Leaping with Frog and Toad ELA Free Activities

A few years ago my granddaughter and I found a frog in my back yard. She really wanted to catch it and she finally did. She was so excited and looked so intently at it as you can see in the picture below. Of course we let it go, but she always asks if we can look for more frogs when spring rolls around. Children are fascinated with them.

I wrote an "Ode to a Frog" a few years ago and have revised it. Most of you who read my blog know that I love writing poetry and I love making freebies for my followers and viewers. If you would like to download this free poem and writing activity just click on the image below.

 If you are looking for more Spring Poetry Activities you can check-out my Spring Poetry Packet by clicking on the image below.

When I worked with my ESL and Struggling Readers I also started my units with a Shared Reading. Many times I would read a Non-fiction Book and a Fiction book and then have them compare and contrast the 2 books. Most classrooms have the Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad books like the one below. Although they are fictional characters, there are some things about each that can be true. So why not read a Non-Fiction book like "Frog and Toad" by Melissa Stewart and have your students compare and contrast fictional frogs and toads with real frogs and toads. You can find each book by clicking on the images below.

You may also like my "Frogs and Toads" Packet which you can check-out by clicking on the image below. Just download the Preview file to see sample pages of all the reading, writing, and other activities in this unit.

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

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Spring Writing Activities and Free Activity Packet

Spring Break is here and I'm taking a break too from blogging and creating materials. Before I do I wanted to spread some spring cheer. Spring has definitely come to Tallahassee. The trees are in full bloom, bushes are blossoming with flowers, and the grass is turning green. It is the perfect time to get students writing about Spring. There are so many wonderful vocabulary words associated with the season of spring. The more vocabulary words your students know, the more words they will be able to use in their writing.

I have revised and updated my "Spring Edition of Making Sentences with Sentence Frames" to include a Word Wall of Spring Verbs like the ones below:

I have also updated my picture/word cards.

Students will engage in whole class activities to demonstrate their understanding of what a sentence is and isn't, and learn the parts of a sentence using sentence frames.

I like to make sets of the cards above to give to each student. Then, when I hold up different cards with sentence parts, they can hold up the card that describes the part of the sentence. It is a great way to get 100% class participation and informally access your students' understanding of the parts of the sentence.

Once they have demonstrated their understanding, they can work in centers making sentences with sentence frame parts that are color coded and cut into parts.

You can see sample pages of all the activities in this packet by clicking on the picture below and downloading the Preview file. 

Although it is designed for students in Grades 1-2, I have had several kindergarten teachers who have left feedback that they will be using it with their Kindergartners. I was so excited to get feedback from ESL teachers who loved the way the activities were scaffolded to help build on previous knowledge and practice. 

To go along with this writing packet I created a free Spring Writing Activities Packet. Just click on the image below to get your free packet. There are 3 different activities such as labeling the pictures and writing sentences and 2 different photos to write about.

You may also want to check out my What Happens in Spring? Reading and Writing Unit. You can access lots of free spring resources and free activities by clicking HERE

Don't forget to check out all my new Pinterest Boards by clicking HERE.  Hope you will follow.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. I hope Spring has sprung where you live and we can leave that long cold winter behind us.

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All About Penguins: Free Resources, Free Activities, Books, and Videos

Everyone loves Penguins. Winter is the perfect time to learn about them. Although when we hear the word, "penguin" everyone thinks of Antarctica but not all penguins live in Antarctica or in cold places. Did you know that there are 17 species of penguins? They all live in the southern hemisphere. They live in groups called colonies but there is only one species of penguins that likes to live alone. It is the Yellow-Eyed Penguin that lives in New Zealand. While doing research for my newest product, "All About Penguins" I came across some great free resources to share with all of you.

Let's start with some wonderful books about Penguins. You can find a list and summary of 20 books by clicking on the image below.

I also found 10 penguin videos for your students that you can access by clicking on the image below.

You will find lots of great free resources, activities, crafts, and books for lots of different grade levels at Scholastic. You can access them by clicking on the image below:

You can also find lots of free Penguin facts and fun activities at Kidzone by clicking on the image below.

I just uploaded my "All About Penguins" packet today that is for Grades 2-3. There are a variety of reading activities starting with a general overview about penguins that is differentiated at the 2nd and 3rd grade levels. There are also Penguin Fact cards about 8 different species of penguins for students to read and then write about the one they think is the most interesting.

Student will then match Penguin Pictures and Fact cards about the 8 different species. Students will engage in several writing activities such as Comparing and Contrasting 2 different Penguin Species, Opinion Piece Writing Prompts, and A Penguin Report about one of 8 other penguin species. You can see these activities in each of the two images below.

There are literacy activities such as Writing Adjectives about Penguins and determining Facts and Opinions, and Poetry Activities.

To read the complete description and download the Preview file to see sample pages of all the materials and activities in this packet just click on the image below.

