It's Movie Time! Where's the Popcorn?

This is a fun creative writing activity that my students beg to do again and again. Here’s how it works. Print the character sheets on white paper, and the setting sheets on yellow paper. Cut them out and put them in a popcorn container. (I fill most of the container with crumpled paper before I put the character and setting pieces on top.) Cut the slips of paper out, then crumple them  to form individual pieces of popcorn.

Now comes the fun part. Let the children take turns picking one yellow and one white piece of popcorn. When they open them, they will have a surprise character and setting to write about.

Who wouldn’t love writing about a pirate in a fancy restaurant or a clown fish by the railroad. When you do it again, just reuse the pieces. It is unlikely they will get the same combination again. There are 16 settings and 16 characters. Just click on the picture to get your free download today!

Enjoy!

My New Obsession

As you can tell by the fancy widget on the right, I have a Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I do not want this blog to become a giant advertisement, but I have to let you know the positive impact it is making.  But first, my Monday Freebie!

Ta da!  This is one of my favorite writing tools I used in my classroom.  It has a secret weapon I will explain in a minute.  The purpose of this template is to have students organize thoughts for a paragraph.  The students put their main idea in the "cloud" on top.  Then they write three supporting ideas in the boxes below.  Finally, they write their conclusion sentence in the cloud on the right.  The conclusion is meant to restate the main idea, so that is why they are basically the same shape.

 

Now for the secret weapon.  In standardized testing, students are given a blank page to prewrite their thoughts before drafting and the final draft.  Soooo, after a few weeks and the students are comfortable with the first page, I give them this...

 

And then this...

 

 Until we reach this...

 

The students visually remember the template and slowly I take away some of the support so they can have a clearly organized paragraph independently!  If you would like the free download, click on the first picture or click here.

 

On to my new obsession!  What has amazed me about Teachers Pay Teachers is the community of support.  There is no feel of competition between stores.  You can ask for feedback on the forums and receive well thought out responses that help make your products even better.  Teachers Pay Teachers requires each store to upload a free product in order for teachers to see the quality of their work.  Many teachers give much more than that.

 

I plan to link a Teachers Pay Teachers product I think might be helpful every Monday as well.  The first one is created by 180 Days of Reading.  This is a quick and easy game that can go into center time in a flash!  It has 6 templates covering all of the short vowel sounds as well as a page that mixes it up for a challenge.  Enjoy!