Want your students to have rich, complex conversations about the texts they read? This method leads to the kinds of classroom discussions you thought only happened in college.
Happy Sunday! What a busy week! It was my birthday this week. So I have been pretty much celebrating all week long. =) I have created a sweet pack that I know my little ones will love and I hope you do too! This set is loaded with posters, graphic organizers, bookmarks, anchor charts and more! Here's a close up! There are 5 "Find It" printables. The students have to find the s*w*b*s*t skills in the story and highlight it using the color code. Then they have to write about their findings. This is perfect during center time, buddy work or for those fast finishers. There's a lot of parts to it so it will definitely keep them working for a while! This is a fun game that comes in black and white and color for variety. Perfect for buddy reading during center time. Have students read and then have them spin the wheel using a paper clip to figure out the s*w*b*s*t* strategy. Laminate it and use it over and over again. I am hoping my little ones will love it. Another version of the somebody-wanted-but-so-then skill. Great for summarizing the story after a read. Toss in a center and it's all set! Easy Peasy! These posters or anchor charts can be hung up around the classroom, or in center bins or folders for a reference or guide. It's so bright and colorful your little ones will love looking at them. Great visual. I love when my little ones write about stories we just read. This is a great way for them to summarize a story right after reading. There are 7 "Solve It" printables. Have students read this on their own and fill using the s*w*b*s*t strategy. The store are fun and entertaining. This pack is full of posters, writing, reading prompts, graphic organizers and much more. Your students are sure to love. Very useful resources that can be used in a variety ways. This set includes *somebody-wanted-but-so-then posters color and black &white *bookmarks-color and black & white spin that wheel-color and black & white (center game) *graphic organizers *write and draw (identifying parts of the story *7 solve it printables (students read a story and write the s-w-b-s-t skill) *5 find it printables (read a story and using a color code highlight the s-w-b-s-t- facts in the story) Click here to check out more on this set or drop by my shop to see what else is in there. =) Off to finish off laying in bed. =) Happy Sunday!
I have been working on this center bundle since January! I wanted it to be PERFECT so I took my sweet time with it. Originally I was alw...
Happy Sunday! What a busy week! It was my birthday this week. So I have been pretty much celebrating all week long. =) I have creat...
Happy Sunday! What a busy week! It was my birthday this week. So I have been pretty much celebrating all week long. =) I have creat...
I have gotten a bunch of emails about how I rotate and organize my centers....I'm so sorry that I'm just getting a chance to post this. I r...
Have you ever read a book where the siblings’ relationship in it felt…kind of fake? A little…odd? Or maybe you’ve even written one like that before. Today, I’m going t…
Who doesn't just love “Where the Wild Things Are”? This is a wonderful book to bring a good dose of art. Just watch the story come alive in your classroom. . . IDEA #1: Wild Things Cardboard Tube Puppets For more information go to: Funderberg IDEA #2: Have a Wild Rumpus! Make Costumes! This is […]
For years, I have witnessed, over and over again, the value of using pictures to teach reading skills in my classroom. I always use them to introduce reading skills like inference, story elements, ca
First, here are the freebies- :) Poetry month has officially ended, but we are still enjoying writing poems in class! Last week, the students came up with four Cinquain poems (good review of verbs and adjectives), chose their favorite, and wrote/illustrated it on the template below (click to grab for free): I forgot to take pictures before I left work yesterday. :( I will have to post them another time. They came up with some pretty creative poems! Next week, I will be showing the students how to write a Diamante poem. We will be reading books about dinosaurs, so I've created a template for a dinosaur-themed Diamante poem! (Click for free download.) Most of my poetry writing inspiration has come from Rachael Parlett's Poetry Resources Packet! It includes many anchor charts and graphic organizers...be sure to check it out! The students will also be doing a persuasive writing piece where they have to write a convincing paragraph about why they should have a pet dinosaur! (Click for free download.) And a few fun things... :) We did the Best Friend Writing Activity from Amy Lemons. The kids LOVED this. What a fun writing topic! This is definitely one I will be doing again! We also made our "Area Puzzles" (idea from Amy Lemons) and wrote our Biography Poems! I can't believe that it is May already! I am excited to do the Watermelon Day and Bubble Fun Day mini-units from Aimee at Primarily Speaking. Last year, I did the Watermelon Day and it was loads of fun! I can't wait to try out the Bubble Day unit! If you are looking for some fun, common core aligned activities for the end of the year, be sure to check these out! Have a happy Cinco de Mayo!
