Happy Halloween! Monster Poem Freebies...

Happy Halloweenie!

Did you live?  Do you still have your sanity intact?  Are you twitching yet? 

We had our Halloween party on Monday...good idea since it was a half day of school.  Well, at the time it seemed like a good idea...then today happened. Today. Halloween.  Kids still in party mode.  Yikes.

Good thing I sorta anticipated this and rolled with it.  Just went with it. Embraced the crazies.

We've been talking about words and spelling patterns.  We've been rounding up rhymes and all that jazz.  This morning I read this poem {I found it somewhere on the internet eons ago...if it's yours, let me know - I'd love to give credit!!!} to my kiddos...

Font: Hello Literacy Clipart: Scrappin' Doodles
Frame: Teaching in a Small Town

Okay, so that's itty bitty.  You can click on the image to download yours for free...but here's a bit of it so you get an idea...

Let's Build a Monster

When you draw a monster, it is said,

You always begin with his head.

 

He'll be able to see when he flies,

If we draw to bright eyes.

 

To tell which way the cold wind blows,

Our monster will need a nose.

 

Look to the north and look to the south,

Now we can give our monster a mouth.

 

Etc.

 

It's a super fun poem and it's great for exercising those listening skills {Yikes, on Halloween!?!?  It was great because I told them if they worked really hard on their monsters, worked really quietly so they could hear "Monster Mash" playing in the background...that we'd have a Monster Parade with our pictures}. 

 

Oh, and they put up "blockers" {folders} so others couldn't see their work.  This lead into a great discussion about schema.  Why, after hearing the same exact poem, did our monsters end up looking different from one anothers?!?  Sooooo cool!

 

They drew their monsters on this paper...

 

Click on the picture to download yours for free...



Once we finished each table paraded around the room, showing off their monsters to the tune of The Monster Mash.  Pretty fun.  Here are some pictures.

I copied the poem on the back so the parents could see what we did...

 The rest of the morning was business as usual.  Daily 5 and the whole shebang...

In the afternoon we did Abby's Candy Corn Bandit...

Oh my gosh you guys - if you haven't done this with your kids you'll want to do it next year.  Holy moly...I haven't seen this kind of excitment since the Leprechaun visited our classroom last year.  The kids were making predictions, sequencing using ordinal numbers, making inferences...it was pretty cool and FUN!!!!!

Hope you had a great Halloween...now go to bed!

Giveaway Winner!

I'm typing with one eye open...it's conference time and I think I may just keel over right this very second.

Before I do....

I wanted to annouce the winner of my bloggy birthday bash giveaway....

Congrats Sarah!  I've sent you an email and will get with all my wonderful bloggy friends.  You've got lots of goodies headed your way!  Woo hoo!!!!!

I'm off to close the other eye...

Zzzzzzzzz

Happy Bloggy Birthday Bash!!!!!! *I "Smell" a GIVEAWAY!*

This is crazy on so many levels.  I missed my bloggy birthday...crazy.  I've been blogging for an entire year....crazy.  In that year I've gained almost 1,000 followers...crazy.  I've made some really great friends on this journey....crazy-cool!

Some very special blogettes are helping me celebrate...

Is offering any one item from her store! Click {HERE} to see the cool stuff there!

 

Jen is offering her inclusive Progress Monitoring Assessments for Foundational Literacy pack.
Read more about it {HERE} 

 

 

 

Three customized activities the winner can choose the skill and theme - how cool is that!?!?
Click her button to visit her blog!

Is giving a cute ghostly math activity pack!

 

Click the picture to visit her store!

 


Is giving the most darling spider week pack!

Click the picture to visit her store!

Is giving away her totally awesome reading comprehension flippy books!

 



Click the picture to visit her store!

Is giving away this way cute homphone pack!

 

Click the preview to visit her store!

And I'm offering...  

PLUS...  

Win THREE holiday Scentos markers!

   

I was contacted by Scentos to try out their new holiday markers - If you remember I'm a HUGE fan of these markers {and so are my students!!!!!!}.  Click {here} to pick up my "Spell It, Smell It" freebie.  These new markers are absolutely adorable!  See for yourself...

