Birds On the Loose & an Insta-Linky!!!

Hi all! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer :) I've actually been working non-stop on activities for next year and have one of my favs to share with you later this post!

But first, here's one of those posts I promised that didn't quite make the cut throughout this past school year. I'll begin by confessing my love of what other's call the "dirtiest bird on Earth"...PIGEONS!!!

I flippin' *LOVE* pigeons. I get so excited whenever I see them. I just think they are so hilarious and cute...seriously, how could you not love this:

HA!!!!!!! *SO cute* 

(to be perfectly honest, I specifically googled "fat pigeon" to find this one because, personally,  I think the fatter the better!.....I need therapy a pet pigeon)

ANYWAYS, fuelled by my love of these joyful creatures, it took no time for me to drag my students into my healthy obsession with the help of Mo Willem's amazing series:

My kiddies *love* these books and howl with laughter every time we read them, so I wanted to find a way to incorporate the books in our morning literacy centres. 

I decided it would be a great creative writing and oral language development opportunity to have the kiddies tell their own version of the pigeon stories. I photocopied one of the pigeon books without the words. After binding one book per centre group, the kiddies got to work writing their funny "don't let the pigeon..." tales:

It also turned out to be a great opportunity to work on sharing, taking turns, and teamwork. After all, there were 3-4 kids and only one book. They were forced to speak constructively to each other and compromise to come up with their overall topic and all of the details within their stories.

This centre activity ended up taking us through two weeks of their oral language literacy centre {the first week was spent brainstorming and writing, and the second week was spent illustrating and editing}. They ended up doing such a GREAT job on their books that we kept the finished products in our class library to share with our peers:

 ("Don't let the pigeon hold dynamite," "Don't let the pigeon have chocolate bars," "Don't let the pigeon go dirt biking," "Don't let the pigeon go for vacation," and "Don't let the pigeon play hockey.")

After seeing how valuable this simple activity was, I ended up doing the same activity with another book later in the year. I love this activity because once you find a book that the kiddies enjoy, you automatically have an engaging and meaningful centre activity...the possibilities are endless!

Now, in the spirit of this feather-filled post, I'm going to quickly share the giant 158-page math pack I made for the beginning of the school year:

Look WHOOO'S Learning!

I can't wait to use this with my kiddies in the fall. It's packed with hands-on math tub activities, worksheets, and assessments. Each math tub activity is filled with tons of opportunity for differentiation and can therefore potentially take you through the first couple months, depending on the grade you teach and how you schedule your math block. 

Pop on over to my little TpT store if you'd like a handful of math tub activities to help get you (and your kiddies) through the first few weeks of school :)

Finally, I'm linking up with Babbling Abby over at The Inspired Apple for an adorable insta-linky!!

What does YOUR handwriting look like? Link up with @babblingabby on Instagram with the hashtag #writenowwednesday to link up:

Come hang out with me on Instagram: @funwithfirsties Meet you there!