Can you crack the code? Put the letters in order and find a secret message from PBS KIDS' Martha Speaks.

Romantic quotes are special because they awaken our hearts and can be shared with a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife.

Sometimes You Have To Play The Role Of A Fool

There's no more perfect time for a letter writing unit than in December. Who wouldn't want to learn how to write letters in order to send one to the jolliest man of all?! After reading books with letters, bringing in examples, learning/labeling the important parts of a letter and writing some class examples together, it was time to write our very first "official" letter. We talked about the importance of asking and not telling when we were brainstorming the sequence of our letter. In their letter they had to include 3 things: something nice to say, something they need, and something they want. They also had to tell why they needed/wanted what they were asking for. We wrote our rough drafts on day 1 after brainstorming ideas above. "This year I need underwear." Awesome! On day 2 we added our "because statements" and copied it onto our final draft. Once all of our friends were finished, I put them inside this envelope and we sent them down to the office to be mailed out to the jolly old man. And because Santa is such a jolly old guy, he will write letters back to each and every one of your kids! This is the BEST part of the whole process. The joy is unimaginable. I wish I could share pictures of their faces and comments from the past. After they each get their letter, we sit in a circle and if they can read their letter they do, if not I help them out. You can find my Letters to Santa pack in my TpT store by clicking on the product image below! It includes 25 editable letters you can personalize to each student. The majority of the letters are typed...all you have to do is add each student's name! Spread the joy and magic of Christmas to your students!

Anwen Crawford on the letters of Sylvia Plath, from 1940 to 1956, recently published in a new volume.

"How do you spell ______?" Oh. my. word. I get this multiple times daily and sometimes it just drives me nuts! Our district implemented a new phonics program this year and I am really liking it, mainly because it is teaching me a lot of rules I never knew of (guessing I didn't grow up learning a phonics program)!! This week we began learning all about 'r controlled' vowels. We focused on -or and -ar this week. One activity we did involved sticky notes, and let me tell you...I'm so proud to know that my firsties *love* sticky notes just as much as I do! They had the opportunity to generate -or and -ar words, write them on a sticky note and then record them on our word charts with markers. {Best Teacher Ever moment} Here are our final products from the past 2 days. Each day we have a lesson targeting a different skill. The program we teach with uses markings. The students have to "prove" the sounds that the words make with these markings. I dictate a word and they have a whiteboard (lined paper in a sheet protector) to write their answer down. So much better than paper and a pencil!! ----------------------------------------------------------- Now onto the giveaway! My friend Lisa Mattes over at Growing Firsties has reached 400 followers and has an AH-ma-zing giveaway going on. She has over 9 great bloggers giving away some magnificent products and may I just mention a $25 Erin Condren giftcard....hello pretty planners! Head on over to her blog to congratulate her and enter her giveaway before it's too late. 

Hoge kwaliteit poster met quote gebaseerd op een kopie van de illustratie van Ernest Shepard voor het boek "Winnie the Pooh" van Alfred Milne. Ik bied ook een vergelijkbare print aan met een ander lettertype: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1441493307 En ik bied deze print ook aan als digitale download: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1692943947 ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ FRAME NIET INBEGREPEN De lijsten en andere decoratieve items op de afbeeldingen worden alleen weergegeven voor weergavedoeleinden en zijn niet inbegrepen in de aanbieding. ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ MAAT ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ ☛A3: 297 x 420 mm (11,7 x 16,5 inch) ☛12 x 16: 297 x 400 mm (11,7 x 15,7 inch) ☛11x14: 280 mm x 350 mm (11″x14″) ☛10x12: 250 mm x 300 mm (10″x12″) ☛A4: 210 x 297 mm (8,3 x 11,7 inch) ☛8 x 10: 200 x 250 mm (8 x 10 inch) ☛6 x 8: 150 x 200 mm (6 x 8 inch) ☛5 x 7: 130 x 180 mm (5 x 7 inch) PAPIER ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ Canson® Mi-Teintes® (160 g) Je kunt kiezen uit twee kleuren papier: VINTAGE: dit is een warme en vrij donkere wittint, die sterk lijkt op de kleur van oud vergeeld papier. ♦WIT: gewoon wit:) Zeer mooie, een beetje warme, zeer heldere wittint. VERZENDING: ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾ LET OP DE GESCHATTE VERZENDTIJD die staat vermeld onder de beschrijving van elke listing. ➤ Alle bestellingen worden standaard verzonden als prioriteitsbrieven (geen tracking), maar als je wilt dat je bestelling wordt gevolgd, laat het me dan weten in een bericht wanneer je de bestelling plaatst. ✷ Houd er rekening mee dat in het geval van een aangetekende (getraceerde) zending de handtekening van de ontvanger vereist is om de zending op te halen. Dus als de postbode niemand thuis aantreft, laat hij alleen een bericht achter dat het pakket wacht om te worden opgehaald bij het dichtstbijzijnde postkantoor. Let dus op de tracking en notities die in je mailbox achterblijven. ✷ Nog iets BELANGRIJK. Het blijkt dat Canada Post en Australia Post momenteel geen aangetekende zendingen vanuit Polen volgen. Daarom worden zendingen naar deze landen alleen gevolgd door Polish Post totdat ze Polen verlaten. Het enige wat ik in deze situatie kan doen, is een terugbetaling garanderen als je bestelling niet binnen de door mij aangegeven tijd arriveert. ➤ Alle bestellingen worden verzonden door het staatspostbedrijf, d.w.z. eerst door Polish Post en vervolgens door het staatspostbedrijf van het land van bestemming. Bijvoorbeeld USPS in het geval van de VS of Royal Mail in het geval van het VK. ➤ Alle prints van 8 x 10 en groter worden verpakt en verzonden in een kartonnen koker met een diameter van 8 cm of 10 cm, afhankelijk van het aantal bestelde prints. Afdrukken in het formaat 5 x 7 zijn verpakt in een met karton beschermde luchtkussenenvelop. Als de bestelling meerdere afdrukken betreft, inclusief formaten groter dan 5 x 7, worden deze allemaal samen verpakt in een kartonnen koker. ➤ Ik accepteer retourzendingen van elk artikel binnen 30 dagen na de oorspronkelijke aankoopdatum voor een volledige terugbetaling. Artikelen moeten in de originele staat worden geretourneerd. Bedankt voor het kijken naar mijn shop. Voor vragen kun je mij een bericht sturen.

