Journal Prompts for Beginning Writers

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I LOVE our monthly journal prompts! Students in Kindergarten write at different levels. We try to engage them in activities that will help develop their writing skills, but sometimes it’s difficult to find something that will fit everyone’s abilities. We have always been told to differentiate our activities to meet every student’s needs. But, how can we do this in a room full of 20+ kids? I came up with Differentiated Thematic Journal Prompts that include a picture/word bank and sentence starters. How can these journals help? The focus on themes will make their writing meaningful and engaging. The thematic picture/word bank will develop their vocabulary skills. And, the sentence starters will help struggling writers feel successful. There are 5 journal prompts for each theme which will cover a week’s worth of writing. Each journal prompt has been provided in three versions. As the students develop their writing skills, the teacher will provide the corresponding writing page. This is how the writing pages are differentiated.

Level 1: These journal pages includes a sentence starter. They may also have extra wording on the picture labels. This will help students write a complete sentence by using the wording on the picture cues.  This format will help struggling writers use complete sentences and have a successful writing experience without the stress.

Level 2: This journal page does not include the sentence starters. Students are encouraged to use their knowledge of phonics skills. They are also encouraged to use any other words that may not be in the illustrated word bank.

Level 3: This journal page is for advanced writers. It does not provide place a for an illustration. This is so that students may have more writing space where they may include details in their sentences. Illustrations may be added to the back of the paper.

I have sets ready for the entire year. If you would like to learn more about them, you can find them all under the JOURNALS tab at the top of my blog. You can also find my Differentiated Journal Prompts in my TPT store.

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Turkey Craft for Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving time is so much fun. Here’s a fun Turkey Craft that will prepare your students for the upcoming holiday. This packet includes two versions of the turkey craft and some writing activities.

Thankful Turkey

This version includes a sentence starter on the feathers. Students will finish the sentence, “I give thanks for ________.” It’s a good way to help students reflect and be thankful for the good things in their lives.

Patterned Turkey

This other version includes simple patterned feathers that students will color. It’ will come in handy as a last minute activity or with younger students who may have limited writing skills.

Writing Activities

This packet includes seven writing activities.

Downloads

The English Turkey Craft may be found here.

The Spanish Turkey Craft may be found here.

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Trick and Treat for Teachers

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Are you ready for a Trick and Treat? 

I have teamed up with my Freebielicious friends to share some teaching tricks and special free treats for you!  

Teaching Trick/ Tip

Do your students ever forget to bring their backpacks to school? Sometimes we have many papers to send home and a student might not have a backpack on that day. It’s very difficult for little kids to carry papers during dismissal. Students will drop their papers on the floor a few times while walking down the hallway. A very simple trick is to keep a box of those large plastic baggies in the classroom. You will simply place the student’s papers and books in the baggie. Don’t forget to add a label with the student’s name, in case he drops that too 🙂

Teacher Treat (Freebie)

Here’s a free Halloween reader. It will help take the students’ fears away about certain little personalities that are part of Halloween stories, pictures, themes, etc.

Hop along to A Teeny Tiny Teacher and follow our Trick & Treat blog hop!

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Free Halloween Hat

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Here’s a free Halloween hat that can be used in October. It can be used as a fun center and students can wear them at your Halloween party. What I really like about it is that you can incorporate a mini-math lesson about symmetry and patterns. For that, the students would read and label the ABC pattern for the pictures that are lined up at the bottom of the hat. Students can also practice symmetry by using the same colors on those little polka dots that appear on the wings.

Click here or on the picture of this Halloween printable to download it.

(October 2013)

If you would like the “Name” word in Spanish, you can get that Spanish printable here 🙂

 

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Custom T-Shirt Giveaway

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We are hosting a giveaway for custom classroom t-shirts from ClassroomFaces.com. We will be giving away a class set* of custom t-shirts to THREE lucky Freebielicious fans! Personliased t-shirts are great as it gives you something no one else has. As well as having a class printed on a t-shirt, there are also companies that let you create your own design so that you can have something personal, whether it’s for you or for your students. To have your own design printed onto t-shirts, you could use the Houston screen printers and have your design printed using a traditional screen printing technique which would look pretty cool. You could even get students to create designs for printing! Furthermore, should you want to make it even more special, these t shirts could be created into a custom made quilt as a memory for everyone.

Since the Freebielicious girls are such good friends, we designed our very own set of Classroom Faces t-shirts. They got the inspiration for this idea after they had found that sites like Imprint allow you to create your own custom t shirts in any style and design that you want. And they thought that it would be super cool to design their own, and that’s when these Classroom Faces t-shirts came into fruition. What do you think?

About Classroom Faces

Creating a class set of t-shirts featuring your students drawings is easy. Each child just needs to create a simple drawing. To create t-shirts with one-color ink on a solid colored t-shirt (like ours) each child needs to draw their picture using a fine point black marker. The ClassroomFaces website has downloadable templates that you can use to guide your students. Full-color illustrations on a plain white t-shirt are also possible. Look how cute these t-shirts are!


Extra Savings for Freebielicious Fans

Freebielicious fans that order a class set of tshirts can save $1 on each tshirt and receive 1 free teacher tshirt with their order using promo code FREEBIE14. Orders must include 15 or more paid shirts to qualify and must be postmarked by December 31, 2014

Enter to WIN a Class Set of Custom Classroom Faces T-Shirts

Now that you have seen how ADORABLE these t-shirts are, it’s your chance to try and win a set for your classroom. The wonderful people at ClassroomFaces are graciously giving away a class set* of custom t-shirts to 3 lucky Freebielicious fans! Each set is valued at over $250. Stop by the Freebielicious blog for your chance to WIN!
*Up to 24 tshirts will be included in each prize pack. Winner can choose to order a class set of traditional single-color tshirts or tshirts will full-color illustrations. Additional t-shirts can be purchased for $11 or $13 (depending on t-shirt size and style). Shipping is free for winners that live in the US. If a winner requires shipping outside of the US, the winner is responsible for shipping costs. (Shipping to Canada costs between $5-$20 depending on weight and location).
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Pirate Treasure

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Today is ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day‘! To celebrate, I have joined with some friends to give you the chance to find lots of pirate treasure!
Each blog will have some different treasure for you to find!
Here is a simple but fun activity that you can add to a center. I included the Spanish version in the same file just in case your students want to practice a little Spanish.
You can also click on the image below to find my whole TpT store on sale! 
Follow the linky to find more pirate treasure.

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Apple Clip Art

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I recently posted these apple graphics for your teaching resources. I think that I had a little too much fun with this kit.

Apple Products Clip Art

I want to start with this set because that candy apple looks soooo yummy! These graphics represent products that are made with apples. It includes an apple pie, a candy apple, apple juice, apple cider and two apple sauce graphics.

The Life Cycle of an Apple

This set will help you make resources to teach the life cycle of an apple. It includes an apple seeds packet, a seed in the ground, seedling, buds on a branch, flowers on a branch, single flower, a regular tree, a tree with blossoms and an apple tree.

Apples

These are just a few different apples that you might find useful.
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Halloween Clip Art

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Are you looking for Halloween clip art? I have four cute sets in my clip art store. They may be used in your personal and commercial use products. Please read my terms of use under any product description in my clip art store. Make sure to download the previews for a closer look 🙂

Halloween Set

This download includes 15 graphics in color and 14 black and white graphics. It includes a little witch, haunted house, bat, broom, spider, spider web, pumpkin, candy corn, candy corn buddy, ghost, ghost buddy, two cats and two moons. Find my Halloween clip art here.

Owls Set

This clip art set includes 5 graphics in color and one black and white graphic. I love the colors on these cuties. Find my Cute Owls clip art set here.

Spider Clip Art

Just had a little fun with this set. My favorite are the boy and girl spiders. This set includes 5 graphics in color and 3 graphics in black and white. Find my Spider clip art here.

Witch Hats

I love these fun hats. The set includes 12 graphics in color and 8 in black and white. Find the Witch Hats clip art here.

Hope you like them,

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Walmart Gift Card Giveaway {Plus a $300 VISA GIVEAWAY}

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I’m happy to team up with my Freebielicious friends for an AMAZING giveaway that you will LOVE! We all need a little extra money to buy supplies for our classrooms, right? Well, that’s exactly what we are giving away. Money!!! Make sure to read all about it in this blog post 🙂

My Part of the Giveaway

I’m giving away a $25.00 gift card to a store that has EVERYTHING for our classrooms: Walmart. Whatever the project may be, Walmart will have the supplies that you need. There seems to be a Walmart in every town in the U. S. It’s a household name. Can you imagine how much money we spend there? If you do not want to spend your own money there for classroom supplies, make sure to enter this giveaway. 
Please enter with integrity, using the Rafflecopter below. I’ll choose a winner a week from today.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Big Freebielicious Blog Giveaway

But, wait! There’s more!
As teachers, we know how much money you spend for your classrooms. There’s always a need for supplies, books, project preparations, etc. Don’t spend any more of your own money this year! Enter our $300 Visa gift card giveaway on our Freebielicious blog! 

To enter the BIG GIVEAWAY, click HERE or on the picture!

Many More Gift Card Giveaways

While you are on the Freebielicious blog, check out the other giveaways by our authors. Here is a sample of the gift card giveaways that you might like to enter.

Good Luck!

               
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FREE Font: LB Wheels On the Bus

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I have a new font today. It’s a fun bubble font with a few bouncy letters. I hope that you like it!

FREE for Personal Use

You may download the LB Wheels On the Bus font here.

Commercial Use License

You may download the One Font License here.

Phonics Fonts License

If you bought my Phonics Fonts Pack License, you may use this font for commercial use. If not, you MUST buy the ONE Font License above in order to use it in commercial use products.

Font Sample

Let me know if you like it. Just leave a little feedback in my TPT store 🙂

Enjoy!

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