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!
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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.

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Celebrating Native American Heritage Month with Free Resources and Free Activities

November is American Native Heritage Month so let's celebrate their heritage and culture. Having spent 10 years in Alaska I was able to learn so much about the Alaska natives and even visit a Totem Pole village. I was fascinated with their myths and legends and how much they understood about taking care of the land and the animals. Did you know that many scientists believe that the first Americans traveled from Asia through the Bering Sea to Alaska before moving east and south more than 10,000 years ago? Of course I have put together some wonderful websites where you will find lots of free resources, lessons, crafts, and activities. One of the best websites I found you can access by clicking on the image below. You will find everything about Native American Tribes, History, Clothing, Legends, Myths and so much more.

If you are looking for information and free lesson plans about Totem Poles just click on the image below. Did you know that it can take up to 9 months to carve a totem pole?

How about some Totem Pole crafts?  Just click on the image below. You can find lots of other Native crafts to make by clicking HERE

Education World has some wonderful free activities, lessons, and resources about the Native American and Alaska Native culture and heritage for grades K-12. There are so many activities to choose from.You can access all of them by clicking on the image below.

I finally had a chance to revise and update my Celebrating Native American Month Thematic Unit which you can check out by clicking on the image below. It includes 3 differentiated reading texts for ESL Students and Struggling Readers as well as 2nd and 3rd grade level texts about the "First Americans" as well as reading texts about the Legend of the Dream Catcher and the beautiful art of Totem Poles. Students will create and write about their own own dream they would like to catch and design a totem pole. There are map activities, poems about famous Native Americans, and a report writing activity about a Regional Native Tribe. You can check it out by clicking on the image below. When you download the Preview file you will see sample pages of all the reading texts and many of the writing and other activities in this packet.

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Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. I truly appreciate all that you do each and every day.

Amazing Owls: Free Resources and Activities

I have always been fascinated with owls. Owl themed activities and fall seem to go hand-in-hand. I have been doing lots of research over the last few weeks about owls and I have some great free resources and activities to share with all of you.

I always like to start with books for read alouds. I found a list of good books like the one below on Amazon. Just click on the image below to check them out. Hopefully your school library has some of them.

For those of you who love the Book, "Owl Moon" I found a few websites that offer free lessons that go with the book. One is Scholastic that has activities for Pre-K-K, 1st and 2nd and the other you can access by clicking on the image below. There are also links to other "Owl Moon" mini lessons.

I found several websites that give wonderful information about owls and many owl species. The first is The Owl Pages which you can check out by clicking on the image below. This may be more for Grades 2-3. You can click on different species to find out what they look like, where they live, what they eat, and even what they sound like.

Another great website is the Owl Research Institute which has links to many different species of owls with information about each one. Just click on the image below:

Another good website is called Owling.com. You can access this website by clicking on the image below.

If you are looking for fun facts about owls you might like to check out these:
20 Fun Facts about Owls and Easy Science for Kids. For older grades you may want to check out 10 Amazing Facts About Owls by clicking on the image below. Yes, this owl is turning its head upside-down!

I have thought about creating an Owl Reading and Writing Unit for over a year and finally uploaded it yesterday. All of the Informative Reading Texts are differentiated at the 2nd and 3rd Grade levels and it includes Informative text and Opinion Piece Writing Activities. There is also an Owl Report Project and other fun activities. To see sample pages of all the reading texts and many other activities in this packet just click on the image below and download the Preview File.

Finally, one more free activity from me. I put together this fun "Owl Scavenger Hunt" Packet where students can find out where different species of owls live around the world and answer other questions. I've included websites where they can find the information. It can been done individually, in pairs or small groups, or even as a contest.

If you would like to download this freebie just click on the image below.

Hope you find some great resources for teaching your students about owls.

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

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Fabulous Fun Fall Free Resources

Fall is my favorite season of the year. Although it still feels like summer here in Florida, as the days get shorter I know it won't be long to feel that cool fall air.
To get you in the mood I've put together some great websites for you to check out to find some free activities, crafts, games etc.

When I taught my fall unit, I read a book about fall everyday for Shared Reading time. It's a great way to teach new vocabulary words and get students interacting about the signs of fall and fun things to do in fall. At Apples4theteacher you will find lots of great resources. First is their list of fall books which you can check out by clicking on the picture below. You can check out their free activities, printables and poems by clicking HERE.

There are some great fall crafts to make and I found a few great websites to check out. Just click on the pictures below to access all the details and instructions.
                                             
                                              No Time for Flashcards

                                                   
                                                  apples4theteacher

Looking for online fall games and free printables just click on the pictures below.

I just revised my "What Happens in Fall?" Reading and Writing Unit. The original was 50 pages and my 2015 product is 114 pages! It has an original shared reading book, 3 leveled guided reading books, writing activities at the K-2 levels and so much more. You will also find Differentiated Writing and Fluency Activities and more. To see sample pages of all the differentiated reading books, writing and literacy activities just click on the image below.

You may also like this revised and updated Fall Play and Readers Theater: I added a fun Readers Theater Script for 2nd and 3rd Grade. Here is a sample of the Fall Play and Readers Theater:

You can see all the materials and activities by clicking on the image below.

If you like using poetry with your students you can check out my September Poetry and October Poetry Units.

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Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope it's a fun fall where you are.

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What is your favorite fall book?