Perhaps most importantly in today's information age, thinking skills are viewed as crucial for educated persons to cope with a rapidly changing world. Many educators believe that specific knowledge will not be as important to tomorrow's workers and citizens as the ability to learn and make sense of new information. —D. Gough, 1991 With that being said, it is critical for students to learn strategies to employ when thinking through a scenario, a problem, a situation, a research project, etc. This set of mini-posters can be used as a year long resource in any classroom to equip students with eight strategies that students should learn to use each and every day as they strive to be successful in school. With a relatively small size, the mini-posters will fit perfect above a white board or on a bulletin board as a constant reminder for students to persevere and solve problems when working.

Your students will enjoy working with the “Daily Buzzword” all year long. Use the mini-poster with the honeycomb to post the “daily buzzword” (vocabulary word for reinforcement). Students should then work through each of the activities listed on each of the mini-posters to include: defining the buzzword, using the buzzword in a sentence, illustrating the buzzword sentence, writing a synonym for the buzzword, writing an antonym for the buzzword, listing the part of speech that the buzzword is mostly used as in a sentence, and then finally illustrate the daily buzzword in general!

Enjoy this set of bookmarks with your students! Students always need a great bookmark to hold their place in a great book! Laminate these and place them in the treasure box as well. Also, you might give them out as students check out their new Accelerated Reader books from the library! Have fun and enjoy!

This resource is a mini-poster to celebrate the 100th day of school with your students. Each component of the mini-poster sets the stage for a thought-provoking response. Students must figure out what year they will be 100. They must say where they think that they will live and how they will travel. They must tell what they will be famous for as well as how they will communicate with family and friends 100 years from now. Finally, they must describe or draw a self-portrait of what they believe they will look like! Students will have a great time with this activity!

This is an awesome list of more than 100 March words to use as a springboard for writing in March. These words will aid in narrative, informative, and argumentative writing as well as poetry! These sheets can be given to each student to place in his/her Writer’s Notebook!

You are sure to want to use this informational text article with your students! This is an article about Abe Lincoln and his rise to the presidency. It is approximately 1,400 words long and has illustrations that match the text. As well, there is a ten question formative quiz at the conclusion of the article. Questions range from multiple choice to open ended short answers. Your students are sure to enjoy this text!

This is an awesome list of one hundred fifty January words to use as a springboard for writing in January. These words will aid in narrative, informative, and argumentative writing as well as poetry! This sheet can be given to each student to place in his/her Writer’s Notebook! This is a tool that is sure to improve literacy skills of students! Have fun!

This is an awesome list of one hundred December words to use as a springboard for writing in December. These words will aid in narrative, informative, and argumentative writing as well as poetry! This sheet can be given to each student to place in his/her Writer’s Notebook!

This is an awesome list of November words to use as a springboard for writing in November. These words will aid in narrative, informative, and argumentative writing as well as poetry! This word bank is comprehensive of the many words that come to mind during the month of November and are sure to get your students' creative juices flowing! There are approximately 50-55 words that spur your students' brains for all kinds of writing-- narrative, expository, argumentative, etc. Use this November word bank for writing, ABC order, poetry, etc. It's uses are only limited by your imagination!This sheet can be given to each student to place in his/her Writer’s Notebook!

This resource is a set of critical academic vocabulary words that all fifth graders should know to master the Common Core State Standards! 85% of achievement and criterion referenced assessments are based on the vocabulary of the standards! Students from poverty, ELL students, and other at-risk students are particularly in need of learning these words in ways that meet their specific learning needs and styles throughout the year! Included in this set of Tier II academic vocabulary are the high frequency words of the CCSS and the words present in the exemplars provided in Appendix B. This awesome resource consists of over 100 slides with academic vocabulary specifically for fifth grade. These words are the perfect size to add to your word wall and spiral back to all year long. This set of fifth grade vocabulary consists of over two hundred words! Check it out!

