beginning middle end story activities,

1-2-3 Come Do Some Mitten Activities With Me

Do you read The Mitten by Jan Brett?  It's one of my favorite winter stories and perfect for all sorts of sequencing activities

activities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, venn diagrams, comparing the hat with the mitten, graphic organizers, Venn diagrams, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenactivities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenWith the aid of the materials provided for teachers on Jan's site, I designed 5 activity packets that cover all sorts of standards.  I hope you enjoy them.  They are today's featured FREEBIES and have been very popular downloads.

activities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, venn diagrams, comparing the hat with the mitten, graphic organizers, Venn diagrams, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenactivities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenHelp students retell the Ukrainian folktale, by making this cute mitten slider. This is a simple way to review sequencing too.  Graphics copyright janbrett.com

activities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenThe Language Arts Mitten packet also provides sequencing practice. 

My kiddos loved making the mitten paper plate pocket to keep their things in.

This 24-page packet is chock full of activities that cover a variety of standards and includes:

  • Move Over Please, So I Won't Freeze an emergent reader booklet, which reinforces lots of Common Core, especially ordinal numbers and verbs.
  • A mitten paper plate pocket "craftivity" students make to keep all of their mitten-related work in.
  • A set of ordinal number pocket cards
  • A Mitten Matching card game, where students match the animal character to the animal's name, or the ordinal number position it had in the story, or all three: i.e. the word mole, picture of the mole, ordinal number card 1st-first
  • Ordinal number character assessment strip with answer key.
  • 2 graphing activities
  • 2 mitten writing prompts
  • Several mitten worksheets, including one that covers rhyming words + more verb-work. (Great for Daily 5 activities.) and ...
  • A certificate of praise bookmark that can be used to play another game.

activities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenactivities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenAnother Mitten Literacy Packet, includes more ordinal number-sequencing practice that will help your kiddos retell the story, including a "beginning-middle-end" graphic organizer.

There's also a worksheet  where students label the parts of a book, plus pocket chart cards for character, setting and event.  I've also included 8 bookmarks to prompt retelling the story.

activities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenAnother interesting way to review the story and practice end punctuation and capitalization at the same time, is with The Mitten Pocket Chart Punctuation packet.

You can do this as a whole group activity with laminated cards (give students a dry erase marker for them to make corrections) or give each child a card to fix, by rewriting it on a sheet of scratch paper, then sharing their corrections with the class. 

activities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, venn diagrams, comparing the hat with the mitten, graphic organizers, Venn diagrams, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenactivities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenFinally, Venn diagrams are a quick, easy and fun way to introduce students to the concept of comparison-contrast writing

They're great practice if you've already done so, and especially perfect for visual learners.  

There are 3 in the Mitten Venn Diagram packet to choose from. 

Do one as a whole-group activity to explain things, (compare mittens and gloves) and then give students a choice of the other two. (Compare two characters in The Mitten, or compare the story The Mitten with Jan Brett's other story The Hat.)

To see a short (3 minute) YouTube video featuring Jan Brett click on the link.  Another fun video (11 minutes) features Jan showing children how to draw a hedgehog.

activities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, venn diagrams, comparing the hat with the mitten, graphic organizers, Venn diagrams, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenactivities to go with Jan bretts books, the mitten activities, end punctuation activities, ordinal number activities, capitalization activities, pocket chart cards for the mitten, mitten crafts, graphic organizers, the mitten book, activities to go with the mitten, sequencing a story, common core mittens, end punctuation practice, Venn diagrams, venn diagram comparing the mitten, story cards for the mittenThanks for visiting.  I hope you found some extension activities to do with your mitten theme. As for me, it's time to help my grandson pick up Toys R Us that seems to have deposited itself all over my office.  Wishing you a day filled with contentment.

