Day Two of A Week of Chillin' Giveaways!

It's Day Two of A Week of Chillin' Giveaways!

Today's Giveaway:

Penguin Plurals

 To learn more, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Enter to win one of two copies of Penguin Plurals.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hoot's N' Hollers: A Week of Chillin' Giveaways!

BRRR! It's getting colder FAST! 

Come join us each day this week for a chance to win a chillin' winter resource to use with your students. We have been away from our blog for some time now and wanted to get back to it with some giveaways for you. Tomorrow begins Hoots N' Hollers' A Week of Chillin' Giveaways!!

Font--Kimberly Geswein Fonts & Snowman Clipart--Digiscraps

Monday, January 6th 

Tuesday, January 7th

Wednesday, January 8th

Thursday, January 9th

Friday, January 10th

Saturday, January 11th

Sunday, January 12th

Don't forget to stop back tomorrow and all week!  If you are feeling the chill out there--keep those tootsies warm and cozy!

Mentor Text Link Up - Language Arts

So glad to hear that the mentor text link up with Collaboration Cuties will still be going on over the summer.  This week's topic is language arts...

Sincerely Yours: Writing Your Own Letter, by Nancy Loewen, is perfect forexploring the friendly letter format to your students (business letter included as well). I use this text after many other wonderful picture books written using friendly letters. This text is on of several in the Writer's Toolbox series published by Picture Window Books.  

The text begins with a friendly letter from the author stressing how important letter writing has been over hundreds of years, even in this day and age when people communicate in many ways.  Then the author goes on to present "tools" for writing a friendly letter, over-viewing each "tool" (part) and its purpose.  When each tool is presented, a model letter is presented with the tool boldfaced to draw attention.  As subsequent tools are presented, previous tools remain but are printed in grayscale. Below are select pages from the text. 

  Proofreading is stressed as well.

I used the text to further explore an author's purpose in writing letters before  we wrote letters to our secret pal.  I especially like how the text discusses the purpose of a friendly letter and even classifies thank you notes as friendly letters.  This is especially applicable for second graders, as writing thank you notes/cards is something my students do more frequently.

The ultimate is seeing a student use what they have learned for a real purpose.  A thank you card I received the day after students got out of school.  Nice form!

 

The second text I'd like to share is Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root.  What an awesome text to use when teaching students how authors use onomatopoeia, alliteration, and rhythm, rhyme, and repetition in their writing to create interest and excitement. The kids love to chime in as the story builds.  They are also taken with all of the detail in the illustrations that tell the story as well as the text.  

The gist:  It's hot and the kids want to go to the lake.  Poppa's not sure they can make it there in the rattletrap car.  Poppa starts the rattletrap car, "brum, brum...clickety, clankety.."  Then, "Boomssss. The tire went flat." 

"Whumpety whomp! The floor fell out!" and so on... The kids naturally anticipate if they will make it to the lake.  And if they do, will they make it home?  A great text to add to your collection!

Check out more language arts mentor texts over at Collaboration Cuties! 

AND--don't forget to become a follower and enter our 100 Followers Giveaway!  
Click here to learn more!

Mentor Text Link Up -- Punctuation Takes a Vacation!

Well, this is month #2 of Collaboration Cuties Mentor Text Link Up!  This week the focus is language arts, so I am sharing a well-known, but a goodie--Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver.

In this wonderfully illustrated (by Lynn Rowe Reed) picture book, day after day of always doing their job, Mr. Wright says, "Let's give punctuation a vacation."  After being a little miffed with the suggestion, punctuation decides to head off on a vacation...

Of course, they are missed terribly, as nothing is the same--nothing makes sense without them!

A couple of days pass, and the kids in Mr. Wright's class received a bundle of postcards from each type of punctuation.  The kids guessed who each postcard was from and they wanted to write back, but this was quite hard to do without punctuation! After borrowing some punctuation from a neighboring classroom where it was "running wild", the kids in Mrs. Wright's class wrote a letter begging punctuation to return... (Since punctuation was running wild in the neighboring room, the letter had many misuses of their friends.)

What a splendid text to teach kids the importance of punctuation and how it tells our readers how to read our writing!  

Here are a few things you can do with the text...

Scan or type out the postcards from each punctuation mark. As you are reading aloud, stop at the point when the postcards arrive and have small groups of students guess who has written each card (just like Mr. Wright's students did in the text).

Scan or type the page that contains the letter written to punctuation in which punctuation is "running wild".  Discuss what changes need to be made and how important it is to know the correct way to use each type of punctuation.  Misuse is just as "bad" as not using any at all... :0)

In the end of the book, the question mark asks, "Who did you miss the most?" Have students justify who they would miss the most if punctuation took a vacation.  Download the writing sheet here!

If you haven't purchased or used this text before, it is a MUST HAVE! Stop over to Collaboration Cuties to link up with more language arts mentor texts...

Have a fabulous week!

First Friday Flashback & a Birthday GIVEAWAY!

This is the first time I am linking up with Teaching Maddeness for a Friday Flashback!  I just have a couple of great things to share from this week...

First, about a month ago, when I was looking through old files for something else, I came upon an oldie-but-goodie measurement activity that had been misfiled.  It was a measurement activity from AIMS Education Foundation (dated 1986) that I used AGES ago when I was student teaching.  How could I have forgotten about this one? Easy--out of site, out of mind! Anyway, I immediately said to myself, This is perfect for my second graders!  As I was looking through the activity, I noticed a note that I had made that read, "adapted for inches".  Well, where was the adaptation I did? Nowhere to be found!  SO I decided to get to work...  Halfway through my work, I thought to myself, I wonder if AIMS Education still has this activity?  SO I searched for it on the internet, and there it was! It was still designed for use with centimeters, so I continued my work.  Although, I still purchase the updated version from their website for $2 (does not include the class graph as in the original version).  Please email me if you are interested in my adapted version using inches.

The activity?

Are You a Square?

The gist: Students measure their height and arms span and compare the measurements to determine if they are a square (height=arm span), tall rectangle (height > arms span), or wide rectangle (arm span > height).  Then each student graphs his or her individual results.  Finally, a class graph is made and evaluated.

I had students work as partners.  To make it possible for students to yield more accurate measurements, I asked one student to lay on the floor while the other marked his/her height/arms span on the floor using a dry erase marker.  Then pairs worked together to measure on the flat surface.  This worked well!

Students really enjoyed this activity because they got to measure THEMSELVES and learned something about themselves.  Students were also amazed to find out that so many kids were tall rectangles.  AND the activity also meets Measurement and Data Common Core Standards for Mathematics.

Secondly, I wanted to share a fabulous find that my students got to begin using this week.  It's a word game called Word Winder. I was recently at a conference, and one of the vendors was the creator of this game, David L. Hoyt.  I immediately saw the benefit of the game for kids of all ages.  I played it with my husband, and it is great fun!

The object of the game is to make a continuous path from one side of the game board to the other, winding words along the way.  The letters of each word must touch in sequence, but can go in numerous directions.  

I introduced the game to students a week or so ago, and they got to begin playing this week. Benefiits of the game:

• automatically differentiating, as students make words within their capability--some make shorter words and others longer
• encourages strategy as students can block one another and force the other player to continue his/her path in a different direction
• one game is never exactly the same as another as the 16 game board pieces are two-sided and can be arranged in many ways
• provides an unpredictable word work activity for students
• it's FUN!

 There is also a book that is great to provide as a word work choice as well.

Last, since today is my birthday, I am posting the very first giveaway on our blog!  I did a previous post about a vocabulator/word builder that I made, and I would like to give one away!  You choose the words, I make it and ship it out to you!! It will be a star version like the one pictured in the post, and will contain multi-colored dyed rice.  It will look just like the one shown, but it will be customized for YOU!  This is my first time using Rafflecopter, so I hope this works!  Enter for your chance to win below...

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to fly on over to Teaching Maddeness to read about some fabulous Friday Flashbacks! Have a wonderful weekend!

 

First Time Link Up--Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics

SO glad to have the opportunity to participate in 4th Grade Frolics' Monday Made It for the first time!  Just a couple of goodies to share...

Let's see... What month is this? You say the school year is coming to an end?  Well, it has taken me this long to put together something that I have been meaning to for some time now--some simple punctuation posters with examples for my second graders.  I have never been able to find punctuation posters with easy to read text and examples, so I made some... Please feel free to download and share them!

 

 

AND, who can't use some INK JOY! Love the PaperMate Ink Joy colored pens, and my kids will too.  I made a little tag to attach to a bundle of pens for each of my students to use for word work and writing.   Not only do these colored pens make me smile, so do the little snail graphics courtesy of Zip-A-Dee-Do-Da! Bundle some PaperMate Ink Joy pens, attach a tag with ribbon, and gift a smile!

 Just click here to download the tag, trim, punch, and bundle up!

MUST READ Mentor Text Link Up with Collaboration Cuties--Round 2!

It's that time again--time to link up with Stacia and Amanda over at Collaboration Cuties for their AWESOME Mentor Text Link Up!!

Courtney and I are both sharing a text today...

This activity was shared with me many moons ago.  I am sorry to say that I cannot remember who shared it with me and where I was… I do know that this is an activity that must be shared again and again.  Therefore, my name does not appear on this FREEBIE, as I am not taking credit for the idea, but I guess I can take credit for passing this wonderful activity on to others...  I have done this with second, third, and fifth graders. It is appropriate for ANY age! 

Please consider doing this with your students as a Christmas gift, or a Mothers’/Fathers’/ Grandparents’ Day gift.  The comments from parents and grandparents have been heartfelt. Many have commented, “It’s the best gift I have ever gotten.”  You will also be touched by your students’ writings.

To download my notes about this writing activity, and writing pages to go along with it, just click here!

Enjoy this experience with your students—it is one that I will do as long as I am teaching!

I first heard this story when I was taking a differentiation workshop about 6 years ago.  I instantly fell in love with this book and the message it gives. Little Vashi believes that she is not good at drawing so she angrily puts a dot on a piece of paper.  Her teacher tells her to sign it, and was amazed the next day when she walks in and the teacher has framed her "work of art"!  Vashi's confidence begins to thrive and she realizes that she can be good at drawing.

I like to use this book when beginning Writer's Workshop. Even though it talks about art, I relate it to writing in the sense that even though we can't write that much, spell all the words correctly, or think of a topic, we all begin somewhere and eventually we will persevere. 

This is one of those great books that could be used with any subject at any time of the year. But the best part, is that the students love it!


Don't forget to stop over to Collaboration Cuties to fill your teaching bag with some more wonderful mentor text ideas!