Here Little Piggy!

During our Writer's Workshop time, we are in the middle of doing a "Three Little Pig" mini-unit. We started by reading many different versions of the 3 pig story, such as "The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark" or "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig". Each day we read a story and completed an activity from my new "The 3 Little Pigs: Reading & Writing Mini-Unit". I have included several reading comprehension activities, as well as a few creative writing activities. Click the picture below to check it out at TpT!

I put all my pages into a cute little booklet.

Here are some student samples from my class. On the first day I just read a regular version of "The 3 Little Pigs". We used this story elements mini bulletin board set to talk about a story map, then filled in our own story map with characters, setting, and beginning/middle/end events.

One day we talked specifically about characters and how characters can change (in "The Three Horrid Little Pigs" the pigs turn good at the end). Another day we talked about the setting and described the setting from "The Three Little Dassies". Then we spent a day talking about cause and effect and gave two examples from the story "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig".

After we read "The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark" we used a venn diagram to compare and contrast that story with the origianl version. We also got to do some comic writing by filling in the speech bubbles of the three little pigs and the wolf.

Then we did some writing activities. We wrote an alternative ending to the original story. Here's a few of them:

"The wolf got out of the pot can never came back. And they lived happily ever after."

"The wolf became friends with the pigs. And they lived happily ever after!"

Awww... I have the sweetest kiddos! They all want happy endings!

"The wolf got his revenge and turned the pigs into fried meat."

Oh... maybe not... hehe!

We also pretended to be one of the little pigs and wrote a letter to the wolf. They were pretty cute!

"Dear Wolf,

I wish you would be nice. I would like it if you would be nice. It is rude to be bad. 

Sincerely, the Pig"

"Dear Wolf,

You were a big bad wolf. I wish you can be good. Do not send a letter.

Sincerely, the Pig"

"Dear Wolf,

I wish you can be nice and won't blow our houses down. We want you to be nice for us so we will let you in our houses.

Sincerely, the Pig"

Finally we graphed which story was our favourite and wrote why we liked that one.

Next week we are going to start writing our own fractured fairy tale. I have a story map and good copy book included in my mini-unit. Students will choose different animals to be the three little ____ and another animal to be the big bad ____. Then they will pick three new materials to make their houses. I can't wait to see what creative ideas they come up with! I promise to share some pics once they are all done.

I have also put together a mini-unit for "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". This unit has the exact same activities as the three pigs, but based on different version of Goldilocks. Check it out by clicking the picture below!

Getting ready for Christmas!

How can you tell it's the beginning of December? Let me count the ways...

First up... Farley's Currently! Link yourself up at Oh' Boy 4th Grade and don't forget the rule or three.

Second... Christmas is in the air! I put up some Christmas decorations before leaving school on Friday. Even Pete the Cat, Pigeon, Gerald, and Piggie are sporting some Christmas hats. The bf and I started our Christmas advent calendars... yum! Our house has lights and some presents are wrapped. Just need a tree to bring it all together!

Third... We started our gingerbread study this week. I love reading all the varieties of stories and filling in this chart from Mrs. Jump's Gingerbread Man unit.

We read Mrs. Jump's adorable gingerbread emergent reader (free here). Instead of the students drawing themself eating the cookie, I made a large-sized gingerbread man and took their picture "eating" the cookie. The pictures turned out so cute and the kids loved seeing themselves at the end of the book!

And last... I created two new Christmas units for my TpT store. The first one is a pack of five word work centers that I plan to use during our Daily 5 time. There is stamping, rhyming, sentence scrambling, making words, and writing the room. Click the picture to check it out at TpT.

I am super excited about the second unit. It is a letter and postcard writing unit I will be using during Writer's Workshop. I plan to read "The Jolly Christmas Postman" by Janet Ahlberg. The unit contains mini lessons such as why we write letters, who writes letters, parts of a friendly letter, who to write to, what to write about, parts of a postcard, and how to write postcards. You can use this unit in many ways.... writing letters to Santa (or other North Pole friends), sending postcards to your classroom "Elf on the Shelf", or using it as a reader response and writing a letter/postcard to a story character (ie. Olive the Other Reindeer or Rudolph). Click the picture to check it out at TpT.

Happy Christmas preparations! :)