All New September Holidays and Celebrations Free Resources, Poems, and Activities

There are many special days in September and of course the beginning of school that I've revised updated some some of my old posts to bring you these great websites with free resources and activities that you may like to check out. I've also included other resources that you may find useful.

First of all there is Labor Day which is celebrated on the 1st Monday in September. It is a great time to talk about the different jobs that people do. You can find some great free resources and free printables about Labor Day at Apples4theTeacher and thematic books about workers. You can find more free resources at Education World which would be great for grades 2-5.

Grandparents Day which is celebrated on the Sunday following Labor Day is a special day for children and their grandparents. Many teachers in the younger grades invite grandparents to their classrooms. I found this great website with a fun song at National Grandparents Day.com You will also find other teacher resources and free lesson plans. If you are looking for some fun crafts to make then you will want to visit dltk.

For those of you who want free resources about September 11th you may want to check out these at TeacherHub. I have a great bog post with lots of free resources that can fine HERE.  For younger students you may want to do a lesson about Heroes. I also have a Heroes unit which you might like to check out which is for Grades K-2. It has been revised and updated and includes a S'more Hero Book that students can make. Just click on the image below to check it out.

I have just added a new freebie for September 11th for K-2. You can download your free Hero Poetry Packet by clicking on the image below. I hope you will leave feedback.

September 17th is Constitution Day. Many 2nd and 3rd graders learn about the constitution. I found a website that offers teaching units about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which you can access by clicking here You can also find free resources at Scholastic and apples4the teacher. You may also want to check out my "Celebrating Constitution Day" which has been my best seller since 2012. It has been revised updated twice so if you had purchased the original or first revision please be sure to go to your purchase page and download this latest one. When you download the Preview file you will see sample pages of all the reading activities and many of the other activities in this packet.

Of course fall begins in September although it may still feel like summer in many places in the Unites States. It is my favorite season of the year. I have not only written a few Fall Poems but a fun Fall Play called "How Will I Know When It Is Fall?" There are character cards for students to wear as they act out their parts. Some teachers used the play as Readers Theater. There are poems about School, Labor Day, Grandparents Day, Fall, and more. You can see all of these poems and activities in my new and revised September Poetry Unit by clicking on the picture below. The Preview file has sample pages of all the poems and many of the activities that go with each poem.

If you are interested in just my Fall Play and a new Readers theater Script called "The Signs of Fall" you may want to check out my revised and updated Fall Plays and Readers Theater Packet by clicking on the image below.

Did you know that September 19th is Talk like a Pirate Day? I have put together this free "Talk like a Pirate Day" Literacy Activities Packet.

You can download this freebie by clicking on the image below.

Wow, that's a lot of September resources. I hope you find something useful for your students. 

 Be sure to check out all my Pinterest Boards and follow so you can find lots of great resources and educational tips and information.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. I hope you have a wonderful start to the new school year.

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The Importance of Graphic Organizers as Learning Tools

One of the best teaching and writing learning tools that I used with my struggling writers and ESL students were graphic organizers. This summer I have been tutoring 3 soon to be 5th grade Korean girls and have been working on Compare and Contrasting, Sequencing, and Main Idea and Details. When they started school this past January they were Non-English Speaking and have come such a long way. In the first picture below they are comparing and contrasting two stories.

Here is a sample of a story sequence.

In an article by Dr. Katherine McKnight she states, " Graphic organizers are teaching and learning tools; when they are integrated into classroom experiences, students are better able to understand new material. Creating a strong visual picture, graphic organizers support students by enabling them to literally see connections and relationships between facts, information, and terms."     


Click on the video to listen to Dr. McKnight. You can read more from Dr. McKnight by clicking HERE

For young or beginning writers I liked to use retelling the story with different types of graphic organizers such as the one below: Beginning-Middle -End. Students draw a picture and write a sentence about what happened at the Beginning, Middle and End, of the story.

For students learning to sequence a story I made the graphic organizer below. I put transition words at the left so that students will eventually be able to use this organizer to help them write a paragraph or narrative which is an ELA Common Core Writing Standard.

For young or beginning writers learning to write informative texts I designed this 4 Bubble Web. In the middle students will put the Main Idea and then draw and label 4 different details. For example, if they read a book about Community Helpers that would be the main idea and a policeman, fire fighter, school crossing guard, and teacher might be the 4 details from the book.

These are just 3 of the Writing graphic organizers I have put together in my revised Free Writing Graphic Organizers packet. There are 3 differentiated Sequence Graphic Organizers to meet the needs of all the students in your classroom. 

You can download this freebie by clicking on the picture below. I hope these will help your students improve their writing throughout the school year.

Looking for some more Great Stuff for Teachers? Then follow me on Pinterest. I have lots of Educational boards. Here are a few below you may want to check out. 

                                 

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope you will find these useful. I would truly appreciate your feedback.

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What kinds of writing graphic organizers do you use in your classroom?