Amelia Bedelia and Santa, Oh My!

Thought I'd share a little of this and that from our classroom.  It's been so cold in Texas recently, it's actually starting to feel a lot like Christmas.  We read Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia last week, and that's always a lot of fun.  By the end of the week, it's super cute to hear my little ones say, Amelia Bedelia takes everything sooo literally!

For the very first reading of our Amelia Bedelia story, we used the mental imagery quad below.  The quad is an idea that comes from Debbie Miller's book, Reading with Meaning.   They don't get to see the pictures during the first reading, so this gives them an opportunity to visualize the story and become illustrators themselves.   If you follow me, you know I LOVE visualizing.  We use this strategy all the time!!!!

 I'm loving the images by these little artists in the making.

We also worked on story elements.  The activity below is one I loved and saved from when I did my student teaching about 10 years ago.  Yikes, that really shows my age!!! I just added the plate template to put the cookies on. 

I also added a new product to my store.  Santa is a pretty popular guy in our classroom during this time of year, so I thought we'd honor him with a few fun-filled activities.  You can click here to check it out in my store.

The set includes a Santa Letter Writing craft.  Here's a peak at some of the finished letters.

 Santa with glasses is way too cute!

The Santa Set also includes:

There is also a Visualizing Poem about Santa getting stuck in the chimney, that's not pictured.   I told you, I lOVE visualizing activities! Poems are fantastic for mental imagery!

Retelling Rope

I finally made a retelling rope for my classroom!  I had seen different versions of them them years ago on other blogs and just recently saw one on Pinterest from First Grade Wow's Blog.  She has her students make their own retelling ropes using string.  Check it out here.  I wanted a larger version to use whole group at the carpet during read alouds.  For each story, we discuss the characters, setting, beginning, problem (knot)-middle, end-solution (bow that ties up the story).   My students connected it to a knot in their shoelaces (problem) and how when they finally undo the knot and create a neat bow, the problem is solved and they're good to go!  When they are retelling a story independently, they use my Story Street printable.  This is generally one of their literacy stations.  They can either use the story we are reading for the week or their library book.  You can get a free copy of the Story Street printable at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Click the images above to get the freebie at my TPT store.