I have been in the field of education for 27 years. I love what I do everyday; it is truly a passion and I can not imagine doing anything else! In 2013, I retired as the gifted, special services, and elementary curriculum director for a public school district! I design curricular materials anywhere from Pre-K to 8th grade, and I must say I am partial to classroom/behavior management and English Language Arts.
I have been in the field of education for 27 years. I love what I do everyday; it is truly a passion and I can not imagine doing anything else! In 2013, I retired as the gifted, special services, and elementary curriculum director for a public school district! I design curricular materials anywhere from Pre-K to 8th grade, and I must say I am partial to classroom/behavior management and English Language Arts.
You will absolutely engage your students with this wonderful informational text article that most every child can relate to. This is an informational text article about the Home Alone mansion being on the real estate market. The article is approximately 680 words long and is completed with several illustrations, including captions, to motivate any reader. At the conclusion of the article, there is a ten question formative quiz that ranges from multiple choice questions regarding vocabulary to open-ended questions which require inferencing and multi-step thinking! You can't go wrong in working on vocabulary and comprehension utilizing this informational text!
This is an awesome packet to utilize to teach opinion writing in grades, three, four, and five. This packet contains seven different sources which all have critical information in trying to formulate an opinion in whether one should buy an artificial tree or a real tree during this Christmas season. Five of the sources are articles from the web and include the following titles: (1) Real of Plastic: Many Consumers Will Be Asking Themselves That Question This Season; (2) It’s Environmentally and Traditionally Wrong to Buy and Use Plastic Products to Celebrate Christmas… Here’s Why?; (3) Dear Earth Talk: What’s Better for the Environment, a Fake or Real Christmas Tree?; (4) Buy a Real Christmas Tree and Support Our Economy?; and (5) Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees: Which is Better for the Environment? Next, there are two other sources which are graphs/charts and include: (1) China Tops in Fake Christmas Trees and (2) Tree Purchases (in millions). Students can critically read each of these sources to help them formulate an opinion. Upon much discussion and examination of each of the seven sources, students then can complete one of the two graphic organizers provided to frame their opinion writing. Both organizers allow the students to provide an opinion based on what they have read. Additionally, they are asked to give reasons and evidence for their opinion. These organizers pave the way for the writing of the opinion piece asked for in CCSS:
(W.3.a,b,c,d) (W.4.a,b,c,d) and (W.5.a,b,c,d).
In this packet, you will find approximately thirty-three pages of photo props. The props include the following: (1) Liberty Bell; (2) God Bless America statement; (3) Uncle Sam Top hat: (4) Betsy Ross; (5) bouquets of fireworks; (6) Rockets; (7) the American Flag; (8) the Statue of Liberty; (9) Uncle Sam; (10) a July 4th Emogi; (11) an American cupcake, and many more! There is at least eight of each photo prop so you shouldn’t lack for everyone having a great choice as to what he/she might want to use in making his or her perfect photo. Are you planning a summer get together in the back yard? Are you working with a summer enrichment program and want to create a photo booth for your kiddos? Are you looking for a fun activity to do with your own kiddos? If any of these scenarios apply, look no more… you have found the perfect activity. Everyone loves to make selfies and other pics with family and friends to cherish forever! If you have boas or other props to put with these, the more the merrier. All you need to do is to print these on heavy cardstock, cut them out, and glue to a dowel or even a skewer in some instances. For young children, please be sure to use dowels in that skewers sometimes have sharp ends! Happy Independence Day!
In this packet, you will find approximately thirty-three pages of photo props. The props include the following: (1) Liberty Bell; (2) God Bless America statement; (3) Uncle Sam Top hat: (4) Betsy Ross; (5) bouquets of fireworks; (6) Rockets; (7) the American Flag; (8) the Statue of Liberty; (9) Uncle Sam; (10) a July 4th Emogi; (11) an American cupcake, and many more! There is at least eight of each photo prop so you shouldn’t lack for everyone having a great choice as to what he/she might want to use in making his or her perfect photo. Are you planning a summer get together in the back yard? Are you working with a summer enrichment program and want to create a photo booth for your kiddos? Are you looking for a fun activity to do with your own kiddos? If any of these scenarios apply, look no more… you have found the perfect activity. Everyone loves to make selfies and other pics with family and friends to cherish forever! If you have boas or other props to put with these, the more the merrier. All you need to do is to print these on heavy cardstock, cut them out, and glue to a dowel or even a skewer in some instances. For young children, please be sure to use dowels in that skewers sometimes have sharp ends! Happy Independence Day!
Your students are absolutely sure to be engaged in this informational text! This is an informative article written about the legend behind carving a pumpkin-- a fall favorite past time! The young and old alike love this activity! The article is 458 words long, complete with illustrations and captions that help to explain the information. Also, at the conclusion of the article, there is a six question quiz. The quiz has three multiple choice questions and two open ended questions, and one sequencing question. This text is sure to engage a room full of readers! A great read for your students!
You will not want to miss this packet of informational text articles to use with your students in the classroom! This is a bundle of four fall articles that range from 450-650 words. Each article has illustrations and captions to further explain the text. At the conclusion of each article, there is a six question formative assessment to get a snapshot of students vocabulary and comprehension skills. The following articles are contained in this packet:
(1) Visiting An Apple Orchard: A Fun Fall Activity!
(2) The Origins of Carving a Jack-O-Lantern
(3) Bobbing for Apples: A Fall Fun Favorite!
(4) Fall Fun: Wind Your Way Through the Corn Mazes!
