It’s been all things literacy and Dr. Seuss during Read Across America Week. I thought I’d share some fun literacy week ideas you might want to save for next year. I know I’m always on the lookout for new bulletin board ideas and door decorations, and especially for fun writing activities to do with my students.
Read Across America Week Bulletin Board Ideas
My class thinks I’m a great artist, but here’s my secret: I made this book character by taping yellow butcher paper to my SMARTBoard. Next, I placed the book under a document camera and projected the cover onto my board to trace. (You can be a great artist too!)
To make the spots on the character, draw an oval on a white sheet of paper and copy that onto colored construction paper. Glue them to the cut out character placing some on the edges and trimming off the excess. Afterward, I outlined oval with a black Expo marker to make them stand out.
Copy the writing templates on colored paper for students to write a short paragraph about their biography. If you’d like to do this with your class, you can!
Download the FREE bulletin board title and writing templates HERE
Literacy Week Writing Ideas
This was such a fun project and I just love how it turned out. My class loved this fun literacy week activity where we “baked” a birthday cupcake. You can do this for any author, but we chose Dr. Seuss. We used my Literacy Week Author Craft to make the cupcakes which can also be made as a booklet for students to write inside.
I asked my students to think about their experiences with Dr. Seuss books and to write about what this author and his books have given them as readers.
They then wrote about a gift they’d like to give him in return. So many said they’d like to write a book for him, too.
Our birthday cupcakes made such a bold and bright hallway display and they were so fun for my class to make!
Click here to find the writing craft cupcake templates I used.
Literacy Week Word Work Ideas
We’ve been reviewing parts of speech and focusing on verbs so I came up with an idea for our door decoration. We used our Scholastic Magazines which, this week, had an article about Dr. Seuss. Since he is no longer living, the text was rich with past tense verbs.
After writing their words on the candles, they cut flames out of yellow scraps of paper.
We added the candles to our giant Seuss style cupcake that decorated our door.
In another activity, we worked with prefixes and suffixes. I made a quick set of word cards and added them, along with a hat template I drew, to our word work center. Click here to download this FREE activity plus several more printables!
We also alphabetized the titles of some of our favorite books. Students chose 10 books, arranged them on the floor in alphabetical order by title, then wrote the titles in ABC order on these fun note pads I found in the Target dollar spot a few years ago.
Literacy Week Writing Craft
Happy teaching, friends!
This is the best freebie. I love it.Thanks!
You’re welcome Cynthia!
Hi Linda,
I love the writing activity! Could you share where you got/made the writing frame? I’d love to incorporate it this week!
Emily
ESE Teacher
Hey, Linda! Thanks so much for linking up to The Primary Chalkboard! Can I just say I want to be in your classroom?? Pinned a few things! Love it!
Have a great week!
Laura
Peace, Love, and First Grade
Yay! I'm so glad your class enjoyed it, Sara!
We had a lot of fun making your cupcakes this week!
Sara
Frampton's FUNdamentals