It's about Time, Teachers, for Black History!

 

Try combining Black History Month with poetry. These are some of the things I love about poetry:

• Poetry uses an economy of words. Thus, it looks different. When I was teaching Title I, my students really brightened up when I presented a poem rather than prose. I have no empirical data to support this, but I believe it was because that economy of words and the extended white spaces made the reading less intimidating.
• The structure of poetry makes it ever so much easier to teach concepts and skills. If, for example, you wanted to teach compound words, finding them in a poem is much easier than searching through a page of prose.
• Whether it’s because of the condensed message, or the engaging lilt of a poem, or both, I believe comprehension is easier, especially for struggling readers.
• Poetry is fun. It’s fun to listen to and fun to read. Poetry with rhythm and rhyme is simply engaging for children.

I 💜 combining disciplines. It saves so much TIME! These poems about notable African Americans and the history of Blacks in America incorporate myriad lessons in ELA, history, and writing.

Bring something new to your teaching with Black History Month Poetry Possibilities.

Your learners will also love Square Puzzlers. This set for Black History is differentiated, allowing even primary students to engage in the challenge. The goal is to reassemble the puzzle pieces into a square array in which the interior images match.

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for SPIRALED CURRICULA - Critical Thinking

In 1960, Jerome Bruner advanced the theory of The Spiral Curriculum. His hypothesis was that "any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development*." The key tenets of his theory are:

1. "The student revisits a topic, theme, or subject several times throughout their school career;

2. The complexity of the topic or theme increases with each revisit;

3. New learning has a relationship with old learning and is put in context with the old information."*

*https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED538282

In this modern era of instant information, with or without citation, I firmly believe our learners must become critical thinkers. So, in accord with Bruner's theory, I have created bundles of products that provide ample material for spiraled learning of higher order thinking skills. Even kindergarteners can exercise these skills.

A perennial favorite with my students is HINK PINKS, et al. These word riddles help children learn to problem solve, analyze, and create while exercising vocabulary skills (definitions, synonyms, parts of speech, rimes, syllables, ...).

SQUARE PUZZLERS are wildly popular in my classes. Like Scrambled Squares(TM), these differentiated, logic puzzles must be reconstructed so the images match on every interior side. They exercise critical thinking and problem solving, build perseverance and stamina, and stimulate the brain while disguising it all as fun!

TRIADS are fun-filled vocabulary developers that engage pupils' critical thinking while exercising the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy - analysis, evaluation, and creation. At the same time, your students will be forming word relationships.

ONE DOLLAR WORDS provide a lot of bang for the buck! Learners work on vocabulary development, computation/calculator skills, traditional and/or internet research, and grammar, while exercising critical thinking. Moreover, these products provide a wonderful extension to Rob Buyea's book series about Mr. Terupt.

With STORY SLEUTHS, students will enjoy great literature, learn about artistic media, and participate in collaborative thinking. The IDIOMS bundle provides frequent and enduring practice with vocabulary, figurative language, and critical thinking. The bundle of PUN TASK CARDS will provide lots of humor as your pupils learn about these literary devices.

I've spent the time creating these products to provide frequent and enduring practice with critical thinking for my learners. Save your precious time by sharing them with your students. As always, bundles from my store save you 30%.

Sight words are a fundamental element of reading instruction. As such, you need to devote time to these building blocks. After all, they account for nearly 75% of all vocabulary in elementary reading material.

One way to expose students to sight words is with a word wall. Such displays provide constant access to the foundational vocabulary and help to instill independence. To preserve your precious time, I offer a variety of word walls based on the Dolch list. You can find them here. From pandas to cowpokes, you are sure to find a theme you like.

Coloring printables are a popular means of providing practice for instant recognition of the high frequency words. The coloring sheets in my store focus on manageable chunks of the Dolch list. Here's a FREE version to try:

These products offer seasonal and thematic designs.

Bundled products save you 30%.

If you wish to really challenge your learners, try SIGHT WORD SQUARE PUZZLERS.

Each product is specific to a grade level list of the Dolch words. These challenging puzzles are differentiated and require very close attention to the words.