Ginger Snaps: Poetry and Writing

Showing posts with label Poetry and Writing. Show all posts

Let's Celebrate Earty Day

I think many teachers feel like they don't have the time to really celebrate and learn about Earth Day because of the pressures of testing. The state test is a week after Earth Day this year so I feel like I don't really have time either! But, it is so important to take that time to talk about this holiday because many students seem to be unaware of the things that are happening to our planet. Even if it's just having kids read an article for morning work or reading aloud a book to help get across the message.

To help those of you who may not have enough time to spend teaching and learning about Earth Day, you can use these printables and activities!

There are reading, writing, and math activities included!

To purchase your set, click my blog button below!

Painting Your Writing with Colorful Words {Shades of Meaning Mini Unit}

Thinking about my classes in the last few years, writing has always been something they have struggled with. Really being able to describe or use vivid words to tell their stories has been challenging. I can model all day long, but I needed something that would really teach them to use more interesting words in their writing. I teach at a very high poverty school so many of my students have limited vocabularies. This "Paint Your Writing" mini unit is just the thing to get your students using powerful words in their writing and speaking.

And look for a freebie from this unit coming Monday from my collaborative blog's "Show Us How You Use It: Paint Chip Samples" over at Owl-ways Be Inspired!

I am excited to have finally created and posted something new for you all! It is available in my TPT shop by clicking my button below!

And as always, I like to give away one free set when I create something new! All you have to do to win is comment below with your email, be a follower of my blog, and guess where I'm headed on my babymoon/honeymoon in two weeks! HINT: See picture below!

Best of luck! =)

The Trouble with Turkeys

I finally finished my Turkey Trouble Persuasive Writing Mini Unit!

And as promised, here is the winner!

Lisa, please send me an e-mail at glauren4556@gmail.com and I will send you the unit!

Head on over to my shop and grab yourself a copy by clicking my store button below!

I have a little something in the works...

I just received a new book from my most recent Scholastic order and it has inspired a new unit!

It's no secret that this book is kind of a big hit around the Thanksgiving holidays, but it's new to me and so I wanted to make a new writing mini unit to wrap up our persuasive writing unit.

I'm hoping to have this completed this weekend because I'm using it next week!

In honor of my return to the blogging world, I will be giving away this unit on Sunday evening! In order to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you are most thankful for this holiday season!

Happy Holidays!

A little of this and that...

I promised I would be back to share some things we have been working on, so here I am!

In Math, we have been doing some serious geometry. We have been learning about kinds of lines, pairs of lines, the parts of a circle, and angles!

To help us review the different kinds of lines, I gave the students some sequins and cardstock and they created each kind of line. See pictures below!

We have also been studying the branches of our state government. After learning about them, they had to make a branches of government tree as a project grade.

(Aren't they super cute!?)

And then we FINALLY finished up our animal research papers and students were asked to create a poster to display their research. I gave them two sheets they were required to use to show what they learned.

As our Valentine's Day Party craft, I asked students to make Valentine people on their bags! They came out so cute!

This is just a little bit of what we have been doing! I will be back soon with some actual free downloads for some our Geometry activities and the Branches of Government tree template so you can do them too!

And don't forget about my Brag Tag giveaway! It is going on until midnight Saturday! Click HERE to view the post and enter to win yourself 100 brag tags!

Happy Hump Day!!

Animal Research Note Sheet

We are starting animal research reports this week and the kids are so stinkin' excited! We decided this year to partner kids up based on their interests and since I have such a low class this year, I thought this would work out really well!

Anyway, last week, they met with their partner and brainstormed some things they already knew about their animals and then wrote down questions they had.

Starting tomorrow and all of next week, we will be doing our actual research! We ask that students gather information based on these four main areas: Interesting Facts, Life Cycle, Habitat, and Adpatations and Defenses. These four areas align perfectly with our SC science standards so it's always a five paragraph research paper when we are all done!

Here is the note sheet we are using next week! Feel free to download! Just click on the image!

Happy MLK Day everyone!

I certainly enjoyed my day off! Got to have lunch and then a pedicure with a friend!

