Thursday, April 25, 2013

Get the Egg!

I was digging around in the closet the other day and came across some things I had bought at Dollar Tree for Get the Egg! for next year. We already did a readers' theatre for it a long time ago, but I decided to put it in the library station this week. So they had two different readers' theatres to do. They had fun doing this one even though it's an old story. One of my students (who's had trouble all year) really was excited because he could read this one.

 


 

All the props came from Dollar Tree. They had this packet of kid cutouts and I was looking through them and I thought they looked like Brad and Kim from the story. Then later I found the fake nest with eggs and the bird in their craft section. I bought two so I'd have six eggs. They were excited about the nest.

 

 

This is the readers' theatre I typed up months ago. I'm going to have to redo it. That font! That clipart! What was I thinking? Remember when Comic Sans was cool? That's not comic sans but you get my point.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Tippy-Toe Chick, Go! Readers' Theatre

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Next week, we will be on Tippy-Toe Chick, Go! which is one of my favorite stories of the whole Reading Street series.

I made a readers' theatre for it several years ago and we act it out. They have SO much fun with this. I have some little actors, let me tell ya. They put some attitude in it!

So anyway, I drew some clipart to go with it and uploaded it on TPT today. It also has masks.

This is how I do the play in my classroom. I am the tree the dog is tied to. What I do is- I tie one end of a long piece of rope to my belt loop and the other end to whoever is playing the dog. I hold the script in my hand (the dog doesn't really need it). I tap his foot when it's time to tug and bark. Trust me, they get into the barking. Then Little Chick runs around the tree and Dog chases her. The rope wraps around me until the kid gets stuck. By this time, the whole class is going crazy laughing. I also usually let Dog be a struggling reader because they don't have to read anything and they still get to be in the play. Plus, everyone else wants to play the dog. So it gives them a chance to be successful.

Last year, the boy who played Middle Chick was hilarious. He ad libbed quite a bit. After the dog barks at him, he went running back to Hen like he was supposed to. But then he started doing karate moves at the dog. I was like, "that's not how it goes!"

Here is the link if you think your class might enjoy it. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tippy-Toe-Chick-Go-Readers-Theatre-Station-Reading-Street

First person to comment gets it for free! Just leave me your email address and I will send it to you.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Peter's Chair

Peter's Chair Freebie Readers' Theatre Station

I just finished uploading a readers' theatre for Peter's Chair. I love this story. I made my own clipart for Willie and Peter. I am having so much fun drawing. I used to draw all the time when I was a kid. I didn't intend to spend so much time on it, but that's when the OCD kicked in. I drew the dog because finding clipart of a weiner dog is really hard. All of them were brown. Then I decided to try Peter. Now it's 12:40 and I'm still up blogging. I hope I don't sleep through church. Click on the link below for a copy!



Peter's Chair Readers' Theatre

Friday, April 5, 2013

Goodbye, Mr. Troll, A Rolling You Go...


My little girl is sick today so we are at home. She is taking a looooong nap, so it's given me a chance to work on my latest project which I just uploaded to TPT. My mom used to tell this version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff to me when I was little. I wanted her to tell it to me all. the. time. It has a song in it that the goats sing. Anyway, a few years ago, we found a record at her house and it was the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The troll had a song too. I wish I could find a link so you could hear the song. I wrote it up as a readers' theatre last week and have been working on my own clipart. I bought some from melonheadz illustrations and it was very cute. But I love to draw and wanted to make my own.

 

Whew! There has got to be an easier way to make clipart. I don't have any expensive programs like photoshop. I downloaded Inkscape (free) and tried to scan my handdrawn pictures in. That didn't really work. So I drew them on the computer which I had never tried before. It took a good while, but I finally finished. I think they turned out rather cute.



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I want to make my own clipart to sell one day but I can't figure out how to get rid of the white background. Does anyone know how to turn your drawings into clipart without it taking forever? I'm sure there are programs out there.

 

Here is the link to Three Billy Goats Gruff: A Differentiated Readers' Theatre Station.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Three-Billy-Goats-Gruff-A-Differentiated-Readers-Theatre-Station

 

There are two versions- one on grade level and one for students who read on about a 1.3-1.4 level. My kids loved the Little Red Riding Hood one I made. I used it as a literacy station with only one or two kids. It was probably the only station where somebody wasn't playing. (Do your kids ever do that? Maybe it's just mine...)   I'm thinking about making one for Peter's Chair. That's our story for this week. That one might have to be a freebie. I'm not sure about copyright laws on stuff like that. But if I make it, I'll post it on tpt.

 
 
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