When it gets close to Christmas and winter break, it gets tough to help students stay focused. So here’s one winter language arts activity that will help you review some grammar while celebrating winter holidays! Click here for the free printable PDF: Grammatical Poetry- Winter
Here’s what the page looks like:
I’m definitely not an expert on disabilities students may have. So, I’ve been trying to find out more information. I’ve been looking for some good fact sheets about the most common disabilities; and, I scored the jackpot! These are from the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (which, sadly, last lost funding and has closed). Their free online resources will only be available until September, 2014. So, I downloaded all the disabilities fact sheets, because they’re really helpful and easy to read. Here they are:
Deafness and Hearing Loss Fact Sheet
Developmental Delay Fact Sheet
Emotional Disturbance Fact Sheet
Intellectual Disabilities Fact Sheet
Learning Disabilities Fact Sheet
Multiple Disabilities Fact Sheet
Other Health Impairments Fact Sheet
Speech and Language Impairments Fact Sheet
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!! Print this page off and let your class (or Thanksgiving dinner guests) Brainstorm something (noun) they’re thankful for. Maybe give them a few minutes to see how many they can letters they can write something down for (1 word per line/letter). Then share your answers. (If you’d like to play this game the Scattergories* way, it would be fun too…) Click here for the free printable worksheet: Thankful for Nouns
*Scattergories is a creative-thinking category-based party game (Milton Bradley Co.). The objective of the game is to score points by uniquely naming objects within a set of categories (Thanksgiving, in this case), given an initial letter (or one for each letter), within a time limit.
I absolutely love the paint section at Lowe’s. The colors are just so fun! So when I saw the swatches, I just had to grab some and turn them into a craft. And here’s what I came up with (just in time for Thanksgiving!):
It was super simple so you can do it with even young kids and it didn’t take very long. You’ll need some paint swatches, brown construction paper, scissors and glue or tape. First, I trimmed off the part of the swatch that says the paint name. I recycled those pieces so they wouldn’t accidentally end up on my turkey. I used a paper cutter, but students can use scissors, since it’s not very much cutting.
Then I made strips by cutting the remaining parts of the swatch. Depending on the original size of the swatch, you’ll end up with more or less strips (or feathers). I’d have kids each cut up 1 or 2 swatches and then share the resulting feathers with kids around them so everyone ends up with a variety of colors.
Then I cut out the shape of a turkey’s body. This is part of the fun (ending up with different sized/shaped bodies) so just have your kids make their own if they’re old enough. If they need some guidance, have them draw a small circle on top of a bigger circle (kind of like a snowman) and then cut out the outside only.
Then attach the feathers together (in groups of 4 or 5 feathers each) at the bottom using tape or glue. Tape’s faster, but glue works too. Once you’ve attached a few feathers together, stick them to the back of the turkey. Keep doing this until you feel you’ve got enough feathers. 
Then draw a beak, eyes and wings on your turkey and add some legs with the remaining brown construction paper. And that’s it. Easy-peasy Thanksgiving craft for kids!
If you’re looking for extensions for this craft, have your kids make a graph showing how many blue feathers, green feathers, red feathers, etc. are on their turkey or at their table. Have your students write a character description of their turkey or use spelling/vocabulary words in a story about their turkey. But whatever you do, have a great Thanksgiving!
Here’s a fun opportunity to discuss parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective)… all relating to turkeys! Your first, second and third graders will love this one. Click here for the free printable worksheet: Thanksgiving Parts of Speech
Here’s a fun twist on practicing parts of speech that came to me (*last minute*) the other day, but I thought I’d share it with you anyway… I combined the “color by number” idea with some basic parts of speech skills and ta-da! Hidden turkey just waiting to be revealed! Click here for the free printable worksheet: Turkey Color by parts of speech
Click here for more fun and free Thanksgiving stuff for kids!
Since it’s “thankful season,” let me first thank my family (especially my hubby) and friends for all their support as I’ve been building this blog. A HUGE thank you also goes out to those of you who have spread the word about my blog! I truly appreciate my readers and those teachers around the world who help the rising generation achieve their full potential.
Here’s my free printable Plural Nouns- Thanksgiving UPDATED worksheet! It asks students to change singular nouns to plural by adding -s. There are no irregulars on this worksheet, so this is a great page for second grade (maybe with teacher help reading the words) or third grade. This would also be helpful for ESL or ELL students who need some extra practice with plurals. Happy Turkey Day!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Use this free worksheet in your first, second or third grade class to teach common and proper nouns. Click here for the free PDF: Thanksgiving common vs proper nouns 2
Click here for last year’s Thanksgiving common vs. proper nouns worksheet!
Squarehead Teachers 