Leprechaun Writing

I posted 2 years ago about a writing activity that I do with my 2nd graders for St. Patrick's Day.  You can read about it HERE

I have made it into a PDF file on TPT if you would like to download it.  It is FREE.

Get your FREE leprechaun writing HERE.

Here are some examples of the writings I did a few years ago.

Conversation Heart Stories

I like to do writing activities to go with each holiday.  For Valentine's Day, I have the kids create stories using conversation hearts.  This year I had them pick out 5 conversation hearts that they wanted to use in their story.  Then I had them write away and glue the hearts where they go.  This is fun way to incorporate writing.  They also love it because they get to eat the left over candy.  :)  For some reason, conversation hearts were harder to find this year.  I found some in individual packets, but thought it would be nice to have a printable version just in case I can't find them in the future.  HERE is my printable packet!  It is FREE!!!  If you don't want to use the printable hearts, you can use the stationary with the candy hearts. :)

 Here is an example with the printable hearts and stationary from my packet.

"I Can" Statements

Over the summer, I decided to retype all of the I Can statements and turn them in to cute monkey graphics.  I have a bulletin board that I change out daily.  I also have the I Can statements on poster that are kept up year round (Just in case I forget to change them and someone pops in ;) ), and I have the numbers only printed out and posted by each subject.  You could do this beside your daily agenda if you have one.  I also made one with cute kid graphics.  If you want to check them out you can get the monkey statements HERE and the kid statements HERE.

Daily I Can statement board.

Core Standard Numbers placed by each subject for the day.

 I Can posters displayed all year.

Example of one of the kid graphic posters. Sorry the picture isn't the best.  I took a pic of it off my computer.  I don't have the hard copy with me.

Groundhog Day Writing

Groundhog day is always a fun holiday to talk about in your classroom.  The kids always enjoy learning new facts about groundhogs, and they always get excited about watching Phil come out of his hole and giving us a weather report.  Yesterday we did a writing activity to go with Groundhog Day. First, I read the students Wake Up, Groundhog! Then, we talked about what it means if he sees his shadow and if he doesn't see his shadow.  After our discussion, I had them decide whether or not they wanted Phil to see his shadow and why.  They filled out a graphic organizer listing 5 reasons why they did or did not want Phil to see his shadow.  After they filled out the graphic organizer, they wrote their reasons in story form.  We also made groundhogs out of our fingerprints.

This activity will be included in my February Writing Packet.

January Writing Packet

What is the one thing on every teacher and kids' mind?!  SNOW!!!  We all hope and pray for that 1 snow day! Even when it doesn't happen, it is nice to still think about.  I put together a writing packet to get my class into the snow mode.  The packet includes friendly letters, descriptive writing, expository writing, and narrative writing.  One of the activities we did right after Christmas break.  I had the students do a snowman art.  Then they did an expository writing on how they made the snowman.  They did such a great job with this activity.  You can also have the students write how to build a snowman.  If you are interested in checking out my writing packet, you can get it at my TPT store. 

Christmas Writing

It's already Christmas time!! I can't believe how fast this year is flying by.  The two weeks before Christmas break I like to review previous skills and spend time on writing.  We have done quite a few writing projects already this week.  The first writing activity was a persuasive writing.  They had to pretend they were a reindeer and convince Santa to choose them to guide the sleigh for Christmas Eve. This is a lot like the Thanksgiving Persuasive writing. Since it was a familiar skill, they really enjoyed it and really improved.  The other writing activity we did was a descriptive writing.  They had to color an ornament and then write a descriptive paragraph.  They really enjoyed guessing who colored each ornament.  These are a few of the many writing activities that are in my Christmas Writing Packet.  If you would like to check it out, head to my TPT store or click HERE.

Thanksgiving Writing and FREEBIE!!

I know I am a little late posting this on the blog, but I wanted to be able to display my students' writing examples!

