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All About Biographies: Update

I have updated my All About Biographies unit on TpT and I've added four new activities! (BTW: You can view my original post about this unit here.) My students started their autobiographies last week and they will present their final pieces at our school's Literacy Night! I love teaching my students about biographies. They get SO EXCITED to learn about famous people. The Justin Bieber biography is a favorite in my classroom right now {last year it was Emma Watson... kids are so funny}!










The first three people who comment with their email addresses will get this packet FREE!

How do you teach about biographies in your classroom?

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope you remembered to wear green! ;)

My House All Year (Teaching Months)

Please Note: This post includes Amazon Affiliate links.

Hello, Friends! I hope you are all having a good week... thank goodness it is almost Friday! (This teacher needs a WEEKEND!!) Before I head to bed, I wanted to share a writing activity that I started with my students this week. It is a book called My House All Year  and I learned about it from my wonderful cooperating teacher while I was student teaching (Thanks Lynda!! Love ya!). In this book, my students will write a sentence about each month of the year and draw a picture to accompany the sentence. This book will provide my students with writing practice and math practice (time: months of the year and seasons). We will only do one page a day and I am really encouraging my students to do their best, because I am going to give these books to their parents at Parent-Teacher Conferences.

Here is a sample of the My House All Year Book:



(BTW: I have my students draw a tree on each page to show the change in seasons.)


Before I introduced the books to my students I read My House to them. This book has interesting pictures and my students LOVED it. Click the picture below to check it out:

My House

How do you teach your students about the months of the year

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word family workbook

I still have over a month until school starts, but I am already getting everything ready. I have been in my classroom everyday for the last week and I am getting really excited for a new group of firsties!

Each year I like to create a couple of workbooks that my students will keep in their desks all year long. 
This year, I really want to focus on word families to help with spelling, reading, and phonics.

So... I have created a Word Family Workbook with over 60 word families to choose from! 
I will be making one of these for each of my students.


To make the workbooks for my students, I will copy off all the word families we will be learning about in first grade {we won't be learning all of these}, I will put them in the order we will learn them, and then I will bind them as a book! BTW: If you don't have access to a binding machine, then a small binder or folder {with three-hole-punch tabs} will work just fine! Or you can forgo the book idea and just pass out a different worksheet each time you teach your students about a new word family.

The word families included in this packet are long and short vowel word endings and are listed below:


  Each word family includes an example with a picture to go along with it.


This download includes:
-2 different book covers to choose from
-More than 60 different word families to teach your students
-Blank page for word families that aren't included in this packet


reading goal craftivity!

First off... WOW! Thank you to everyone who added their top 5 pictures books to the Must Have Picture Books linky!!  You guys are AWESOME {even though I have a HUGE wishlist that just might break the bank}! 

Speaking of books {Did I mention I love books?}, I have converted my Summer Reading Survival Guide into a "generic" school year craft. This craft is very similar to my Summer Reading Survival Guide, but it doesn't include a parent letter or reading chart, it is JUST the craft {which is why it is only $3.00}. This craft comes with 5 different book choices that say: My Kindergarten Grade Reading Goal, My First Grade Reading Goal, My Second Grade Reading Goal, My Third Grade Reading Goal, My Fourth Grade Reading Goal and My School Year Reading Goal.  The writing portion also comes with and without handwriting lines, so you can adapt it to your classroom needs. 


In my classroom, we will be making this craft the first week of school, so my students will know how important it is to read each night.  I MAKE IT A BIG DEAL!!! {I will also teach them about the reading beads they can earn.} Then, I will send this craft home with my students so they can put their goal somewhere special at home!


How do you encourage your students to read, at home, during the school year?

runaway bunny books

Wayyyy back when, when I was a tiny, little second grader, my class made their own Runaway Bunny books. Have you read this story? Click {here} to check it out. It's about a little bunny who wants to runaway and he tells his mother all the places and things he is going to become. His mother, however, doesn't want him to runaway and she always comes up with ways to be with him, no matter where he goes, or what he becomes.

When I was little, I remember this being such a fun activity and so I had to do it with my own students! 

We made these books with our sixth grade buddies {whom my students ABSOLUTELY adore}! My students were the little bunnies {some of them changed to a different animal} and the sixth graders were the mothers. My student's loved thinking of ways to get away from their mothers! However, the sixth graders were always super clever and they always found a way to be with their little bunnies. These books can be as long or as short as you want. However, they can take a few weeks to complete, because you have to send them back and forth between classrooms.

Runaway Bunny is full of dialogue between the little bunny and his mother, so I used these books to teach about quotation marks and how to use them correctly.

Here are some samples of their adorable Runaway Bunny books:

{Click on the images to enlarge}

This is how all the stories started out:
Once there was a little monkey who wanted to runaway. So she said to her mother, "I am running away." "If you run away," said her mother, "then I will run after you. For you are my little monkey."

Here are some examples {not all from the same story}:
Left: "If you run after me," said the little monkey, " then I will become bread in a bakery and I will bake away from you." Right: "If you become some bread, " said her mother, " I will become the baker and bake you."

Left: "If you become a pen," said the little bunny, "Then I will become a headband and there is no way you can keep me." Right: "If you become a headband," said his mother, "I will become a little girl and wear you and take you home with me."

Left: "If you become a zoo keeper," said the little puppy, "I will become a fish in a pond and I will swim away from you." Right: "If you become a fish in a pond, "said her mother, "then I will become a sea anemone and you will live in me."

