A Week of Spider Fun

This week during Writer's Workshop, it was all about those creepy, crawly 8-legged arachnids. Spiders had my students going "spider crazy." This was our first "focused" informational writing. In other words, I didn't let my students choose what animal to write about like usual. I pretty much told them we were all going to write about spiders this week. While I was a little nervous about giving them only one topic, they did an amazing job! I read books about spiders, showed pictures of spiders, watched movies about spiders, etc... we were ALL about spiders! I just wanted to share a few pictures of the things we did.

I read the book Spiders by Gail Gibbons and filled out this fantastic chart with the students. I read over the questions first, and told the students to listen for the answers. As I was reading, they would raise their hands when they heard an answer. They used these charts while they were writing their books.

We also created a Can Have Are chart about spiders so the students could reference it while they were writing.

Please ignore my handwriting... 

Instead of using the chart idea, my amazing classroom neighbor, Mrs. Murdock, made a spider chart of a different fashion. It looks amazing! She gave each group of students a "leg" and had them write facts that they learned from one of the spider books. 

Our completed spider books and hallway display! They did an amazing job! 

We needed a bigger web!

Adorable! 

 (I traced a plain old paper plate to get the size of the spider I wanted, then I cut lined paper to fit inside.) 

I wish I would've taken a picture of some of my students' completed pages of their books. 

If you have not written about spiders yet, I suggest you write about them soon. The kiddos LOVED them!

Check out my Pinterest Halloween board for a few more spider ideas you can use.  

Have a fabulous weekend bloggie friends! 

Halloween Candy Corn

We made our candy corn sun catchers today and they turned out really cute! They look so good in my classroom windows.

Here's what we did...
1. I placed a sheet of contact paper and a black outline on each student's desk (see previous post for a link to Lindsey's blog).
2. I gave the students the orange, yellow, and white tissue paper squares and let them "go to town" creating their candy corn.
3. Students *carefully* cut out their candy corn.
4. Hung them in our windows and gawked at our new Halloween decorations.

Here are a few pictures.

The finished product (before he cut it out). 

I really wish I could show you his face because he is chEEEEsin' in this picture! 

He was so proud! 

The kiddos did a great job and they turned out really good. 

(Please ignore the dirty window and the awful view we have.)

Check out The Teacher Wife for the patterns and a tutorial for the way she completed this project. 

Have a great night,

TGIalmostF

Hallelujah that tomorrow is Friday! My school had Open House and PTO Tuesday night, so this week has seemed to drag by. Isn't that how it always goes?!!?

Since Fridays are usually easy-going days, I like to do a fun craft or activity with my students. Tomorrow we are going to create candy corn "sun catchers" like the ones on The Teacher Wife. 

However, after trying to make a sample to show my kids, I decided to make them a little differently. 

I'm going  to use Lindsey's templates, but use contact paper instead of wax paper and an iron.

Guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow. 

If it's not TOO crazy while we're making them tomorrow, I'll try to take some pictures and share them with you.

Have a fantastic night! 

Fall-Fabulous Giveaway

The ladies over at First Grade Fanatics are hosting a giveaway in celebration of their new items available on TPT. The packets are so stinkin' cute, I couldn't wait to enter the giveaway in hopes of winning them!
Go check them out!

So Honored!

I have been nominated for 2 awards by the lovely Tammy over at Klinger Cafe! I feel so honored (I'm new to the whole "blogging" thing and am just trying to keep my head above water!) I have been nominated for the Blog on Fire Award and the Versatile Blogger Award.

Being nominated means I get to share 7 things about myself and share 10 of my top blogs (most of which have already been nominated, but I have lots of choices due to all the "awesome-ness" in BlogLand!)
1. I have been trying to give up sugary drinks and just stick to water, but that's so hard when getting up at 5:30 every morning! Sometimes I just can't turn down my diet sunkist!
2. I live and teach in country singer Luke Bryan's  hometown of Leesburg, GA.
3. I have been dating the same guy for 5 years... still no ring. No hurry!
4. I cannot read a book during the school year. I fall asleep before finishing a paragraph! (Still not sure how I got my Master's last year with all the reading/writing I had to do!)
5. Fall is my favorite time of year. Cool weather, the smell of freshly dug peanuts (South Georgia girl here!), white cotton fields, bonfires, etc. How could you NOT love fall?!?!?!
6. I love crime dramas on TV. Law and Order:SVU, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Rizzoli and Isles, The Closer, etc. Can't get enough of them!
7. I am only 5 feet tall and have a younger sister that is taller than me. (She also tans more easily than me!) Not fair!

A few of my Top 10 Blogs: (I only have 124 blogs on my Google Reader!)
Fabulous in First
Pirates Life for Us
Castles and Crayons
Schoolgirl Style
Schroeder Page
The Adventures of Miss Elisabeth
Plug and Plan
Sailing Through First Grade
Ms. Preppy
Persnickety Pickles

Thanks so much for the honor Tammy!