Presidents' Day: Free Resources, Activities, Craft Ideas, Books, and a Free Word Sort

When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties we celebrated Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays on their actually birthdays. Today we combine their birthday celebrations and celebrate them together.  Many of you just have a one day holiday but some school district have a whole week winter break. I have put together some great resources for your classroom Presidents' Day celebrations.

If you are looking for some great craft ideas for your students to make, I found a few great sites. How about this cute Patriotic Hat George or Washington Cotton Ball  Paper Craft ? Just click on each picture to find lots of craft ideas and directions.

If you are looking for a list of good books for Read Alouds, just click on the picture below.

For lots of wonderful free resources and activities, for all grade levels, you need to check out Scholastic. Just click on the picture below.

Apples4theteacher has lots of free resources including printables, worksheets, and poems. Just click on the image below.

There are more good activities at Education World you can check out by clicking on the image below.

There are more than 25 great free activities at Family Education that you can check out by clicking on the image below.

Finally I found lots of free activities at The Teachers Corner that you can access by clicking on the image below.

I finally revised and updated my Presidents' Day Packet for Grades 2-3. You will find a Word Wall, Picture/Word Cards, 3 differentiated Reading Texts about both George Washington and Abe Lincoln.

There is a Presidents' Day Fact Sort or a Picture Sort for your ESL or Struggling readers. Students will find Character Traits about each presidents and find proof in their reading texts, write Informative and Opinion Pieces using any of the 6 writing prompts, and one Compare and Contrast Activity.

Just click on the picture below to download the Preview file to see sample pages of all the reading and writing activities in this packet.

Finally a freebie for my wonderful followers and viewers. If you click on the picture below you can download my Free Presidents Day Noun Sort. Students will sort words related to Presidents' Day into 3 categories:

Proper Nouns, Plural Nouns, and Common Nouns. 

Hope you will leave feedback and enjoy using it in your classrooms.

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

Fall Leaves, Fall Leaves, What Do You See? I See a Freebie Waiting for Me!

When I lived in New England I was so excited when fall arrived and the leaves started to turn such magnificent colors of red, orange, and yellow. Fall is truly a beautiful season and I was surprised at how beautiful it was even in Alaska. Although fall was only 3 weeks long it became a sea of gold.

Even in northern Florida we still get a taste of fall usually in November and I am stilled awed by all the beauty that surrounds me. I wrote a Fall Leaves Unit which I just revised. It includes a Shared Reading Book called, "Green Leaves, Green Leaves" about the leaves changing colors in the maple tree. Here is a glimpse of the first page.

Students will not only listen to the story but interact with the story with different colored leaves that they will color.They will also enjoy performing one of two plays about fall leaves. There are Make and Take books at both the K and 1st grade levels, a Word Wall, Picture/Word Matching Activity and a fun "Fall Tree Journal" where they will draw and describe the leaves on a fall tree over a period of time. You can see sample pages of all the reading and writing activities, the Fall Tree Journal and other activities when you download the Preview.  Just click on the picture below.

Here is a sample of one of the plays. This is for Kindergarten. There is also one for 1st Grade.

While performing the plays students will either wear character necklaces or make a fall leaf hat and I found some cool free fall hat crafts for your students to make, too. I love this one with tissue paper which you can access by clicking on the picture below.

If you have beautiful fall leaves where you live how about having your students make one of these? Just click on the picture to find out how to make it.

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Wherever you live I hope you have a beautiful fall season. Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students.

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What is fall like where you live?

Free Parent and Teacher Resources for Back to School

Life is getting back to normal after my fantastic Alaska vacation. Believe it or not it was so warm I had to buy shorts! It was great to see old friends and colleagues and catch lots of salmon on the best fishing trip ever! Here I am in front of my old school.

I know that many of you are heading back this week and some already have so I have put together Part 2 of BTS Free Resources not only for teachers but also for parents. I found this wonderful website for parents which you can access by clicking on the picture below.

You will find great tips for:

• Making the first day easier
• Backpack safety
• Traveling to and from school
• Bullying
• Developing good homework habits and more

For teachers, you may want to check out this power point, "36 Interesting Ways to Get to Get to Know Your New Class". You will find some fun and different activities for grades K-12.

I also found "101 Ideas for a Great Start"  at the Iowa State University: Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.

I also have a fun freebie which you can download by clicking on the picture below. 

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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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When is your first day of school?