8 pages.

Review a variety of 2D shapes with this sweet scarecrow craftivity.

1-2-3 Come Do Some Scarecrow Activities With Me!

I love scarecrows; they were one of my favorite things to draw as a child.  Having grown up in Wisconsin, I enjoyed seeing the variety of these farmer-creations that kept watch over the pastoral countryside.

One of the first Art & Activities units that I designed was on scarecrows.  This was prior to all of the software programs, fonts and clip art that I now have at my disposal, but I think you'll still enjoy making some of these cuties from my hand drawn patterns.  Click on the link to view/download the 66-page Scarecrow Art & Activities packet. 

Here are a few samples:

Patrick, the paper chain scarecrow, can help your kiddo's countdown to Thanksgiving break.  Choose 2-colors for the links and review an ABAB pattern, or add a 3rd color to do ABCABC. 

You can simply make one to hang in your classroom, or set this scarecrow up as an independent center and have children work on one of their own. (Assign as many links as are appropriate for your age group.)  To incorporate blends, have students write an sc word on each link.

Carl, the counting scarecrow, will help your students review numbers 1-10, skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's as well as the spatial directions of left and right. 

Five Little Crows in a Cornfield, is a "craftivity" that also includes math practice.

My all-time favorite scarecrow craft I call "Personal Scarecrows."  They are "jointed" so you can pose them in different ways.

Cut out a variety of colored construction paper shapes to use as "patches" for a quick and easy shape review.

I enlarged my students' school photo.  This became the scarecrow's head. The picture appeared very pixilated, which added to the awesome scarecrow looking effect. 

If you don't have the ability to do this, I've also included a scarecrow head template your children can cut and color.

When I was a freelance writer for Mailbox Magazine, my editor asked me to write a scarecrow poem.  The personal scarecrows were my inspiration. 

We received zillions of compliments on our hallway display, and my Y5's really enjoyed making them.  Click on the link to view/print the Personal Scarecrow craftivity.  

On a smaller scale, you could do Sam/Samantha the Shapely Scarecrows.   Give students the option of whether they want to make a boy or girl scarecrow. 

With the personal scarecrow, students got in some great cutting practice, by snipping on the lines of a square to make "hay". They glued these to the ends of the scarecrow's arms and legs. 

For Sam/Samantha, I ran yellow construction paper through my husband's shredder.  Pick up a bunch, crinkle it even more and tape the end to the back of the scarecrow. 

If you don't have a shredder, The Dollar Store sells bags of all sorts of colors.  Look for shredded paper in the gift bag section.  Most school offices have a shredder; you can ask to borrow it. 

To make "stuffing hay" a bit easier for little ones, put a piece of double-sided tape on the back. Children pick up pieces of shred and press them on the tape, when they are done, cover the stickiness with a piece of regular tape.

Remind students ahead of time, that if they throw the shred around and make a mess, that they will not be able to use some on their scarecrow. I think it gave Sam/Samantha that finishing touch. 

A template of additional shapes is included. Students can cut and glue as many "patches" to Sam's/Samantha's clothes as they desire.  I used a piece of yarn to make a dangler.  If you want this to look good on both sides when they spin, each child needs 2 of everything. 

A simpler way to assemble the scarecrow is to have students glue their pieces together.  Punch a hole in the triangle and suspend from the ceiling back-to-back with another child's scarecrow.   Adding a few real buttons adds a bit more pizzazz.  Click on the link to view/download Sam/Samantha The Shapely Scarecrow craftivity.

Finally, my favorite scarecrow easy-reader is My Scarecrow's Nose.  It too reviews shapes, as the scarecrow tries on different shaped noses.  In the end, he gets his favorite, the triangle. Children read, trace, write, color and draw. 

A graphing extension is included, where students vote on their favorite nose for the scarecrow; 2 worksheets continue the shape review.  Click on the link to view/download My Scarecrow's Nose.

I have a nice variety of other scarecrow activities on the site, including scarecrow 10 frames, and a scarecrow glyph.  Click on the link to zip on over to the scarecrow section. 

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can pop by tomorrow to grab the newest FREEBIES. 

You may PIN anything you want.  If you'd like to take a peek at all of the cute-educational stuff I PIN, click on the heart button on the right.

"It will not always be summer; build barns." -Hesiod

23 pages.

Spice things up each month with a variety of seasonal Letter of the Day anchor charts.  Laminate and use every year, or print and compile a Letter of the Week class book.  Great for calendar time.

