Saturday, November 2, 2013

Thanksgiving Interactive Notebook Activities to Spark Student Motivation & a Pin It to Win It!




Happy November, Friends!

I can't believe how fast the time is flying! :)

I am so excited to be linking up with my good friend Joanne for her Sparking Student Motivation Linky! Every Saturday she has awesome ideas for getting students motivated! Be sure to check out all her fun ideas on her blog!


Today I want to share a way that I get my kids excited about reading and grammar skills and incorporate the holidays at the same time. I absolutely LOVE interactive notebooks!!! I started using them last year, and fell in love with how simple, fun, and effective they are. All my students' learning is organized and accessible in one notebook for each subject. It makes it so EASY for them to look back when they have questions, and it makes it EASY for me to help them take ownership of their learning. 

Okay, so many of you know that I love cutesy stuff! And you know that I LOVE the holidays! And I LOVE interactive notebooks! But, I also LOVE teaching and coming up with ways to incorporate the cutesy and the holidays with Common Core Standards! 

So...........I put all of these LOVES together and came up with Holiday Themed Interactive Notebook Activities to use when teaching reading and language arts skills. But, I didn't want them to be limited to just one book or one text so I created them so that I could use ANY text I wanted! 

I have created a Halloween set and a Thanksgiving set. My students loved the Halloween activities! And I am so excited to start using my Thanksgiving activities this week! (I'm working on my December set now!)

For example, I wanted to teach a lesson about character traits and using text evidence. But, I also wanted to use one of my favorite October books, Stellaluna. So, I pulled out the character trait flipbook from my Halloween set and together my students and I recorded our thinking in our reading notebooks. 
Then, I wanted my students to independently practice this same skill but with another of my favorite Halloween texts- The Spider and the Fly. So, they were able to use the same foldable but with a different text! They loved it because they were familiar with it, and it was fun. And I loved it because it was a great and easy way for me to assess who was able to make inferences about character traits with text evidence.  :)

We are using these flip books to review grammar skills- because, yes, my fourth graders are still having trouble remembering what a noun is, or a verb, or a conjunction, etc... The flip books are easy to use but also motivating....more fun than a worksheet (yes, I still have to use some worksheets, but these graphic organizer flip books are a great tool for introducing and reteaching skills!)

I am looking forward to using these Thanksgiving activities this month with my favorite turkey books like A Turkey for Thanksgiving and Turk and Runt.   

 

There are lots of ways to use these interactive notebook activities- previewing, introducing, reteaching, as an assessment grade, in a center, for partner work, etc.... So, I guess it is sparking student motivation, but ALSO TEACHER motivation!  :)
If you would like to win these Thanksgiving Interactive Notebook Activites, please
PIN IT TO WIN IT!  
I will choose 2 winners on Monday!  Good Luck!
Here's all you need to do:
1) Pin the Pack on Pinterest (please make sure it is the image directly above).
2) Leave a comment with your email and the Pinterest ID in the comment (all you have to do is copy the URL after you pin it to your board and then paste it into the comment section).

That's it!  I will use a random number generator to find 2 lucky winners. Thanks for entering!  :O)


Thank you for reading about these interactive notebook activites!  Don't forget to check out all the other ideas on Joanne's blog!

Have a super weekend!
Stacia  :)


34 comments:

  1. I love having foldables I can use over and over again. I'm putting both of the packs on my TpT wishlist right now. Hopefully I win though and save some money!

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/390054017698428348/

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  2. What a great looking product! Thanks for all the good you do! Sr.Glorea@gmail.com

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/200973202095142265/

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  3. How cahhute! I love the idea, Stacia - and definitely agree that students find these WAY more fun than worksheet :)
    I would LOVE a copy - Here's the link to my pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/212443307396146633/

    Thanks for your hard work! :)
    ~Jessica
    Joy in the Journey

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  4. Pinned it! I love the idea of having seasonal foldables Great idea!
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/279786195574154857/
    Ursula
    ugamler@boyertownasd.org

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  5. I love these. I just started interactive notebooks this year, and they are definitely motivating for the students!