This is the second week of the Reading in the Wild book study! Several amazing bloggers are sharing how they arrange their Reading workshop. Here is an outline of what my Reading & Language Arts weekly schedule looks like. We have a large block of time in the morning, where we do mini-lessons, vocabulary, grammar, and Daily 5, […]
Small moments writing for Big impact! Show your students how to use small moments in their writings and watch the magic unfold!
Engage students in meaningful poetry reading and writing activities. Here are SEVEN assignments both secondary teachers and students will enjoy.
Hands-on, meaningful learning resources and teaching ideas for primary students.
Persuasive writing is one of my all-time favorite writing units!! There are so many fun activities to do and persuasion comes so naturally for the kids (you know they try to persuade their parents for things ALL the time!) I begin this unit by having students "Take a Stand" and make a choice between several pairs of options - McDonald's or Burger King, Disney or Nickelodeon, etc. Once they've made their choice they have to support it and tell why that is the better option. This is a great way to kick off the unit. Once we've modeled several together, I partner them up for writing discussions, give them a set of "Take a Stand" cards and let them continue practicing. After discussions, they're ready to move to the writing stage and we learn to write opinion pieces with supporting reasons and then on to lots of other persuasive pieces. Read-Alouds Some of my FAVORITE books to use during this unit include... I told you that I LOVE this book and double dip with it in my letter writing and persuasive writing units. We especially focus on the closings of the letters and notice how the word choice was carefully selected to help with the persuasion. Immediately after this book we also read... After reading this book, students think of an unusual animal that they would like to have as a pet. They brainstorm ways their animal could be useful/helpful and then write a persuasive letter to their parents to convince them to let them have the pet. They turn out SO CUTE!! Students turn their letters into the animal they chose for a display....precious!! Some of the other books we read during this unit are... This is a GREAT book to read and then have your students write from the perspective of the "bad" character from a fairytale having him/her convince readers that he/she was just misunderstood and is not a bad guy after all! Speaking of perspective, I also have my kids write a persuasive letter to THEMSELVES from an inanimate object. I model doing this using my purse (it tries to persuade me to keep it neater) or my high heels (they try to persuade me to give them a break and wear tennis shoes for a day). With a lot of modeling and brainstorming they really get the hang of this and GO ALL OUT with creative ideas and voice galore! Activities Some of my other favorite activities in this unit include... Book Persuasions Students create new book covers for one of their favorite books and try to persuade their friends to read the book. Persuasive Animal Dialogues After reading Hey, Little Ant students are paired as ants/anteaters and write persuasive dialogues where the ant is trying to persuade the anteater not to eat him and the anteater is trying to persuade the ant that he must! After modeling these, students select another pair of animals (predator/prey) to create original persuasive dialogues to perform for the class. Classroom Mascot Students choose an animal they think would best represent our class and write a persuasive speech on why it should be our mascot. They present these speeches to the class and then the class votes for a mascot! Celebration This unit integrates with our social studies Economics unit for the celebration. Students create products (I require them to make something that only uses PAPER to make it fair for all students) that they will sell at our class store. Then they write commercials to persuade their classmates to buy their products. Before writing these commercials, we watch lots of examples of cereal and toy commercials from the 80s/90s at http://www.retrojunk.com/content/sort/commercial/list/category/1/cereal and discuss persuasion techniques used in them. I film students presenting their commercials individually, create a mini-movie of them and we watch them all together! We then hold our store and students actually purchase products (with Madden Money, of course!) Afterwards, they hold reflections about supply/demand and how their commercials affected their sales. Find these Persuasive Writing activities at Teacher's Clubhouse. What are your favorite activities or books to use for teaching persuasive writing? There's only a couple of days left to win the HearALL Assessment Recorder - Enter Now! Also, visit Lightbulb Minds' Facebook page and leave a comment telling the ONE thing that would make this coming school year the best school year ever and you could win a FREE UNIT! All posts in this series: #1 - Writers' Notebooks #2 - Writing Workshop Schedule & Story Tees #3 - Publishing #4 - Friendly Letters #5 - How-To Writing #6 - Persuasive Writing #7 - Writing Memoirs/Personal Narratives
In my classroom I use the acronym "RACE" which stands for Restate, Answer, Cite, and Explain. I have used this to strengthen my students written responses to reading questions. This rubric aligns with this acronym and is a great resource to allow students to self assess their work.
