Use these free Writing Folders and freebies to give your writers support during their independent writing time. Find all our FREE Writing Printables HERE. If you are a subscriber to my newsletter, you can download all the printables that go with it for FREE! Not a subscriber? Simply subscribe HERE! NOTE: If you are already a ... Read More about Writing Folders – for K-5 Learners

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

Build a deeper understanding (and love) of language that'll last a lifetime with worksheets that boost understanding, bolster vocabulary, and challenge kids with complex text.

If you're looking for some fun ways to use flashcards in your teaching, we've got 20 simple flashcard games for you! And there are free printables included.

Although Jenga is a fun game and unites a group of people together through play, there are many benefits to the game that you may not be aware of. Jenga encourages patience, cognitive development, and hand-eye coordination. Putting a spin on the game, we've compiled 20 unique ways to play and listed them below for your gaming pleasure! From discussing emotions, working some exercise into your day, and even reviewing work previously taught- we've got all the best ideas!

You don't have to spend hours finding theme activities for middle school. Check out my ideas and resources for teaching theme!

Making inferences worksheets and activities aren't always easy for students, but there are fun ways to teach this challenging reading skill.

These Recess Queen activities and lesson ideas will help your students practice important reading comprehension skills in an engaging way.

Theme is such an important concept when teaching reading. Students are asked to determine the theme of a text over and over again. However, many students struggle with how to identify the theme. That's why I'm sharing some of my favorite ways to teach theme. You'll find theme lesson ideas, theme activities, and theme passage suggestions to help your students finally figure out how to find theme! Sometimes when thinking about theme it is easiest to think about what it is not. Theme is NOT the subject of the text. The subject would be a single word like "childhood" or "friendship." It is NOT a summary. A summary would be several sentences describing the text. Instead, it is the underlying idea of a text. It is what the writer wishes to convey about the subject. Therefore, it is usually written in a phrase or clause. When teaching theme, I find that it's best to introduce the critical components of theme through notes and a class discussion. My favorite kind of notes are theme doodle notes, of course. Since doodles are more engaging, they're a great way to get students focused as you begin teaching about theme. Once students have a general understanding of theme, you might want to have a discussion with students. During the discussion ask students to think of texts that have a theme like "Be careful what you wish for" or "Never give up on your dreams." Then, have students discuss the theme of fairytales or fables like "Beauty and Beast" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." The notes and discussion will drive home the idea that the theme is not a single word subject, nor is it a multi-sentence summary. Students will realize that the theme is a truth about life revealed in a phrase or clause. A work's theme can apply to multiple texts. When you teach about theme you'll want to help students realize that themes need to be general enough to apply to many different texts. Take the theme "Be careful what you wish for." That theme can apply to "The Little Mermaid," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and even "Macbeth." It's important for students to realize that themes are universal. You'll also want to expose students to different genres of writing so that students understand that themes are evident in all writing including fiction, nonfiction, prose, and poetry. I've compiled different genres in this theme unit. Since poems are short and compressed, I love using poems to help students develop an understanding of theme. Take a poem like, "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou. In Angelou's poem, the speaker is a child. Angelou's message and the poem's theme is to "be brave when faced with your fears." You might share poems like this or some of my other favorites to help students read several texts and practice determining universal themes. The theme is the message that the writer wishes to reveal about its subject. It's what the reader is supposed to learn about life after reading the text. Therefore, it is usually not directly stated in the work. Instead, students will need to think about the plot, conflict, characters, and setting and then make an inference or educated guess. When students consider all the elements of the text, they'll need to infer the theme. One way to help students understand that the story is built around the theme is to have them develop their own stories with a theme in mind. At first, you can have students do this by providing them with themes that they will need to portray in a comic strip or skit. For instance, you might have students doodle a comic for the theme "Two heads are better than one." Or, you could have students work in small groups to come up with a skit that has the theme "Friends always show up when you need them." By writing their own texts, students will begin to see how the theme is infused throughout the work. As students determine the theme of a passage, they'll need to consider a text's plot, characters, conflict, and tone. In other words, they need to think about the entire writing piece and reflect on its message about life. That can be challenging for students. That's why I like to give students many opportunities to practice finding the theme. Task cards and mini-passages work especially great for this. I've taken the idea of theme task cards even further with Learning Take Out activities. Students read fiction and nonfiction passages that they grab from take out containers. The passages are the perfect way for students to develop the ability to identify a text's theme. ------------------------------------------------- As you can tell, there are many ways to teach theme. I think the more chances we can give students to develop their reading skills, the better! If you're looking for some ready-to-teach resources, grab these THEME resources: ⭐--- FINDING THE THEME MINI-UNIT - Doodle Notes and Activities ⭐--- THEME UNIT - 3-Day Theme Unit ⭐--- LEARNING TAKE OUT - Theme Task Cards Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth P.S. Here's my latest resource for teaching theme!

