IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for a NEW YEAR!

It's about time, teachers, for a New Year! Welcome it with poetry.

These 2 poems, and their teaching possibilities, are from the winter edition of POETRY POSSIBILITIES.

This collection of winter poems provides custom lessons that incorporate multiple subjects.  The POETRY POSSIBILITIES include a teaching point about poetry, skill lessons, writing models & prompts, and other activities. Differentiated instruction accommodates students reading above or below grade level.

You may also be interested in this FREE poetry unit.  Martin Luther King Day is January 20th.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for POETRY MONTH

 April is National Poetry Month.  Prepare your classroom for it with these resources:

These 20 posters each describe a type of poetry.  A sample of that poetry form is also included.  Display the posters as anchor charts or compile them in a notebook as a reference for your poets.

All of the poems and the teaching possibilities in this unit pertain to spring weather, holidays, and activities.

This unit provides teaching points, skill lessons, and activities custom designed for each.  Animal Poems masterfully combines language arts with science.

This unit also combines poetry and science as your students learn about states of water, clouds, precipitation, and content vocabulary.

This poetry unit combines poetry and the history of westward expansion.

Take your primary students on an African Safari through poetry.

These poems and their teaching possibilities are all related to feet and footwear.

These task cards are applicable to virtually any poem you may be studying. Skills range from simple identification of high frequency words to homophones; punctuation to personification; and suffixes to cinquains.

IT'S NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

 

It's about time, teachers, for National Poetry Month.  So let's create some poetry! 

A fun project for poetry month is to create a collage of spring things.  (It's also a good way to use up construction paper scraps.)

Once the collage is completed, invite your lower grade poets to make a 5 senses poem.  Provide a formula for the poem:

    I see ____________________________

    I hear ___________________________

    I smell __________________________

    I feel ____________________________

    I taste ___________________________

Attach the poems to the collages and display them for the world to enjoy.

Older students could write triplets, quatrains, haikus, acrostics, ... really any form of poetry you'd like. 

If you would like help with types of poetry, you may like this set of Poetry Posters --

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EXPLORE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

 

April is National Poetry Month, so let's explore some poetry.  What better way to explore than on an African Safari?  Join me on this POETRY SAFARI...

Load your primary students onto the jeep and discover 9 poetic forms: couplets, triplets, alliteration, acrostic, shape poems, ode, collaborative, limerick, and number poems.

There is a map to guide you ...

... and assignment sheets.

This journey will also allow your explorers to learn more about Africa as they complete the poetry assignments.

See you on safari!

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March Teaching Resources

 

Are you ready for all things March? Prepare your classroom and lessons for this special month that ushers in spring.

What could be better than a bulletin board that serves as a math center? 

Challenge your students' critical thinking and fluency as they determine how many ways they can reach the target number. The task is similar to Boogle™ for numbers. Post the operation symbols and the target number you choose to easily differentiate the task.

Try this FREEBIE:

SCRATTLE is a differentiated, math and literacy, learning center activity that combines word work with computation; individual effort with competition. As in Scrabble™, students use a set of letters to create words. After recording their words, they calculate each word’s score using the letter values. Then they engage a friend in a battle wherein they compare their scores using >, <, and =. The student with the most >s wins the battle! (SCRAbble + baTTLE = SCRATTLE!)

This brand new resource is specially made for TPT Easel. (No print product is available.) 

Students will exercise deductive reasoning, inferencing, drawing conclusions, sequencing, problem solving, and computation.

It simply wouldn't be a fresh, new month without a new poetry unit.

POETRY POSSIBILITES for MARCH is a collection of 11 poems about St. Patrick’s Day, March weather, signs of spring, and kites. Each poem is followed by a page of teaching possibilities. These possibilities include a teaching point pertaining to poetry, as well as custom designed skill lessons and activities from multiple disciplines.

IT'S WHIRLYBIRD TIME!

I awoke this morning to what I thought was hail hitting my skylights.  Odd since it was sunny, calm, and beautiful outside.  Then I realized --

Watching this seed dispersal is fascinating and inspired me to write a little poem.

If you follow me, you know that I love poetry and use it extensively in the classroom.  I give focus to poetry elements and appreciation, but I use poetry primarily as a vehicle for teaching an abundance of other subject matter.  

My nod to poetic elements for this poem would be to discuss the theme.  Obviously, the theme is whirlybirds, but more importantly, it's about their movements.  I establish this through discussion.

This leads naturally to an exploration of present participle verbs.  Students are directed to highlight the present participles on their copies of the poem.  Then I challenge them to write a present particple, or -ing poem.  The most intriguing of these poems are composed almost entirely of these verbs.  Thus, I present just such a poem -

We compare the 2 poems; feeling, rhythm, flow, etc., before I launch my young poets to do their writing.

There is an obvious correlation to the science of seeds.  So we study nature's methods of seed dispersal, collecting seeds and classifying them.   

There are so many more lesson possibilities for this poem....

• fluent reading
• punctuation
• alliteration
• rhymes
• rhythm
• syllables
• parts of speech
• phonics
• and so forth

Enjoy!

If you would like more poetry possibilities, you may like

It's About Time, Teachers, for Spring!

Just in time for spring, I have finished updating and refreshing these spring products:

 

 

• Spring Square Puzzlers - an excellent activity for exercising your students’ problem solving and critical thinking skills. These puzzles provide a quick and easy activity for teachers looking to challenge fast finishers, create differentiation opportunities, and provide enrichment exercises. The challenge with these puzzles is to reconstruct the square so that all of the images match on every interior side.
• SCRATTLE: Spring Edition - a learning center activity that combines word work with computation; individual effort with competition. As in Scrabble™, students use a set of letters to create words. After recording their words, they calculate each word’s score using the letter values. Then they engage a friend in a battle wherein they compare their scores using >, <, and =. The pupil with the most >s wins the battle! (SCRAbble + baTTLE = SCRATTLE!) This product offers instant differentiation in that it provides 3 different recording sheets. SCRATTLE can be played by students with basic addition capabilities. This makes it useful for primary teachers and as an RTI resource. Students capable of advanced multiplication will be best served by the second recording sheet. Those skilled in solving mixed operations in complex equations will enjoy the third option.
• Poetry Possibilities for Spring - a collection of 20 poems about spring celebrations and activities with custom designed skill lessons. This poetry unit incorporates poetic elements, poetic forms, writing, grammar, multiple subject areas, and craftivities. There are even directions for a class play! 
• Poetry Possibilities for Animal Poems - a science and literacy unit incorporating multiple subjects through poetry. This collection of 12 animal poems provides teaching points, skill lessons, and activities custom designed for each poem. It masterfully combines language arts with science.  It even includes center activities.

If you already own these resources, please download the new version.  You'll be glad you did.  If you don't have them, try them!  I think you'll like them. 

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