Let's Get Ready for Back to School

Whether you're headed back to school in August or September, you may want to stock up on some great deals today and tomorrow. TPT is having their Back to School sale August 1st and 2nd. Everything in my store is 20% off but don't forget to use the PROMO CODE: BESTYEAR at check out to get a full 28% off your purchase. Just click on the image below to check out my store.

It's a perfect time to stock up on Bundles which are already 20% and get a total of 48% off today and tomorrow.

When you click on the images above you can also check out individual packets. When you download the Previews you will see sample pages of all the activities in the packet.

Don't forget to check out my best selling Back to School Activities Packets for the 1st weeks of school for K-1 and 2-3. Just click on the images below. The previews have sample pages of all the activities.
                 
Don't forget to give feedback to earn lots of credits to use when you check out. You may want to do that before you add packets to your cart.

I wish each and everyone of you a great start to the new school year. Thanks for making a difference for your students.

Appreciating Teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week

It's hard to believe that it's the first week in May and the school year will soon be coming to an end. Although I am retired, I have 4 grand kids in public school and their teachers are amazing. Teacher's Pay Teachers is having their annual Teacher Appreciation Sale on May 3rd and May 4th. Everything in my store will be 20% off but don't forget to use the PROMO Code: CELEBRATE at checkout to get a total of 28% off your purchase. Just click on the image below to check out my store.

 You will find Mother's Day and Cinco de Mayo thematic units and lots of spring related products. Going on a field trip to the zoo you may want to check out this fun packet: Zookeeper, Zookeeper." You can enjoy a few freebies like these Spring Fluency Activities or Mother's Day Writing Prompts.

Hope you know how much I appreciate each and everyone of you for the difference you make each and every day.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Free Resources and Poems.

April is National Poetry Month and a great time to get your students excited about poetry. I loved using poetry with my students. There are so many benefits to adding poetry to your classroom reading activities. Look at the poem below:

There are so many ways to use this for teaching many of the components of a balance literacy program. When students read aloud they develop expression, phrasing, and most of all fluency. Have you ever tried Echo reading? This a great way to get all your students to participate. First you read a line or stanza and then they read it. You can start by having students echo a line and then a stanza. Repeated reading helps develop fluency. This poem also helps to teach vocabulary. Look at the words blooming and waddling. Students can act out these words as they are reciting the poem. This poem describes the many signs of spring, perfect addition to a Spring Science Unit. How about comparing and contrasting what happens in spring to what happens in winter?  Depending on your grade level you could do a phonics lesson on the "ou" sound in ground and and "ow" as in town. What other phonics lessons can you think of? I always like to add a writing activity with my poems. Students can write about what they like most about spring. This poem is part of my revised and updated "Spring Poems" Unit . You can see sample pages of all the poems and literacy activities in this packet by clicking on the image below.

Here is a fun free Spring poem called "Ode to a Frog" that you can download by clicking on the image below.

Most of you know how much I love to write poems, chants, and plays and explore the different poetry forms and share them with you. Sometimes a poem just pops in my head when I go out for a walk and I have to rush home to write it down. It's not so easy for me to remember the whole poem as I just turned 67 a few months ago. Last year I put together an April Showers Poetry Unit "April Showers" and then 5 more poems about Rain. I had so much fun that I decided to put them in a new product called, "A Shower of Rain Poems."  Just click on the image below to see sample pages of all the poem and activities by downloading the Preview.

Included in this unit is a Haiku, called "Raindrops" and a Craftivity Activity where students will write their own Haiku about Raindrops and paste it to a Raindrop like the one below. Think of a bulletin board full of Raindrop Haiku.

One of my favorite poems in this packet is "Can You Hear the Rain?" It is a great poem to have students close their eyes while you read it and imagine the sounds and visualize the rain falling. Students will then find and sort plural nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

With April being National poetry month I have put together some great free resources, free lesson ideas, poetry book resources, and freebies for you to access for all your April poetry needs.

First is Scholastic. You will find so many free resources, lesson ideas, and poetry book ideas. Just click on the picture below to access them.

I love all the free resources at Reading Rockets. There are so many links to Learning through Poetry to access including lessons, different forms of poetry, and using poetry for English Language learners that you don't want to miss. Just click on the picture below.

If you are looking for some free resources of different forms of poetry to use with your students just click HERE. You can also find more forms of poetry with instructions by clicking on the picture below.

Finally, you will find free poetry lesson plans and resources at Education World by clicking on the picture below.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope you don't have too many April showers!
Don't forget to checkout all my Pinterest Boards. Hope you will follow.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Leap Year Surprise

My brother is a leap year baby so in honor of his "17th" birthday I'm having a Leap Year Day Sale. Everything in my TpT store will be 20% of on February 29th! It's the perfect time to get some great deals on March products.

Here's my latest product that I just uploaded a few days ago for Women's History Month. Just click on the image and download the Preview file to see sample pages of all the reading texts, biographies, poems, and writing activities in this unit.

