Read All About It

Ever since my trip to Ikea, I've been obsessed with turning my classroom into a forest filled with animal friends.  Recently, I decided to cull my classroom library for Forest Friends books. Here are some great titles that I recommend:

Picture books

• Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett
• The Bear Books series by Karma Wilson (8 books) 
• Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
• Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
• The Mitten by Jan Brett
• Night Tree by Eve Bunting (Christmas theme) 
• A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson
• Moose Tracks! by Karma Wilson
• Where's My Teddy? by Jez Alborough
• All The Baby Animals In The Woods by Emily Thomson
• In the Forest (Look Once, Look Again) by David M. Schwartz
• Looking Closely through the Forest by Frank Serafini
• Deep in the Forest by Brinton Turkle
• Don't Wake Up the Bear! by Marjorie Dennis Murray
• How Do You Sleep? by Louise Bonnett-Rampersaud
• A Picture Book of Forest Animals by Joanne Gise
• The Busy Tree by Jennifer Ward
• Who's in the Forest? by Phyllis Gershator
• Over in the Forest: Come and Take a Peek by Marianne Berkes
• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
• What Forest Knows by George Ella Lyon
• The Big Storm: A Very Soggy Counting Book by Nancy Tafuri
• Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan
• Nature Trails: In the Woods (Maurice Pledger Nature Trails) by Maurice Pledger
• In the Forest: A Nature Trail Book (Maurice Pledger Nature Trails) by Maurice Pledge 
• Hiding in the Woods: A Nature Trail Book (Maurice Pledger Nature Trails)by Maurice Pledger 
• The Legend of the Beaver's Tail by Stephanie Shaw

Chapter books 

• The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint
• Tales from Dimwood Forest by Avi (series) 
• American Woodland Tales by Jean Craighead George (series) 
• A Cabin By The Lake by Debi S. Nelson
• Woodland Village Stories (Animal Mischief) (Volume 2) by Peter Blight 
• A Badger's Tale by Mike Tibbetts

I'd love to add to my Forest Friends library. What books do you recommend?

Check out these Forest Friends products:

             

            

An IKEA Idea

Recently I took a trip to IKEA. That's kind of a big deal for me because I have to drive nearly 3 hours to reach one. So I try to make my infrequent trips really count. This trip gave me an unexpected idea; an IKEA IDEA, as it were.

While perusing the merchandise, I happened upon this adorable wrapping paper and gift bag.  

You know what they say, "You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher." So, of course, I started thinking about how I could use them in my classroom. Then the idea was born: a forest friends theme. My bulletin boards could use an update with the paper used as covers. I was getting tired of chevrons and polka dots, anyway.  I haven't quite decided how I'll employ the gift bags, but I'm confident I'll figure something out.

Since that IKEA trip, I've been creating lots of things for my forest friends classroom.  LOTS of things.

The first order of business was a welcome banner (& more).

I'm so excited about this theme, that I've started a Pinterest board just for collecting ideas.  I hope you will visit it.  

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4th of July FREEBIE!

with a patriotic freebie or 2!

Use these 30 Inspiring Classroom Quotations from Dr. Seuss to promote meta-cognition AND decorate your classroom. Simply displaying the quotes for your students, may inspire them, encourage them, increase their motivation, improve their vocabulary, and reinforce good character traits and citizenship. Promote a group discussion and you will find your class involved in intriguing conversations. Best yet, it's FREE!!!!

You may also like Patriotic Scrattle.  This fun center is great for word work and computation.  It is differentiated so that you can use it for simple arithmetic, as well as complex equations.  Thus, it is appropriate for all elementary classrooms.  And it, too, is FREE!!!!

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

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It's About Time for Summer Centers

It's also about time for summer school, not to mention year round schools. And, thus, it's about time for summer centers. Check out these:

Picnic ANTonyms literacy center focuses on antonyms. It includes 2 versions; 1 for grades 1-2, another for grades 3-5.

Watermelon Words challenges primary students to match the 2 parts of a watermelon slice to make a compound word. All of the words follow a summer theme.

Summer Square Puzzlers are great for all ages as they provide 3 levels of difficulty. These puzzles exercise critical thinking and HOTS.

