1st Grade Reading Worksheets can help your kids get off to a great start of a life-long love of reading. Reading is knowledge. Stimulate their imagination and help them expand their understanding of the world and communication with others. Grow a strong and intelligent future with a passion for learning. Print all of our 1st […]
Morphology instruction is a powerful strategy for improving vocabulary and comprehension. This post shares several morphology activities.
Yum! Synonym Success!
Palmistry begins with the obvious and proceeds, by innumerable intricate steps of judgment and interpretation, to extreme details of the palm. Conclusions can be made from a palmistry reading that can provide you with answers to questions you have...
These 4th grade anchor charts reinforce concepts for reading, science, math, behavior management, environmentalism, and more!
Hey everyone! I hope you had a great holiday and if you’re like me you’re definitely enjoying your time off school. Yes I love and miss the kiddos and have seen some updates about them on FB but I’ve really enjoyed no alarms, comfy clothes, Netflix, organizing my home, and staying up late. The joys ... Read More about Read and Recall Freebie Update!
America had Al Capone. Sydney had Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine - who *hated* each other.
This post shares tips and strategies for teaching different learning styles to meet the needs of all learners.
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
Understanding characters can be tricky! Learn my favorite strategies for helping students master character traits and changes.
When soldiers sexually assaulted her and others, this woman donned armor and got revenge.
In today's post, I'll share 10 quick, meaningful “follow-up” activities that you can use in your guided reading lessons - all materials are FREE!
All students want to feel part of their classroom community. Here are four activities to help them feel welcomed and comfortable.
There are so many engaging resources and activities that can be used to help 2nd grade students master verbs!
Ok, just because I've been gone from 'blogging land' doesn't mean we haven't been working hard in 4B. I've definitely been documenting a lot of what we've been doing! To start, it was clear to me that our old way of peer conferencing just wasn't working. Kids seemed to be goofing around, not really helping each other, and it was a waste of everyone's time. It frustrated me when most of my one-on-one conference time was spent managing unruly PEER conferences. I knew something had to change. I decided to revamp our workshop so that our peer conferences would hold both the author and the peer more accountable AND work on our 6-traits language. I introduced our 'new' method for peer conferencing using this anchor chart to document our process. After students finish drafting, they are to grab a 6-traits peer conferencing sheet and assess themselves by circling all the descriptors for each trait that they feel match their own writing. Mind you, we did a lot of whole-class practice with scoring writing based on the 6-traits criteria so students would feel comfortable doing this process on their own (and being HONEST!). Through our mini-lessons we've learned that it's possible to have high scores in some traits but lower scores in others. That's how we grow! Here you see Devin circling where he thinks his writing falls on our 6-traits rubric. (Note: The link to the 6-traits peer conferencing sheet above will bring you to an even more updated version than the one shown in this blog posting! Just FYI!) Here's another student assessing her own writing after she's drafted. This student has finished assessing her writing using our rubric. She decides on a final number score and circles it to the left of the descriptors. Then it's time to meet with a peer. (We have a peer conference sign-up sheet in our room which helps students know which other students in the room are also ready to peer conference.) Here you see this author reading his story to his peer. After he's done reading, he will explain to his peer the scores he gave himself and why. It's important for the peer to listen carefully to the author because it will soon be her turn to assign a score to this author for each trait . On the lines on the rubric, she will write to explain the scores she gives him. The peer needs to follow the following sentence stems in his/her scoring response: * I give this a writer a ___ because... * This writer needs to work on ... This process requires peers to truly work together, hold each other accountable, and it gets the kids using our 6-traits language a lot more. The second sentence stem helps the writer establish a goal for what to work on when revising! To see more of this peer conferencing process, watch a clip of us practicing this stage! Our focus lately has been on the trait of organization. We've been looking thoroughly at different beginnings and endings of both student and published writing. Here is our anchor chart documenting what we noticed! In other Writer's Workshop news, these are a few additional anchor charts we have in our room to help keep our writing organized. This anchor chart reminds us of powerful words to use to spice up 'said'! In reading we have been working hard on purposeful talk.This is so very important to the social construction of knowledge in any classroom! It's essential to teach students purposeful talk behaviors before even considering literature