This resource is a set of critical academic vocabulary words that all fourth graders should know to master the Common Core State Standards! 85% of achievement and criterion referenced assessments are based on the vocabulary of the standards! Students from poverty, ELL students, and other at-risk students are particularly in need of learning these words in ways that meet their specific learning needs throughout the year! Included in this set of Tier II academic vocabulary are the high frequency words of the CCSS and the words present in the exemplars provided in Appendix B.

May is right around the corner! Use this resource in a multitude of ways! This is an awesome list of more than 100 May words to use as a springboard for writing in March. These words will aid in narrative, informative, and argumentative writing as well as poetry! These sheets can be given to each student to place in his/her Writer’s Notebook! Students will hugely enjoy writing poetry during the month of May when so much state testing occurs. Students might write cinquains, diamontes, haikus, and other forms of poetry throughout the month. Additionally, utilize this May word bank to help jog your students’ brains for topics in writing! This May word bank may serve to keep their creative juices flowing. The uses of the word bank are limitless!

Are you working on trying to reinforce nouns, adjectives, facts versus opinion phrases, and synonyms? Is it necessary in your classroom to scaffold instruction in terms of rigor level? If so, this packet is for you and your classroom. This packet contains ten absolutely gorgeous fall scenes from which students can create cinquains. After each fall scene is cinquain pattern one, two, or three. Pattern one tends to be less difficult, patten two follows a parts of speech pattern, while pattern three focuses on syllables. This poetry packet on cinquains is great for whole group instruction, small group instruction, as well as in a poetry center. Students will be very proud of their poetry they create. Upon completion, publish a book of cinquains for fall. The beautiful, fall scences serve as a springboard students’ thinking and constructing. Students might also take the opportunity to recite their poetry to the class and focus on their speaking and listening skills!

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!

When teaching the writing process, utilize this mini-poster set, which includes ten posters, for easy reference to point out all of the different purposes for why writers write! These mini-posters are the perfect size for being placed above the whiteboard all year long or they will fit perfect on a bulleting board for referencing. Happy Writing!

You are sure to enjoy this set of mini-posters to use with your students. As we all know, it is hugely important to continue to work with our students daily on refining their writing skills while also spending time writing for different audiences and purposes. To practice a lifelong skill, teach students the importance of annotating their work when reading and in turn they will better understand annotating when writing. This set of mini-posters all give students important hints and clues of how to read critically and write critically in annotating their work. This resource set includes six mini-posters all providing reference information for you to refer to when teaching annotating!

Use these six mini-posters for easy reference in establishing great beginnings with bringing writing to life. These can serve as a year long reference for students! Each poster focuses on a different way to begin one’s writing and an example is given for each way to begin. This is a great resource for any classroom that will focus on different aspects of writing all year!

Your students will be more than excited to be engaged in this informational text! This is an informative article written about the abandoned Six Flags Amusement Park in New Orleans, Jazz Land, who closed its door on August 21, 2005, and was scheduled to reopen the following weekend on August 27, 2005, and was never able to open its doors again to this day! With the forecast, the park braced for the storm and everyone evacuated. It has never re-opened. This article is approximately 2,000 words long and has eight illustrations/photos with captions. In the packet, immediately following the article, a twenty question formative assessment can be found complete with multiple-choice (state testing formatted), as well as, open-ended questions on multiple levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy with various levels of rigor. Next, in this ELA packet, one can find a performance task where the students are charged with the responsibility of re-developing the real estate visible from the interstate in New Orleans. The task is very specific in what the learner should accomplish upon completion. As well, there is an argumentative writing prompt for the students to complete and many opportunities for mini-lessons connected to the writing process prior to completion of the essay. Finally, there is an extended, or one might say, an anchor activity that can be utilized for an enrichment project, for early finishers, or for an additional small group project. The project is very versatile and can be utilized successfully in many different scenarios and across multiple class sessions. This text is sure to engage a room full of readers! Honestly, you will find yourself just as engrossed in this theme/topic as your students. There is just something about the word, “abandoned,” that invokes mystery for – the young and the old alike! Related Products: ➩ Informational Text: Old Abandoned Joyland Amusement Park ➩ Informational Text: Abandoned River Country Water Park in Disney