OKAY, this next one totally CRACKS me up!
Left: "If you become a bodyguard, " said the little wolf, "then I will become a molecule and I will float away from you." {In the picture it says "FACT:  Molecules are invisible and there are infinity of them, which makes me impossible to catch" What???? Are you serious???? Where do these kids learn this stuff? ;) Not from me!!} Right: "If you become a molecule, then I will also become a molecule and I will stay with you." {You know what they say... if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!}

My students are really proud of their stories! If you still have a few weeks of school left, you could make these stories with another class in your school! :)

10 days left! Yahoooo!!!!!! 

all about biographies!

In my second grade classroom, we are all about biographies! {Confession: I think most biographies are quite boring... but of course I would never tell my students that... and even if I did, they wouldn't believe me. They think biographies are pretty much the coolest thing ever. EVER.}

To make biographies "cool" I started out by telling my students all about them, using these posters. 
{Okay, so this part isn't really that cool... but at least the posters are cute!}

And then I pulled out all the awesome biographies {Harry Potter anyone??} and my students have been smitten ever since. They LOVE learning about different people-- esp. famous people they watch on TV.


Then I showed them what their own autobiographies were going to look like and they got excited! But before I let them start, I gave them the "you-better-do-your-very-best-work" talk, because this is going to be the final project that I will send home with them at the end of the year. We are talking keepsakes that their parents will keep forever and show their future boyfriends/girlfriends keepsakes. {You gotta have something to show for second grade, right?}


In case you were wondering, this is what I really look like:


Here is a little peek of the inside of the books:


We aren't nearly finished with our autobiographies, but we have a good start and they are already really proud of what they have done so far. I am excited to see their final products and I will def. post pictures!


If you want to make your own autobiography books with your own students 
{to send home as an end-of-the year keepsake}, you can purchase it on TpT for $8.00. {Click Here!} 

This unit is perfect for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd grade and it includes: biography poster, autobiography poster, 2 worksheets/assessments to accompany both posters, autobiography activity {with all the pages needed to complete a book and an art activity}, and a homework assignment to help write autobiographies.


The first person to comment will get this unit free!
Don't forget your email address!

you are worth more than gold!

Hello, Sweet Friends! I bet you all thought I dropped of the face of the planet, huh? I have been spending a lot of time with my family lately {and shopping and stuff}. In my pathetic attempt to have a life, I have been trying to balance my work life and my REAL life. I am enjoying a much needed break and it feels SO good. 

I was going to create a St. Patrick's Day unit, but I just don't have it in me. 
However, I did start something and since I don't want it to go to waste, you get it for FREE!
{I owe a HUGE thanks to my big sister for the idea! Love you!}

This fun, free activity will get your students excited about St. Patrick's Day, while
 thinking about those they love {more than gold, of course}!




Click the image below to get this free download:

And... what would March be without rainbows??! 
BTW: I owe a big shout-out to my room mom for painting with my second graders...  


I hope you can use my free download in your classrooms! 
-xoxo-

when to use 'a' or 'an' {an anchor chart}

I have officially challenged my students to use "an" and "a" the correct way EVERY TIME they write.
Hopefully this anchor chart will help! Click here to download your own copy!
Sorry for such a short post... but I'm off to bed, because being a teacher makes me tired! 
Have a good night, friends, and HAPPY FRIDAY!! :)

predicting {this one's for the BOYS!}


Hello Friends! Happy Monday... {is there such a thing???}

Today we talked a whole lot about predicting... and the SUPER Bowl! Since I am a total girly girl and I know
N-O-T-H-I-N-G about football, I had to recruit my husband and some of my students to help me on this one. I'm sure you have seen this adorable football {can those two words be together?} craft created by the talented Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher. When I first saw this craft, I knew I had to make it with my students... 
{and I didn't even know who was playing... who cares, right??!}

You can purchase the craft pattern from Teri's TpT and TN stores for only $1.00!



My boys got really into this activity! Finally... a craft they could relate to!


I had one little boy who pretty much convinced the whole class that the New England Patriots were going to be the winning team... he gave lots of good reasons... and since I don't know that much, I believed him.



Thanks, Teri, for such an awesome idea!! {If you haven't checked out her blog, you need to!}


How do you teach predicting to your students?

penguin mini unit {freebie}

I hope you are having a great week back in school. I can't believe how fast time goes and how fast this 
week has gone by... and I really can't believe tomorrow is Friday! {Thank goodness!}

Last year my students made these adorable penguins. I love giving step-by-step instructions and then letting my students interpret the art in their own way. Art like this always seems to resemble each students' unique personality and it cracks me up! If you want to make these in your own classrooms, just give your students simple, step-by-step instructions. Start with the snow at the bottom of the page and have them tear it so it looks real. Then have them make the body out of two rectangles {1 black, 1 white}, the feet out of a circle {cut in half}, the beak out of a triangle, and the eyes out of circles. {You've probably already noticed, but this activity ties in great with shapes and symmetry.} Then for the eyes they used googly eyes and they finger painted the snow in the background. The best part about this art project is the small amount of prep work.  Since they are making their own shapes, you don't have to do a lot to get this activity ready! 


I have also put together a FREE unit for all the penguin lovers out there. 
It includes two writing activities {a penguin story and report outline}, with accompanying worksheets, 
that are perfect for winter/January!  Click the picture below to download!


I also found a great Reader's Theater about Tacky the Penguin from the Reading Lady. 
Click here to download it. It also includes some great poems and songs about penguins.
I"ll definitely be adding this download to my files!

Jodi at Fun in First has an adorable free penguin unit, too! Click here to check it out.

Heather at Heather's Heart also has a lot of free resources that you must download! 
Click here to check out Heather's penguin worksheets.

Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants has a fun Penguin Pie activity that looks really yummy and 
I'm sure your students will love it! Click here to check it out.

If you have anymore great {and free} penguin resources, let me know and 
I'll add it to this post so others can check it out!

I hope you enjoy this unit and I'd love to hear what you think about it. ENjOY!

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