All I can say is “Awwwww!” ...and that’s exactly the reaction I hear when someone sees our Chickapig writing display. It is so stinkin’ cute to hear about what a six year old dreams of doing someday! 🖤🖤🖤 Check these out...
Hey Brian Calhoun...this little guy ⬆️ might be in the market for one of your cool guitars before long!!
...such big dreams these kiddos have!! Can’t wait to see them follow those dreams!
Hey y'all I'm back with more LITTLE JOE CHICKAPIG talk! If you read my blog post last week then you know about this "treasure" that I stumbled upon at Target. If you missed that post, then just sit back, watch this quick little video introduction and then let me tell you a little bit about it...
Last week I found the most amazing resource for teaching young children the importance of following your dreams... LITTLE JOE CHICKAPIG: A Story About Following Your Dreams! It was released earlier this month & is sold exclusively at Target right now. It is so stinkin' cute!! ...and that plush CHICKAPIG toy...irrisistable!!! Omigoodness!
Soooo...just what is aCHICKAPIG??? Hmmm...CHICK---A---PIG?? That's exactly what I was thinking when I spotted this thing perched up on that shelf in Target the other night. Then I opened up the book and... Ta Da!!!...my question was answered.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! What a cute and unique little dude! ...the perfect character for this story. This adorable rhyming book is written by Brian Calhoun and illustrated by Pat Bradley and Brian Calhoun. In addition to being the author of this book, Brian Calhoun is also a well-respected custom guitar maker. He has apparently made guitar for famous stars, including Keith Urban, Jason Mraz & Dave Matthews just to name a few! WOW!!! He sure knows how to follow his dreams-from guitar maker to children's book author! Rock on Brian!!!
LITTLE JOE CHICKAPIG has a very clear message that ALL children need to hear: Follow your dreams, whatever they may be. (And, as adults, I think its important for us to be reminded of this from time to time also.) As C.S. Lewis said, You are never too old to set a new goal, or to dream a new dream. Some days I'm still trying to decided what I want to be when I grow up! lol ;) As a teacher, I believe that instilling courage & confidence in my students gives them the power to accomplish anything that they set their mind to in this big 'ole world.
What message can kiddos get from this book?
1. Follow your dreams.
2. Have courage to try new things.
3. Listen to advice from your parents, teachers & other grown ups in your life.
4. Work hard.
5. Never give up.
I am so in love with this book & the message that it sends! I really wanted to find a way to extend my students' learning so I decided to create a few extension resources to compliment the story of LITTLE JOE CHICKAPIG. I made several versions of "Follow Your Dreams" writing prompt to match your students' writing levels. This writing craftivity can be easily differentiated for kinders, firsties or 2nd graders.
I used the beginning writer version with my kinders. Here is the finished work from one of my littles...
Just in case you're wondering, this kinder wrote: I want to drive a big monster truck and go to the Monster Jam. This sweet little guy has come so far with his writing this year and all he ever talks about OR writes about OR draws about is monster trucks! I was definitely not surprised to see this was his dream! So darn cute!!
This book is truly one of my favs! I highly recommend that y'all get out and make that Target run & grab yourself a copy! And don't forget to always FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!
P.S. Be sure to look for the little cow on each page of the book!
I'm back for one more quick post tonight to let y'all know that I've just done updated some of the graphics on my "Lil Leprechaun Cuties" writing craftivity & data collection pack. I'm super excited for that tricky little leprechaun to visit my classroom next week. If you're looking for a fun writing craftivity for your kiddos, check this out!
[If you have already purchased this pack please head back over to my little TpT shop to download the new updated version.]
Hey y'all! Just had to share a few more pics of my Read Across America Week...
These little Seussy kiddos turned out so stinkin' cute! I just love reading why the students would OR would not like that crazy cat to come to their house. One of my sweet littles wrote "Yes cuz I would say take my brother away in the Thing box." LOL
Click on the pictures to check out everything that's included in THAT CRAZY CAT Writing Craftivity. I would love to hear what your sweet littles have to say about that crazy cat visiting their house!
Hey y'all! When our first team was planning for this week, we couldn't believe the forecast of snow!?! Who would have thought that the first week of March would bring us yet AnOtHeR snow day??? Well....snowday #13 came on Monday! {And we even got the call the night before, so... NO alarm clock for me Monday morn! Woohoo!!!}Which meant that a few of our fun activities had to be put on hold but, we were still able to pack lots of silly seussy learning into our 4-day week. These firsties are really working hard on their writing...capital letters, punctuation, adding details, using descriptive words.......all that good common core stuff! One of our favorite activities was imagining that silly cat making a visit to our own houses. Omiword! Now that inspired some writing!!!
