Valentine's Day Linky Party!

Hello everyone! Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to host my first linky party! Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. I know most people feel it's a commercial ploy, but I love the simplicity of the holiday. It's quick, easy, and doesn't have to be over the top. Plus, it's a way to spice up the very looooong winter we have here in New England. (I also do not mind receiving large bouquets of pink roses, either!) 

Frame by Creative Clips

For this linky party you may post a link to your blog or TpT store, highlighting a Valentine's Day freebie, idea, or paid product.  If you choose to link-up a blog post, don't forget to copy and paste the above graphic into your post and link it back to the party!

Check out the product I will be adding to the linky...

I created Heart-to-Heart with upper elementary students in mind.  Your kiddos can celebrate Hearts Day by creating a Valentine's Day Figurative Language Booklet. They will make a separate page for various kinds of figurative language, including similes, metaphors, idioms, alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole.

On each page, students will record the definition of the kind of language highlighted, create a Valentine's Day related sentence with an example of that type of language, and illustrate their words.

There are many visuals provided in the product to help students review the concept of figurative language and the meanings of each type.

A vocabulary poster for each kind of figurative language is included, as well as a word bank to inspire creativity!

Heart-to-Heart is perfect for a language arts center, whole class assignment, or as a classroom Valentine's Day celebration activity!

Check out this product on TpT for more information. I hope you will find this useful for your classroom!

Thank you to everyone who joins my first ever linky party!

XO <3, C

Gobble Gobble!

Okay, okay, we may not have even celebrated Halloween yet, but just like all the retail stores out there, I'd like to hop on the Thanksgiving bandwagon!  November 1st is only a week away, which means I need to start planning my Thanksgiving dinner.  This year is a special one, and should be interesting, because for the first time yet, I'll be hosting a family get-together and serving a FEAST!  ...Scary!  So far I know my mom is going to bring gravy, mashed potatoes, her delicious sweet potato casserole with the brown sugar crunchy topping (my FAVORITE!), and Swedish apple pie.  YUM!  Sam and I will take care of the turkey, and Sam is hoping his mom will make her pumpkin pie, but ...well, the rest has yet to be decided.  I'm starting to get some great ideas from good ol' Pinterest!

Lemony Green Beans- GB tossed with olive oil, lemon juice & rind, onions, and basil

Glazed Butternut Squash- Cooked in apple cider! Mmmm!

Cornbread Stuffing

 Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting- I know, RIDICULOUS!

White Autumn Spice Sangria

Everything looks TOO GOOD!

I also have been starting to get my act together with Thanksgiving TpT projects/activities. I just finished my first one, called Invite a Pilgrim to Thanksgiving Dinner, which is a creative and persuasive writing project meant for 3rd-6th graders. 

The basic premise of the project is students need to write a persuasive letter inviting a Plimoth Plantation Pilgrim who has time-traveled to the present to their family's Thanksgiving Dinner.  To do this, kiddos need to research The First Thanksgiving.

They will record their findings on the graphic organizer above.  Next, they will fill out a similar GO on their own family's Thanksgiving traditions, and then use a Venn diagram to compare their traditions to The First Thanksgiving.  

After a lot of preliminary work, students will examine and discuss the above example persuasive letter, and eventually write their own.  They will focus on the friendly letter format, writing an introduction to a letter/invitation, using persuasive language, comparing/contrasting, and writing a conclusion. They will be writing across many genres all the while letting their creative juices flow!

This product comes with teacher directions, objective/goal posters written in student-friendly language, vocabulary posters, a scoring rubric, an editing/revising checklist, and final draft paper. 

For the culminating activity, students will create a paper plate turkey invitation to go along with their persuasive letter. Don't you love him?!

Check out my Invite a Pilgrim to Thanksgiving Dinner Project and Craftivity here at TpT!  I hope you enjoy it!

Best Wishes for the week ahead!

XO <3, C

Fishin' for a Compound Sentence

Hey everyone! 

