Its beginning to look a lot like.....

CHRISTMAS!! The holiday season has begun! I really hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!! Now that it is over I need to start working on all my Christmas and holiday activities.  I'm starting with a vocabulary activity pack on The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg!  I love all of his books but this is one of my favorites since I love everything about Christmas!

This activity pack includes a vocabulary matching, an I Have... Who Has... Game, a context clue graphic organizer (this is great to use while you're reading the story), and context clue task cards.

I know the students in my class really love playing I Have Who Has games.  I usually use them before we read a story to review the vocabulary words.  

The next activities in this activity pack involve context clues.  The first one is a graphic organizer that you can use while your reading the book The Polar Express.

I have also created context clue task cards.  I use task cards for my literacy centers while I'm doing reading groups.  This gives my students engaging activities to complete while I work with a small group.  My students enjoy them more than just completing a packet or worksheet!

Check back soon for more great The Polar Express activities!!

Get this vocabulary pack by clicking HERE!!

I am thankful for....

Happy almost Thanksgiving!! This is one of my favorite holiday's, besides Christmas :).  I love getting together with family and really appreciating all that I have.  This year is the first year my husband and I are hosting Thanksgiving so I am excited for that!  Well anyway I created a Thanksgiving Activity pack to use with my students the week before Thanksgiving.  With all the state testing they have to endure I love to make the holiday's packed with exciting lessons.  So take a look!!

I happen to love all graphics by www.djinkers.com!! You should check them out if you haven't already!

Anyway... the first activity in this activity pack is a sequencing activity.  Through classwork that I have been giving I have noticed that my students are struggling with sequencing so I thought I would put this skill into the activity pack.

 

The students read the story about a girl named Jenna on Thanksgiving morning.  This story also leads into a great writing assignment where students can write about traditions their families have on Thanksgiving.  Just a thought :)

This activity pack also gives you a part of speech word sort.  It contains sorting mats for Noun, Adjective, and Verb.  Also 30 vocabulary cards for the students to sort!

Check out this item plus more Thanksgiving activities on my TpT page by clicking HERE!!!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! 

Sea Life Syllables

My students have been having a really hard time dividing words into syllables. They can tell me how many syllables are in a word but are really having a hard time dividing the word into syllables. Since this is such an issue I've been creating a bunch of activities to help students with this skill. I really feel its important because it gives them the knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words.

 This activity is a spin off of the Fall Syllable activity I created where some students had to sort words by syllables while others had to divide the words into correct syllables. You can find this activity on my TpT page here. Fall Into Learning - A Differentiated Syllable Activity

Ok so now to Sea Life Syllables.  After having my students complete the Fall into Learning activity I wanted all students to work on dividing words into syllables so I created this differentiated activity to focus just on this skill.

There are 2 sets of cards in this activity.  The first set contains words that are 3-4 syllables and the second set contains words that are 4-5 syllables

Enjoy!!

Look for this great activity on my TpT page by clicking HERE!!!

The Widow's Broom by Chris Van Allsburg

Woohoo!! I love this time of year because it is PERFECT to read The Widow's Broom by Chris Van Allsburg!  This happens to be home of my all time favorite stories to read with my class.  The character development is great and the twist at the end gets them every time!  There are so many different activities to do with this story so today I am going to focus on vocabulary.  Vocabulary is such a big factor in my class since many of my students are below level they really struggle understanding and a lot is due to vocabulary.  I created this activity pack to use the vocabulary in many ways so students don't just learn the definitions but they also use and see the words in multiple ways!

This activity is also COMMON CORE ALIGNED!! such a big topic lately so I didn't want to leave it out.  Many people are timid of using books that don't specifically say COMMON CORE on them but they do align with the correct activities!

One of the first activities in this pack is the actual words and definitions.  Students can use this matching activity independently at a center or they can play a memory game with a partner.  A good way to use this is to introduce the words, let them play the game, and then put it as one of your literacy centers for the week.  This gives them time to really continue seeing the words.  

Students can continue working with these vocabulary words in 3 different ways.  In this activity pack there is also a part of speech sorting activity which is a great review.  I know my students commonly forget parts of speech so I plan on using this as a center.  

There is also a syllable sorting activity.  As a 6th grade teacher I never really stressed to much on syllables.  I guess I always assumed they had that skill.... Jokes on me haha  They recently took an assessment that gave me items they were struggling on and syllables was a big one.  So I created a syllable sort to help them practice and again they are seeing these new vocabulary words.

The last activity is an ABC order activity.  I like to give them ABC order as a center because they always tell me it's so easy yet they do struggle with this skill.

Enjoy!

You can find this activity on my Teachers pay Teachers pay by clicking HERE!!

Fall Into Learning... Learning Syllables!!

My students seem to have such a problem with syllables! They recently took an assessment that gave me a lot of information on what they are struggling with and syllables were a major problem!! I created this activity pack to help all students in my class. It is differentiated to meet all the needs of the students in my class. So far they absolutely love it!

Within this activity pack there are 3 activities.  The first activity is a syllable sort.  Students have to read the word and place in on the correct sorting mat.  Then once they have checked they have all the words in the correct column ( there are 5 for each ) they write the answers on their response page.

The second activity has the students decide how many syllables are in the word but they also have to divide the word into syllables.  This can be done by laminating the task cards so students can write on them or they can just copy it onto their response page.

I like having the students interact with the materials so for me laminating works the best.  The students get more involved whenever I give them dry erase markers :)

The 3rd activity involves words with the suffixes -able and -ible.  They first have to divide the words by their suffix.  Then divide them by syllable.  It is a 2 step process and I give this activity to my students who are either on level or above.  

Check out this activity pack on my TpT page by clicking here!

Goldilocks ROCKS!!

I mean who doesn't love the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears... When I found this new book told by Baby Bear (Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks by Nancy Loewen) I was so excited!  I love when they retell stories in the point of view of another character! It screams incredible teachable moments!  This is by far one of my favorite stories.  I love that the story has rich vocabulary which makes teaching it to my 6th graders very appropriate!  I really think my favorite part of this story is the fact that Goldilocks has a cell phone.  I know thats a very strange aspect of the story to like but my kids are totally able to relate to it which makes them love it even more!

I decided to create an activity comprehension pack to go along with this story.

There are a bunch of activities to use in this one file.  I know my students really love the I have Who Has game  so I created one to go with some of the vocabulary associated with this story.  I also created a vocabulary matching game that also works really well as a center!  

The higher order activity is really important now that we have implemented Common Core Standards.  The questions are common core aligned and allow students to think deeper about the text.  I love that this activity gets them out of their seat and walking around the room.  They are so much more engaged when they are moving rather than sitting in their seats.  PLUS they get to write on post-its so thats the best lesson ever for them!

Check out my Comprehension Pack at Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking here!!!

Halloween is in the air...

Halloween is right around the corner.  It came by really quickly, every where you go you see decorations and CANDY!! (I have a soft spot for chocolate) I wanted to start getting into the Halloween season at school so I created a short vowel sorting activity to use with my after school decoding program.  Since this is an after school program I love to come up with fun interactive activities for them to do rather than just work at their seats!

In this activity students have to read the word and place it on the correct sorting mat based on the short vowel sound it has.  Students then have a response page where they can write the words in the correct place.

 

Look for this activity on my Teachers Pay Teachers page by clicking here!!