Literacy Anchor Charts

Halloween week just about wiped me out! It started with a parade/party/storyteller combo that could knock any teacher right out. Then I read a post by Kristen from A Teeny Tiny Teacher that totally freaked me out. I've been feeling shocked and sorry for her all week. She really should get an award for sticking with the profession after that spooky Halloween disaster. Love ya, Kristen. I'm the wife of a wood shop teacher, so we count fingers on a regular basis. If you read it, then you'll understand why I was all  freaked out.  To top it all off (as a result of my competitive curse), I've had to spend a lot of time campaigning for votes for the Circle of Moms Top 25 Teacher Mom blog list.  I'm not sure if it was the energy I spent campaigning or the kid who sneezed right in my face at the reading group table this week...but my week ended with a fever.

I'm feeling better today, so on to the teaching stuff... I've been making anchor charts with my students to help them brainstorm for writing activities. Here are two of my favorites from our recent writing projects.

After reading several scarecrow books, we did a scarecrow writing project. The book we read on this particular day was The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown.

It's a little hard to see the words the students wrote in the boxes, because I made them use a pencil.  But, as the class thought of words to describe a scarecrow the words were added into the boxes.  When we finished brainstorming, they completed their own writing project about scarecrows.

We also made an anchor chart when we read Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley to work on developing mental images.  I read the book without showing the students the pictures.  The students drew their own big green monster based on their mental images.  The students shared their own monsters as a group.  Then, I reread the story and we made the anchor chart together.  The students drew the picture and added the words on the chart.  Finally, they returned to their desks to label their own monsters.

I glue lines in the boxes sometimes.  I know...big freak.  Doesn't it look nice though?

I'm linking this post to the anchor chart linky party at Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes.  Please stop by to visit to see the other anchor charts.

If you have a minute...please consider voting for my blog to be on the Top 25 Teacher Mom blogs at Circle of Moms.  All of your votes are really helping!!  You can vote 1 time each day until Nov. 8 by clicking on the icon on my sidebar.