 

Do you see Frankenstein!!?!  CUTE or WHAT!?!?

Dry erase marker - my only wish?  That it looked more different from the other smelly markers so I wouldn't accidentally use a smelly one on my dry erase board.  STILL cute though!!!!!!! And smells deeeeeelish! We use tissues for "erasers"...work wonders!

Smelly glitter glue!  So thick and easy to work with!

It's still wet but doesn't "run"...very cool!

And smelly highlighters!!!!

You can find the holiday Scentos at Walmart and the dry erase markers and highlighters will be available at Michael's and Walmart in early 2013!  Click {here} to visit the new Scentos website.

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Good luck!!!!!!!!

Boo!

Click the picture to go visit Cynthia's blog over at 2nd Grade Pad - she's the gal who started the fun!!!!

My separated-at-birth-blog-buddy, Kimberly at Funky First Grade Fun, boo'd me! 

 

 

 

Kimberly and I met at our Michigan blog meet-up  - both of our husbands are teachers and she might just be the only other person I've met who appreciates all things Amish!!! Thanks for thinking of me - and this BOO is much easier on the 'ol ticker than the one I received last night from some neighbors. 

 

I'm having just as hard a time with choosing who to boo as I do with who to ding-dong-ditch...I'm not sitting here with the same uncontrollable giggles and heart palpitations though...

 

 

 

 

 

Susan is a TOP teacher in my book!  You should go check out her blog to read about narrative writing! She's also a real sweet gal who I know you'll love to visit!!!!

 

 If you need a good laugh you've got to head over to Miss Squirrel's blog.  Not only will she keep you smilin', she's also crafty and clever to boot.  She's one of my BBF {Best Bloggy Friends} who will probably kill me for boo'ing her...HA!

 

Cheryl has a heart of gold and has been there for me since I started this blogging adventure.  She's super supportive and FULL of great ideas.  Go check out her blog and enter her Skippyjon Jones giveaway!

 

 

Now, I have to decide who I'm going to ding-dong-ditch...it's fun and all that, but let's just say I almost always "out" us with my giggles & screams.  Skulking around people's houses in the dark just isn't a strong suit of mine...

October Currently - {Better late than never...}& A Freebie!!!!!

October - love it!  Coffee, fires, candles & football games...sweatshirts and jeans make me happy too.

Ahhhhhh....October and its colors.  Michigan's landscape is so gorgeous right now.  I can't drive anywhere without noticing its beauty and feeling so blessed to be surrounded by it. 

This is what I see when I look out my window....ahhhh

Farley is celebrating October over at her blog with her Currently October.  Head on over to see what your favorite bloggers are up to!

Here's what's going on in my neck of the woods....

We have these chipmunks that come right up to our door, sit on the lawn furniture and just torment my doggy girl.  She goes from doorwall to doorwall from our family room to our kitchen just in a twit and a tither....just when she decides to call it quits, take a little rest on the couch she hears their chattering and just HAS to play their game. 

Who doesn't love fall decorations?  For some reason, I can't light a candle in the heat of the summer, but once the cooler weather approaches I have them burning every single day...along with a fire in the fireplace...I'm in Fall heaven!!!

Newsletter....yup, I got nothin' to say about that except...UGH.

I've been totally addicted to watching Brothers and Sisters under my blankets with my iPad these days on Netflix.  I'm still on the first season so I've got a ways to go.  I can't even stand thinking about it right now...I just want to close up the computer and get back to watching the next episode!!!!!

Isn't folding and putting away laundry for the birds?  My husband thinks he's helping me when he "does laundry".  Mind you, he only puts load after load into the washer...and then piles the clean stuff in baskets for me to fold and put away.  {I can't complain too much - he does all the cooking and grocery shopping....hey, stop throwing things at me...I know, I know - I'm really lucky that way!!!!!!} I didn't stay on top of the laundry last week so now I have MOUNTAINS to contend with today. 

I have SOOOOOO many Halloween favorites when it comes to books.....

Gotta love the groove and the beat of this one!!!!

And the rhyming in this one!!!!!

