The Polar Express Book Companion

This past weekend I was 86ing old documents from my computer and I stumbled into a book companion I've flirted with for a few years but never seem to wrap in time for the holidays!  I decided to hop right on updating clipart and adding new (more relevant to my current teaching style) activities.

This 41 pager is PACKED full of reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, crafts, and math activities!

In the Reading Comprehension section you will find large picture cards for a whole group retelling and a sequencing cut and paste to provide students with individual practice.  There is also a beginning, middle, and end graphic organizer for students to use to retell the story through pictures and summarizing.

Finally, there are 3 variations of the story map.  Each map asks for characters and setting but they differ in requesting problem & solution, plot & conclusion, or main idea & supporting details!

The Vocabulary section provides words that are used in the story and extension words such as "caribou" to extend your students vocabulary on beyond "reindeer".

There are puzzles and mini-vocabulary books for students to practice using the language of the Polar Express!

There are 2 very simple crafts available in this book companion.  The first craft is a gift that you can print on contrasting paper and allow students to decorate.  Add the narrative writing prompt to the front for a fun little holiday display!  The second craft is a ticket that students can cut out and use to "board" the Polar Express!  Each year I put the tickets on a string and have my students wear it while we read the book and watch the movie.  This makes for an awesome and extremely adorable keepsake!

To round out the pack and provide cross-curricular themed activities I added some math activities!  In it you will find common core addition, subtraction, and data based games for your students to participate in.

The addition and subtraction activities include a battleship game, part-part-whole game, ten frame game, and story problem game with work mat.  There are also printable numeral cards and printable manipulatives for students to use to build models for each problem!

The data activities include 3 questions where students will collect, represent, and interpret information on a graph, and tally chart.  There are also sets of questions for students to answer about their data sets!

Last but certainly not least, there is a FREEBIE in the product PREVIEW on TPT!  Just click PREVIEW and scroll to the end to snag this sequencing activity for FREE!

What Does the Fox Say...on Valentines Day?!

I know what you're thinking, this is a smidge late.  You're right :).  The past year was a little challenging professionally and ended up bringing lots of changes with it but I wanted to take some time this summer to share a few of our special moments!

Did your students freak out over the song What Does the Fox Say?  Mine did, they sang it EVERYDAY.  On the bus going to field trips, during literacy centers, during independent work in math, while they were writing, swinging, walking, picking their nose...you get the point.  Around the holidays I finally gave in and pulled up the "Just Dance" video and let them get all kinds of weird.

I have to admit, watching kids sing and dance along makes the song EXPONENTIALLY less annoying.  One chilly, well chilly for Florida, January afternoon a 5th grade class saw us dancing (I participated too, don't judge) and challenged us to a dance off.

5th graders versus 1st graders on a Valentines Day dance off to What Does the Fox Say.  

After one full month of trash talking 1st grade brought the HEAT!  I cut red feather boa's to make fox tails for them and used Halloween makeup to draw a fox nose and whiskers on their sweet little faces.  Several of them wore their fox shirts and one little guy even wore his tuxedo!  #fareal

After an intense "dance off" an impartial panel of judges declared 1st grade winners!  

We had a blast and ended up adopting this class as our FCAT buddies.  To help ease the pain of their embarrassing loss to the littles we brought them these valentines.  Snag them HERE to use next year if you'd like!

Earth Day

Whoa.

Two updates in two days?

Try to contain yourselves. :)

I had a lot of kids out today so we took a little extra time with our Earth Day activities.  I wasn't planning on doing much but when I realized I didn't want to start a new writing and math sequence with so many people out I figured "why not?!"

We kicked it off with this www.brainpopjr.com video:

Who loves brainpop as much as I do?  The Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle video is free this week (and may be free all the time, I'm not sure).  I have a membership, it's THE BEST $8 I spend every month.  No lie.  Go ahead and subscribe right now if you haven't already.

After the video we talked about things we could do to help take care of the Earth and read Recycle by Gail Gibbons.  I would go on about how much I love Gail Gibbons and how you need to buy all of her books but I try to limit my obscene enthusiasm to one per post.  I'll throw that one at you next time.

Finally, I threw together this little writing activity asking students to make an Earth Day promise.  Some of my favorites were "I will not litter and not make smoke."  One little guy wrote "I will ride my 4-wheeler instead of drive my Mom's car to save gas."  Um, not sure if I'm more worried about him totally not getting the whole "save gas" thing or him driving his Mom's car but I definitely like the effort!

You can download it here for free.  I know it's a little late for this year unless you're planning on doing more later this week but at least scoop it up for next year! I mean, it is free!

Check out a few of our our promises!

He Who Must Not Be Named....

"Today you are You,

that is truer than true.

There is no one alive

who is Youer than You."

-Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! 

I'm probably not allowed to say that but I don't really give a rats....WHAT!?!

It's absolutely pathetic that teachers are afraid to share the wonderful things that they do with their classes to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday because they are afraid of cease and desist letters and lawsuits.  Despite my disdain for the bullies who are trying to turn Dr. Seuss into Voldemort I am going to share a few things I LOVE about Seuss with you!

So many of Seuss's books contain incredible lessons, messages, and commentary on the world we live in.  For example, as I was reading I Had Trouble in getting to Solla Sollew with my class earlier this week the central message resonated with me even as an adult.

