Our Curious George Literacy Pumpkin

It'a that time year again... FALL! Hayrides, corn mazes. Halloween... and literacy pumpkins. This year we chose to decorate our literacy pumpkin as Curious George. We used the book, "Follow That Hat!", as our inspiration, as well as my little stuffed Curious George. I borrowed the hat from my stuffed George to put over the pumpkin stem, and set the painted pumpkin on top of a glass container. I also lined the inside of the glass container with a piece of red paper that read, Curious George, in yellow letters (it was supposed to look like his shirt).

I think that it turned out really cute. My class loved it and they were so proud to have it on display in our school library. I must say, this is probably my most favorite pumpkin I have made with my classes so far... I mean, who doesn't love Curious George?

Figures of Speech

This is a collection of cute little mini-anchor charts to have in your Literacy Center or posted during Writer's Workshop to help show your students the different figures of speech, how to identify them, and examples of how to use them in writing.

I made mini-anchor charts for the following figures of speech...
- Alliterations
- Similes & Metaphors
- Onomatopoeia
- Hyperboles
- Idioms
- Personification

 click here to purchase these mini-anchor charts from my TpT store

This is going to be a great resource in the classroom literacy centers during our unit on figures of speech this upcoming school year!

Little Pig, Little Pig, Let Me In...

Little pig, little pig, let me in...

We had so much fun this week reading three different versions of, "The Three Little Pigs", and comparing and contrasting the characters, settings, and stories. First we read the classic tale of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf as told by James Orchard Halliwell-Philipps. Then we *spiced* things up with, "The Three Little Cajun Pigs" by Mike Artell. The children absolutely LOVED this book! It is written in Cajun dialect, set in the bayou, and featured Ol' Claude as the big bad gator.

Finally, we finished up the week with, "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka. This interesting tale is told through the point of view of the wolf... and the way he tells it, this was all just a misunderstanding. This was another fun story that had the children laughing and questioning whether or not the big bad wolf was ever big and bad at all.

After enjoying our three tales of the three little pigs, the children came up with their own versions of the three little ? ? ? and the big bad ? ? ? . They got to pick their own characters and settings, and I didn't even have to ask them to write at least one page in their journal... they wrote at least two pages on their own! I was so proud of all of the creative writing and hard work the students put into this writing activity. Some of the students wanted to share their stories with the class Friday, and here are some of the tales we got to enjoy...

"The Three Bison and the Big Bad Coyote"

"The Three Iguanas and the Big Bad Bird"

"The Three Cats and the Big Bad Dog"

"The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark"

"The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Snake"

They made homes of dirt, cacti, logs, rocks, seaweed, and shells. Each story shared was an amazing and creative tale... we loved them all!

What happened to my snowman?

What happened to my Snowman?

We had so much fun using our imagination in the classroom this week to think of creative ways that our snowman could have melted, and then writing all about it...

- He sat too close to the campfire while making s'mores.

- He went on a safari to Africa and melted in the desert.

- He went to Mexico to eat tacos.

- He went to the beach to collect seashells.

- He went hiking up a hill that was really a volcano!

- He was cold and drank some hot cocoa.

- He was sick and ate some chicken noodle soup.

The creative writing that came from my first graders was simply amazing! I loved their writing so much that I just had to showcase all their wonderful stories on our bulletin board!

I have included a picture of our bulletin board in this *free* download so that you can see the melted snowman that the students made to go with their writing.

I hope your students have as much fun with this activity as we did... ENJOY!

Click here to visit my TpT store and download this *free* activity