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

My Favorite Holiday (Holy Day)... Merry Little Christmas! FREEBIES Galore!

I don't know what it is about Epiphany, the Feast of the Three Kings, Little Christmas that I LOVE so much. There is a great informational article HERE that explains the historical and traditional background of this holyday (holiday). For me, perhaps it is the thought that three non-Jewish uber-knowledgeable royals put such faith in ancient Jewish prophecies and traveled across a treacherous desert to a mysterious place by the light of some star carrying precious gifts for a lowly unknown king that peaks my interest and touches a chord in my heart. Talk about faith and trust! Whatever it is, Epiphany is the day during the Christmas season that I await each year, and the day that I will give my gift (a coupon book full of student friendly prizes) to my sixers just as the magi gave their gifts to the infant in the manger.

Epiphany is celebrated on January 5th this year, and we return to school on January 6th, perfect timing for an Epiphany celebration in our classroom. I have several items prepared to help us with our celebration throughout the coming week.

First up... sharing the book The Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke, retold by Pamela Kennedy. This is one of my all-time favorite stories and is always enjoyed by my fifth-grade Language Arts students. Kennedy's book is told in child friendly language as compared to the original Van Dyke story. I'm also providing a FREE Kindle link to the original story HERE since Kennedy's book is not easy to procure. Barnes and Noble does have used copies available.

Henry Van Dyke wrote The Other Wise Man in 1896, and since that time, this enduring classic has woven its mystical appeal for countless children and adults. Here Pamela Kennedy retells the story for the young reader, making it easy to understand, while retaining the magic of Van Dyke's words. Because he is helping others, a fourth Wise Man delays journeying with the other Magi to see the newborn Jesus, but thirty-three years later he has an unusual opportunity to meet his Savior.... BarnesandNoble.com

I'm linking this book up with Collaboration Cuties weekly Must Read Mentor Text. The first weekend of the month is for Language Arts texts, and even though this is a holiday text, I am using it as a Language Arts lesson. Because I teach in a Catholic school my students are well-versed in the Nativity story and the story of the magi. This book provides a bit of a twist to the familiar, allowing them to wonder, predict, infer, and compare as the story unfolds, skills addressed in the CCSS. I will be using an interactive notebook foldable Venn diagram with my students to help them comprehend the story and see the similarities and differences. Once they complete the foldable and we've had time to talk about their findings, they will write a brief paragraph about the similarities and differences in these stories.

As the week continues more lessons will be centered around my favorite holy day/holiday. Our spelling list for the week will have an Epiphany theme.

I made a wordsearch to go along with the spelling list.

We will complete an Epiphany themed revise, rewrite activity. The cute clipart is from Charlotte's Clips. I just LOVE her faith-based artwork. I use it a LOT!!!!

I have an Epiphany mystery picture waiting for my kiddos. BTW, the picture is supposed to be the three gifts brought by the magi: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We will do the Wise Men SCOOT activity that is available in my TpT Store. It will help my kiddos review many of the Language Arts skills we have already learned this year. Again you see Charlotte's Clips artwork. This item is normally a paid item, but for the next week it will be available as a free download.

I even created a Wise Men ZAP! game for our Math teacher. Just before Christmas break I had to cover one of the sixth grade math lessons because the math teacher was administering an eighth grade mid-term. My sixers were playing a game she had left for them and were stumped by divisiblity rules, especially the rule for three. So I, the English teacher, taught my sixers a brief math lesson. My ZAP! game will help them remember the rule for divisiblity by three.

Finally, sometime during the week, we will sing and examine (search for parts of speech and analyze as a poem) my favorite holiday song... We Three Kings.

ALL of the items discussed in this blog post are FREEBIES for you! 

Just click on the pic of the item(s) that you'd like to have. Please, if you download anything from my TpT Store, leave feedback. TIA!

Merry Little Christmas,

Happy Epiphany,

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

Tried It Tuesday: Teaching Fourth Grade Language Arts

I didn't expect to link up with Holly for Tried It Tuesday this week. There was really nothing I had tried, just the same ole, same ole. However, something really fun happened today, and here I am!

