Lucky Me Shamrock

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner and I wanted to share a little activity to honor this special day.  I am super excited about St. Patrick's Day this year!!!  Normally it falls during our spring break, so by the time we return it has already come and gone.  Our spring break is a week earlier this year, so YAY we get to really celebrate (minus the pinching of course)!

I created this shamrock fan booklet that I really hope my students will love.  I love how the cover page turned out.  My own little sweetie pie painted it for me with his watercolors.  He needed a little help from me to keep the center white (he's only 4).  I plan to have my students draw a self portrait in the center.   If you aren't a fan of watercolors, they could simply color the front with crayons or markers.   Click here to check it out at TPT.

                                                                  

I would love to give this Lucky Me Shamrock away for free to the first 20 people that leave a comment.  Please don't forget to leave your e-mail.
 

Love Monsters

Just one more quick post before Valentine's Day.  I created a Love Monster activity last year that my students just loved.  I realized the other day that we hadn't done our Love Monsters yet.  I knew I couldn't skip them this year, especially now that my classroom theme is monsters and all.  I also had my blank Valentine's bags that needed decorating!!! So...I decided to re-size my monster craft.   Now my monsters fit perfectly on the front of my white craft bags. 

Each monster is definitely a one of a kind.  Here are a few:

The craftivity contains both the larger size monsters and the smaller version.  If you have already purchased this file, please go back and re-download it to get the updated file.  I'd also love to give it away to the first 3 readers who leave a comment.  Simply leave your e-mail and I'll send it your way.  Just a way to to give back to my fabulous followers!!!
 

Valentine's Day Love Birds

This is going to be another really short post.  I wanted to share a little valentine craft before Valentine's Day sneaks by me.  I have had such a busy start to this year, I can't believe it's already February!  This is a little love bird craft for your little ones to tweet about those they love!!!

Here are some pictures from the classroom.  I always love to read their sweet little messages about the people they love and care about.

I'd LOVE to give it away to the first 3 readers to leave a comment. Please don't forget to leave your e-mail, so I can send it your way! It will most likely be tomorrow evening, because I'm off to bed.  It was a VERY long Monday!

Fall Fun

This post it a little bit of this and that from the last few weeks.   A few weeks ago we learned about Johnny Appleseed.  First grade does a great job of teaching our little ones about John Chapman, but we couldn't help but do a few cute Johnny Appleseed activities in second grade also.  We used this adorable apple writing paper to write facts about Johnny Appleseed. You can get this apple paper and so many other cute Johnny Appleseed writing papers from Dina at the Constant Kindergartener.  I simply added his name to the leaf and numbered the lines.

 

 

 

We also made crock pot applesauce, and they used the template below to write a How-To.  You can get the template I used below.  There are enough spaces for 7 steps.  I used Cara Carroll's Recipe and my kiddos LOVED it!

Then we had to follow up with a giant apple diagram.  I had seen these all over Pinterest and just had to have one!   I believe the original idea came from What the Teacher Wants!  Check it out here.  You can get the giant labels I used below:

 

 

 We also made scarecrows.  I love making scarecrows, they always come out super cute.  This year, I decided to create my own pattern that you can grab for free below. We read a passage from abcteach about scarecrows, and then they wrote 3 facts that they added to their schema on the schema template.  If you do a google search for abcteach scarecrow passage, it comes up as a freebie.

 

 

Click the image above to get the scarecrow freebie.

It's hard to believe that Halloween is just a few days away! Yikes...where has the year gone?

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Here is a quick picture of our Frankenstein door for Red Ribbon Week.  My 2nd graders are super proud of it.  Our campus is holding a door contest this Thursday, so here is a peek at mine:

The super cute Frankensteins and Brides of Frankenstein are a craftivity by A Cupcake for the Teacher.  I have a monster themed classroom, so our door theme just had to be monsters!

 

Cinco de Mayo Silly Peppers!

I got this little project done just in the nick of time.  Looks like I'll be in the copy room tomorrow frantically running off my last minute silly peppers!  But, I really think my kiddos will enjoy this little glyph, so it will all be worth it in the end!

I will definitely return with pictures, but for now let me share what it includes:

* Cover page or coloring page depending on how you want to use it.

* Silly Pepper Glyph (full page or smaller size if you want to display it along with the silly pepper)

* Graphic Organizer for Cinco de Mayo Facts (boy and girl templates)

* Mental Imagery Activity-  Several facts are listed on the snapshot page, students will draw  mental images to go along the facts.

Here are a few simple Cinco de Mayo read alouds I like to share with my class.  The one on the right  is a reading A-Z book (level J) that can be used on the Smartboard or projector, my kiddos love projected books!

I'm back with a few silly pepper examples from my class:

 

 

Build a Bunny

So, I had a crazy idea! I was looking at my toddler's Build-a-Bear on the floor,

 and decided I was going to make a Build-a Bunny Craftivity.  

I'm not sure yet if I'm going to display the bunnies on a bulletin board, or maybe place them on the cover of a large piece of construction paper with the Easter eggs, character traits page, and writing piece on the inside.  I really think it would make a great addition to the writing portfolios we put together at the end of the year.  

Here is a picture of the bunny I made:

They won't all be exactly the same, so they would make a cute bulletin board display.  I'm sure a few of my kiddos will have grey and brown bunnies.  There is a blank egg pattern, so they can decorate it however they like.

The idea of the mini-unit is for students to imagine that the Easter Bunny is retiring and they are looking for a new bunny to fill his shoes.  They will have to persuade the current Easter Bunny to choose them.  They will use this page to list the 3 reasons why they should be chosen.

Then, students will introduce themselves as the new Easter Bunny with this little handout.  They will draw themselves as the Easter Bunny and write describing words/character traits to describe a good Easter Bunny.  *** I decided to return to this post to add some examples from my classroom, instead of the example I had originally posted (the bunny I drew was a little scary looking).
These are much cuter!

There is also writing paper for students to write what their first day as the Easter Bunny might be like.  What might their first adventure be like?  I also love to read Jan Brett's Book, The Easter Egg.  It's a great read aloud for Easter!

You can get this at my TPT store and hope you have a Happy Easter!!!!

Check out their adorable bunnies- all very unique!