I recently posted about my Harry Potter unit and realized I never shared all the fun stuff I did with my class, when we did our Holes unit. My teaching partner introduced me to Literacy Studio with elements of the Socratic Seminar, and I have truly fallen in love with the whole model. All of ... Read more

These 8 teaching ideas for Holes by Louis Sachar will enhance your novel study. Check out these recipes, music, organizers, and more.

These 8 teaching ideas for Holes by Louis Sachar will enhance your novel study. Check out these recipes, music, organizers, and more.

These 8 teaching ideas for Holes by Louis Sachar will enhance your novel study. Check out these recipes, music, organizers, and more.

Whether you are doing a homeschool preschool program or are a teacher in a preschool, having a plan is essential. Every year, I begin with an outline for what I plan to teach throughout the school year. I created this resourceful, editable preschool curriculum to keep organized and easily change what I teach from year

Matchbook chapter summaries super simple and fun project that you can have your students complete during your next novel study.

Middle school novel study favorites - top novel study picks for grade 5-9 to engage and encourage young readers.

3 STEM Activities to Try When Reading Holes A family curse. Incompetent adults. Troubled and falsely accused kids thrown together in a manual labor camp. Holes by Louis Sachar is a great story for middle grades kids, and it works so incredibly well as a read aloud. Your kids will laugh, become invested in the fate of the characters, and come up with wild theories about what will happen next as you read the story. One way to feel like you are "in" a story is to work on a hands-on project. Dioramas are a classic example, and you can absolutely make a physical or digital map of Camp Green Lake as a fun whole class project. Why not take it one step further and incorporate STEM concepts as well for your next Holes novel study or book club? 1. Design and Create a Hammock The hammock is just a background piece of the story, a part of the setting. It's a constant reminder to the kids, though, that they are not at Camp Green Lake for rest and relaxation. Gather your materials: cardboard tubes, chairs, boxes, or a wire hanger as the end supports string, yarn fabric scraps, nylon tablecloth small figurine (Imagine it's the Warden. Of course the kids can't hang out in the hammock!) Design and create the stands (to represent the oak trees) and the hammock. Come up with an idea and a plan for the design. Create it and then test it out. Does it stand or fall down? Does it support the weight of the character without deflecting so much that the hammock doesn't touch the ground? Your students can even make it entirely out of string! 2. Design and Create a Digging Tool It wouldn't be Holes STEM without this challenge. This is actually a really tough challenge! I require that my kids use at least two different materials. The hole must also be a specific size (diameter + depth - try about 5 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep). Gather your materials: sandbox, loose dirt, bin of play sand, kinetic sand, etc. duct tape craft sticks, straws, cardboard tubes, small plastic cups, etc. Get ready to dig! Imagine digging a huge 5 foot hole. How do these kids even get out? I don't know that I'd be able to get out of a 5 foot hole! You can have your students design a way to simply get out (maybe a rope ladder that another camper holds for them, or a ramp? If you want to revisit simple machines, this is a great time to do it!). 3. Design and Create Palindrome Art I often get asked about STEAM challenges. This is a fun STEM challenge with a lot of open ended options! You can choose to make it a pencil-and-paper challenge or a digital challenge. I love palindromes. Something about them has just always appealed to me. Since Stanley Yelnats is a palindrome, why not make some palindrome art? Search for palindrome phrases online and then either illustrate the palindome or create word art with it! Palindromes that might be fun to illustrate: Oozy rat in a sanitary zoo. Madam, I'm Adam. Palindromes that might be fun to turn into word art: Lonely Tylenol Yo, banana boy! *PLEASE READ - there are some lists of palindromes out there that may not be suitable for your kids to read and/or illustrate. One fairly benign example is: As I pee, sir, I see Pisa. While not terrible, the possible illustrations that could accommodate this palindrome may not be appropriate! Fair warning. More Holes STEM Challenges In addition to the 3 challenges above, I have created a full resource to support the 3 challenges mentioned (with engineering terminology, recording sheets, etc.), additional challenges, and an inventor's workshop activity after finishing the book. I'd love for you to check it out! Pin it for later!