Do you have reluctant writers? You know- those students that stare into space the entire time that they are supposed to be writing? Do you have bored writers- students who watch the clock during wring? How about adding some fun to your writer's workshop! I have some simple ideas for you! 1. Let Students Choose
Original poetry print - The Letter Be - by Becky Hemsley. A4 digital download - you should be emailed the file straight after order completion. If you have any problems during download, just email me at talkingtothewild [!at] outlook.com or message me here and I can send you the file. Thank you so much for your support.
Informational text features lessons for reading and writing while studying lions. Perfect for kindergarten and first-grade!
Since writing is my jam, I have tried so many different writing strategies in my classroom over the years and found ones that truly work like a charm. I wouldn't teach writing without them. Each strategy sets the stage for effective writing. LEARN 5 TESTED WRITING STRATEGIES THAT WORK LIKE A CHARM! 1. SCAFFOLD YOUR WRITER'S WORKSHOP LESSONS The writer's workshop lessons should be presented to students in a step-by-step progression. When lessons are planned out and in an order that makes sense for that type of writing, students' writing will undoubtedly improve. They will understand the writing process and see how a quality piece of writing starts from the beginning stages of prewriting to the end stage with a final copy. Learn from my mistakes. I used to teach different mini lessons, but until I focused on an order to take one piece of writing all the way through a series of mini lessons, I didn't see the same results. It may take a long time to finish one piece of writing, but it is worth it in the end! A sample of scaffolded lessons can be found HERE. 2. SET WRITING GOALS Young writers should create a goal for each piece of writing. It will help them reflect on their writing and grow into expert authors. WHAT SHOULD STUDENTS CHOOSE AS A WRITING GOAL? Tell students to think of something that they frequently have to correct in their writing or something that they find difficult when writing in the past. Explain that writing goals can change from one piece of writing to the next. I find it best for students to focus on ONE goal in each writing piece. I know I know, it is hard to pick just one when they may need help in numerous areas. However, this focus will help them in that particular area every time they write! There are many goals that can be developed from writer's workshop. For example, writing in complete sentences, sticking to the topic, adding more details, or organization. Find a list of common goals HERE. WHAT IF YOU WANT TO SET THE GOAL? Absolutely! It is perfectly fine for the teacher or parent to set a goal or help the young writer set a goal, but make sure you explain your reasoning! Think of anything that may have been taught in a previous lesson or something students are expected to use throughout the year. Are there any writing skills that the young writer needs more time to develop? 3. CREATE A WRITING REFERENCE Writers should have a source to reference when writing. One way of providing a reference is by taking notes in each writer's workshop lesson. If you provide lessons that scaffold through the writing process, the notes will be in the same step-by-step order. This is especially helpful when students have another writing prompt in that same type of writing. They can go back to their notebooks and use it as a guide. Another way is to provide student reference folders. Print off all the necessary resources for your writing standards and place them in the folder. This can be used in a writing center or printed for each student. It is a valuable tool that can be used over and over. 4. WORK WITH WRITING CHECKLISTS Writing checklists are by far one of the best strategies for students to use when writing. Whether it is a paragraph or an essay, a checklist will help young writers look back through their writing to see if it still needs work. WHAT DO YOU INCLUDE IN A CHECKLIST? What do you want your students to accomplish? What skills do you want to see in their writing? I like to use a different writing checklist for each type of writing. AT WHAT POINT IN THEIR WRITING DO YOU INTRODUCE A CHECKLIST? I give students a checklist when I introduce the prompt as a guide, but ask them to fill it out after their rough draft, revisions, and editing. This will provide them with one last peek into their writing to see if they need any more tweaks before the final copy. You can get these FREE as one of our exclusive freebies for signing up for our Rockin Resource's newsletter. We offer teacher tips, ideas for instruction to motivate and differentiate in the classroom, and send out exclusive freebies and deals to our members. Don't miss out! Sign up HERE. 5. USE SPACING AND COLOR WHEN REVISING When your young writers are ready for the revising step, ask them to skip lines in their writing. Why? It will give them room to add and exchange words, phrases, and sentences. Then when they are revising, suggest using a colorful pen. I even like to have students use a different color for the type of FAAVS they are using in their writing. This is an acronym I created to help student with word choice. Although many of the sense words will fall under adjectives, it is just one more way to have them think of words when revising! F- Figurative language A- Adjectives that sparkle A- Adverbs that shine V- Verbs that strengthen S- Sense Words that sizzle I hope these ideas are just as helpful to you as they were in my classroom! Thank you for visiting Upper Elementary Snapshots! I would love to connect with you! VISIT ME AT ROCKIN RESOURCES TO LEARN ALL ABOUT WRITING INSTRUCTION AND LET WRITING BE YOUR JAM! Connect With Me! My Blog TPT Store Instagram Facebook Pinterest
Like many other Montessorians, I have fallen in love with The Hochman Method but have struggled to incorporate it into my Upper-Elementary Montessori environment. I created my own task cards to solve the problem!These cards are designed based on The Writing Revolution's tried and true practice activ...
I give this sheet to the students so they can keep track of the books they read. You can have them just write the title, title and author, or title and date.I like to print it off on bright colored paper and we total up the books we read as a class throughout I Love to Read month.*This document was ...
I have always assigned nightly reading. Why? I don't assign nightly reading because I want to give students "reading homework." I don't assign nightly reading
CURIOUSLY WONDERING and WANDERING THROUGH FIRST GRADE
Punctuation Police
A teaching blog sharing classroom ideas and management, lessons, task cards, teacher tips, printables and freebies
These fun monkey themed freebies will help with behavior management in the classroom right from the beginning of school. Students love them too!
This worksheet introduces kids to the fascinating true story of Journey and guides them to write a five paragraph essay about what they have read.
Happy Sunday! What a busy week! It was my birthday this week. So I have been pretty much celebrating all week long. =) I have creat...
Teach students how to have fun with figurative language by reading aloud these books with alliteration! #figurativelanguage
Happy Sunday! What a busy week! It was my birthday this week. So I have been pretty much celebrating all week long. =) I have created a sweet pack that I know my little ones will love and I hope you do too! This set is loaded with posters, graphic organizers, bookmarks, anchor charts and more! Here's a close up! There are 5 "Find It" printables. The students have to find the s*w*b*s*t skills in the story and highlight it using the color code. Then they have to write about their findings. This is perfect during center time, buddy work or for those fast finishers. There's a lot of parts to it so it will definitely keep them working for a while! This is a fun game that comes in black and white and color for variety. Perfect for buddy reading during center time. Have students read and then have them spin the wheel using a paper clip to figure out the s*w*b*s*t* strategy. Laminate it and use it over and over again. I am hoping my little ones will love it. Another version of the somebody-wanted-but-so-then skill. Great for summarizing the story after a read. Toss in a center and it's all set! Easy Peasy! These posters or anchor charts can be hung up around the classroom, or in center bins or folders for a reference or guide. It's so bright and colorful your little ones will love looking at them. Great visual. I love when my little ones write about stories we just read. This is a great way for them to summarize a story right after reading. There are 7 "Solve It" printables. Have students read this on their own and fill using the s*w*b*s*t strategy. The store are fun and entertaining. This pack is full of posters, writing, reading prompts, graphic organizers and much more. Your students are sure to love. Very useful resources that can be used in a variety ways. This set includes *somebody-wanted-but-so-then posters color and black &white *bookmarks-color and black & white spin that wheel-color and black & white (center game) *graphic organizers *write and draw (identifying parts of the story *7 solve it printables (students read a story and write the s-w-b-s-t skill) *5 find it printables (read a story and using a color code highlight the s-w-b-s-t- facts in the story) Click here to check out more on this set or drop by my shop to see what else is in there. =) Off to finish off laying in bed. =) Happy Sunday!