Cute quote: "If kisses were snowflakes, I'd send you a blizzard!" -Unknown

 

1-2-3 Come Do Some More Cat In The Hat Activities With Me

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, I love the hat that Dr. Seuss created for his cat.  It's the perfect vehicle for all sorts of interesting activities.  I've designed a few more for today's article that cover a variety of standards.  I hope you enjoy them. 

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, I've had a few requests for more place value items, so I designed the Cat Hat Place Value Mat activity.  After running off the hat template, you can make it more durable and add some red to the hat,  by gluing it on a sheet of red construction paper, then trim and laminate.

Run off the number tiles on Seuss colors like red, yellow and turquoise.  Each number needs its own color.  Laminate and trim. 

I would do this as a whole group activity, so every student needs 10 of each of the 3 kinds of number tiles.   Store the set of 30 tiles in a Ziplock snack Baggie and make a class set.  By having 10 of each in the Baggie, you’ll have extras incase students lose one.

Have students take turns calling out 3-digit numbers.  Using a dry erase marker, children write that number on the hat brim and then put the correct number of tiles in the appropriate columns.  This is a quick, easy and fun way to whole group assess.

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, The packet also includes a certificate of praise.  Click on the link to view/download the Cat Hat Place Value Mat

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, For more math fun with the cat's hat, I designed a How many ways can you show a number, Popsicle stick activity.  There are several ways to use the Seuss Hat for different number games. 

Students can put the "How many ways can I show the number ______." hat brim strip, on their hat and then place all of the Popsicle stick equations, that make that number, on their Seuss hat.

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, Children place the Popsicle sticks on the hat in such a way, that they look like an ABAB striped pattern.

Students can show addition and subtraction as pictured, or to expedite things, just addition OR subtraction equations.

This is an easy and fun way to whole group assess a variety of concepts. 

I've included number tiles from 0-120 with a blank sheet for you to program with even higher numbers.  I've also included pages so students can work on fact families.

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, Besides using the hat for math, I made a few hat activities for language arts.  The Cat Hat AT family slider, is a fun way for students to see the various AT family words that they can make by pulling on the "slider."   Click on the link to view/download the Cat Hat AT slider craftivity.

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, I will read... is a hat bookmark that can be used as a writing prompt.  Share my example with your students and challenge them to write verses of their own. 

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, I've alluded to a variety of Seuss books in my poem. "I will read with Mr. Brown; I will read upside down.  I will read with duck feet; I will read because it's neat."

Challenge your students to figure out which books I've used.   Click on the link to view/download the I Can Read Dr. Seuss bookmark-writing prompt.

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, After reading The Cat in the Hat, review story elements with this Cat in the Hat language arts packet.

The packet includes pocket cards, a beginning-middle-end graphic organzizer, plus sentence strips to sequence the story. 

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, Students arrange the sentences in the correct order and glue them to their hat. 

Click on the link to view/download the Cat in the Hat story elements packet. 

Finally, because the punctuation pocket cards have been so popular, I decided to tweak this idea, and make the "cards" into stripes for the cat's hat. 

cat in the hat activities, seuss activities, cat in the hat crafts, common core seuss, common core cat in the hat, seuss crafts, seuss centers, place value activiities, grammar activities, seuss bulletin board ideas, seuss poem, cat in the hat bulletin boards, math games, seuss games, seuss math activities, fact families, elements of a story, graphic organizer templates, math centers, math games, seuss games, seuss math games, Run off the cat hat template on red construction paper. 

Run off the sentence strips on white copy paper.   Students underline the letters that need to be capitalized and add punctuation.  They cut their stripes and glue them to their hat in an ABAB pattern, leaving room so that the hat will look like it has alternating red and white stripes. 

If you want, have students re-write the corrected sentences on the red stripes.  So that each students' hat could be different, I made up 108 sentences from a variety of Dr. Seuss stories. 

Completed projects make a nice bulletin board.  A caption could be: "Hammer, slammer, whammer; ___________'s class really knows their grammar!"  Click on the link to view/download the Cat's Hat Grammar "craftivity" packet.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  To view more Seuss activities, scroll down for other articles and more Dr. Seuss FREEBIES.

