IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Preparing for any holiday always starts with some read-alouds.  These are a few of my favorite books for St. Patrick's Day. 

Then I love to extend the learning with a thematic unit, MAD ABOUT MARCH. Just look at some of the activities it includes:

There is much more to this unit.  Try it!

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%!

TEACHING RESOURCES for THE MITTEN

Winter brings mitten weather. So what could be better for your primary classroom than a study of THE MITTEN?  I love to immerse my class in all things mitten while we study various versions of this Ukranian folktale.

We begin our week long study by reading all the versions of the folktale I can find. The above 3 are available in my library. Then I provide a plethora of materials with the mitten theme.

One of my favorite winter bulletin board displays is this one:

It is not only a winter display, but provides an awesome math center, anchor activity, sponge activity, enrichment, &/or fast finishers' challenge. Learn more about it from this video:

This thematic unit has literacy centers, math centers and printables. It is available on TPT Easel for digital learning. Explore its offerings by watching this video:

Mitten math centers include:

Practice number sense and numeracy with Mitten Math. It is available on TPT Easel for digital learning. 

This video explains its numeracy activities:

Glyphs are always popular with my learners. This activity also provides a fun display. Watch the video to see what it offers:

Although my curriculum map does not include graphing at this time of year, I like to spiral my students' exposure to these skills.  This product offers 9 graphing sets with differentiation built in. Video follows:

Latin Squares combine math & critical thinking.  They are open ended activities that can challenge even the most gifted of students. This product is available on TPT Easel for digital learning. Learn more here:

Mitten literacy centers include:

Establish a literacy center focused on antonyms and synonyms. It's 2 centers in one and it is available on TPT Easel for digital learning. Here's a video introduction:

Matching Mittens gives practice with onset & rime. This center is differentiated to give more challenge to those who need it. It,too, is available on TPT Easel for digital learning. See it in action here:

Sight word practice is always beneficial.  These color-by-word printables with delight your pupils. See more about them with this video:

You can also exercise CRITICAL THINKING while studying The Mitten. Mitten Square Puzzlers are learning disguised as fun.  They, too, provide varying levels of challenge for differentiation. To see how they work, watch this:

You can buy a bundled version of all of these products.  The bundle saves you 20% over the individual prices, PLUS, the bulletin board math center, How Many Ways?, is included for FREE! 
 

Happy winter teaching!