Mrs. Wilcox Is Missing! (again!)

Do you remember last year when I posted my "My Teacher Is Missing" writing assignment to leave with your substitute?  You know . . . the one where you know you're going to be absent, but the you don't tell the kids.  Your substitute tells them they don't know why you're absent that day, but you leave the writing assignment where they make a missing poster and write what they think happened to you?  Yeah, the one you can pair up with "Miss Nelson Is Missing" by Harry Allard and James Marshall.  Well it was finally time to bring it back for my class this year! 

I was a little nervous as to what the results might be after last year's stories, but I must have made a better impression this year.  (Haha!)  Last year I had several reports of my being in jail and violent endings with wild animals.  This year, most of my students said I was probably at home with my sick baby, taking the baby to the doctor, or in a meeting (since I've had SO many this year with all my students going through RTI)!  A few said what I really wished was the reason I was absent - vacation!  I did have one student say I was arrested and in jail.  One had me kidnapped by aliens who turned me into a monkey.    Great stories and cute, cute posters (which I forgot to bring home to scan).  If you want your free copy the assignment, click the sample to get it.

Word Morphing Monsters

Here's a fun take on some word study. . .

In our county we have an AKS (Academic Knowledge and Skills) that focuses on adding/deleting/substituting sounds.  With Word Morphing Monsters the monsters are wreaking havoc on our words!  They are changing letters and transforming our words into new words.  In my new Literacy Center your students will have fun tracing the steps of these mischievous monsters as they morph your words letter by letter.

This is actually putting a cute spin on word ladders.  I usually use this at a center on my metal storage cabinet.  I have my students use the magnetic letters to build the starting word.  Then they change letters as the clues indicate.  With each step students pause to record the new word created when a letter is changed.  If you don't have a magnetic letter station or prefer to do it differently, you can use letter blocks or the alphabet block cards I have included in the packet.

If you prefer to use unifix cubes, my friend over at The Lesson Plan Diva has actually done something very similar using unifix cubes!  Check hers out too!

Click on the preview below to pick up this center on my TpT.

What must they think of me?!?!

Last month I had to take a few personal days to attend a family event.  I didn't tell my students where I was going or why.  We had just come back from Spring Break and I didn't really want to get them riled up with the thought of me being out of the classroom again.  While I was out I left a fun little writing assignment for the kids.  Since they had no clue why I was out, the writing assignment said that I was missing!  It asked them to make a Missing Poster of me and to write about what happened to me. This activity would be a good pairing with the story "Miss Nelson is Missing" by Harry Allard and James Marshall. 

When I got back and read their little stories I was surprised by their creativity.  A few brought me to a violent end involving sharks or wild animals.  Some were really sweet.  And then there are the many who make me wonder what they must think of me!  Quite a few wrote stories that found me in jail at the end!  Goodness!  What impression have I given them???  The stories were all quite comical and a few had undertones of "Miss Nelson is Missing.  It's a cute little writing assignment to have on hand in your substitute folder in case you have to be out of school last minute one day.  Here are some of the stories my kids wrote.  Some decided to illustrate what happened to me instead of making a missing poster.

Here I turned into a monster . . .

Here I am in jail . . .

And here I lose my hand to a shark.  Thank you doctor for helping me!

Here I was put into jail because I was putting on makeup while driving

I love this one!  I went to the islands!

I am including a link in the picture below to download the Google Docs file so you can replace my name with yours.  I'd be interested in hearing what your kids write about you if you use this. You may want to change to a cute font as well. The font and picture box got messed up as I uploaded to Google Docs, and I don't know how to fix that if it can be fixed. =)

Or click here to go to my TpT store to download the Word version!

Hope you get some cute stories!  Have fun!