Would love to hear about your seussy fun!!! Next week our eggs will be arriving {so exciting!} AND the forecast for this Monday is 70 DEGREES!!! Gotta love that good ole Missouri weather!!! :)
Omiword! I am soooo ready to say goodbye to winter! We have had 12 snow days so far...YES! I said 12!!! And don't get me wrong, I LUV snow days, but now I'm ready for some flip flop weather y'all!!! :) This week we are closing out the month of February with some dental health fun and this is one of my favorite writing craftivities:
What does the tooth fairy do with all those teeth? Well, if you're lookin' for some super cute responses to this question, just ask a first grader! They come up with some of the cutest darn things!!! This lil tooth fairy pattern & writing reproducibles {plus oodles more} are all included in my Dental Health Fun unit. Just click on the pic to check it out!
And don't forget to click on the "preview" button at my TpT shop to download this lil emergent reader FREEBIE!
It's time for all those turkeys out there to run and hide! My firsties just LOVE helping these poor lil turkey birds out. I like to send home a Thanksgiving family project-the kiddos get a construction paper turkey & have to disguise their turkey so that it does not end up as Thanksgiving dinner! These always turn out so darn cute. {Ours are due back on Monday & I will be sure to sure their creativity with you!} You can find the patterns, directions & parent letter for this fun project in my Turkey Time Fun unit.
We are also looking forward to working on our 1st grade super writing skills with this fun Turkey Writing Craftivity. Click on the pic to check it out!
And all this turkey time fun just wouldn't be complete without reading this hilarious story! I just luv LOVE this fun book-Hope your kiddos do too!!!
Click the pic to check out the writing craftivity!
It's that time of year when turkeys begin hiding to avoid a guest appearance on the Thanksgiving table! Poor little birds! Well, my firsties are ready to help them out...after reading "Turkey Trouble" by Wendi Silvano, we came up with different things that we could eat for Thanksgiving Dinner besides turkey. Then the kiddos put their persuasive writing skills to work to convince everyone to say "NO" to eating turkey for Thanksgiving. And omigoodness do they come up with some hilarious reasons to leave those poor turkeys alone! I can't wait to hang these in the hall! If you would like to check out this writing craftivity, just click HERE or on the pic above. {K-3rd Common Core Standards are included in this packet.}
If you're looking for more fun Thanksgiving activities, check out my Turkey Time Fun unit. It's full of oodles of activities & centers!
Click here to check out to check out Turkey Time Fun unit!
Since pizza and grilled cheese seem to be popular Thanksgiving dinner choices with the kiddos, we will be doing some fun data collection activities! Click HERE to check out my post about our fun Thanksgiving data collection activities!
This past week has been a real HOOT!! {Hoot Owls that is!} The kiddos loved making these fun owl glyphs & then writing sentences about themselves. These make a super-cute fall display also!
My firsties LOVED listening to the story "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell. If you are looking for a great story for making text-to-self connections, this it the one! Baby Owlet Bill is a real hoot! The kids LoVeD him!
If you would like a copy of this sentence writing reproducible that goes along with the owl glyph, just click on the pic below, then click on "download preview".
FREEBIE! Click here, then on "download preview"
The Owl Family Glyph that goes along with this & much more is included in my Owls & Woodland Animals unit.
Hey bloggin' buds! Just wanted to give you a lil peek at my Bat Craftivity...
Isn't that face just ADORBS?!? My son doesn't seem to mind me using his face on all of my craftivities, but I bet that will change some day! {For now, I just have to promise him a trip to the bakery before school.}
I can't believe that it is already Parent-Teacher Conference time for us this week! I feel like I've been racing around like a crazy woman trying to get everything together. Doesn't it seem like everything seems to hit at the same time??? We only have 3 1/2 days of school this week and we are celebrating Red Ribbon Week, the 50th day of school, Grandparents Day, having a Book Fair AND having Parent-Teacher conferences!!! And that cRaZiNeSs continues into next week with Halloween! Whew!!! Well, with all that said, I wanted to give you a lil sneak preview of my bat unit since I probably won't have time to post our pics of that until next week sometime. So if you would like to check out this super silly bat craftivity plus oodles more literacy activities, just click on the pic below.
I also want to give a super big shout-out to Nikki over at Melonheadz for creating the super cute bats & spiders clipart bundle for me-you're the greatest! THANKS!!! Hope y'all have a great week!
