Back to School Poetry Possibilities

If you follow me at all, you know that I'm passionate about poetry.

I want my students to share that passion, so I start teaching with poetry on day 1.  

All of those new school supplies are quite exciting!  So, we write concrete poetry about them.  For example:

Ask your students to choose one of their supplies or an object related to school.  Then instruct them to draw the object.  To make a concrete poem, they should write their thoughts about the subject around the shape or fill it with words and phrases pertaining to it.  If you work with young children, provide simple pictures of school related objects like these:

My concrete poem example with the glue bottle rhymes.  Depending on the ages and abilities of your students, you can decide whether or not to require rhymes.

This idea comes from 

Cheers to the new school year!

You may be interested in joining my collaborative board, 

If you'd like to join, follow the board, then leave your pinterest ID in a comment.  I'd love to add you!

Welcome Banner, Word Wall Headers, & More!

It's about time, teachers, to welcome your students to a new school year.  

Greet them with a lovely blue & green welcome banner.

You can find this welcome banner here and many more blue & green educational decor products here.

Best wishes for a wonderful year!

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First Day of School Jitters

It's about time, teachers, for the 1st day of school.  

Many of your students may have concerns. By sharing the following poem, you may assuage some of the anxiety.  At the very least, it may evoke some giggles.

Don't stop with sharing the poem!  Try one or more of the following possibilities:

If you would like more poems for starting the new school year and possibilities for using them in your classroom, check out:

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Round Up a Cowboy Classroom

It's about time, teachers, to round up a cowboy classroom!

Click on the picture below.

You'll shout,

when you check out these resources and LOTS more Wild West curricula here.

Happy trails to you!

When It Rains, Make Forest Animals!

It rained torrents for the entire 4th of July weekend and I had a house full of family and friends. We had planned to boat and ski and swim and float and grill out and...  

Mother Nature did not cooperate.  

So there I was with a house bursting at the seams, including 10 children ages 10 and under. We have very few toys at the lake house. It's best suited to outdoor play. So, being the teacher that I am, I grabbed the art supplies I had and organized the kiddos to make forest animals. I gave them 1 caveat: they had to use hearts to make the animals because I love forest friends.

Here's what they made:

• hedgehog

 

• bear

 

• dragonfly

• fox

• bee

• owl

• beaver

• ladybug

• butterfly

• raccoon

Not bad for a spur-of-the-moment activity. These and similar craftivities will definitely be undertaken in my classroom this fall.

If you love forest friends, too, you may like these products:

The Farming Life

I live in the midwest. Farming is huge here. We may not have beautiful beaches or majestic mountains, but the heartland provides it's own beauty. Every spring, I am thrilled to see the fields return to green and marvel at the growth rate of the corn that's just been planted. I'm a born and raised city girl, but most of my extended family lives the farm life. So I speak with a clear understanding when I say that life is not easy! But it is necessary. And we should thank a farmer 3 times a day for the bounty their work has created.

I have a fun, farm story my father used to tell. Dad was a professor of animal science at the Univ. of IL for over 4 decades.  At some point in the 1960s, he helped to create the Farm-in-the-Zoo displays at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  In the dairy barn, the display showed how milk from the milking machines was pumped up through glass pipes on its journey to the collection tank.  When a group of Chicago teachers and students ventured in, one teacher asked Dad, in all earnestness, when the color was added to the milk.  You see, the glass pipes were being flushed with water at the time!

Having a fondness for the farm, I take pleasure in teaching my kiddos about it.  If you, too, incorporate lessons about farming, you may be interested in some of the farm centers and units I have created.  You can find them here.

Among those materials is the following center: 

In keeping with a farm animals theme, Ducks in a Row Literacy Center provides practice with letter sounds and phonological awareness.

Get your Ducks in a Row!

The greatest gift you can give to someone is your time.