Fantastic Finds Linky Party!

I am really enjoying these Linky Parties! What a great way to share and collaborate with the fantastic teachers I have found in the blog world. Here are my "Fantastic Finds" of the week!


1. Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies has shared some report card comments. I think these will help me avoid sounding redundant, and also save me from writer's block. With 40+ kids this year, I am sure these will come in handy!







2. Looking for creative ways to get your kids thinking while they read? Head over to A Teacher's Treasure for her "Reading is Thinking Thought Bubbles. These are great, and I know if they worked with middle schoolers, my 5th graders will be excited about them, too!







3. Even though I don't teach science anymore (insert sad face here), I thought The Teacher's Chatterbox's idea for teaching the rock cycle would have been great to use. This concept is often confusing for my kids, and this lesson using chocolate and butterscotch chips makes it so much more concrete. I will probably DEFINITELY pass this along to my teammates!



4. I don't know about you, but I LOVE lists. They are simple, easy to use, and often just what I need! Create●Teach●Share posted about a variety of lists she uses in her classroom. Hop on over and check them out...I guarentee you'll find a use for at least one (if not all) of them.

5. Finally my ultimate RE-find. About two years ago, the reading specialist at my former school told me about the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) and all of their great reading centers for all grade levels. I had completely forgotten about it until I stumbled upon a Scholastic article about teaching main idea and details. In it I found a link to an activity from FCRR, and suddenly a thousand light bulbs went off! Long story short, I am sure you'll get lost in FCRR's links as well. 

That's it for now. Thanks for tuning in! Don't forget to head over to Thinking of Teaching and link up and share YOUR great finds!

"Poem of the Week" Freebies!

At our school, our wonderful reading specialist provides a poem of the week every two weeks for both the primary and intermediate grades. She gathers poems and creates quick-writes to go along with them. The poems often have something to do with the season or an upcoming event/holiday. Each class works with the poems, and students hand in their work by noon on Thursdays. Then, our reading specialist chooses one primary and one intermediate students to share their response on our televised morning announcements. The kids all want to be picked, so they must make sure their responses are well thought out and well written.


 In addition to using the activities provided, I often use these poems for a myriad of other things: comprehension, practicing grammar skills, fluency homework, vocabulary instruction, etc. I have been given permission to share these wonderful poems and worksheets with you. Please see the links below, with topics in bold, to download the poems and activities.


Back to School:
Cleaning House in My Brain (Primary)
Cleaning House in My Brain (Intermediate)


Football:
Nightplayer (Primary)
Victory (Intermediate)


Fall:
Autumn Time is Coming (Primary)
Autumn Fires (Intermediate)
Five Little Pumpkins (Primary)
Haunted House (Intermediate)


On the weeks that we do not have "Poem of the Week," our special educator provides us with "Math Masters." I am not a math teacher, but as soon as I get her permission, I will write about these as well because I believe them to be great resources for everyone...they sure do motivate our kids! 

How do you plan on using these poems in your classroom?


Happy Reading!

A Fun Giveaway!

Click on one of the buttons below to check out some great blogs I just joined AND a chance to win some goodies! Each blogger will be picking one person from the blog to win an item from their TPT/Teacher's notebook store! Good luck!

Spook-tacular Real Estate Ads

This week, my students and I started a writing project that was inspired by a GREAT blog post/lesson from Clutter-Free Classroom. We're writing Real Estate Ads for...wait for it....


HAUNTED HOUSES!!!


My kids are TOTALLY into the idea! They really let their sick, twisted creative minds fly with this one!


I basically followed the lesson created by Clutter-Free Classroom, but added some of my own pieces as well.


We started out but reading a poem by Jack Prelutsky called "Haunted House." We talked about what they visualized when they read it. Next, we looked at some actual real estate ads and discussed how the writers of those ads try to make their home sound appealing. We talked about the various amenities homeowners look for, as well as the tone of the ads.


After that, we discussed who our target "buyers" would be for a haunted house. They came up with things like ghosts, goblins, zombies, etc. One of my students pointed out that those individuals probably wouldn't be looking for the same type of house a normal human being would. This idea led me right into the next phase, which was reading a short story about a haunted house that my colleague found. We read it together to find good adjectives they could use to describe a haunted house.


After we were all good and spooked, I set them loose to begin brainstorming rooms and amenities that would be found in their haunted houses, as well as "creepy adjectives" that they could use to describe their homes. They did a great job! Some ideas included a "slime pool," "bleeding ceilings," "undead butlers," and a "spell casting room." They came up with adjectives like "gory," "gruesome," "horrifying," "putrid," and "noxious" (which happened to be one of our recent "words of the day"...yessssss!). I then combined all of their thinking (TWO classes worth) into one chart to be displayed in the room.


 I can't wait to get them started on drafting!

What reading and writing related activities are you doing/have you done for Halloween?

Haunted House by Jack Prelutsky

Here is a great poem I used recently to get my kiddos into a spooky writing mood:

Click Here For Images &
Haunted House Pictures - Pictures

Haunted House

by Jack Prelutsky

There's a house upon the hilltop
We will not go inside
For that is where the witches live,
Where ghosts and goblins hide.

Tonight they have their party,
All the lights are burning bright,
But oh we will not go inside
The haunted house tonight.

The demons there are whirling
And the spirits swirl about.
They sing their songs to Halloween.
"Come join the fun," they shout.

But we do not want to go there
So we run with all our might
And oh we will not go inside
The haunted house tonight.

*I used this poem to kick off my Haunted House Real Estate Ads. Click here for more information about this fun and unique writing project!*