Monday Made It FREEBIE!- What?! What?!

Bah! My first Monday Made It! I’m linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics today AND Classroom Freebies. LOVE BOTH BLOGS. And it's multi-tasking!

  

My Monday Made it can be described in two words: WRITING COPS.  The easiest way for me to explain this craft is to briefly describe how this idea came to be.

-         Weeks ago, while talking school ideas on the phone to my mom, she mentioned something about “Grammar Police”.  I decided this was GENIUS and I needed to incorporate this idea into my classroom. Wasn't sure how it would work, though... 

-         A few days later, I found Police Badges at the Dollar Store and decided I would have my “Grammar Police” patrol during writing. Their job would be like mine: checking to make sure students stay on task, answering questions, helping with format (since most of my darlings NEVER indent…), etc. At this point the idea is still forming.... 

-       Yesterday, AMAZINGLY ON PINTEREST (I’m claiming divine intervention here) I found this little beaut’ (pictured at left) which links to this awesome COPS writing activity & poster pack, all by The Eager Teacher. It's the final piece of my half-finished-idea!! I was STOKED! I'm STILL stoked!! 

-         Since the freebie poster said COPS and my dollar store badges said POLICE (and I’m extremely anal), I decided to ditch the dollar store badges and make my own. ENTER MONDAY MADE IT & FINALIZED IDEA! The “Grammar Police” are now dubbed the “Writing Cops” and they wear sweet badges while patrolling the room. The "job" is earned by showing your knowledge about capitalization, order & organization, punctuation and spelling. Basically the whole thing is superbly legit and rockin’.

Seriously!! Check out the awesomeness on the right!! That hardcore model is my adorable 9 year old who’s going into 4th grade this year!

Since this idea came full circle thanks to a freebie, I making my badges (pictured below) a free download as well.  Just click HERE, print these bad boys out, laminate** them, then hot glue a safety pin on the back. If you don’t want to use pins, you could put these on lanyards, magnets, whatevs.

             

** Do you own a laminator?? I DO! And I’m in love with it! I have the Scotch brand and I use it to laminate everything! Price is reasonable & it’s SO much sturdier than our school laminator WHICH PEELS, I might add… I found mine on Amazon around Christmas for $16.99 but I’ve seen them at Walmart for $25. Laminating sheets come in legal and regular sized and are around $10-15 a pack.  Worth. Every. Penny.

Thanks to Tara for hosting MONDAY MADE IT!
And Classroom Freebies for MANIC MONDAY! 
And thanks to The Eager Teacher for awesome writing goodies!!

Rock on, peeps! 

Rory's ROCKIN' Story Cubes

I've mentioned my sweet friend Rachel A. before. She's the one that dreamed up the giant ruler I made (see post here). Well, Ms. Rachel has done it again! She sent me this text last weekend (she's white, I'm green):

By Monday I had two sets for my classroom. They're only $7.99 at Target. WOOT! The directions say you can play this game three ways. I chose this option: "Think up a title or theme for a story.... Then roll all 9 cubes and try to tell a story that relates back to the title or theme." 

Since this will be an independent station in my classroom and I don't want to hear [in whiney voice], "Buuuut Mrs. J, I don't know what to wriiiiiiite aboooouuut," I decided to create story titles students will chose from. I'm thinking I'll start the kiddos off with 4-5 cubes and work them up to 9... 

                               

So excited to use these! And so excited I have Rachel A. as a neat-o teaching buddy!! 

Writing Activities GALORE!

The summer is FLYING by... I can barely keep up! I took a two week-ish hiatus from anything school related (except Pinterest, of course!) but have decided I better get back into the groove.... First things first: BLOGGING! Second, scope and sequence.........................

Anyway! As a 4th grade teacher, I have to prepare my kiddos for [dumdumdummm] the state writing test... This baby includes editing & revising as well as TWO compositions-  a personal narrative & an expository. If there's one thing I learned this year it's KIDS HATE WRITING! Not good when they'll be tested on it... So this summer I found some super awesome writing activities to spark their imaginations & make writing FUN! They're kid tested and approved, too - I taught a writing camp this summer and my kiddos LOVED these activities!!

I started with "Let's Get Pop' Rockin" by Babbling Abby, a descriptive writing activity. I must have been really excited that day because I didn't take any pics... Bummer. This activity works on using awesome adjectives & similes to describe. SO GREAT! And YUMMMMMMY!

