure I threw in 2 "Is, Can, Was" worksheets for both Viola and Miss Nelson.

Students will undoubtedly compare Miss Nelson and Viola to their own teacher. To review this concept, have students choose one of 3 Venn diagrams.  Students compare and contrast the characters to their own teacher, as well as the book to a similar story. 

On the craftier side, there are 2 WANTED posters (for male as well as female teachers), for students to fill in, as well as 4 MISSING person posters. I'm sure what your students fill in about you, will be quite amusing.

My personal favorite activity in the packet is Swamp's Stocking Statements.  It's a cute way to review concepts of print.

Completed projects make a wonderful back-to-school bulletin board or hallway display.

To round things out, I included a page of discussion questions, a synopsis of the story and 2 "retell the story" bookmarks.

Finally, after you read Miss Nelson is Missing to your students, you may want them to see an absolutely "awwww-dorable" 13-minute youtube video.

Mr. Arturo Avina's kindergarten class, from LAUSD's Olympic Primary Center, did a tremendous job acting out their adaptation of “Miss Nelson is Missing”.  He’s done an outstanding job recording it, as well as incorporating music from some popular songs.

What a fabulous learning experience for these students. They are certainly fortunate to have such a creative teacher. I hope you and yours enjoy it as much as I did.  My students, no matter what grade I taught, LOVED doing reader’s theater; I highly recommend trying it.

Click on the link to view/download the Miss Nelson Is Missing packet.

This packet will be FREE for an entire year.  After which time it will be up-dated & included in my 203-page jumbo Miss Nelson is Missing Literacy & Math packet in my TpT shop. Click on the link to pop on over. 

It is one of my most useful & all-time favorite packets.  I'm confident that your kiddos will LOVE these activities!

Oh, and if you'd like a poster that's appropriate, click on the link.  It's not in this packet, but would be a cute writing prompt or discussion: "What do you think this poster means?" and... "How does it fit in with the story Miss Nelson is Missing?"

Thanks for visiting today.  By all means PIN away.  We've just added the automatic "PIN" feature to all of our pix.  Simply hover over them. 

"If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you." -Dr. Seuss 

Tag You're It! Now You Make A Picture!

I am over the moon excited over Tagxedo! It’s a website that turns words, famous speeches, poems, quotes, etc. into a VISUALLY stunning word cloud.

Click on the link to check it out. Tagxedo The possibility of ideas is endless. Here are a few that I dreamed up for up-coming spring activities:

The site is simple to use, so that even K students can be shown how to type in a list of words and create a special piece of art that can also become a card.

Brainstorm a list of words with students; write them on the board; students choose the ones appropriate for them and type them in.

These are three that I made for Mother’s Day. You can use mine, or have students describe their mom and make their own. Click on the link to view/download the Mother’s Day word pictures.

Different fonts, colors and shapes are available to choose from, so each child will come up with a unique keepsake for their mommy.

Another activity that you could do,  is to have students make up a list of adjectives that describe them.

Students make a word picture about themselves entitled “ME”.  I chose the handprint shape for mine, but they could choose whatever shape that represents them, such as a shape from their favorite sport, a ballerina, their age, their initial etc.

Teacher's could also make a "High Fives!" word art picture for each one of their students as a card for preschool or kindergarten graduation, or as a certificate for going into the next grade. 

I've also made, "Look Who's Leaping Into ______ Grade!" filled with fun words associated with the school year. There's also a matching bookmark or slap bracket to go along with the certificates.

Click on the "Look Who's Leaping!" template to view/download mine, or design your own with words specific to you and your school.

Tagxedo also has an awesome gallery featuring famous people.  Two of my favorites are Abe Lincoln and Martin Luther King.

How perfect to use word art, when studying these men. Have students plug in a speech, or adjectives they feel describe them.

What a wonderful vocabulary builder and great independent computer center to practice keyboarding skills!  It’s also a fun way for students to illustrate a poem or short story that they wrote!

I’m always looking for different ways for students to use Dolch and CVC words, so I typed in the various lists of Dolch and CVC words to make cute anchor charts.  I made a header that says:  How many words can you spy?

Students LOVE  “I Spy” and “Where’s Waldo?” books, so this is yet another way to immerse children in word work in a fun way. Run off copies of the various word pictures and have students “spy” the words in the collage.

Have them jot down the words as they find them and then, for another activity, students can alphabetize their list.

Have students make tally marks next to each word to see how many times they found it in the word picture, to reinforce yet another standard!

I've included an apple word art picture for all of the Dolch words for the following lists: pre-primer, kindergarten, first, second and third, + an apple for all of the Dolch nouns and an anchor chart that lists all of the words in their separate categories.

There are 8 CVC word posters. The shape depicts a CVC word. i.e. dog, pig, key etc. I've included an alphabetical list of all of the 338 CVC words used on the word art posters. Click on the links for the Dolch Word Picture Packet, CVC Word Picture Packet

I also thought it would be cute to make a graduation certificate using those themed-words. Click on the link to view/download the Kindergarten Graduation certificate word picture.

It’s also a great way to plug in new vocabulary as it relates to the various science themes that you study, like butterflies.

Click on the link to view/download the Butterfly Word Picture anchor chart.

As you can tell, I had an absolute blast on this site and hope you do to! Do you have a fun site that you relish? 

I’d enjoy hearing from you diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to post a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas.

I hope you can pop by tomorrow for more ideas. Feel free to PIN anything you think others would find helpful. Thanks for visiting!

Crawling With Creativity!

Is anyone still doing caterpillar stuff?  Even if you’ve completed your studies, I bet you’re still assessing and need a moment of sanity.

Why not plug in anyone of these independent activities for your kiddo’s to work on? Your students can make their own hungry caterpillar by simply coloring the template.

I made mine out of construction paper.  You can run the master off on red construction paper and students can cut eyes out of yellow and green scraps if you want to make them that way.

Cut a hole for the mouth, Scotch tape a small Baggie to the back and you’re all set to feed this hungry boy all sorts of traceable cards.

I went crazy making traceable number cards from 1-30, skip counted numbers by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s, upper and lowercase letters, all 14 adjectives used in the book, the days of the week, the months in the year, + covers so that students can make Itty Bitty booklets to match all of the categories!

There's also cards for everything that the caterpillar ate, including black and white cards so students can color their own little My Itty Bitty Very Hungry Caterpillar book which includes the rest of the story telling cards as well.

Use word cards from other packets (such as the Dolch, CVC, Shapes, or Color word card packets) and feed to review even more concepts!

Decide which cards you want your students to work on and run those off.  Make all the sets for yourself, so that you can play “Flash Review” to nail all of those standards.

To make things even more fun, while reviewing whatever concept you want to work on, play “I Have, Who Has?” with your students. i.e., I have 3 who has 6?

I’ve also included several What’s Missing? worksheets for upper and lowercase letters, as well as all of the skip counted numbers + a blank template so you can program your own skill sheets.

Students can also color a pattern on their caterpillar or play the Caterpillar Creeps dice game and review the life cycle of a butterfly.  I’ve included traceable life cycle cards as well. Use them as a fun way to "review-read and feed!"

Click on the link to view/download this 50-page fun-filled packet. Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities.Feel free to PIN anything you feel might help someone.

Making Adjectives Awesome

Do you need something fresh to go over adjectives with your students or something easy for them to work on independently while you do assessing?  You’ve come to the right place.

Since spring has finally sprung, tis the season for caterpillars and butterflies.  I hope your kiddos will enjoy butterfly and caterpillar adjectives.

It’s a nice way to build vocabulary and work on those describing words that will enhance their writing and nail that core standard.

Students color their caterpillar and butterfly, trace the adjectives, add a few of their own, cut them out, sort them to whatever sheet they feel is appropriate, and glue them down.

I’ve included an FYI about how some adjectives are sometimes words that can be used as verbs and adverbs and provide teachable moments, as well as a reminder bookmark of what an adjective is.

This makes a fun writing center or Daily 5 activity.  Click on the link to view/download butterfly caterpillar adjective worksheets.

You may also want to download my new grammar posters to use as anchor charts.  Grammar poster-anchor charts

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN anything that you feel might be helpful to teachers and parents.

 "What a teacher doesn't say...is a telling part of what a student hears." -Maurice Natanson