I hope you find some good resources to use with your students this winter.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.
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I'm linking up with Carla over at Comprehension Connection. There are some wonderful Penguin Resources that other great bloggers have shared. Just click on the image below.

Winter Writing: Tips, Activities, and Freebies

Over the last year I have been talking about helping students with the writing process. By now those of you who teach 1st and 2nd grade have been spending lots of time on teaching writing and having your students write. With winter approaching many Kindergartners will begin writing, too. In order for students to write they need ideas. Seasons offer so many wonderful ideas for writing. Whether you have a long winter, short winter, or no winter, kids love to read about winter activities, winter weather, and things that happen in winter. For ESL students and students below grade level writing is a very difficult task. That's why I like teach teaching with themes and teach language standards through the theme or subject.

To begin with, students need to know:

• What a sentence is
• How to construct a sentence-Word order
• What parts does a complete sentence need to have
• Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling rules
• Lot of words

You can read a lot more about writing by clicking HERE.

You can download these free Sentence frames by clicking on the image below: They are included in my packet and can be used for whole class instruction with understanding the parts of the sentence as you see in the image below the frames.

Last spring I wrote my first Writing Sentences Using Sentence frames and then added one for Fall and Back to School. I had such a good response and feedback that I just uploaded my Winter Writing Activities Packet.  It is very similar to my other packets except it uses winter words and ideas. I actually added more activities to give students more writing practice. There are some whole class activities to assess students' understanding before students do the activities independently in your writing centers. First, students need to learn the vocabulary words and then learn what a sentence is and is not. Then they get to practice using sentence frames to make 12 sentence and writing 5 of them on their recording sheet. They will need to capitalize the first letter and end each sentence with a period. There are both 3 sentence frame part sentences and 4 sentence frame part sentences depending on the needs of your students.

Then students will match a picture with a sentence that describes it and write each sentence part on their recording sheet.

After that they get to unscramble sentences, write the complete sentence and draw a picture to go with their sentence. Finally, they are assessed with being able to write complete sentences by using winter words that are written in a snowball. There is one for 1st grade and one for second. 

You can read the description, table of contents, and download the Preview file to see all the materials and activities in this unit by clicking on the image below.

I also just uploaded this Winter Writing Activities Freebie Packet which would make a great companion to my unit. Students will label and write about the picture like the one below.

Or write a short story about one of two photos like the one below.

To download your free packet just click on the image below. Please don't forget to leave feedback.

Don't forget to checkout all my Pinterest Boards.  Click HERE to follow. Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope your students enjoy writing about winter.

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Winter Edition of Fluency Tips, Activities, and Freebies

Although winter is officially more than 3 weeks away, many have already experienced the cold and the snow. As we head into the holiday and winter season many of your students have been identified as needing more fluency activities to help them become proficient readers. What the research findings have showed is that 44% of American fourth graders cannot read fluently. According to Worthy J. and Broaddus K, effective fluency practice includes practice and explicit instruction. It is effectively accomplished through a variety of strategies and methods including:

• Whole class readings
• Performance
• Oral repeated readings
• Buddy or paired reading
• Assisted reading

The components of fluency include:

• Accuracy and automaticity of decoding words accurately and effortlessly
• Reading at an age and grade level appropriate rate or speed
• Reading with smoothness, phrasing, and inflection
• Comprehending the main ideas

Explicit Instruction includes the following Fluency Tasks:

• Fluent Letter recognition
• Fluent Word recognition
• Fluent Word decoding
• Fluent reading of connected text

These tasks need to be scaffolded starting at the level of where your students are. Many struggling readers may only be at the word recognition or decoding level which is where their explicit instruction should begin. Explicit instruction should focus on accuracy, rate, and expression. 

EngageNY uses the MAPP approach to help build student's fluency: Modeling, Assistance, Practice, and Performance. Practice includes not just reading texts (whisper reading independently or pair read) but poetry and readers theater. Researches state that poetry is extremely beneficial in not only building fluency but also with phrasing, and inflection. 

Over the past several months I have created 3 Fluency Activities Packets: one for Summer, Back to School, and Fall. I have incorporated these research findings into my units to help meet the needs of all your students in your classroom. I have had many buyers ask if I would be creating one for Winter which I just uploaded a few days ago. It is definitely the longest one as I've tried to add more words and reading texts. There are so many winter words to incorporate and use with both high frequency and decodable words when reading sentences and connected texts. It begins with a variety of word fluency activities and assessments.

Followed by phrase and sentence fluency activities and assessments.

Ending with reading texts, poems, readers theater partner reading, and assessments.

You can check out the entire packet by clicking on the image below to read the description, table of contents, and download the Preview file. I have put it on sale through Sunday morning, November 30th.

If you are looking for just a Winter Words Fluency Game for your students you may like my fun and free Winter Edition of "Don't Get Skunked."

 You can check it out by clicking on the image below. It includes all the winter words that are in my Winter Fluency Activities Packet and a few more.

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Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! 

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