Back to School Writing Idea

I just found another classroom book, which reminded me of a fun back to school writing activity I thought I would share.

After President Obama was elected, a little boy in the class across the hall brought in a life size cut out of the President.  It was unnerving exciting to see President Obama pop up in our school all day long, as you can imagine.  I borrowed him for a few minutes to take some pictures with my class.  'The President' was so gracious- even though nobody acknowledged his personal space, and he was innocently groped quite a bit- anyway- once I had the pictures. I decided we would write a book of questions to send to him. We wrote a letter at the beginning of the book from our class. My class was most excited to learn that HE lived on Pennsylvania Avenue and our school was on Pennsylvania Avenue-(only a few short states away! :) 

 The children each told me what question they would like to ask the President.  They each signed their name on the bottom ( but I cropped them out of these pictures.)  Here are some of the questions:

This question is very telling for this little sweetheart...  He just "wondered..."

Sometimes they forgot and thought he was Santa.

Or maybe God?! 

We got a letter and a picture back from The White House in late May.

(again- my picture would not come out right- sorry it's so bright or something...)

The class was very excited! It took quite a while for a response. If you want to write to someone, it is probably best to do it early in the school year to give lots of time for the response. 

I always want to try writing to Disney characters. What a FUN idea!

This is from Couponing To Disney:

Did you know that you can write a letter to a Disney character and get a postcard in return? There are 2 addresses that you can send your letters to.

Disney World will send you an autographed postcard when you write a letter to the following address:

Walt Disney World Communications
P.O. Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

Disneyland will send you an autographed postcard when you write a letter to the following address:

Walt Disney Company
Attn: Fan Mail Department
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521

The picture will arrive with 4-6 weeks.

Each child may write his/her own letter and will receive a postcard.

I think this took me back to my TV Star Photo Collecting days.  I had SO much fun checking the mailbox each day to see if anyone wrote back. In "those days" I received signed 8x10 photos- and lots of personal letters.  It is a great way to work on letter writing- with a reward at the end.  The anticipation every day was a reward for me! :)

Have fun!



Back to School Prezi for my Canadian Friends!

My new friend Jackie asked if I would make a Back to School Prezi for which featured 'Oh Canada,' for my Canadian friends. She sent me some videos she would like included and I added a few more- so here it is! :)

I added 'Oh Canada' with lyrics, sung by Nikki Yanofsyk before the Olympics, and sung in sign language. I also included the Canadian Sign Language ABCs and several songs to teach about Canada.

It is free at my TPT store.  I also made a Fun in the Fall Primary Prezi for Canada .

And still have my Fun in the Fall Primary Prezi for United States.

 

 

 

Here is the description of the US Prezi at my store:

This Prezi is a  zooming poster FULL of information, videos, songs, stories, activities, and links to everything FALL for a primary classroom. It is a great way to incorporate Science and Social Studies into your classroom, as well as generating ideas for Writer's Workshop. Just click on a topic and have all those resources at your fingertips! Underneath the title are songs about fall. In the Prezi, I have included the following sections: 1.Back to School- which includes songs, online stories, the Pledge of Allegiance (saying, singing, and signing-regular and slow motion) The Star Spangled Banner, Grand Old Flag, a crayon box with videos of how crayons are made, a pencil box with videos of how pencils are made, Pinterest links, and activities/links for The Kissing Hand; 2. Why Leaves Change Color ; 3. How Does a Pumpkin Grow? -includes videos, a lifecycle chart, songs, stories- and some bonus bat and skeleton songs/stories for Halloween; 4. Apples- which includes videos of the lifecycle of apples/apple trees, songs, making applesauce, cider, and donuts, and Johnny Appleseed videos; 5. Monarch Butterflies-which includes activities, lifecycles, videos, a male/female chart, and links to great sites about monarchs; 6. Columbus Day; 7. Election Day- which includes 4 videos and 3 online stories about elections( Duck for President, If I Were President, Grace for President); 8. Veteran's Day- with videos explaining Veteran's Day to children.
Each section also includes a link to Pinterest boards/pins for that subject for easy teacher access to more activities and ideas.  

For Canada, I just took out sections 6 through 8 and replaced them with songs to teach about Canada's provinces and territories, as well as a different flag and National Anthem. :)

 

Have a great night!

 

 

 

 

 

Environmental Print Freebies!

I love starting the year with lots of environmental print for the children to read.  They dive right in feeling like such proud readers. 

I made several simple environmental print books last year to use.

They are very "well-loved" and I wanted to reprint them- then realized they were on my computer that crashed and is GONE. :(   Plus- I know... they are Comic Sans. haha.  But even though I now have many fun, new, and exciting fonts on my computer- Comic Sans will still always have a special little place in my non-techy, old-fashioned heart.   I still remember the joy of having a typewriter that had a correctable typewriter ribbon- or one of these- so...

 (I probably used it after I walked 5 miles uphill both ways to school one day...)

 

Anyway- moving on- 

 



I wanted to find some new books to copy and laminate to add to my collection- and I found some wonderful freebies at TPT I thought I would pass on to you!  (I figure after the weekend, everyone is probably ready for some freebies and out of money after the sales... )

This I Can Read Environmental Print book is at Jennifer Knopf's (Herding Cats in Kindergarten) store. 
It has 8 pages and 42 different pictures.
        
Mine is all laminated and ready to read! Thank you, Jennifer!

Next are some fun Environmental Print ABCs by Joey Barnes.
 
Thank you, Joey! I made these into another book.

This Environmental Print Alphabet by Missy Gibbs looks awesome! I just didn't print it out because I didn't have enough ink at home- but I love it and plan on printing it out next. Here are some of the sample pictures:


 Anna from Gluesticks and Giggles  has this freebie of  Environmental Print for Classroom Use in her store which would be great for word walls, too:
 

Kelly Haynes has a cute   "I like" environmental print book freebie at her store.

         

Keller Kindergarten has an Environmental Print ABC Chart freebie.

     

Abby Boruff  offers this Environmental Print Emergent Reader freebie.

 

Mrs. Paulson's Class has this Colors Easy Reader freebie. Here are some sample pages. This is great because the kids are always looking for the way to spell those colors!

 

 

 

My all time favorite environmental print freebie find was... drumroll please...  this Environmental Print  I Have/Who Has Game by Gluesticks and Giggles.  I really can't wait to play this with the kids!  I was so excited to find it. 

 
Here are some of the cards that I printed out and laminated:

 

I hope you found some things you can use in your classroom.

 

Have a great day!