Winter Planning Giveaway Stop C-16

I am SO excited to be a part of Erin's fabulous Winter Planning Giveaway! Instead of a simple giveaway, you will skip from blog to blog and collect secret words. Then you go back to Erin's blog (click on the image above) and enter all of the words for each prize pack you choose. And the best part? EVERYONE WINS!!! I found some amazing resources last time and can't wait to collect more to start planning for after Christmas (wishful thinking)!

For those of you who are new to my blog, I am a Title I Reading Specialist for grades 3-5. I've been teaching for about 8 years, and I LOVE working with upper elementary! Some of my favorite products to create are my drawing conclusions mysteries (be on the lookout for a Christmas themed one VERY soon) such as my Case of the Secret Admirer...

...and my literacy center packs. For my free product, I decided to share my Winter Literacy Centers. These include 4 comprehension centers and 4 word-knowledge centers. 

I hope you enjoy them! If you would like to see more of what I do, please follow me on Bloglovin!

You can also click on the buttons in the top right corner of my blog to find me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TPT and TN. I love finding new followers and getting to meet other teachers from around the country/world. It's so neat how we have this amazing teacher blogging community!

Okay, now what you're really here for: I am the last stop for Prize Pack C, so make sure you go back to I'm Lovin Lit to start at the very beginning. Then collect this word for your list:

And if you've made it through all of the stops, still head to Erin's blog to enter all of your clues!

I hope you enjoyed your scavenger hunt as much as I did!

New Magic Tree House unit and snow?

I'm REALLY hoping that today was my Friday! After having temps in the upper 60s and even 70s last week, they're now calling for snow in our area starting in a few hours. This morning they said 6 pm, so hopefully it will wait until then. I usually get home around 5. So I prepared all of my kids with the typical snow homework (ice cube down the toilet and pjs inside out), and I'm praying for a snow day! We can miss one more day before the semester ends next Monday and not have to make up President's Day. I would LOVE a four day weekend! Is anybody else getting a snow day? Do you love them as much as I do, or are they more of a nuisance to you? Maybe it's because I grew up in the deep south and still get as excited as the children when it snows since I rarely saw it growing up.

Well, no matter if we have a snow day or not, next Tuesday I will begin a new historical fiction book study with one of my groups. It was not a book that I already had, but I got a copy from the teacher to go ahead and prepare. I love historical fiction, so I'm very excited about doing this study. As usual, the packet breaks the book into 6 sections (the last page is a reflective writing assignment). The questions range include reflections, straight from the book, vocabulary, and even some visualizing. Enjoy!

Snowmen and a penguin!

Okay, I said this would be up and ready to go, and it is! I uploaded it to my TpT store yesterday morning and even took a picture of some of the completed snowmen! I wanted to take pictures of the kids actually doing the activity, but I forgot. Oh well. Baby steps. This packet is in my store for $2. It includes 5 main ideas, and each has 3 supporting details. All are snow-related. They are geared for upper elementary grades and are meant to be a little tricky (not too hard, but they aren't all obvious choices). I did this with 4th and 5th graders yesterday. The 4th grade class got them all right eventually after reading VERY carefully and debating over the BEST choice. 5th grade pretty much breezed through it (both classes were the lowest in their grade level). 

When I prepared the activity, I cut all of the pieces into squares (there's only 5 sheets, so I did them all at once) and put them in ziploc bags. Then I gave the bags to small groups and had them work together to match the cards. They had to match EVERYTHING first to make sure it was correct. Then they cut out all of the pieces and glued them together. You could have students color them and hang them up if you wanted! Mine really wanted to write their names on the brim and decorate them, but I only have 30 minutes. Without coloring, this activity fits PERFECTLY into a 30 minute block, at least for 4th and 5th grade.

I also wanted to update my door for the rest of winter, so I went to Pinterest and looked around. Then I stumbled upon this from Mrs. Ussery's Third Grade Class:

How flippin' adorable, right? I HAD to make my own. Unfortunately our walls have not been painted ANY nice colors, so mine doesn't look quite as cute in its surroundings. It was funny, however, as we were working on putting up the pieces to hear what people thought it would be. When we added the belly, they thought snowman. Then we added the whites of the eyes and the red strip for the scarf. That made it look a LOT like a ballgown. I think our cute little penguin is going to stay with us up to Spring Break. I'm thinking of adding hearts next month and then changing out the hat and scarf for green (maybe a top hat?) during March.

I do need opinions though. What do you think I should do about the top? I tried to make a pouf, but it just didn't look good. So I pulled it off. Does it even need anything?

