4th of July FREEBIE!

with a patriotic freebie or 2!

Use these 30 Inspiring Classroom Quotations from Dr. Seuss to promote meta-cognition AND decorate your classroom. Simply displaying the quotes for your students, may inspire them, encourage them, increase their motivation, improve their vocabulary, and reinforce good character traits and citizenship. Promote a group discussion and you will find your class involved in intriguing conversations. Best yet, it's FREE!!!!

You may also like Patriotic Scrattle.  This fun center is great for word work and computation.  It is differentiated so that you can use it for simple arithmetic, as well as complex equations.  Thus, it is appropriate for all elementary classrooms.  And it, too, is FREE!!!!

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

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Woo Hoo! I just have to tell you...

...that I am included on the TPT blog this week -- twice!  Yes, twice!! 

I am literally jumping for joy!

The first mention was for reaching a milestone in December.  Since no newsletter was published last week in deference to the holidays, those of us who reached milestones were included in this week's list. The TPT blog recognized the milestone achievers and featured the product I put up for FREE in celebration.  Because many of you may have missed that notification, I am leaving Winter Word Problems with Mortimer Moose as a free product until Tuesday, 1/6/15. Check it out before it goes back to full price. Mortimer is looking forward to meeting you!

The second mention is in the section about MLK, Jr. Day.  Scroll down and you will see my FREE product, Poetry Possibilities -- MLK, Jr. Day.  You can also find a little blurb from me about how my students and I celebrate this special day.

I feel so blessed to be included in the blog. What a way to start off the new year!  To celebrate, all of my Poetry Possibilities units are reduced 20% this week.

Family Reading Night

At my school, we have Family Reading Night in which families return to school in the evening. They are encouraged to visit up to 3 rooms where guest readers are sharing some favorite books. Our committee works hard to find some local celebrities to read.  We implore radio personalities, the weather girl on the local TV station, a player or coach from the U of I's athletic teams, ...
Ironically, the most popular reader is always the retired kindergarten teacher who touched so many of our children's lives and invoked their love of literature.

One of my favorite activities for Family Reading Night incorporates my passion for poetry.  I share the following poem with my students:

I love to challenge my kiddos' creativity while helping them focus on the /ook/ rime.  To that end, I point out the lines,

          "Chefs read cookbooks,

          Pirates?  'Hook' books!

          Little kids read lift-and-look books!"

Working together, we think up other "-ook" books and readers.  For example, fishermen read bait and hook books.  Or, Chess players read rook books.  My students never fail to amaze me with the lines they create.   The all-time favorite line came from a student who had just returned from vacation in the Pacific NW.  Her line was "[Native Americans] read Chinook books."  (I inserted the pc term; she actually said, "Indians.")  How amazing is that???

If you are looking for a set of books that promote reading and a love of literature, I recommend the following:

• Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair by Patricia Polacco
• The School Mouse by Dick King-Smith
• Wild About Books by Judy Sierra
• Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
• Born to Read by Judy Sierra
• Reading Makes You Feel Good by Todd Parr
• The Best Book to Read by Debbie Bertram & Susan Bloom
• The Best Place to Read by Debbie Bertram & Susan Bloom
• The Best Time to Read by Debbie Bertram & Susan Bloom
• Miss Brooks Loves Books (And I Don't) by Barbara Bottner

If you like this poem and activity, you can find more fall poetry, teaching points, skill lessons, and activities in my product, Poetry Possibilities - Fall.

It is available in my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.

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