These 8 teaching ideas for Holes by Louis Sachar will enhance your novel study. Check out these recipes, music, organizers, and more.

Hi teacher friends, Some of my favorite memories in elementary school were centered around reading novels in the classroom! I’ll always remember making a glittery web with glue and black paper while reading Charlotte’s Web in third grade. (I also remember our teacher scolding us for the giant glittery mess on the

Learn everything you need to know about how to use cereal boxes to teach media literacy skills. Use this cereal box media literacy unit to integrate your media expectations into your Health and Math Probability curriculum expectations.

This Holes Novel Study for the book by Louis Sachar includes comprehension activities for reading response, vocabulary, and a literature guide. Using student-friendly printable and digital formatting, this Holes Book Unit is perfect for teaching literature groups or discussions with book clubs. Daily comprehension activities require students to focus on text analysis and responding to literature, and the vocabulary focus builds word knowledge and academic vocabulary. This no-fluff Holes book study engages students, but it doesn't overwhelm your readers with countless surface-level chapter activities and questions that just require them to regurgitate the text. Holes is a favorite of the novels by Louis Sachar, and you'll love this easy-to-use novel study for the text. Your download includes: ✔Daily comprehension prompts in 3 formats for differentiation Foldable trifold brochures Cut & paste journal prompts for interactive notebooks Google Slides ✔ Weekly word of the day flip books for text-based vocabulary ✔ Easy-to-follow directions for printing & prep ✔ Instructional planning guide ✔ Answer keys In this Holes Novel Study you'll find: 1) Student comprehension practice (up to 25 instructional days) Each day's work focuses on a single standards-based comprehension skill Short, written responses include opportunities to apply thinking to text Designed with reluctant and struggling learners in mind Built-in graphic organizers to support skill acquisition Approachable questions help make connections & start conversations No boring multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions! Available in both printable trifolds and as Google Slides 2) Approachable practice with key reading standards and skills including: Text analysis and responding to literature Exploring character traits & development through events of the plot Making inferences and drawing conclusions based on text clues Distinguishing cause & effect relationships. Generating main ideas and a summary of key events Analyzing point of view & its impact on the reader. And so much more! 3) Text-based & academic vocabulary One target word identified for each day's reading In the daily slide with an embedded link to an online thesaurus Includes opportunity to generate a personal definition and use the word in context Fosters connections between vocabulary knowledge through synonyms and antonyms Opportunities to make connections to academic vocabulary for daily skills 4) Teacher support materials Unit scope & sequence lays out the day's comprehension & vocabulary focus Answer Keys for all comprehension activities Tips for preparation and implementation Instructions for digital Google Drive version *Digital Access Note: This resource includes digital access via GOOGLE SLIDES. For the digital versions, you will need Internet access and a free Google account OR Google Classroom. Learners will work on computers or iPads. Upon purchasing, you will download documents containing links to the digital files, along with easy-to-follow instructions that will get you started in minutes! These are easily shared digitally between you and your students. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How Novel Units from Differentiated Teaching Work... ▸ Teachers can introduce the day's vocabulary word & discuss it before reading. ▸ Students complete just one section of the trifold or a single Google Slide each day. ▸ Daily work focuses on target skills needed for success in reading vs. plot recall. ▸ The low-pressure format provides novelty & encourages student engagement ▸ Less overwhelming to reluctant readers and writers ▸ Requires deep analysis and application of text-based knowledge ▸ Encourages discussion about skills & strategies Here's why teachers love these novel units... ♥ My students were thrilled that I was moving them to novels instead of the same old reading anthologies that they've been using forever. These allow me to teach the exact same skills that those cookie-cutter curriculum programs are teaching but, I can do it with meaningful novels, not just excerpts and short stories most of my students find ridiculous or boring! ♥ This has helped me so much in teaching Holes to my students this year. Other resources overwhelm students with too much vocabulary and literal comprehension questions but these slides give students one vocabulary word for each chapter and a grade-level higher-order comprehension skill to practice. ♥ My students and I LOVED this resource! It applies so well to the 4th grade standards. We read through the entire novel and did this novel study alongside. I also love that there is the Google Slides option because I like to use as little paper in my classroom as possible. This book is fantastic and I'm so happy there's a novel study to match it's perfection! ♥ I love how simple and consistent this product is. My students enjoyed using the bookmark to keep track of their reading. I really liked the calendar that broke down the different elements of the book; it made lesson planning EASY! Here's what homeschool families have to say about the novel studies... ★ I LOVE the layout and how it guides my son and I through our reading time. As a homeschool parent, I still wanted to give him that opportunity to discuss and grapple with the text and I love this quick format as a brochure. I also love the vocab focus for each section and the skill listed so I can monitor his understanding of these as we move through a variety of texts this year. - Antonia S. ★ My kids LOVED this book companion. The vocabulary was rich, and I liked the focus on one word a day. I also liked that they had to use context clues rather than dictionary definitions... The tasks were a great review of skills I covered throughout the year. Parent-friendly and easy to implement. - Corinne M. ★ I am a homeschool mom and my daughter is enjoying the book and I am loving that she is able to respond to the reading through various aspects and not just answer questions. She is more engaged in her reading and asks more questions after she completes each task. - Terri B. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Novel Units for Books by Louis Sachar... Small Steps There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom Sideways Stories from Wayside School Fuzzy Mud (Coming Soon) Other Novel Units You Might Enjoy... Hoot by Carl Hiaasen Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli Ghost by Jason Reynolds PICKLE: Formerly Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terms of Use: © Rebecca Davies. All rights reserved by the author. These materials are intended for personal use by a single classroom only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. For use in multiple classrooms, please purchase additional licenses. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. See product file for clip art and font credits.

