Diary of a Spider

This is such a cute book and it teaches students some things about spiders also.  I made some anchor charts with my students on Friday.  We made predictions, wrote down facts from the story, and verified our predictions.  Students used post it notes to add ideas to the anchor chart.  

I really like this book because it is from the spider's point of view.  It would be a great way to teach point of view.  There are other diary books that can be compared to this story, like Diary of a Fly and Diary of a Worm.  Worm and Fly are other characters in this book.  

Decoding Words with Paint Samples

I found this idea from pinterest.  The website I found it on was: http://satorismiles.com/2009/07/22/paint-chip-phonics/

I am always telling my students to look for word parts that they know to decode words.  This would be great practice for those students that struggle to find/ decode word families.  I plan on using this!!!!

TPT

I need to start making some FREE items for my TPT store.  Any suggestions? I will try to post them as soon as possible.

Creative Words for Writing

I really LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea for writing.  This word wall contains McDonald's fries containers filled with synonyms that could be used for common words in writing.  I found this idea on pinterest.  There was no blog connected to the picture for me to give credit to.  I just think this is an amazing way to get students to use more creative words during writing. Last year with third graders we did a persuasive writing unit.  I was able to help the students to come up with some interesting creative ideas.  The one thing that the students had trouble with was using descriptive and creative words.  This wall would have motivated students to use words.  It would be great to add words to the word wall as the teacher reads different read alouds throughout the school year.  This way the wall's words will grow larger and larger throughout the year and the students will be able to receive two doses of the vocabulary, once during the read aloud and another time during writing. Kudos to whoever thought of this idea!!!!!!

Beach Themed "Wavy" Word Wall

I just created my second word wall! It is beach themed and it is awesome to add near a classroom library. I want to put up this word wall with beach chairs nearby. I really think the kids will like it!!! Click the link to see my store! It is currently on sale and honestly I started it out really inexpensive for the amount of pages and words it includes. This would be a great time to purchase before the prices go up! Happy Teaching!!!!!!

I have some freebies on the way soon!!

xoTS