Teacher Tales: What's Your Favorite Thing?

I know you've said it; the "I should write a book" statement gets used by us all.

After all, kids say and do hilariously inappropriate things. Especially little kids though.

You know the classic tale of the kid who seems to draw a picture of his mom at work accepting money from strangers, right? She supposedly sells shovels at Home Depot, but his picture looks like something far different...

Yeah, that one.

Well, I recently found myself in a situation similar to this, but the specific event really - and I mean REALLY - hit home. Our Goddaughter is a first grader and she's brilliant; definitely a gifted learner if I've ever seen one.

At our Mother's Day lunch her mom showed off her most recent artwork. With what we already know about her, we usually anticipate something impressive, something far beyond her age that she's managed to accomplish before all of her peers.

And, interestingly enough, we probably can now say she really did do this before her peers...

At first sight my reaction was, "WHAT?! What IS that? What ARE those?!"

HORSES.

Her favorite animals are...horses!

Whew. I was worried for a minute. Now, I find myself relieved. When her dad asked her why the horses look like that she said, "They're like cartoon horses!"

Yes, sweetheart. Yes they are! 

Synonym Puzzle Activity - Digital Download

This puzzle idea was something I originally found through another TpT'er, SunnyDays, who listed FREE Synonym Puzzle Squares. I loved her idea so much, but I needed more activities as I wanted to create 5 stations within my room with this activity.

So...I created my own!

This Synonym Puzzle Activity pack includes 5 different puzzles and one game board template. To make the activity, I printed these on card stock (with 5 separate game boards), cut them out as necessary, and laminated (during my conference, yes!).

{Click here to download Synonym Puzzle Activity.}

My students really enjoyed working on them! I plan on making some Antonym Puzzles for Thursday, as well. I think it's such a fun way to reinforce content with students. They love working in small groups and rotating around the room. I love to watch them interact this way, too!

I think they would work great in my guided groups, as well. Each student could have their own puzzle board to work with. I know they're also idea for literacy stations in my room, too! Independent, fun, & valuable!

If you'd like your own Synonym Puzzle Activity pack, please visit my TeachersPayTeachers store & download. I want you to know how much I truly appreciate your support of my TpT store. It's nice to have some extra money (that I end up putting right back into my class because I can't resist)!