Start Your Year Inspired

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday vacation and have come back to work renewed and inspired for 2016. Teachers Pay teachers also hopes you will the start the year inspired with a site wide sale! Whether you are just starting your school year or half-way through, here is a wonderful opportunity to save up to 28% on all the products in my TpT store from Wednesday, January 20th through Thursday, January 21st.  All my products and bundles are 20% and don't forget to add the Promo Code: START16  at checkout to get a total of 28% off your purchases.

I have spent most of the past 6 months revising old products and remaking Previews that include sample pages of all the activities in each packet. So if you are looking for Back to School, September through March units, as well as Poetry and Plays, and ESL lessons you can download the Previews to see most of the activities in each packet.

To all of you who follow me, stop my my blog, or purchase a product, thank you. I will be turning 67 next month and I truly appreciate all of you and to still be part of the education community in a small way. Wishing you all the happiest new year.


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

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What's On Your Wish List?

Believe it or not we are still eating turkey leftovers at my house! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Did you shop til you dropped on Black Friday? I prefer to shop online and not deal with all the traffic and people on Black Friday, so I'm ready for Cyber Monday and Tuesday especially at TpT.

My friend Jen over at Teaching in the Tongass is having a fun linky party of our top wishlisted items for the Cyber Monday and Tuesday TpT Sale! Here are mine. This is one of my best sellers for December and I loved creating it. If you teach 2nd or 3rd grade you may want to check it out. 

My 2nd top wishlisted item is Animals in Winter. It is for K-1. Just click on the image below and download the preview file to see sample pages of all the materials and activities in this packet.

Finally my #3 top wishlisted item is Snow Poetry. I love writing poetry and this is truly one of my favorites. There are literacy activities that go with each poem.

Everything in my store will be 20% off on November 30th and December 1st but don't forget to add the Promo Code: SMILE at checkout to save a total of 28% off. If you have been leaving feedback, you can also redeem your credits to save even more. Just click on the image above to check out my store.

It's a great time to get bundles which will be 28% off the discounted price. You might want to check these out. Just click on any of the images below.

I have been working hard this school year to redo my Preview files so you can see sample pages of all the materials and activities in my products. If you are looking for December Holidays, Winter, New Years, or Penguins, products you will see lots of sample pages in all those products.

Don't forget to check out all the other Top Wish Listed products at Jen's.

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

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Celebrating Native American Heritage Month with Free Resources and Free Activities

November is American Native Heritage Month so let's celebrate their heritage and culture. Having spent 10 years in Alaska I was able to learn so much about the Alaska natives and even visit a Totem Pole village. I was fascinated with their myths and legends and how much they understood about taking care of the land and the animals. Did you know that many scientists believe that the first Americans traveled from Asia through the Bering Sea to Alaska before moving east and south more than 10,000 years ago? Of course I have put together some wonderful websites where you will find lots of free resources, lessons, crafts, and activities. One of the best websites I found you can access by clicking on the image below. You will find everything about Native American Tribes, History, Clothing, Legends, Myths and so much more.

If you are looking for information and free lesson plans about Totem Poles just click on the image below. Did you know that it can take up to 9 months to carve a totem pole?

How about some Totem Pole crafts?  Just click on the image below. You can find lots of other Native crafts to make by clicking HERE

Education World has some wonderful free activities, lessons, and resources about the Native American and Alaska Native culture and heritage for grades K-12. There are so many activities to choose from.You can access all of them by clicking on the image below.

I finally had a chance to revise and update my Celebrating Native American Month Thematic Unit which you can check out by clicking on the image below. It includes 3 differentiated reading texts for ESL Students and Struggling Readers as well as 2nd and 3rd grade level texts about the "First Americans" as well as reading texts about the Legend of the Dream Catcher and the beautiful art of Totem Poles. Students will create and write about their own own dream they would like to catch and design a totem pole. There are map activities, poems about famous Native Americans, and a report writing activity about a Regional Native Tribe. You can check it out by clicking on the image below. When you download the Preview file you will see sample pages of all the reading texts and many of the writing and other activities in this packet.

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Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. I truly appreciate all that you do each and every day.