Get organized with a daily and weekly ELA plan so that you feel confident and prepared. Planning the structure of a class period varies by unit. Start here!

I was introduced to this lesson by Claire Kirk & Katie Flowers. Both amazing artists and art educators I have had the honor of knowing and working with over the years. From observational drawin…

These games can be used for spelling words, using a dictionary or thesaurus, and to enhance reading (fiction & nonfiction) "My popular Spelling Roll-A-Word inspired me to create a more comprehensive set of dice games to be used to enhance your reading and language arts class! Included in this set are: -Spelling Roll-A-Word (same as my original) -Vocabulary Roll-A-Word -Dictionary Roll-A-Word -Thesaurus Roll-A-Word -Read Fiction and Roll -Read Non-Fiction and Roll"

Motivate students with independent reading by adding engaging reading sprints...turn the traditional reading log upside down!

Inference is an important skill for students to learn in order to really dig deep into a text. People use inference every day to make sense of the things people say and do. Students use inference all the time, but they need some guidance in learning how to use the strategy with a text.

This summer, after attending a reading workshop, I've made it my goal to amp up and improve my guided reading and shared reading instruction. With this in

Friends~We are so lucky at my school to have the most AMAZING librarian. Not only does she support us teachers but she also totally inspires our students. I know this on both ends! Not only does she introduce my 2nd graders to great books but my own kiddos Lily and Ian are constantly talking about books she shares with them. This post was inspired by her and my little guy Ian. Once upon a time Ian came home and told me all about this book called Rocket Learns to Read by Tad Hills. He heard it in the library. Then our librarian told me that Ian had reminded her that when Tad's new book came in she would get it to read to them. That book is called Rocket Writes a Story! He talked about it for days after hearing it and I was super excited to see it at our school book fair and I bought it for Ian even though I had to pay hardcover price! You can watch a reading of Rocket Writes a Story below! Forgive me if I look tired...it is conference week:) Now I bought this book and Ian was all smiles but I have to admit that we did not get to reading it until days later. There I was all snuggled up with Ian in bed and reading all about Rocket and after a few minutes I was in LOVE! First of all he is super cute but best of all this book totally walks you through generating inspirations to write about. Creating word trees and making friends. Ian told me after we were done that I could lay the book on the floor by his bed and I asked him if I could borrow it for my class. He was happy to share and today I shared this story with my class and we made word trees! We had so much fun! My kiddos folded green paper in half and then tore the edges to look like a tree. We added a trunk and then added Yellow Bird's words to the front. My students then added words that inspire them to write on the front of the tree. They wrote a story using the words on the tree inside. They turned out so cute! We also went down to the library and hung them outside as a surprise for our librarian. I can't wait to hear what she thinks tomorrow! I put together a mini unit for the book Rocket Writes a Story and you can download a few pages as freebies. There are even directions for making the Word Trees and the templates I used included. Just click the image below!

Search this puzzle for animal onomatopoeias. An onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound that it's describing. These words are sounds made by animals!

*repost* Here are some 'while working' shots that I grabbed because I love these! They are so fun. I got this idea from another teacher in...

Another center that is really popular in my class is Read, Visualize, Draw . It's a great way to practice visualizing while reading, which...

Take a deep dive into the common 5 structure options for your ELA literacy block with benefits of each outlined in an informative & actionable manner.

Teach author's purpose with PIE (persuade, inform, entertain). No prep printables, task cards, a sorting activity and more! Great for Accelerated Instruction Groups! TEKS 3.10C TEKS 4.10A...

Determining importance is, in my experience as a teacher and tutor, more difficult for readers to learn. Strategies such as predicting or making mental images seem to come a little easier. I believe this is because determining importance in text is quite a bit more complicated than other strategies. First off, it seems to require more ... Read More about Determining Importance with Fiction

If you love playing Wordle, your kids will love Wordle Wiz! Click here to request your free copy of this word game! Character Read N Roll Paper Chain Connections Hot Spots for Reading Literary Mood Ring Literary Mood List Home Reading Log More Literacy Printables Paper Chain Connections Paper Chain Reading Responses Hot Spots for

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During our literacy time we have been busy learning about beginning, middle, end and story elements. To be honest, this is one of my favorite units to teach! The students always get so excited to listen to the different stories and talk about the beginning, middle, end and story elements. I feel like it is...

It's been a while since I've posted a project - it always seems to be that I'll have a couple of weeks where we are "in process", then sudd...

$ Money $ 7 Great Titles for Teaching Money 1. Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday By: Judith Viorst 2. "Smart" (poem) from Where The Sidewalk Ends By: Shel Silverstein 3. The Go Around Dollar By: Barbara Adams 4. How the Second Grade Got $8205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty By: Nathan Zimelman 5. If You Made a Million By: David Schwartz 6. Money Madness By: David Adler 7. The Case of the Shrunken Allowance By: Joanne Rocklin

The Invisible Boy activities. Reading comprehension lesson plans with student response activities. Vocabulary, grammar, sentence study, and a craft, too!

This year, I really wanted my students to grasp the concept of what it would be like to blind. None of my students have ever been around anyone with that sort of disability before. Before we read our story I explained to them a little about what we were going to be reading about and I let them ask any questions they might have had. After all of our questions had been answered, everyone was "blindfolded" (I used sentence strips) and the lights were turned off. I laid a sheet of drawing paper and a pencil on everyones desk. They had to find their paper and pencil, then draw a picture of spring. I immediately heard things like "but we can't see anything". EXACTLY! That is my point little sweeties!

This resource contains ten pages of opportunities for your students to compare text structures with two different texts. Each page has two short paragraphs on the same topic with one question to compare the text structures.🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5. If you need more support with teaching Text Structure, these activities are also included in the Text Structure Mini Unit. 👉This unit is also part of the Reading Mini Units Bundle for 3rd Grade.  👉This unit is also part of the Reading Mini Units Bundle for 4th and 5th Grade.  Other ELA resources you may L♥VE... ELA Task Cards Bottomless Bundle for Grades 3-5 ELA Task Cards Bottomless Bundle for Grades 4-6 ELA Task Cards Bottomless Bundle for 4th Grade ELA Task Cards Bottomless Bundle for 5th Grade ELA Task Cards Bottomless Bundle for 6th Grade Let’s connect! The Literacy Loft Blog The Literacy Loft on Instagram The Literacy Loft on Pinterest The Literacy Loft on Facebook Email: [email protected]

BACK TO SCHOOL GUIDED READING PROGRAM

The creativity and generosity of the online teaching community never ceases to amaze me. I have spent a couple of weeks collating resources for my department from my Twitter back catalogue, an…

Check out five fun, unique ways to get students engaged in reading aloud in your classroom. They'll love the variety and the way they get to..