1-2-3 Come Review The Alphabet With Me.

I like to do "regular routine" stuff with a different theme each month.  Even tho it's the "same old-same old" things are kept fresh and interesting by simply tweeking them for the seasons.  With that in mind, I designed 20 Letter of the Day anchor charts.  There are some for each month as well as a few extra's for popular themes.

If you’d like to use these each year, print, laminate and clip to your white board changing things up each month.  This is also a nice activity to use as a review if you post it on your calendar board.

Another option is to not laminate the pages and have children fill in the information.  When the page is complete, add it to your Letter of the Day binder. (I've included a cover for this. )

When you have done all 26 letters, put this student-made booklet in your classroom library.

Occasionally, you may want to run a page off for your students to work on for Daily 5 Word Work.

It's easy to make this a part of your morning routine, job chart, or calendar time. Using a dry erase marker, write the upper and lowercase letters in the boxes.  You can show correct formation of the letters, or choose a student to do so.

Ask students, “What sound does the letter make?”  Say the sound several times.  Ask them if they know any words that begin with that sound?  Write the words in the appropriate boxes.  Have students look at your word wall to see if they can find any more to add to the list.  Another question could be,  "Is this letter a vowel or a consonant?"

Make it personal, by also asking, "Do any classmates have a name that starts with that letter?"  You can either write their name on the paper or have the child with that name come up and write it. 

Choose another child to circle the letters in the “Find it” section. This is a good time to point to each letter and say the letter or sing the alphabet song.  Click on the link to view/download the Letter of the Day Packet.

If you're looking for more alphabet activities, click on the link to zip on over to that section of our site to grab some more FREEBIES.

Thanks for visiting today.  I design and blog daily so I hope you can stop by tomorrow to check out the newest FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN anything.  To ensure that "pinners" return to THIS article, click on the green title at the top; it will turn black, now click on the "Pin it" button located on the burgundy menu bar.   If you'd like to take a look at all of the wonderful-educational items, that I spend way too much time pinning, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.  I have an entire board on just alphabet stuff.

"The life you live is the lesson you teach." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Fun Football Activities With Me.

I discovered long ago,that if I could incorporate a theme of something that was popular with my students, I'd grab and hold their attention.  It seemed that my little guys had more difficulty focussing than the girls did, so I often offered choices when I could. 

Because sports was always a "hot button" and 'tis the season for the start of football, I decided to dream up some activities with a football theme.

I thought it would be fun to do something with the -all family of words and make a game of it. 

Students choose teams and then work either independently or with their group, to think of as many -all words before the timer rings.  Each word is worth 1 point. 

To get in some math practice, have students figure out how many touchdowns and field goals they achieved with their word list.  i.e. 7 words = 7 points = 1 touchdown.  Any "extra" words can be counted to make a field goal. 

A field goal = 3 points for 3 words. i.e. One team thought of 11 words.  They scored 1 touchdown (7) and 1 field goal (3) and had 1 extra point left.

I've provided score card - posters, if you'd like to keep track and post the results. 

There are blank templates, so you can program other word families, if you'd like to keep this idea going. 

After I got the -all word family football packet done, I wanted to make Bingo cards as another way to review the words. 

However, I had less than 24 words and could not make a Bingo card, so I thought I'd add the -ick word family to the football packet, because you kick a football. 

80 pages later, (!) the packet was completed, but my entire day had slipped away, so I certainly hope you find it useful.

Another fun way too reinforce these new words is via a word search. 

The packet includes the same activities for both the -all AND -ick word families. 

There are pocket word cards, traceable word cards, covers so students can make Itty Bitty booklets, alphabetizing worksheets, plus trace-write-color-cut & glue worksheets. 

Also included is a fill in the word sentence worksheet; 30 different Bingo cards, so your entire class can play; words on footballs + Kaboom bomb cards to play Memory Match and "I have; who has?" games. 

There are also posters, blank templates for you to program with whatever, and 2 "craftivities"  like the football -all word family slider pictured.  Many of these activities work well for your Daily 5 Word Work.

Click on the link to view/download the -all & -ick Word Family Football packet.

To go along with the football theme, I also designed a 10-frames football packet.  Click on the link for this FREEBIE.

Because of several special requests, I also designed a 1-2-3 Count Footballs With Me, 10-frames easy reader. 

Because these booklets are based on a 10-frame, they are nice extensions for the matching 10-frames packets. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.   If you'd like to see all of the terrific-educational items that I PIN, (Almost all of them FREEBIES!) click on the heart to the right of the blog. 

