Linking Literature with: Spookley the Square Pumpkin, The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, and The Legend of the Bluebonnet

If you have any of these three books and you don't know what activities to do with them... you're in luck! I've created lesson plans with materials, directions and examples, craftivities, interactive notebook activities, vocabulary cards and reading extensions for each of these three books. Check out the craftivities! They are fun, engaging, hands on and there's also a writing or reading template to go along with them. 

I've created interactive notebooks for math, reading and poetry journals! These are just some of the templates that I've created. There are more that include beginning, middle and end, text connections, cause and effect, life cycle of a pumpkin and poetry! 

I've created vocabulary cards for parts of a pumpkin. 

I've created lesson plans with materials, directions and examples. Each lesson plan has questions to ask your students, hands on activities, and includes the skill that you are teaching. 

                                               


                                       

If you are interested in checking out my Linking Literature packets for these books, click below! 

Linking Literature with: Spookley the Square Pumpkin Grades 1-3

Linking Literature: The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush Grades 1-3

Linking Literature: The Legend of the Bluebonnet Grades 1-3

Happy Teaching!!!
Love, Kara 

Witch's Brew: A Spooktacular Activity for Math Workstations!

If you are looking for something "spooky" to enhance your math workstations... check out my new packet! Students will be engaged and excited to use a witch's brew candy corn mix to practice making sums from 10 to 20 with three addends. Here's the materials that you need for this fun activity: 

class set of small plastic pumpkins or small plastic cauldrons
2 bags of Autumn mix- candy corn, indian corn and pumpkins
Witch's Brew sorting mat
Witch's Brew 10 frames
Witch's Brew template
Math Journal

Directions: 
Put 20 pieces of candy corn mix inside each pumpkin/cauldron
Each student gets one pumpkin or put in groups of two for one pumpkin
Hand out a sorting mat to each student
Hand out 10 frames to each student/group
Hand out the Witch's Brew template to each student

Witch's Brew template for Math Journal

Witch's Brew Template inside Math Journal

Sorting Mat and 10 Frames

Model to students how to make sums from 10 to 20 with three addends using the three different pieces of candy. They will dump out their pieces and sort them on their mat. After sorting, then students can arrange the pieces on their 10 frames to make the desired sum.  The goal is to show different addends each time for different number combinations. My students had a BLAST doing this activity and who doesn't like to use candy corn and pumpkins to count????

If you are interested in checking out my packet, click below. Hope you have a "Spooky" time with this one! 
Witch's Brew: A Spooktacular Activity for Math Workstations Grades 1-2

Happy Halloween!
Love, Kara 

Native American Customs: A Thematic Unit Grades 1-3

November is right around the corner... I know crazy right? One more month and we'll be talking about turkeys, pilgrims and Native Americans! Speaking of Native Americans, I've created a thematic unit jammed packed with fun and engaging activities in reading, writing, math, science, poetry and social studies. If you LOVE teaching units cross curricular, then keep reading and enjoy the pics! 

In this packet are 18 days of lesson plans with mentor texts.  Each lesson plan has a step by step sequence of questions, activities, extensions, materials and examples with photos and templates. 

There are vocabulary cards for each Native American tribe: Plains, Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast regions. Each set of cards include the children, shelter, food and other items. There are also cards for the scientific method, corn life cycle and parts of corn. 

There are craftivities that I've created to accompany The Legend of the Bluebonnet and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. Theres also a Squanto Mobile, Thanksgiving Placemat, Corn in the Cornfield, and a Native American Tribe student book. 

After learning about Squanto and the first Thanksgiving,

the students make a mobile to hang in the classroom.

The students create a flip book of past and present homes: a tepee and a modern day house. Under the flaps they write a list of characteristics for each home and then in the middle they write a list of what's the same about both. It's actually like a Venn Diagram but in a flip book style. 

After reading the Legend of the Bluebonnet, we discuss beginning, middle and end and the students complete their template to glue on their craftivity. 

After reading The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, the students complete their template about text connections, and glue it onto their craftivity. 

For the Native American book, the students will learn about each tribe and color pictures to glue into their book. Then complete a 4 square about the landforms, shelter, food and region. 

I've also created interactive notebook activities for poetry, math, science and social studies.

The best part about this packet???? Is the Thanksgiving Feast! Each year our students dress up like either a Native American or Pilgrim, they make a placemat to eat their trail mix and we gather in the cafeteria and recite Thanksgiving poems and sing songs. The parents come and join us and it's such a great gathering of friends and family!  Here is the placemat that I have my students make. I give them a cornicopia to color and cut out, they decorate the border with fall colored squares and then the fill out their template about what they are thankful for! Then they get to take it home and use it for their own Thanksgiving dinner! 

I hope you got some really good ideas about how to incorporate your Native American unit with cross curricular activities. If you are interested in checking out my unit, click below: 

Native American Culture: A Thematic Unit Grades 1-3

Love, Kara