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Showing posts with label Leap Year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leap Year. Show all posts

Saturday, February 17, 2024

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for BLACK HISTORY MONTHH

 

Now that Groundhog Day, the 100th Day, and Valentine's Day have come and gone, you can give more time to BLACK HISTORY MONTH. A unique way to study this topic is with and through poetry. (I love combining different disciplines for more efficient teaching!) POETRY POSSIBILITIES for BLACK HISTORY MONTH provides 12 original, copy-ready poems. Each poem has a teaching point about poetic elements and forms. Also supplied are custom made skill lessons, activities, and poetry writing prompts; the poetry possibilities.


Another distinctive product for BLACK HISTORY MONTH is BLACK HISTORY SQUARE PUZZLERS. These fun brain teasers exercise critical thinking and problem solving, build perseverance and stamina, and stimulate the brain while disguising it as fun. Similar to Scrambled Squares, these differentiated puzzles must be reconstructed so that the images match on every interior side.




















Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Even More FEBRUARY FREEBIES!!

It's about time, teachers, for some more February FREEBIES!




HOLIDAY MATH and LITERACY CENTER Patriotic Days SCRATTLE DifferentiatedSCRATTLE: Patriotic Edition is differentiated, making it appropriate for all grades 1-5.  Students make words from a collection of letters, then compute the value using addition, multiplication, or mixed operations.  There is a recording sheet for each of the named computation requirements.  Next they engage a friend in a Scrattle Battle, comparing their word values as =, >, or <.  The word warrior with the most >s wins!  Stand back and watch your learners quickly eschew those 3 and 4 letter words for longer ones.

DENTAL HEALTH MONTH ACTIVITIES  Freebie ELA Math
February is Dental Health Month, so attend to that with this FREE product.  It includes a song, class graphing, lost tooth bags, a word find, scrambled sentences, tooth idioms, and tooth problems math.

LEAP YEAR ACTIVITIES Literacy Math Creative and Critical Thinking
It's Leap Year and your students will leap for joy with this free unit.  Included are word work, verbal fluency exercises, and math challenges.



February is fabulous and filled with freebies from my store.  Enjoy!



Wednesday, February 17, 2016

It's About Time for Leap Year!



So jump on this FREEBIE that is refreshed, reformatted, and expanded for 2016.  



This is not a huge unit.  It's not full of rigor. It's just a little collection of activities to make Leap Day (Monday, 1/29) a bit more special for primary classes.

Included is a word activity asking students to create words from the letters in LEAP YEAR. The letter sets come in different colors to make sorting them easier.  This activity will initiate verbal fluency and provide practice with sight words.


LEAPING LIZARDS is an addition worksheet; quick and easy for you to prep.  Fun for the kiddos.


Another language activity that promotes fluency and flexibility is naming animals that leap. We have started a list that hangs on the bulletin board.  Adding animals to it makes a great sponge activity. (Having to wait until we have time for the sponge activity also helps develop patience!) 


We have had some very interesting discussions about whether certain animals, like monkeys, actually leap.  In the end, I let the students decide.

There are a couple of other activities suggested in this file.  Hopefully, you will find them worthwhile and incorporate them into your Leap Day plans.  



You may be interested in these products for March:

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Another Leap Year FREEBIE!

It's about time teachers, ...  for Leap Year.  Actually, Leap Year is already here, but we are approaching Leap DAY.  In honor of that special event, I am offering another freebie.  This one is designed for GATE, exercising your students' fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and originality.  It's called Leaping Lizards and is part of my TpT product Destination Imagination.  

Before you look at the product, you have to hear how it came about.  After years of hosting Show & Tell without ever really listening, I tuned in one day.  Chrissy came to the front of the class and with all the drama of a diva, pointed out a rather loose tooth at the front of her mouth. Then, one hand on hip, and using the other hand to shake a menacing finger at the class, she proceeded to warn everyone to stay away from her at recess because she was NOT going to lose that tooth at school!  Then she concluded with the additional admonition that the boys, especially, had better keep their distance.  I'm pretty sure I heard a growl.

I'm nearly certain that those moves mimic her MOTHER.  = )

Then Jeff took his turn at Show & Tell.  With great ceremony and exaggerated courtesy, Jeff asked if he could use a chair for his Show & Tell. Naturally I agreed.  He sat on the chair and quickly removed one shoe and sock.  Then, holding his foot straight out in front of him, he declared that everyone needed to line up and take a look at the planters wart on the bottom of his foot because after school his mother was taking him to the doctor's to have it removed.

By the time all of this occurred, I had been teaching for 15 years.  What did I miss all of those years?!?!?!?

Following that unforgettable day, I decided I needed to up the ante on Show & Tell day.  Hence, I devised and instituted Destination Imagination.  Succinctly, an assignment sheet is sent home each Friday describing the coming week's challenge.  The following Friday, students who choose to participate, present and explain their products.  Participation generally runs at around 70%, which is better than traditional Show & Tell.  My kiddos have a purpose for their oral presentation and a week's worth of working in a positive and productive way with their families.  It is also a wonderful home-school connection that directs eager parents to work with their children in a constructive manner.

Following is the assignment sheet for the Leap Year activity:


These activities became legendary in my building.  Parents loved them and my colleagues clamored to borrow them.  So, I created "Notes to the teacher" explaining some of the pitfalls and lessons I learned through years of using the challenges.  When I became the enrichment specialist and resource teacher for the school, I found these Notes saved me many, many repetitions in answering questions from the teachers.

First graders will do almost anything for a participation certificate, at least in my experience.  Each challenge then, has a certificate that is ready to print and distribute to those who participate.  Following is the page with "Notes to the teacher" and the certificate.


If you like this product, you can find it in my TpT store here.  For another example of a component of the unit, check out my Jazzy Jack-o'-lanterns freebie on TpT.


You may also like:
Or you may enjoy:

For younger G/T students, you may like:
find it here.











Sunday, February 12, 2012

Leap Year FREEBIE!

It's about time, teachers, . . . for Leap Year.  So leap on over to my TpT store to download this freebie.  It has literacy center ideas, a craftivity link, and a couple of ideas for sponge activities that exercise your students' verbal fluency and orginality.  Here's what it looks like:



Remember, it's FREE.  You can download it here.  OK, you can start leaping for joy now. ;o)