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Looking for some Common Core lessons for Halloween?  This haunted house-themed packet includes alphabet activities, adjective practice, vocabulary building, plus writing prompts. 

1-2-3 Come Do Some Valentine's Day Activities With Me

I had so much fun making things with candy hearts on Monday,  that I thought I'd make a few more things for today.   If you missed the article, simply scroll down.  As usual, my brain was going a zillion miles an hour of what other things I could do with the candy heart generator.

One of the things I made was a set of candy heart color cards.  The colors are just the 7 in the box, but sometimes its nice to limit things, especially for younger children.  The favorite color and favorite flavor candy heart graphs from yesterday, will compliment these activities. 

Print; laminate and trim to make Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has" games.  I've also included a cover, if you want your students to make an Itty Bitty Candy Heart Color booklet.  Click on the link to view/download the Candy Heart Color Cards.

Contraction activities are often requested, so I thought I'd make a set of those, using 61 contractions. 

Students match the word cards to their contractions.  You could also have children choose several cards and then write what the contraction or words are, depending on which ones they picked.  Click on the link to view/download the Conversation Heart Contraction Cards. 

Switching gears, I wanted to design a few quick Daily 5 word work activities with a valentine theme. 

How many words can you make using the letters in the word valentines?  Challenge your students to work independently or in small groups.  Set a timer, or let teams work on their lists throughout the day. 

I came up with a whopping 312 words!  When everyone has shared their list, share mine and highlight any that students don't know.

Give some to each team and have them look the words up, and then share their results with the class. I've also included several certificates of praise. Click on the link to view/download the Valentine Word Challenge. 

A Valentine Word Search is also a fun way to practice spelling, and build vocabulary.  This one has 22 familiar words associated with Valentine's Day, an answer key, plus several links for students to play valentine word searches online, as well as a list of quite a few sites for them to do valentine crossword puzzles. 

Including a site where they can make up their own crossword puzzle to share with their classmates.  Click on the link to view/download the Valentine Word Find packet.

Finally, I enjoyed making a list of 100+ ways to say "I love you!" in different languages. Challenge your students to each learn 1 or 2. 

These would be fun to include in a valentine card students make for their families, or as a jumpstart to having students do some computer research and find 3-5 facts about one of the countries listed.  Click on the link to view/download 100 Ways To Say "I love you." 

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away. 

"Study without desire, spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in." -Leonardo da Vinci

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