COUNTRY RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT TEMPLATE GRAPHIC ORGANIZER STUDY 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th GradeEmbark on a global journey with the COUNTRY RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT TEMPLATE GRAPHIC ORGANIZER. This comprehensive resource is designed for 1st to 4th-grade students, providing an in-depth exploration of differ...
Learn how to plan and manage literacy centers through differentiated instruction activities, rotations, & behavior management strategies.
I did the research so that you don't have to! Here is a list of 10 free resources that are perfect for distance learning in Kindergarten.
Use these vocabulary activities to enhance your vocabulary instruction to help boost your students' reading skills and comprehension.
I did the research so that you don't have to! Here is a list of 10 free resources that are perfect for distance learning in Kindergarten.
Free reading comprehension passages for grades 2 - 3
You just found out you are teaching a split grade class next year. For most teachers the idea of teaching a split is overwhelming. You have twice as many
93 best Reading resource images on Pinterest from free 2nd grade reading comprehension worksheets multiple choice , image source: pinterest.com
You want your second graders to have hands-on practice with ELA skills in a meaningful way. Of course, these activities should be fun so that students aren't bored! Well this post shares some unexpected 2nd Grade literacy center ideas your students (and you) will love! These activities provide essential ELA practice while keeping kiddos interested.
PRIMARY PHONICS - UNIT 6 We are ready to tackle digraphs ! I can’t believe we are already here. My kiddos were just starting school it seems like, and I remember most students couldn’t even identify their letters. Now we are reading sight words , CVC words , short stories and MO
Even in the middle of the summer, I still find myself thinking about the upcoming school year and what I can do to make it even better than the last. Today I thought I would share one of the routines that I use that keeps me in constant communication with my students' parents: Weekly Take-Home Folders!!! Take-Home Folders have been such a valuable tool for me ever since I started teaching. They serve as a way for me to communicate with my students' parents throughout the year. They allow me to share their children's work habits, behavior, and grades on a weekly basis, while also sharing important school and classroom information. I prep them every Friday, send them home every Monday, and ask for them to be returned before the end of the week, so they can go home all over again!! Here is how I use them in my classroom.... On the LEFT SIDE of the folder, I include graded tests, assignments, projects, etc. Attached to the top of these, I staple a Weekly Progress Report to share students' work habits and behavior. On this side, I also include any important papers that need to be filled out or signed (permission slips and such!). I ask parents to go over their children's scores and progress reports, and then sign the progress report to show that they have seen everything. This comes back to school in the folder. On the RIGHT SIDE of the folder, I include routine classwork and homework assignments and any school flyers that need to be sent home. Everything on the right side should be kept at home. People are often surprised that I put the time and effort into putting these folders together and sending them home each week. But for me, the benefits definitely outweigh the effort it takes to keep up this routine. First of all, parents always know how their children are performing. There are NO SURPRISES come parent conference time. Also, it gives parents a chance to have important conversations with their children about their work habits, behavior, and even about what they are learning in school. Lastly, it keeps me accountable for grading and reporting, and provides a record for me when I sit down to do report cards and conference with parents. If you would like to download the labels that I use for my Take Home Folders, as well as a copy of my Weekly Progress Report for FREE, visit my teacher shop by clicking on the cover pic below!! This routine is a MUST for me each year! Paired with a weekly group e-mail, this is my main form of communication with parents, and it's been a HUGE success every year!!!
