Another Writing Menu Option!

I sure am having fun creating more and more fun writing opportunities for my students. The other day, I offered you all a copy of my rebus story poster.

That offer still stands if you purchased this...

and one or both of these...

Here's my latest poster...

It goes with this...

I created this interview pack to give my students ample opportunities, throughout the school year, 

to master the fine art of conducting successful interviews by teaching them how to properly choose

their questions, ask them in an organized manner, actively listen to the answers, take notes, review 

the notes, and use them to write an article. Since there are 96 different interview questions, this is 

an activity that can be done over and over again all year long. Plus, it goes great with common 

core.

If you already purchased I Can Write, any of the Rebus Story Packs, and/or Interview With a Friend, please email me if you would like the menus.

Rebus Stories and Break the Code!

My little writers enjoy making rebus stories. For those who don't know, it's when you write a story and use a mix of words and pictures, to tell the story. It's very easy to get really creative when you write a rebus story. Because they have been really popular in my classroom, I made some more to add to my collection.

Themes included:

All About Me

Back to School

Fall

Farm

Summer

Click here to see it in my store!

Themes included:

Earth Day

My Garden

Insects

Ocean

Outer Space

Click here to see it in my store!

So far, during my vacation, I've kept myself busy creating. It's what I love to do, so, why not take full advantage of my free time, right?

While at the car dealership on Saturday, for several hours, I was able to finish up my Break the Code!

These took forever to complete because it was slow going putting in all the numbers and then checking them for accuracy. The children decode sentences and respond to them. They are all questions that the children need to answer. I'm working hard on teaching them to always write part of the question in their answers and I thought this would be a fun way for them to practice sentence writing, grammar, conventions, and, answering questions properly. All while being as creative as they want. The questions in this pack are fun and I am looking forward to using them during the last 11 weeks of school. There are 10 different sheets so I have one for just about every week. I plan on making more of these because I think they are a fun way to practice necessary skills. The next one I'll be making is for kindergarten. When my kindergartners see these fun things in my classroom, they always ask when I'll make them some, too! 

Click here to see this product in my store!

Sharing some activities

This week, we finished up some of our St. Patrick's Day writing activities. In first grade, we read this really cute story...

Then, we discussed some things we would wish for if a leprechaun granted us three wishes. Most of the children went with the usual stuff like an iPAD, new toys, a limo, and bacon, which is fine, but, this sweet little girl went a totally different route and her essay literally brought tears to my eyes. See for yourself!

Warms your heart, right?

You can grab an updated version of this writing activity here.

In kindergarten, my students made rainbow rhymes. It was a nice, simple activity that they really enjoyed. No patterns to trace, nothing to cut out. Just some writing and drawing.

I didn't help them with anything! They sounded out their own words and were very proud of their results. Click here to snag a copy of the rhyme.

In other news, I finished up my Pre-Primer and Primer Sentence Puzzles. Sentence Puzzles have become quite popular in my classroom. They are a fun way to practice reading, writing, spelling, conventions, and grammar. They include all of the pre-primer and primer words and are differentiated.

Click here and click on the download to get a free sentence puzzle!

One more day of school and then I'm officially on Spring Break! Tomorrow is Field Day for my students. For Field Day, each cluster of classes chooses a country to represent. We chose Italy and had these shirts printed up...

Aren't they cute? Biggs and DiMartino are the other two teachers in my cluster.

Go Team Italy!

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to show off 5 pictures from the week that seemed to go on and on and on forever!

My blog turned one year old on March 11!

My sweet friend, Cristin, made this beautiful teacher plaque for me!

I had a giveaway for a free plaque or clipboard made by Cristin, and 

the lucky winner was Jen, from...

I love Cristin's Creations and I love Jen! 

My kindergartners started reading the cutest books, illustrated by a 5 year old! They are called Issy Books and I'm going to do an official blog review of them very soon! In the meantime, you can get more information about these precious books here!

How cute is this little kindergartner?! She is enjoying a fun beginning/ending sound game from the very talented Heidi!

Click here to see the other fun activities in this pack!

Here is another one of my stations this week. My kindergartners are learning how to write questions and to answer the questions, putting part of the question in their answer. They are doing a great job. The above sheet comes from this pack...

and, can be downloaded as a freebie, by clicking here and downloading the preview.

And, last, but not least, here is something fun I'm working on. They are sentence puzzles, using the Pre-Primer and Primer Dolch Words. All of the sentences use the Dolch Words over and over again, and contain a picture clue. These will also be differentiated, to allow for all of your students' abilities.

Well, I'm off to celebrate my sister's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Robin!

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

I can hardly believe that March 11 will be one year since I started my blogging adventure. 

It has been non-stop fun and excitement for me! I have made so many special friendships with tons of talented teachers from all over the world. I treasure each and every one of those friendships.

To help celebrate my blogiversary and to show you how much I appreciate all my followers, I have a very special offer for you. My dear friend Cristin, from

Cristin's Creations, is graciously donating a customized teacher plaque ($25.00 value) or clipboard ($20.00 value) to one of my lucky followers. She is just getting started in this venture and I assured her that every teacher would be thrilled to be able to customize their own teacher plaque or clipboard. I am so grateful to Cristin! Here is the beautiful plaque she made for me and two clipboards, as well. 

To sweeten the deal, and to show you all just how much I appreciate you sticking with me for this past year, I am throwing in one (non-bundled) item, of your choice, from my teaching store, for the winner. I just uploaded some fun, new items, too! Check out my sentence puzzles here!

Sentence puzzles are a wonderful activity to help young learners practice reading, writing, spelling, conventions, and grammar. Many of the sentence puzzles are fact based, making for even more meaningful learning!

My sentence puzzles are differentiated to accommodate all ability levels.

Click here to get a free St. Patrick's Day Sentence Puzzle. Just click on download preview and enjoy!

So, are you ready to enter my giveaway?

 Just enter using the rafflecopter below and leave me a comment letting me know which item you would like if you win. This giveaway won't last long, so, be sure to enter today!

Thanks for a great year and here's to many, many more!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How To Writing With a Freebie

My students are really loving How to...writing. 

It's my favorite type of writing to teach because the children are always interested and eager to teach others how to do something. Plus, you can cover so many different skills.

Sequential order, transition words, strong verbs, descriptive words. The list is endless.

Here is a bulletin board I put together, 

using my second grade students' 

"How to Wash Your Hands" writing.

(Please note that these writing sheets have been updated since these photos were taken!)

My first graders made How to...books.

Although my A Year of How To...Writing pack has 54 different How to...Writing activities, my first graders still managed to come up with a few more that I didn't think of. Here's one of them!

If you would like a copy, just click here and then click on download preview.

One more thing! Yesterday, I blogged about my Kindergarten Common Core Language Review Sheets. I forgot to include a picture I had taken of one of my students using one of the activities. 

This is one of the CVC activity sheets. This student is in one of my RTI groups. She is practicing how to read and write CVC words. I have the pages in sheet protectors to save paper. After she finished writing her answers on the recording sheet and checking them, using the included answer key, she erased her recording sheet and completed another activity. I love how we aren't wasting paper. Please note that I took this picture a few weeks ago, and I have since updated the title on the recording sheet. Each sheet now says Language Review and is labeled with the activity number. If you want to check out this pack, please click here.