1-2-3 Come Do Another Scarecrow Writing Prompt Craft With Me

I love doing some scarecrow activities in the fall. Displays of my students’ work can go up in September & stay up through November, which is a huge time saver.

With that in mind I designed this quick, easy & super-fun “Scarecrows Have / Are…” writing prompt craftivity.

This is what I call a “bite size” bit of writing. The topic is specific enough so that students aren’t overwhelmed, while providing nice practice using descriptive adjectives.

Whenever I toss a bit of craftiness in with our writing, my students get extremely excited and WANT to get down to the business of writing and making their own scarecrow.

There are 4 scarecrows to choose from, as well as two writing prompts.

Students can choose the “Scarecrows ARE” writing prompt worksheet, or the "Scarecrows HAVE” one.

For more writing practice, have students do both.

One can be done in class, and the other as homework, or take two days to complete the project.

If you do both writing prompts, have students glue one to the back of their scarecrow. 

Punch a hole in the top, tie on a yarn loop and suspend from the ceiling. 

The assembly is easy-peasy.

Students choose a scarecrow, then color and cut out the top & bottom halves. 

After editing their final draft, they write it on the worksheet, which is the rectangular mid-section of their scarecrow's body.

Cutting around the "hair" and "fingers" of the scarecrows can be a bit tricky, so I've also included patterns with an "easy trim" edging. 

Students simply cut on the dashed line. 

For more creativity, the scarecrow head patterns also come with and without a face.

To help get your students creative juices flowing, I’ve also included 28 photographs of “real” scarecrows.

There are 7 photo-posters, with 4 pictures on each page.

You can laminate them, then pass them around to give your students some ideas of what to write. 

You could also cut each photograph out, and have students choose one to describe. 

If you decide to make an autumn bulletin board with your students completed scarecrows, add these photographs for some extra pizzazz & interest.

For more writing practice, extend the lesson by doing the Venn diagram activity that’s also included in the packet.

Venn diagrams are an interesting & simple way to practice comparison and contrast writing.

This activity can be done as a whole group, or children can choose a partner with a different scarecrow than theirs, then create a Venn diagram together.

These make a nice addition to your display.

I've also included two, Scarecrow "Are-Have" posters as well.

Today's featured FREEBIE is another fun, fall writing prompt.

This one is "How to Make a Pumpkin Pie". 

How to do something, is a writing standard for many schools.

These completed projects also make a "sweet" display.

That's it.  Thanks for stopping by. 

The wicked wind has snatched the rest of our autumn leaves from the oak and maple tree branches, so there's  quite a thick "blanket" of autumn colors festooning our lawn. 

Guess what's on our "To Do" list for this afternoon? 

Wishing you a wonderful week.

"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think." -Margaret Mead

1-2-3 Come Do Some Scarecrow Crafts With Me

I love doing a variety of scarecrow-themed activities in the fall, so I created this cute “Peekin’ Scarecrow” writing prompt craft.

Whenever I toss a bit of creative craftiness in with our writing, my students get all excited to get down to business.

Since completed projects turn out pretty amazing, I also have an easy-peasy bulletin board or hallway display as well; which not only builds self-esteem, but gets us a lot of compliments too.

I find that if one provides students with a variety of interesting, fun and thought-provoking writing prompts, you will have hit a motivating “hot button”.

With that in mind, I spent quite a bit of time thinking up 42 engaging prompts, all with a scarecrow in mind.

For simple & quick printing, the writing prompt pattern provides 6 prompts on a one-page template.

TIP: Whenever I need to pre-cut things for my kiddos as a time saver, I stack at least 3 pages then staple around the edges. 

The staples keep the papers in place and with just a few snips across, I've cut out all 7 pages at one time.

After cutting, toss the "prompt cards" into a basket.

Students pick 3, choose their favorite, then toss the other 2 back in the basket.

This prompt is then glued to their completed project.

For extra pizzazz, have students add some color to the "quilt patch" border at the top.

There are 5 different, writing prompt worksheets for students to compose their final draft on.

