Spring Photo Booth Writing Prompts

We had some fun this week celebrating sping and looking forward to Easter. My kids love it when we celebrate with a photo booth (Krista’s props make them especially fun) and I love it when we work on their writing skills :). So, I put together some fun spring writing activities that you can use as crafts, as a display, or in a photo booth like we did.

1. Our Easter is Filled With—Why is Easter special? How do you celebrate it? Your students will write and draw about their Easter traditions using this brainstorming writing prompt. They will put each idea on a separate egg and then place it into their Easter basket.

2. In the Spring (Five Senses)—Using their five senses and descriptive words, your students will write about spring. Their responses can then be used to write a spring cinquain. Four colors of flowers are included.

3. Spring Cinquain—Your students will use the descriptive phrases and action words they came up with for “In the Spring” to write a Cinquain (a short, unrhymed 5 line poem of 22 syllables). Cinquain poster and instructions are included.


4. Rain is a Blessing—Your students will ponder HOW (what if it did not rain), WHY, and to WHOM rain is a blessing in this photo booth writing craft. This also a fun writing craft to use after discussing the water cycle.

Grab this set of PHOTO BOOTH WRITING PROMPTS for half-off today only!

New, Updated and On Sale!

We have been working on correct letter and number formation this year and our clipart now ready to be incorporated into your classroom! It applies the instructional methods developed by Handwriting without Tears.  Your students will always “begin at the smiley face.” I’ve added directional arrows and numbers to help your little learners navigate each letter (and number). There is also a visual “Stop”.

You will find these Handwriting Helps on our 0-20 NUMBER SENSE ANCHOR CHARTS.

And on their matching NUMBERS 0-20 PLAY DOUGH MATS. This set includes play dough mats with correct number formation, ten frame, tally marks and number word for 0-10; and correct number formation, twenty frame, take away from 20, and number word for numbers 11-20.

Finally, I’ve updated our ALPHABET PLAY DOUGH MATS. They are filled with independent, hands-on learning! And are perfect to use with your Letter of the Week program. Your students will not only be working on their fine motor skills, they will also learn the correct letter formation of both uppercase and lowercase letters and their sounds. They will count (1-12) objects that begin with the target sound and exercise their creativity on every page.

I’ve added simple, visual directions to help your students use these sheets independently.

Now, for the best news!!! They are ALL 50% off today and tomorrow! Hope you all enjoy these new, and newly revised products. Happy Teaching!

PS. Student Number Sense Cards are in the works! Similar to our Star Wars set; perfect for everyday use!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Wars Jedi Centers for Number Sense & Counting 0-10

New math centers for your Jedi half off until Sunday!

This set of STAR WARS JEDI CENTERS is loaded with Number Sense, Counting, and One-to-One Correspondence activities for the numbers 0-10.

Each numeral is represented with a Star Wars character ten frame, Lightsaber tally marks, Death Star dominoes, Tie Fighter dice, stars, money, counting fingers, and in its number word form.

“I CAN” Droid Direction cards for independent work are included for each activity.

Your students will:
** Sort Odd and Even numerals
** Identify numerals that are Greater Than, Less Than and Equal to others
** Identify Before and After numbers
** Count-On from a given number
** Count Back from a given number
** Complete a variety of Number Sense/One-to-One Correspondence activities for each numeral (counting fingers, number word and money; tally marks, dice and stars; ten frame and domino)

Three One-to-One Correspondence Mats are included for any target number (1. Number word, ten frame, Lightsaber tally marks and stars; 2. Number word, counting fingers, money and Tie Fighter dice; 3. Number word, ten frame, Lightsaber tally marks and Death Star dominoes).

Sort counting fingers, numeral word, and money for each number

Sort lightsaber tally-marks, tie fighter dice and counting stars for each number

Your students can compare any of the numeral tiles in these activities.

Hook two Count On or Count Back strips together to challenge your students.

There are six “THE NUMBER” recording sheets to asses what your students have learned after they have completed a variety of the centers. These sheets ask your students to complete various tasks including:
** Identifying if the target number is odd or even
** Writing the number word
** Dotting the ten frame
** Counting the number by circling or coloring objects or drawing their own
** Showing the number on dice, dominoes and fingers
** Drawing the number as tally marks
** Identifying the numbers that come before and after
** Identifying numbers that are greater or less than the target number
** Counting on, or back from the number.

Grab them today while they are on sale! Your Jedi are going to love them!

Valentine’s Day Photo Booth WRITING PROMPTS

These Valentine’s Day Photo Booth Writing Prompts are a quick, fun way to work on descriptive writing and make some memories, too! There are three writing prompts to choose from:

1. LOVE IS…Your students will draw three pictures showing what they love, what makes them feel loved, or how they show love to someone else. Then they will describe the acts of love they have depicted.

2. FRIENDS ARE…Your students will add seven adjectives to their box of chocolates describing the qualities of a friend.

3.  VALENTINE SIMILESThis mini-simile workshop is perfect for your ice cream party! Your students will describe ice cream as they finish the six similes on the yummy shake.

You can grab them here during the TpT sale!

100th Day Photo Booth WRITING PROMPTS

Here is a FUN way to accomplish some writing on your 100th Day of School–Photo Booth Writing Prompts!

