Springing into Learning Blog Hop: Three ELA Freebies

It feels wonderful to be able to start a blog title with the word SPRING! It has been a loooooong winter, my friends. It's even more wonderful to be participating in this terrific blog hop hosted by Kim from Elementary Antics.

After a long, hard winter it is enjoyable to turn our attention to spring; to turn our classroom environment to a fresh look; and to fill our work sheets, anchor charts, and foldables with chicks, butterflies. and flowers instead of penguins and snowflakes.

One ELA activity that I like to do with my class each season and/or holiday is called a Take Three. This is a brainstorming/fluency of thinking activity that can be used as a pre-writing or stand alone assignment. Given a particular broad topic (in our case: spring), students add three details or supporting ideas for six sub-topics. Take Three's are easy to implement, need little instruction, and virtually no preparation. You can copy the worksheet so that each student has a copy, display the Take Three on a screen or board for students to work together, or have students copy the topic/sub-topics onto their own pieces of paper to save printing costs. Ready to give Take Three a try? You can download a freebie Spring Take Three HERE.

Another ELA Spring activity that I enjoy having my students do is adding spring foldables to their Language Arts Interactive Notebooks. INB's are just plain fun to begin with and remove the sting of having to take notes. In our Language Arts Notebooks we frequently look at how words work within a text: How do nouns name? What are the verbs and how do they display the time of the piece? How do the adjectives and adverbs lend to the description and imagery of the text?

Would you like a fun, little Spring foldable to use in your student interactive notebooks or just as a fun ELA activity? Download your freebie HERE.

When thoughts turn to Spring, it's often hard to keep students focused on work at hand. Let's face it- we would rather be outside in the fresh air and sunshine and so would they! So what's a teacher to do? Play a game, of course. One fun game to add to an ELA class is Boggle. Besides the obvious fun factor, Boggle is a super tool for practicing spelling and word recognition.

Here's a Boggle board decked out for Spring. Just download the pic and display it for your students to use. While you're at it, make sure you play along with them... it will help you quell your own Spring Fever!

Not sure how to play Boggle? Click HERE for the original game rules.

Need a Boggle board that you can edit yourself? Click HERE for a free editable board.

Want a blank boggle board template for your students to use with classroom boggle? Click HERE.

How about a variety of editable boards to change with the seasons? Click HERE for a bundle of fifteen boggle boards that you can program yourself.

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Be sure to hop on over to all of these great bloggers where you will find more Spring freebies and tips. Hoppy Spring!

An InLinkz Link-up

FREE INB eBook

I am THRILLED to be part of a wonderful project that Kim from English, Oh My! organized. If you are interested in Interactive Notebooks this FREE resource is just for you. If you've always wanted to try Interactive Notebooks this FREE resource is just for you. If you've never heard of Interactive Notebooks this FREE resource is just for you!

Inside are pages chock full of information about the contributors as well as print and teach Interactive Notebook components, tips, and ideas. Here's one of my pages.

There are many more, supplied by teacher authors from all grade levels and curriculum areas.

The link is now available.

You can download your copy of this awesome resource HERE!

Enjoy reading about the authors and using your new INB foldables, flippables, and glueables.

Mind Boggling Monday: New Year ELA Ideas

Well, my mind was certainly boggled! What was I thinking? To not have Mind Boggling Monday until mid-January? EEK! A game of boggle is perfect to start the mind juices flowing again after a long holiday break. It's perfect for morning work on that first day back, allowing the teacher to catch a breath and get those housekeeping chores completed. Here's a fun, sparkly New Year boggle board for you and your students. Just download the image and project it for you to have some fun! But don't just stop with a game of boggle. Keep reading for loads of ELA activities to fill your morning back after break.

Not sure how to play Boggle? Click HERE for the original game rules.

Need a Boggle board that you can edit yourself? Click HERE for a free editable board.

Want a blank boggle board template for your students to use with classroom boggle? Click HERE.

How about a variety of editable boards to change with the seasons? Click HERE for a bundle of fifteen.