These can be glued horizontally or vertically to their “Peekiin’ Scarecrow”. 

Take this teachable moment to build vocabulary by defining, then showing children a horizontal as well as a vertical sample. 

So that I have a pretty even amount, and a nice variety for my display. I assign half my students to glue their writing horizontally and the other half vertically.

For any of our writing assigments, I have students make a first & final draft.

To help them, I've included a writing rubric, which students can use as a checklist, before they complete their final draft. 

For some extra 3D pop, you can add a pair of wiggle eyes attached with glue dots.

Look closely & you will see that I've added some deeper shading with crayons, as well as some "stitch marks" to the nose, heart cheek & along the edges of the face & hat. 

Another way to add some extra pizzazz, is by putting a few sheets of yellow construction paper into a shredder.

Feed in one at a time (2 sheets did enough for my class of 20).

My kiddos absolutely LOVED adding "hay hair", which is a great fine motor skill that will  help strengthen finger muscles, and increase dexterity.

I've also included a hatband and a sunflower as "add on" patterns for the scarecrow's hat.

Fold the petals up for some added dimension.

As you can see by my samples, completed projects turn out so cute!

Your bulletin board or hallway display is sure to get a ton of compliments, while building self-esteem.

I've also included 2 posters to enhance your display.

 So that teachers can quickly & easily make an example to share, I've also made templates for 3, of my completed writing prompts.

Sharing an example, not only helps easily explain what you want your students to do, but also gets them excited to make one of their own.

As with all of my packets, there are clear directions, with helpful tips & photographs.

Today's featured FREEBIE is a set of upper and lowercase, scarecrow-themed alphabet cards.

Use them for a variety of games.

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

It's started snowing quite heavily this moring here in Michigan.

Since it's only the frist week of November, I am so not ready for the craziness that winter weather creates. 

That said, it is quite lovely, and the quiet of the woods, frosted in sparkling white is quite peaceful.

"In teaching others, we teach ourselves." -Proverb

1-2-3 Come Sequence & Retell a Story With Me

I guess a lot of teachers and homeschoolers read the book “The Scarecrow’s Hat” by Ken Brown because the flip booklet craftivity I blogged about last week, was a big hit. 

It’s one of my personal, all-time favorite scarecrow stories too. 

Because of all the “swapping” going on with the various characters in the story, “Scarecrow’s Hat” is perfect for practicing the “sequencing and retelling a story” standards.

Those of you who follow me, know that I enjoy designing storytelling "sliders" and wheels, which have also been very popular, as a super-fun way to practice these standards.

However, because the story has a lot of retelling parts to it, a slider would get too long, and the graphics on a wheel too small, so I wanted to think of a different kind of sequencing activity and came up with this “flip it over” 3D hat craft, that’s made out of a yellow bowl.

Run the hat brim off on yellow construction paper. Students assemble and glue the bowl face down, on top of the brim.

There are two options for sequencing and retelling the story.

Students can color, cut and sequence the “beginning of the story” graphics gluing them to the front of the hat; then color, cut and sequence the “end of the story” graphics and glue them to the “back” of the hat, which is now the chicken’s nest. OR …

Children can glue all of the graphics around the front, then simply flip the hat over to reveal the chicken on her nest to tell the end of the story.

I personally like gluing all of the graphics to the front, then for a “big finish” and “wow” of an ending, flip the hat over to reveal why the chicken wanted the scarecrow’s hat.

The chicken is 3-dimensional and “rocks” before you put her inside the base of the bowl.

For my sample, I ran 2 sheets of various shades of brown construction paper through a shredder, to make the lining for hen’s “nest”.

For some more 3D pop, you can also add a jute bow or small, silk sunflower to the base of the bowl, which is the “top” of the scarecrow’s hat.

I’ve included black & white patterns, as well as colorful ones, so that you can quickly & easily make an example to share.

When everyone is done, have children pick a partner and take turns retelling the story of “The Scarecrow’s Hat” to each other.
We sometimes do this sort of thing with our older reading buddies.

To further check comprehension as well as practice sequential writing, I’ve included a “Here’s What Happened…” writing prompt worksheet.