Each Monday we collaborate with our building's new and Dual Language staff members for a professional development session based on what they highlight as their needs and/or desires for learning! This week we focused on Daily 5 ideas as all of our staff are currently working hard to get their stations and guided reading up and running! The teachers who attending the session came up with a variety of wonderful ideas and activities that could potentially be used throughout the year in these work stations. I thought some of you may enjoy taking a gander at what they came up with as well! Just a little background... we utilized a strategy many of you may be familiar with called "Round Robin" to gather ideas during our meeting. The staff were given the anchor charts with only the titles and asked to add any activity ideas they were doing, would like to do, etc. based on the title on their paper. We gave each group 1 minute to brainstorm and write their ideas, and then they were asked to pass the poster to the next group. We continued to do this until all posters had made it to all groups. This is a great strategy that you could use with your students as well to assess their background knowledge and/or learning of concepts. You could even do it at the beginning of the year to see what activities they already know and enjoy doing during Daily 5 if they are familiar with it from the year past! This may give you some insight as to what they may want to do in your classroom as well! Alright now onto the posters...keep in mind these were quickly written by our staff and we discussed them a bit after as well, so not everything may make perfect sense! But feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have any and I would be happy to try my best to answer! After our meeting, I also took some time to type up all of their ideas onto one page for them to hold on to and refer to throughout the year. You are welcome to a copy if you'd like- just click on the image below :)! (Graphics: Scrappin Doodles, Priscilla Concepcion)
Giving students an easy, independent activity to start as soon as they arrive on the first day of school is a great way to calm their nerves. It also allows you to focus on greeting new students and getting supplies organized and put away. Here is a great first day of school printable that students ... Read More about Read & Find – First Day of School Printable
Ready to rock teaching beginning of year writing in first grade? These early days of writing instruction must be targeted and on point. Click to learn more.
Well…I did it. I survived the 2nd week! HA! In all honesty, I have a pretty sweet little class. I feel like they’ve picked up so much in...
Back to School is right around the corner for us and I am SUPER excited to kick of this school year with some fun, hands-on and engaging resources for The
When I start the new school year, I pick a book of the day for the first two weeks. I create a variety of activities to go with each book. I use a lot of books that focus on social and emotional learning, including kindness, friendship, and respect. But, I also add in some fun ... Read More about 8 Books for Back to School
For K-1 students, centers are one of the most developmentally appropriate things that you can do for them. Let me give you the break down on each of my 5 centers, and how I manage them!
Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!
Discover the ultimate guide to scheduling your literacy block! Maximize time with whole group reading and small group instruction. Explore strategies for differentiated learning to meet the needs of all students. Get your free Suggested Literacy Block Organizer now!
Get helpful tips for how to manage data folders in the primary classroom. Download the free student data folders kit to get started!
If you've been following my blog, you probably figured out that I love using writing rubrics! Today I want to share what a writing rubric is, why I like using them and share links to 3 free writing rubrics you can use.
Planning to tutor over the summer? Here are tips for quick and easy planning! Hi there! It's Sarah! I've been tutoring kiddos for the last year and have developed a routine that makes my planning easy and my session flow smoothly. All of the kiddos I tutor are grades K-2 and in need of a boost in their reading skills...fluency, comprehension, and phonics. Warm-up I like to start with some reading that is simple or familiar. I'll either have the kiddo re-read a text from the previous session or read fluency sentences. I have my kiddos keep a composition notebook with past passages to go back and re-read. I use lots of guided reader books to find the just right text for my kiddos to read. These are also great books to leave for kiddos to practice between sessions. Fluency sentence strips from The Moffatt Girls are a GREAT help to boost fluency and confidence! They are also super easy to leave for practice between sessions. Fluency Reading Practice My kiddos have all had good sight word recognition and really need fluency work. I switch between leveled readers and text passages. I usually have kiddos read the text themselves first. After reading, we go back through the text and find words that were tricky and read them. Next, I have the kiddo read through the text with me or by themselves if they are confident. Using a leveled reader Using fluency passages and recording words read per minute (the kiddos love to see their growth!) Find these fluency passages HERE! Using text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Comprehension After some fluency practice with the selected text, I move into comprehension work. In our district, kiddos need to do a written response comprehension question as part of their reading assessment. I have my kiddos practice a written response question with every text and in every session. Comprehension with level reader I use these question stems to develop questions based on the text. Grab the question stems HERE! Completed written response, kiddos write in their composition journal