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.

Looking for some new Pinterest Boards to follow? Just click HERE. Here are a few you may like:

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?

Teacher Tips: The Importance of Poetry to Improve Reading

I love poetry and those who follow me know how much I love writing poetry, chants, and plays. It is so easy to incorporate into your classroom reading activities at any grade level and it is a great way to get 100% participation. Over the years of teaching, what I loved about using poetry is that whether your students are good readers, struggling readers, ESL students, and even non-readers everyone can participate.

This past year my grand daughter's pre-kindergarten teacher was doing a thematic unit on apples. I mentioned that I had some Apple Poems and I shared them with her. She loved them and more importantly so did her class. It was so fun to hear Ella recite my poem. I never thought about pre-kinders being able to enjoy them. Here's a sample of one of them.

There are many other benefits of using poetry and plays in your classroom. There are so many ways to use poems for teaching the 5 components of a balance literacy program. When students read aloud they develop expression, phrasing, and most of all fluency. Teachers should always model reading poems first so that students hear the rhythm and expression. 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. You can Choral read poems by having the whole class read with you. Poems can be added to your literacy centers for repeated readings. Repeated reading help build fluency.

This was another of my Apple Poems. Think of all the possibilities of ELA activities you can teach with this poem. Look at all the questions and verbs in this poem. For many students verbs like peel, and core many be words they don't know. How about bringing in apples and show the students how to peel, core, and slice an apple. Of course they get to eat them too. After learning the poem, students can then add the actions to it. You can read more about these Apple Poems and download some freebies by clicking on the poem below.

Yesterday I was thinking about writing some alphabet poems and I wrote this Letter A Poem, "Ant and Alligator." This would be great for teaching the sounds of letter "a", rhyming words, the vocabulary word, "slipped", and even comprehension. 

There are some wonderful poetry books like the 2 below that I used all the time in my classroom. You can find out more about them by clicking on each picture below.

Last week I decided to bundle up all my poetry units. There are 9 Thematic Poetry Units all together. There are 3 for the Fall months, 3 for the Winter months, and 3 for the Spring months of the year. You can check out this bundle and read all about each poetry unit by clicking on the image below.

Here's a free Poetry Packet to start off your new school year. It's part of my September Poems, Chants, and Activities Unit called "Where's the Teacher?" There are 2 differentiated Punctuation activities for Grades 1 and 2-3. 

You can download your free packet by clicking on the image below.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope you have a great start to the new school year. 

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All about Turkeys: Free Resources and Free Reading Activity Packet

I love Turkey and Thanksgiving. Turkeys are one of only two birds that are native to North America. They have been around for a very long time, even before Christopher Columbus discovered America.They are actually quite intelligent and social. I did a lot of research to learn as much as I could about turkeys for my new thematic unit called  "All About Turkeys."  I put together some websites where you can also get free resources about turkeys.

The first one has lots of information for kids and teachers about turkeys and some free printables. You can access it by clicking on the image below.

National Geographic also has some interesting information about turkeys which you can access by clicking on the image below.

You will find 20 interesting facts about turkeys by clicking on the image below.

I found this wonderful book from Scholastic at Amazon. There are more books below this one. To access it just click on the image below.

My new Turkey Unit has several reading texts about turkeys including one about the history of the presidential pardon of a turkey at the White House. There are also Picture/Fact Cards about Domestic Turkeys, Wild Male and Female Turkeys, and Baby Turkeys called Poults. There are 2 different Compare and Contrast Writing Activities to choose from.

Students will decide whether statements are Facts or Opinions in both a whole class activity as well as one about the text about the presidential pardon. All the texts are differentiated at the 2nd and 3rd Grade levels.

If you would like to check out all just click on the image below. You can see sample pages of all the differentiated reading texts plus many other activities in this packet when you download the Preview file.

Don't forget to check out all my new Pinterest Boards and follow. Just click HERE. There are plenty to choose from. Here's my most popular one:

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

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Purring About October Poems and Freebies

It's hard to believe it's already October. Here in northern Florida it still feels like summer but hopefully cool weather will be on its way soon. Last year when my computer crashed I lost my October Poetry Unit and I really wanted to revise it. So I decided to remake it just in time to get it uploaded today. There are 8 Original Poems about all the October happenings like Columbus Day, Fire Prevention Week, Pumpkins, Scarecrows, Popcorn (It's National Popcorn Popping Month), Football, Baseball, and more. Here's a sample of all the poems.

There's a fun "My Special Pumpkin" Design and Write Activity.

Each poem has a writing or literacy activity like the 2 you see below. Popcorn Punctuation and Contraction Match and Sentence Writing.

You can see all the materials and activities by downloading the Preview file and also get a free Acrostic Poem Writing Activity. Just click on the image below.

There are 2 more freebies about Pumpkins and Popcorn which you can access by clicking on either image below.

I hope you will follow me on Pinterest. Just click HERE. There are lots of new ones.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope October is beautiful where you are.

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