Superlative Snowmen

So last week we were learning about comparative and superlative adjectives and so naturally I was perusing Pinterest for cute Wintery ideas and found this...(which had no link back to blog or site, so if you know who this idea belongs to...please feel free to share so I can give credit!)

And since it isn't St. Patrick's day, I had the idea to use the concept for snowmen!

Thus, the Superlative Snowman was born!!

Aren't they cute!!?? I turned it into a fabulous winter door display!

We spent one day on comparative adjectives and one day on superlative adjectives. At the end of each day, we created a wordle of examples and those are what you see at the top of the door display. At the end of both days, we created the snowmen!

I will be back tomorrow with some fun measurement ideas from today! It was awesome but I left the files to share at school so you'll just have to wait... =)

And since my milk box joke was such a hit during Five for Friday, I thought I'd share another.

BUT this time, the first person to give a correct answer will win an item of their choice from my blog! Please leave your email in the comment with your answer!

Q: Why don't fish play basketball?

Happy joking! And no GOOGLING! That's cheating!

Resolutions and the Revolutionary War

We've been up to a few different things this week.

We wrote some New Years Resolutions and we've been learning about the Revolutionary War.

I made a little New Year's Resolution sheet for students to write out their thoughts and you can display them on your bulletin board! Just click to download!

In Social Studies, we have been learning about the perspectives of the different colonists during the Revolutionary War. After learning about the Patriots and Loyalists point of view, I asked students to brainstorm different things each group might say.

I took some of the better answer and asked those students to share their perspectives as a Patriot or Loyalist. Here is a video of that!

And here is a little graphic organizer you can use for the end of the lesson or as a project! Just click to download!

Happy Thursday! One more day til the weekend!!

Christmas Persausive Writing

I know many of you may already be on Christmas break but I still wanted to share my new writing mini unit.

There are four different writing prompts with graphic organizers and publishing papers on both primary and upper elementary writing lines.

It is available in both my shops! Just click the buttons below.

Happy Monday!

Boo in the Zoo Halloween Unit and Habitat Posters

I have FINALLY finished my Halloween themed animal unit: Boo in the Zoo!! I can't wait to use some of this cuteness at school with my students! Yes, I just called my stuff cute...Don't hate!

You can get them at either of my shops by click the store buttons below!

And because I knew many people would want the habitat posters instead of the whole Halloween unit, I have separated the Habitat Posters and descriptions into another file. =)

You can get those by click the store buttons below!

I wanted to share some funny writing that my students did while I was at the South Carolina Social Studies conference a while back! They had to write about what they think happened to their teacher!

That just cracks me up!! HAHA It was kind of true...

I mean, REALLY!?? lol I hope he doesn't think that because I LOOK pregnant! HAHA

Man, I am exhausted after this week! We did our annual region cookies!

P.S. I Love that kid! He's so stinkin' cute!

We also did our first book buddies with a kindergarten class! It was sooooo cute seeing my kids read to those little ones!

How sweet are they!?

And finally, people were asking me about where I got my dice containers pictured below...

I found them at Publix oddly enough!

Oh, and the first person to comment with my favorite COLLEGE football team will both of my new products. =) Annnnnd go!

Substitute Writing Idea and a Math Game

So, we have to turn in three days of sub plans each year and I have been working on gathering my lessons for my this because it's due Friday! I recalled a blog post I saw earlier this year about where your missing teacher has gone and I was inspired to make my own to cater to upper grades too!

I snagged the idea from Cara Carroll at "First Grade Parade." Click HERE to see her adorable post about her writing activity! I asked if she would mind if I did my own little spin on it and of course she said, yes! But, she said she saw the idea somewhere on Pinterest! If this was your original idea, please let me know and I will add you to this post!

Anyway, here is my version with both primary and upper grades writing pages! In the first one, students write a few sentences about why they think their teacher is out and draw a picture to go with it!

Then, I came up with this one all on my own! I was creating the first one and I was inspired to turn it into a newspaper article! Anytime the students can pretend to be someone else, I think it really gets them thinking and their ideas flowing!

Click HERE to download your free copy!

Here are some other great substitute resources!

Rachelle, from What the Teacher Wants has a great download called the Substitute Teacher Survival Kit, which I proudly own! Just click the picture below to go grab yourself a copy!