With Room on the Broom we do something called "Rounding up the Rhymes".  I walk into my closet as myself and come out of the closet as my alter ego "Country Mrs. W."...southern accent and all.  With my cowboy hat on, lasso {jump rope} in hand, ready to round up some of them there rhymes.

I record them on chart paper and they record them on their own sheet...I don't worry about rounding up every rhyme {there are a lot} but just enough to notice spelling patterns, that some words may rhyme and have the same spelling pattern, while others rhyme but the spelling pattern isn't the same.

Click on the picture below to pick up your freebie!

It's in black and white too!

Alrighty, ya'll - never you mind that I started this here post a whole darn week ago and just now posted it!  When will I feel on top of things? 

Toodles for now!

Swap & Shop

I am so incredibly tickled pink right now. You just don't know and I don't even know where to begin.  My thoughts are a jumble and there's way too many good things to share with you!!!!!!

First, it's the Product Swap!  As a TpT shopper I *love* this little shindig.  I could spend all day just hopping from blog to blog checking out different products.  Product previews on TpT are helpful, the thumbnails are too...but actually seeing the product in action...seals the deal for me.  I can't wait to move some items from my wishlist to my cart.  A little retail therapy at the end of a L O N G week!

Have you visited Jodi Southard's blog or her store?  Jodi blogs over at Fun in First...

Click the her cute button to head over to her blog - grab a soda and some popcorn because you won't be able to cut yourself off any time soon!

And her TpT store will suck you right in and your pocketbook will take a beating but you'll be a happier teacher for it!

I was given the opportunity to try out her Phonemic Awareness pack....




Click the picture to go purchase yours...I'm SOOOOO serious, you will NOT regret it. You will want to find me and hug me, and of course Jodi, who has it on sale for 20% off!!!!

If you teach preschool, kindergarten, first and even second grade you know how important having phonemic awareness is. Understanding that words have sounds in them and being able to play with them is IMPERATIVE for readers and writers. Without it, reading and writing can be a struggle. 

My first graders have been having a BLAST playing the games and doing the activities in our guided reading groups and my parapro who helps out with groups has said more than once how much she loves doing them my kiddos.

People I have WEEKS of activities to use from this product....WEEKS! And the kids keep asking to "play it again" {and again and again}.  Six bucks and some change...that's IT.  I'd pay $10 and I'm not even kidding!!!!

When I first opened this product I swear my eyes were as big as saucers. I kid you not. This thing is FULL of amazing activities. So full that it would have been impossible to show you all of them.

My laminator was given quite a workout!

And so were my multi-tasking skills...how's that for packing lunches, and laminating!?!?! 

That's not even HALF of it.  Can I say I'm not even kidding you again because I'm not.  That's just a few of the 20 PLUS activities!

A few of our class favorites:

Kids pull a letter out of the pumpkin and say a word that starts with that letter.

Rhyming memory - "dog/frog" - I got a match!!!!!

I can't wait to play...

Students move objects into sound boxes for a given word {cake}.  A rhyming word is given and students remove an "object" from the corresponding sound square {make} - in this example the first sound changed.

Give students a word {cat} then students spin the spinner and give you the corresponding sound in the given word. i.e. the ending sound in "cat" is "t".

After you attach the "yes/no" cards to popsicle sticks teacher says two words that sometimes rhyme and sometimes do not.  Students show the correct card.  SO FUN!!!!!

Hard to imagine that there's more than that! 

*Sentence segmenting

*Pull a rhyme

*Silly rhyme time

*Alliteration sentences

*Syllable sort

*Say the syllables

*Syllable blend

.....and......

MORE!!!!!!!

I'll leave you with this....

I love Starbucks. I could drink a chai tea latte every day of my life.  Chai tea lattes make me feel warm and cozy inside.  They wake me up and make me very VERY happy.  If, one morning, you asked me to choose between buying one of these...

OR

I'd gladly spend my money on THIS!!!!! {GASP!}





The games are timeless and can be used over and over again.  Best 6 bucks and some change spent on your classroom ever!

Be sure to visit Jodi's blog to see my Data Year Round which wil be on sale this weekend....20% off!!!!!!

Click the picture to get it  20% off!

Happy Weekend!!!! {Now go do some hopping and some shopping!}