Monday, February 25, 2013

Winners of the Follower Contest!

Congrats to Jessica B, Beverly G, and Karen R!  They have been randomly selected as winner, please see the contest widget below.  Thank you for all that entered, and keep following Creative Classroom Lessons for more giveaways and Freebies!  Winners, please check your email for more instructions.  Thank you! 


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Getting Ready for Dr. Seuss Week!

This is one of my favorite times of the year, Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day! Or week if if celebrate it like me! To get ready for the week I have created some new products and updated some old ones. Most are centered around rhyming, for my kinder and 4K ELL students. Check out these resources and please feel free to share some projects or activities you uses for Dr. Seuss Day and Read Across America.

Reading Day Bingo                                                           Rhyming Cut and Paste with the Cat

Monday, February 18, 2013

Follower Giveaway! Target Giftcard and TPT products!

I am having a follower giveaway to thank all  my TPT followers and to promote my new blog.  The prizes are 1st: $20 Target Giftcard, 2nd: Pick any 3 Items from my TPT store, 3rd: Pick any 1 Item from my TPT store.  The contest will run until Sunday February 24th at midnight (central time)  I will announce the winners on Monday.  If you are a winner, I'll have you email me your information to send you your prize.  Enjoy and Thank you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Non-Fiction Writing Craftivity

I am always looking for new ways to make non-fiction writing more fun and hands-on.  I do mainly non-fiction writing with my ELL students so they learn new content vocabulary and practice writing skills.  We had already completed our unit of writing with transition words, so I always follow transition words with some sort of cycle writing, life cycles, water cycle, rock cycle, etc... .   I wanted to make this more of a "project" for students, since we have been doing so much writing lately, so here is an easy craftivity I came up with, all you  need is a few pieces of construction paper, markers, and if you want, some typed up labels.  This could really work for any "cycle" type writing.  On the outside students drew their diagram and under each step, they described it in their own words.  I was so happy to see them using their new vocabulary words in context!  Please feel free to comment how you make non-fiction writing more interesting and hands-on! 


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Powerful Language -Strong Verbs

One of my favorite Language topics to teach each year is my Strong Verbs Unit!  I love teaching it and the students love the hands-on way to study Strong Verbs and Synonyms!  I love that by the end of the unit, you can really see the difference in the students' personal narratives, especially when it comes to using a variety of words in their writing and using a variety of tools to find new words.  It's great to see the students taking their own initiative to go get  thesaurus, use MS word to find new words, or a variety of online tools to get rid of those BORING VERBS!  Here are some of the students' favorites activities that we do in the unit:

Strong Verb Synonym Sort:

Strong Verb Word Clouds-These are a blast!  I always get lots of comments from staff, students, and parents on how cool these look in the hallway.

These activities and more can all be found in my Strong Verbs Unit. 

 

Friday, February 1, 2013

New President's Day Unit

I just completed this President's Day and U.S. Symbols Activity Pack!  I can't wait to use it later this month!  It includes vocabulary cards to use as a word wall or in a writing center, fact cards and fill  in the blank activities for Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and many U.S. symbols, these will be great for centers!  It also includes printable books All About Abraham Lincoln, All About George Washington, and U.S. Symbols.  For writing activities, it has bubble maps for Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, A President Report Sheet, and If I Were President Sheet.  I can't wait to see my kiddos responses on the If I Were President...!   I would love to hear what others do to Celebrate President's Day, please comment below with your favorite President's Day Activity. 

Click here to check out this packet: