Mother's Day: Free Poems, Craft Ideas, and more for Pre-K through 1st Grade

Can't believe that it's time to be thinking about Mother's Day already! For the Pre-School and K-1 classrooms making crafts and having a Mother's Day luncheon or tea are always popular activities. 

I found some great craft ideas and poems that would be wonderful for those who teach Pre-K and K-1 that I'd like to share with you, too. I got lots of comments about the Tulip Craft that I though I would share again. All the instructions and free tulip templates are included. Just click on the picture below to find out how to make it.

I also found some great earth friendly recycled  Mother's Day crafts which you also might be interested it. Just click on the picture below to check these out.

How about a cute foldable card for your students to make? This one I found at DLTK. Just click below for directions. You can also link to lots of other free activities for Mother's Day.

If you are looking for free poems I have found some at Apples4theTeacher- there are quite a few to choose from.

If you are looking for a Shared Reading Book, Guided Reading Books, and Writing Activities for K-1, you might want to check-out my "Mom's Are Special People" Packet. You can click on the picture below to download the Preview file to see the new revised Preview file and get 2 free activities.

Last but not least is a special free Mother's Day poem that I wrote. If you are planning a Mother's Day Luncheon or Special Class Celebration, this would be a great poem for your students to learn and present during your special celebration. You can also include it in a Mother's Day card.  Just click on the poem below to get your free copy.

If you are looking for some wonderful free resources and activities for Grades 2-3 please click HERE.

It has been fun bringing you all these great free resources and hope that you have found some great activities to use in your classrooms. I hope you will check-out all my all my Pinterest Boards by clicking HERE and follow me.

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

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

 What kinds of Mother's Day Celebrations do you have in your classroom?

Buzzing with Bees! Free Resources and Activities

Now that it's spring it won't be long for those busy bees to be buzzing around. Without honeybees we wouldn't be able to enjoy many of the wonderful fruits we love to eat. Did you know that the wax that bees make is used to make lipsticks, candles, and even medicine? I have put together some great resources about honeybees for you to check out starting with some great Read Aloud books about bees. You can check them out by clicking on the picture below.

Your students may want to read more about Honeybees at National Geographic for Kids. Just click on the picture below to learn interesting facts and photos about Honeybees.

Here is a great website called "Everything about" where you can access lots of information about Honeybees. Just click on the picture below.

Here is another great website where you can find lots of interesting facts and links to several websites. You can check it out by clicking on the picture below.

Last year I uploaded my unit called "Busy Bees" and have finally revised and updated it to include lots more reading and writing activities. Students will not only learn about honeybees and the jobs they do but also about Beekeepers, read fact cards, sort the different jobs that the Queen, drones, and worker bees do and write an insect report. You can check it out by clicking on the picture below and read the complete description and see sample pages of all the materials and activities by downloading the Preview file. 

Hope you will check out my Pinterest Boards and follow. Just click HERE. If you home school your children I have added this one below. I also have one just for Spring.

Hope spring is around the corner and watch out for those Busy Bees! Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Spring Reading Resources and Free Emergent Reader

I just got back from a wonderful spring vacation with my family and can't believe how green everything is. Some of you who have had a very long, cold, and snowy winter are ready for spring! Time to start getting out spring books for read alouds and reading activities. Think of all the things that happen in spring: baby animals are born, birds building nests, grass turns green, buds on the trees, farmers getting ready to plant, baseball season starts, and so much more.

Here is a great list of Spring books and summaries you may want to check out by clicking on the image below.

You can also find this Eric Carle book and lots of other spring books at Amazon by clicking on the image below.

For the Pre-K and K teachers you can get lots of free printable spring books and activities by clicking on the image below. You can't beat that!

Since April is National Poetry month it's a great time to read spring poems with your students. There are so many different literacy activities you can do with poetry. Look at the spring poem below.

There are so many ways to use this for teaching the 5 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. Next you can talk about the meaning of the poem and unfamiliar words. Many of the unfamiliar words can be acted out such as blooming and waddling. The poem is all about the signs of spring and a great way to integrate science. Take each stanza and compare and contrast each with what happens in winter to what is happening in the poem. There are compound words to find, adjectives, long and short vowel sounds, ou and ow sounds, and so much more. You can find this poem and many more poems and literacy activities by clicking on the image below.

If you are looking for a Spring Reading and Writing Unit for K-2 you may want to check out my packet by clicking on the image below. There is a Shared Reading book and 3 differentiated guiding reading books, comprehension activities, and lots of other literacy and writing activities. You can see sample pages of all the differentiated reading activities, writing, and literacy activities when you download the Preview file.

Hope you find some great spring reading resources to use with your students.

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

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

Follow my blog with Bloglovin


                                               

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.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin


                                                     

Chinese New Year: Free Resources, Activities, Printables, Books, and Crafts

Chinese New Year will begin on February 19th in 2015. It is the Year of the Goat/Sheep. Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days ending with the Lantern Festival. China's culture goes back thousands of years and is filled with many traditions and symbolism. I have always believed that students should study about other cultures as we are global citizens. I have put together some wonderful resources about Chinese New Year for you to access.

Let's start with good books for you to read or have your students read about Chinese New Year. You will find a summary of these 10 books by the Pragmatic Mom by clicking on the image below.

You will find this wonderful free reading text about the story of the Chinese zodiac by clicking on the image below.

There are lots of  free printables and activities about Chinese New Year that you can access by clicking on the image below.

You can always count on Scholastic to have a wealth of materials. You can check them out by clicking on the image below.

I  was hoping to put together a Chinese New Year packet last year but never did but I finally did. I uploaded it today. It not only has Reading texts about Chinese New Years and Traditions but also about China, The Legend of Nian, The Chinese Zodiac Animals and Personality Traits, and Lucky and Unlucky Chinese Symbols and Superstitions. The Reading Texts are differentiated at the 2nd and 3rd Grade Levels.

I have included the Chinese Years and Animals

And all the Chinese Zodiac Animal Personality Trait Cards so that students can find their Zodiac Animal, Read the Personality Traits, and Compare and Compare and Contrast how they are alike and different from their animal.

There are a variety of writing activities and poetry activities. You can check it out by clicking on the image below, read the description, and download the Preview file to see sample pages of all the materials and activities in this packet.

Don't forget to check out all my Pinterest boards. Just click HERE. Would love to have you follow.

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

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Valentine's Day Writing Activities and Free Writing Activities

Everyone loves Valentine's Day. It's a great holiday to get your students writing. I have had such great feedback on my seasonal writing activities packets that I decided to make one just for Valentine's Day. It is a smaller version than my other ones, but is full of wonderful activities to help students write complete sentences that are found in my other packets. It would be great for those of you who teach Kindergarten who are beginning to teach sentence writing.

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.

In my Valentines Writing Activities Packet students will learn the parts of the sentence using this example:

In order for students to write they need to:

• Have something to write about (Themes are great for this.)
• Know the vocabulary words needed to make a sentence.
• Read and listen to books being read to them about the topic.
• Talk about the books related to the topic.

I have included not only Word Wall Words but also Picture/Word Cards to help students become fluent with the vocabulary. Then students will participate in a whole group activity to make sure they understand what a sentence is and isn't before Making Sentences with Sentence Frames.

There are several other activities such as Unscramble, Write, and Draw as well as 3 different leveled Writing Assessments.

You can read the complete description by clicking on the image below. You can see sample pages of all the writing activities when you download the Preview file.

 

Don't forget to check out all my Pinterest Boards by clicking HERE. Would love to have you follow.

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

Follow my blog with Bloglovin