Purring About October Poems and Freebies

It's hard to believe it's already October. Here in northern Florida it still feels like summer but hopefully cool weather will be on its way soon. Last year when my computer crashed I lost my October Poetry Unit and I really wanted to revise it. So I decided to remake it just in time to get it uploaded today. There are 8 Original Poems about all the October happenings like Columbus Day, Fire Prevention Week, Pumpkins, Scarecrows, Popcorn (It's National Popcorn Popping Month), Football, Baseball, and more. Here's a sample of all the poems.

There's a fun "My Special Pumpkin" Design and Write Activity.

Each poem has a writing or literacy activity like the 2 you see below. Popcorn Punctuation and Contraction Match and Sentence Writing.

You can see all the materials and activities by downloading the Preview file and also get a free Acrostic Poem Writing Activity. Just click on the image below.

There are 2 more freebies about Pumpkins and Popcorn which you can access by clicking on either image below.

I hope you will follow me on Pinterest. Just click HERE. There are lots of new ones.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. Hope October is beautiful where you are.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Fire Prevention Week Free Resources and Activities

Fire Prevention Week is always the first or second week in October. Even though most students who are in Kindergarten and 1st Grade do many activities during that week, I truly believe that is equally as important for all students to spend time talking about Fire Safety and Prevention. Just this last summer we were celebrating the 4th of July with our family. Children were in the street lighting fireworks and one kid lit a firecracker while holding it in his hand and got burned. Most of the kids were 8-11 years old. It's also the time of the year when it gets colder and people are having fires in their fireplaces. Inevitably there was always news stories about house fires that started in fireplaces. So I have put together some great resources to check out for Fire Prevention Week. I hope you will check them out. There are lots of activities for K-4.

There are many great videos that I found on YouTube like the one below that I liked. 

If you are looking for some great books for your Shared Reading Time just click on the image below.

You can find free activities  at Fire Safe Kids by clicking on the image below. 

How about a Jeopardy Game for your students? Just click on the image below:

Of course there are great free activities from Sparky the Fire Dog. There are videos, checklists, activities and great information. Just click on Sparky below.

There are always great activities at Scholastic. There are lessons for Grades 1-2 which you can access by clicking on the picture below.

I just uploaded my new "Fire Prevention, Safety, and Firefighters Unit". It is jammed packed with Reading and Writing Activities plus Poetry and Poetry Writing and much more. All materials and activities and materials are differentiated at the 2nd and 3rd grade levels. Students will learn about Firefighters, Fire Safety Facts, Safe and Unsafe Activities, and many other activities including Poetry and Writing Prompts. You can see sample pages of all the differentiated reading and writing activities and other materials in this packet when you download the Preview file. Just click on the image below.

Have you checked out all my new Pinterest boards. Just click HERE. Hope you will follow.

Here are a few you might like:

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

Bright Ideas: What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Working with ELL Students

Most of you know that I loved working with ELL (English Language Learners) students. Although different school districts use different labels such as ELL or ESL, your chances of having at least one in your classroom is pretty high.  LEP (Limited English Proficient) students learn English the same way we learned English, naturally. First we didn't say anything, then sounds and single words. Then we put a few words together and then started to speak in sentences. In order for these ELLs to acquire academic English they will go through several Stages of Language Acquisition. Conversation proficiency is much more easily acquired and can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. However, becoming academically proficient can take from 5-7 years if students are literate in their first language. If they are not literate in their first language, academic proficiency can take from 9-12 years.

• Stage I: Pre-Production: This stage can last from 10 hours to 6 months. At this stage the student is internalizing the new language. You can expect that students will communicate with gestures and actions such as pointing to pictures or objects. Students may be able to say "yes" or "no." Lessons should focus on listening comprehension using visual aids, emphasizing oral and written words, and journal writing using pictures, student's native language, or limited English.
• Stage 2: Early Production: This stage can take an additional 6 months to a year. At this stage you can expect that students will answer with "yes" and "no", speak using one or two words, and use repetitive language patterns. Lessons should focus on Language experience, role-playing, expanding vocabulary, guided journal writing, and picture reports.
• Stage 3: Speech Emergence: This stage can take an additional 1-3 years. At this stage students speak in longer phrases and complete sentences. Lessons should continue to expand vocabulary and develop higher levels of language use in reading and writing.
• Stage 4: Intermediate Fluency: This stage can take an additional 1-2 years. At this stage students use complex sentences, engage in conversation, state opinions, and speak at length. Lessons should focus on oral discussions, journals, comparing and contrasting, reading a variety of genre, and expanding vocabulary in the content area.
• Stage 5: Continued Language Development: At this stage students will participate fully in grade level classroom activities with some support in comprehension and the use of academic language. 