The teacher who teaches fourth grade Language Arts also happens to teach fifth grade Science. She needed the fifth graders for an extended time today so they could do some hands-on science stations about animal adaptations. The only time in the schedule that we could conjure up was when I normally had the fifth graders for Language Arts. However, my sixth graders were with another teacher who was administering a social studies test to them soooooo...... I took the fourth graders for Language Arts.

What to do at the last minute? SCOOT, of course! The fourth graders had been studying nouns and verbs, particularly as subjects and predicates. I decided to ramp it up a bit for them and add adjectives into the mix.

I started by sharing one of my new favorite books: Bats at the Library by Brian Lies.

With the predictable rhyming text, the fourth graders were quickly chiming in and helping me to read. After the first reading, we went back, extracting nouns and matching words that described them... ADJECTIVES. Next we brainstormed all the adjectives that we could think of to describe HALLOWEEN NIGHT, and what a list it was! We then used the words in sentences, noting nouns and verbs as well as adjectives. Then finally we played SCOOT wherein they practiced identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives in sentences.

They caught on quickly and really enjoyed the activity! So much so that they asked to come back again SOON! I think it might have had something to do with the cool orange paper that I gave them to write on... LOL!

The fourth graders made my day! I'm REALLY glad that I Tried Teaching Fourth Grade Language Arts today!

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Peek at My Week and a Sentence FREEBIE

OK, where does the time go? It's already time for...

I've another busy week in the planning, nothing out of the ordinary. All teachers are always busy. At least this week I don't have to worry about inservices or evening events at school, just a regular week.

My sixers are buddies to the second graders. They act as mentors for the younger students. We go to mass together at school and we do special projects together. This past week my sixers and their buddies began work on quilt squares that represent them. They worked together coloring the squares and getting to know each other a little better.

This weekend I laminated all 40+ squares (the laminator at school is on the fritz and is not on the repair list) at home so that during the week a few of my sixers and the second grade teacher and I can start fashioning them together to form a cross which we will use all year as part of our liturgical environment during worship services. Our goal is to get it all together by this Thursday when we have out first K-12th grade mass. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for us, please!

This week I'll be finishing up a sentence unit with my eighth graders. They have been learning about independent and dependent clauses via the concept of mentor sentences. This week they will show me what they've learned. On top of a mentor sentence quiz, they will be asked to complete this foldable wherein they must define and write specific sentences. You can snag a copy of the foldable by clicking on the pic.

Later in the week, my eighth graders will begin a project for the book The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi. They will be required to respond to comprehension questions (all Common Core based) via Padlet, one of my favorite interactive websites. Here's the first item they will work with, a quote from the prologue. Keep peeking back during the week to see each student's contribution.

Created with Padlet

My niece's garden is finally yielding some produce (it's not been a good year around here for gardens) and I've got some beautiful green peppers just begging to be cooked... stuffed peppers is on the menu for one evening.... YUM, can't wait!

I can't wait to get a peek at your week, so be sure to link up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings. Have a wonderful week!

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Mentor Text: Stories with Holes

I'm once again linking up with Collaboration Cuties for their weekly Mentor Text party. This week's feature is text for teaching Language Arts skills.

I have HUNDREDS of texts that I could possibly share for Language Arts skills; I've taught Middle School Language Arts for over thirty years and have amassed an extensive library of books about every subject and of every genre. However, one set of titles stands out as a particular favorite of mine. Not really a picture book, not really an anthology of stories, not really a typical book, Stories with Holes is undoubtedly my eighth graders' favorite thing we do each day. You can find all kinds of websites for Stories with Holes, but the widespread popularity of the stories and this set of 20 books designed to encourage imaginative and intuitive thinking is attributed to Nathan Levy.

I had the pleasure of attending one of Mr. Levy's workshops a few years ago and was introduced to his Stories with Holes.That day I purchased three volumes (16, 18, and 19), and have purchased another seven (1-6 and 10) over the ensuing years. I have another ten volumes to go before I own the complete set. I am working on it! It was also at this workshop that I was introduced to 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Science, the mentor text that I shared two weeks ago. This workshop was probably THE BEST that I have ever attended!

