IT'S ABOUT TIME for VETERANS DAY!

 

Use poetry to teach your learners about this special day.

This poem, and others like it, are found in this product:

While you are celebrating this patriotic holiday, you may wish to add these activities:

Both products are differentiated, making them appropriate for any elementary classroom.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for STELLALUNA!

 

Introducing my learners to Stellaluna, by Janelle Cannon, is one of the things I most look forward to in October. Immersing my class in all things BATS is just so fun. Check out these resources:

Extending the learning for Stellaluna has never been more fun! This thematic unit includes activities for literacy centers, math centers, writing, poetry, & word work.  Also provided are math journal prompts, lots of printable worksheets, and more!

THE BAT CAVE Literacy Center is a word sort to practice rhyming words. Students will move each bat/word card to the bat cave with a rhyming word. This FREE activity exercises onset and rime exchanges with basic C-V-C vocabulary, as well as with irregularly spelled words. THE BAT CAVE is also available in digital form on TPT Easel.

Promote phonemic awareness of initial consonant blends with this bat themed phonics sort. BAT BLENDS is available in print and digital versions (TPT Easel).

Students will sort words with the long and short sounds of /a/. This activity is provided in print and digital versions (TPT Easel). 

Tangram puzzles exercise concepts about geometry (transformation, rotation, congruence, symmetry, etc.). This differentiated activity is great for center or individual work in primary grades.

These resources are available in a bundle.  Purchasing the bundle will save you 30%!

IT'S ABOUT TIME for TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

 

September 19 is TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!  

Avast! Are ye looking for some resources to use on this special day? Try this antonym activity:

Ye have found a pirate’s booty in this resource. In AHOY! ANTONYMS Literacy Center, students match words with their opposites. These materials are provided in print and digitally on TPT Easel.

You might also like to introduce the rules of syllabication with help from these pirates:

Display these syllables anchor charts in your classroom to make the syllable division rules easy for children to understand. Every poster includes an example word to further illustrate the rule. Syllable division is included in every elementary level of CCSS.

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for COWBOY CURRICULA!

Saddle up for some fun, cowboy themed curricula. I adore teaching with a theme and cowboys are one of my favorite themes. My Wild West collection has something for every primary classroom.

Start with a FREEBIE:

This COWPOKE GLYPH is a fun craftivity that incorporates data collection and writing. 

Extend the data collection learning with a graphing, math center.  COWBOY SPIN-TALLY-GRAPH provides easy differentiation by including 3 levels of difficulty.

TANGRAMS are always fun and these Wild West themed tangrams deliver another math center that is differentiated and engaging.

Work on counting order with these WILD WEST NUMBER PUZZLES.  The puzzles progress from 5 pieces to 8 pieces and are also available digitally on TPT Easel.

COWBOY NUMBER SENSE PUZZLES exercise subitizing as students construct the 4 pieces of the puzzle representing the same number. This math center is also available digitally on TPT Easel.

Continue working on number sense with these WANTED POSTERS.  This open-ended activity requires students to express numbers in a variety of ways.  I love to use this activity weekly, providing spiraled practice that reflects their current learning in the curriculum.

SUDOKU for primary students?? YES!  BUCKAROO SUDOKU puzzles begin with easy, 4x4 grids that are perfect for early learners.  The puzzles progress to 6x6 puzzles before employing the traditional 9x9 arrays.  Hence, this differentiated, critical thinking activity can span all elementary classrooms.  

While you're working on critical thinking, introduce these COWPOKE SQUARE PUZZLERS. These brain teasers are also differentiated, increasing in difficulty from 2x2 puzzles to 4x4 puzzles.  The challenge is to make the images match on each interior side.  This activity also exercises flexibility and perseverance.  

Students capable of addition and/or subtraction within 100 will love these MATH COMPUTATION WITH COWBOY RIDDLES task cards.  The task even extends to basic multiplication.  My classes enjoy doing riddles around the room.  This resource is also provided digitally on TPT Easel.

Incorporate all things western by including ELA resources.

A great way to introduce cowboys to your young learners is with this emergent reader.  Drawing on my training and experience in Reading RecoveryTM, I created this text to explore things a cowboy needs while building on high frequency words, 1-1 correspondence, picture cues, word work, and inflections.  Suggestions and techniques for teaching these skills are included in the product description.

Understanding syllable counts and the rules for dividing words into syllables are crucial to learning to read and write.  As you introduce these skills, incorporate these western themed anchor charts.

Practice syllable counts with SYLLABES ROUNDUP.  This brand new, literacy center, available in print and digitially on TPT Easel, asks students to sort the picture/word cards by the number of syllables they hear (1-3 syllables).

