IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Preparing for any holiday always starts with some read-alouds.  These are a few of my favorite books for St. Patrick's Day. 

Then I love to extend the learning with a thematic unit, MAD ABOUT MARCH. Just look at some of the activities it includes:

There is much more to this unit.  Try it!

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for MARCH!

It's about time, teachers. . . for March winds to blow in some springtime sun and weather.  Where I live, in central IL, it's beautiful, sunny, and unseasonably warm. And the wind is blowing gusts in excess of 30 mph!  

Since March is blowing in, it's time to start some March poetry; my passion.  One of my favorite 1st grade poetry activities is. . .

Use the following poem for handwriting practice. As you write each line of the poem on the board for your students to copy, you have the perfect opportunity to conduct myriad mini-lessons.  Think out loud with your students as you capitalize the proper nouns, insert punctuation, read the punctuation, notice rhyming words, apply suffixes, highlight high frequency words, . . . The possibilities are almost endless, the review priceless, and the ability to succeed guaranteed.  (The latter being 1 of the chief reasons I prize handwriting practice so much.)

March 

March is blowing, 

Huffity puff.

March is showing 

Liony stuff.

March is crying, 

"I really am,

Trying to be 

An April lamb."

              by Carol Quinn

Reward their hard work by having them create lions and lambs from paper plates. My craftivities for this are pretty simple, straightforward, and time friendly (since we all have to feel the urgency in educating our students).  

Each student will need 2 plain white paper plates, crayons, 5 or 6 cotton balls, crayons, glue, and construction paper scraps.

The lion is easiest.  Using their crayons, the students draw a lion's face on the flat, center section of the plate.  Then color the mane on the bumpy part, interspersing shades of brown and yellow.

The lamb takes a bit more time. We created everything on the lamb using scraps of construction paper, except the mouth.  You could simplify this by using crayons or markers to make the eyes and nose, as well.  But, I think it's well worth the time to make the eyelids with curly eyelashes.  Glue cotton balls on the forehead, or, if you have a plethora of cotton balls, they could be glued all around the bumpy part of the plate. 

You can see that we staple the ears on. After many years of trying to glue them, let me tell you, it just doesn't work.  So break out the stapler and move on.

Use the products to create 2 displays:  

• Make a bulletin board graph using these crafts.  Have your students place their lion or lamb in the appropriate cell of the graph according to their prediction of March's entry. [BTW, a really quick and easy way to make lines on the bulletin board is to use yarn.]  

• Attach the other paper plate craft to the poem.  Display these examples of their handwriting.

Now, March winds, do your work; blow winter away and usher in spring.

You may like these March resources:

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for $1 WORDS!

 

Have you ever shared Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea, with your class?  If you haven't, it's about time to try it. This delightful book tells about Mr. Terupt's 5th grade class from the perspective of various students. Your learners will enjoy the novel because of its authentic characters and realistic action.  Year after year, my learners sprint to the library to secure the sequels.  It warms my teacher's heart to see them have such enthusiasm for reading.

Throughout the story, Mr. Terupt sprinkles $1 WORDS. $1 WORDS are those that equal exactly $1 using the following table of values:

As a lifelong logophile, these words fascinate me. I embraced the challenge to find words worth exactly $1 and, with the help of my computer guru son, promptly found more than 600! Naturally, I had to create $1 WORD activities to challenge my students.

Many educators invite their learners to find $1 WORDS; just find some. What could be more frustrating to a child than to start blindly calculating the value of words with absolutely no parameters? The odds of finding one must be astronomical!! So I created clues:

My enrichment students loved this challenge so much that I scrambled to write >450 clues just to keep ahead of them!

You will love them, too, because they provide a lot of bang for your buck! When pursuing $1 WORDS, your learners will exercise a plethora of skills: computation, vocabulary, spelling, parts of speech, prefixes, suffixes, base words, participles, singular, plural, proof-reading, critical thinking, research, calculator, problem solving, ...

TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT! with the free version.

You can find 6 more $1 WORDS products in my store.

You will also find bundles of these units, saving you 30% off of the individual prices.

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for BLACK HISTORY MONTHH

 

Now that Groundhog Day, the 100th Day, and Valentine's Day have come and gone, you can give more time to BLACK HISTORY MONTH. A unique way to study this topic is with and through poetry. (I love combining different disciplines for more efficient teaching!) POETRY POSSIBILITIES for BLACK HISTORY MONTH provides 12 original, copy-ready poems. Each poem has a teaching point about poetic elements and forms. Also supplied are custom made skill lessons, activities, and poetry writing prompts; the poetry possibilities.

Another distinctive product for BLACK HISTORY MONTH is BLACK HISTORY SQUARE PUZZLERS. These fun brain teasers exercise critical thinking and problem solving, build perseverance and stamina, and stimulate the brain while disguising it as fun. Similar to Scrambled Squares, these differentiated puzzles must be reconstructed so that the images match on every interior side.