Comprehension with text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Here I use a reading passage with several comprehension tasks for a 2nd grade kiddo. Find these reading passage + comprehension packets HERE! Phonics After the reading and comprehension tasks are complete, I work on some phonics task with my kiddos. One of my favorite tasks is doing a word family word splash. I select a word from our text. I like how this tasks shows kiddos that if they can spell a work like bat, they can also spell cat, mat, sat, etc. Writing short sentences with words from the Word Family Splash Word building and sounding out Extras I like to use phonics poems as an additional fluency tool. The kiddos glue them into their composition notebook so they can go back and re-read between sessions, continuing to build fluency with familiar texts. These phonics poems are from Susan Jones. I use our Literacy Bags in between reading tasks. Literacy Bags break up the rigorous reading and fluency practice we do for much of the session. You can find Literacy Bags HERE! I'm working with a few Kindergartners who need sight word practice. I use the K version of our Differentiated Reading Fluency passages. In K, the passages start as reading letters, then sight words fluently. It perfect support for my K kiddos! You can grab these HERE! Additionally, our Print a Standard packs have been a great support for targeting specific skills students need to work on. Each pack contains tasks for one standard and has several activities for that standard, so there are a lot of opportunities to help the student learn, practice, and master standards based skills. You can grab Print a Standard packs for ELA AND MATH HERE! Connecting with students and parents on a more personal level is the best part of tutoring. I love giving kiddos instant feedback and celebrating their successes! I also love that I can give them more choices to foster a love of reading. In the picture above, I'm showing several text selections. The kiddos I'm working with is able to choose the book he'll read with me for the session. I also love being able to help parents foster learning at home. I've found most all of my parents did not really know about their kiddo's reading level or reading abilities. This makes it difficult for parents to find the best "just right" books for reading at home. After I work with a kiddo, I leave the text piece we worked on for that session (a passage or a book) so the kiddo can re-read it with parents. I leave their composition notebooks with phonics poems for the kiddos to go back a re-read. I also leave the fluency sentence strips for practice between sessions.
It's that time of year again! Open House season is here and we are busily working on projects to share with our parents on our big night. One of the big projects my students will be working on is their Animal Diorama and Research Report. This was something I did for the first time last year, and it was a HIT! I got this idea after my son had to make a diorama for his first grade class last year. We had so much fun creating his animal diorama as a family project, that I decided it was something I had to do with my class too! I brought the idea up to my second grade team, and they were all very excited about it... so we went for it! We decided to give the assignment the week before STAR testing. Since we wouldn't be giving homework during the two weeks of testing, that would give students more time to research, gather materials, and work on their projects. Students had about three weeks to complete their projects. We decided to have the students bring in their completed dioramas the day before Open House. We were thrilled with the results! Here are a few student samples from last year: Along with this diorama project, our students will also be completing an Animal Research Report poster with information and illustrations, as well as a writing assignment and an oral presentation. Our students will be getting both a Science and Language Arts grade for this project. I'm offering my Animal Research Report poster as a FREEBIE on TpT! Here's a sneak peek: You can grab it here. Animal Research Report Poster If you're looking for everything needed to do this Animal Diorama project with your class, take a peek at my Animal Diorama and Research Report Project Pack! It's got everything you'll need in one convenient spot! Last year, I struggled to find examples of dioramas online to show my students, so I've included detailed photo samples of my own students' projects, as well as a step-by-step presentation for your students. Here's a preview of all of the goodies included in this project pack! In addition to the Animal Research Report Poster and step by step presentation for your students (which can be projected onto your Smartboard or other type of computer projector), I've also included a student-friendly rubric with grading expectations for all aspects of this project, as well as a grading rubric for teachers to use when giving final grades for this project, student instruction sheet, writing template for research report, and a presentation outline to help guide students on what to focus on for their oral presentation. It's everything I struggled to put together last year for this project in one convenient place!
For K-1 students, centers are one of the most developmentally appropriate things that you can do for them. Let me give you the break down on each of my 5 centers, and how I manage them!
Download the Ontario Curriculum in a checklist format grade by grade instead of by subject. Easy to use. Now updated to the 2019 learning outcomes!
Preschool through 3rd Grade NO PREP Packets! February is such a FUN month! Kids LOVE Valentine's Day and using that holiday to teach core skills and
Fantastically fun literacy games so kids can enjoy learning about the alphabet, phonics, letter recognition, rhyming activities, sight words and more.
Procedural writing or "How-to" is one of my favorite units! Read this post to discover some fantastic mentor texts to use in your classroom!
Item description Would you like to have a collection of reading activities novel study for any novel? Is one of your goals to improve the reading skills of your students with novel studies activities? Would you be interested in exploring new and exciting perspectives of the novels while offering the flexibility of a novel study choice board? If you found something that gave you all these benefits, would you want to get started with it right away? Think about what a difference it will make when you start using this engaging novel studies choice board with novel reading tasks in your class! They include: Instructions for using the novel study choice boards for middle school Black and white novel study choice board with 50 tasks Rainbow novel study choice board – 10 color strips with 5 activities each Thematic coloring novel study choice board – 6 novel studies themes: all about the novel activities character activities speaking and listening activities vocabulary activities artistic activities extensions Choice Board rubric and assessment – with 4 levels of mastery and Teacher’s comments Sample Assignments: speaking activities like: oral report, dramatization vocabulary and riddles diaries and chronologies main character related activities Because the novel study tasks come with clear instructions, you can encourage independent work in class which means that your students will be more confident in analyzing novels. The three version of the novel study choice board are excellent for focusing on a variety of novel studies activities and approaches while you get to save a lot of time during preparation and class work. The novel study activities are varied and thorough, so you can assign them as a great final project for any novel which means your students will be able to select what will go in their solid portfolio at the end of each novel. Just imagine how you will feel when you start to get the benefits and results from this resource right in your class! Are you afraid that this novel study choice board for middle school will not match the needs of your students? I understand exactly what you feel. Don’t worry! Just try it and if you find this resource not suitable for your class, just email me at [email protected] and I’ll get you a full refund. Suzanne F. has tried the novel study activities in her class and said, “Thank you! I needed new ideas, I have had these kiddos for 2 years. This was just what I needed to give them something a little different from my menu.” Why don’t you give it a try? Click on the “Add to cart” red button and you can use it right away!
You don't need to comb through all my previous posts to find my free downloads...they're all here! Click on the image for your free download...
Spelling is a skill that develops with time, teaching and practice. We work hard all school year to build solid spelling foundations in our little learners. To do this, we provide our students with engaging tools that assist and challenge them to be responsible for their own learning. Now’s the time for us to up […]
How do you start your morning each day? Do you walk into your classroom, drop your bags, and make a beeline for the copy machine so you can get your
Use the FREE literacy manipulatives to create a literacy toolbox for kinder, first, & second grade for small groups, centers, or at home.
Hey friends! I am so excited to share this new book with you! The Little Linebacker by Steven Tulloch and Maria Dismondy is such an adorable book of determination! It has a great message of never giving up on your dreams and goals, even when things set you back or you fail! This is […]
Do you want your students to love writing? Get tips on how to create a classroom writing center that your students will WANT to go to!
Lots of books, songs, and activities to build literacy-rich circle times with toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners.
Fun ideas for teaching adjectives and descriptive writing that are just right for October and Halloween week in the primary classroom.
Books for teaching sequencing should have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Here are 16 great books for kindergarten or first grade.
Hey Ya'll! Do your kids love to learn by playing games? What if I told you that you could increase your students vocabulary by playing games that take 20 minutes or less? Vocabulary is something that is highly stressed in my district. It seems like each year, more and more pressure is put on us to increase students vocabulary. Today I'm here to share with you 4 easy games that you can implement into your class to increase vocabulary and make learning fun AND engaging! Kids should get excited about learning. Implementing games into our daily routine helps increase their learning when they don't even know it. All of these activities that I'm about to share can be used in a whole or small group setting. First up is Heads Down, Vocab Up! This is a game I like to have my kids play when I have a few minutes to kill before moving onto the next subject or when their little brains just need a break. It's super simple. Does your class like to play "heads down, thumbs up" or some call it "heads up, 7 up"? Mine do! Heads Down, Vocab Up! is just like that only using word cards. You can use any type of vocabulary cards you'd like. We play using sight words, compound words, contractions, academic vocabulary and more. Here is how to play: Pick 3-4 students to be it. Give each student picked a vocabulary card. Turn off the lights and the rest of the class puts their head down (NO PEEKING!) and their thumb up. The students chosen go around the room and pick someone by touching their thumb. When the teacher turns the lights on, those picked stand up and try to guess who picked them. Rather than calling out the students name, they must call out the vocabulary word that student is holding. If they get it right, they get to trade places and be it. If they get it wrong, they sit back down. Then the next round begins. You can also have your students tell the meaning of the word, use it in a sentence or give a synonym. This way it can be easily differentiated for various learners. When using academic vocabulary cards, I like have them say the word and their own meaning of the word. This is a simple review that can be done in 5 minutes or stretched out into a whole group lesson. Up next is a little game I like to call Word Speed! Word Speed is quick game that we play daily throughout the week. I do this with vocabulary and grammar skills mostly. All you need is some chart paper and makers. You could easily laminate chart paper and use dry erase markers to make it reusable. What you'll see below is bulletin paper from our workroom. Here is how you play... 1. Split your class up into 2 teams. (You can do more if you'd like) 2. Tape a piece of chart paper on opposite sides of the room for each team. You want them far enough apart where the other team can't see the others paper. 3. Write the topic you are covering at the top of the chart paper. 4. Time them for 1-2 minutes (sometimes this will be longer such as 3-4 minutes until everyone has a turn, but they think they only have one minute). 5. Each person write a vocabulary word and passes the marker to the next person. They are not allowed to talk while doing this. (The picture above, they had to write a pair of synonyms. They cannot write something that has already been written.) 6. They have 1-2 minutes to write as many words as they can. 7. When the time is up, the person holding the marker brings it to you. 8. I give each team one point for having the correct words. They race every day. On Monday-Wednesday, I do not count off for spelling. On Thursday and Friday, if a word is misspelled, I do not count it. This helps with preventing tie-breakers. 9. At the end of the week, the team with most points is the Word Speed Champ for the week! We play with a new piece of paper everyday so that they are able to use the same words. On Tuesday, I use the back of the page that they wrote on, on Monday. I kept a tally of the points on the board. I found that they loved this game so much, that they would go home and ask their families for words to use. Once the kids got into the routine of playing for various concepts, they would always ask if it was Word Speed time! Now lets talk about a class favorite that I use for multiple concepts. This little game is a BIG DEAL! It's called KABOOM! I blogged about this concept awhile back. You can read about it here. I'll do a quick recap. All you need to create KABOOM is popsicle sticks, a permanent marker, and a cup. Here's how to play: Color one tip of each popsicle stick. This end sticks out of the cup. Write a vocabulary word on each stick. You also need 5-10 KABOOM sticks. (For my academic vocabulary sets, I put 2 sets of vocabulary words that are 8 words each, and then 5 Kaboom! sticks. For sight words, I do a full set and then 10 KABOOM sticks. Place all the sticks in a cup with the colored tip sticking up. Students play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. The first player draws a stick and reads the word. For academic vocabulary they must read the word correctly and tell the meaning or use it in a sentence. This is good for differentiation in your groups. If the student reads the word and uses it in correctly they get to keep their stick. If they read it incorrectly or use it incorrectly, the stick must go back in the cup. If they draw a stick that says KABOOM! They have to put all of their sticks back into the cup. This is a BIG DEAL ya'll! The player with the most sticks at the end of the game wins! I like to play KABOOM with academic vocabulary at the beginning of each small group. I can easily differentiate each question I ask based on each student to fit their needs. We also play whole group using sight words, parts of speech, and for various math concepts. This is a favorite during stations as well. I keep all of my games set up in baskets and the kids can easily grab a cup when they have time. All the other games I have created are stored and labeled in ziploc bags. Last but most certainly not least is my personal favorite, Beach Ball Vocabulary! I originally started playing this game with math facts and learned that I could use it for all different subjects. You can read my math fact post here. All you need is a beach ball and a maker. Write vocabulary words all over the ball in a random order. Here is how to play: Have students form a large circle around the room while you or another student stands in the middle. GENTLY toss the beach ball to a student. Whatever word their thumb (you can pick right or left) lands on, they must tell the definition, use it in a sentence, or give an example of. Then they GENTLY toss the ball back to you and you throw it to another student. The example shown above was played with antonyms. Students had to say the antonym of the word one of their thumbs landed on. For academic vocabulary, I have all of unit 1 words written on a ball, all of unit 2 words written on a ball, etc. This way they are getting review of words we have already learned. All of the games show above can be used with multiple concepts such as academic vocabulary, synonyms/antonyms, prefixes/suffixes, compound words, contractions, parts of speech, sight words and so much more. Use them cross-curricular for math concepts or science and social studies. I hope you can incorporate at least one of these activities into your classroom! My kids love them and I hope yours do too! Have a great day!
