Share The Wealth Teacher Author Spotlight

Just wanted to let all my followers and viewers that today I'm being featured by John Hughes over at "An Educator's Life". On the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month he features Teacher-Authors and on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays he "Shares the Wealth" with  a ton of wonderful freebies from some wonderful teacher-authors. You can find out all about me and get some great links to products and freebies by clicking on the button above.

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

Where did all the Pictures Go? Lessons learned

Yesterday I lost all the photos from my blog!!!!! They are unfortunately gone forever and I am starting to add them back to my posts and have gotten as far as February 16th. I'm am definitely technology and blogger challenged and when I took my smart phone into the sprint store yesterday I got really bad advice. I wanted to get rid of all the photos on my phone so the customer service representative told me how to delete them. She asked if I had a Goggle account which I do and that I should go into Google + then  go to Photos and delete the Albums. I'm sure you are all laughing because you know about picasa and that is where all my pictures are stored which I now just deleted. So that is why you will see the image above if you go back to older posts for awhile. Good new is that if the original picture went to a link- you can still click on the image (like the one at the top) and it will take you to the correct link so you can still get all the resources and freebies, links but there won't be a picture until I can edit all the posts and add them back.

Lessons learned: Don't delete your photos albums from Google+ 

So sorry about this and hope you will bare with me while I'm editing all my blog posts. I need to find a four-leaf clover. Hope you are having a lucky day!!!!!

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

St. Patrick's Day: Free Resources, Books, and Activities

I can tell you that today I didn't have the luck of the Irish. Unfortunately all my blog pictures are gone forever and somehow I will try over the next month to redo all my posts and add the pictures back. I hope you will bare with me.Hopefully you won't have any problems viewing these.

I've put together some great resources for St. Patrick's Day and always like to start with great books. I have to say that my favorite book is "Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato". If you click on the picture below you will see a great list to chose from.

Of course there is always Scholastic that has all your st. Patrick's Day need that you can access by clicking on the picture below. There are lots of materials for all elementary grades to be found.

For those of you looking for some great crafts to make with your students, games and history about St. Patrick's Day and fun facts, you should visit Kid Connect by clicking on the picture below.

For those just looking for fun crafts to make then click on the one below to get complete instructions.

Did you know that March is Irish-American Heritage Month? I revised my St. Patrick's Day Unit to include reading and writing activities about Ireland and it's national symbols. I've included my own Shared Reading Book, Picture/Fact  Reading Cards about Irish-Americans and Ireland's National Symbols, 2 Reading Texts and Comprehension Questions about Ireland and St. Patrick's Day at the 2nd and 3rd Grade levels and Map Activities and a Subject Poem about Leprechauns. Students will write a Country Report about Ireland, A Persuasive letter to a Leprechaun and a Subject poem about Ireland. There are also 4 writing prompts to include Informative text and Opinion Pieces.If you download the Preview File you will get a free activity.
Just click on the picture below to see all the materials in the unit and get a free activity.

I also have a freebie for all my wonderful followers and viewers. I had a lot of great feedback from my Presidents Day Noun Sort so I made one to go with my Celebrating Ireland and St. Patrick's Day. You can download your freebie by clicking on the picture below.

Hope you all have the luck of the Irish and find some fun free resources for you to use with your students.
Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.
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Vocabulary Matters: Wrapping it Up

I have thoroughly enjoyed bringing you some wonderful strategies over the last 8 weeks. Most of these strategies have been for the primary grades. Below is chart of the complete components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction. The components covered were Incidental Vocabulary Instruction during Read Alouds and Independent Reading and Intentional Vocabulary Teaching: Rich and Robust Instruction of the Tier 2 Words in Texts.

According to Edgar Dale (1965) there are 4 levels of a person's word knowledge:

1. has never seen or heard the word before
2. has seen or heard the word before, but doesn't know what the word means
3. vaguely knows the meaning of the word: can associate it with a concept or context
4. knows the word well, can explain it and use it

As unfamiliar words are encountered repeatedly over time, word knowledge grows and the words move from level 1 to level 4.

What researchers, such as Hart and Risley (1995), have found is that there is a significant vocabulary gap of children from disadvantaged homes of about 1,000 words before they enter Kindergarten. Without intervention this gap grows even larger as students progress through school. Even with teaching at least 2 new root words a day from Kindergarten through 2nd grade by the end of 2nd grade the average student will have learned 6,020 root words and those in the bottom 25% will have learned 4,168 new root words. In order to close that vocabulary gap  these students will need to learn 3 to 4 new root words per day (Biemiller 2003). 

We know that understanding word meanings is key and essential to comprehension. How important is it to find 10-15 minutes a day to devote to Specific Vocabulary Instruction? I know it was for me. Whether you add a few extra minutes to your Read Alouds or find a creative way to use time before or after  lunch, or at the end of the day before going home, I hope you will try at least one of these strategies before the end of the school year. I hope you will leave your feedback about this Vocabulary Matters Series below and if you feel that reexamining it again in the fall along with the final component: Word Learning Strategies  would be valuable to you please let me know. If you have missed any of the first 7 parts here are the links.

                                              Part 7

                                              Part 6

                                              Part 5

                                              Part 4

                                              Part 3
                                              Part 2
                                              Part 1
You can download a free copy of the Wrap Up by clicking HERE.
Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.