Making Words - SCARECROWS Autumn Freebie!

I'm a huge fan of activities for making words! When children have the opportunity to manipulate the letters cards, moving them around to build words, they start to make discoveries about how words work, like ...

              

              * changing onsets to create new words with the same rime

              * making plurals

              * common spelling patterns 

                       ... and so much more! All skills that are applicable to both reading and writing!

Here's a free seasonal set of making words activities using the letters in the word "scarecrows"!

You'll find that this set has built-in differentiation! 

At Level 1, students are given the word that uses all of the letters (scarecrows), with the letter cards in correct sequence.

Level 2 provides more of a challenge. The letters are provided in in alphabetical order, and the students must try to discover the word that uses all of the letters.

How will you use these making words activities with your students?

    * Whole class activities - model making words on your interactive board, with your students making     the words with their own sets of letters at their desks. 

    Looking to go low-tech? Write the letters on sticky notes and work on chart paper at your easel.            Write the words your students make. If you write the words on sentence strips, this can become a            pocket chart sorting activity. Give your students sorting ideas or let them discover their own               (spelling patterns, singular/ plural, number of letters, so many more ideas!)

    * Phonics activities for literacy centers 

    * Independent morning work - work alone, or give students the option of completing the activity         with a partner.

    * Fast finisher activities - these are productive, fun work that will keep your early finishers learning!

Click now to download your free copy for fall literacy fun!

Find more fall freebies here!

🍂 Keep the fun in autumn learning! 🍂

Apple Graphing - It's a Primary Thing! {{Apple Freeebie!!}}

Hi, Teaching Friends!

It's apple season! Tasting apples and graphing our favorites is a classic activity in most primary classrooms... graphing apples is our thing! Have any of you had this happen to you when it's time to get ready to graph your favorite apples?

You go to the grocery store, pick out a few interesting varieties of apples, make a lovely graph, smartly save the file of the blank graph to use again next year. Come the following September, find the graph again (the finding is sometimes its own small miracle, right?), go to the grocery store, find all of the apple varieties EXCEPT ONE. It's not at the second store either, or the third... every year, there are more kinds of apples, but it seems like rarely the ones you need. 

And so... search for another new graph.  Grrrr.

So, if you find yourself in the same sad boat, I hope this will be a mini-sanity saver for you.  Three blank graphs (two column, three column, four column), ready for you to label AFTER you buy your apples. (Note: You'll have to write them in by hand after you print. Sorry, I still haven't mastered making documents editable. : / ) Many thanks to Mel at From the Pond for the font and graphics! 

Click here or on the picture to download your free graph.

The whole apple experience is so full of learning opportunities for our littles, from the five senses to enjoying great books to math, like cutting apples into fractional parts, counting apple seeds, and more. 

Looking for more apple activities? Click to see this set for PreK and kindergarten at my store.

...or this bundle of apple math for first grade!

Enjoy, and happy applin'! ;)

Going On a Leaf Hunt with a Favorite Fall Book!

Hello, Teaching Friends!

Do you know We're Going on a Leaf Hunt?

It's one of my favorite fall books for the PreK-first grade crowd! Such a great autumn read by Steve Metzger, illustrated by Miki Sakamoto.

Based on the old song, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", this treasure of a read aloud follows three little ones as they go on a leaf hunt over a mountain, through a forest, around a waterfall, and across a lake, along the way discovering colorful hickory, birch, and red oak leaves.


As they go, the repeated refrain is ...


"We're going on a leaf hunt.
We're going right away.
Let's find colorful leaves.
It's a wonderful day!"


Of course, your little listeners will love to join in on the refrain. If you enlarge the words of the refrain onto chart paper ahead of time, you'll have a great opportunity to talk about letters, words and sentences, and to reinforce concepts of print like directionality, one-to-one match, and as with any refrain, fluent phrasing and expression.


Of course, there's a twist at the end of the story just like there is in the song, and this time it's not a bear that the children find!


The ending just adds more great opportunities for movement when you reread or retell this story. Your students will love climbing the mountain, picking up the leaves, and splish-splashing across the slippery stones at the waterfall. But they'll love it even more when they get to go backwards through the story at top speed to get home again.


If you have the time and you live where there are colorful leaves, maybe you'll want to take your class on a real leaf hunt after you read this book together. {And if there are no colorful leaves where you live, construction paper cut-outs scattered on the floor can be a lot of fun, too!} Here's a way your students can review the words of the refrain and display what they found on their leaf walk. It can also be the basis of great mini-lesson on attributes and sorting. There are two formats, one in blackline and the other with some "colorful" support! Whether the children glue their leaves on the paper or draw and color them, it's a fun little lesson! Just click on the picture to download it free!

Lovely leaf graphics by Cindy Calenti of Granny Goes to School!

Here's a way to extend your leaf sorting lessons and  create a new class book! Stop by my TpT store to see Love Those Leaves.

Happy Teaching!

Find more than 40 autumn resources at my TpT store!

Patchwork Pumpkin Math Freebie ... Subtraction

Hi, Teaching Friends!