Time for a much-needed break.  I'm off to do who knows what.  Decisions-decisions-decision.

"There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle." -Albert Einstein

50 pages!

Do you have male students who are into football?  If so, they'll really enjoy reviewing the -ick and -all word families, with these fun-filled football-themed activities.

2 pages.

I hope you find this list of 40 of my All-Time Favorite Monster Books helpful.   If you have some more suggestions, of monster-themed books that you and your students like, I'd enjoy hearing from you.  diane@teachwithme.com.

7 pages.

Review shapes as well as numbers with this adorable easy-reader, with a monster theme.  This item will be FREE for an entire year, after which time it will be up-dated and put in Diane's Dollar Deals in my TpT shop.

1-2-3 Come Do Some Monstrously Fun Monster Activities With Me!

Do you toss in a few monster activities the week of Halloween?  Are you looking for some cute and not-so-scary monsters? Well you've come to the right place.

I received so many positive comments about the themed-book bibliographies, that I decided to do one for my all-time favorite monster books too. Click on the link to grab the list of 40; I know you'll find some that will become your favorites too.

After reading some books, make this goofy monster bookmark. Click on the link.

Out of my list of 40, if I could only choose 2 monster books, they would be Go Away Big Green Monster and Sad Monster Glad Monster, both were written by Ed Emberley, and my Y5's LOVED them.

Click on the link to view/download this whopping 40-page monster activity packet that has lessons to go with these books, including pattern pieces that you can pass out to your students, so that they can assemble the matching monster on your flannel board, as you read the story. A Glad/Sad Monster class book is also included in the packet.

Each half of the monster's face shows a different feeling. The monster on our cover is feeling happy and silly.  I've also included a Venn diagram comparing the two books.

For more monster fun, I think your kiddo's will also enjoy Monster Math.  Click on the link to view/download the packet. This is an interesting and fun way for your kiddo's to review odd and even number concepts from 0 to 30. 

If you'd like to work on higher numbers to 100 or 120, as well as skip counting, click on the link to zip on over to the Googol Monster packet.  I designed it for 100 Day, but there are lots of monster math activities you can do right now.

Since all of the themed shape booklets  have been such popular downloads, I thought it would be fun to make up an easy reader shape booklet with a monster theme. 

This is also a great review for numbers 1-10.  Click on the link to view/download the Monster Shape booklet.  A sweet graphing extension is included.

Shapes can also be reviewed with the Monster Munch A Shape For Lunch activity. Print a copy of my patterns and make a template, so that you can easily create a file folder Frankenstein's monster head.

Tape the sides of the file folder shut, to make the perfect "feeding envelope".  Pass out an assortment of various colored "food" shapes.

I edged the black hair with purple puffy paint, and the mouth is neon-orange.  The stitches are outlined with silver glitter glue.  I added more dimension with "diamond" rhinestone "screws" on the neck bolts that I wrapped with aluminum foil.  I also added "monster wiggle eyes" to the yellow circles, so they seem to pop off the page.

Children chant: "Monster, Monster, munch and crunch.  What shape food would you like for lunch?"  The teacher says a shape, and any child holding that shape puts it inside the monster's head. 

 Also included in this packet is a mini-monster.  I gave each of my students a long green envelope to decorate.  We used brass brads for the "neck bolts."  Run off the shape templates on a variety of colors of construction paper.  Students cut out and feed their monster whatever shape is called out. 

Since a huge part of the plot of Mary Shelley's Frankenstien, was the fact that her monster had no name; add to the fun by encouraging students to name their monster and introduce him during circle time. 

Once in the circle, have students put on their monster mask.  (All 3 of these "craftivities" are in the Monster packet.) 

Now that they look like little monsters, help get the wiggles out, by dancing to the Monster Mash.

It's one of my favorite Halloween songs.  The link is to a YouTube cartoon video featuring the song.

I've been contemplating whipping up some monster-themed 10-frames and cute monster alphabet cards.  If this is of interest to you, shoot me an e-mail and I'll start designing.  diane@teachwithme.com

I hope you and your students have a monstrously fun and safe Halloween.   Thanks for visiting today.    As always, feel free to PIN away.  If you 'd like to take a look at all of the awesome-educational FREEBIES that I PIN, click on the heart button to the right of the blog.  I did a ton of research, so you don't have to!

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -Victor Borge

20 pages.

Play a variety of games that reinforce shapes, with this cute haunted house, filled with spooky shaped windows.