The Patriotic Edition of Scrattle is perfect for all grade levels and combines math and word work. Students use a set of letters to create words, then calculate their value using Scrabble(TM) values. Finally, they compare their word values to another student's in a friendly competition. The recording sheets present increasing levels of computation difficulty. Best yet, this center is FREE!

Also known as Latin Squares, Patriotic Squares exercise HOTS. The challenge is to fill these square arrays so that no item is used more than once in each row and column. (Think Sudoku.) This center, too, is differentiated; providing 4 increasingly difficult arrays.

 
I host 10 Pinterest boards for teachers. I would love for you to join these boards as a collaborator. 

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

The English town crier brings even more good news!  As if Princess Charlotte were not enough, you can now score big savings on all of my poetry products on TPT.

If you follow me at all, you know that I am passionate about poetry!  It is my goal to share that passion and create poetry lovers around the world.  To that end, I blog often about using poetry in the classroom ...

• for cross curricular instruction
• for small group instruction
• for whole group instruction
• for holidays
• for creative writing 
• for enrichment 
• for centers 
• for learning about poetry (devices, structures, poets, ...)
• for just about anything!

It's hard, as the school year winds down, to get excited about preparations for next year. But you can snag these resources now, while they are marked down, and peruse them while lounging at the pool, sitting in the car on your way to your vacation destination, or after the kids have been tucked in and you are enjoying a glass of wine.

Ahh...

Check it out!

Then check out these businesses that appreciate teachers with discounts.

Teachers Rule TN Sale

It's about time, teachers, to be appreciated!  

Hopefully, your parents' organization and school administrators will show their appreciation for all you do as a teacher.  You certainly deserve it, for you are far more than an instructor.  Depending on your grade level, you are a shoe tie-er to a chauffeur, a coat buttoner to a counselor, and surrogate parent to an advocate.  And myriad things in between.  That doesn't even address all the personal time and money you put into your classroom and students. 

So, to show my appreciation for all my colleagues, I am participating in the Teachers' Notebook Teachers Rule site sale. The sale lasts ALL WEEK (May 2 - 8) and everything in my shop is 50% off.  Yes, EVERYTHING! Plus, if you enter the code "Teachers Rule" you will get an additional 10% off, netting you 55% off my regular prices.  You don't want to miss this opportunity.

It's May; summer can't be too far away.

You may like this Teacher Appreciation freebie:

Patriots' Day - April 20

Patriots' Day commemorates the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Those battles were fought on April 19, 1775. Interestingly, April 19 also marks the 1st bloodshed of the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot of 1861. Since 1969, this holiday has been celebrated on the 3rd Monday of April. Do not confuse the day with that which remembers 9/11/2001. That day is Patriot Day.  

It seems that Patriots' Day is most celebrated in Mass. and Maine. However, across the U.S., teachers and students are encouraged to recognize the day. To that end, you may enjoy these activities . . .

Patriotic Squares Critical Thinking (a.k.a. Latin Squares) are square arrays in which items fill the cells in such a way that no item is used more than once in each row and column.  (Think Sudoku)

Use these squares to exercise deductive reasoning while disguising it as fun. It includes 4 levels of difficulty ranging from a 3x3 array to a 6x6 array. The 3x3 array has 12 possible solutions; the 4x4 array has 576 permutations! Thus, this activity will challenge even the most gifted and talented students, allows for differentiation with ease, and works perfectly in centers and for fast finishers.  It is appropriate for all elementary grade levels. I've even had reports of adults becoming entranced by the puzzles.

Scrattle: Patriotic Edition is a FREE resource that combines word work with computation; individual effort with competition. This SCRAbble baTTLE also provides 3 levels of difficulty, thereby facilitating differentiation. It, too, spans the abilities of students in K-5 classrooms. Use it in a math or literacy center, as an anchor activity, and/or for fast finishers. Students use a set of letters to create as many words as they can, then compute the worth of their words using Scrabble (TM) values. The battle portion invites them to compare their words' worth to a friends' using simple addition, multiplication, or complex equations with mixed operations.  

Inasmuch as every president is a patriot, you may also be interested in Presidential Trivia Task Cards. These 20 task cards will exercise your students' research skills, both digitally and traditionally.  Use them in a research center, as an anchor activity, for enrichment, and/or as a challenge for fast finishers.

Enjoy Patriots' Day!