Creative Writing for Monday Made It

It's my favorite Monday of the month...Monday Made It that is!  Oh, I just love Tara's crafty linky party!  Her blog, 4th Grade Frolics, is where I found the inspiration for my first project.

I've been looking high and low to find creative and fun ideas to motivate my 4th graders to write this year.  I'm hoping to inspire their creativity and help them to develop their inner author.

In order to motivate students to write at home I decided to make 2 creative writing take home journals.  To kick off these journals I introduced our 2 new class pets!

Aren't they cute?  They are FurReal Friends and move when you push their backs.  Their little tail wiggles and their head pops up and down.  Adorable!

During writing, I have been passing out good behavior tickets to students who have been working hard and putting their best effort into their writing.  Students simply write their name on the ticket and it goes into our weekly drawing.  On Friday, I draw 2 names and these students win the opportunity to bring one of our class pets, and journal, home for the weekend.

Their task is to write about our class pet's Hip Hoppin' Adventures while they are home.

I created a journal cover, direction page, and good behavior tickets that you can snag at my Teachers Pay Teachers store for free.

I've also been busy creating a lot of writing prompts for students to use if they finish their work early throughout the day.  To start out with, I created Gingerbread on a Stick prompts as part of my Gingerbread Writing Centers pack.

They are quick and easy to put together.  Students just grab one during their free time and start writing!

I also created some Christmas Cookie Writing Prompts.  You can download them for free!  I picked up a cheap plate from Dollar Tree and Glued on this sign.

I printed, laminated, and cut out the Christmas Cookie Writing Prompts, and placed them on the plate.  When students finish their work early they can grab a cookie from the plate.

How do you motivate students to write?

For more fun December ideas check out Monday Made it!

1st Day of School

I survived my sixth 1st day of school teaching 4th graders.  I must say, I am one lucky teacher.  My class is amazing!  They are lively, energetic, full of personality, and loads of fun.  This is going to be a great year.

Here is a play by play look at our schedule for the day:

8:40  Students arrived - I anxiously stood in the hallway to greet my new fourth graders.  When they arrived, they read the morning message, found their new desk, hung their backpack off their chair, and quietly started their morning work.

9:00  Announcements

9:05  Morning Meeting / Get to Know You Activities - Our school follows Responsive Classroom.

9:30  Supplies - I created labels for each student with their name and subject.  It makes labeling their belongings a lot easier.  We just go through what they were suppose to bring, slap a label on each item, and I collect them or they place them in their desks.  If students are missing an item I use this time to provide them with it.

10:00  Student Ice Breaker - Find Someone Who .... activity.

10:25 Read Aloud - First Day Jitters (One of my favorite books)

10:45  Bathroom Break

10:55  Lunch

11:25  Read Aloud - Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing - Chapter 1 (Another one of my favorite books)

11:45  Ice Breaker - People to People Game

11:55  Reading - I taught a mini lesson on how to find books in our classroom library and how we use our book bins.  Students selected books and spent 20 minutes independently reading.  Then we grouped back together to share one good book we found in the library.

***I pulled students aside during independent reading to snap a quick pic of them holding our 1st Day of 4th Grade Frame!***

12:40  Snack - "Nuts and Bolts"

12:45  Math - Our first unit is place value.  I have lots to share about math so I am going to save it for a future post.

1:55  Art - I used this time to send a quick email to parents containing the pics we took during independent reading!

2:40  Lockers - Our school was once the middle school.  Each student, in 3rd - 5th grade, is provided with a locker and locker combination.  We spend the first few days just practicing how to open the locker and then by the end of the week we start using them to hold all our "stuff".

3:00  End of the Day Routine

3:24  Bus Dismissal Begins

Although it is hard to tell just by looking at the schedule above, a huge portion of our day was spent going over classroom routines, expectations, and practicing procedures over and over!  The hard work we put in now will definitely pay off in the end!

Congrats to my giveaway winners:  Kristin Adamson Buford, Heather Bevington, and Meghan Franklin Bennett.  You will all be receiving an email from me shortly!  Thanks to every one who entered!

I hope tomorrow turns out to be just as fabulous!  Now for some much needed rest, relaxation, and comfort food!  Can we say Pizza Hut?

1st Day Frame, Robot Snacks, & Quick 200+ Giveaway

Hurray for Monday Made It! Bless Tara's lovely blog for hosting such an amazing linkie party. You can spend hours searching through all the fabulous made-its from fabulous teachers.

This week I just had to create a 1st Day of 4th Grade picture frame.  Tomorrow (our first day of school) students will each get to pose behind this fun frame for a quick pic that I can email to their parents and/or mail home.  A bunch of these have been floating around.  Mine is modeled after one I found on First Grade School Box's blog.  I must admit, mine is not as durable as hers.  I snatched a piece of foam board from Staples, cut it out to look like a frame, and glued some letters and stars around the outside made with scrapbook paper from ACMoore.  It was quick and easy to put together.  I'm not sure how long it will hold up....but it will serve it's purpose on Tuesday!



I look a little tired in that picture....too many back to school dreams and not enough sleep.  The shadow in the background of my husband taking the pic doesn't help either....any suggestions for a good digital camera?  My birthday is coming up in a few weeks!

I also created some first day snacks for my kiddos. To coincide with our robot theme I made little bags of Nuts & Bolts (aka - M&Ms & Pretzels).  I was inspired by Wendolonia but had to tweak the baggie toppers to fit my bag size....and because I simply can not print in any more color.  My husband will pop his top if I have to purchase one more round of ink for our printer this summer.  He thinks I am turning into a print-a-holic.  You can download my baggie toppers here.  Just print them out, cut, fold them in half, and staple them to the top of some snack-sized Ziploc baggies!

Check out all the other wonderful Monday Made Its on Tara's blog!

Now...I want to take a moment to thank all of you with a mini giveaway now that I have passed 200 followers. 

Want a free item from my TpT store?  You have 3 chances to win: follow my blog, follow my Pinterest account, and/or follow my TpT store.  Already follow?  Just tell Rafflecopter that you do.

I will select 3 lucky winners to each pick an item from my store and I will email it to them for free! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hurry...my giveaway only lasts 1 day!  Enter now!