Listening - had a busy morning, so just sitting blogging while my computer fan goes off, no other noise.
Loving - spent the morning with my parents at a craft fair and am getting ready to busy circus tix to go with some siblings and nieces/nephew.
Thinking - about everything I have to do for school: conference goal sheets, art of the week project, grading...
Wanting - So conferences start this week and the only goal sheet I have done is for the conference I had early, this past Thursday. The other 24 are waiting for me...
Needing - to get off the computer and get everything mentioned above done!
Trick or Treat - A freebie is down below if you would like it! :)
This is my favorite time of year. I just love it! I love the leaves turning colors. I love that it's apple picking and pumpkin patch time. I love the cooler weather. I love that fun holidays are coming up: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It's just the best.
We have been busy in my classroom with fall. We have done the projects that I do pretty much every year: the build your own ice cream cone (for the first ice cream cone patent on September 22nd),
This pic is from last year, but it's the same idea. Students build ice cream cones and then have to write about them.
and also our fall tree craft with tissue paper.
Students write about what they love about fall and make a fall tree (this pic is also from last year).
We also did a great Johnny Appleseed activity from Mandy Gregory (Johnny Appleseed Common Core ELA Lesson and Craft).
I read the students different books about Johnny Appleseed and then they watched the Disney Legends short about Johnny Appleseed. I told them that they were going to be writing about Johnny before we did this, so they were going to need to pay attention so they would be able to think of things to write. Then I gave them the great brainstorming web that's in her pack. They wrote the main idea and then a fact in each apple. Then they wrote up their little biographies and made Johnny Appleseed holding their paper. The pics above show the wide range of abilities in my classroom. I loved that it was a fun activity and it was very common core with having to write about what they learned.
All of these are hanging up in the room for parents to see this week for conferences. We do goal setting conferences so we always have them the week before Columbus Day, so we can have a 4-day weekend to recuperate. The first 2 projects were part of the Art of the Week I do as one of the choices for Work on Writing for Daily 5. They were optional. This week I am going to have them do their first Have-To Art of the Week and we are going to do a Jack-o-lantern glyph. I found a ton online and I liked components from a few of them so I made my own using the great ideas.
I'm going to draw in the mouths before I copy it.
Since the Art of the Week is part of Work on Writing, there is always a writing component with it. This writing component is going to be a PUMPKIN acrostic poem that I do every year with my class. I thought they would look good next to each other. You can find tons of those online too. I added the pictures for my class because I have a lot of LOW readers this year and I am hoping that it will help them. I have to make my example today so they can see it. My plan is to give each of them a copy of the direction paper and have them circle what is true for them. Normally I wouldn't do this, I would just hang it up, but with this class, I think this will be better. I'm also going to have them fill out the Pumpkin acrostic poem as we think of ideas for each letter too. Again, normally I don't do that, we just brainstorm some ideas and when it's their turn for the art of the week, they write things down, but with this class, I'm going to help them along. lol
I'm joining up with Classroom Freebies Manic Monday to give the above to you for free if you would like it.
