You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

I had an idea.

A wonderful, awful idea.

This week, we've spent the week focusing on my favorite story How the Grinch Stole Chirstmas.

The first day, we read the story and then compared it to one of my favorite Christmas movies-the 1966 animated version.

Video for those who are nerds and don't have all the TV Classics (including claymations!) ;)


Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas [1966] (Classic) in Family | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com.
Before we even started, we talked about comparing and contrasting.

Then, we listed things we noticed in the story.

Video time!

After that, we listed things that we unique to the movie.

Off to compare and contrast! I asked them for 5 things in each section.

Those that were finished, started doing a description of the Grinch-I left it totally up to them on how they described him.

The next day, we worked on character traits of the Grinch.

I put a Grinch on the board, and we listed traits-with backing up our thinking as a whole class.

Then, they did their own character sheet-showing how the Grinch changed from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

BTW, I got the Grinch description sheet and character change sheet from Fun with Firsties-good for all ages!

Since I did get the sheet from a lower grade, I added a little bit extra for my kiddos-I wanted them to tell me what made the Grinch change.

Students also had to FAST the Grinch  in their Reading Notebooks.

On Day 3, we worked with the song- You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

I printed out the lyrics, and found a video that had them all in it!


We worked with pulling out adjectives first-highlighting them. Then we underlined and labeled different types of figurative language.

Student had an adjective sheet to do (from Jivey!), and they had to pick one of the figurative language sections and illustrate it.

And there's is so much more that you could do with this book-and all of these activities tie into the CC as well! (We only did 3 day because we had a dance thingy rehearsal/show on Thursday, and our party is on Friday!)

Have a happy holiday! (Don't be a Grinch!)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Holiday Poems

One of my favorite things to do with students this month is ...Nicole Shelby's Holiday Sensory Detail Poems!

This year, I did it a little differently.

First, I reviewed the different sense that we could use.

Then, I brainstormed a bunch of things that went along with each sense (although I used the 4th of July to model!)

The students then decided that they wanted to brainstorm in partners words/things that they associated with the holiday season (some asked if they could focus more on Christmas, and I said that it was fine)

(I had offered them partners, trios or quads. I picked their partners from my stick bin)

Of course, some were more organized...

than others...

After they brainstormed, we did a gallery walk and I let them add words if the wanted

I gave them on of the sheets from Nicole's pack, and had them brainstorm words (independently) that they wanted to use in their poems.

Then I modeled a very simple poem on the board-and had them do the same on the back of their paper.

After they finished, we talked about how boring that poem was, and how we could make it better-with revisions, adding in more details and figurative language.

Now it was their turn!

They revised their poem, and then went to their final drafts. They had their choice of papers, or they could do it on plain and decorate it.

Some wonderful poems!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Five for Friday

Happy Halloween!



We did Multiplication Monsters last week with a sub :)

They turned out so cute!
Our Mentor Sentence book is I Need My Monster, which we have been doing some cool visualizing with.

I love this book-you should definitely get it if you don't have it!

We did Diane's Candy Corn Math-they worked so well together! (And were super disappointed when I said I didn't have enough for them to eat-made for a little bit of a happier teacher-no off the wall bouncing!)

Funnily enough, when I put the totals on the board, I was pleasantly surprise...

I don't think I could have planned that better! I just grabbed handfuls and put them into bags-how cool is that! :)


We'll be starting our Rocks and Minerals lessons soon. We have someone come in from a local naturalist center to teach it.

To start it off, we talk about cookies! I had the kids make a list of ingredients that you find in a chocolate chip cookie.

Then we came together and we shared our ingredients.

We talked about how you can't see all the ingredients in the cookie. I explained that cookies are like rocks, and you can't see all the ingredients in them. So if the cookie is the rock, the ingredients are the minerals!

They'll be learned a lot more about minerals and how to classify them and study them. This was a good intro to a really fun set of lessons!

I need some advice! I'm working on my seasonal tree series, and I need some opinions of which set to go with.

Set One-

or Set Two-?

I *think* I have a preference, but would like some double-checking! Thank you!

Have a scary one!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Workshop Wednesurday: Seasonal Writing

Happy (Wednes)urday!

I'm linking up with Jivey for her Workshop Wednesday (on a Thursday)...because someone forgot to take pictures yesterday ::looks around room innocently::

One of my favorite 'Winter' writings is combined with a tricky subject-How To writing!

Except we do How To Make a Snowflake!

I use 3rd Grade Thoughts Packet to help.
The kids always enjoy it, and my favorite part is having them give their paper to a friend to see how well they wrote it...do their snowflakes turn out the same?

I always start out by modeling the first few steps...then it is up to them!

It's always hilarious comparing the two snowflakes side by side-the kids realize how specific they need to be!

Another one of my favorite Winter activities is to read Snowflake Bentley  and then do Snow Similes! (I got this so long ago that I forget where it came from...but it's a very fun activity to do!)

I left that for the sub to do one Friday while I was enjoying Lucy Calkins :) - the kids told me they liked it!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn