Appreciating Teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week

It's hard to believe that it's the first week in May and the school year will soon be coming to an end. Although I am retired, I have 4 grand kids in public school and their teachers are amazing. Teacher's Pay Teachers is having their annual Teacher Appreciation Sale on May 3rd and May 4th. Everything in my store will be 20% off but don't forget to use the PROMO Code: CELEBRATE at checkout to get a total of 28% off your purchase. Just click on the image below to check out my store.

 You will find Mother's Day and Cinco de Mayo thematic units and lots of spring related products. Going on a field trip to the zoo you may want to check out this fun packet: Zookeeper, Zookeeper." You can enjoy a few freebies like these Spring Fluency Activities or Mother's Day Writing Prompts.

Hope you know how much I appreciate each and everyone of you for the difference you make each and every day.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Free Resources and Poems.

April is National Poetry Month and a great time to get your students excited about poetry. I loved using poetry with my students. There are so many benefits to adding poetry to your classroom reading activities. Look at the poem below:

There are so many ways to use this for teaching many of the 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. This poem also helps to teach vocabulary. Look at the words blooming and waddling. Students can act out these words as they are reciting the poem. This poem describes the many signs of spring, perfect addition to a Spring Science Unit. How about comparing and contrasting what happens in spring to what happens in winter?  Depending on your grade level you could do a phonics lesson on the "ou" sound in ground and and "ow" as in town. What other phonics lessons can you think of? I always like to add a writing activity with my poems. Students can write about what they like most about spring. This poem is part of my revised and updated "Spring Poems" Unit . You can see sample pages of all the poems and literacy activities in this packet by clicking on the image below.

Here is a fun free Spring poem called "Ode to a Frog" that you can download by clicking on the image below.

Most of you know how much I love to write poems, chants, and plays and explore the different poetry forms and share them with you. Sometimes a poem just pops in my head when I go out for a walk and I have to rush home to write it down. It's not so easy for me to remember the whole poem as I just turned 67 a few months ago. Last year I put together an April Showers Poetry Unit "April Showers" and then 5 more poems about Rain. I had so much fun that I decided to put them in a new product called, "A Shower of Rain Poems."  Just click on the image below to see sample pages of all the poem and activities by downloading the Preview.

Included in this unit is a Haiku, called "Raindrops" and a Craftivity Activity where students will write their own Haiku about Raindrops and paste it to a Raindrop like the one below. Think of a bulletin board full of Raindrop Haiku.

One of my favorite poems in this packet is "Can You Hear the Rain?" It is a great poem to have students close their eyes while you read it and imagine the sounds and visualize the rain falling. Students will then find and sort plural nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

With April being National poetry month I have put together some great free resources, free lesson ideas, poetry book resources, and freebies for you to access for all your April poetry needs.

First is Scholastic. You will find so many free resources, lesson ideas, and poetry book ideas. Just click on the picture below to access them.

I love all the free resources at Reading Rockets. There are so many links to Learning through Poetry to access including lessons, different forms of poetry, and using poetry for English Language learners that you don't want to miss. Just click on the picture below.

If you are looking for some free resources of different forms of poetry to use with your students just click HERE. You can also find more forms of poetry with instructions by clicking on the picture below.

Finally, you will find free poetry lesson plans and resources at Education World by clicking on the picture below.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope you don't have too many April showers!
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Leap Year Surprise

My brother is a leap year baby so in honor of his "17th" birthday I'm having a Leap Year Day Sale. Everything in my TpT store will be 20% of on February 29th! It's the perfect time to get some great deals on March products.

Here's my latest product that I just uploaded a few days ago for Women's History Month. Just click on the image and download the Preview file to see sample pages of all the reading texts, biographies, poems, and writing activities in this unit.

You will also find my March Poetry Unit.

Did you know that March is Irish American Heritage Month? You may be interested in my unit below.

If you are looking ahead to spring you can check out my Spring Writing Activities, Spring Fluency Activities, and Spring Reading and Writing Activities.

It has 15 Making Words and Sentence Activities about Special March Celebrations like the one below that you can use for morning work or literacy centers. Enjoy. Just click on the image above to download your free packet.

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

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Celebrating Women's History Month with Free Resources and Activities

In the U.S. March has been designated by Congress as "National Women in History Month." It also coincides with International Women's Day which is celebrated on March 8th in countries around the world. Although women have contributed much to our country's history most schools didn't start focusing on the achievements and contributions of women pioneers until recently. I have put together some wonderful free resources and activities that you can access for ideas and lessons to use in your own classroom during March.

If you are looking for some wonderful books and biographies about women to use during March you will want to check out the ones below. Just click on the image to read summaries of each book.

I found some great free resources at Scholastic which you can check out by clicking on the image below. You will find lots of information about Women's History Month as well as Books, Interactive Histories of Women Pioneers, Biographies, and Classroom Activities and Projects. All grade levels are included.

You may also want to check out Time for Kids which you can do by clicking on the image below. I was amazed at all the free resources I found on their website.

At NEA you will find lessons and activities for grades K-12 which you can access by clicking on the image below.

You can also check out the many lesson plans at Education world by clicking on the image below.

For Grades 3-12 you might be interested in checking out ReadWriteThink.

Finally at Edutopia you will find 6 Lesson Plan Resources which you can access by clicking on the image below.

Believe it or not but I just turned 67 years old and thinking about my future in the blogging and creating new products world. This is actually my first post in more than a month as I have been spending more time in the "real" world and not very much in the "cyber" world. I did however manage to create and upload a new unit just for Women's History Month that you can check out by clicking on the image below. You will find poems, biographies, and fact cards about 11 incredible women in history. Just download the preview file to see sample pages of all the differentiated reading texts, poems, fact cards, and writing activities that are included in the unit.

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

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