"I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells." -Dr. Seuss

1-2-3 Come Figure Out Story Elements With Me

Making The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Dangler is a fun way to help students reinforce their understanding of content, as well as the following Common Core State Standards: L.K.2a, L.K.2b, RF.K.3a, RF.K.3d, RF.1.1a, RL.1.2,W.K.7,SL.K.2, RL.K.2, RL.K.3

The very hungery caterpillar activities, Common Core State Standards:L.K.2a, L.K.2b, RF.K.3a, RF.K.3d, RF.1.1a, RL.1.2,W.K.7,SL.K.2, RL.K.2, RL.K.3lessons for the very hungry caterpillar, eric carle activities, caterpillar activities, butterfly activities, sequencing a story, story elements, beginning middle end of a story activities, concepts of print activities, free common core for kindergarten, free common core for 1st, common core writing kindergarten, common core writing 1st,

The "craftivity" is an interesting way for students to show their ability to retell a story, as well as a gauge for the teacher to see if anyone needs help with comprehension.

The smile is the title of the story, and the circle is about characters and setting. The leaf with the egg on it = the beginning of the story, the apple = the middle of the story, and the 3D butterfly = the end of the story.

After reading the story, review concepts of print with your students. Discuss who the characters are, where the setting takes place, as well as what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the story.

When students can identify the important events from the beginning, middle and end of a story, their reading comprehension and writing ability improves.

This knowledge helps a reader understand how organization, sequence, and plot make a good story, so they hopefully will include it in their own writing.  (It's been said that "Good readers are also good writers.")

Here's How To Make The Hungry Caterpillar Dangler:

Cut lengths of yarn for each child. So they don’t get knotted, fasten them to a paper plate with a bottom and top slit cut out. Lay the yarn between the slits.

Make the eye, nose and antennae templates by cutting out the patterns and tracing them on an old file folder.

Older students can trace and cut out their own pieces, but it really expedites things for little ones, if these are already pre-cut by a room helper.

Run off the body parts on construction paper. To save paper, each child gets one body part. To hang them together simply run a piece of yarn across the back and tape each section to it.

I like the more finished 3D look of giving children two of each body section. To attach, they flip their pieces over and put them in a line with ½ an inch of space between them.

Children rub glue on the back, lay the yarn on top and then glue the other half over it. I wanted the leaf to be 3D, so I only glued half of the leaf together, and let the other half stick out.

To represent a butterfly egg, I fastened a mini white pom pom to the right side of the leaf with a glue dot. I also wanted to make the butterfly 3D, so I folded the wings up on either side of the thorax.

The very hungry caterpillar dangler headRub glue on just the thorax area and press the other thorax over it. Fluff the wings and they will look like the butterfly is flying.

Pass out the pieces to the children. They fill in the information and assemble their Story Dangler. Punch a hole in the top of the head and make a yarn loop.

If you want to cover even more standards, have students add another circle or make a heart to tell why they liked or did not like the story, or compare this story to another caterpillar or butterfly story and state which one they liked better.

These look adorable hanging from the ceiling (if you have front and back pieces) or hung in a row on the wall if you used Scotch tape.

The very hungery caterpillar activities, Common Core State Standards:L.K.2a, L.K.2b, RF.K.3a, RF.K.3d, RF.1.1a, RL.1.2,W.K.7,SL.K.2, RL.K.2, RL.K.3lessons for the very hungry caterpillar, eric carle activities, caterpillar activities, butterfly activities, sequencing a story, story elements, beginning middle end of a story activities, concepts of print activities, free common core for kindergarten, free common core for 1st, common core writing kindergarten, common core writing 1st, Click on the link to view/download The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Dangler.  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

For another Very Hungry Caterpillar activity, scroll down to take a look at the next blog article.

"Garbage in, is garbage out! Pay attention to what you read, listen to, and watch." -Unknown