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Hey Friends!
It finally feels a little like fall here in South Florida! We had just about a straight week of rain, but then we were left with the most perfect weather ever! It's in the high 70's during the day and the 60's at night. It's actually pretty hysterical to see some of my fellow Floridians break out the sweaters and Uggs the minute the mercury dips below 80! When it gets really cold, like 60 {brrr!} we have to let the kids in early and all outside recess is canceled due to the cold. I know my peeps in Michigan and other parts north probably just spit their coffee at the computer screen, sorry about that! I guess we're better at sandcastles than snowmen.

So, in the spirit of Halloween quickly approaching and the onset of some good hair weather, I'd like to share my hallway bulletin board. I had a parent volunteer actually staple it up and decorate it. She was making all kind of apologies for her lack of craftiness. She's crazy. I think it turned out great! In years past, I would obsess over every little detail of my board, but I've learned to let go a bit. It's up, it's cute, it's done and it didn't take a ton of time.

We used this as a way to reinforce the fact that contractions are made from two words that become one. I printed out the houses and took about 10 minutes to actually make the proper cuts to open the windows so that the kids didn't mangle the paper when they tried to do it. I stacked a few papers on top of each other and used my cute paper slicer to make the cuts.

I had the kids color the house and then glue it on to a plain white piece of paper so that there was a back behind the windows when the shutters were opened. After they trimmed away the excess paper, I had them write the two parts of the contraction on the shutters and then the contractions underneath. Simple and fun for the kids. We cut the one long, skinny window on the left in half horizontally, so it would open in two parts like the other shutters. I love that they are really starting to put so much effort and attention to to detail into their work!

If you'd like to make some creepy contractions, click{HERE} download the house pattern and {HERE} for the title. I'm sure there's lot of other creative uses for the blank house, so if you use them for something else, feel free to share the pix on my FB page. Enjoy!

I'm off to enjoy this beautiful day in Miami!

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Hey Friends! It finally feels a little like fall here in South Florida! We had just about a straight week of rain, but then we were left with the most perfect weather ever! It's in the high 70's during the day and the 60's at night.

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I’m Thankful From A-Z Printable Worksheet

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What are you thankful for? What about your kids? Here’s a fun family activity you can do with these printable A-Z sheets. Go through the list and note down some

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I'm obsessed with the new common core. NOT IN A GOOD WAY {not that it's bad, it's just a lot of work}. I've looked at it about a million billion times. I can't fit it all in!!!!! BUT, I've really had to revamp my writing lessons to fit the 3 writing genres {opinion, narrative, and informative}. When we come back from Thanksgiving break, I'll be working LOTS on NARRATIVE. If you read my other posts about the Language Arts Common Core, you know that I've been remaking a lot of stuff and finding my own resources. The hunt continues.

I've made some fun { FREE} writing prompt cards to do in work on writing {or you could totally do it whole group}. I'm going to copy these cards on cardstock, laminate, cut out, and have my students choose one:

I'm going to tell them to write a story using one of the cards. I can only imagine what they'll think of! :)

They can use this sheet first for pre-writing {I would use this for whole group}:

And then transfer to their writing paper and add an illustration:

I'm excited to start REALLY focusing on narrative writing! I know it's easier for them to write personal narratives, but some of my kiddos are just dying to use their imagination. :)

I've also included some kinder writing pages {one with a prompt, one without}! I thought maybe they could just write a sentence about what they think is happening on the cards.

Here's the upper grade version! :)

You like the lightbulb border and/or the Christmas clipart? ME too! :) You can get it from Natalie's TpT store { here}.

Fonts from kevinandamanda.com
Fonts from misstiina.com
Fonts from fonts4teachers.com

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I'm obsessed with the new common core. NOT IN A GOOD WAY {not that it's bad, it's just a lot of work}. I've looked at it about a million billion times. I can't fit it all in!!!!! BUT, I've really had to revamp my writing lessons to fit the 3 writing genres {opinion, narrative, and informative}.

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Thank you for all the wonderfully sweet comments on the My Favorite Ice Cream Opinion writing. It was a hit with my class, and you as well!

Here is how I finished up the writing lesson. The students transferred their reasons to a final draft. Then we went back for some final revisions. I modeled creating a final draft for them. I made purposeful errors for them to help me correct.

The students then went back and made their final revisions. I have to say, the whole lesson was one of the most engaging writing lessons I have ever taught. I really felt like they got it!

Here is the boring and basic anchor chart I made. (It needs work!) =)

This week we started on the Will You Be My Valentine? opinion writing. I started off the lesson reading If You'll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant. The boy tells several characters what he will do if he is their Valentine. After reading the story, we talked about good character traits. These are the traits my students came up with for the boy.

I then proceeded the lesson (over the past three days) in the same manor as the ice cream lesson.

We began with an opinion statement. The next day, they wrote their three reasons why they would make a good Valentine.

"because I am a fast runner. I am a smart boy. I will get you candy." This boy had a little trouble starting off, but then I think he got it!

"I love my friends. I would take you to the woods. (His favorite place to be.) I would take your phone number." (I guess he knows something about dating! LOL)

Today we finished up with restating our opinion and creating a final draft. (I forgot to take pictures!) Tomorrow, they will make revisions and share with the class.

You can find this activity here.

Moving onto other news...

Here are the links to Days 13 & 14. I hope you have enjoyed our blog hop and all the great freebies! I hope it saved you some time in your planning. We all need all the help we can get with finding extra time. =) Thanks for joining us...and stay tuned! We have some exciting give aways and teaching tools planned in the next few weeks! Make sure you become a "follower" of our blogs and Facebook!

Thanks to Mel for the great graphics for our hop!

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Thank you for all the wonderfully sweet comments on the My Favorite Ice Cream Opinion writing. It was a hit with my class, and you as well! Here is how I finished up the writing lesson. The students transferred their reasons to a final draft. Then we went back for some final revisions.

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Top educators bringing you the best resources for your classroom every day and always free!

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How to Make a Leprechaun Trap | Jessie's Party Stop

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Spring Weather Activities for Speech Therapy! Cute craft for verbs!