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 Do Some More Mitten Activities With Me 

Brrrrrr! It continues to be mitten weather here in Michigan. A chilly 3 degrees this morning! So I'm certainly in the mood to blog about some super-fun mitten-themed activities.

First up is Mm is for Mitten.  My "Dollar Deal" Alphabet Wheels, are a quick, easy & fun way to practice letters, and build the vocabulary needed to give an example of a word, with that beginning sound.

They feature 6 nouns that begin with that letter, and come in black and white, for individual word work, as well as color, so that you can use them as an independent center activity.

I've also included a worksheet where students trace & write the words in alphabetical order. 

Next up are some Mitten Number Puzzles to go along with Jan Brett's story The Mitten.  It's one of my all-time favorite winter stories.

These 42, mitten-themed number puzzles, are a super-fun way for your kiddos to practice sequencing numbers from 1-10, counting backwards from 10 to 1, and skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.

Some of the puzzles are mitten shaped, others are rectangular (horizontal as well as vertical).  Many feature the characters from The Mitten story, so you can combine math and literacy!
 
Since Jan Brett’s story, The Mitten, is a Ukrainian folktale, I’ve also included a map of the Ukraine puzzle. Take a teachable moment to toss in a bit of geography, by having students find the country on a world map or globe.

There are colorful puzzles to be used in a center, as well as black & white puzzles, so that your students can make their own.

I did not number the character puzzles, so that students can number each strip according to your directions.
This way you can work on those toughie teen numbers, or counting beyond 100.

Children color the animal and word, cut their puzzle apart, then put it back together.
You can also make these into a mosaic picture as well, gluing the strips on construction paper, leaving a small gap in-between each piece. For an awesome, wintry bulletin board, scatter them on a  blue background, with a few paper snowflakes. 

Whenever I can, I like to incorporate math with literacy, to get more bang for my time.

The mitten-themed emergent reader, is a quick, easy and fun way to have students practice writing skills and end punctuation, along with a variety of math standards.

However, the packet is simple enough, that you can just do the craft portion with PK kiddos, or some of the other activities as a whole group.

I've also included a few worksheets that practice tally marks, addition, skip counting by 5s, subtraction and graphing, as well as data collection and analysis.

You can do them as an independent worksheet, or break students into small groups and have them figure out the answers together.

Another sweet mitten-shaped booklet is "Let's Count Snowflakes", which includes a 10-frame emergent reader featuring 30 Dolch sight words.

Students read the sentences, add end punctuation, trace & write the number and number word, circle it in the sequence, tally the amount, then show the set in the 10 frame. 

Run off the mitten pattern on a variety of colors of construction paper. Students cut & collate the pages of their worksheets, then staple them to the "cuff" of the mitten.

I’ve also included a set of pocket chart cards counting up to twenty, with 2 cover options to make a 1-10 or 1-20 “Itty Bitty” flip booklet as well.

For more fun, there are 3 pages of mini snowflake tiles to use as manipulatives to make groups with, as well as a set of lovely snowflake puzzle cards from zero to ten, plus a blank set to program with higher numbers.

Simply print, laminate and trim, to use as an independent math center, or for a variety of games including “Kaboom”.   That game, plus a 3-page tip list of what else you can do with the number cards, is also included in the packet.

Today's featured FREEBIE is a quick, easy and fun, Mitten-Snowman craftivity that reinforces letters, plus a bit of math. 

By the way, today is a great day to zip on over to TpT, as they are having a site-wide winter sale. (January 20th through January 21st.)

Everything's  20% off, with an additional 10% off with the coupon code: START16

Well that's it for now.  I hope you found something useful here and can make time to check out the TpT sale. Thanks for visiting.

Wishing you a warm and cozy, snuggly kind of day.

 "When there's snow on the ground, I like to pretend I'm walking on clouds." -Ikkaku

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 Play Charades With Me

Charades used to be a really popular game for my grandma's generation. Lots of different versions of this classic, have evolved for more current gaming, so most children are familiar with it. 

I thought playing charades, would be an interesting way to build your students' vocabularies, at the same time reinforcing verb concepts, so I designed the packet: Lights, Camera, Action Verbs

This packet is not only an interesting and fun way to build students' vocabularies, but also reinforces verb usage, synonyms, and dictionary alphabetizing skills.

It's a quick and easy Daily 5 activity or a game students can play with a substitute teacher, or when you have a few extra minutes in your day.

The packet includes an action verb of the day poster, a cover for a student action verb dictionary, an alphabetical list of 172 action verbs, plus 172 mini action verb cards. 

Put a new verb on the poster each day.  Students can define it, use it in a sentence, plus add it to their dictionary and give as many synonyms for that verb as they can think of.  You could also ask them if this verb is ever used as a noun.

To play the Charades game, toss the verb cards into a container.  Gather the students in a circle and have them choose a card.  They have 30 seconds to act out their verb. 