There are three to choose from:

1. NOW I KNOW–to celebrate that they are 100 days smarter, your students will write 5 things they have learned so far this year. Color and black and white are included.

2. I WISH I HAD 100–what do your students wish they had 100 of and why? Find out with this writing prompt! Three different color options as well as black and white are included.

3. WHEN I AM 100 I WILL HAVE–similar to a bucket list, your students will list the places they hope to have gone, things they hope to have seen and accomplished by the time they are 100. Two skin tone options and black and white are included.

As shown in the product photos, we used our WRITING PROMPTS with Creative Clips’ Photo Booth Props and had a lot of fun with them! You can use your own additional props, or grab Krista’s here.

Happy 100th Day of School!

Word Work for First Grade {and beyond!}

Are you helping your students develop a solid understanding of phonemes–the sounds letters make, either alone or in concert with other letters? This is the year to do just that! In First Grade, students are introduced to so many new letter combinations and sounds it can be a bit daunting to teach. Today, I’m going walk you through our approach. We are aiming for comprehensive, cohesive instruction that encourages a LOVE for words + learning = great readers and spellers!

1. INTRODUCE the NEW PHONEME 

Most of your students will be familiar with the QU digraph (it isn’t a literal digraph, but for arguments sake, lets just call it one :). They are familiar with the QU pairing (Q is always written with U). But, take the time to review all of the words they can already read with this digraph.  We began by matching pictures to their words on the quilt (in our Interactive Phonemic Notebook). We also used a QU slider (from our QU flapbook) and segmenting and blending cards.

2.  MAKE a PHONEMIC POSTER

This is a FUN way to get your students using new sounds and working on alliteration. I always have my own poster ready (I’ve made a new one for QU), but BEFORE I show it to them, I have my kids make their own. This is how we do it:

I give them a graphic word list (the words are categorized by names, verbs, nouns and adjectives) and ask them to pick their favorites and write them down on the My Blends Sentence sheet. Then, they follow the formula to make a sentence and draw a picture to demonstrate it. Once they are finished, we go over their blends sentences and I show them mine:

3.  TIME to DEVELOP YOUR PHONEMIC MUSCLES

Next, we jump back into our Interactive Phonemic Notebook and learn new words (the new words are also presented on the Segmenting/Blending Cards). We will read, write, recognize, and segment them.

This is a great time to review other words (with blends and digraphs recently mastered) that rhyme with the target sound (QU) words.

4.  PHONEMIC SPELLING and ABC ORDER

Now its it time for phonemic spelling–using the words your students can sound out (recalling blends and digraphs already learned). We make it FUN with Phonemic Strips (the arrows in the picture) and a place to store them (the quiver).

We use the Phonemic Strips to practice alphabetical ordering. This is a nice challenge since all of the words we are working with this week begin with QU. The sliders help to hold each word in place. Once the order is correct, the words are recorded.

5.  BLEND ME a STORY

Now that your students can recognize so many new words, they should use them. Writing a quick story focusing on the target blend (QU) is a FUN way to do just that.

6.  SHOW ME what YOU KNOW {PHONEMIC FLIPS}

After all of the great word work your students have done with QU it is time for them to have some FUN showing you what they know. They will do this with the QU Phonemic Flips.

With this interactive blends booklet, they will use a dry erase marker, a blending dice–I like using foam dice :), but you can easily build the blends dice included in the pack–and lowercase letter manipuatives. I know a lot of you are fans of the magnetic letters. You are welcome to use these instead of the lacing letters we use. {Flip}

Circle all of the pictures that begin with the target sound (he circled “question” after I took the photo :). {Flip}

Read the passage and find all of the words that begin with QU. I try to keep these stories as simple (and funny) as possible; but your students will need help with a few of the words (i.e. taker, answering, question, queasy). {Flip}

Now its time to use the dice (this is my kids’ favorite task–it turns into quite a game). This is where you’ll be able to assess the strength of your students’ phonemic muscles. They will roll either a K, QU or W and write it in the blank. Then sound out the word and decide if it is real, or not.  Only real words receive a check mark. {Flip}

Using the letter manipulatives, your students will build the words we have worked on all week, phoneme-by-phoneme. One thing I like to do at this stage of word development (which you might not be used to 🙂 is link the letters together that make the new phonemes (I heart glue dots). So, in this photo the QU, CKs and TH are glue-dotted together. This is a simple technique that will help your students recognize that these letter pairs stick together to make the new sounds they are learning. And the great thing about glue dots is they hold tight, but are easy to remove. As your students’ phonemic learning progresses, the glue dots disappear. {Flip, flip, flip, flip, flip–there are 20 words in this section}

7.  REVIEW THOSE DIGRAPHS and BLENDS

Great readers and spellers don’t develop overnight, so reviewing what is learned is always helpful. We like these word building exercises (they are a part of our Interactive Phonemic Notebooks–pictured next to the QU story).

And this PENCIL BOX independent work center:

Simply take the segmenting/blending cards and fold them along the mid-line:

Using clothespins, your students will attach the word to each picture and then self-check, flipping the segmented word forward to match the word they have attached.

So, that is how we do it! What do you think? Are you ready to dive into phonemic instruction & word building?