16 pre-reading questions to use with any novel! This novel

Are you noticing some gaps in your curriculum? Are you looking for some new, creative ideas for how to fill these holes in your ELA curriculum? This post gives you 10 creative ideas for how to fill holes in your secondary ELA curriculum.

Often when I see posts and activities about growth mindset, they usually include some amazing picture books. While I love picture books, novels are a huge

Space activities and centers (literacy, math, fine motor, stem, blocks, sensory, and more) for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.

These 8 teaching ideas for Holes by Louis Sachar will enhance your novel study. Check out these recipes, music, organizers, and more.

Check out more similar ideas on my website! http://www.teachbeyondthedesk.com/ Holes, by Louis Sachar, is one of my favorite young adult novels to read with my students. Although it's challenging for my classes (reading level 5.2), it's funny, engaging, and smart. This book doesn't talk down to my students. It's proud of its complexity, but not too proud to be silly in all the right ways. I mean, a book about pre-teen boys sweating away in a desert work camp is BOUND to include lots of stink-humor. And my kids LOVE it. We've been reading aloud in small groups of 5-6 students. The kids take turns reading a page aloud, under the supervision and guidance of my amazing cohort, Chris, while I run grammar and writing skills groups. We use rotations, so small groups of students are all doing different things around the room at any given time, and I am fortunate to have Chris with me this year to help supervise these groups. I mean, after all, we KNOW 6th graders will always do what they're supposed to do without direct supervision, right?? Ha! Anyway, the students have worked very hard through this book and have participated fully. They've asked thoughtful questions along the way to improve their understanding, they've made connections with their own experiences, and they've made smart predictions about what may happen next. Because they've knocked my socks off, I felt it was only fitting to celebrate the conclusion of the book with some fun activities. Feel free to use any of them with your own classes and modify things as you see fit (thought it's always nice to give credit to your source...ahem...me!). If you're on MyBigCampus, look me up (Katie Powell); I have quizzes and other resources in a bundle I'd happily share with you. Trivia Challenge I selected 30 or so questions from the quizzes we've done along the way, focusing on themes and plot elements that run throughout the story (such as why Kate Barlow became an outlaw, how Zero and Stanley are connected back in their ancestry, what The Warden is really looking for, the importance of Stanley and Zero's journey on the mountain, etc). I printed a clip art of a shovel in a hole and pasted one question onto the back of each. I also printed a picture of treasure and one of a lizard (colored to have yellow spots). Then I asked our secretary to laminate them all. For the game, I laid the "holes" out on the floor. Since my students are already divided into three groups, they played in their rotation groups, but you can group your students into any number of teams. The objective is to "dig" the most "holes" by answering questions correctly. The first player from the first team tosses a bean bag and has to answer the question the bean bag lands on. I did not allow team-mates to help so that each individual student was accountable for full participation. If the player cannot answer the question correctly, the card is returned to the floor. Similar to memory games, other players should make note of the card's location, especially if they know the answer, so they can get an easy "hole" on their turn. If the card has treasure on the back, everyone on the team gets a piece of candy (but I did not count this card as a "hole"). If the bean bag lands on a yellow-spotted lizard, the team must surrender a "hole." The team with the most "holes" when