Teaching Trails

My favourite writing activity for the end of October is creating persuasive and descriptive haunted house ads—written for prospective monsters! If you're looking for a writing activity your students will absolutely love, this is it! Lesson Plan: Descriptive Haunted House Introduction: I start by reading local house ads online with the class to get students familiar with how listings are written. We discuss who might be interested in these houses and what features stood out. Front-loading Vocabulary: After introducing the writing activity, I build a brain map with spooky vocabulary students can use in their haunted house descriptions. Words like “spooky,” “bloody,” “creaky,” “draught,” “cauldron,” “vampire blood,” and more. I’ll even doodle little icons (like bats or headstones) to support my EAL students. Writing: Here’s the assignment. Students are encouraged to keep these key points in mind: Audience: Who are you attracting? Witches? Monsters? Vampires? Why would this house appeal to them? Key Features: List 3-4 spooky selling points—creaky floorboards? Broken windows? Perfect! Catchy Title: Use alliteration if possible to make it pop! Students typically get 2–3 class periods to draft their 5-ish sentence ad. Once the rough drafts are done, they create their polished final copies. Haunted house artwork paired with student advertisements. In art class, we create haunted house silhouettes using black oil pastels and watercolor backgrounds to complement the writing pieces. When finished, students mount their ads and artwork on black or orange construction paper to make them stand out. Final display with writing and art combined. The creativity really shines in these ads! Students thoughtfully consider their “buyers” and craft some hilarious and spooky listings. These are the kinds of writing lessons where students can’t wait to participate! More Halloween Activities? Keep the Halloween spirit alive with my Solve the Room math activity! Students must identify place values (up to 100,000) to solve fun Halloween riddles. Once completed, they can colour their map and escape the Haunted Ghoul School! Students love solving silly riddles and escaping zombies from their haunted school—all while reinforcing place value skills! Grab the Halloween Ghoul School Activity There you have it—Halloween writing in the morning, and spooky place value math in the afternoon! Enjoy! Maryana

What is Guided Writing? Similar to guided reading groups, guided writing allows teachers to focus on a specific writing goal that a small group of students is struggling with. Teachers work with a handful of students on a writing strategy to help enhance their skills—whether that’s punctuation, grammar instruction, or incorporating adjectives to liven up their writing. There are many goals you can target in guided writing groups. Sitting with a small group of students helps target writing strategy practice. Why Do Guided Writing? Guided writing groups allow you to give focused attention and practice on a specific writing goal with students who are struggling in that area. For example, if you notice many students are struggling with expanding their sentences to include more descriptive language, you can pull them aside to work on this targeted skill. How Do You Do a Guided Writing Session? Just like a guided reading session, guided writing follows a structured format: Select a targeted, specific writing goal. The smaller the goal, the quicker and easier it is for students to achieve with targeted practice. (Use my handy Writing Strategies List if you're not sure where to start). Select 3-5 students who need support with this specific goal and would benefit from focused practice. Start with a real-life example of your writing goal. For instance, showcase a photocopied sample that uses quotation marks correctly, and have students highlight and mark it up. Practice using whiteboards or pencil and paper. Keep tasks short and focused—5 to 7 minutes is perfect for these sessions. Repeat the sessions over multiple days until you notice mastery of the writing goal among the group. Need Help? Download My FREE Writing Strategies Page I’ve compiled a list of typical writing struggles for students in grades 3–6. Download a copy to help you choose strategies and prompts I use in my own classroom. Cheers, Maryana @ 3 Peaks Classroom

I'm so glad you're here because I’m bursting with ideas and resources to share with you. I created this little corner of the internet to support teachers with helpful tools and inspiration. What You’ll Find on This Blog Book recommendations Resource suggestions Lesson plan ideas Teaching tips and hacks And all with a Canadian flair 🇨🇦 This was my classroom PRE-Pandemic. I was teaching Grade 3 at the time. It’s my hope this blog helps make your teaching life easier, less chaotic, more prepared, and more fun. While I usually have plenty to say, I love bite-sized, to-the-point info—exactly how I plan to keep this site organized. My Origin Story (Video) 🎥 My Origin Story – filmed back when 3 Peaks Classroom began. This was my first-ever YouTube video (well… unless you count the hundreds I recorded for online teaching!). In it, I share why I started 3 Peaks Classroom and what led me to create this space for educators. Let’s Connect! If you've made it to the bottom, thanks for reading! I hope there weren’t too many grammar or spelling mistakes (we teachers can’t seem to put down that red pen, hey? 😉). — Maryana