Happy-Almost-Friday!  I'm excited for my long weekend plans ahead, and can't wait to share them with you soon!

Tonight I'd like to share a product with you I originally created one year ago, last October, waaaaaay before I ever thought  of TpT.  I was visiting Sam one weekend while he was working in Groton, and I had plenty of time on my hands since he had to head into work for a bit on Saturday morning.  I used my spare time to plan for school, and because I was oh so inspired by all of the beautiful lessons and activities I was constantly seeing on Pinterest, I decided to get creative.  Although I didn't know it at the time, I was creating my first TpT product, "Gone Fishin' For a Compound Sentence".

Now, after a bit of experience with the whole TpT thing, I decided to give my creation a face lift...and, well...I think it looks quite cute!  I used it with my 3rd graders last fall, and it was a very big hit!  It encouraged a lot of participation, even from a certain someone who normally refused to involve himself in learning.  Students were engaged, excited, and remembered how to "hook" two sentences together. 

Here is a little peak...

 In this activity, students are given 10 sets of green sentence cards and many pink conjunction cards.  They must first find sentence cards that make sense together, and then use a pink conjunction card to "hook" them into a compound sentence.  A fishing hook is used as a metaphor for a comma in this activity, helping students to remember how to write a compound sentence correctly.  This hands-on activity is perfect for introducing the concept of compound sentences or for review/assessment. 

It includes a goal (objectives) poster as well as a poster on compound sentences and conjunctions.

This activity also includes a double sided sheet, so students can record the compound sentences they create with the cards, as well as complete a more challenging illustration assignment on the back. 

I hope your students will find it as exciting as mine did! You can find it here if you're interested. :-)

See you soon!

XO <3,
Colleen

BOO!

By Reading Girl XOXO

Guess what, everyone? Only 6 more weeks until Halloween! Time is flying! The month of October is going to be quite busy for me, (on the weekends that is) so I'm starting my Halloween fun this weekend by going to a corn maze with Sam and some friends of mine.  Can't wait!  Last year, we found our way through the maze pretty easily, but the year before that we were completely LOST, which made it even more fun!  In fact, we were the last group left in the maze that night, and had to be "rescued", which made me angry because it was more fun finishing without the help of the employees!

Speaking of Halloween, I thought I'd take some time now to share the Who Am I? Creative Halloween Writing project I created a few weeks ago.  This should keep me preoccupied while I am waiting to hear from Sam at work about San. Di. E. Go...Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

For this creative Halloween writing assignment, students pretend to be a Halloween creature and write paragraphs of clues about themselves.  This is a great way to incorporate a lesson on inferences!  They must write two paragraphs of clues, the first full of adjectives and clues about their physical appearance, and the second with interesting verbs and clues about what they do/how they act!  This is such a fun way to review or intro adjectives and verbs towards the beginning of the year!
 

The above picture is an example of the finished writing assignment, which I always show to the children as we are working on their writing so they have a "picture" in mind about writing expectations.  This example can be projected on your board for easy review.  There is also a black and white handout version.  I love having students mark them up, circling adjectives, verbs, and interesting clues!

The above picture shows a list of writing ideas students can choose from, although they always think of additional creative creatures every year!

 Here is a graphic organizer for the pre-writing stage, focusing on adjectives and verbs. 

 The Who Am I? Rubric helps students to self-assess, edit, and revise before you score them.
 

 

 You will receive several posters with goals (learning objectives) and important vocabulary words. 

At the end of the assignment, students will decorate a haunted house by using the crayon resist technique and hiding their creature behind a front door that flaps open.  

This project is always such a big hit every year!  Students really get their creative juices flowing, and become so into keeping their creature identity a secret, they often use "offices" or "privacy folders" while writing!  I've even seen some cover clues on their rough drafts with post-it notes.  Haha, too funny!

Check out the Who Am I? Creative Halloween Writing project here.  Make sure to take a look at the preview for more details.

Hopefully I'll be back later today with San Diego updates!  Until then I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

XO <3, C