Earth Day Resources and Deals!

I'm a big fan of Earth Day. 

I think looking out for our world is VERY important and it needs to happen now. 

Each and every one of us needs to do what we can to help this place be around for our grandchildren and our grandchildren's grandchildren.

As with most special days, I always celebrate every Earth Day with plenty of good literature.  

Here are some of my favorite children's books with an Earth Day theme:     

• Earth Day is an ABC book, and makes a great introduction to the concept of protecting the environment.
• The Lorax, is classic Seuss!  He tells about a mystical land of fantasy, which, in true Seuss fashion, is a much deeper real story.  Even my second graders understand this valuable lesson.
• The Wump World is a fun book to read to the children and NOT show the illustrations (even the cover) until the children have had a chance to show the Wumps and Pollutians that they visualized while listening to the story.  Another great story about a fantasy world with very real lessons!

This one is a new discovery to me, and my new Earth Day Favorite. 

• A River Ran Wild is a story that dates back to the days the Native Americans ruled this area, and respected the earth. It continues through European settlers, the industrial age, and attempts to clean up the river. This book is based on a local river, which makes it near and dear to my heart, but it's got a valuable message about protecting our world. My students became very upset when they saw what happened to the beautiful river. See THIS BLOG POST for more about this book, and an art activity to go with it.

After reading, I intend to have the children do some opinion writing and/ or explanatory/ informational writing based on what they have learned about protecting the environment.

Here's a collection of writing paper with the Earth Day theme that I'll be using.  

See this link to download this dollar deal: Earth Day Writing Paper

Plus, here's a little song to encourage Recycling! Click the image to download Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

 How are you honoring Earth Day this year?

Twelve Ways to Celebrate Writing

As a blogger, I know the power of the audience. It's you readers out there that make me want to blog, and make me want to make quality blog posts! Don't our children need this same sense of audience to motivate their writing? I think so!

Here are some ideas for celebrating the children's writing:

1. Share in Class! Have one child read his/ her story to the class. The class is expected to listen and ask questions that "prove they were listening." This works well when the child is "mid-story" in order to get ideas on where to go from this point.

2. Small Group Shares! Have children work in groups of 2 or three to share their stories as above.

3. Share Your Best Sentence!  I like this one because there's usually enough time for each child to share one sentence. If the children know it's coming, that helps motivate the children to work on the quality of their sentences.

4.  Share With Someone Else in the Building! There are lots of adults in an elementary school who would be thrilled to "play along" with this one! It's a great motivator to promise a child that he can read his story to the custodian, or the secretary, or the cafeteria workers. It's a win-win!

5. Share With Another Class! Plan to get together with another class in your own grade, or another grade to pair the children up for a big share! There are advantages to each age group: older, younger, or peers!

6. Skype! - Do you have a class with whom you Skype?  What a great opportunity for children to share their writing! 

7. Write Letters! See THIS BLOG POST for the benefits of letter writing and resource to make it easy!

8. Bulletin Boards!  Post the children's writing on the wall for others to see!

9. Class Books and Newspapers! These will be read by classmates (and parents) over and over!

10. Publish! It's amazing how special it makes a story when it's typed up and a fancy cover is put on it. I allow students to take out each others' published books for Independent Reading time. It gets really interesting when we're talking about Author's purpose... the author is sitting right there in the classroom!

11. Have an "Author's Tea"! Invite parents, grandparents, and administrators, and give the children an opportunity to read one of their stories to the group. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you make it. It's a great opportunity for a party, and a great opportunity to motivate your young writers with a live audience!

12. Have a Class Blog!  I have to admit, I've never done this, but I'm planning to start a class blog very soon!  Imagine the thrill to see your own written work displayed on the internet! Wait... I know what that's like, and that's why I can't wait to give my students the opportunity to do the same!  

If you have a blog for your class, or know of one, I'd love some input! I have loads of questions and concerns, so I'm looking for examples and mentors in the Class Blog department!

A Couple of Dollar Deals for Veterans Day

Somehow Halloween is over, we have Veterans Day in less than a week! 

I've rounded up a couple of fun deals to share with you!

Here's a collection of paper for writing thank you letters to veterans!  After a lesson or two on what veterans are and how they help us, I find letter writing to be a nice way to culminate the activities.

Thank You Veterans!

 

I've noticed my little second graders often confuse the different patriotic holidays, so I made this resource to help them keep track of President's Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, and Veterans Day. It's really helped them keep track of which holiday is which!

Patriotic Holidays!

Hope your students end up with a good understanding of Veterans Day!

 

 

Almost October? Time for Some Deals!

Can it really be almost October already? 

October just happens to be one of my favorite months! And it just so happens I have lots of dollar deals for you!

Brain Breaks are an important part of the day! Here are 12 with an October theme. October Brain Breaks!

 

 

 

October is Fire Safety Month! I've found these "Fire Safety What Ifs" can really get the children talking about some fire problem-solving! Click the image to download these!

 

And of course, it's football season! Be sure to click the image for a football-themed game that practices numbers through 1,000! 

Football Counting to 1,000.

  

Isn't Halloween one of the biggest holidays of the year? Here are two more dollar deals to keep your students interested in classwork during the Halloween Days! 

 

Halloween No Prep Sample

Halloween Sentence Reading

Even if you can't celebrate Halloween, you can certainly celebrate bats! Click the image to download this booklet:  

Bats Informational Mini-book

If you love these dollar deals, you'll love this: 

October Bundle!

 

Isn't October fantastic? 

I love this time of year!

Tools for Learning

I always like to start the year with lots of learning tools for my students. 

I've often bought those fancy name tags for the children's desks that have extra pictures and tools for the children to use. I keep looking for the perfect name tags, and I can't find them. Last year I made name tags with plenty of tools. It was kind of a pain, but I made all the parts and cut them all out and put them on the name tags.  

I've always given the children a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 card with the Handwriting Without Tears alphabet on one side, and a number grid from 0 - 120 on the other side. Those cards were incredibly handy! I'll make those cards again, but I have also made the ultimate tool kit with just about everything I could think of!  

 

  

I started with Math. I made a color coded chart from 0 - 120, number lines, tens frames, a place value grid, references for money, clocks, and shapes, key words and tables for addition and subtraction facts. See the image or see here: Math Tools for Learning

 

There are 5 pages of Writing tools: An overview of the 6 Traits of Writing, a word bank, a writing poster, short and long vowel references, and a proofreading guide. See the image or see here: Writing Tools for Learning.

 

For Reading, there is a reference for long and short vowels, a list of reading genres, a list of questions to ask while reading a selection, a list of reading skills, a list of reading strategies, suggestions on choosing books and reading fluently. See the image or see here: Reading Tools for Learning

 

For Social Studies, there's a map of North America, directional symbols, lists for days of the week, months of the year, continents, and oceans. See the image or see here: Social Studies Tools for Learning

 

 There are 7 pages of Science tools: 2 pages of Science Vocabulary, a list of science skills, the 5 senses, the planets, Science and Engineering Practices, the Engineering Design Process, Typical S.T.E.M. elements,and a list of healthy habits. See the image or see here: Science Tools for Learning

 

 I've put together a sampling of these materials as a freebie.You can download this freebie (as shown above) through the image or here: The Learning Tool Kit Sampler

 

It took forever to complete all these parts, but it's going to be soooooo worth it! I'm going to have the children cut out the parts and paste them onto individual folders, one for each subject, then I'll laminate them so they can use these tools all year. 

I want the children to put them together themselves so they'll be more familiar with the materials and will have some ownership on how they are designed. 

I'm thinking I'll color code the folders, so it will be easy to find the tool they need. For example, when they're working on writing, they'll pull out the red folder.  

These tools are available individually, but are also available as a bundle. (Save HUGE with the bundle!) The Learning Tool Kit Bundle

 

I hope you're as excited about these tools as I am.  

I'll bet you can think of plenty of ways to use these learning tools!

 

 

Classy Mail: Writing Friendly Letters

Ever have one of those days where you just can't come up with a writing mini-lesson, or just don't have the time to put it together? 

Try "Classy Mail!" 

Teach letter writing by having the class write to each other!

Yes, I know what you're thinking. Isn't writing a friendly letter becoming obsolete? Well, yes and no. I realize most letter writing is done electronically these days. But isn't getting a friendly letter in good old fashioned "snail mail" still a treat. It's becoming a lost skill, but it still has value.

Maybe it's near report card time, or you are pulled for a meeting and need to leave something easy for an Assistant. Or maybe you're going to be out and need something to leave for a substitute! 

This activity is one I always keep in my "sub tub"! Run off the letter and envelope back to back, and you'll have a letter on one side, and the other side can be folded into an envelope. (See HERE or see the image for the link to this resource.)

I like to start off by having each student fold and address an envelope to himself/ herself. We have the "Wee Deliver" program in my school, where children mail their letters in a "real" mailbox, and once a week, students work with a parent volunteer to process and deliver that mail. Everyone in the school has an "address" according to their classroom. (My street is "Broadway", as I'm a big musical theater fan!) Even if you don't have this program, you can assign a "class address" for each child, since using home addresses might not be recommended for privacy purposes.

For younger students, the envelopes can be pre-addressed. My second graders struggle to remember all the parts of an address, so I make several copies for each child and keep them for "those days". (Another advantage to this activity... it can be repeated over and over!)

Once the envelopes are addressed, the teacher collects them, and shuffles them. Then the children choose one of the envelopes (making sure they don't get their own) and write a letter to that person.

With younger students, I spend some time making sure the children have ideas for letter writing. We brainstorm a list, which I keep in the view of the children. I'll spell key words for them, and make sure they have plenty of ideas.

If someone is absent, I'll have early finishers write to them, or even better, I write to them myself. 

I find this activity to be rewarding for all involved: it's easy on the teacher's valuable planning time, the children enjoy interacting with each other, and it has "built-in feedback"! When the children get the letters, they respond! If they enjoy the letter, that's feedback! If they have trouble reading the letter, that's feedback, too. Honestly, when children have a captive audience of a classmate or friend, they tend to focus on writing so their audience will enjoy it!  

 

Brain research tells us that authentic feedback is the best feedback of all. It also tells us that interaction with others and activities with true meaning is motivating to children. What's more motivating than passing notes in class... writing letters to classmates?

What are your ideas for writing friendly letters?