discussion groups (LDGs). The majority of kids talk like...well, KIDS! So, if we expect kids to talk like mature young people about different texts they read, we need to explicitly teach them how! Talking about Text by Maria Nichols is a great place to start if you're interesting in learning more about purposeful talk behaviors. I taught each of the behaviors individually through two separate mini-lessons - one day to explain 'hearing all voices' in a concrete way (without text), and a second day to practice 'hearing all voices' using text. Then I taught 'saying something meaningful' in a concrete way without using text, and the next day we practiced 'saying something meaningful' using text , and so on. Eventually all of the purposeful talk behaviors kind of blended together and kids started to discover that we often need to use all of these things at the same time in order to truly talk purposefully about anything! We did a lot of practicing, and I've been taping students in this process. Here is a clip of students practicing their behaviors while they talk about their families. (We had read a few books about different kinds of families to foster a safe environment to celebrate the fact that we all have different kinds of families!) We also had students practice their purposeful talk behaviors while discussing their best or worst memory in school (which helped warm up their brains for a timed writing activity we did during writer's workshop). Here is a clip! As a class, we watched these video clips to analyze our body language and other purposeful talk behaviors. I think taping and analyzing is a very effective way for students to learn how they should look and sound in an LDG. 'Keeping the lines of thinking alive' is a tough concept for many youngsters. Sometimes what happens is that students take turns talking, but they don't really build on what the person before them said. In other words, they don't really DISCUSS, they just share and listen. We applauded the first group in this clip because they had good body language and were respectful as listeners, but we discovered their conversation needed to be more 'alive' by asking questions and making connections to each other's ideas and thoughts. Mrs. Pierce and I taped ourselves doing a weak LDG and a strong LDG. As we watched each example, we used dots and lines to 'map out' our conversations (see chart below). In the weak LDG, we discovered Mrs. Pierce and I shared a lot of individual thoughts. The thought started, and then it stopped. There was really no discussion about anything we said; and Mrs. Pierce wasn't even looking at me during part of our time together! How rude! ;) In the strong LDG example, we mapped out a lot of dots and lines that were connected because we took each other's ideas and built on them. We truly discussed the text to dig deeper. We introduced several conversational moves for students to use to help get their voice heard in a conversation. Students also have these conversational moves on a bookmark that they keep in their LDG books. After we learned the respectful ways to speak and act when discussing with others, it was time to teach our kids how to flag their thinking. This is a crucial step to holding a successful literature discussion group because it allows the kids to track their important thoughts while reading so they have ideas for discussion the next day. Here are the 'codes' we use to track our thinking on post-its. We encourage students to use one of our codes to categorize the kind of thought they have and then write a few words to trigger their thought. This helps them when they get into a discussion group; they'll actually have pinpointed ideas to discuss! Students kept a chart in their Thoughtful Logs with all of our codes on it for easy reference. Here's a clip of our students as they practice flagging their thinking for the first time. The next day, students put all their new learning to the test. We put them in small groups to discuss the text "Slower Than the Rest" which is a short realistic fiction story out of Cynthia Rylant's book Every Living Thing. On another day, we used a high-interest two-page non-fiction text about leeches to continue practicing flagging our thoughts. Here's a clip of our kids flagging their thinking just after we modeled it during our mini-lesson. Below are some pictures of the kids' flagged thoughts. In addition to purposeful talk, we've also been studying the historical fiction genre. We've read several mentor texts, including Dakota Dugout by Ann Turner and Dandelions by Eve Bunting. Our first round of literature discussion books are all within the historical fiction genre. Here are a few of our historical fiction LDGs hard at work: Dear Levi: Letters from the Overland Trail Scraps of Time: Abby Takes a Stand The River and the Trace (I think I put my finger over the microphone at minute 2:00!) Oftentimes, historical fiction books will have a flashback in them. One group's book, called A Scrap of Time: Abby Takes a Stand by Patricia McKissick, has a flashback that occurs towards the beginning of the story. I photocopied some of the pages to try to explain this technique during a whole class mini-lesson. In the first section of the book, three grandkids are spending time with their grandma in her attic. They find an old menu and ask their grandma why she saved it. Chapters 1 through 12 flash back to 1960, where 'grandma' is just 10-years-old, living in Nashville, Tennessee at the time of a lot of civil rights