Speaking of New Year... here's another fun little freebie that you can also use to motivate your students in those opening moments of the first day back from break. Sneak in a mystery picture and sneak in some Language Arts review with identifying parts of speech. My kiddos clamor for mystery pictures! I don't think they recognize that it's school WORK. They think of mystery pictures as just FUN! You can download your New Year mystery picture HERE. And if you like this mystery picture, check out this link for a WHOLE PASSEL of mystery pictures for all the seasons and holidays.

And if a game of boggle and a mystery picture aren't enough, here's a fun game of ZAP! that also focuses on parts of speech. Click HERE to get your own copy.

What? Not sure what ZAP! is?

For those of you who don't know how to play ZAP, here's a quick run down. The game consists of playing cards in a container (generally a Pringle's can). The cards focus on a particular skill (in this case, identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives).

1. Divide your class into several teams depending on the number of students. Determine how long you will play or how many rounds you will complete. 
2. Have a student draw a strip from the container without looking inside. 
3. The team should read the words on the strip, then confer to determine the answer.
4. If the team answers correctly, it keeps the strip. If it answers incorrectly the strip is returned to the container.
5. Teams take turns drawing/collecting the strips. However, there is a twist. If a team draws a ZAP! card, it must return ALL of its strips to the container. 
6. The winner is the team that collects the most strips. You may want to award them with a simple prize such as a treat, bonus points on an upcoming quiz/test, 5 minutes of free time, etc.

Now, doesn't that sound like a fun activity to include in your first day back after break?

Still need a few more ELA activities to fill your morning back after break? High energy or focused study? How about a game of scoot or doing an interactive notebook lesson? This set of noun task cards might be just what you need. You can read more about them HERE.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope that your return back to classes after break is smooth and wonderful and that you might have found an idea or two here that helped make it that way!

Throwback Thursday: Poetry and INB Foldables

What is Throwback Thursday? How does it work, you might ask? Simply look through your PURR-fect Previous Posts, perhaps a particular favorite of yours, and re-post it! Purr-fectly easy and simple! Your post doesn't have to be from LOOOONNNGGG ago; it can be from last month or even earlier this week. And if you don't have a post to share, perhaps an old photo or two from WAY BACK will do! Even a favorite pin is PURR-fect! Just join in the Throwback fun!

Poetry is such a GREAT genre to share with students during the last weeks of the school year. This post  originally appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 on May 16 and 21, 2014..

Poetry has spread from eighth grade to fifth and sixth. While my eighth graders are delving deeply into classics such as Poe's "Annabel Lee," my younger students are having fun learning about different forms of poetry. My sixers reviewed haiku and diamonte and were introduced to cinquain. My fivers are continuing to build their INB's by adding poetry foldables. This was their favorite foldable of the week. Click on the pic if you'd like a copy to use with your students.

Speaking of poetry here are some finished projects where my kiddos created a SQUIGGLE masterpiece (from Thinking Outside of the Box: Exercising Creative Minds) then wrote either a cinquain or acrostic poem about it.

And speaking of INB's... I just began using these little gems with my kiddos this year.

Do you use Interactive Notebook Foldables with your classes? What has been your experience with them? Yea or Nay? 

Now it's your turn for a Throwback.

Five for Friday 1/2/15... Quick Giveaway

YIPPEE it's BAAAAACK!

I really like to play several games on Facebook, among them Bejeweled Blitz, especially since they added the Daily Challenge feature.

Bejeweled is not my favorite, however. I really, really LOVE to play Boggle, so much so that it seems as if I've been attached to my Smartphone playing Scramble with Friends (Facebook's Boggle equivalent) all during break.

All was not a complete waste, however, my Boggle addiction gave me a great idea! I occasionally play Boggle with my kiddos at school, but it is just too much effort to make a bulletin board with Boggle letters or draw the grid on the board. Over break I made editable Boggle Boards using PowerPoint. LOVE!

There are boards for every month of the school year as well as some special occasions. Just project them on a whiteboard or large screen TV, change the letters as you like and SNAP... instant Boggle game. You can read more about them or download them HERE. There's even a FREEBIE board to try out as well. You can check it out HERE.

I worked as busily as possible on lots of other teaching items also. One that I'll be using the first day back is New Year's Nouns. The 24 task cards and 16 interactive notebook foldables cover all the types of nouns: collective, singular, plural, abstract, concrete, common, and proper. You can read more about this packet HERE and see what my fifth graders will be learning and reviewing during the first week of January.

I just finished this teaching product, a Homework Management System in a Winter Theme. I have it all printed and ready to start using on Monday morning.

If you've been following me for a little while you may remember when I blogged about my homework management system. You can read my original blog post HERE, but I've mentioned it in several other posts as well. I was in need of some new punch cards to record student homework assignment completion and my brag tag collection (small award tokens) was getting a bit thin before Christmas break. I needed to print more in time for classes this coming Monday. Rather than print some I had already created, I decided to whip up a brand new batch in a winter theme. Here are the three parts to the system.

PUNCH CARDS

BRAG TAGS

NO HOMEWORK COUPONS

I am really happy with the way this packet turned out. So much so, that I'd like to give away one or two packets in the hope that you'll want to try this system with your students. Just leave a comment below including an email address and I'll pick a name (or two, depending on the number of comments) at random on Sunday night (Jan. 4th) and email you the packet.

Speaking of homework... sigh! I have homework, lots of it! Papers to grade, lessons to plan, masters to print and ready for xeroxing. Have I done it? Am I doing it? I did manage to unpack my teaching satchel and print a few pages... and there it lies! I do still have two more days to get it done, right?

Be sure to drop by Doodle Bugs for Teaching to check out more Five for Friday posts!

Sunday Scoop: Things I'd Rather Do

Today, the first Sunday of October (I just LOVE October), I'm joining my friends of The Teaching Trio for their weekly...

Be sure to stop by the Teaching Trio to read all the Sunday Scoops shared this week. It's a great way to keep-up with what's going on in the blogging world of teaching. But first, here's the scoop on The Teacher's Desk 6.

I jest that I need to run the sweeper, but seriously... I NEED to run the sweeper! I put this tedious chore off until I become desperate, or rather I should say, "The house becomes desperately in need of a sweeping!" I would never tolerate this kind of procrastination from a student,so why from myself? Pffft!

I rationalize my lack in this much needed area with: I am working! I have been quite busy keeping up with grades and lesson plans, and trying to keep up with ACR reports (Catholic School teachers complete these as required by state and federal government for completion of specified duties) that I've let the mundane house chores go.

I've also been working at creating teaching materials. I added several new items to my TpT Store recently. One that I really enjoyed making is this Christopher Columbus themed set of task cards and INB foldables.

With this set of Columbus themed Scoot cards students will identify whether a sentence is declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, or imperative. These 28 Scoot cards may also be used as task cards in a literacy center or for a Scatter/Scavenger Hunt activity. QR codes are provided for self-checking along with a student response sheet and traditional answer key. 

Included in the packet are Interactive Notebook (INB) Foldables in a matching theme. My fifth graders have completed these foldables and they are adorable! Simply print, color, cut out, and affix the foldables into an interactive notebook. Students can write the definitions for each type of sentence and copy examples of each found within a given text.

Since I had such fun making this packet, and my fifth graders have been having fun using it, how about a little October fun for you? I posted the image for this product on Instagram yesterday. Follow me on IG by clicking on the IG icon in the right column or HERE. Visit my profile, locate the image, and repost it. Be sure to include #teachersdesk6 and tag me @teachersdesk6 in your post. I'll choose one, or maybe more, winners sometime late on Monday, Oct. 7, 2014. I'll notify the winner(s) via Instagram on Tuesday. You'll receive your packet in time to celebrate Columbus Day!

And if you're in the market for teaching items to help your class celebrate October's most well-known holiday, visit this blog post where loads of frighteningly fun products are shared for your convenience. You can even add your own to the ever growing list!

Throwback Thursday INB Style

Welcome to another installment of...

How does Throwback Thursday work, you might ask? Simply look through your PURR-fect Previous Posts, perhaps a particular favorite of yours, and re-post it! Then add the TBT badge to your post and include your link below! Purr-fectly easy and simple! Your post doesn't have to be from LOOOONNNGGG ago; it can be from last month. And if you don't have a post to share, perhaps an old photo or two from WAYBACK will do! Even a favorite pin is PURR-fect! Just join in the Throwback fun!

Yesterday, I posted this picture. But wait, that's not my Throwback; there's more!

If you look very closely at the school supplies, you'll notice ribbon, sandwich bags, sharpies, composition notebooks, and storage bins, and you might have an AHA! moment... Angela is preparing for Interactive Notebooks.

So many teachers are adopting these fun and engaging learning tools in their classrooms, and I am one of them, just getting started last school year. Together my students and I had fun, learned a lot, made mistakes, changed our ideas, and decided INB's were AWESOME and definitely worthwhile!

Susan from Passion in Portable Land is hosting a weekly INB linky where we can share INB ideas and support each others' efforts.

The topic this week is what kind of notebook holder do you use: composition notebook, binder, spiral, or other? I addressed this issue early on in my INB journey. Here is my Throwback Thursday offering that originally appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 on August 29, 2013.

After seeing all the great products offered on TpT about interactive notebooks and reading so many blogs about them this past summer, I decided interactive notebooks would be a good learning tool for my students and a way for me to be able to assess their learning. I wanted to include Mentor Sentences (Collaboration Cuties and Ideas by Jivey) in them as well as various other activities: Daily Grammar Glitch (photos of grammatical mistakes that need to be identified), Spelling work (Latin/Greek roots), and novel responses, not to mention Common Core Vocabulary words.

As part of their school supplies this year, I decided then that I wanted my students to have a composition notebook. I thought this type of notebook would eliminate the problem with students tearing out paper and having nothing left in the notebook by Christmas. I contacted our school secretary prior to the parent mailing that would include the supply lists and asked her to add this item.

Everything was set. I was ready (I thought). Except, not all my students got the list with the composition notebook on it... sigh! My fifth graders came to school with a spiral notebook, my sixth graders NEVER got the message so they only had binders with paper, except for four of them with siblings in the eighth grade. These four had composition notebooks. My eighth graders did get the message and ALL of them had composition notebooks!

I had planned to have my students set up chapters/sections for the different activities we would be doing as well as a general table of contents. Fifth and eighth grade are working out fine after one week. We've set up our table of contents, numbered our pages and made chapters. Sixth grade is a horse of a different story... sigh! Because some have binders and some have notebooks, the set-up has been less than ideal. It's no one's fault, and we are being patient with each other. Next year should be smoother with the supply list. I've already asked the secretary to update ALL the lists.

Here are a few photos of my fifth graders as we are working with our notebooks. They are doing a "making words" Spelling activity to determine the secret word that contains the root we will be studying. They had no idea that the root was AQUA; all they know are the 11 letters (in alphabetical order) that comprise the word. Once the word SEMIAQUATIC was discovered we began work on a foldable that contained all ten spelling words, each with the root AQUA, for which they must provide the words' definitions. This lesson will continue tomorrow and into next week with doing some writing, connected to their Mentor Sentence and the novel we are reading.

HERE is a copy of the foldable for the root AQUA if anyone would like it. It's in Word format so that it can easily be edited. The students cut them out (cut on all solid lines), glued them into their notebooks, then wrote the definition for each word under its flap.

I am really looking forward to reading more blog posts about Interactive Notebooks. Since I'm just starting out, I'm searching for hints, tips, and tricks to make them more effective and efficient.

Be sure to stop by Susan's blog for more INB blogger ideas. And if you are looking for INB templates, some of the VERY best can be found at The Candy Class where some fresh, unique templates are being rolled out as part of a special milestone!