3rd Day of Winter - Writing Activities

Aren't you just loving all these wintery freebies? I feel like it's Christmas all month long!

Brrrr! It's winter. Hope you're keeping warm where you are. It's Gary from ScrappyGuy Designs. I am joining up with two other amazing Peaches to bring you some fun Writing Activities to help you weather the final days before Winter Break.

Today I present to you TACKY, the Penguin. If you have not encountered these fantastic tales from Helen Lester you are definitely in for a treat. I use it with my Fourth Graders and they always get a chuckle out of this character.

Tacky is an 'odd bird' who is nothing like his counterparts on the ice floe. The others all have perfect singing voices, walk perfectly in tune together, and all look perfectly the same. Well, not Tacky. Tacky favors loud Hawaiian shirts and slapping people on the back while belting out, "What's Happening?"

For some fun writing activities, you could have the students:
*  do a character map on Tacky
*  gather adjectives to describe Tacky
*  create a venn diagram comparing him to Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect
*  write about what other special talents Tacky could have other than the cannonball
*  put Tacky in different situations and see how he would solve them
*  rewrite the ending of the book
*  create a sequence of events that happen as the hunters arrive
*  use some of the great sentences in the book as Mentor Sentences
      *  Quotations
      *   Apostrophes
      *   Commas

But my favorite idea I found on the internet was to have a Tacky Day where the students all get to dress up as Tacky the Penguin.

Then you can have them dress a Tacky cut out for a bulletin board and call it "Odd Birds Unite!"

I love teaching Tacky books because they help build great community as we learn that everyone has something to add to the group. Even if someone dresses or looks a little funny, they could be a very important part of a team.

Oops, before I go. Here's a little freebie from me to you! Happy Holidays.

 

 

 

 

Have your students write about why Santa should hire them to be his newest elf! You can use this with just about ANY holiday book! Check out these suggestions here!

 

 

We love the holidays in Kindergarten and gingerbread activities are among our favorites.  There are so many writing opportunities during this time of year, but I found one that I absolutely love.  It’s called a Wall Story and you can use it with any book. Each student creates an illustration and writes text for a certain part of the story. Then they are put in order and displayed on a wall.    The awesome teacher from Kindergarten is a Fun Place To Be posted these pictures on her blog.  The Wall Story is a great way to write collaboratively in the classroom. Click on the image below to read her post.

Check out this Gingerbread writing freebie!