protests. The menu is from a restaurant where a lot of sit-ins took place. Through the flashback a reader learns all about life during the 1960s. In the final section of the book, a reader finds him/herself back in the present - in grandma's attic, where the three grandkids ask their grandma some questions about her life during the sixties. There was also another flashback in the story Dakota Dugout by Ann Turner. We also read The Wreck of the Zephyr by Chris VanAllsburg as an example of a flashback in a fantasy book! In other reading news, here is a picture of the anchor chart that stored all the non-fiction text features we've learned. In social studies, we've been studying the economy of the five U.S. regions. Students have been reading small sections of non-fiction leveled readers to summarize a product or industry that is important to each region's economy. Students are typing up their summaries and we're calling those summaries 'articles' as they each create a magazine of our economy. Through this project, students have learned to: * Summarize main ideas * Center and left-justify their cursor * Use the tab key to indent * Change font size, color, and style * Bold, underline, and italicize * Safe image searches * Copy and paste * Cite their picture resources Here is the inside of one student's magazine. Next week we will be using this site to create magazine covers! Lastly, we had a chance to meet with our second-grade buddies earlier this month. We split the buddies up into two groups and one group stayed with Mrs. Adams to play holiday bingo. The other group was with me in the computer lab. Buddies used this site to play a variety of math and English games. One of the most popular games to play was called 'Story Plant' where students could click on different leaves to create the beginning to a unique story. Depending on what leaves were clicked, you would get a different combination of characters, settings, problems, etc. The computer generates a beginning to a story that the kids can print off and finish during writer's workshop! Have a wonderful weekend!
Metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole, personification, and more!
It is common knowledge that the brain has two hemispheres and that they are bridged by a bundle of nerves that travel across the corpus callosum. However, because this overpass exists, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is always used. In fact, you will often hear of people claiming to be right or left brain dominant, and many people function quite well using predominantly “half a brain.” But if we could learn to unite the power of both hemispheres and assimilate experiences for optimal learning, wouldn’t that be great? This can be achieved by doing either cognitive or physical activities. Cognitive activities can be used as mental warmups or remedial activities. I like to use The Working Memory and Hemisphere Integration Bundle because it offers fun, game-like activities that help students exercise attention, strengthen working memory and engage both hemispheres of the brain. Many of the activities were created with the Stroop Effect in mind - named after John Ridley Stroop who first researched and published the effect in England in 1935. Later, his findings inspired the Stroop Test which has been shown to measure selective attention, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, and executive functions. Click on image to learn more Brain Gym by Dr. Paul E. Dennison and Smart Moves, by Dr. Carla Hannaford offers the physical tools, as well as some scientific research to back these claims. What they have uncovered, by uniting the fields of Applied Kinesiology, Educational Kinesiology, Developmental Optometry, Biology and Neuroscience, are movements or exercises that enhance communication across the hemispheres. Many of these activities continually cross the midline (an imaginary line that descends down through the body from the corpus callosum) so that both hemispheres are activated, and they must communicate for proper execution (See image 2). Other movements involve procedures that help to relax and refocus the mind and body by using acupressure or trigger points and other simple motions. The authors claim that the activities can help improve academics, focus, memory, mood, and even remediate learning disabilities such as dyslexia and dysgraphia. The bottom line is that many students remain physically inactive in classrooms for much of the day, and integrating simple movements between lessons, can provide the needed physical release. Image 2 I would love to share some specific exercises, but they are protected under copyright laws. You can learn more by purchasing their books linked below. Cheers, Dr. Erica Warren Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning and Dyslexia Materials. She is also the director of Learning to Learn and Learning Specialist Courses. · Blog: https://learningspecialistmaterials.blogspot.com/ · YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/warrenerica1 · Podcast: https://godyslexia.com/ · Store: http://www.Goodsensorylearning.com/ & www.dyslexiamaterials.com · Courses: http://www.learningspecialistcourses.com/ · Newsletter Sign-up: https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/694000
This is a reading anchor chart of who, what, where, when, why, and how in a question mark shape. There are 4 different color themes, one of which is just white with black writing so that you can make it match your room theme.
