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.

It's About Time for Presidents Day!

I reached into the archives to pull out this craftivity.  It's a fun way to make a Presidents' Day display.  

For every student you will need 1 sheet each of red, white and blue construction paper.  I used 8" x 8" square sheets, but you can avoid a lot of cutting by using 9" x 12". You will also need cardboard patterns of Washington & Lincoln.  I found silhouettes online, printed them, and then traced them on cardboard.  Cut them out and your resources are ready.

Since paper weaving has been around forever, I'm assuming you know how to create the woven background.  After each student has chosen which 2 colors to use for the weaving part, ask them to exchange 1 of those sheets for about 6 - 8 pre-cut strips of the same color.  I supply the 1" strips.

When the weaving is completed, each child should borrow the silhouette pattern of their choice to trace on their remaining sheet of paper. 

The beauty of this project is that by encouraging your students to choose 2 colors of their choice for the background, saving the 3rd for the silhouette, you will give your classroom a burst of color without having all 20+ projects look the same. 

Following are some resources for Presidents' Day that I think you will love:

These products are not specifically for Presidents' Day, but rather for any patriotic holiday.

This one is FREE!

Presidents' Day + Freebie February

One of my favorite activities leading up to Presidents' Day is a probability center.  My students work in pairs flipping a penny 100 times and recording the results:  heads or tails.  A great bonus to this center is that it is usually close to our 100th day, so groups of 100 are fresh in our minds.

Each pair receives a set of 10 ten frames. Prior to starting, they predict how many times they will get heads and how many times they will get tails.  They write their predictions on the back of their recording sheet.  

My students take turns being the flipper and the recorder, switching jobs after filling each ten frame.  They record an H each time they get heads; T each time they get tails.  

At the end, they compute how many of each they got.  The final step is to compare their prediction to their reality. My kiddos love this activity.  I'll bet your's will, too.

It's day 10 of Freebie February! 

Just for today, you can get Patriotic Squares Critical Thinking. This activity is also known as Latin Squares. 

Enjoy!

You might enjoy these patriotic products, too:

February: Do What You Love

One of the things I love to do with my students is immerse them in poetry because it offers so many teaching possibilities. Naturally you can focus on poetic structures and poetic devices. But have you ever used poetry to teach reading skills? Because poetry is usually short and the message concise, it's a perfect venue for studying vowel sounds, contractions, punctuation, parts of speech, syllables, rimes, inflections, .... The  possibilities are nearly endless. It's always good practice to relate these skills to what is being read. Practicing skills in isolation may transfer to reading skill building; then again it may not.  

Does it sound daunting to combine poetry with ELA skills?  It doesn't have to be. As the ELA coach for my elementary building, I determined that poetry was generally intimidating to my teachers, or at least viewed as a luxury that may not receive much attention. Resolving to change that, I began giving my teachers units of poetry with "possibilities" for using it in the classroom.  Since I work with K-5 teachers and students, these Poetry Possibilities units have applications for all elementary levels.

Poems have reading skills already built into them.  All you have to do is look at it with a "reading skills eye." Thus, if the poem is replete with a particular consonant blend, use it in a guided reading lesson about that blend.  If the poem has a sprinkling of contractions, devise a review lesson about contractions using the poem.  As an example, look at the following poem, noting that it has several compound words in it.

Due to the structure of a poem, it is easier for young children to locate the compound words. If you reproduced this poem on sentence strips for use in a pocket chart, that would facilitate identifying the compound words as a group.  With a little magic and masking tape, you could make the compound words come apart. Alternately, you might focus on the punctuation and how it helps the reader to read with expression and fluency. Or, you might choose to conduct a mini-lesson on contractions. For example, the Possibilities for the above poem include:

If you are interested in more seasonal poems with teaching points and skill suggestions, visit my TpT store here. For February poems and possibilities, I have 3 (!) products: Black History Month Poetry Possibilities, February Poetry Possibilities, and  Poetry Possibilities for Winter.  Another unit, 100th Day of School Poetry Possibilities, is useful this time of year, as well. (Better yet, it's FREE!!) 