Here is an October word bank that will completely come in handy for a Writer's Notebook. This word bank is comprehensive of the many words that come to mind during the month of October and are sure to get your students' creative juices flowing! There are approximately 20-25 words that spur your students' brains for all kinds of writing-- narrative, expository, argumentative, etc. Use this October word bank for writing, ABC order, poetry, etc. It's uses are only limited by your imagination!
What child does not love sock monkeys? This resource is a set of seven classroom rules with a sock money theme! You may only want to use four or five of the rules or change the rules out to suit the needs of your classroom and the challenges that it presents!
What child does not love sock monkeys? This resource is a set of seven classroom rules with a sock money theme! You may only want to use four or five of the rules or change the rules out to suit the needs of your classroom and the challenges that it presents!
Start the school year off right with a creative, top-ten countdown activity! Your students will love it! Students are able to introduce themselves to you and their classmates with a list of ten things to learn about them. Have fun and use this as an ice-breaker activity to get the year cranked up!
This resource packet will serve one well all year. Enclosed you will find each day of the week in uniquely different designs. These can be used for many different activities such as: learning the days of the week, understanding the order of the days of the week, and working with a big group with the calendar. These day of the week plates might also be used in a writing center in learning to write each day of the week. Finally, these day plates might be helpful in a literacy center in learning how the calendar works!
Show your students there is more than one way to express their words in poetry! In this packet, you will find eight mini posters each featuring a form of poetry to use when teaching each instructional format. Each poster also has an example of the type of poem explained. Students are sure to love writing these forms of poetry about their favorite topics. As well, this could be converted into a Christmas poetry unit utilizing the awesome Christmas scenes as springboards for brainstorming. Forms of poetry included are: limericks, diamantes, cinquains, haikus, couplets, acrostics, shapes, and free verse.
This is an awesome informational text article on the history of scarecrows and all of the different versions of scarecrows throughout the world. The informational text article is approximately 1,000 words long and includes illustrations to help better explain the text. One illustration includes a caption that can be discussed as a text feature. At the conclusion of the article, there is a formative assessment in the form of a quiz.
This product is a collection of teaching and learning activities for grades second through fifth on the topic of scarecrows. What a better theme than scarecrows for fall learning! This unit includes scarecrow humor, poetry writing with scarecrows, opinion/argumentative writing, informative writing and sequencing in a "how to" piece of writing, designing and publishing a mini-book from "how-to" work to share with younger children orally, categorizing the history of scarecrows, conducting research skills with scarecrows to determine potential problems with the different designs, and reading and comprehending informational text passages in regards to the history of scarecrows! What an awesome fall learning experience for your students during this favorite time of the school year!
You will not want to miss this resource! In this packet you will find five different templates for opinion/argumentative writing. The templates are themed with candy bars to include: Snickers, Reeces, Almond Joy, Twix, and Butterfinger. Using the templates, students are able to form their opinion of one of the candy bars. Next, they give the first reason for their opinion. Then, they give an example. Next, they state their second reason for forming their opinion and give another example. Finally, they formulate a third reason for their opinion complete with an example. Then, finally, they are to write a final opinion statement. Students are sure to be completely engaged with such an awesome topic. What child does not like any of these chocolate bars… not to mention what teacher wouldn’t enjoy teaching opinion/argumentative writing with such a scrumptious topic.
In this packet, there are eight writing prompts focusing on Abraham Lincoln. There are two prompts on each page and can be easily set up to use in writing centers or in whole group instruction. These are great tools as well for research and investigation. The prompts range from Lincoln's campaign to Presidency to his assassination. They are all somewhat open-ended in nature so that you, as the teacher, can dictate the length. Your students are sure to enjoy them!
A mini-poster your students are sure to enjoy! It's All About 100!
*I can do 100...
*I wish I had 100...
*On the 100th day of school, I will...
*In the last 100 days, I have...
*In the next 100 days, I will...
*A fact I can tell you about 100 is...
*If I had 100 dollars, I would...
As your students prepare to go back to school from the Christmas holidays, this is an exciting resource that your students can make connections with for sure! This resource is an informational text article about the famous iconic series "The Love Boat." This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the show and the celebrations are being kicked off at the Rose Bowl Parade where the original cast members will be on "The Love Boat" float! This article is approximately 790 words long and includes a formative quiz which includes ten questions that range from multiple choice to open-ended formats. This is an awesome resource to review comprehension and get back into school after a long Christmas break!
As the 100th day of school approaches, get all of your students excited about what they have already accomplished this school year as well as what is in store for them for the rest of the school year. In this resource, you will find a mini-poster for students to all involve themselves in some writing activities that include: a self portrait of what they believe they would look like in 100 years, a listing of the games that they believe that children will play in 100 years, a writing activity about what their hope is in the world of medicine in the next 100 years, a writing activity about what they believe will be available in the world of technology in 100 years, a writing activity about what life was like for a student 100 years ago, and what they predict their world will be like in 100 years. Many of these exercises are meant to be springboards for further research and study and more extended writing activities as well as performance based projects. Students will all enjoy this activity. When complete, you might display each students’ poster!
You are sure to engage your students with this informational text article entitled, "Will your shoes be filled with goodies or twigs?" This article is approximately 800 words long and includes text illustrations including captions with each. At the conclusion of the article, there is a formative quiz with nine different questions including multiple choice questions, open-ended questions, and performances-based scenarios. If you and your class are engaged in a study of Christmas Around the World, you will not want to miss this article!