There’s a black & white template for students to fill in, plus a colorful pattern page so you can do this as a whole-group activity with little ones.

Today's featured FREEBIE switches from scarecrows to turkeys. Its titled, "Thanksgiving Shape Up!"  and is filled with a nice variety of games, activities & crafts, which all help reinforce 2D-shapes. 

Thanks for visiting. The scarecrow on my porch is watching the leaves swirl and twirl.

Even though it's a bit dreary, a brisk walk is in order.  Wishing you a warm and cozy afternoon.

"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.  Today I am wise, so I'm going to change myself." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make a Scarecrow With Me

Do you read the story “Scarecrow’s Hat” by Ken Brown? Click the picture to check out a nice reading of the book on YouTube..

My Young Fives really enjoy this story. Personally, it’s my favorite scarecrow-themed book.

Here’s the gist:
A very clever chicken admires Scarecrow’s hat, who will gladly swap it for a walking stick for his tired arms. Chicken REALLY wants that hat, but doesn’t have a walking stick; however, she knows who does! Thus begins her quest…But why does the chicken want an old straw hat?

Because of all the “swapping” going on with the various animal characters in the story, “Scarecrow’s Hat” is perfect for practicing the “sequencing and retelling a story” standards.

With that in mind, I designed this flip-the-flap scarecrow craftivity, which will help practice those two standards. My students absolutely love creating their booklet.

Completed projects make an adorable fall bulletin board too.

I’ve included a “We can sequence & retell a story, and that’s something to crow about!” poster, for the center of your display.

Fittingly, the top of scarecrow’s hat flips up and tells the tale.

Students color, cut & collate the “hump of the hat” - shaped pages into a little booklet, which is sequenced and glued to the top of scarecrow’s hat.

I purposely did not number the pages, so you can check comprehension.

This also allows you to choose less pages for preschool students, who can easily sort beginning-middle-end, then retell the story with a limited number of “picture prompts”.

For some 3D pop, add a jute bow to the knot on his neck, as well as some “straw hair”.

For my sample, I ran 2 sheets of yellow paper through my shredder, then glued just the end of a few strands under the brim of the hat, creating that finishing touch.

There are two booklet options.

The pages of the first version have only graphics, while the second option includes an unfinished “fill in the blank” sentence, which allows you to practice reading, writing, end punctuation, as well as check comprehension.

I’ve included black & white patterns, as well as colorful ones, so that you can quickly & easily make an example to share.

When everyone is done, have children pick a partner and take turns retelling the story of “Scarecrow’s Hat” to each other.
We sometimes do this sort of thing with our older reading buddies.

To further check comprehension as well as practice sequential writing, I’ve included a “Here’s What Happened…” writing prompt worksheet.

There’s a black & white template for students to fill in, plus a colorful pattern page so you can do this as a whole-group activity with little ones.

Today’s featured FREEBIE also has a scarecrow theme.
“My Scarecrow’s 5 Senses” is a rhyming, emergent reader packed, with plenty of Dolch words, and helps reinforce lots of Common Core State Standards.

Students read, trace, write, add end punctuation, underline the adjectives and color the pictures.

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

Time to put a costume together for party day.  Hmmmm I think I’ll be a nice witch.  Now where did I leave my wand…

Wishing you a magical day.

“If the broom fits, ride it!" - Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make A Glyph With Me

If you have never made a glyph with your students I highly recommend you give it a go with one of these quick, easy and super-fun fall glyphs.

My latest creations are an apple glyph and scarecrow glyph.

No matter what grade I taught, my students absolutely LOVED making glyphs, which is saying a lot because besides 4th, 6th & 7th grades, I've taught them ALL, beginning with PK all the way up through college freshmen!!

Glyphs are a quick, easy and fun way to practice listening and following directions.

They also provide a "hard copy" to use as proof that a child does or doesn't, which comes in handy during parent-teacher conferences, and selecting the yes or no box on a student's report card. 

Completed projects make an adorable bulletin board, as each one will be different.