COWPOKE COMPOUND WORDS is a literacy center that challenges learners to match the 2 halves of the covered wagons to make compound words.  The center is self-checking and available digitally on TPT Easel.  Some of the vocabulary may be challenging to young learners so be selective in the cards you place at the center.

You'll roundup a lot of learning with this ALPHABETICAL ORDER literacy center.  You determine how many word/picture cards to have your learners manipulate.  The words can be sorted by 1st - 6th letter, giving you the opportunity to differentiate with ease.

You may also like:

IT'S TIME TO CHECK OUT MY BIRTHDAY SALE!

For my birthday, I'm sale-ebrating with a sale for you!  Every bundle in my TPT store is discounted 50% through 6/24/23.  

Here's a sample of the awesome deals you can score:

If you haven't discovered HINK PINKS, et al., you are in for a treat.  

WHAT ARE HINK PINKS?

• Hink Pinks are word riddles.  
• Hink Pinks are fun, word riddles.
• Hink Pinks are fun, word riddles with rhyming answers.
• Hink Pinks are word play.
• Hink Pinks expand vocabulary.
• Hink Pinks extend students' vocabulary.
• Hink Pinks are fun, critical thinking exercises.
• Hink Pinks are fun, critical thinking exercises that help students learn to interpret data.
• Hink Pinks are fun, critical thinking exercises that help students make inferences.
• Hink Pinks are fun, critical thinking exercises that help students draw conclusions.
• Hink Pinks are fun, critical thinking exercises that teach students to analyze new information.
• Hink Pinks are serious learning disguised as fun.

HOW DO HINK PINKS WORK?

• Read the clues.
• Think of a 2 word answer. The answer words must rhyme.
• Each answer word must have just 1 syllable.

For example:

Did you figure it out? The answer is barn yarn.

HOW DO YOU USE HINK PINKS?

• as a literacy center  
• as a warm-up activity
• as a sponge activity
• as an anchor activity
• as a fast finishers' challenge
• for differentiation of instruction
• for enrichment

WHAT ARE HINKY PINKIES, HINKITY PINKITIES, AND HINK PINKS FOR KINDERS?

• HINKY PINKIES are just like HINK PINKS, except the 2 words in the answer must have 2 syllables each.
• HINKITY PINKITIES are like HINK PINKS, too, except the 2 words in the answer must have 3 syllables.
• HINK PINKS & HINKY PINKIES FOR KINDERS are word riddles that do not require reading. Students deduce the 2 rhyming words that answer the riddle by studying the picture. This makes them perfect for kindergarten and 1st graders who do not yet read, as well as ESL and ELL students.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for a BIRTHDAY SALE-EBRATION!

 

It's my birthday week! To celebrate, I've discounted all of my BUNDLES 50% off. That's 50 bundles at half price from 6/17/23 - 6/24/23. Find all of my bundles here.

Bundled products include:

• classroom decor
• thematic units
• hink pinks, et al.
• triads
• kangaroo words
• square puzzlers
• one dollar words
• Scrattle
• idioms
• phonics centers
• vocabulary fractions
• sight words
• poetry
• holidays
• tangrams
• math centers
• literacy centers

Help me celebrate!

IT'S ABOUT TIME for EGG-CITING SPRING RESOURCES!

 

It's about time to get your classroom ready for spring with these EGG-citing resources:

FREEBIE

Students will create and illustrate an idiom booklet with up to 15 EGG idioms.  

CRITICAL THINKING

These differentiated, square, logic puzzles must be reconstructed so that the images match on every interior side.  Perfect for problem solving and perseverance.

MATH & LITERACY

This resource provides materials for at least 18 centers.  Included are word work, subitizing, counting, addition, subtraction, patterns, and more!

Word work and computation are combined with friendly competition in this immensely popular activity.  Students readily learn to strategize and employ more complex vocabulary.  They will want to do it again and again.

This math center is EGG-cellent for practicing and mastering basic math facts.  Differentiation is built into the activity.

Made for TPT Easel, Bunny Magic Squares are digital learning only.  That means NO PREP for you.

The spring edition of Vocabulary Fractions is EGGS-actly what you need to challenge your learners' reasoning, flexibility, vocabulary, and fractions.  

Easter Hink Pinks & Hinky Pinkies are riddles that EGGS-ercise vocabulary skills and problem solving.  Your learners will be EGG-cited when you break out these task cards.

To crack these riddles, your learners must practice addition within 100 without regrouping.  The riddles make computation EGG-citing.