You will also find my March Poetry Unit.

Did you know that March is Irish American Heritage Month? You may be interested in my unit below.

If you are looking ahead to spring you can check out my Spring Writing Activities, Spring Fluency Activities, and Spring Reading and Writing Activities.

It has 15 Making Words and Sentence Activities about Special March Celebrations like the one below that you can use for morning work or literacy centers. Enjoy. Just click on the image above to download your free packet.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

Follow me on Pinterest

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Celebrating Women's History Month with Free Resources and Activities

In the U.S. March has been designated by Congress as "National Women in History Month." It also coincides with International Women's Day which is celebrated on March 8th in countries around the world. Although women have contributed much to our country's history most schools didn't start focusing on the achievements and contributions of women pioneers until recently. I have put together some wonderful free resources and activities that you can access for ideas and lessons to use in your own classroom during March.

If you are looking for some wonderful books and biographies about women to use during March you will want to check out the ones below. Just click on the image to read summaries of each book.

I found some great free resources at Scholastic which you can check out by clicking on the image below. You will find lots of information about Women's History Month as well as Books, Interactive Histories of Women Pioneers, Biographies, and Classroom Activities and Projects. All grade levels are included.

You may also want to check out Time for Kids which you can do by clicking on the image below. I was amazed at all the free resources I found on their website.

At NEA you will find lessons and activities for grades K-12 which you can access by clicking on the image below.

You can also check out the many lesson plans at Education world by clicking on the image below.

For Grades 3-12 you might be interested in checking out ReadWriteThink.

Finally at Edutopia you will find 6 Lesson Plan Resources which you can access by clicking on the image below.

Believe it or not but I just turned 67 years old and thinking about my future in the blogging and creating new products world. This is actually my first post in more than a month as I have been spending more time in the "real" world and not very much in the "cyber" world. I did however manage to create and upload a new unit just for Women's History Month that you can check out by clicking on the image below. You will find poems, biographies, and fact cards about 11 incredible women in history. Just download the preview file to see sample pages of all the differentiated reading texts, poems, fact cards, and writing activities that are included in the unit.

Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Start Your Year Inspired

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday vacation and have come back to work renewed and inspired for 2016. Teachers Pay teachers also hopes you will the start the year inspired with a site wide sale! Whether you are just starting your school year or half-way through, here is a wonderful opportunity to save up to 28% on all the products in my TpT store from Wednesday, January 20th through Thursday, January 21st.  All my products and bundles are 20% and don't forget to add the Promo Code: START16  at checkout to get a total of 28% off your purchases.

I have spent most of the past 6 months revising old products and remaking Previews that include sample pages of all the activities in each packet. So if you are looking for Back to School, September through March units, as well as Poetry and Plays, and ESL lessons you can download the Previews to see most of the activities in each packet.

To all of you who follow me, stop my my blog, or purchase a product, thank you. I will be turning 67 next month and I truly appreciate all of you and to still be part of the education community in a small way. Wishing you all the happiest new year.


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Purring about Winter Poems, Plays, and Freebies

Winter has finally arrived here in northern Florida and although we probably won't see snow it sure feels like it. Most of you know that I love to write poems and plays. They are perfect for helping struggling readings build fluency and confidence. Poems are short and so much less intimidating. Try choral reading to help reluctant readers feel safe to take the risk of reading as their voices blend in with the whole group. Poetry is also great for teaching word strategies, fluency, and writing. Plays can be used in the same way. In many plays there are parts for all the boys or all the girls. If you don't have enough parts for everyone, 2 or 3 students can read the same part. Usually the parts are small and practiced over and over again which also helps build confidence and fluency. My ESL students loved performing plays and reading poems, especially ones they could act out.

A few years ago I wrote a Winter play and Poetry packet for Grades 1-2 and I finally revised it. It still includes the play called, "How Will I Know When it is Winter?" There is a Narrator and 9 characters that tell the children what happens to them when it is winter. Day is very short, Weather is very cold, and Snow falls from the sky. What a great way to teach the signs of Winter! Then they can practice matching the picture/word card with the sign of winter card.

If you use interactive student notebooks there is a page to add where students will look at the picture and word. Then they will flip it back and write the sign of winter. You can see the activity in the picture below.

There are also 5 original poems about winter and literacy activities to go with each poem. Here is a sample of a dialogue poem called, "I Love Winter!" which can be done by dividing the class into 2 groups.Then pairs of students can recite it as a center activity. This is a great poem to teach end punctuation as there are questions and sentences with exclamation points. There is a whole class activity using punctuation cards as well as an anchor chart. Then students will punctuate the copy of the poem that has no punctuation marks as a center activity.

If you would like to check out this revised Winter Play and Poems packet just click on the picture below. Download the Preview to see sample pages of all the materials and activities in the packet.

To help your students become fluent with winter words you can download this free Winter Fluency Learning Game. Just click on the image below.

 I 

Don't forget to check out all my  Pinterest Boards and follow.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin