Tag Archives : spring


April Teacher Talk



Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

It’s April already, the school year is almost over.  Now it’s time to look forward toward spring vacation if it hasn’t already come and gone. Stop by our blog linky and see what great tips and advice are there just for you.

If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here….The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names.

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 Spring Activities
Begin with mud and splash into fun learning this Spring.
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Music to Calm the Soul and Enhance Learning
“Music is the electrical soil in
which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.” –Ludwig van Beethoven. Why
is it that for many of us, music is an essential part of our personal
lives yet when we go to work or school we turn it off?
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 The Elephant in the Classroom
 Where is the elephant in the classroom? The recent college admissions scandal might give us a clue.
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 Scaredy Squirrel – Mentor Text
 What happens when Scaredy Squirrel visits YOUR home? This free writing activity will get your writers excited!
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 I Feel Bad for People Who Say They Feel Badly
 Do you know how to decide between the words bad and badly? Many people don’t.
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 7 Tips to Help Students Revise Their Essay
 Try out these 7 helpful tips to guide your students during the revising phase. Your writers can use these tips throughout during the writing process.
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 How to Start Book Clubs in Your Classroom
 Are you considering using book clubs in your classroom? Learn five things you should do before you introduce book clubs to your class.
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 Make Mistakes on Purpose
 When students have the opportunity to correct the teacher, it reinforces that language point, assesses the students’ understanding of that language point, gives the learner confidence, and teaches students to problem-solve.
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 Exploring Patterns With Project-Based Learning: Rotations, Reflections & Translations

Explore 4th and 5th grade geometry concepts with project-based learning. It’s always surprising who excels with this type of project, and who finds them challenging. This one doesn’t disappoint!
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Whole Body Learning
 Geometry was a daunting subject for me in high school. So when I started teaching, I was determined to think of a way to teach geometry that was fun and interactive.
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 Be sure to visit all of our teachers for some awesome ideas to use with your students.
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May Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

 

It’s May and June is just around the bend. You’re probably counting the days till summer vacation. Be sure to stop by and see what these teachers are doing in their classrooms and gather some great tips and ideas. This is the last link-up for this school year. We’ll see you in September

If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here….The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names.
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Pack a Super Summer Kit
Suggestions for a super summer kit, to keep them learning over their vacay.
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How to Keep Your Class Engaged Through the End of the Year
The end of the school year is just around the corner. You’re looking forward to summer vacation and so are your students, but you still have at least 3-4 or more weeks left, so what do you do to keep those kiddos turned on to learning?  Here are some tips.
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The Difference Between Giving Up & Knowing When You’ve Had Enough

Angst and thoughts about the issues that teachers face today…one teacher’s journey.

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He Can’t? I Bet He Can!

Sometimes students who are severely physically disabled are thought not to be able to learn; especially when they can’t speak or respond. We need to think outside the box.

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Summer Reading: What’s Hot? and What’s Cool?

Reading Spotlight’s May Blog Post explains how to find out “What’s Hot? and “What’s Cool?” this year for Summer Reading. Want to know “Why Kids Don’t Read,” “How to Motivate Summer Reading,” and “Why Summer Reading is So Important”? You’ll find links there, too, for this valuable information.

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Tales from a Teacher: The Light Bulb

It’s math time again! Each day this week I’ve been watching my students’ eyes glaze over while teaching. Last night, I stayed up late to plan out today’s difficult lesson. As I approach the board…
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Mad Tea Party Mother’s Day Tea
How do you honor your mothers? Plan a Mad Tea Party Mother’s Day Tea!
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Save The Insects: Having Fun With Insects and Plants

Creative teaching ideas for students to explore insects and plants with hands on activities, as well as a creative research component to keep them reading and writing about insects and plants at home.

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Why I seek volunteers for classroom book clubs and where I find them

I love having volunteers participate in my classroom book clubs. Read about why I make the effort to bring the community into my classroom and where I find willing volunteers.

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Riddling for Geometry

By Kathie Yonemura of Tried and True Teaching Tools

Although most students think of geometry as shapes, it’s so much more! Geometry riddles are the perfect opportunity to promote thinking and reasoning! 

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Please visit the posts in our link-up
 
 

 


April Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

 

It’s April already, the school year is almost over. Easter and Passover have come an gone, now it’s time to look forward toward spring vacation if it hasn’t already come and gone. Stop by our blog linky and see what great tips and advice are there just for you.
 
If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs, blogging buddies and/or our blog linky, sign up here….The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names.
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April Activities Just for You
By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

Turning my thoughts to sunny days and warmer weather!!! Can’t you just smell spring in the air? Daffodils beginning to bloom, Lilac trees starting to flower, and Lilies of the Valley popping up. I just love the aroma. Not only is my birthday in April but it brings us Passover, Easter, and one that you may never have heard of, can you guess? If you said Jelly Bean Day, you’d be right.  I don’t know about you, but I looove jelly beans. They come in so many awesome flavors, no I don’t like the black ones, but I had an aunt who used to love them.
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STEAM: From Sandbox to Spectacular
By Retta London of Rainbow City Learning

How to take your STEM activities to the next level for upper elementary students.
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Tone
By Gini Musmanno of The Reading Spotlight

A message to Myself: My tone of voice has a greater influence on children than I might think. Remember the time…
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C-Stem
By Lisa Robles of LisaTeachR’s Classroom

Learn about C-Stem and tools for coding!
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The Hidden Curriculum
By Michelle Webb of Teaching Ideas for Those Who Love Teaching

Finding books to read with your class that tell more than a single story.
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The Teacher’s Role in Classroom Book Clubs
By Marcy Howe of It’s a Teacher Thing

Simplify using classroom book clubs by understanding the role of the teacher on meeting day. Learn key tips to ensure your classroom book clubs will run smoothly.
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Now that you’ve come to the bottom of the page, make sure you hop on over to read the rest of the posts in our April Teacher Talk.



March Teacher Talk

Posted by Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

Welcome to our March Teacher Talk.  All of us from the Teacher Talk collaborative would like wish you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  We have so many fab things this month from  Women’s History Month to Reading and Math activities, as well as Easter Stem Olympics, there’s even a post on Kite Flying to reward your classes for good behavior. So relax with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and take a look at what these educators have to say. You’ll be happy you did!

If you’re interested in joining this unique group of teacher entrepreneurs and blogging buddies and our blog linky, sign up here….The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you decide to join, be sure to mention one of our names. 

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Lead Like a Girl

Finding positive role models for our students in Women’s History.

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Let’s Go Fly a Kite

  When I taught special needs kids, each month we would do something special for those who earned enough points. One of their favorite activities was to make and fly kites in March. Years later, I was mainstreamed to 6th grade and the children also loved this activity. After they flew their kites, they wrote two papers, one explaining how to make a kite and the other about their experience.

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Women’s History Month

It’s Women’s History Month. Here are some great books to read to your kids!

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Pi Day is March 14th

By Vicky Rauch of Scipi

What is Pi Day? Why was March 14th chosen?

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Using Core Words Every Day

By Susan Berkowitz of Susan Berkowitz

Teaching AAC users to communicate doesn’t take a lot of fancy materials or extra planning. Most of the time it’s as simple as engaging the learner with what he likes to do.

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Fast-Paced Fractions

By Kathie Yonemura of Tried & True Teaching Tools

Fraction review is filled with action & movement! Playing Scoot gets students up & moving, while practicing fraction concepts!

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March Into Eggstravagant Math

By M. Moore of Moore Resources

March into an Eggstravagant Math Activity. Enjoy a great activity I’ve completed with First Graders & Middle Schoolers! Every year around spring break I’ve enjoyed executing this wonderful fun egg math activity with my students. There’s minimal prep time and materials for this activity.

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Math Menus

By Shametria L. Routt of The Routty Math Teacher

Menus, a content-focused set of options from which students choose activities and tasks on which to work, are a great way to add some challenge and pizzazz to your everyday mathematics curriculum and can be created for a variety of purposes and designed to include a variety of activities. In this 4-part series, I share four of my favorite math menus that provide instant opportunities for differentiation because students choose which activities they would like to complete based on their own interest and ability levels. Each post describes a different menu, provides examples of how to use it, illustrates advantages and disadvantages, and includes sample work from some of my past students.

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Recharge Your Batteries!

By Megan Bodman of Adventures in Teaching 4th

Get 8 tips for recharging your batteries during the time of year when stress is high!

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Easter STEM Olympics

By Kerry Tracy of Kerry Tracy

Blog post outlines 5 egg-celent Easter-themed STEM challenges that can be modified for use with grades 2-8: Nice Nest, Carrot Carriage, Bean Bind, Basket Bounce, and

 Egg-hanced.

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Increasing Student Time On Task

By Marcy Howe of It’s a Teacher Thing

Increase student time on task with a few simple yet effective tools.

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Zones of Regulation: Using Visuals for Feedback and Self-Regulation

By Thia Triggs of Print Path

Do your children shut down or act out when they hear your voice giving then behavioral cues and feedback?  If so, visual cues can be a lifesaver!

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If This Spells D-E-A-D How Do You Spell Head?

By Susan Berkowitz of Susan Berkowitz

Manipulating sounds in words can be a very difficult task for students who just can’t figure out how the individual sounds go together to make words, and how they can come apart.

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Here’s your chance to hop on over and visit the blog posts of our creative teachers


St. Patrick’s Day: LUCKY you! It’s Almost Spring Break!

I don’t know what it is about holidays and school, but students always tend to go a little coo-coo around any holiday. St. Patrick’s Day just so happens to be one of those holidays that also falls before Spring Break, so they are especially coo-coo.

So what do we do? We give them fun activities and count down the days! Everyone knows that trying to teach a new concept or review before Spring Break is nearly impossible. So, there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun a day or two before Spring Break (or on St. Patrick’s Day if your Spring Break comes a little later)!

A fun activity to try on the holiday is teaching them the art of the LIMERICK. We have all heard the naughty one about Nantucket, so let’s not share that one with them, shall we? Start off first with the structure:

A LIMERICK is a short and fun rhyming verse that is often humorous. It has a distinctive rhyming pattern, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes easier and easier to come up with your own!

Here is an example of a limerick:

“There was an Old Man of Peru

Who watched his wife making a stew.

But once, by mistake,

In a stove she did bake

That unfortunate Man of Peru.”*

(from A Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear)

If you notice in the limerick, there is a very clear rhythm and rhyme. It is five lines and has a rhyming scheme of: AABBA. The rhythm pattern is as follows:

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (A)

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (A)

da DUM da da DUM (B)

da da DUM da da DUM (B)

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (A)

Next, give them a couple more examples:

St. Pattys Blog

Once they get the hang of it, have them try to create their own! If you would like the Create-a-Limerick packet, check it out at my TPT store!

Blog Limerick2

 

I also have an activity called “Wacky Words” in which students fill in parts of speech to create a silly story about hunting a leprechaun. This can be purchased separately or with the St. Patrick’s Day Activity Packet that includes these two activities AND a crossword puzzle and word search!

Happy St. Patty-ing! :)

Blog Packet

 

 

 

 


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!

Slide4 Slide5
“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

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Bandicoots-Bumbershoot

https://www.pinterest.com/bandicoots/


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!

TpT Store Prof pic circle

 

 

 

 

 

http://thatfunreadingteacher.com/

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

April Reading Passages with Comprehension Questions

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Here are some April non-fiction reading passages filled with lots of fun facts. Use them as a quick warm up activity, for early finishers or in a reading center.

Includes
• 8 April themed reading passage, each with 3 comprehension questions
• Worksheet for recalling 4 April facts that students have learned

The 8 passages include the following titles:
• April Fool’s Day
• Jackie Robinson Day
• Happy Earth Day!
• The Titanic Sinks
• National Poetry Month
• National Arbor Day
• Easter Egg Roll
• Drop Everything and Read

Check it out here: April Reading Passages with Comprehension Questions

Thank you,

Christina

Visit my store here.