Pumpkin days are here in all their glory! Here's a subtraction game freebie that will also bring a bit of October art into your classroom décor.

Players roll two dice, subtract the smaller from the larger, and color a space with the answer. Since each player has is or her own board, the first to color the whole pumpkin is the winner. Challenging
your students to make their pumpkins colorful will make them great for display ...

... either backed with construction paper...

...or taped to your classroom window with the light shining through.

Another idea is to choose the most neatly colored pumpkins (a bit of competition always motivates neater work, right?), laminate them, and put them in math centers as game boards. Instead of coloring the spaces, players could cover them or circle them. Using games that you and your classmates have created always adds some extra motivation and fun! 

Click to download your subtraction pumpkin freebie!    

Happy Teaching!

Happy Fall - Addition FREEBIE!

Well, who knew? Fall snuck up on us again! Here in New Jersey, the crisp days and beautifully clear skies make autumn my very favorite time of year! And oh, those cool fall nights that are finally pushing away our crazy humidity! Yay!

So, are you celebrating the first day of fall in your classroom this week? In between snipping those sweet colorful construction paper leaves and tasting apples as you celebrate Johnny Appleseed's birthday, leave a little time for this addition game freebie.

In "Autumn Days Plus One", your students will roll and add two dice and then add one to the sum.
The file also includes a blackline version, so the choice is yours - save color ink with the blackline version or save paper with the color version - laminate or slip it into a plastic sleeve to use again and again. . Decisions, decisions! :) Click to download your free copy!


Speaking of Johnny Appleseed, I've posted six of my apple math resources together in one bundle.

Buying these resources in this bundle will save you nearly 25% over the price of buying them separately... and will give you everything you need for your fall math centers and math tubs! 

Check it out!

If your students need something for autumn that's just a bit higher in level, here's a place value math center collection for CCSS 2.NBT.1. The games are themed for fall, not Halloween, so you can use them now and right through Thanksgiving.




                                     

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Happy Teaching!

Autumn Inference Riddle Cards

Do you use riddles in your teaching? They're such an engaging teaching tool and they give you opportunities to introduce and practice so many important reading and thinking skills! Keep reading ⬇⬇ for some special info about free autumn riddle cards!   

Once upon a time, as a fairly new teacher, I had my first graders prepare a riddle to tell the class on April Fools Day. That's what's known as a tactical error. :) One child would mistell the riddle way beyond the point of making sense, and 20 others would be convulsed in hysterical laughter. Again. And again. It was a verrrry long day. :)

No doubt about it, the little guys love riddles, and riddles actually do have a useful place in the curriculum. As children learn to connect the information in the clues and discard choices that don't fit across all the clues, they are determining key details. This foundational understanding will lead to making inferences and drawing conclusions.


Here's an autumn riddle set that will have your K-2 students determining key details in 24 riddles, applying their prior knowledge, and inferring the answers.

These riddles are a form of informational text, featuring autumn social studies and science vocabulary, like apples, Johnny Appleseed,  Columbus, fire safety, pumpkins, leaves, autumn months, bats, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

                            Want to save this to come back to later? Click the red Pinterest button!

Use the cards for whole class or small group lessons on key details and inference. They'll also make a good matching or pocket chart activity for a literacy center. There's a four-in-a-row game board for more practice with the same vocabulary, matching cards for memory games, and even a riddle writing activity included in this set!

Would you like to try some free autumn riddles and matching cards with your students? Click here or on the picture below to download this free resource from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Want to save this to come back to? Click the red Pinterest button!

Click here to see lots more riddle sets like this one!

Find more fall resources on my Autumn Learning Pinterest board!

Happy Teaching!



Free Writing Paper for Fall

Hi, Teaching Friends!

I'm thinking today of a dear friend who lives in Baton Rouge, and praying for her family's safety. Prayers, too, for all of you who are in Isaac's path!

I have a little freebie today for you that's one of those "extras" - plain paper would serve the purpose, but isn't it fun to offer our little writers a bit of choice? These primary templates would be good for any of your fall writing projects, but would also be fun in your writing center. You could even have your students fold it in half and make two columns for a spelling test.

Click on the cover to download your set of 12 pages from Google Docs.

If you're looking for fall picture prompts for writing, please take a peek at this set of 16 at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Happy Teaching!



Fall Freebie for the Hundred Chart

Hello, Friends!

Last month I posted a game set for the hundred board and, judging by the number of downloads, this type of activity seems to be something you're looking for.  So, I've cooked up a version for fall -
Apple Picking Time!

There are 2 hundred chart games, each with a full color and a black and white version, as well as a set of tens-and-ones spinners for a bonus bit of place value practice.

This is a great way for your new class of second graders to get back up to speed with using the hundred chart. First grade teachers will probably find that using the place value spinners is beyond your students' knowledge early in the school year, but you can adapt! Cut apart a copy of a hundred chart and put the numbers in a bag. Students can reach in (no peeking! :)  and pull out a number instead of spinning the spinners. 

Do you LOVE games for the hundred chart and 120 chart? Click to see these sets at my store!

Do you have a favorite activity for the hundred chart?  Please share it here!

  

Happy Teaching!