Have your students engaged with this children's classic! In this Where the Wild things are Book Activity, Max and his Monsters are waiting for you and your students! *Included* 2 Directed Drawings with DETAILED instructions! A Pre-Writing activitiy that can be made as complex or simple as needed! 2 Writing Prompts with MULTIPLE options for every learner including: -Solid line prompts with picture space -Tracing line prompts with picture space -Full page solid line prompts -Full page tracing line prompts -Blank primary lined paper with picture space -Blank full page primary lined paper **Let's Connect!** ==>M y Website ==>M y Instagram ==> My Pinterest ==> My Facebook Terms of Use: © Kinder Is My Jam. By purchasing and/or downloading this electronic file, you agree to the following terms. For personal use/single classroom use only. No part of this document may be distributed, posted on the internet, copied, edited, or resold. ALL contents of this document are under copyright protection including all content, text, fonts, and graphics, Thank you for respecting my hard word as well as the hard work of the artists whose work helped create this product.
I have mentioned before, (here, and here ),how much I love the reading program "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". With my own kids in mind, I created some additional supplemental worksheets to go along with it. Because we needed some things like this: And some things like this: And even some things like this: So, we have Phonics printable packets that look like this: These packets are intended to be used alongside the Distar Reading program, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and each packet includes everything needed for supplementing when you are following through the lessons in order. So, when you have finished lesson 10, you will be ready for everything included in the "After Ten" packet. We have created packets up to Lesson 50 at this point, and each of these packets are now available in a bundled packet here in our store. ABOUT THAT READING PROGRAM: I love the comfortable intimacy of sitting down on the couch to read with my kids. I love the ease of reading through the daily lesson. And I love the overall sense of it. It just breaks down "Reading" into this easily understandable activity. And the pictures and stories in the book help it stay fun. The book's authors suggest that it is a stand alone program (and it is!) and that the only other materials you will need are a pencil and paper, to write out the sounds for writing practice. This is true, you don't need anything more than the book to teach your child to read. But, since my children love crafts and getting to put their knowledge of their learning to work, I decided to make a collection of worksheets, activities and crafts (about 25 items) called "After Five Phonics", as a Set to supplement the first 5 lessons of "...100 Easy Lessons". And then, I kept on going, making packets for every five lessons that included extra activities... and worksheets... mini books, ...even crafts that went along with the new sounds being learned. When I used this program before, I wanted practice sheets for the writing part of the program. If you are familiar with "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", you'll remember that sound introduction happens in a different order than the ABC's are usually introduced. But even the way the sound for "A" is introduced is a challenge, as in the "100 Easy Lessons" book, it looks different than most lowercase A's do in Kindergarten workbooks. And what I really wanted, was something more like this: Sample worksheet from the "After Five" packet So now I have it. With nice colorful imagery, in case someone wants to print it out, laminate it and reuse it over and over (which would really be helpful). I also included black and white options for those who prefer to print these out at home without using up their color cartridges: Sample worksheet from the "After Ten" packet The teacher side of me kicked in and whispered, "You know, some supplemental activities that added more sound/letter recognition would be really nice..." So I made some of this: And then added some of this (mixing in some shapes and color practice): And then I remembered how I used this program for teaching in a combined classroom, and I REALLY wanted some nice colorful flashcards...so I made some of these: Let's look at another one of those craft pages: If you're not exactly sure what you're looking at there, that is a "Mat the Rat" Craft, from one of my freebie reading stories. This one here, in fact: You can download this free reading story, along with four others, right here. And speaking of my store, that's where you can find all the supplements mentioned above!
Here is a Texas style rhyme for your kiddos to have fun with. For more cute Texas style rhymes go to the Virtual Vine , here . I always have...
The Wild Robot - I Have... Who Has? Game includes 35 colorful cards to use in your classroom. It is a great way to review comprehension and vocabulary concepts after reading the book. Students love to play! If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] Please visit my website: www.applejacksteacher.com