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/253468285251390541/

    Mary
    Fit to be Fourth
    Follow me on Bloglovin

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  6. Your foldables look great! I love that they can be used with any book! And, they're great because kids think they're making a craft! LOL!
    Hoping to win!!!
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/147070744054730827/
    Thanks so much for sharing and linking up Stacia!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

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  7. Oh my! How adorable! My fifth grade Language Arts students would go wild for these. I just started using an interactive notebook with them. This would be an awesome addition to it! Thanks for the opportunity to try and win it! Here's my pin:

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/188588303119941526/

    ... and if I don't win a copy? I already have it on my wish list at TpT:)

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  8. These are wonderful! We have just started to use interactive notebooks this year. My students love them! I love that they can use them as a reference when they forget a skill we have worked on.

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/152700243589006428/

    gzimmer@lincoln27.net

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  9. I'm loving foldables this year--your's look great!

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/108227197268828109/

    erocks720@aol.com

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  10. Looks awesome!

    stacywatkins@live.com
    http://www.pinterest.com/stacywatkins34/ideas/

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  11. I love interactive notebooks too! Love that you can use these pages for any text!

    http://www.pinterest.com/egoliff/school/
    egoliff@earthlink.net

    emma

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  12. Love the idea of using them with any text! (And the cuteness factor appeals to me!) Pinned here http://www.pinterest.com/pin/442126888389672832/

    Fingers crossed...

    tokyoshoes at hotmail dot com

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  13. Such a creative and fun idea for incorporating the reading and language arts skills during the holidays! I'm hoping I'm your lucky number :o) http://www.pinterest.com/pin/467881848758649495/

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  14. Love them! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/300544975104292642/

    Diane

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  15. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/22940279325477182/

    Thanks
    four_girls_momma@yahoo.com
    jkennedy2@wcpss.net

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  16. Love the foldables!
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/199565827211612660/
    Thank you!
    Toni Nicholson
    chief9937@Yahoo.com

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  17. These are so cute!!
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/192810427770391795/
    jenny.glinka @ gmail.com

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  18. I love these! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/144185625543718937/
    Stephbrachtenbachatgmaildotcom

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  19. I love your ideas! So creative---thanks for sharing!

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/185632815864258577/

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  20. Thanks so much for these! I used the Halloween interactive from you and my class loved it! I would love to use these with my class! Awesome! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/193232640235518446/
    Deb
    maxeysjl@defnet.com

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  21. I absolutely love this. My kids will go ga-ga. Thank you so much.
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/40110252905406044/
    Oh, and I am a different Deb from the Deb just above me.

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  22. Just found your blog and tpt store. Love the idea of this. Would love to win it! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/214835844697992794/

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  23. Thanks for this great opportunity to win a fabulous pack! :)
    pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/339599628122777441/
    email: maryh.lester@hotmail.com

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  24. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/93590498479772885/
    kmhteacher@yahoo.com

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  25. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/186055028329449224/
    kim.combs@pfisd.net

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  26. Love, love the interactive notebook! Pinned it - http://www.pinterest.com/kimbain/holiday-happenings/
    kbain1955@gmail.com

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  27. I absolutely love this interactive notebook! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/339458890634510143/
    katienussbaum87@gmail.com

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  28. Love this!
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/285908276317519917/
    lyndeehenrichsen@yahoo.com

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  29. I would love to try these out in my class!
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/204843483024799319/
    brittneymae119@gmail.com

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  30. These are super. I need to beef up my Thanksgiving resources. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/368239707003018380/
    messin4th Heather White

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  31. Super cute!
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/158329743123677030/

    Kayla
    Rooting for Third Grade
    crei9070@vandals.uidaho.edu

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  32. These are excellent!!

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/474003929502187609/
    6unicorn@optonline.net

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  33. Thanks for sharing! Post! Thanksgiving is coming up and Thinking of what else to do during Virtual Thanksgiving? Here are the best Thanksgiving team building activities and games to play with office coworkers.

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  34. Wonderful blog! What do you think of when you think of Thanksgiving? Personally, It is a way to spread happiness via food. Virtual Thanksgiving Ideas is the opportunity for discussion with your loved ones. With these ideas, we can share that spirit of gratitude with the other group you spend the most time with—your coworkers!

    ReplyDelete

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