Happy Friday everyone! I hope you've had a great week and are finally back into the swing of things. Although our Christmas trip home was amazing, it's nice to be back in a routine and not living out of a suitcase anymore. :)
Today for the Friday Freebie, I wanted to share some fun little pencils I made. Hopefully you can find something fun to use them for. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm terrible at creative names.... I went pretty literal with this set: "Fat Mini Pencils." Hahaha.
I hope you love them to pieces. If you download, then I'd love to hear your feedback! :) I've posted a few other sets recently that I haven't blogged about yet. In case you're on the prowl for some upcoming holiday clip art, then check these out... (click to see on TPT). I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Short post today! I hope everyone is doing well! I have just a few things today and then I'm heading off for a little mini vacay.  Some of you are heading back to school very soon... can you believe Summer is almost over!? Where has the time gone? I have these 'My first day...' writing prompts if you need them! I always have my kids draw a picture and write about their first day. I've included PreK-5th and you can choose from plain or dotted lines. I don't know any 5th graders that use dotted lines, but just in case. :) Get them for FREE on TPT.
|  Got a sweet tooth? I can't wait to use this candy calendar soon! I just uploaded it today. It's only $1.50 in my TPT shop. Also, the first person to correctly guess my favorite candy (on the Facebook page) will win a copy! It's definitely not licorice... eww.
|  If you're interested in an awesome giveaway, head on over to Swimming Into Second. She's doing a 10 day giveaway... very cool. I never win anything, buy maybe you can. :)
|  That's it for a few days! I'm off to France for a wine trip with some girlfriends!
Sounds fancy right? Don't be deceived. Everything is close over here, so it's like driving from Kentucky to Georgia.... except there will be a lot of wine and French speaking involved.
Have a great week!
|
This post is about one of my absolute favorite reading + writing activities. I know it's been done before in a ton of different ways and has been given various titles, but I just call it 'Mixed Up Sentences.' Here's the low down: | 1. Gather different colored paper and cut into strips. I keep a handy supply of strips in 10 assorted colors. I'll tell you why *10* later. | 2. Get out your curriculum materials, a black Sharpie, and scissors. | | 3. Decide how you want to use this activity. Center? Assessment? Pre-assessment? Fun practice?
Decide which recording sheet to use. (See below)
Find sentences in your curriculum (or think some up) that match the purpose or skill your trying to target.
| 4. How many sentences did you decide to do? Gather that many different colored strips.
My favorite one is this one... with 10 lines. | | 5. Write your sentences. Neatly. One per strip!
{7.22.12 - I just realized that I'm losing it. Teaching British English over here has led to me spelling things differently... like 'theatre.' Maybe it's the French that's doing it?} | 6. Cut the sentences apart between each letter. Leave the punctuation attached to a word if you can. They're small and can get lost easily. You can even chunk two words together if you have beginners! | | 7. Admire how pretty the pieces are. | 8. This is how I set mine up as a center. I am obsessed with those pencil bags from Wal-Mart. They're cheap and paper fits perfectly when you fold it in half. I put the recording sheet, sentence pieces, and 10 matching colored pencils inside the bag. Now you're ready to rock n roll! | 9. Let your students get to work! You can have them do it individually, in pairs, or in small groups! Sometimes I even split it up and have two centers with five sentences each... especially if they're rigorous sentences. They just do five, put away their recording sheet, then get it back out when it's time to do the rest.
They piece together all of the sentences, color their little circles, and write!
HINT: If this activity is not for an assessment, then I like to check their sentences before they write. They simply raise their hand when they've pieced a sentence (or all) together and I let them know if it's correct or not. Saves time and frustration on their part.
| If you're the type that just can't stand writing things out, then try this approach... different fonts. Type all of your sentences out, but change each sentence to a different font. Make sure they're really different though! It backfired on me once when my kids couldn't tell the difference between Arial and Times New Roman. Seriously. They don't even look alike do they?!
| Have students at different levels? Of course you do. You can differentiate this activity easily. Make more than one set of sentences. Same content. Different learning levels. | Hopefully all those little instructions make sense! Once you do it one time, you be able to whip it up again quickly. This activity can be used for virtually any topic, any level, and I like to weave in some science and social studies topics when I can. It's another way to integrate content. Here are some more adaptation ideas:
- I usually do this as a center with only one set of sentences, but you could do it whole class if you wanted to. Type the same sentence onto a page (multiple times), copy onto colored paper, then cut. Might be a bit crazy with pieces getting mixed up, but it works if you're kiddos are super organized. Maybe they could use little trays to keep their pieces in?