Enticing children to think about what they read.

In much the same way as my reading workshop, I begin writing workshop with a foundational unit on sentences and paragraphs. That's right! Before students are ready to begin writing various genres, they must have those basics down....how to write complete sentences and simple paragraphs. Let's face it, learning to write complete sentences is not that fun, so I like to incorporate lots of activities to help teach this concept besides just sitting and writing - we play games, use interactive PowerPoints, and more! Once these foundations are in place, we move on to our first writing genre. I usually start with Friendly Letters because it's FUN!! There are so many ways you can use friendly letters and students are usually familiar with them already. To teach friendly letters we use lots of games, interactive PowerPoints, picture books, songs and practice, practice, practice!! Read-Alouds I am a HUGE believer in reading aloud to children as much as possible. I can't even count the number of read-alouds that I use in a typical day....for every subject, for sure! I could spend all day reading aloud! :) Some of my absolute favorite read-alouds for friendly letters include: I usually use this book as an introduction of the many reasons we write to people. It has actual "mail" to open and read, such as letters, invitations, thank you cards, etc. If you read First Day Jitters at the beginning of the year, this one is a must since it is the same teacher and class. Students will make that text to text connection! (And, there's a Last Day Blues book you can read on the last day of school!) This is one of my absolute favorite books! I love the illustrations and the closings of the letters are cleverly written! I double dip with this book and use it again for my persuasion unit, but the students don't mind...they love it, too! And, the author has a follow-up that we love, too (though not quite as much!) There are several of these fairytale letter books. The letters are quite lengthy so you probably wouldn't read the book in one sitting, but it's a great look at perspective in addition to letter writing. There are a ton more....but these are some of my favorites. Do you have favorite read-alouds for teaching letter writing? I'm always looking to expand my collection! Songs We also love to sing (though this teacher needs LOTS of help!) Some of my favorite letter writing songs are below. Feel free to download these freebies for use with your class! Activities One of my favorite games to play is Around the World with Friendly Letter Parts. You can find it and all of the other friendly letter resources I use at Teacher's Clubhouse. Here's a close up of one of the foldables completed. I absolutely love this project and it becomes a super handy resource that students keep in their writing folders. They draw themselves and label the parts of the letter and on the inside they write their address, various headings, closings, practice their signature, and write prompts to help them when writing the body of the letter. Another foldable that I couldn't live without is the letter/envelope that prints on one side of one page. It saves prints and keeps me from having to purchase envelopes. It's perfect for our school mail delivery system! Celebration Our big culminating project for this unit is our Flat Stanley Project. After reading the book Flat Stanley, students find a friend/relative in a different country, state, or city to send a flat friend to - we discuss how it would be too expensive to travel to visit them, so they create flat replicas of themselves and travel in an envelope just like Stanley! Students write a letter to this person, address the envelope, and take him/her home to mail! Then, the friend sends him back with a letter about his/her adventures! Students get so super excited about waiting on their very own mail to return to school! You can find these resources here if you're interested. We also create our very own postcards out of index cards - super easy! Students address the lined side and illustrate the blank side. We then send them to their parents....students are so excited when they actually arrive in their mail at home! All posts in this series: #1 - Writers' Notebooks #2 - Writing Workshop Schedule & Story Tees #3 - Publishing #4 - Friendly Letters #5 - How-To Writing #6 - Persuasive Writing #7 - Writing Memoirs/Personal Narratives I hope this gives you a little insight into our friendly letter unit, and maybe a new idea or two! I'd love to hear about your favorite books, songs, or activities for teaching friendly letters!

Need some inspiration for writing letters to the child you sponsor? Look no farther than your calendar! Here are ideas based on holidays and seasons.

A poem by Shel Silverstein from the book "Falling Up"

If these next 3 months of school aren't the BEST time of the year, than I'm not sure what is...well ok there is this one day called the l...

You might just need some real talk quotes about relationships to help you gather more perspective about love. It helps to broaden your outlook on romance.

Hebetude usually suggests mental dullness, often marked by laziness or torpor. As such, it was a good word for one Queenslander correspondent, who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Weekend

These words describe the emotion and actions of love, yet are difficult to translate.