As a reading specialist, I highly recommend using poems for guided reading lessons and review lessons.  It has always been a favorite activity of my remedial students if for no other reason than they had less text to conquer.  Just a word of caution: reading poetry is principally about creating enthusiasm for reading.  Take care not to defeat that goal by always turning poetry reading into a skill drill.

As proof of just how much I love teaching with poetry, I present my Poetry Possibilities units:

It's About Time for a Presidents' Day Sale!

click here

Presidents' Day Poetry FREEBIE!

It will soon be Presidents' Day.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know that must mean it is time for a poetry freebie!  So, here it is. . .

It is also time for a some Poetry Possibilities to go with the poem...

Following is a preview of the literacy center referred to in #3 of the Poetry Possibilities...

You can download the poem for free by going here.

This poem is taken from my Poetry Possibilities -- February.  The product has 17 poems and nearly 30 pages of skills, centers, and activities.  The range of reading levels in the poetry makes this product appropriate to both primary and intermediate classrooms. Possibilities for differentiation are included.  

Hats off to President Lincoln and to a holiday from school!

Presidents' Day Craftivities

It's about time, teachers, to honor our presidents, especially those born in Feb.  I've got 2 craftivities that will brighten your classroom and engage your students.

#1:  Presidential Silhouettes and Weaving

For every student you will need 1 sheet each of red, white and blue 9"x12" construction paper.  You will also need cardboard patterns of Washington & Lincoln.  The beauty of this project is that by encouraging your students to choose 2 colors of their choice for the background, saving the 3rd for the silhouette, you will give your classroom a burst of color without having all 20+ projects look the same.  

Since paper weaving has been around forever, I'm assuming you know how to create the woven background.  After each student has chosen which 2 colors to use for the weaving part, ask them to exchange 1 of those sheets for about 6 - 8 pre-cut strips of the same color.  I always cut my strips about 1" wide for 1st graders. 

When the weaving is completed, each child should borrow the silhouette pattern of their choice to trace on their remaining sheet of paper.   After tracing, if they are careful about cutting out the silhouette, they can actually make a 2 sided craft.  One side features the traditional silhouette.  The other side can host the scraps from the silhouette making a reverse or negative image. (See Lincoln projects above.)  Of course, just gluing the silhouette on 1 side makes a perfectly good craft.

I strongly recommend cutting the patterns out of sturdy cardboard, such as from the back of a tablet of paper, in order to have them survive for next year's students.

You could also do the weaving project with patriotic symbols, such as the star, above.  And, again, you can use the scraps to create the negative on the backside.  A star and liberty bell pattern can be found below.

#2 Patriotic Chalk Art:

This is one of my all time favorite crafts, but please realize it can be quite messy.  The pattern piece above actually reflects 2 methods of making the chalk rubbings.  One uses the shape pattern and rubs out from the edges; the other uses the scrap or negative of the shape with rubbings going in toward the center.

For the bell images above, provide cardboard patterns for the shapes.  Ask your students to trace the pattern on construction paper (color doesn't matter).  Insist that they trace the pattern onto another piece of paper because if they all try to rub chalk on the pattern, you will endure many complaints about purple symbols.  Each child should use his/her own shape.  

After cutting the shape out, students should generously rub blue or red chalk around the edges of the shape.  They MUST do this on what I call a "dirty" sheet, which is actually paper reclaimed from the recycling box.  It is essential that they rub the chalk on while on the dirty sheet, then move to the chosen construction paper background.  Demonstrate holding the shape securely with one hand while pushing the chalk out onto the background paper with 1 finger (hence the messy part).  You can make this project as easy or challenging as you like by making a single shape on the background or using multiple shapes and colors all on the same background, perhaps creating complex patterns.

The negative version of this craft works much like the presidential silhouettes above.  After cutting out the shape, the student should tape the scraps together (see lower left corner) and then rub the chalk around the edges of the missing shape.  Again, this step must be done on a dirty sheet.  Then, holding the negative steady with one hand, have the children rub the chalk toward the center on their background paper.  

Clean up absolutely requires lots of soapy hand washing in order to prevent chalk smudges everywhere, and especially on their clothes.

These patterns can be cut out of card stock or heavier cardboard.  You should insist that the students not put chalk on your templates.  Who wants to have to remake the patterns year after year????

Enjoy Presidents' Day!