all cards are collected is the winner. Total game play for 3 teams of 5-6 students, 30+ cards, took us approximately 40-45 minutes. My students were VERY engaged. They cheered and jumped around for the treasure and groaned and yelled about the lizards. And they KNEW the information!! I was so impressed by how well they did! Typically I make games that can be applied to multiple areas of content, so I was hesitant to spend this much time setting up a game that would just be used once a year. But this book is such a hit year after year that I felt it was worth it. Extension Idea: This game could be used as an assessment. You could call students back one at a time to toss the bean bag to answer a set number of questions, however many you want for your assessment. You could tally how many they get right or wrong. You could even number the cards to keep question statistics, such as which questions were most often missed, etc. You could take a quiz or assessment score right from the game! I'd probably remove the lizard cards but keep the treasure in for random candy/sticker incentives along the way :) Celebration Stations To celebrate the end of the book, I set up centers around the room for the following activities: 1) Holes-inspired treats: donut holes, samples of various kinds of onions, dirt pudding, and sploosh (for us, I used peach-flavored applesauce, but peach preserves, sliced peaches, etc would also work). 2) What's Your Nickname prompt: I printed this page. The students wrote their Holes nickname on the name tag picture and then wrote a sentence explanation on the page. I had name tag stickers for them to wear too :) We then hung the prompts in the hallway. 3) Yellow-Spotted Lizard pencil pals: The students traced my example lizard twice onto craft foam, cut them out, and then I helped hot-glue them together along the sides, leaving the space down the middle open. I allowed the students to use any color spots they wanted. Once dry, you can slide a pencil down inside. This "pencil pal" keeps pencils from rolling off the desk :) 4) Moon Sand: On a teacher message board, a teacher said they go outside to dig holes every year to celebrate the end of the book. She said it's the student's favorite activity every year. I found this surprising and funny, so I told my class about it. And guess what--they all wanted to go dig holes. I don't know if you're familiar with February in Indiana, but our ground's pretty frozen. That's a no-go. But I found a recipe on Pinterest (yay!) for moon sand that called for 8 cups flour and 1 cup baby oil. I had about 3/4 cup baby oil, so I supplemented with cooking oil, and it seemed to work just fine :) I dumped the whole concoction in a large bucket, tossed in some sand box toys, and laid down a plastic table cloth to protect the floor. I tried it out at home with my own kiddos first, and I have a couple observations: my 3 year old was less messy than my 6th graders, and my 6th graders enjoyed the moon sand as much as my 3 year old. What a hit! 5) Of course, the movie was part of our celebration too! And since my projector burned out recently, we got to watch with our BRAND NEW projector! Woot! Writing Prompt We have ISTEP coming up in a week. But even if you don't have statewide testing (lucky!) or aren't in testing season, writing prompts are great assessments. This is the prompt I'm using this year: I print several on a page and then cut them apart to affix to photocopied ISTEP prompt paper to keep the experience as authentic to our assessment as possible. This is the rubric I'm using. The students do peer assessing first which helps deepen their own understanding of the writing process while also helping them catch their weaknesses. After revising, I grade. I use the rubric as a basic checklist (the element is present or isn't), but you could use a point scale too. So there ya have it! That's our Holes celebration, at a glance. Again, if you're on MyBigCampus, look me up. I have more resources on there I'd be happy to share. What are your favorite Holes activities?

We started a new unit in the Imagine It! Series called Courage. Students have been learning about what it means to show courage and how sometimes we might not be brave but are courageous when with friends. This week we read a story called, "The Hole in the Dike." Students sequenced the events from the story using vocabulary words and creating a "scene" from the story in Holland. We have also been working on our Concept and Question board. Our first project was to search the media (newspapers, magazines or the internet) to find an example of courage and reflect about it.

this is a rubric for a brochure project/activity to enrich an unit using the book Holes by Louis Sachar...

Often when I see posts and activities about growth mindset, they usually include some amazing picture books. While I love picture books, novels are a huge

Holes Novel Study Activities - resources for teaching a novel study on Holes by Louis Sachar - graphic organizers, questions, and projects!

Here are engaging Valentine's Day fine motor activities for preschoolers! Download our free printable to practice scissor skills with heart cutouts and build hand strength with hole punching.

I recently posted about my Harry Potter unit and realized I never shared all the fun stuff I did with my class, when we did our Holes unit. My teaching partner introduced me to Literacy Studio with elements of the Socratic Seminar, and I have truly fallen in love with the whole model. All of ... Read more

These flashcards and full page activities can be used with your wooden HWT set or with the printable letter builders provided. This set includes printable lowercase letter builders. A great tool to use while teaching literacy. Children will strengthen their letter recognition and letter formation skills! Unfortunately, Etsy does not allow files this size. You will receive a link to my ❤️DROPBOX ❤️where you can save the activity to your device. This extra step should only take a minute (maybe less) but if you feel more comfortable having me email you the content directly please, send me a private message. I’m always happy to help 🤗 All you have to do is print, laminate, cut and hole punch if you wish to keep them in metal rings. This is a PDF, you will not receive a physical copy. This and all activities sold by this shop are for personal, therapy, and classroom use by the person who purchased them. Not for commercial use. If you have any questions or run into any difficulty downloading from Etsy, please, send me a message and I can email you the file. Thank you so much for your support!

Trifold novel studies are designed to engage students in higher-level thinking about literature without the long list of chapter questions that only focus on recalling the plot. Students focus their daily reading response on core reading comprehension skills and vocabulary using popular chapter books appropriate for

This post may be the shortest (and probably one of the sweetest..pun intended..I’m sorry) because the ingredients consisted of…drumroll please… A BOX and a TUB. A box of Betty Cro…

Hello Everyone! I love helping my little firsties grow their writing. After reading Carol Avery's book, ...And With a Light Touch , this su...

This is a hard good item. This is NOT digital. There is no download included. Find this on my website: (Save $5 no Etsy fees) https://carolynscreativeclassroom.com/anchor-charts/ You will receive: Printed, laminated and cut out anchor chart ready to use! There are NO holes punched in the anchor chart. You may add holes using hole punch or add magnets to the back. Sizes: There are 2 sizes: Large 24 x 36 Medium 18 x 24 (You can find my desktop charts and MINIS only on my website) How to Use: Anchor Charts can be used to teach concepts and then be displayed to review skills. Students have a reference point. They involve students during the creation process and they are much more ENGAGED in lesson because they have input in the creation of them! The anchor charts can be displayed in the classroom and students can refer back to them when working on their own. Important Information Priority shipping (Usually 2-4 business days) Priority includes insurance if your posters get lost, stolen, or damaged in mail. If your charts get lost in the mail, you MUST contact me and start the process. You only have 30 days to make a claim. Shipping is $16 (Includes $8 length charge because these are shipped in tubes and are too large to go through USPS machines) Media Mail - Unfortunately I had to remove Media Mail. If you need this option, please check out on my website. Miss. Hacker carolynscreativeclassroom.com https://www.facebook.com/Carolynscreativeclassroom/