For Thanksgiving, we only have a 2 day week.  I like to do writing activities during these 2 days.  We did a narrative story, a persuasive writing, and a descriptive writing.  For the narrative story, I gave the students the prompt "Pretend you wake up on Thanksgiving morning and you are a turkey...."  All of the stories turned out so good!  This was by far the best writing they have done all year!!  When they finished their writing, the colored turkeys to paste around the paper.  You can check out our Scaredy Cats that were very similar.  For the persuasive writing, they had to choose to have Tom the Turkey or Pat the Pig for Thanksgiving dinner.  They had to persuade me to want their choice for dinner.  This was a great time to explain why we should use a variety of descriptive words instead of just using good and bad.  Finally, for the descriptive writing, they had to create their own recipe for a turkey.  The ideas ranged from chocolate turkey to a fruit turkey recipe.  They glued the pages onto construction paper to take home to their parents.  All of these ideas are in my 21 page Thanksgiving Writing Packet.  You can get it at my TPT store.  Just click HERE.

Narrative

I woke up Thanksgiving morning and was a turkey....

Persuasive Writings

Turkey Recipes

Thanksgiving FREEBIE!!!!

Have students make a bracelet with colored beads to help them retell about the first Thanksgiving.  To download the story and directions from my TPT store, click HERE.

Scaredy Cat Stories

Every year for open house I have the students write a "Scaredy Cat Story."  This is just a scary story that they make up.  I use the graphic organizer below to help them organize their ideas.  This is the first big writing project of the year.  So, the graphic organizer really helps them to develop their ideas.  They always enjoy writing the stories as I play the spooky music. The Scaredy Cat template comes from the October Idea Book I purchased from Scholastic a few years ago. Click HERE for the Scary Story packet.  (The Scaredy Cat is not included in the packet due to copyright)

Journals

I needed an activity to use when I introduced writing in with my Daily 5.  I wanted to have ready made journals for the kids so that there were no questions about what they were suppose to be doing during writing time.  Below is a free sample of my September Journal.  You can get the full journal HERE and you can also get my October journal HERE.

Part of September

Guess Who?

This is a great activity for an open house night or parent night.  You can place these on the students' desks and have the parents walk around and try to guess which one is their child's.  You can also display them in the hallway or on the board for a fun guessing game.

To do the activity, the students fill out each box by drawing a picture or writing about their favorites.  On the second paper, they glue a picture of the themselves.  Then they simply attach the 2 papers together. 

My kids really enjoyed this activity, and my parents enjoyed reading them on parent night!

You can get this activity HERE.

The Day I Was A Monkey

I got these really cute images from a coworker a few years ago.  She would have her students trace the images to create a picture of themselves.  She had a lot of images to choose from.  Since she taught 4th grade it was too hard for my second graders to do it.  So I chose a few of the images that I thought my students would be able to do.  I also changed the main body parts.  Instead of having them draw themselves, I had them draw themselves as a monkey.  (My classroom is decorated in monkeys!)  Then they have to write about their day as a monkey.  I give them the writing prompt "One day I woke up and I was a monkey..."

Stirring Up Memories

Stirring Up Memories is one of the reading stories in our Treasures Reading Book.  It is about the author Pam Munoz Ryan, her life growing up, and what it is like to be an author.  Since this story falls at the end of the year, I have the students write about their second grade memories.  I also print out a group picture and a recent individual picture of the students.  I let them create a scrapbook page with their pictures.  I always enjoy reading the stories and reading what we did that stood out to the kids. 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Need a fun writing lesson as a time filler for the end of the year!?  This one is perfect! This writing activity gives students a chance to recreate the story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  It also reviews nouns, adjectives, weather, and writing formality.  It is set up in stages so that students are able to organize their writing easily.  You can preview the lesson at TeachersPayTeachers.

How to Blow a Bubble

I found this really great lesson plan from Lesson Plan SOS.  You can download the activity for free on the blog or go to their TeachersPayTeachers website.

With this lesson, students write about blowing bubbles.  They have to explain the process of blowing a bubble.  They also practice using super duper words.  This is a great lesson that pulls in writing, sequencing, and adjectives.  My students had a blast with this lesson.  It is nice to see kids so excited about writing!!

Ms. O'Coley

For St. Patrick's Day, I give the students a writing prompt. "One morning I woke up and I was a leprechaun."  They have to write about what they would do as a leprechaun.  Then I take their picture with a door hanger of a leprechaun that I bought from Oriental Trading a few years ago.  I have them tape/glue their picture on their writing and sign the paper with their first name and add " O' " before their last name.  They always turn out cute and the stories are always very interesting.