MLK Craftivity, more main idea, and squirrels

Today was back to school for me. Boo! Actually it wasn't bad at all. I just love my time at home with my bed Steven and Keagan!

I did some more main idea practice with my 4th and 5th graders today. No 3rd grade because they needed more time to readjust after break (especially since one of the teachers was out the two weeks before break after she fell and had surgery on her arm AT SCHOOL), but that gave me some extra time to finally make my writing craftivity for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It's so cute, and I love that I finally have my own template for kids to use with other crafts later.

Here's a bigger picture of how the craft looks:

I didn't use colored paper to make mine, but I separated parts where you could print on colored paper for more ease. Since we don't get to do many crafts in my classroom (and I have NO money this year), I only have pink construction paper. But it works to color it just as well if you're broke like me.

*** Okay, hold on! SQUIRREL!! (as Farley would say) ***

I'm watching Mobbed, and the teacher they hired for the kid actors/dancers just screwed up BIG TIME! Is anybody else watching this? A wife is trying to tell her hubby that she's expecting. So right now he's sitting at a table with this "random" girl (child actor) who's mom had to run and check on her son. The wife left him to sign some papers, and they were JUST ABOUT to start this whole dance sequence where they would eventually reveal the sonogram picture. This teacher walks over to talk to the girl and is explaining how she's her welfare worker and she was hired to teach her. 

Whew! Finally back from commercial break. Fortunately the kid listened and has pulled her away. So cute! He's very confused standing in the middle of dancers with baby carriages! I might cry...

*** Sorry, I'm back. I know that's not normal for me, but I couldn't think while watching that and I HAVE to know if anyone else saw it. ***

Anyway, I also made a snowman main idea packet, but my computer at school apparently decided it was time for a break. So it's ready, but I'll have to post it on TpT when I get to school in the morning. It's really cute though, and I'll blog about it this weekend. I plan on using it with my 5th grade class I push into tomorrow, so I'll be sure to bring my camera.

Now it's time to finish watching Mobbed and go to bed!

Winter Sale

Hooray! Today is our last day before break, AND it's pajama day for 5th grade, so I joined them. There's nothing better than just throwing on a clean pair of pjs to get ready for the day. My agenda today is pretty easy as well. I'm reading to two classes, and I MIGHT pull one group this morning. Otherwise, I'll be party hopping around the school! ;-)

I know I just threw one of these the past few days, but I didn't realize that a lot of other bloggers were throwing their big winter sales this weekend. Plus I don't think I did a very good job advertising mine because I only had one sale for the past few days. So I'm extending my sale to join with a bunch of other people. This sale starts today and will end on Sunday, so stock up! Plus I'm almost finished with another Magic Tree House packet (Twister on Tuesday) and hope to do two more this weekend (maybe even today since I have to be here but won't be seeing most of my kids anyway). Keep an eye out!

What I'm doing for Christmas

We've been busy in my Title I class recently, and even though I'm missing out on all the fun crafts and activities that I did/would do as a classroom teacher, I've still been able to fit in some fun literacy centers.

I've also had the pleasure of pushing into the same 3rd grade class every day for the past week and a half to work with them on Daily 5/CAFE lessons. That's been so much fun to me! I got to help train on all of that this summer, but I never got a good opportunity to do it since we only piloted it last year and I was out on maternity leave for part of that time. Tomorrow will be my last day to push in though, but I think we're going to do two activities with the Polar Express for those two days. We're already working on Read to Self for Daily 5, and they will hopefully be able to start Read to Someone next week. In CAFE, we added Activate Prior Knowledge (where I taught them my favorite word: schema!), Check for Understanding, Find Good Fit Books (with IPICK), and Use the Pictures. Today We're going to do Back up and Reread. They're so excited about it!

Now back to Christmas:

I said I've been doing literacy centers, and it's been so much fun. The kids remember the format for most of the centers from my Thanksgiving pack that we did. So there's less set up and explaining required. I just focus on the new centers to talk them through. Fifth grade has already started them, and I'm noticing some improvement. 3rd and 4th will start either today or next week.

With my younger kids, I focused on the book The Great Christmas Crisis by Kim Norman.

If you remember this post, she was the author we had come visit back in early November. Anyway, I created a packet based on the book.

It had two little activities that I used as centers (one for sequencing and one game using words from the book). There's also a cute writing activity that I may let them do tomorrow. I'll even let them color and decorate their elves if they finish the writing! Here's a sample of that.

I have also completed my winter literacy centers. These are the same format as the Christmas ones, just without the Polar Express sequencing. 4 comprehension centers and 4 word-knowledge.

What are you doing in your class right now? Or are you allowed to do Christmas-y activities?