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 Do Some Mitten Activities With Me

Do you read The Mitten by Jan Brett?  It's one of my favorite winter stories and perfect for all sorts of sequencing activities. 

With the aid of the materials provided for teachers on Jan's site, I designed 5 activity packets that cover all sorts of standards.  I hope you enjoy them.  They are today's featured FREEBIES and have been very popular downloads.

Help students retell the Ukrainian folktale, by making this cute mitten slider. This is a simple way to review sequencing too.  Graphics copyright janbrett.com

The Language Arts Mitten packet also provides sequencing practice. 

My kiddos loved making the mitten paper plate pocket to keep their things in.

This 24-page packet is chock full of activities that cover a variety of standards and includes:

• Move Over Please, So I Won't Freeze an emergent reader booklet, which reinforces lots of Common Core, especially ordinal numbers and verbs.
• A mitten paper plate pocket "craftivity" students make to keep all of their mitten-related work in.
• A set of ordinal number pocket cards
• 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 mole, picture of the mole, ordinal number card 1st-first
• Ordinal number character assessment strip with answer key.
• 2 graphing activities
• 2 mitten writing prompts
• Several mitten worksheets, including one that covers rhyming words + more verb-work. (Great for Daily 5 activities.) and ...
• A certificate of praise bookmark that can be used to play another game.

Another Mitten Literacy Packet, includes more ordinal number-sequencing practice that will help your kiddos retell the story, including a "beginning-middle-end" graphic organizer.

There's also a worksheet  where students label the parts of a book, plus pocket chart cards for character, setting and event.  I've also included 8 bookmarks to prompt retelling the story.

Another interesting way to review the story and practice end punctuation and capitalization at the same time, is with The Mitten Pocket Chart Punctuation packet.

You can do this as a whole group activity with laminated cards (give students a dry erase marker for them to make corrections) or give each child a card to fix, by rewriting it on a sheet of scratch paper, then sharing their corrections with the class. 

Finally, Venn diagrams are a quick, easy and fun way to introduce students to the concept of comparison-contrast writing. 

They're great practice if you've already done so, and especially perfect for visual learners.  

There are 3 in the Mitten Venn Diagram packet to choose from. 

Do one as a whole-group activity to explain things, (compare mittens and gloves) and then give students a choice of the other two. (Compare two characters in The Mitten, or compare the story The Mitten with Jan Brett's other story The Hat.)

To see a short (3 minute) YouTube video featuring Jan Brett click on the link.  Another fun video (11 minutes) features Jan showing children how to draw a hedgehog.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you found some extension activities to do with your mitten theme. As for me, it's time to help my grandson pick up Toys R Us that seems to have deposited itself all over my office.  Wishing you a day filled with contentment.

Cute quote: "If kisses were snowflakes, I'd send you a blizzard!" -Unknown

6 pages.

Help students sequence and retell the story for Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, with this quick and easy "story slider" craftivity.