You decide on the rules, if they can use props or a partner, sound effects etc.  Younger students can "sky write" the beginning letter to get students on the right track.

To keep the game fresh, challenge students to solve as many word cards as they can in a designated amount of time.  Keep track of their highest score to see if they can beat it each time you play the game.

Click on the link to view/download the Lights, Camera, Action Verb packet.

If you're looking for more verb activities, scroll down to check out the class-made Action Verb Book in the blog below or Action Verbs Get the Wiggles Out article below that, where I use verbs as a classroom management tool. 

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you found something useful that makes your life a bit easier.  Summer is once again calling and it's time to walk Chloe, my sweet little poodle, who needs a bit of attention.

"You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself in any direction you choose!" -Dr. Seuss

1-2-3 Come Have Fun Learning About Verbs With Me!

One of the things I used to do with my Y5's, was to help them "get the wiggles out".  When I felt they were getting a bit antsy, I'd say: "Quick! Jump up! Get those wiggles out!” (We’d wiggle, giggle & shake.) Then I’d say “FREEZE.”  (Everyone froze in place in utter silence.)  I'd quietly and slowly say: “Now-carefully, peel those frozen wiggles off and throw them out the window!”  They’d toss their wiggles out, and we’d wipe our brows and say: “Whew! Wiggles gone!" 

Sometimes, after they had thrown their wiggles out the window, I’d exclaim, “Uh oh!” (Then whisper:) "Shhh! A wiggle snuck in! Catch it and toss it out again!”  We’d very slowly and quietly reach for the stars, grab a wiggle, and toss, it slow motion, out the window once again.

As a teacher, you mime the movements and they will follow your lead. "Monkey-see, monkey-do."  The quiet voice and very slow actions will calm your wild ones down and give you control of the class.

My Y5's absolutely LOVED this, and were ready to get back down to business.  Brain breaks are so important with little ones, especially during that first month of school, when they are getting used to a long day of routines.

With that in mind, I designed the Ready! Set! Action! packet.  It's an interesting and fun way to help your students learn about verbs, at the same time acting as a classroom management technique.  Students enjoy the action of the game, while you reinforce the grammar concept.

Explain to students that verbs are words that describe an action, then ask them for some examples. (I don't get into "state of being verbs" with my kiddos, but if you teach older grades, by all means, give them the full definition.)  

Print the action poster on card stock and then put it on the front of a container (shoebox, ice-cream pail, basket)

Print off the action cards, laminate and trim. (I've included 45 verb cards, plus a blank set for you to program with whatever.)  Put the cards in the container.

When you are ready to get the wiggles out, or want to transition to another activity, choose a child to pick an action (verb) card out of your container.  They show the card and everyone reads it. That person can demonstrate the action, or everyone can do their own version.

I've included small blank clacker cards, for you to program with your students' names.  Just another fun little detail to match the theme.

There's also an "It's time to wiggle" poster. Show the poster and have students call out a verb.  Choose one and do that action to “get the wiggles out.” 

You could also use this as a way to transition children over to the action verb activity explained above.  Show the sign, pick a student, who picks a verb card and then children chant: “Time to wiggle. Time to giggle.  Time to ________ (jiggle)." or whatever word card was chosen. Have students do that activity in place, or have them transition to the next activity by doing that action.

I wanted to give a shout out to Michelle over at 3am Teacher for the cute "movie clacker" clip art.  As you can see, it was just what I was looking for and perfect for this packet.  I have a "real" slate clacker that I bought at the party store for only $2.00.  I thought it would add to the fun.  Click on the link to view/download the Action Verb Packet.

While doing verb research, I discovered that the term originates from Latin. (Who knew? And I took it for 5 years!) I also found some super-helpful sites that you might like.  Enchanted Learning has a wonderful (school appropriate) alphabetical list of verbs.  My personal favorite site for verbs is Verbs 1.  If you're looking for a verb that starts with a specific letter, then this site's for you.  Simply click on whatever letter you need and you'll find an alphabetical list starting with that letter.

For 2,000 action verbs, Grammar Check Dictionary is also a nice resource.  Finally, Woxikon, is a database that helps you with a verb's individual meaning, forms and conjugations in 8 different languages!

Well that's it for today.  It's Saturday and summer is calling! (My husband is too, as my computer time is up and we're off to the fair.) I'm wishing you an action-packed day, over flowing with fun. 

1-2-3 Come Read The Mitten and Do Mitten Craftivities With Me!

I LOVE the story The Mitten by Jan Brett.  It was also a favorite of my Y5's.  Her illustrations are nothing short of spectacular. 

To see her at work in her studio, click on this YouTube video link.  It's only 3 minutes long and very interesting.  Jan Brett video

A huge thank you to Jan for all of the great ideas on her site: janbrett.com  If you haven't browsed through her site, it's a must see. 

