Friday for Friday Christmas Randomness!

It's been a while since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching.  I needed to get back into the fun!

First Grade Roars is doing 12 days of Freebies and she created this snowman craft I couldn't pass up!

They turned out precious!

Since we are working on How-To's in writing, I thought this would be a great way to incorporate a how-to writing prompt to go with their little craft.

Look at those eyelashes!

They look great in our hallway!

To get First Grade Roars snowman craft click HERE.

To get the How-To writing template click HERE.

I found a basket of old Christmas stamps...

STAMP STORIES! WHOOOO!

Sticker stories are so five years ago.

 They are OBSESSED.  It's all they want to do.  They don't even want to attempt my fun writing prompts anymore.  Boo. 

#nopunctuation #yesiknow #dontjudge #workingonit

If you would like my Sticker and Stamp Story pages you can get them HERE.

 I once had a parent tell me that ANYTHING with her child's handprint was all she wanted.

Shutup with the cuteness!

I got the canvas boards for 60% off at Michaels.  Well worth the money when I saw how adorable they turned out!

These little darlings went home today.

I got the plastic ornaments at Michael's for .48 cents a piece last year after Christmas.  A very simple fingerprint...a little glitter inside...top it with a bow...

And you have something that is all things adorable!

One of my students said he was SO relieved that they were plastic because he had already "shattered" one of his mothers glass ornaments.

#loveit  #highvocab

I wore this shirt today hoping it would remind some of my students that Santa was watching their every move.  It didn't take.

Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!  We're going to need it with the week coming up!

New Life Ahead, Very Merry Centers and a Freebie!

It has been a hot mess express in the Johnson household!  My husband got a promotion, we put our house up for sale, and it sold in FOUR DAYS.  FOUR.  DAYS.  When Scott applied for this job, we kind of had the attitude that it was in God's hands and whatever happens, happens.  It has been a whirlwind!  He got the promotion, and we are moving to Annapolis, Maryland!  AGGHHH!!!  And since we've had the attitude of "it's in God's hands," literally everything has fallen into place.

We took a trip about three weeks ago to go house hunting and we stopped in D.C. to visit Arlington National Cemetery.  I'm a HUGE history buff and this is one place in D.C. that I haven't yet visited.  I loved it.

 The views were breathtaking.

 And I got to witness the Changing of the Guard.  It was amazing.

Unfortunately I have to leave my first grade babies in the middle of the year, which is devastating.  In addition, I don't have a job in Maryland.  If I can't teach, I don't know what I'll do with myself.  My whole reason for getting up in the morning is for my job.  I'm just hoping and praying that will all fall into place too.

So on a more positive note - VERY MERRY CENTERS!

I needed some little bags to hold my books on CD and TJ Maxx had these little bad boys for three bucks a piece!

So stankin cute, right?

I've also finished my Work on Writing for December and was able to get that set up for my students to use.

I like to keep a couple of laminated rubrics handy for them to use during writing.

The word cards I got a couple of years ago from Kristen Smith at A Day in First Grade.  You can get them HERE.  The clips and ribbon came from Michaels.  

I also added some new Sight Word Work mats.

I put the words in a cute little Christmas bucket and now the center is new and interesting again.  Viola!

I also started pulling activities from my Very Merry Phonics pack.

The cookies for Santa are a favorite.  I like to put the cookies in a little bowl and I give them spoons to stir it with.  It always makes it more fun!

I had some fall "Mystery Critters" where my students had to read a short passage and make inferences as to what the mystery critter was.  Then they had to draw what they visualized and write the clues.  Some of them liked it so much they asked me to make more.  So I made some for the Holidays!

Its really interesting to look at their illustrations and see that each child has a different vision.  If you would like to use these in your classroom, you can get them HERE.

Character Traits FREEBIE

Character traits and comparing characters in and between stories is one of my favorite things to teach.  I love doing read alouds and see my firsties start to make connections between texts.  I whipped up a couple of activities this week and I thought I'd share them with you!

First of all, I'm not a very good drawer, so when I make anchor charts, I usually print everything out, glue it, and then laminate it.

I used little Lucy Doris to introduce inside and outside character traits to my students.

 Then we completed a sort.  I did the first few with my friends and then I let them do the rest independently.

 My whole group time is only 20 minutes to I have to make sure the activities are quick and carry over several days.

The next day we read The Littlest Pilgrim.

As I read the story, I told my students to really listen to how she was acting and to pay attention to how she looked.    They did a quick turn and talk, drew the main character and we discussed the inside and outside character traits.

So then we talked about how characters can change within a story.  For this standard, we read The Little Scarecrow Boy.  I told them to really pay attention to how he changes within the text...

This friend wrote: "He was sad because he wasn't fierce enough.  He faced his fears and scared the scarecrows."

We will revisit this standard with other texts and go deeper into this concept.

To go with this story, I decided to do a directed drawing from First Grade Blue Skies.

It was Friday, after all!

 They turned out SO STANKIN CUTE!!!!  

I plan on attaching the illustrations with their comprehension response sheets :)

 All the character traits activities you can get for free HERE!

 Need other comprehension response sheets?  You can get those for FREE too!

Enjoy, friends!