Whether your little one is a new reader or into their own chapter books, starting your own book club for kids is easy with these tips and tricks!
You can use these kinesthetic activities right away! Incorporate hands-on learning into your child’s lessons and improve long-term learning.
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, these are worth so much more.
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…
The world is changing as you read these words and it seems the rate of change is getting faster all the time. It seems everyone is able to change an aspect of their life
Take a closer look.
I'll reveal an embarrassing fact about myself. The people that work at the print counter at Office Max know me. I'm mean really know me. I coached the new guy on how to find the right barcode in his binder, so I could check out the last time I went. (Yesterday.) As in, they even recognize my husband because I send him over there a bunch to pick stuff up for me. (I have a nice husband.) I'm at the print counter at Office Max waaaaaay too often. Here's the thing, though. You know how you see a poster at the teacher store, and it's almost what you want? And you're thinking to yourself, "Gosh, if it just said _____________ instead, it would be perfect!" This happens to me often, especially with writing. We use Lucy Calkins' Units of Study for writing, and let me tell you, there are no Lucy Calkins teaching posters at Lakeshore. Yes, I could make it on chart paper. But I can't. Because I expect my posters to look like this: I Do, We Do, You Do The First Grade Parade Working for the Classroom The Inspired Apple And they never do. Ever. So what's an OCD girl to do but make them herself on the computer? If you have the newest version of Word, you can do some snazzy stuff. Check out this post I read on Teaching Blog Addict that tells how to use Word to make a blog button: Blog Button in 3 Tutorials. You can make some good looking graphic work. I didn't know about all this business in the newest Word, but I do have Printshop. I even recently downloaded Photoshop Elements. I love it, but it's a bit of a time commitment to figure it out. So go create your 11x17 file in one of these programs and get to the next step. Moving right along. At Office Max or Office Depot, you can upload a file to their website (or bring in a flash drive), and they'll print out an 11x17 color poster on nice, glossy card stock for you. For less than $2. Seriously. It works like this: After that, you put in your name/number/etc. and then select which store you want to pick it up from. Office Depot's process works EXACTLY the same, except you also have the option to pay online. I'm sure Staples has something similar. Sadly, no Staples near me. Try it out for yourself! Here are two posters I've made: Plot Poster Love **To download, click on the name of the file (shown above the image). The link will open and just click download. Voila! Happy poster making!
With Halloween just around the corner, there's no better time to learn how to walk silently through the night like a ninja.
Tired of reading book reviews? Burned out on lengthy literary thinkpieces? [Ed. note: sorry] Luckily, literary commentary is also available in another, more picture-heavy form: the comic strip, of …
Teachers like starting the school year feeling well-prepared and confident. Read about 5 Strategies for a Solid Start to Your School Year
You spend hours marking and commenting on student work, and then they don't even read your feedback. The solution is all in how you time it.
In this six part series on How to Teach Spelling, this third post discusses and provides teaching resources for teaching the eight conventional spelling rules.
Kings and Queens of Tarot: who they are and what they stand for. Learn to Read Tarot with Lou and uncover the secrets of the cards.
Basic vocabulary, like knowing prepositions, is necessary for beginning readers. Teach prepositions with this simple game.
English vocabulary is taught in schools across America, Canada, Great Britain, and all other English speaking countries. Part of those vocabulary and reading lessons includes the study of prefixes and suffixes, and how they change the meanng of words.
Writers Write is your one-stop writing resource. Use these cheat sheets to help you show a character's state of mind when you're writing body language.
These 4th grade anchor charts reinforce concepts for reading, science, math, behavior management, environmentalism, and more!