There are also many factors that affect how quickly newcomers and LEP (Limited English Proficient) students will achieve proficiency.  Here are the major factors:

• Motivation (Attitude): The more motivated they are the more likelihood of success.
• Age: There is still a lot of debate about the optimal age but most feel that younger learners are the better at picking up communicative aspects of English, prompting them to learn more.
• Access to language: Opportunities to learn the targeted language play a big role. Students need to interact in the targeted language with native speakers.
• Personality: Students that are extroverts have more interaction with Native speakers. Risk-taking is an important personality trait that greatly affects language learning.
• First Language Development: Research suggests that those who have have a strong schooling in their first language will be more successful at acquiring their new language.
• Quality of Instruction: What happens in the classroom is a vital factor. Effective learning takes place in a well-organized classroom where there are opportunities for interaction with the teacher and peers and there is an adequate amount of time spent on practicing the new language.
• Cognitive Ability: Students with a lower cognitive ability can acquire a new language but proficiency levels will be equal to or lower than their ability level in their first language. If students have a learning disability in their first language, it will transfer to the new language.                        

Hope I've given you some Bright Ideas. If you have enjoyed these Bright Ideas I hope you will consider joining me on Pinterest, Facebook, or Bloglovin to see more Bright Ideas.

Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. For more Bright Ideas from more than 100 bloggers, browse through the link-up below to choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting.

An InLinkz Link-up

Building Fluency with Fall Fluency Activities

Fall is only a few days away and there are so many wonderful books about fall to help students build fluency. Themes are great for students who need more practice learning the target vocabulary and become more automatic with their new words. Fluency is one of the 5 Big Ideas in Reading. Fluency is necessary for students to comprehend what they are reading. Students need to read in order to become fluent but we know that struggling readers spend less time reading. They not only struggle with fluency but also with comprehension. Themes also give students students more opportunities to learn the targeted vocabulary with a variety of activities and multiple exposures.

For the beginning readers, fluency begins with a single word. There are several activities to help students learn the fall target vocabulary that you see in the sample from my new Fall Fluency Unit below. For ESL students and struggling readers there are those cards with pictures and also without. There are 2 fluency activities called Fast Match and Point and Say that students play with a partner.

Students also need to learn phrases and then sentences. Look at the example of the sentence below. Students not only learn the fall vocabulary words: wheelbarrow and leaves, but sight words: the, is, in, of and phrases: in front of the, full of.  When students struggle to read and labor over each word they struggle with comprehension. The phrase: in front of, should be read together without pausing to indicate where the dog is.

Here are some of the Phrase Activities, Sentence Activities, and Assessment from my Fall Fluency Unit. There are also Build a Sentence Fluency Cards included.

Students who are fluent, read with expression. They understand what is happening by the way they read. I love using poetry to teach fluency and using expression.  Here is a poem from my new Fall Literacy Activities Packet : Students can add the actions of picking the apples, putting them in a basket, washing and slicing them, and then eating them.

Poems are short and help reluctant readers participate when doing echo reading, choral, and whole class readings. The more they read it, the more fluent they become. It also build confidence. Besides reading passages at both the 1st and 2nd Grade levels,  I've also included 2 Readers Theater Partner Scripts like the one below.

There are also 3 differentiated leveled Reading Assessments. This packet is great for ESL students, Special Ed teachers, and RTI besides regular classroom teachers. If you would like to check out all the activities and materials in this packet please click on the image below and to read the description and download the Preview file. The Preview file includes sample pages of many of the activities and materials in this packet.

Looking for some new Pinterest boards to follow? Click HERE. Here are a few you may be interested in:

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

Follow my blog with Bloglovin