Day two was PLAYDOUGH MONSTERS by Smart Chick! The kiddos got to create their own playdough monster using playdough, feathers, google eyes, pipe cleaners and pom -poms. They ate.this.activity.UP! And I had all ages, 1st graders all the way up to 7th graders! After creating your monster you describe where it lives, what it eats, how it smells, etc. There are SO many options included in this activity pack: a how-to-report, moster warning note, friendly monster letter, acrostic poem... And that's not all of it! In short... BUY THIS!

For day three, we got to EAT and learn with the activity pack "How to Make Dirt Pudding" by Amy Lemons!! Another activity allll the kiddos LOVED! The activity pack has the kiddos work on sequencing, transitions, describing through observing... And the awesomeness doesn't stop there. Again! Buy it!

The last day of camp the kiddos made t-shirts. I gave each kiddo a blank t-shirt which they wrote their name on. Then we gathered in a circle and passed our shirts to the right (or left, doesn't matter). The kids then wrote a NICE adjective (or phrase) describing the camp-mate whose shirt they had. You keep on passin' until everyone has had a chance to describe their friend. When the t-shirt gets back to it's owner, you have a cool shirt with sweet descriptions written all over it! The kids LOVED it! And they didn't even mind practicing adjectives. :)

Until next time! 

Writing Toolbox

After thinking about all the writing information I need to cram into my student's brains next year, I decided it would be helpful for them to create a handy dandy reference notebook...  I narrowed down the most important/ helpful information we used this past year and created a WRITER's TOOLBOX! I wanted it to look like a real toolbox (aren't they red?) and I'm trying to come up with ways to keep it shut-- Any ideas? I think I may add a handle or something...

Check out what's inside!

The top flap is everything you need to know to write a personal narrative and the bottom is the info for writing an Expository. In the middle I have the "Texas Writing Traits" (we use Write Source at our school) and a Revising & Editing checklist. I'm soooo excited about this little guy-- I'll have my students create it during the first week of school after we brainstorm "Why Writer's Write!"

Until next time!! 

EDIT: I decided to make this available on my Teacher Pay Teachers store! Check it out HERE! 

Modge Podge... Swoon!

Modge Podge. Ohmigosh HOW have I not ever used this amazing goo for crafts?! 

Wait--- Story first, Modge Podge craft second. 

STORY: Last school year I was self-contained... I taught every subject as well as prepared my 4th graders for THREE state tests: Reading, Writing and Math. Come August I'll be teaming (YAY) so I'll be teaching Math (woohoo!), Science and Writing (EEK!). Why the EEK? Well, this year I really enjoyed teaching math and creating awesome lessons & centers... I did not do that / feel that for writing.  However, I WILL remedy that for the upcoming year so this summer I'm brainstorming, reading and creating TONS of word work. And word work needs letters!

CRAFT: Check out these little letter tile beauts I made over the weekend...

Found at Michaels Store

- Alphabet Stickers (6 sheets!) $2.99

- Glass Tiles (on sale) $2.49

Found at Target (Dollar Bin) 

- "Cash Box"$1.00

I had enough stickers to put letters on each side of the glass tile. Woot! Then I Modge Podge'd those babies on (I am SOSOSO impressed that it dries clear and now my little angles won't be able to pick off those enticing stickers!), put them in my "cash box" (looks more like a pencil box?) and voila! Pretty letters for word work! 

The activity possibilities for these letter tiles are endless.... high frequency words, vocabulary words, weekly spelling words, ___(add your word activity here)____....

Word Work Inspiration?? This Lady! 

Punctuation Peeps

What is it about kids and punctuation?? I constantly have to remind my two boys to capitalize AND punctuate. And my class? Not even going there.

So as I was feeding my TPT habit (side note: If you haven't ever visited Teachers Pay Teachers you MUST. I have found the most awesome lessons on there and since most everything is made by teachers, IT'S ALL SO CUTE!) I stumbled across THIS "Punctuation Perfection" freebie and THIS "Punctuation Mark Voices" freebie. I loved both ideas so I combined them and created my Punctuation Peeps!

The Punctuation Peeps are taking a stroll down 13th Ave..... 

More TPT Punctuation Freebies:
Punctuation Posters for the Classroom
Punctuation Uses
Punctuation Fans (totally going to make these!)

Lastly, THE most awesome punctuation poster on the planet (but it's not free):
Punctuation Saves Lives