Cow Craft Freebie

I have so many fun things to share...I've gotten a bit behind on sharing lately.

Today, I'm sharing a freebie craft with you. You'll find a link to the cow pattern and the writing paper at the end of this blog post. It's nothing fancy, but my kids definitely enjoyed it today.

We have been studying the "ow" team this past week. I thought I would add to our word study lesson today with a craft. I created the craft yesterday after school and was quite happy with it:

I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do with the cow but I knew it would have something to do with the "ow" team. I debated between listing words, writing a poem (we're working on poetry in writing right now), and writing sentences. I was leaning towards writing sentences when it came to me! We should write a story using the "ow" words!  We've been doing a lot with beginning, middle, and end lately so this seemed perfect.

 

We started by listing "ow" words on the board. My students gave me so many words! Ones that I hadn't even thought of. After we listed the words, I told them that we were going to write a story about a brown cow using these words. We talked about some story ideas using the words. Then, I sent them back to their seats to write a rough copy in their word study journal.

 

 

 

When they finished, they brought their journal to me and we made corrections to capitals, spelling, and punctuation together. Then, they returned to their seat to write the final copy. I introduced the craft AFTER almost everyone was done writing their final copies. (I still had a few students working on final copies because their stories were really long or because they were out of the room for part of the time.) They were given about 20 minutes to get the craft made. I gave them the template for the head and body and showed them my cow. From there, they created their own cows. Some followed my pattern closer than others.

 

 

 

I was beyond amazed with some of the stories they came up with. We had cows going into town, cows getting super powers, and even a couple of secret agent cows saving the day. This was definitely an enjoyable activity today. I was amazed at how long some of their stories were! Take a look at one star story below!

 

If you'd like the template for the cow and the writing paper, you can get it by clicking here. Enjoy! I'll be back with more activities in the near future. I've got a couple other writing activities that we've done recently to share as well!

 

 

 

So excited!

Friday was a staff development day for us. One of the sessions that I went to was a Make-It Take-It session hosted by our ELA coordinator. She brought several resources to share with us and gave us the time and material to make them.

One of my favorites from the session was this little sentence buddy:

 

 

I can't wait to use him with my firsties! We're getting ready to review sentence structure soon and this little guy will be a big hit. 

 

After the session, I came home to find the original resource in order to share it with you and my teammates at work. With a little searching, I found it!  You can find the template for this guy here: Sentence Buddy.    And he's free!

Mouse O'Clock

My firsties and I spent last week learning about and perfecting our knowledge of telling time. In first grade, they only have to be able to tell time to the half hour. This blew my mind after teaching second grade where I taught five minute intervals. (I'm not going to lie - after my firsties mastered the half hour, we moved onto discussing the five minute intervals as well. Never hurts to give them extra knowledge!)

I love doing crafts, especially towards the end of the week when things get a bit hectic and I need a break from the mundane. Last week, we took all of our clock knowledge and used it to create our own sentences about a mouse running up the clock. I started the week by reading the nursery rhyme of "Hickory Dickory Dock," so the kids really enjoyed this ending activity.  Here are a few of their cute mice.

This will eventually be part of the time unit I'm working on, but for now, I'm sharing it as a FREEBIE. To get the clock sheet, just click on the last picture (the one featuring the work hanging in the hallway). 

I explained to the students how they were going to do this craft and then I showed them my mouse. I cut an example body out of paper, but I didn't give them detailed instructions or a template to trace. This is how they all turned out unique! I love the fact that each mouse is it's own unique creation.

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a good week. :)

Another Temporary Freebie!

I've just uploaded another temporary freebie. This one is a word study pack. It is appropriate for first or second grade. We are currently starting double e this week in word study and I thought I'd make some practice pages and activities for my words center. I hope to go back and make similar sets for all of the patterns that we have already covered, including the short vowels, silent e, and l blends. Get it while it's still a freebie! (About a week)

When I Grow Up...

I know I have mentioned my Community Helpers Packet on here several times in the past week. Part of the reason I created that pack is because this week was Career Week at school. Today, in fact, was Career Dress Up Day.

I always find it hard to pick what to be on dress up days. (Tomorrow is Book Character Day and I still haven't fully figured that one out!) It's always hard for me to pick because there are so many great ideas out there!

For today's dress up day, I decided to go for what I would want to be if I didn't teach.  I would love to be a full time author. I already write and hope to one day publish a book on my own, but it's more of a hobby than a career right now. So, I thought I'd dress as an author for the day...

Five for Friday

It's been a while since I've done a link up so here goes...

 

 

I had a great 27th birthday party on Sunday despite a lot of last minute cancellations. I also made several new recipes that turned out quite well!

 

 

My students practiced base ten skills while rotating between bones of different sizes. They absolutely adored the activity!

 

 

I made this awesome Dirt Cake Cemetery for our staff development meeting. Several people asked for the recipe - always a good thing!

 

 

A few tables turned into tents using sheets and a glow stick per child made for an awesome Reading Camp In today. Today was awards day at school, which means we don't get much of a break (ten minutes if we're lucky) since the special area teachers are needed for the awards ceremony. Knowing this, I tried to find something fun to fill our normal special area time. That's how our Reading Camp In was formed! The kids loved it!

 

I even dressed the part. :)

 

 

Today is the first day of November, which means the first day of NaNoWriMo (write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days). I met my personal goal of 2000 words today, so I'm one happy writer!

 

 

How's your week been? Link up with Doodle Bugs and share all your fun!

Want to Motivate Your Little Writers?

Every November, I attempt to complete NaNoWriMo, which is a challenge that is put out to writers everywhere to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Every year I get distracted and don't meet the word goal. I'm giving it another shot this year.

To go along with this challenge, they have a Young Writer's Program. We're starting a unit on nonfiction writing in November, so I'm unable to give it a shot this year. However, I thought I'd share the Young Writer's Program with my followers. It is set up to work with ALL grades. They have lessons and activities across the grade band!

Learn more here:

 

You never know - it might be the motivating factor your students need!

Big Pig, Little Pig

Here's a few snapshots of a last minute crazy idea I had today!


The first one is my example that I made as we went through the steps! This craftivity goes along with a short "i" writing assignment we did on big pig and little pig.

 

I thought you also needed to see some student examples to see how well they turned out!

All that tearing of paper and this is what my classroom looked like at the end of the day. What great little cleaners they were today!

 

 

Step by step instructions and more to come on this project!  The kids really enjoyed making their pigs. Even my principal thought they were cute!