Parts of Speech Posters

I finally created Parts of Speech Posters and I'm in love with them.  Actually it's probably just all the bright, pop out colors.   My room seriously has no theme except for colors, colors, colors everywhere.  I'm talking brights, neons, polka dots, shimmery, chevron, etc.  You name it, I probably have it, with the exception of pastels.  I'm not really a pastel kind of girl.

I wanted to create posters that would also serve as a mini word bank of words for each of the parts of speech.  My students really like to read around the room.  They truly do use all the resources I have on my walls, especially when they need a reminder of something they have already learned, or they are looking for a word to use in their writing or on an assignment, or if they are looking for the correct spelling of a word.

Here are the posters I came up with:

There are 8 posters and a page that contains all of them on one page.  I like to display the one pager on my Smart Board, so I can zoom in when I need to.  As you can see from the pictures below, I have the posters hung right above my Smart Board.

I also have this little guy hung on my front board.  We call him Mr. P  (I 'm not so sure our kiddos nowadays know who Mr. T is.  I'm thinking that connection probably goes right over many of their heads). If we are working on a language assignment or simply reading a story, I will often ask which P is being used in the sentence.   It is a simple little reminder of  some of the different language skills we have already learned.  My students really have mastered the P's as a result of this little guy.   It only took me a matter of minutes to make Mr. P, and we refer to him all the time!!!

If you are in need of colorful parts of speech posters, you can head over to my store by clicking here.
 

Texas Symbols

My grade level teacher buddy just started a new blog and it turned out super cute. It's called Teach 2 Blossom and Bloom.  I'm so jealous because she creates most of her own clip art and everything she creates is really cute.  I do some of my own clip art, but I can't get too intricate because Photoshop and Illustrator are just soooo complicated!

My class just finished up a Texas Symbol lap-book that she created, and I love how they turned out.  This is the cover of the booklet.  Click here to head over to her new blog to see pictures of the inside of her lap-books.

I also  wanted to share a couple pictures my kiddos drew of the water cycle from awhile back.  They were just too cute with their little details.  They all draw palm trees.  That always makes me laugh, because I grew up around very different kinds of trees.  But living in Texas, they have palm trees in their schemas.

Earth Day Love Craftivity

I thought it was time for a FREEBIE and with Earth Day approaching, what better time to make a fun craftivity!

I hope you enjoy this little craft.  I decided to model my cutie example after my own little guy at home.

Simply click on the image above to get this freebie.

 

 

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!

Tall Tales

I just had to share what our class did during our Tall Tall Unit.  I was originally going to create a unit, but this Literature Pocket Unit by Evan Moor was too good to pass up.  We didn't have a lot of time to use the entire unit and create all of the pockets, so we just made a smaller booklet instead.  We decided to focus on just four of the Tall Tall Characters, but this unit has many, many more to choose from.  It is intended for grades 4-6, but my second graders had no problem with it, and really enjoyed the entire unit.  

 There is a 2 pager story for each of the Tall Tales.  

Each Tall Tale also comes with the chart below and several activities to go along with each person.  I unfortunately can't share all the activities we did, because I sent them home already!

 These coloring pages did not come from the Evan Moor Unit, but I just had to include them. Second graders love coloring.  I found them at this website:

 http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/jgriffin/tall.cfm.

The coloring page of Davy Crockett is from http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/color-davy-crockett

 I created this little thinking map to go along with Paul Bunyan.  You can get it for free here.

One of the activities in the Literature Pocket Tall Tale Unit was a simile activity.  We simply cut the boxes apart on the worksheet and attached the pieces to a sentence strip.  It was a great opportunity to talk about similes, while learning about Tall Tales.  The picture of Paul Bunyan came from the coloring page document I linked to above.

This is a picture of Evan Moor's Book, in case you are interested.  It truly is a super resource.

 We decided to use the following Tall Tale characters in our unit:

* Pecos Bill

* Slue-Foot Sue

* Paul Bunyan

* Davy Crockett

 We finished up, by completing this Tall Tale writing piece.   You can click on the image below to download it for free.