1-2-3 come Do Some Winter Word Work With Me

Are you working on silent, or “magic” e word work with your kiddos? If so, I think they’ll really enjoy this Magic e Mitten packet.

Simply run the mitten pattern off on a variety of colors of construction paper.
I wanted mine to have a red mitten with a green cuff + a green mitten with a red cuff, so I ran off two of each page (one on red and one on green).

Laminate, trim and then cut the cuffs off so that you create puzzles for an independent center, or use for a “Magic e” Mitten Matching Game.  You could also use these for an “I Have; Who Has?” game too.

The packet also includes a Magic e Word Work journal. Students trace the word, add a “magic e” to the end (using a different color) and then write the new word that’s made.

Encourage students to look up words that they don't know and define them on the “new-word-to-me” definition worksheet, which can also go in their journal.

* There are also Mitten Math worksheets, where the word + an e ='s a new word,
* A magic e rules poster,
* Long & short vowel sorting mat, with matching worksheet,
* An alphabetical list of 86 magic e words, plus
* A pattern to make a magic e, mitten wand.

These make easy-peasy activities for your Daily 5 word work too. 

Another winter word work activity is the UG family of words.

There's nothing like a nice mug of hot chocolate when the wind is whipping up a winter chill, and since I like to have some sort of theme, when we work on a word family,  I thought it would be a fun to use a mug of cocoa.

This not only grabs my students’ attention, but makes the activities a bit more fun, and my kiddos seem to catch on more quickly, retaining the information better because of the graphic.

Since most mugs are also a 3D cylinder shape, I’ve incorporated this into the lesson, so that you can add a bit of math with literacy.
The packet includes:

* 2 Craftivities
* 5 worksheets
* A set of 6, pocket-chart sentence cards
* 3 Posters, plus
* 9, three-piece UG puzzles

Use the activities as a whole group activity, independent center, games, or something for early finishers, homework or your sub folder. 

When my kiddos have completed their lessons, they've earned a special treat for snack time, a cup of hot chocolate.  Mmmmm mmmmm good, especially after a chilly recess. 

Finally, I know a lot of teachers read The Mitten  by Jan Brett, so I designed a cute winter word work packet "Our Mittens" that reinforces verbs based on that story.

The packet includes two class-made books. Making a class book, is a quick and easy way to practice a variety of standards; contributing a page for a class book, is super-fun for your kiddos, and will grab their attention from the get go.

In the first book, Our Mitten, the teacher loses a mitten. As children find it, they tuck something inside. 

Here, I wanted my kiddos to take size into consideration, and think of something that could realistically fit inside a mitten.

On their page, students state their name and tell what they put inside their teacher’s mitten and why, adding an illustration.

The Animals In Our Mitten, is the next book. The cover and pages, are in the shape of a large mitten.  Children fill in the blank with an adjective, animal and action verb. i.e. “A slow, green turtle shuffled into our class mitten.”

I feel that even PK kiddos can come up with a descriptive word and action for their animal, and believe it’s not too early to have children practice writing a vivid and complete sentence, however, there’s also a simpler page, where they just name an animal and draw a picture.

I’ve tied the packet into Brett’s folktale,The Mitten, by including an alphabetical list of 39 of the action verbs in her story, along with a worksheet.

There’s also a verb-definition poster, plus 39 action verb cards, and 11 character cards, which you can use for several games and activities.      

I've also made a similar, classroom management packet that's a quick, interesting and fun way to build students' vocabularies, practice verbs, and reinforce synonyms, while improving dictionary & alphabetizing skills as well.

My students absolutely LOVE playing these games, and I’ve noticed nice improvement in their writing, as well as their verbal vocabulary.
 
The other portion of the packet, Ready! Set! Action! I use as a simple, yet highly effective classroom management tool, that reinforces verbs, while helping students “get the wiggles out” or transition to another activity.

Children enjoy the action of the activity, while you reinforce the grammar concept, at the same time easily & successfully managing classroom behavior.

The classroom management portion, includes several posters, student name cards, 45 action verb cards, plus a blank set to program with whatever.  

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so there are two featured FREEBIES today because they both involve melted crayons.  

The first one is a melted crayon valentine. 

Completed projects are quite lovely and make a nice window display. 

The other one is using broken crayons to make an inexpensive, valentine gift for your students. 

Here's the link for the valentine crayons  FREEBIE.  

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

Wishing you a warm and snuggly kind of day.

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." -Victor Hugo

1-2-3 Come Make An Ug Mug With Me

January, is the perfect time for a delicious cup of cocoa, so I used hot chocolate as an incentive to help promote great classroom behavior.  I wrote the words Hot Chocolate on the board. 

Each time my Y5's completed a whole group task, or were exceptionally good, I'd underline a letter.  When all of the letters were underlined, they earned a cup of hot chocolate after a chilly recess.

Since mugs and marshmallows are real life examples of the cylinder shape, they provided an extra teachable moment. 

With that in mind, I designed the ug mug, which reviews the ug word family in a super-fun way.  I've included a cylinder anchor chart-poster, to share as well.

Simply run off the mug patterns on a variety of colors of construction paper. 

I've included 6 mug options for your kiddos to choose from, including left and right handed patterns, as well as a blank template for them to design their own mug.

Share the ug word family poster with your students and review the words.  Define any new words your students may be unfamiliar with. 

Children write this list of ug family words on the back of their mug.

They choose 5 favorite ug family words and write one on each of their 5 marshmallows.  (A pattern is provided.)

You can have students color the "hot chocolate" oval brown, or run off the template on tan construction paper. 

They trim and glue to the top of their mug, along with their 5 marshmallows.

Completed projects make a sweet winter bulletin board.  (For that finishing touch, have children glue their photo to the center of the snowflake, or if they chose another mug pattern, have them glue their photo somewhere on their mug. )

If you have students write the ug word family words on the back of their mug, punch a hole in the handle and suspend them from the ceiling.  They look wonderful swirling and twirling in the breeze.

There's also an ug word family ABC practice worksheet in the packet, as well as a programmable ug word family sentence writing worksheet. 

So that you can easily make a sample to share with your students, I've included completed sample pages too.

Click on the link to view/download the Ug Mug Craftivity packet.

Thanks for visiting.  The wind is whipping through the trees today, causing the snow "frosting" to fly off the branches, and boy is it nippy!

Certainly time for a hot chocolate break for me!  Wishing you a warm and snuggly day.

"And finally winter, with its biting-whining wind, as all the land is mantled with snow." -Roy Bean

20 pages.

Review the ug word family with this hot chocolate mug craft.  Completed projects make a sweet winter bulletin board.  (For that finishing touch, have children glue their photo to the center of the snowflake.) If students write the words on the back, then punch a hole in the handle and suspend from the ceiling.