"But I've bought a big bat.

I'm all ready, you see.

Now my troubles are going

To have troubles with me!"

-Dr. Seuss I Had Trouble in getting to Solla Sollew

The story is about a little creature who runs into trouble and decides to run away from his troubles.  On his journey to Solla Sollew he runs into more troubles and upon his arrival he learns he can't get into Solla Sollew (thanks to a Key-Slapping Slippard) and he's faced with a decision.  He can continue his search for a trouble-free life in Boola Boo Ball or he can return home and face his problems.  

Of course, I emphasized that you don't need a bat to face your problems but there are two main points that are wonderful to pull out with young students!  Is it possible to have a problem free life?  When you have a problem should you run away from it or be brave and face it?

I just adore Who Was Dr. Seuss? by Janet Pascal.  I got this little chapter book from a Scholastic Book Fair Warehouse sale last year and just finished reading it with my class.  When we finished a chapter in the biography we read a book that was referenced in that chapter.  It was really interesting and exciting to read the story with background information from the biography!  

For example, we learned in the biography that after Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat using 225 different words, his friend and publisher Bennett Cerf bet him $50 that he couldn't write a book using only 50 different words.  Dr. Seuss won the bet and $50 when he completed Green Eggs and Ham!  A few of my students wanted to know what 50 words he used so this week I created a recording page and they dug into their research.  I forgot to take pictures but I will post two of the "research projects" my students participated in this week. 

If you are interested in using either one of these recording pages with your class please download them HERE for free!

100th Day!

Today was our 100th day of school!  Unbelievable!

I've been down and out for the last 5 days due to fire ants invading my throat and stealing my voice so today was a last minute scramble to pull together activities.  I found some oldies and added a few, new pinspired goodies.

Check out a few of the 100th day projects my students created!

Projects on display in the hallway!

My students created a fair amount of UNIQUE projects this year.  I'm so impressed!

This afternoon we did a 5 center rotation.

Build a structure using 100 cups!

Writing: When I'm 100 years old....

"I will yell at people to stop all that racket!"

Roll to 100!

Writing: If I had $100....

Decorating 100 Day crowns!

This morning I got a sweet gift!  It's full of all kinds of wonderful things, the cough drops came in handy this afternoon!  The chatter teeth with the monster feet are my favorite!

Finally, I wanted to share a few of the worksheets we used today.  These worksheets are pretty common but I couldn't find them this morning when I needed them so I just threw these together.  Follow this link to grab them for free if you like them!

Squirrel's New Year's Resolution

I just wanted to announce a quick little sale in my TPT store.  20% off of everything Sunday the 30th and Monday the 31st!  I didn't make a graphic for it so just imagine something fabulous...that's what I did.

TPT Store

Have you ever read Squirrel's New Year's Resolution?

Click here to check it out on Amazon!

Adorable.

I picked it up at the Teacher (super discounted) Scholastic Book Fair a few weeks ago and decided to make a few companion materials to go along with it for when we return to school (in a few short days....BOOO HOOO!)

It's a pretty small pack but it's packed full of hands on, engaging activities!  In it you will find:

-2 word building worksheets where students use the words "new year" and "resolution" to build and list new words.
-Retelling page where students learn the definition of resolution, record each characters resolutions and brainstorm other resolutions that could be made.
-Writing prompt with additional writing page for students to write their New Year's resolution, why they chose it, and what things they can do through the year to achieve their goal!
-Word work sheet where students can read, write, color, pyramid write, & cut/glue the word "resolution"
-Sequencing page where students can color and cut out pictures of the animals in the story and then glue them in the order in which they made their resolutions.
-8 mixed practice story problems with multiple addends.

Click here to check out Squirrel's New Year's Resolution!

During the sale it will be marked down to $2.00!

In the Preview you will find a FREE whole group activity/printable about what resolutions are, what resolutions the animals in the book made, and what resolutions students could make!

I hope you all have a wonderful new years!

Pumpkin Day

I'm pretty late getting this up but thought I'd share anyway :)

Every year, during the couple of days leading up to Thanksgiving we always have Pumpkin Day.  I'm sure you've seen ALL the pumpkin books, journals, and activities out there.  My co-worker Cheryl and I have been doing this for years and it's always a great time!

Essentially, we do a whole bunch of math and science activities.  Students bring in those tiny decorative pumpkins.  They describe and illustrate what their pumpkin looks like and how they feel.  Students do informal measurement and weight activities, use a string to measure the circumference, and do a sink of float activity with a large pumpkin.

Then we cut it open, they help scoop out the guts and describe how it smells, feels & what the guts look like.  

Once we finish scooping out the guts we predict how many seeds are in it and count them up.

Finally, we end the day with a little pumpkin pie!  Students taste a small piece of pie and they write a story persuading people to eat or not to eat pumpkin pie.

 Looks like I have one who doesn't like it.  What's wrong with him!!!

We ended the day with a little science experiment (as seen on Pinterest).  We put soil and water in the pumpkin with about 12 seeds on Monday and when we returned from Thanksgiving break the next Tuesday the seeds had really taken off!  I would recommend putting a pan underneath the pumpkin if you try this at home.  The actual pumpkin rots pretty fast.  Gross!