IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for NATIVE AMERICAN MONTH!

November is Native American Month. How will you honor this special time?

I love to share 2 special books with my class, both by Tomie de Paola. Then we extend the learning with a plethora of activities.

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

Included in this product are activities for

literacy, speaking and listening, math, writing, and visual arts. There are materials for 2 literacy centers and 2 math centers. These extension activities relate to Native American culture, cover a broad range of subjects, and include differentiation ideas.

The Legend of the Bluebonnet

This thematic unit offers activities for literacy, math, social studies, and science, as well as visual and performing arts. There are materials for literacy, math, and writing centers. These extension activities relate to Native American culture and cover a broad range of subjects.

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for FREEBIES!

 

Hey Teachers, take some time to check out these FREEBIES! They can help make your teaching life easier.

Hopefully, these FREEBIES will save you time!  More FREEBIES are on the way, so check back soon.

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 IDIOMS!

Idioms are phrases that have meanings quite different from the individual words.  Understanding the figurative meaning of idioms is essential to fluent speaking, reading, and writing.  And, thus, they are particularly problematic to English Language Learners.  Even native speakers may struggle with the non-literal meaning of idioms.  Hence, it's important to include idiom instruction in your curricula.

Research tells us that optimal instruction for students includes these tenets:

• choose a theme
• engage learners in discovery
• reinforce with games
• discuss specific idioms
• combine idioms with pictures

Now you just need teaching materials.  That's a piece of cake with these resources. Thematic and formatted similarly, each offers:

• card sets that illustrate the literal meaning
  and give the figurative meaning
• instructions for 4 games
• Scoot grid master
• digital activity on TPT Easel

The last 5 units are available in a money saving bundle.

All of the above resources are CCSS aligned for grades 3-5.

These 2 units are FREE!  They allow your learners to display their creativity as they make the illustrations of the literal meanings.

SANTA CLAUS CONTRACTIONS

 

One of my favorite, December activities with  first graders is making Santa Claus Contractions books. They write the text and add the illustrations.  All you need to do is supply the booklets.

To create the booklets, simply put several sheets of writing paper inside a construction paper cover.  You can provide the cover copy and illustration, or not!  They can certainly make their own.

Next I demonstrate writing a sentence containing a contraction, then make a quick illustration.

Finally, I send them off to do their writing and drawing.  The books they produce provide insight into which children may need more contractions instruction.  Their compilations always make me smile.

If you try this project, consider these suggestions:

1. You can easily differentiate the assignment by limiting or increasing the number of pages in the booklet.
2. Challenge your more capable writers to include more than one contraction in the sentence. (See the last page above.)
3. Discourage the use of markers. Those sheets of writing paper with illustration space at the top are thin! The marker will bleed through. Encourage the children to use crayons or colored pencils.

REINDEER LIMERICKS

Say what? REINDEERICKS are  limericks about reindeer. 

Like all limericks, REINDEERICKS have a specific structure:

• They are 5 lines long.  
• The first, second, & fifth lines have 8 beats each and rhyme with each other.  
• The third and fourth lines have five beats each and rhyme with each other.

Here's an example:

REINDEERICKS make a fun writing assignment during these days before Christmas.  If your students need help getting the rhythm, have them recite Humpty Dumpty several times. 

Use their REINDEERICKS to create a fun bulletin board. Ask your poets to read their limericks to another class. Celebrate the season!