Black History Month

It's about time, teachers, for Black History Month. Are you looking for some curricula? Have you tried teaching through poetry?

Black History Month Poetry Possibilities offers 14 poems (copy ready for their anthologies) about these notable African Americans:

• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Harriet Tubman 
• Garret Morgan
• Granville T. Woods
• George Washington Carver
• Matthew Henson
• Jackie Robinson
• Leontyne Price
• Muhammed Ali
• Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr.
• Rosa Parks

While each poem provides important information about each of these people, the teaching possibilities extend the learning in myriad ways.  For example, this poem about the astronaut, Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr., provides lots of information about the man and his accomplishments.  But the poem provides many more opportunities for learning.  Note the unusual form of the poem.

That form is quite effective in presenting information.  So, why not have your students apply it to another subject?  It could focus on another notable African American, or it could be applied to something closer to home - mom.  

This teaching possibility is described in #2 below.

As you can see above, the Poetry Possibilities provide suggestions for other subject matter, as well.

Each poem has a teaching point that applies to poetry.  After all, students should learn to appreciate poetry as a literary form. 

That teaching point leads to another teaching possibility:

A quick review of basic grammar is always a good idea.

The teaching possibilities need not be limited to language arts and history.  The 3rd possibility for this poem invites students to employ a Venn Diagram in comparing the astronaut to another man of science, George Washington Carver.  A template is provided:

By using some or all of the Poetry Possibilities provided for this collection of poems, you will have plenty of curricula for this special month.

Life teaches us to make good use of TIME, while TIME teaches us the value of life.

You may also be interested in these poetry units:

Happy Holidays!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  In order to appreciate my family, traveling here from 4 states, I am taking a technology vacation.  I look forward to connecting again in 2017.  In the meantime, best wishes for a ...

12 Days of Christmas -- Day 12

This is day 12 of my 12 Days of Christmas giveaways.  Your gift today is a BIG ONE!

Poetry Possibilities -- December Edition is a wonderful collection of poetry appropriate for this holiday filled month.  

This gift is only free for a short time, so hurry over to my TPT store and get your copy.

If you like this poetry unit, check these out:

12 Days of Christmas -- Day 11

It's about time, teachers, to unwrap your gift for the 11th day of my 12 Days of Christmas giveaways.

This product is BRAND NEW and FREE for the 11th day of Christmas.

Since these will be used at a time of the year that can be filled with wiggles, the 36 task cards (or a portion of them) can be posted around the room. Then students can move about reading the ELF RIDDLES.

To find the answers to the riddles, pupils must solve math problems that then provide the letters needed.  The green cards require addition within 100 to unlock the code.  The red cards use subtraction within 100 and the blue cards require multiplication of two 1 digit numbers.   This variety of computation skills provides instant differentiation for your heterogeneous class.

If you prefer, eschew the task cards and use only the printables.  Give each student a copy of the computation clues sheet appropriate for his abilities.   Then give him the appropriate riddle sheets. (I print them on 2 sides).  Now stand back and enjoy the giggles. 

You may also like these holiday resources:

12 Days of Christmas -- Day 10

Welcome to the 10th day of Christmas giveaways. Today's gift is SCRATTLE: The Christmas Edition.

SCRATTLE is 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 Scrabble™ 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!)

SCRATTLE can be played by students with basic addition capabilities, as well as those skilled in solving mixed operations in complex equations. Three different recording sheets are included, providing instant differentiation.

Use this multi-disciplinary center activity today!  It is ready to print and go.

You may also like these SCRATTLE products:

12 Days of Christmas -- Day 9

On this 9th day of Christmas, my gift to you is Christmas Confections Square Puzzlers. 

Are your kiddos getting a little wound up? OK, a lot! Give them Christmas Confections Square Puzzlers and enjoy a little quiet. This activity is seriously engaging. It is differentiated, so you can use it with any grade level. The challenge with these puzzles is to reconstruct the square so that all of the images match on every interior side. Like this:

This 4 piece puzzle is the easiest and most appropriate for the youngest students. Note that the images on the inside borders match.

3 Square Puzzles are included. The 3x3 puzzle is considerably more challenging and the 4x4 square may drive you a bit daffy! But do not stress out!! When you download this product you will find a nice little clue to solving the puzzles.  You can decide whether to share that with your students or not.  Here's the 3x3 in progress:

I should warn you that there are a few, potential problems with introducing your students to square puzzlers:

• They may beg incessantly to do them.
• They may complain loudly when you ask them to put them away.
• Those lacking in stamina may become frustrated. (In my experience, this is a very small percentage of the students.)

I hope you and your students will enjoy these.

Check out these square puzzlers: