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Starting a Reading Buddies program in your classroom? Some tips and a freebie!

 

Starting a #ReadingBuddies program in your classroom- Some tips and a freebie to get you started!

 

Thinking about starting a Reading Buddies program in your classroom this year? Here are some tips and tools to get things rolling!

Consider putting School-wide Reading Buddies on a staff meeting agenda.

Discuss the benefits for all students with your divisional leads and administration, and even if the seed of the idea is planted to be reassessed next year, it will give you a sense of who might be open to a pairing for this year.

Take age into consideration.

An age / grade difference of 2-3 years between buddies puts a clear boundary between who the big buddies and little buddies are.

Approach a colleague about pairing classes…

…and be realistic about whether your schedules will work! Casual conversation over lunch can often accomplish this, but it seems like our time is less our own these days! I have created this free letter and form to simplify the process:

Reading Buddies teacher letter free 

Build Reading Buddy time into your timetable.

When ‘it’s official’ everyone knows what to expect, when. Perhaps it is alternate week familiar reading, word-work, or math skills review through games, part of character education or religious education for forty minutes. While  may Reading Buddies may not appear in on the timetable your principal has to hand in to the school board, it’s important that the kids have this special time to look forward to. It could even happen over lunch!

Define expectations to both classes.

This is accomplished best if done as individual classes, as the expectations differ for the age groups in some ways. Review general expectations when they are brought together for the first few times, and provide visual reminders. Reading Buddies time can quickly look like recess if sixty kids are unsure of what the rules are, half the kids, ‘read the book already’ and have decided to hang out with someone else!

Talk to your partner class’ teacher about general and specific expectations.

I wrote general expectations in a storybook lesson format for my students, explaining to the bigger buddies (third graders) ‘This is what I am reading to your little buddies‘ (kindergarters). One of my valued TpT customers reads her class the story, then posts the pages on a bulletin board! I love that!

Here are some ideas for general expectations from my Reading Buddies Starter pack:

Student expectations defined in That Fun Reading Teacher's Reading Buddies Starter Pack

What are some expectations that you find important to put in place during Reading Buddies time?

Best wishes to all you!

    I.M. at 

2015 TpT Store Prof pic circle

Related: 

The benefits of a Reading Buddies program and not just the little buddies! by That Fun Reading Teacher Reading Buddies

#BTS Big Bundle by That Fun Reader Teacher Rethinking Reading Logs for young students by That Fun Reading Teacher


FREE MISC LESSON: Martin Luther King Jr Reading Freebie!

By:  The Owl Teacher

Grades 2-5

MLK

Martin Luther King Jr was a hero to me.  He stood up for civil rights and did so in a peaceful and loving way.  He demonstrated bravery and courage as he fought for equality and justice.

As we approach Martin Luther King Jr Day, I have some great teaching ideas for you!  Over at my blog (www.theowlteacher.com) I have provided several ideas for you – all related to vocabulary, reading, and writing.  I have provided some great mentor texts to use along with a freebie for you to download!

You can read all about these great ideas by clicking here.

Martin Luther King Package 8x8

My Martin Luther King Jr Freebie can also be located at my Teachers Pay Teachers store ready for you to download.  Check it out here.

I hope you enjoy it!

Have a great day!

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Copyright of The Owl Teacher.  All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.  I love it when you share my products with your colleagues but please do so legally!  Thank you!

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FREE MISC LESSON – Behavior Management Forms

By:  The Owl Teacher

Any Grade

It’s January 1st, 2016!  It’s the start of a New Year and with a new year, comes a fresh start!

So why not start the second half of your school year off fresh with a new set of behavioral management forms to get things rolling?  How do you do that?

By heading over to my blog (click here) you can download these forms here:

An Educational Contract between you, the student, and the parents:

Educational Contract

A student information form:

Student Information Form

A weekly behavior communication form:

Behavior Report

And much more – including a Friday Folder reporting form.

That post was from the beginning of my blogging career – long before I realized that font mattered!  I have also since updated that post with an editable version!

Head on over now to check it out and download it!

While you are there, sign up for my newsletter so you can regularly receive FREEBIES in your inbox!

Happy Teaching!

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Be sure to follow me so you are up-to-date on all my products, freebies, tips, and much more!

Copyright of The Owl Teacher.  All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.  I love it when you share my products with your colleagues but please do so legally!  Thank you!

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FREE: Math lesson “Multiplication Freebie”

As the school year is winding down before winter break, you are probably looking at just review materials for your little ones!  I imagine if your kiddos are like mine, they are starting to shift around in their seat more and are talking waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much about break- as if they are already on it!  There is no way their brain is going to take in any new material right now!

multiplication facts, freebie, math, holiday

So, I created this Holiday Multiplication Math Freebie to review our multiplication facts (because they could really use some extra practice to get those facts down!) that is Christmas based to hold their attention a little as they work on it.

Some of the sheets I have used as morning work or a quick warm up!  I have not only included practice with their facts, but I have also added array practice and story problems!

Head on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to download it FREE!

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Be sure to follow me so you are up-to-date on all my products, freebies, tips, and much more!
Copyright of The Owl Teacher.  All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.  I love it when you share my products with your colleagues but please do so legally!  Thank you!

FREE LESSON – “Social Studies Causation Cards”

The Owl Teacher

Grades 3-6

Causation Cards are the newest and next best thing since task cards!

FREE CAUSATION CARDS, Social Studies, Economics

What Are Causation Cards?

Causation cards are a fun, interactive way to review vocabulary and concepts that students need to learn. In addition, this engaging activity helps improve fluency and listening skills.


How Does Causation Cards Work?

The method is similar to the “I have… who has…” cards, where each student has to listen carefully to other students to know when it is their turn. However, causation cards do not contain a repeated language (like “I have… who has…”). Instead it will state an action that a student must perform and a statement they must say. The action can be something simple from jumping in the air to drawing on the board. The statement can be a definition of a term or related concept.


Why Are Causation Cards Important?
This activity is a great resource for practicing those all important speaking and listening skills while building fluency. This resource is a great way to improve student’s reading accuracy, prosody, and fluency rate.

How Do You Use Them In The Classroom?

Have the class read through the set of cards multiple times giving each student a different card each time or read to each other by taking turns. 

 You can find this fun, interactive FREEBIE by clicking here.

I have many causation cards in my store – and am continuously making more!

You can follow my store here to be up-to-date on all my new products!

Click here to see the various causation cards I have available! 

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Thanks for checking them out!  I promise you and your students will LOVE them!

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Copyright of The Owl Teacher.  All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.  I love it when you share my products with your colleagues but please do so legally!  Thank you!


FREE MATH LESSON – “Multiplication Strategies Mobile and More!”

The Owl Teacher – 3rd grade Math

The common core standard in third grade, 3.OA.1 states that we have to teach our students the various multiplication strategies such as equal grouping, repeated addition, using a number line, and forming arrays!  So, I created this fun and engaging lesson for you to choose from on which way you wanted students to demonstrate their understanding and use of these strategies!  It’s all found here in my Multiplication and Division Math Workshop Sampler!

Multiplication and Division Sampler Workshop

This exciting sampler comes with one complete scripted lesson from my Multiplication and Division Math Workshop Unit.  The lesson is in the math workshop format – with an opening, a mini-lesson, guided practice, independent practice, and a closing activity!

You can choose to have students represent their understanding of the multiplication strategies by the adorable 4 door foldable or the star mobile!  (My blog contains information about how to create it as a Hot Air Balloon too!  Click here to see that post!)

 

To download this exciting FREEBIE just click on the picture above of the cover  (or click here)where it will take you to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to download it!  While you are there, follow my store so you can be up-to-date on all newly posted math workshop products!

Multiplication strategies foldable and mobileOther related products you may enjoy:

Multiplication and Division Complete Workshop Unit

Multiplication and Division Fact Fluency Program

Don’t forget to follow my blog and social media sites forgreat freebies, tips, and ideas!

The Owl Teacher’s Blog

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Copyright The Owl Teacher.  All rights reserved by author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.  I love it when you share my products with your colleagues but please do so legally!  Thank you!

 


FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON: Analysing Poetry

 

 

Whitman thumb

 

 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Free-Poetry-Lesson-Analysing-Poetry-NO-PREP-1133366

 

FREE LESSON – This mini unit on Walt Whitman’s” I Heard the Learned Astronomer” and “A Noiseless, Patient Spider”, teaches students how to analyse poetry. Students must learn to observe, connect, make inferences, and draw conclusions on themes.

This mini guide includes:

-a detailed lesson plan for the teacher
-poems for students
-answer key and poetry annotation


Freebie – Fact Family Task Cards (x) and (÷)

Do your kids need extra practice with fact families?  I know my kids loved using these cards as an additional practice in the classroom.  Promote your students deeper understanding of how multiplication and division are related to one another.

These task cards are perfect for additional practice, special ed students with paras or even extension activity for the lower grades.

I hope you enjoy using these in your classroom. Please leave feedback or visit my store for more great task cards and products!

You can find this free product here!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fact-Family-x-and-Task-Cards-Freebie-2091676

Thanks for viewing!!


Free – All About Me Foldable

Do you need a FREE cute back to school activity?  This foldable is perfect for you and your students.

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This foldable was designed for use for all elementary classrooms K-5th grade.  You will need to print off the grade level for your classroom, and make copies for your students.

You can find this printable HERE!

 

My students will be completing the foldable, partner up, then introduce their partner to our new class. It will be a great way for kids to work together and learn about each other.

 

Here is an example of the 1st grade page.

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I hope you can use this in the first few days of school.  I’d love to hear for different ideas and uses for this foldable.

 

Thank you so much for viewing this post!

Sara Oberheide

My TPT Store

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Prime Factorization Task Cards – Freebie

These task cards are great to help support students with Prime Factorization. My students always need a ton of extra practice with this skill.  Here are free task cards that I made to use this fall.

 

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You can find these cards for free HERE!

 

I place task cards around my classroom, give my kids the response sheet that is provided, then they walk around the room answering the questions.  They will love it.  One thing that I’ve found is that task cards really help differentiate between high and low levels of learning.  The high students will get to answer all of the cards.  The lower students, you can take time and walk with them helping them.

 

Thanks for viewing!

 

Sara Oberheide

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Sara-Oberheide

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FREE MISC. Lesson – Kindergarten End of the Year

High school seniors are not the only ones that will be wearing caps and gowns this May and June!  Did you know that some kindergartners will be dressed as little graduates too?  They wear these for the closing ceremonies at the end of the school year.  But . . . technically, they have a few more years of school before they can get a high school DIPLOMA!

FREEBIE ALERT!  I made 4 printables with a few kindergarten skills in mind.  I know that you have worked on these types of skills all year long!  It’s a “Cap and Gown” theme.  There are two language arts review sheets and two math review sheets.

The printable in the photo shown below is a coloring activity.  The children read the color words and color each gown appropriately.

end of the year kindergarten gowns

Identifying Color Words

The next printable will review with the hard /c/ and hard /g/ sounds.  Children look at the picture and circle the letter that has the same beginning sound as in the word “cap” or as in the word “gown”.

beginning-sounds

Caps and Gowns

How many times did you practice counting this year?  Here’s a printable to practice that skill once again!  Children count the number of caps within each group and circle the appropriate numeral.

counting-objects

One to One Correspondence

The last sheet is a graphing activity.  Children create a horizontal bar graph to show more caps than gowns.  They answer a few basic questions about the graph they made.

kindergarten-graphing

Graphing Caps & Gowns

 

If you’re a kindergarten teacher, I hope your students will enjoy using these printables during one of their last days of school this year.  To get the freebie, click on the image shown below.  Then download and save it to your own computer or flash drive.

free-end-of-the-year-kindergartenPost created by Molly McMahon, Lessons by Molly

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Lessons by Molly’s Blog

 


FREE MISC. LESSON – End of the Year Alpha-Numeric Codes

“Have a safe summer”, “See you next year”, “Don’t forget to practice your multiplication tables!”  These along with many goodbye hugs are the send-off messages teachers and principals use on the last day of school.  By the time children are in the third grade, they can easily finish these farewell messages for you.

Students LOVE solving alpha-numeric codes!  My latest FREEBIE combines end-of-the-year expressions with alpha-numeric codes.  These can be used with grades first through third.

end of the school year expressions

End of the School Year Messages

Here’s how it works.  Students are given an alpha-numeric key.  The letters from the year-end message are included in the key.  A letter is used once in the key regardless of how many times it is used within the message.  Then, the letters are assigned numerals.  One numeral is positioned above each letter.

end of the school year activities

Read Lots of Books!

Blank lines are printed below the key.  There is one blank line for every letter within the message.  Blank lines are grouped together to spell one word.  Space is placed between groups of blank lines to separate words.

alphabet-numeral codes

Last Day of School Send-off Messages

Students use the alpha-numeric key to find and write the appropriate letters in the blanks.

end-of-the-school-year-activity

An End-of-the-Year Message!

The finished work reveals the end of the year message which the children can then read!

We want our students’ activities to be rich and meaningful.  In order for alpha-numeric decoding activities to transcend to that level, we MUST provide students with the opportunity to CREATE their own codes!  Otherwise, it’s just a fun activity without causing higher order thinking to take place.  Included with this freebie is a page where students finish writing the numerals above the designated letters.  The numerals can be written in random order or a number pattern such as skip counting could be used.  Then, they write the numerals below the blanks to create the coded message.  They trade papers with a classmate and solve the message.

make your own code

Finish the Code and Plot the Message

Get your FREEBIE by clicking on the image shown below:

end-of-yearIf you have students that are ready for the challenge of creating a coded message with little on no support, you can also grab the page shown below.  It will provide students with detailed directions on how to create a coded message.  Due to the level of difficulty, this page is not included in the file above.  If you have advanced students that are gifted in this area, they will eat this up!

end-of-year

Make a Coded Message

Post created by Molly McMahon, Lessons by Molly

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FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON – “Spring Homework Freebie!!”

by Casey Herling

PreK-1st Grade

 

Spring Homework Freebie Cover Page

Spring homework FREEBIE!! Two spring-themed homework pages (answer sheets included). If you like these resources, please check out the whole Spring Homework Packet here!

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“Caterpillar Addition” Mathematics/Writing
We learn to add groups together to find a total, write numerals, and write purposeful marks and letters.

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“Little Lovelies”
Reading/ELA/Fine Motor
We learn to match sounds in words to printed letters (phonics), and strengthen and refine our small muscle skills.

Bandicoot's Bumbershoot

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Looking for Earth Day activities?

This free Earth Day activity will give your students a deeper understanding of what it means to reuse, reduce, and recycle.

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
These three vocabulary pages are meant to teach these three words deeply.The first time I use one of these Earth Day activities, I complete the vocabulary page with my students. I like to model technology, so I show my students how to use an online dictionary or thesaurus.
Students can then use these pages as a springboard for writing about ways they can reduce, reuse, and recycle.

EarthDayFreebie_Page_1EarthDayFreebie_Page_3186396


Ways Kids can help the Earth – Freebie!


Ways Kids Can Help the Earth

 

Hello everyone!

This free Earth Day printable is an ideal writing template for primary students. Entitled ‘Ways Kids Can Help The Earth’, and divided into three sections, its versatility lends itself to a number of uses.

Perhaps you’d like your students to demonstrate an understanding of the three ‘R’s. Whether they use stickers, cut-outs or drawing, they may end up with something like this:

 

Earth day freebie.png

 

It can be a graphic organizer (see link below for more graphic organizers like this one!), a stand-alone assignment or planner for a piece of writing:

Earth day freebie.png - Copy

It could even be a brainstormed list of ideas, contract of sorts, pre or post assessment piece:

Earth day freebie.png - Copy (2)

And of course, there are always those who finish first. A drawing page for early finishers, and a vocabulary list for those who need one, are also included.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

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iam@ThatFunReadingTeacher.com

Click the symbol above to access my TpT Store! 😉

 

Related:

RA Earth St Th1 Fall BTS org cover Th1 Who is Furry

 

EarthDay freebie ideas for use