- Since I have a small class sizes (10 EFL/ESL students in each class), I do this as a whole group activity by having them sit in a large circle and giving them 2 minutes with each sentence. They piece it together, raise their hand, I check, they write, then we rotate when everyone is done! Works like a charm.
- Sentences can be hints to a special activity or something else. If you're studying bears, then you could have sentences that stated facts about bears! Roar.
- Use the font version (above), cut out the words, mix them around on a piece of copy paper, glue down, copy, and send home for homework! Students could bring it back all cut apart and pieced back together.
There are many ways to adapt this activity. Got any more fun ideas or ways to adapt it?! Here's a little freebie for ya'll! It's the recording sheets I use when I do this activity. There are different types depending on the level you teach and how many sentences you want to use. Dotted lines for younger kids and plain for older. I most often use the 10 line portrait version (the one in the photos). My fave. See on TPT. So, what do you think? Have you done this before or is it something you think you can use? I really do love it and my kids do too!
Enjoy!
I'm sure you've heard about the ginormous TPT sale already. Head on over to check out some amazing items from some awesome teacher-authors. Everything in my store is 20% off. Also, if you use the code: TAD12, then TPT will give you an extra 10% off. Yay!!! I've also posted all of the various templates I've used for writing. I've got several more that are in landscape format that I have to publish, but check them out if you need some! Click the picture below to head to the writing page.
Ok, I just discovered the coolest website. I almost peed my pants when I figured out what it was. It's Storybird.com and basically you can create your own picture book... and more! I tried it and it's amazing. Here's the description from the site itself...
Here's what the creation platform looks like...
I can't tell you how easy it is and what amazing artwork you can find. Here are thee completed books for you to check out. Books can be emailed, embeded in blogs, linked, and printed (by you or professionally).
Here are a few books for you to check out. This would be such a fun site to use in the classroom. You could... - write group stories
- make it a computer center (incredibly simple to use)
- print them to showcase student work
- assign it for a home project
- create your own story to aid in teaching certain concepts
- integrate into other subject areas (create math stories?)
- and more!
Isn't it the coolest thing!?!?! And guess what? You can create a teacher account and manage your whole class. They receive a login and password from your account. You can assign them projects, message them, review their work, print, etc. The free plan is the one I created (took 3 minutes). There are also two professional options, but they do cost ($60 & $99). The free one seems to be the way to go unless you plan on making it a big 'to do' in your class. Let me know if you already use this or plan on it! It's an amazing resource. :) Ashley
So... I opened my own little TPT store. I've been wanting to for a while and finally did it. Super easy! Now I can start posting all sorts of goodies I have saved on my hard drive. :) Here's my first product: Download at TPT for FREE!They're cute little reproducible postcards. I used these a lot in my writing center. The kids love writing postcards to one another or their parents. There is a place for a stamp (or sticker) on each and they come in colors or bw. I've included a full-size 8.5x11 one for use during group lessons, shared writing, etc. Enjoy! Ashley
When I taught Pre-K and Kindergarten, I created 'class directories' each year. The kids used these mostly in the writing center when they wrote letters to one another (or to me). The little girl in the picture wrote me an interesting letter about unicorns and then used the directory to spell my name on the front of the envelope. For some reason, Hughes (my last name) is impossible for anyone under the age of 40 to spell... and for anyone under 6 to say.
This is so easy and cheap to make. Also, the kids are obsessed with looking at themselves and each other.
 Hobby Lobby $4.99 | How to make one: 1. Get a small photo album like the one to the left.
2. Take pictures (head shots) of your kids.
3. Use adjacent pages for each student (like mine pictured
above). Picture on one side and their name on the other.
4. Put it in your writing center (or another prominent place). |
Obviously the kids have their names on the desks and other places around the room, but this little book was perfect for the writing center. It stayed in one spot all year. The kids didn't wander around the room looking for names or bothering other students to ask them how to spell their name. Perfect! Other ideas:
- use a binder with page protectors
- make a laminated one (I used a photo album because it held up all year... got used a lot)
- add more information (birthday, siblings, pets, favorite color/food/etc., or more personalized info
- use sentence strips to write the names or print them out (I wanted the lines because it reinforced proper handwriting)
- I took headshots of each of my students against a white wall and used these same pictures for this project, my files, and other things throughout the year.
Have fun making your own! Ashley
|
