The MonStore Freebie

I love monsters.  Each year, as Halloween quickly approaches, I hold a monster mash party in my classroom.

This year I found a fun new book to add to our repertoire:  The MonStore by Tara Lazar.

This book is about a boy named Zack who wants to purchase a monster from a store called the MonStore to scare his sister out of his bedroom. 

I created some reading and writing activities to go along with this book.  You can find them here in my TPT store.

I also created a fun math worksheet freebie for you.  Download it here.

Want more monster fun?  Check out last year's blog post about our Monster Mash fun!

Purchase my other monster theme items here.

Have a Marvelous Monstrous Day!

Mystery Day

Does your school let you celebrate Halloween?  Our school had Mystery Day today instead.  No costumes, no passing out candy, just some good ole' mystery fun.

Our PTA sponsors this day.  We kick it off with an assembly with a story teller who shares some fun mysteries. 

Later in the day students get to visit the mystery room.

The mystery room contains many fun stations such as candy estimation, guess the weight of the pumpkin, guess the smell, touch and guess (with fun objects hidden in socks), mystery boxes, and more!

We also had a mystery snack....dirt pudding.....with a mysterious worm hidden in the center of the pudding cup.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Jack Freebie

Here in New York we are standing by, waiting to see what Hurricane Sandy will bring.  Will school be closed?  Will our power be out?  Only time will tell.  Being the paranoid teacher that I am, I have been busy today writing out all my plans for this week and preparing just in case there are any cancellations.  I live about an hour away from school so there is also the chance that, for what ever reason, the storm hits hard and I can't make it to school but our school is still open.  So I have been busy preparing for any and all possible scenarios.

One book that we will be reading on Monday is Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell.  This book is great for practicing sequencing.  I've created two little worksheets for you to swipe for free.  One is short response questions that go along with the book and the other is a cut, paste, and write sequencing sheet.

Hopefully they will be useful this week with Halloween creeping up on us!  Enjoy, and if you are on the east coast...stay safe!

Monster Mash Giveaway

Today my students earned a Monster Mash Party! 

We started our Monster Mash today by reading the book, I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll.  I absolutely love the illustrations in this book.  It is filled with loads of descriptive words and is great for Halloween.  After our read aloud, students responded to some multiple choice, short response, and extended response questions.  You can find my literature pack on this book here.

Then students wrote letters to the monster under the bed persuading him to come back along with other fun monster related writing prompts.  They topped their papers with cute monsters and we used these to decorate our hallway.  You can find my monster theme writing pack here.

For math, students reviewed addition and subtraction problems with a monster match-up activity during centers. 

We ate a delicious monster cupcakes for snack and drank some juice.

We also ate a monster mash snack containing popcorn, M&Ms and candy corn while we watched a few clips from the movie Monsters, Inc.!

I created a little Friday freebie for you.  It includes these two worksheets.

      

Check out all the other Friday Freebies available by clicking the button below.


The adorable monster clipart that appears in all my new monster products was created by Krista Wallden.  Take a peak at her lovely blog, The Creative Chalkboard.  She has loads of freebies, including some monster ones!  You can purchase her Monsters Under the Bed clipart at her TPT store.

But wait, there's more!  Want to have your own Monster Mash?  Enter my giveaway to win a copy of Amanda Noll's book, I Need My Monster and all 3 of my activity packs (for reading, writing, and math monster fun).  If you win, I'll email you the PDF files for all 3 activity packs and will send the Hardcover book to you in the mail as soon as you give me your mailing address.

The monster that appears on my giveaway button is one of the many you can find it Krista Wallden's Monsters Under the Bed pack.

So what are you waiting for?  Enter now!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Can't wait?  Want to have your own monster related day (or week) now?  Purchase my monster theme items here.

Happy Friday!  Unleash your inner monster this weekend!

A Little Math for Monday Made It

For Monday Made It I wanted to share with you some of the things we made for math!

This past month we dove head first into the Common Core Learning Standards for math, starting with Module 1.  Our focus for the last few weeks has been place value.

We started out thinking about all the different ways we can make or represent a number.  We used place value blocks, other various manipulatives, and even recorded some possibilities on pumpkins.  This picture shows all the different ways students were able to make a specific number.  Each pair of students received a different number.

Then we moved on to practicing some of the different ways to write a number:  standard form, written form, and expanded form.  We choose numbers and wrote them in different ways on candy corn and hung them in our hallway for all to see.

We also compared and ordered numbers.  We colored candies in, cut them out, and organized them from least to greatest and greatest to least.  We displayed these in our hallway as well.  Our hallway was looking pretty fabulous for open house.

You can try out these activities with your class, and many more, with my activity pack here at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

 

Check out some of my other fall related activity packs on my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

       

 Enjoy! 

Check out Tara’s site for more Monday Made It fun!  What have you made this month?

Halloween Freebies

Today is my 27th Birthday!  I'm very excited it has fallen on a Sunday this year so I can relax and actually enjoy the day.

Since tomorrow is the first day of October, I figured what better day to start BOO'ing the teachers at my school.  It's simple.  Print off a "You've Been BOO'ed!" poem and door sign, purchase a spooky and fun treat, drop it off outside a classroom door when no one is around, and RUN!!!!

Let's face it, the first few weeks of school have been pretty stressful.  Add some fun to your "ordinary" school day and start a chain reaction at your school!  It's perfect for teachers, students, and staff in your building....and it's FREE!  You can download it here at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Here is an example of what I am going to leave outside a mystery teacher's door tomorrow morning!

    

And, since it's my birthday and I'm in a giving mood check out my Spooky Stationary!   You can download them at my Teacher Pay Teacher store for FREE here as well!

Two versions are included: primary lines and intermediate lines.

    

Well, happy last day of September, happy first day of October (tomorrow), and Happy Birthday to me!