Halloween Writing Prompts Make Super Halloween Classroom Gifts

I love Halloween writing prompts, don't you? I can think of no other time of year when it's better to add a bit of creative writing to the curriculum than at Halloween. It's this time of the year when students can write about magic, monsters, and really any other imaginary thing they wish. In fact, they get encouraged to be creative and come up with creative stories.

Story Starters

I love using story starters during Halloween too. A story starter is a great tool to get students writing using creative ideas. A story starter provides a prompts that creates a scenario that, well, starts the story. Then students have a free license to finish the story any way they wish.

I got a bit crafty with my story starters this year and decided that they would also make perfect Halloween gifts for students. I took my story starters, added great graphics, put them on pencils, and slid on a super scary little plastic spider. It's like my own little trick or treating adventure for students. They can choose their own story starter and even use their new Halloween pencil and write away through the Halloween season.

You can purchase my black and white Halloween Story Starters {HERE} and the color version {HERE}.


Yeah!!

MYGRAFICO 50% Off Sale August 22 through 25 at Cupcake Cutiees Designs

If you are a clipart junkie like I am, you may want to check out the 50% off sale going on over at MYGRAFICO. I buy clipart from that store all the time!  I just love the clip art styles, clip art backgrounds, and doodle borders over at Cupcakes Cutiees Designs. This store is on sale for 50% off from August 22 through August 25. MYGRAFICO IS ON SALE!!!

Check out my favorites:

Backgrounds Just .50 During this Sale

MyGrafico Sale item--Retro Cherry 2.50

Cool polka dots background paper

Sock Monkey Clip art

Please click here-- MYGRAFICO IS ON SALE!!! --- to follow my affiliate links to this store. You can also become a MYGRAFICO affiliate. Click here to learn about becoming a MYGRAFICO affiliate too!

Teachers Notebook Virtual Teaching Expo's Back To School Event

Attention all teachers! Don't miss out on the Virtual Teaching Expo's Back to School Event over at Teachers Notebook. For just $10, you'll get the following super deals:

• A ticket to the event ($19.95 value)
• 30% discount on hundreds of items including my Life Cycle of  a Butterfly Glyph, my Zoo Animals Writing Prompt Craftivities, and my A to Z Stick Puppets.
• Well over $100 worth of items in the Goodie Bag (including my Parts of A Plant Sun Flower Glyph)

• Two teachers will get tickets to the event for free

I hope to see you there! Check out my Teachers Notebook Store at Sweet Tea Classroom while you are there. 

100 Top Education Blogs

If you're looking for education blogs for elementary teachers, blogs to follow for upper grades, technology blogs, pre-k blogs, or education blogs for special education, you are at the right place. This exclusive list of education blogs to follow includes a wide variety of education blogging themes, but at the heart of each blog is a teacher blogger willing to share classroom tips, classroom suggestions, and classroom resources with you.

Please take a moment to follow this educational blog too and click the list of the Top 100 Education Bloggers to Follow below.


If you're an educational blogger, feel free to add a comment below and share the link to your blog. I look forward to e-meeting you soon.

Take care,
Robin Sellers

Seasonal Glyphs for Kids Throughout the Year

What is a glyph? If you ask me, it is one of the best ways to teach across the curriculum in a meaningful and enjoyable way. A glyph is a visual representation of data.

Here's how it works. A student completes a survey that asks questions either about the child or about the topic being covered. Here's an example of a survey I use with an apple unit.

After the student completes the survey, the child uses a legend to learn how to visually display their results. For this example, I've included the legend with the survey. You'll notice that if the child is a boy, the apple will have a brown stem. This child adds a brown stem to his apple.

This particular glyph is a back to school glyph for classroom management. All the kids that ride a bus will visually display that information with a red apple. If all the apples are on a bulletin board, it would be easy to know how students go home.

When I use a glyph, more subjects are used as students tally up the results from their classmates. Then they will graph their results. Here's how I set up the tally marks and the graph for each question.

In fact, glyphs are super tools for writing prompts too. I try to use a social studies or science topic for my glyphs so that students are using these subject in a seamless integration with math and language arts.

I try to use a glyph each month. It's fun to teach with glyphs throughout the year. So far, I have created the following glyphs for throughout the school year. Please click on the images to learn more.