She has all sorts of information about her books, along with lots of activities and graphics to go with them. 

Since The Mitten is such a popular story with teachers, I decided to design some things to go along with it. 

The Mitten Activity packet is chock full of all sorts of fun "stuff"  and includes:

• Move Over Please, So I Won't Freeze easy reader booklet, which reinforces lots of Common Core, especially ordinal numbers and verbs. 
  

Students underline the verbs, circle the capital letters, add end punctuation, trace and write the animal character's name, his ordinal position and an action word (verb) associated with him, then cut & glue the matching animal picture in the box.

Also included is a mitten paper plate pocket "craftivity" students make, to keep all of their mitten-related work in.

• + a set of ordinal number pocket cards

and a Mitten Matching card game, where students match the animal character to the animal's name, or the ordinal number position it had in the story, or all three:

i.e. the word bear, picture of the bear, ordinal number-card 7th-seventh

 There's an Ordinal number character assessment strip with answer key.

• + 2 graphing activities
• 2 mitten writing prompts
• and several mitten worksheets, including one that covers rhyming words + more verb-work. (Great for Daily 5 activities.) and finally,
  
• A certificate of praise bookmark that can be used to play another game.

Click on the link to view/download the Activities To Go With Jan Brett's The Mitten packet.

I also designed 3 mitten Venn diagrams, perfect for helping your students practice the concept of comparison and contrast. 

Children can compare a mitten to a glove, or The Mitten story to Jan Brett's companion story The Hat; an equally adorable tale, featuring even more animal characters. 

There's also a Venn diagram to compare 2 animal characters.  Click on the link to view/download The Mitten Venn Diagrams.

Thank you for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can slide on over tomorrow to grab the newest FREEBIES.   Feel free to PIN anything from my site. 

"Winter is not a season, it is an occupation." Sinclair Lewis

14 pages.

This packet is chock full of activities to go along with Jan Brett's story, The Mitten. 

1-2-3 Come Play Word Games With Me.

You will really like the versatility of this 109 page word packet!

Students can sort words by vowel sounds, word families, nouns, verbs, plurals, school words, calendar words, seasonal words, rhyming words, colors, numbers, shapes, antonyms, synonyms, homonyms etc.

There are 31 sorting baskets to choose from + a blank basket to program with whatever.

Using brown construction paper, simply print off whatever baskets you want to use; laminate them, cut them out and attach a large paper cup to the back using a bit of tape.

Print off the word eggs on a variety of construction paper colors, laminate and cut out.  

Students can work in groups or individually, to sort a dozen or so words, dropping them in the cup and then rotating to another basket when they are done.

Children can also alphabetize a group of egg words.

I've included CVC words, sight words, over 40 word families, + all of the Dolch word list words, as well as all of the Dolch nouns; for a total of 1,180 word eggs! Sixteen eggs are on a page for easy printing.

There's also a blank set of eggs that you can program with your spelling words etc.

Click on the link to view/download A Tisket A Tasket Word Cards in a Basket packet.

"A-tisket a-tasket A green and yellow basket. I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it. I dropped it, I dropped it and on the way I dropped it. A little boy picked it up and put it in his pocket."

A Winning Lesson With Word Art!

Verbs are something that can be a bit boring to teach, so liven up your lesson with Word Art!

I made these New Year word art pictures using a list of positive verbs and then turning them into a picture using Tagxedo.

Turn it into a reading and writing lesson by showing your students the posters and my alphabetical list of 88 positive verbs.

Read the words aloud and have students circle the ones that they want to promise and do in the New Year.

They need at least 1 for each letter of the alphabet.  Challenge students to make their own word art poster and list. This is a nice way to incorporate technology in your day.

Students can also make a New Year’s dictionary of their promise words.  I've included a cover, simply add lined paper.

For more skill building, I’ve included trace and write pages. 

Fill in and laminate a set and then cut them apart and store in an envelope, so students can arrange them in alphabetical order.

Make up 2 sets so students can play “Speed” against each other to see who can alphabetize the words the quickest.

Any of these activities make fun Daily 5 Word Work lessons. Encourage students to look up any words they don’t know and to use their new vocabulary.

Make a copy for your word wall.  Make sure you do your own to use as a sample.  If students do the word art activity, you have an awesome January bulletin board.

Have them mount their finished work on various colors of blue construction paper.  Arrange on a background of aluminum foil and sprinkle some paper snowflakes on the corners of each one.

At the end of the month or school year, ask students to re-visit their list.  Have they done all of the words they circled? Have they added anymore?

This evaluation can then become a writing prompt of why or why not, and how they can improve etc.

Click on the link to view/download the New Year Word Art activities packet.

Thank you for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful. I hope these New Year's ideas have helped and that you have the best New Year yet.

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." -Hal Borland