Witches Brew Writing!!

So for a couple years now, we've been doing something with Witch's Brew for Halloween in the class.  I found this cute little Witches Brew pack on Teacher's Pay Teachers (this seller also has some other great stuff!)...and since then I have done something related to Witch's Brew on Halloween.

This year we made a Class Book out of it!  It was actually my favorite Witch's Brew activity yet because I am teaching Narrative Writing and I linked it to that.  We wrote a beginning to the Witch's Brew story as a class.  This is what the kids came up with:

Then I had groups/partners work together to make their individual stories to go in the book.  They all STARTED out their stories with:

"Meanwhile (they chose characters, a spooky setting and time, and how their character's stumbled upon their "ingredient" that they chose to add to the brew)

They all ENDED each of their stories with:

"So the  (character(s)  put the (ingredient)  into the witch's cauldron and stirred the pot!"

My favorite part though, was that my kids have been struggling writing ENDINGS to their stories and this was a fun and engaging way to discuss endings of stories and we wrote one together!!  We even made the ending to our story TEACH our reader's a lesson! :)  They lead the way and our class book turned out awesome...I could not have thought of a better ending myself!  This was the ending that the kids came up with (we wrote it as a class):

I love how they came up with a "moral of the story" all on their own and definitely ended the story. Writing endings is actually what a lot of my writer's have been leaving off in their narratives and I really think that they understood it after we wrote this ending together with the Witch's Brew story!

We are going to read the class book on halloween together.  Each group will read their story that they wrote in the book with a flashlight in the dark while they add the "ingredient" that they wrote about it to the cauldron.  Then we will EAT the witch's brew!!!! :) 

Here is the cover that I made for our class book to use...download for FREE HERE

We did alter the ingredients in our Witch's Brew a bit (only to accommodate for food allergies)...these were the ingredients we used for the brew (this is the sign up I had out for Backpack Night/Open House):

Open House (and Back to School Night)

At my school, "Backpack Night" and "Open House" are two different events.  For backpack night, kids bring their stuff (right before the school year starts) and they get a sneak peak of the classroom.  I put out important sign ups and send a packet of information (and fun "get to know you" homework for the first week of school).  Open House is the night where students show off what we have been doing in school.

These are some things that I really like to have out for families on these nights.

I just fold a large piece of construction paper for a "folder" for them to take all the information that I put together for them and glue on a cover.

  

(These are cover options that I made for K-4 and put in my Open House and Back to School Night Bundle)

I also like to give them some sort of a fun treat.  This year I made some labels for a bag of gold fish saying "I'm o-FISH-ally in 2nd grade."

  

I made a couple different grade level versions that you can download for free here.

I also put out a lot of my sign ups for Backpack Night.  I get black 8x10 frames from the dollar store and put all of my signs in them.  I always put out:

-"Welcome Please Take One" with a scavenger hunt for the night

-"Volunteer Information" (a sign up with details on what they are interested in doing, availability, etc)

-"Party Treats Sign Up"Sign

-"Parent Teacher Conference Sign Up" Sign

-A Classroom "Giving Tree" Sign

When Open House comes around I put out a "Welcome" Sign with a 4x6 picture of the class (from the 1st day usually) in it.

My favorite craft that we do before Open House is definitely our "Book Recommendations.  In the beginning of the year, spreading the love of reading is so important and one of the things that has always helped my class is encouraging them to recommend books to others.  We have a "Book Recommendation Board" that we added to the class and kids have been adding books that they really love to that (I'll be sure to post about that as well).  For the Book recommendation craft, the "Back Blurb" of the book is them really bragging a book up (without giving away the ending of course).  They really got into the writing for these and took it very seriously that their job was to hook others into wanting to read the book that they chose to recommend.  The craft part was super fun too and they turned out amazing!

Another one of the crafts I like is the "Who Am I" because the parents have to guess (based on interests and portrait) who their child is.  They lift the flap to see.

This year we also made Acorns that said what we really liked about school to share with parents.

Each of the crafts and signs that I put out for Backpack Night and Open House are on my TPT page here if you are interested.

Coaching or Time Helper Sheets for Partner Reading

We LOVE Partner Reading in our room.  In fact, when the kids really understand how to talk about books with each other and help each other out, I may LOVE read-to-someone time the most.   Even better than student’s demonstrating great “partner reading” behavior is when students are actually getting to be better readers at the same time!  These Coaching or Time sheets have been crucial in many of my students helping each other select strategies when their partner is stuck on a word, and checking each others understanding before, during and after reading.

(Example of one of the sheets with fiction book questions on the back) 

 I created these sheets (printed on one page to be folded back to back for a half sheet) for kids to use during our read-to-someone time.  Usually in my room I have a separate time for read-to-someone time because since the kids really use these sheets while they read to each other and ask questions about the text, it always ends up getting to a louder volume level than I would like while I meet with groups. J  Of course that “buzzing” sound is fantastic when you hear them actually asking each other questions or suggesting a strategy.

(Example of one of the sheets with nonfiction book questions on the back) 

 There are 3 different kinds of sheets in this particular bundle:

      -Fiction Question Sheets (mostly retelling questions)

      -Nonfiction Question Sheets (about what kids have learned)

-Basic Reader sheets with basic questions and mostly pictures

All of these kinds have each color option so that you can color code which type of sheet goes with which type of group or book choice for them. Click here to see the pack 

(Example of one of the sheets for a beginning reader) 

 Click here to get these pages :)