Friday, October 17, 2014

All About Bats: Free Resources, Books, and Literacy Activities

It's that time of year again when we think about pumpkins, spiders, and bats. Did you know that bats are really our friends? They actually eat 1,000 insects a day! Other bats help pollinate flowers that make seeds to grow new plants. They are actually shy and gentle creatures. I learned so much about bats researching my new unit, All About Bats. It includes reading texts about Bats, Megabats, Microbats, Vampire Bats as well as short texts about Echolocation, Bat Features, Why Bats Sleep Upside Down, and Amazing Bat facts. There are comprehension questions, writing activities, and literacy activities to go with each text. They are differentiated at the 2nd and 3rd Grade levels. Here a sample of the the reading activities below:
There are also Picture/Fact Cards for Matching, and a Megabat, Microbat, and All Bats Fact Sort Activity. Students will also read poems about Bats and write a Cinquain about them.
There are Informative Text and Opinion Piece Writing Activities, too. When you download the Preview file you will see sample pages of all the differentiated reading and writing activities and many other activities in this packet. Just click on the image below.

I found some amazing free resources, books for your read alouds, and activities for your classrooms to share with you.  I think we all love the book, Stellaluna. It's a wonderful book to teach about respecting each other and friendship. It also is a great book to read to learn about Bats. Do you know what kind of bat Stellaluna is? She's a Megabat! Megabats eat fruit. I found this wonderful online storytelling of the book which you can access by clicking on the image below. I love the way Pamela Read tells the story and I'm sure your students will too. There is also a free teaching guide and activities you can download. I have included a freebie activity packet that includes a few activities about Comparing Stellaluna and Real bats at the end of this post.
If you are looking for other great books about bats just click on the image below.

Here is a fun free poem you can download by clicking on the one below.
 You can also find some cute Bat Crafts by clicking on the one below.
At KidZone you will find lots of Free literacy activities like An Itsy Bitsy Bat Book to make, A Bat Live Cycle Printable, and more by clicking on the picture below.



I have lots of wonderful new Pinterest Boards that you can follow by clicking HERE. Here is my most popular one below. Hope you will check all of them out.
I hope you will find some great activities. Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

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Freebie Fridays

8 comments:

  1. I came across your post on Facebook, and I love it! If you would like to link it up with my Thematic Thursday linky, it is open through the end of this month. I would appreciate a link back added to your post, but it's not required if you're pressed for time. I know my readers would love your resource too.
    Carla

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  2. I saw your post for Manic Monday, I made my freebie with the same clip art, the book reading bat just cracks me up! This is such a wonderful post, thank you for all these great ideas!
    ~Fern
    Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!
    Fern Smith's Pinterest Boards!

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  3. Grabbed your FREEBIE from Maniac Monday!!! HUGE THANKS!!

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  4. Thanks for the freebies! I love that echolocation song! So catchy!

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  5. Thanks for the reminder about Stellaluna. (= It's been years since I've read that one. Carrie

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  6. What a great collection of Bat activities! Thanks!

    Sally from Elementary Matters

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  7. Hi, Arlene! Thanks for sharing another great collection of thematic activities!

    Linda at Primary Inspiration

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  8. Wow thank you so much for sharing these awesome ideas and activities! You rock!
    Bex
    Reading and Writing Redhead

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