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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September 11th Free Resources and Activities

A few years ago I wrote a post about September 11th. It is not an easy topic to talk to young children about.  I think about all the heroes of that day that risked their lives to save others. A great way to honor them is to talk about Heroes.

September 11th is very personal to me as I grew up 18 miles north of NYC and several of my relatives worked in the city and were there that day and could see the towers burning from their offices. My sister-in-laws brother was the first fireman to go into the Twin Towers. On that day we were in Anchorage, Alaska and my daughter called and woke us up at 5:00 am because we were 4 hours behind east coast time. My cousin, who lived in New Jersey, described all the cars in the parking lot at the train station that were there for days after the attack of those that didn't survive. Whatever grade you teach it is important to remember that day each year. There are so many wonderful resources that I have put together some great websites with free resources, activities, and lessons which you can check out. They are great for all grade levels and parents, too.

To start with you may want to have your students read books about September 11th or do a Read Aloud. I found a list of books at TeachHub. There is also a great list at Amazon which you can check out by clicking on the picture below. This one is for K-2.

If you are looking for some free lessons plans for all grades K-12 then click on the picture below. There are Foundational Lesson Plans for K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 

9-12. You will also find Videos and Tips for talking to Children about 9/11.

You can also find lots of resources at Scholastic which you can access by clicking on the picture below.

If you are still looking for more you can check out Edutopia which is geared more for intermediate students and older.

To honor the memories of the fallen I wrote a unit called "Heroes" for grades K-2. I have revised and updated the original one last year and it is one of my best sellers. It has a Shared Reading Book, Mini Books at each grade level , Hero Word and Adjective Webs, Writing Activities and a Word Wall. . If you would like to see more of my unit you can click on the picture below.

Heroes is a Great Unit to teach Anytime of the Year! Not just on Patriots' Day.

Students will love making a S'more Hero Sandwich Book that they can make.

I have put together a free Hero Poems and Writing Packet for Grades 1-3 that There are 2 poems, 2 Adjective Word Webs and a 2 Writing Activity to choose from. 

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Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Let's remember all the heroes of that day and all who are still fighting for our country overseas.

What activities do you do with your students on September 11th?

Sizzling with Free Summer Reading Resources and Activities

Here in Tallahassee school ends on May 31st. I've put together some great ideas and free resources to help stop the "Summer Slide" for your kids and their parents. We all know how important it is to keep our kids reading and writing all summer long so I have put together a few for you to check out.

At the local level parents should check out their library for their summer reading programs for elementary students. I know I always signed my kids up each summer. Usually there is a theme and books related to the theme as well as fun activities each week.

Scholastic has a wonderful  on line reading program with printables that you can check out and register for by clicking on the picture below.

You might also want to check out Reading Rockets which has a wonderful list of activities and websites with free reading and writing activities as well as great tips and ideas for parents about other summer activities to do with your kids. You can check it out by clicking on the picture below.

I found several Free Summer Reading Programs listed that you can access for different reading levels which you can check out by clicking on the image below.

 Education.com has a 10 week fun program to help kids beat the summer slide. There are lots of fun literacy activities for each of the 10 weeks and all you have to do is register. It's free. To find out more you can click on the picture below.

I just revised my Hooray for Summer Literacy Activities for Grade 1-2 that you may want to check out.

There are 8 different literacy activities to include a Summer Word Sort, Summer Noun Sort, Summer Word Syllable Sort, Summer Compound Word Match and Writing Activity, Making and Writing Sentences about Summer and a few more fun activities. When you download the Preview you will get this free activity.

I have lots of educational Pinterest boards for you to check out by clicking HERE. Hope you will follow me on Pinterest. 

Here is my most popular one you might want to follow.

You may also want to check out some of my other blog posts about summer for some great free activities and resources. Just click HERE.

Thanks for making a difference for all the students in your classroom this last year. I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing summer vacation and take some time for yourself.

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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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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.

 

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

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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.

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