1-2-3 Come Make A Mother's Day Card With Me

Mother's Day will soon be here.  I designed this sweet tweet writing prompt which makes an adorable card.

Here's how to make one: Run off templates on construction paper.

Cut yellow strips for the legs, the length of the construction paper. I made mine half the width of a ruler.

Make a template for the beaks from an old file folder. Trace and cut out 6 at a time. Set up the various pieces on a table.

Students come to the center and choose their bird color and other pieces. They return to their desk to cut out and assemble the pieces.

Students accordion fold the legs and glue them to the back of their bird.  They cut on the tail lines and fold a few “feathers” up, and glue the beak to the head, drawing a smile and nose dot.

Children fold the left edge of their wing and glue it to the center of their bird. The wing says: "My mom is special and that's something to tweet about!"

So they don’t write outside the wing, children can trace around the wing before they write I love you and sign their name under the wing.

To expedite things, pre-cut the Happy Mother’s Day hang-tags and punch a hole in them. I ran then off on white construction paper and then for more pop, glued them to pink construction paper. You could save the extra steps, and just run the tag off on different colors of construction paper.

Cut lengths of yarn, ribbon or jute to tie the tags to the birds.  Before hand, brainstorm with students why their moms are special.  List these on the board to help with spelling.

Students write why their mom is special on the back of the bird. I ran off an extra template for this so that it looks more finished, as it stands out and also covers the leg tops.

Print off your class composite. Cut students’ photographs in an oval, so that they can glue them to the head on the back of the bird.

When students have completed their prompt, tie their tab to the bird and finish with a bow.  If you have time, have students share their work with their classmates, by reading what they wrote.

Click on the link to view/download the Mother's Day Writing Prompt craftivity. Thanks for visiting today.  I hope your day is something to tweet about!

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Be A Word Wizard With Me

As you go through the year, you add lots of words to your word wall.  We sometimes take for granted that because we've covered a set of words for a while, that they will have stuck in our students' brains. 

This is not necessarily true for some children; that's why it's so important to review these words on a daily basis. 

To make this more fun, a few minutes before lunch, or just before we got ready to go home, I'd turn off the lights and choose a Popsicle stick with a child's name on it. 

They got to turn on my neon laser sword and read a group of words. Then they'd point to the words and everyone would say them together.

When they were done, they'd choose another student to do the same, 'til time ran out.

My students LOVED doing this.  I'd also play "flash a word" with a flashlight.  The room was dark and I'd suddenly flash the light on a word.  The first one who identified it, got the flashlight.

Being able to recognize words is a Common Core State Standard: (RF.K.3c)

I'd often use our word wall for Daily 5 Word Work activities.

When all of the office supply stores are having huge loss leaders in August, I'd buy a class supply of notebooks. Most of the time these were only 10 or 15 cents each.

My Y5's felt very "grown up" getting a notebook and enjoyed practicing all sorts of writing activities and recording them in their notebooks.

I had my students become word wizards, which helped them enjoy vocabulary-building activities even more.

In the Word Wizard packet, I've included a cover for your students to glue to their notebook.

They can give their covers more pizzazz, if they draw or glue a picture of themselves as the word wizard.

Have children think of 4-5 adjectives that describe themselves. They write those words around their wizard.

Every day assign a numbered activity for them to do, with words from your word wall, or give them a choice of what activity to choose.

I've included a list of 51 activities that can easily be repeated with different words on another day.

This packet is a quick and easy way to cover "word work" for your Daily 5 activities.

There's also a certificate of praise to hand out at the end of the year when students have completed their notebooks.

Click on the link to view/download the Word Wizard packet.

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"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make An Owl With Me!

So Long School; Hello Summer is a writing prompt craftiviity I think your students will enjoy.

Students assemble their owls and then write what they'll miss about school under the owl's wings, or if you want them to have more room, they can cut and glue the "back" template and complete the writing prompt there.

You could also use this as a "graduation" activity and have students write about what they'll miss about pre-school or kindergarten, or whatever grade level they will be leaving.

Choose natural earth tone colors for your students to choose from, or for crazy-pizzazz, give them an assortment of bright colors to add a splash of wow to their work.

Glitter as well as wiggle eyes can also make things pop.

Adding a school photo to the leaf, helps easily identify work and makes the project even more of a keepsake.

I used a flower paper punch for the eyes. There are many available, and students enjoy this fine motor skill.

The owls look wonderful swirling and twirling when they are suspended from the ceiling in the hallway.

Click on the link to view/download the Owl Miss...Writing Prompt Craftivity.

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"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something, but to be someone." -C. Chanel