I use this apple glyph for back to school and this is a fall glyph to use during apple studies.

Another back to school glyph and classroom discipline glyph I have is my fish glyph. It works well as a behavior chart once it is completed.

My cowboy glyph and cowgirl glyph is a great glyph at anytime in the year. I used it with one of our cowboy reading selections.

I like this cute Valentine's Day Glyph.

This plant glyph is a super across the curriculum example. Students learn about sunflowers, math, and writing.

I love this kite glyph. It also incorporates shapes.

I even have a shamrock glyph and a leprechaun glyph for Saint Patrick's Day.

I really worked hard on this Earth day Glyph. Students use only recycled items to create it.

I have several spring glyphs and Easter glyphs too.

One of my favorite science glyphs is my Life Cycle of  a Butterfly Glyph. This glyph also includes shape and color recognition.

Thanks and enjoy! Robin

Kindergarten Curriculum including Letters, Numbers, Classroom Decor, and Kindergarten Fun

Kindergarten should be a fun learning experience. I've put together my best picks for the kindergarten curriculum in my Kindergarten Classroom Set. This set included games, puppets, a memory book, and even kindergarten classroom decor. It's full of kindergarten printables, kindergarten activities, and kindergarten fun. 

This kindergarten curriculum set includes my A to Z Stick Puppets, Alphabet Clip It Games for beginning letter sounds, Kindergarten Memory Book with Diplomas, Beginning Letters Classroom Rainbow Theme Bunting, and Rainbow Theme Bunting for Numbers 1-30 with Crayon Tally Marks.

Click {Here} to visit my store. Thanks for taking the time to explore my kindergarten resources. I wish you a successful year!

Robin

A to Z Alphabet Stick Puppets

Here's a fun way to teach pre-k and kindergarten students to recognize the letters of the alphabet and learn beginning letter sounds. I've create these A to Z Stick Pupppets as a way to integrate fun. This is a must-have product for pre-k and kindergarten teachers and it one of my best sellers.

I've included a black and white set for the students so you have a printable puppet for each letter of the alphabet that your kiddos can color. Then I included a color set for the teacher that makes a great pointer too.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-to-Z-Alphabet-Stick-Puppets

Here is a list of a few ways that you could use alphabet stick puppets in your classroom. Feel free to share more ways that you could use this learning tool in your classroom in the comments section.

There are many ways to use these alphabet stick puppets in your room.

•Let students create a new stick puppet when a new letter is introduced

•Pass out one set of A to Z letters to an entire class, and as you call out a letter, the student with that letter holds up the stick puppet

•Pass out one set of A to Z letters and let students line up in alphabetical order

•Pass out one set of A to Z letters and let students hold up their letter as you sing the ABC song

•Use them for chants. Hold up a puppet and say, “O is for …” The students say, “Octopus.”

•Use them for story starters and let students create stories from the pictures on the puppets

•Write the letter on the back of the stick and ask students to find certain pictures

•Let students keep all of their A to Z puppets in a folder and call out either the letter or the picture for the students to find for review

•Use the puppets for students to line up and spell words

You can find these puppets {here}.

I'm having a sale this weekend at my TpT Store starting on Sunday. Here's a TeachersPayTeachers Promo Code for you to use on August 12 and 13. If you use this code in my store, you can 28% off of my products. Go ahead an fill your cart now if it's before the 12th and checkout on that day for the best deal.

Plus, check out the great products that my friends are offering. We're having a blog hop to share our must-have back to school products.

Apple Glyph, Back to School Glyph, and Classroom Management Glyph

I've come up with a very educational way to manage the classroom with this classroom management glyph connection. Get your students to complete a glyph and let them display their answers. My Back to School Apple glyph will be a great reminder.

apple name tags to add to your glyph

For example, students who ride the bus home will have a yellow apple. Students who ride a bike home will have a red apple. You can post their apples on their desk or even on a bulletin board and use them when students are lining up and getting ready to go home.

 Plus, this is a two in one glyph. You can also use the apple glyph patterns with your apple units. I've added another set of questions that ask students about apples. This is a fun way to learn and have fun with math. There is a tally sheet and graph for each question too. You can also choose to use the coloring page or the apple patterns. This Back to School Glyph is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store {here} and Teachers Notebook {here}.

Enjoy!
Robin Sellers at Sweet Tea Classroom