Monstrously Amazing Writers

 Happy Sunday!

I love this time of year and all the fun bulletin boards that you can create with your students! 

My team and I recently changed the boards in our hallway to fit the month of October and we tied it into writing which made it even more fun. Our theme was based around monsters and descriptive writing. Each student got to choose from a selection of pieces to create a monster. Then they colored it any way they wanted. Once they had built and designed their monster we used a graphic organizer to write out our descriptions of the monsters. We used a spooky adjective sheet to help us make the descriptions even more fun to write. At the end of it all they wrote out their final draft on monster paper and attached their monster. We hung all the monsters and monster descriptions on our bulletin boards. They look amazing and we are so happy we did this project. You can see some examples below. 

If you are interested in this activity click here to purchase the packet we used from Second Grade Smiles. She provides everything you need in this packet and makes it super easy to create this fun and adorable monster writing activity. 

Happy Monster Writing!

Ashley

Build Your Own Bingo Boards (holiday edition)

Do you love BINGO? Do your kids love BINGO?

My sweet girl loves BINGO. Maybe it is the fact that she gets a piece of candy at the end of each game she wins or she just really loves the game. We play it a lot in my house but I wanted to make it a little bit more than a game for her. She is a preschooler and needs practice with fine motor skills.  I wanted something where she could cut, color, and write as well as play her favorite game. I also wanted her and the students I will eventually use this with to be able to personalize their board for the game. This is where the build your own Bingo Boards comes in.

Since I use this at home and plan on using it in my classroom as well I tried to make it as simple as possible to prep. I started with pre-made game boards. There are 5x5, 4x4, and 3x3 boards that are black and white. All the boards have a space at the top for students to write their names and the name of the Bingo game they are playing.

Then the pages go by holiday and each holiday has the same pieces just with different images corresponding to that holiday. I am using the St. Patrick's Day game boards in this post as an example since that holiday is just days away.

I created pieces that can be cut and glued onto the game boards in each of the three game board sizes. These pieces come in black and white so that the kids can color if they choose or you can print the pieces in color. There are also pieces in color and black and white for you to use as call pieces for the game. Examples of these items are in the images below. I like to use the black and white call sheet as my base and I place the color call pieces on top to show what I have called and what I have left. You can use it however it works best for you. Examples of these items are in the images below.

In this packet are pieces for Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day. Within the next few weeks I will be adding Easter and Summer Fun to the packet.

I hope you enjoy!

Ashley

St. Patrick's Day History

Did you know that St. Patrick's Day is a day of remembrance for the Patron Saint of Ireland?

Many people do not know this about St. Patrick's Day. Our country has become so good at partying in our green on this day that we have forgotten that it came about for a reason. This is why this is one of my favorite units to teach: The History of St. Patrick's Day.

I love utilizing vocabulary in all the units I teach, so there are vocabulary cards, flip flaps for interactive notebooks, and a match page to have practice with key words that are a part of this unit.

There are also two different ways to read about the life of St. Patrick. There is a short story page that I use when I teach this unit whole class and then there is a mini reader that I use for small groups. Each tell the life of St. Patrick and how he is the reason for the day day of remembrance on March 17th. We also use the interesting facts page to discuss some of the different elements of the holiday.

Since students are usually pretty interested in learning about St. Patrick, we have a little fun and talk about 6 different legends that are connected with him. It gives us all a good giggle to see what kind of stories have been connected to St. Patrick. There is a interactive notebook activity that goes along with this discussion. If you do not use interactive notebooks in your classroom than you could always have them glue these on separate sheets of paper.

Once we have talked about St. Patrick, I post one of the write the room activities. Which one I choose depends on the level that will suit  my students the best. One is less challenging than the other.

 At the end of the unit we make one or both of the clover mini projects. I work at a christian school so I am able to complete the project on the Holy Trinity with them. If you are at a public school than you could complete the 4 leaf clover activity which talks about faith, hope, love, and luck. There is a poem to attach to the back of each clover. 

This is just a glimpse of what we use to talk about the real reason for St. Patrick's Day. If you have any questions let me know : )

Ashley

Sharing Sunshine: Thankful Thoughts

Good Morning!

Today I am linking up with my friends over at Hello Sunshine for the Sharing Sunshine linky. My little bit of sunshine for this month comes in the form of Thankful Thoughts. I am blessed to work at a private school and share my faith each and every day. One thing that I have noticed through this journey is how easily people brush off the many blessings in their lives; myself included. I decided that this year I would try to fix that with my kiddos.

This year right outside my classroom I have a large wall that says "Our First Graders are Thankful for..." and each week I will be posting thankful thoughts on this board. Each week all the first graders have to write one thing they are thankful for. It needs to be something different each week. They keep their old sheets in a folder in their desk to help them keep track of what they have already done. At the end of the school year, with 34 thankful thought pages, each child will make a Thankful Thoughts book to take home with them to remind them of the many blessing they have in their lives. We are on our second week of this and I am loving it. They are doing so well with it and they love that I write and color one with them each week.

I have included pictures of some of our pages from this week as well as the link to the pages I use for the Thankful Thoughts below in case you would like to take a look. This is just one of those activities that brings a smile to my face as we do the writing and as I pass that board every day. Its always nice to be reminded of all the wonderful things that we have in our lives.

Thankful Thoughts pages

Ashley