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. 

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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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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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Poetry Matters: Connecting Poetry and Punctuation

 I found that when I used chants to teach, my students would be chanting all day. It's like a catching tune or song that you can't get out of your head. I wrote a fun chant, "Where's the Teacher?" which has lots of different types of sentences and said, "Ah Ha"- I can connect punctuation and poetry. This is just one of the many poems, chants, Mini book "Fall Leaves" and activities as well as a fun fall play "How Will  I Know When it is Fall" you will find in my all new and revised  "September Poetry, Chants, Fall play and Activities"  packet. There are also fun Back to School poems to teach during the 1st few weeks of school. You can check it out by clicking on the picture below and downloading the Preview file to see all the materials and Activities in this packet.

After I wrote this chant I realized that it would be a great way to practice punctuation. (CCSS ELA for 1st and 2nd grade). So I decided to offer this free poem and punctuation activity to my wonderful followers. Just click on the poem "Where's the Teacher?" " to download your free poem. Graphics are by Dillydabbles.

Here are a few new Pinterest Boards to follow.

Check out all my new Pinterest Boards HERE

                                                     
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 Thanks for making a difference for your students.

What are some other ways you can use this chant?

"Snow, Let's Go!": A Free Fun Snow Poem to Get Your Class Excited About Snow!

This post can be seen HERE

With the Thanksgiving Holiday over and Winter on the way I wanted to share a new Snow Poem with all of my wonderful followers and viewers. As most of you know I love creating and writing poems. Some of you may have already seen some snow but we all know that kids love snow. This poem is part of my new Snow Poetry Unit for 1st and 2nd grade and is aligned with CCSS.  I had so much fun creating this packet and after you download your freebie by clicking on the image above I hope you will check out my poetry unit by clicking on the image below which is just part of what you will find in my unit. You can preview the whole packet when you download the preview at my store.

How often do you teach poems in your classroom?

Where's the Teacher? Connecting Poetry and Punctuation

 I found that when I used chants to teach, my students would be chanting all day. It's like a catching tune or song that you can't get out of your head. I wrote a fun chant, "Where's the Teacher?" which has lots of different types of sentences and said, "Ah Ha"- I can connect punctuation and poetry. This is just one of the many poems, chants, Mini book "Fall Leaves" and activities as well as a fun fall play "How Will  I Know When it is Fall" you will find in my "September Poetry, Chants, Fall play and Activities"  packet. There are also fun Back to School poems to teach during the 1st few weeks of school. You can check it out by clicking on the picture below and downloading the Preview file to see all the materials and Activities in this packet.

After I wrote this chant I realized that it would be a great way to practice punctuation.( CCSS ELA for 1st and 2nd grade).So I decided to offer this free poem and punctuation activity to my wonderful followers. Just click on the poem "Where's the Teacher?" " to download your free poem. Graphics are by Dillydabbles.

Here are a few new Pinterest Boards to follow.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Follow me on Pinterest

 Thanks for making a difference for your students.

What are some other ways you can use this chant?