I've included a colorful glyph poster in both the apple & scarecrow packets, to use for the center of your display.

Glyphs are also an interesting way to get to know your students and build a classroom community, so the apple glyph is wonderful for a back-to-school icebreaker as well.

Both packets include several posters you can show to explain directions, which is particularly helpful for younger children.

To practice data collection & analysis, as well as process of elimination, have students pick a partner and try to figure out which glyph they made.

I’ve designed the glyph directions in such a way, that you can easily tweak them to fit your needs and levels of your kiddos, making things super-simple, or a bit more challenging for older kiddos in order to test their listening skills as well as comprehension.

Be sure and make a sample of your own, so your students can get to know you as well. 

After everyone is done with theirs, you can share yours and practice inference by asking them questions. 

Last fall I designed a pumpkin glyph you may also want to check out.

All 3 of these glyphs are part of "Diane's Dollar Deals".

Today's featured FREEBIE also has an apple-pumpkin theme.

Just like glyphs, my students really enjoy making Venn diagrams, which are a siimple, quick and fun way to practice comparison and contrast writing.  They too make an awesome bulletin board. 

This Venn diagram compares apples with pumpkins and is an easy way to reinforce all sorts of science facts.

Children can do these individually or with a partner. If you teach younger kiddos, doing one together in a whole-group setting is beneficial.

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

I'm watching 2 of my 9 grandchildren today, so we're going to visit Robinette's Apple Orchard and pumpkin patch.

One of the many reasons why I love fall here in Michigan. 

Wishing you a fun-filled day.

"Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadows of your wing." -Psalm 17:8

1-2-3 Come Do Some Shape Activities With Me

Are you studying 2D shapes?  If so, I think your kiddos will really enjoy learning & practicing with these super-fun, hands-on activities, featured in my newest packet: Scarecrow Shapes.

The packet is stuffed with a variety of hands-on fun for learning 2D shapes.

Here’s what you’ll get:

* An emergent reader, “The Scarecrow’s Nose”, which practices a variety of standards, and packs a lot of sight word clout, as I’ve included 33 Dolch words.

Children read the sentence, add end punctuation: (period, question mark & exclamation point).

They trace and write the shape & color word, trace and draw the shape, then color the picture.

There is a pattern with 2-on-a-one-page template, as well as 4-on-a-page to make an Itty Bitty booklet.

On the last page, children draw a scarecrow. The nose is their favorite shape and color.

* There’s a whole-group graphing activity to graph the results.

* I've also included a really cute “My Scarecrow’s Nose” slider craftivity. 

"Socrates" is not only super-fun, but a quick, easy, and interesting way to whole group assess 2D shapes.

I’ve included a full-page size, as well as a smaller, 2-on-a-page pattern.

* There's also 7 shape worksheets that practice a variety of standards, as well as ...

* 6 colorful pocket chart cards, plus a matching black and white set, so students can make a Shape Flip Booklet, plus ...

* 5 shape games along with ...

* 4 assessments using just one worksheet!  And finally,

* A bookmark-size, “color me” certificate of praise. 

This packet is a whopping 63 pages long. 

Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop to have a look: Scarecrow Shapes: Emergent Reader, Games, Worksheets & Craftivities and let the learning fun begin.

I hope your kiddos enjoy learning with "Socrates" as much as mine did. 

Today's featured FREEBIE is also another fun way to practice shapes.

Back in 2009, I designed Silly Shaped Penguins. 

Because it's one of my most popular downloads, throughout the years I've added to the menagerie. 

Since it's fall, I thought the Silly Shaped Owls were perfect for a fall FREEBIE.  Hope you enjoy them.  

Well that's it for today.  I have so many projects "in process" and scattered all over my desk , that I'm not sure where to begin. 

October is flying by way too fast! Wishing you an awesome autumn. 

"I craft so hard, I sweat glitter!" -Unknown

 1-2-3 Come Make A Common Core Scarecrow With Me!

So much to do and so little time to cover it all.  Sound familiar?  It's a no wonder that teachers constantly complain that there's simply no time for any of the fun craftivities of yesteryear. 

But wait!  There's hope! I spent a zillion hours making a comprehensive "Patches" the Standard Scarecrow. 

He's 17 scarecrows in one, so you can pick the standard(s) you want to practice.  Patches covers the following Common Core/Report Card Standards in a quick, easy and super fun way:

upper & lowercase letters, numbers 0-30, odd & even, skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s, 2D shapes, 11-colors, vowels, telling time to the hour and half hour, and words: SC blend, contractions, compound words, beginning Ss sound words, CVC words that begin with S, plus rhyming words!

Wow!  That's a whole lotta bang out of one little scarecrow craftivity, and completed projects make a wonderful fall bulletin board, or look sweet hanging back-to-back from the ceiling.

To make this extra special, fold a sheet of white construction paper, have students trace their hand and then cut once, to get two hand prints for their scarecrow's "gloves".  I ran yellow construction paper through a shredder to make the "hair". 

Run off the scarecrow's body templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim and glue together. 

For more fine motor practice, cut yellow rectangles with a paper cutter.  Have students snip the bottom portion and glue the "hay" to the back of the scarecrow's pant legs, then crumple.

I purposely made these patterns super simple to cut out, but if you think this is too much for PK kiddos, have a room helper trace once and then cut 3-6 shirts and pants out at a time,  leaving just the head for preschoolers to cut out.  

There's a blank head so children can draw their own scarecrow face, as well as a completed template for little ones to color.

 Students make their scarecrow and then trim and glue on the appropriate patches.  The vowel scarecrow is especially versatile, as it not only covers vowels, but shapes and colors too. 

The packet also includes shape and color cards, along with a variety of worksheets for more practice.

For extra reinforcement, when everyone is done, play an "I Spy" game and give students a piece of candy corn to use as a manipulative.  Choose a student to call out a "patch". 

Children locate that letter, number, shape or whatever, cover it with the candy corn, and then raise their hand. 

This is a fun way to practice and review standards, as well as a quick and easy way to whole group assess, as you can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

I've also included blank patches for you to fill in with whatever, plus ideas and templates to use the number, letter and shape scarecrows for matching games.

i.e. match the lowercase patches to the uppercase letters; match the number word patches to the numbers match the colorful patches to the color words, and/or match the shapes to the shape words.

For more scarecrow-themed letter fun, click on the link for a set of scarecrow alphabet cards.

The following scarecrows are wonderful for vocabulary building and Daily 5 word work: Carl is the Compound words scarecrow; (Click on the link for a FREE alphabetical list of over 3,000 compound words.)

Connie, is a contraction action scarecrow; (With an alphabetical list of 72 contractions)

Sam, is a scarecrow that loves 37, 3-letter words that begin with S; (CVC practice!)

Scott, is the SC blend scarecrow, with a list of 50 word cards as well as pocket chart cards.

The packet also includes an entire SC blend section, with lots more activities.

Sophie, is a scarecrow with 47-picture patches, for simple words starting with the letter S. 

For a quick review, I've also included 4, Ss word, picture posters.

Rodney, is the Rhyme Time scarecrow, with 56 words that rhyme with scare and a list of 274 words that rhyme with crow.

Write the words that rhyme with scare on the front of Rodney, and have children choose some words that rhyme with crow and write them on the back.

In the sample, I chose 24-scare rhyming words and wrote them on the shirt, and then wrote an equal amount of words that rhyme with crow, on the pants.  The alphabetical lists include rhyming words that start with every letter except U & X.  I chose one of each.

Finally, the number scarecrow, has several options and serves double duty.  There are number patches from 0-30, which  I traced in a variety of colors. 

You can make Odd Todd and Even Steven scarecrows (front and back) or put the odd numbers on the top and the even numbers on the bottom.  (See photo.)

For more math number practice, I've also included skip counting patches.  Children can skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's. 

There are matching worksheets in the packet as well, along with number cards, plus number puzzles in color & black and white. 

The puzzles review counting from 1-10, counting backwards from 10-1, as well as skip counting to 100 by 10s.

Two emergent readers also reinforce numbers, as well as colors.

For more odd and even scarecrow number fun, click on the link to practice numbers from 1-120, in the Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch packet.

If your kiddos are familiar with that concept, but need to work on matching numbers to their number words, use the Norman & Nancy number scarecrow patterns, with numbers 0-10, along with their matching number word patches.

Glue the numbers on the shirt and the number words on the pants.  For more practice, have students write the words above their matching number patch.

The Common Core Craftivity Scarecrows are part of a whopping 184-page jumbo packet in my TpT shop for just $5.95. Click on the link to pop on over. Patches, The Standard Scarecrow Packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  It's a really hot July afternoon, with temps expected to flirt with the 90's, which is too hot for this midwest gal.  Time to put the AC on and make some lemonade.

“I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.” -Edna ST. Vincent Millay

1-2-3 Come Do Some Crimping With Me

Crimping? What's crimping? It's a wonderful way to add that finishing touch to your students' crafts. Alicia, over at Jam Paper, contacted me and asked if I would be willing to design some sort of craft activity using their paper.   Of course! (They have "every color and every size!" including brown which is rather unusual and perfect for fall.)

I checked out their site and found that they also carried an awesome tool called a "corru-gator"  which crimps paper!  Well the creative juices kicked in and my brain went into over drive, with all of the fun things I could do with one. The more I pondered, the more excited I got.  I hope you will too. 

I chose the "wave" pattern for it's versatility. (One with straight lines, that crimps like corrugated cardboard, is also available.)  I'm sure scrapbookers are well aware of these fun gadgets, but I wanted to figure out ways a teacher could use one in the classroom. 

One of the reasons that this is great for school, is that it has a width of 8 1/2 inches, so it will fit a regular sheet of paper, (smaller sizes too) as well as card stock thickness, so you can add texture to just about any project.

The corru-gator is a safe and easy-to-use-tool even for little ones.  Inserting a sheet of paper and cranking the roller, is wonderful fine motor practice that is a super-fun way to strengthen finger muscles, which is so important for pre-writing skills and scissor cutting capability.

A child's excitement at seeing their finished project being cranked out, with a cool texured look, is priceless.  "Wow! Look what I made."  

Because students will want to add that "finishing touch" to whatever you deem appropriate, use the tool as an incentive to keep students focussed, by allowing them to use the crimper after they have completed their project. 

What kinds of projects? Oh the possibilities... Here are just a few that I thought of:

Students can crimp a file folder (portfolio) or pocket folder to keep their work in.  The "Flip For Facts" file folder activities that I've posted also look more interesting after they're crimped too.  Make sure you use plenty of glue on projects to be crimped and that they are completely dry.

Crimp shapes, letters and numbers to add a bit of pizzazz. Use Elison die cut letters and have students glue them together to make a name plate then crimp it, or simply have them write and color their names and then add the texture. 

When students make a special card for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or Father's Day, allow them to crimp it to add that "wow" factor or have them crimp the envelope for something different.

Crimp your plain colored bulletin board borders to add some 3D pop.  Have students design a bookmark and then crimp it. 

Crimp a writing prompt topper, or even the written page.  I crimped the entire haunted house 5 senses craftivity to add an extra touch of creepy. As I've discussed before, tossing in a bit of hands-on art to go along with a writing prompt, simply gets students more motivated. 

Completed projects make awesome displays, which help build self-esteem. 

Crimping only takes a minute and the unusual results will surely get all sorts of comments.  Everyone wanted to know how we made these cool tri-colored apples.

A myriad of themed craft activities are also perfect for crimping.  Here are just a few:

For Fall: crimp apples, pumpkins, scarecrows, bats, spiders, candy corn, skeletons, & monsters.

Studying fire safety? As you can see by the photograph, flames look awesome crinkled and definitely add that finishing touch!

Are you studying leaves?  Paper leaves look wonderful crimped.

I designed this fall dangler then added the texture for an interesting 3D effect.

Trees are also the perfect craft to crinkle.  

My students partnered up and traced their arm and hand with fingers spread to make an apple tree and then ran it through the corru-gator.  

The pumpkin sliders gained extra pizzazz by being "munched and crunched". (My Y5's have named this cool tool "The Muncher Cruncher".)

Our pumpkin Venn Friends turned out especially cool with a little crimping.

I LOVE that the size of this tool accommodates an entire project. 

The scarecrow's face and hat, look extra special when crimped, which gave it more of a burlap look. I also ran yellow paper through a shredder to make the hair.

Thinking ahead to WINTER: Crimp Christmas trees, ornaments, snowmen, snow scenes, and mittens.

Do you celebrate 100 Day?  Have students draw a self portrait of how they think they'll look if they get to be 100-years-old, then crimp for instant wrinkles, or simply crimp a real photo of them.

For Groundhog Day, crimp children's groundhog craftivities to give those animals some "fur".  Are you studying shadows? Using a light source, trace your students' profile, trim and crimp. 

For Valentine's Day add texture to paper hearts.  If you study Abraham Lincoln, crimp a log cabin.

Moving on to Spring: Crimp rain, the water cycle, a Seuss hat, butterflies, caterpillars, shamrocks, flowers, grass, eggs, baskets, bunnies, lions, and lambs.

As you can see I'm pretty excited about the educational potential of this fun gadget, and at $24.50 it's certainly an affordable tool to add to your teaching bag of tricks. 

To take a look at the corru-gators over at Jam Paper, click on the link.  They also have a large variety of paper choices, as well as other office supplies. 

If you're going to do the Frankenstein envelope activity with your kiddos that I posted a few days ago, they also sell the green envelopes. Your kiddos could also crimp their completed envelope monsters too.

Speaking of envelopes, if you do a Chinese New Year Theme in February, and want to get some red coin envelopes to do a few of my Chinese New Year activities with, they sell the perfect 3 x 5.5 size.

Well that's it for today.  I'm going to play around a bit more with this fun gadget to see what else I can come up with. 

If you've thought of another way to use the tool, or an activity you plan to do with your kiddos, I'd enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com  or feel free to leave a comment below.

"There is a great distance between said and done." - Puerto Rican proverb 


 1-2-3 Come Make A Multi-Purpose Scarecrow With Me

Since there are so many standards on our plates these days, there never seems to be enough time for everything, let alone a fun seasonal craft that we know our students would enjoy. That's why I spend so much time designing hands-on "craftivities" that revolve around all sorts of standards. 

Because it's so comprehensive, it took me several days to complete this Common Core scarecrow, and even more hours to make a sample of all 11 scarecrows, but it was time well spent, as they turned out so cute, are easy for your kiddos to make, and reinfore the following: 

Upper and lowercase letters, vowels, sc blend, beginning s sounds, matching words with pictures, numbers 0-30, odd and even, skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s & 10s, shapes, telling time, colors, contractions, number words, color words, compound words, CVC words, and rhyming words.

Completed projects make a wonderful fall bulletin board, or look sweet hanging back-to-back from the ceiling.

To make this extra special, fold a sheet of white construction paper, have students trace their hand and then cut once, to get two hand prints for their scarecrow's "gloves".  I ran yellow construction paper through a shredder to make the "hair". 

Run off the scarecrow's body templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students trim and glue together. 

For more fine motor practice, cut yellow rectangles with a paper cutter.  Have students snip the bottom portion and glue the "hay" to the back of the scarecrow's pant legs, then crumple.

I purposely made these patterns super simple to cut out, but if you think this is too much for PK kiddos, have a room helper trace once and then cut 3-6 shirts and pants out at a time,  leaving just the head for preschoolers to cut out.  

There's a blank head so children can draw their own scarecrow face, as well as a completed template for little ones to color.

 Students make their scarecrow and then trim and glue on the appropriate patches.  The vowel scarecrow is especially versatile, as it not only covers vowels, but shapes and colors too.

For extra practice, when everyone is done, play an "I Spy" game and give students a piece of candy corn to use as a manipulative.  Choose a student to call out a "patch". 

Children locate that letter, number, shape or whatever, cover it with the candy corn, and then raise their hand. 

This is a fun way to practice and review standards, as well as a quick and easy way to whole group assess, as you can see at a glance who is having difficulty. 

I've also included blank patches for you to fill in with whatever, plus ideas and templates to use the number, letter and shape scarecrows for matching games.

i.e. match the lowercase patches to the uppercase letters; match the number word patches to the numbers; and/or match the shapes to the shape words.

For more scarecrow-themed letter fun, click on the link for a set of scarecrow alphabet cards.

The following scarecrows are wonderful for vocabulary building and Daily 5 word work: Carl is the Compound words scarecrow; (Click on the link for an alphabetical list of over 3,000 compound words.)

Connie, is a contraction action scarecrow; (With an alphabetical list of 72 contractions)

Sam, is a scarecrow that loves 37, 3-letter words that begin with S; (CVC practice!)

Scott, is the SC blend scarecrow, with a list of 50 words. The packet also includes an entire SC blend section, with lots more activities.

Sophie, is a scarecrow with 47-picture patches, for simple words starting with the letter S. 

For a quick review, I've also included 4, Ss word, picture posters.

Rodney, is the Rhyme Time scarecrow, with 56 words that rhyme with scare and a list of 274 words that rhyme with crow.

Write the words that rhyme with scare on the front of Rodney, and have children choose some words that rhyme with crow and write them on the back.

In the sample, I chose 24-scare rhyming words and wrote them on the shirt, and then wrote an equal amount of words that rhyme with crow, on the pants.  The alphabetical lists include rhyming words that start with every letter except U & X.  I chose one of each.

Finally, the number scarecrow, has several options and serves double duty.  There are number patches from 0-30, which  I traced in a variety of colors. 

You can make Odd Todd and Even Steven scarecrows (front and back) or put the odd numbers on the top and the even numbers on the bottom.  (See photo.)

For more math number practice, I've also included skip counting patches.  Children can skip count by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's.  There are matching worksheets in the packet as well, along with number cards, plus number puzzles in color & black and white.  

For more odd and even scarecrow number fun, click on the link to practice numbers from 1-120, in the Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch packet.

If your kiddos are familiar with that concept, but need to work on matching numbers to their number words, use the Norman & Nancy number scarecrow patterns, with numbers 0-10, along with their matching number word patches.

Glue the numbers on the shirt and the number words on the pants.  For more practice, have students write the words above their matching number patch.

Click on the link to view/download the "craftivity" portion of the Common Core Scarecrow Packet.

This section will be FREE for an entire year!  After that, you can pick up the whopping 184-page jumbo packet in my TpT shop for just $5.95.  Click on the link for Patches, The Standard Scarecrow Craftivities packet to pop on over.

Thanks for visiting today.  I need to unclutter my brain, so we're off to a nearby fall festival.  It's a beautiful autumn-weather day, if the rain just holds out for awhile. 

 "If stars can shine with darkness, so can you." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Make Some Scarecrow Craftivities With Me

I really believe that if you give students a simple and quick little craft to attach to their writing prompt, they will be a lot more excited to get down to business. 

With that in mind, I designed "Peeking Scarecrow".

As you can see by the pictures, there are 2 ways to display children's work.  Completed projects make an awesome bulletin board, or look sweet hanging back-to-back from the ceiling.

I've included 24 scarecrow-themed writing prompts for students to choose from. 

Run them off, trim and give students a choice, or toss them in a basket and have them pick one. 

If they are unspired, they have the option to choose another, or swap with a classmate.

Children glue the prompt to their scarecrow and record their final draft on a complimentary color of construction paper.

The packet also includes a sample, so that you can easily whip off an example to share with your kiddos.

For that extra touch of pizzazz, there's a blank border template that students can write inside. Encourage older students to type their final drafts.

Click on the link to view/download the scarecrow writing prompts.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  Happy TGIF.  I'm off to hit some garage sales with my daughter.  Wishing you love and laughter and a happy-ever-after. 

"What you allow, is what will continue." - Unknown