So what exactly is a story with a hole? It's a short story, shared orally, with important detail(s) missing. It is the listener's job to determine, via questioning, what the complete story is. The listener may ask only questions that can be answered by the reader with a simple "yes" or "no."

Here's an example:

Mitch lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building. Every time he leaves, he rides a self-service elevator from the 20th floor to the street; but every time that he returns, he rides the same self-service elevator only to the 15th floor, where he leaves the elevator and walks p the remaining five flights of stairs.

Q; Does the elevator go all the way up?
A; Yes
Q: Does he want to exercise?
A: No
Q: Does the elevator not work correctly?
A: No
Q: Does he have a girlfriend on the 15th floor whom he stops to see each day?
A: No
Q: Is there something different about him?
A: Yes
Q: Is he a robber"
A: No
Q: Is he a real person?
A: Yes
Q: Is he a tall person?
A: No
Q: Is his size important?
A: Yes
Q: Is he too short to reach the button for the 20th floor?
A: RIGHT!

Besides being a fun addition to our Language Arts classes, Stories with Holes acts as a magnet for getting my eighth graders into the room and settled in record time. They LOVED these stories in sixth grade and love them even more now. Other skills learned and practiced with this five to ten minute "game," as my kids call them, are listening closely, critical thinking, imagining, connecting text with schema, following a line of reasoning, et al.

Happy Reading,

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

Throwback Thursday... FREEBIE!

I almost didn't make it this week for Throwback Thursday with The First Grade Parade! I worked in my classroom for most of the morning and early afternoon, then came home and immediately began working on my initial activities and lessons for my eighth grade English students... a prezi and project menu for the novel Underground by Jean Ferris and a set of QR Codes that lead to Padlet boards for the novel The Coffin Quilt by Ann Rinaldi. I'm tickled with how everything turned out. I'll probably share more about this next week for Tried It Tuesday as this was the first time I tried Prezi and QR Codes.

Anyway, I'm off topic... back to Throwback Thursday.

On  March 13, 2013, I blogged about an activity that I developed more than 25 years ago out of desperation.... and I'm so glad that I did.

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I've been up to my elbows in things from my old Teacher's Desk website. Sorting through all the drawers has been tedious but also a trip down memory lane. For instance, one of the activities I found in the English drawer is called Quiet Hour Journals. I remember a class of sixers that I had about 26 years ago. Goodness, were they ever chatty! Every one of their teachers complained about the incessant talking whenever they were in their class. We talked about strategies to help them overcome this behavior. Our principal even had us trained in Lee Canter's Assertive Discipline Program. However, nothing seemed to work. Out of frustration one afternoon came this brainstorm of an idea  Quiet Hour Journals.

Directions:

1. Give each student a sheet of 9" by 12" construction paper. Have him/her fold it in half to form a booklet cover.
2. Instruct each student to take five sheets of loose-leaf paper, fold them in half, slip them inside the cover, and staple all the pages together.
3. The Quiet Hour Journal is now completed and ready to go.
4. Give each student ten bingo chips and these instructions:
   • For the next 60 minutes, no conversation is permitted. All communication is to be done via writing. Write any message or question in your Quiet Hour Journal and pass it to your intended recipient.
   • The recipient is to read your entry and respond in kind.
   • If the recipient catches any proofreading mistake you made, he/she may take one of your bingo chips.
   • If anyone catches somebody talking, he/she may take one of your bingo chips.
   • If at any time you run out of bingo chips, you may no longer participate in the activity.
   • At the end of 60 minutes, the person with the most bingo chips is awarded a small prize.

I use to participate with my students.  Sometimes, I was called upon to settle a dispute. If a student challenged another's proofreading correction, I acted as a moderator, communicating with the pair through my journal. If the challenger was correct, he/she took back the lost bingo chip plus one of the student's chips who was challenged. This makes for more careful initial writing and proofreading.

I haven't done this activity in a few years. Actually, I haven't needed to do it so I pushed it to the back of the desk drawer. I'm glad I spent time today cleaning. This is the PERFECT activity for this year's sixers, another chatty bunch. Can't wait to try it this week!

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I did try it with last year's crop of sixers! They LOVED it and begged to do it repeatedly! I was able to use it as an incentive to behave... LOVED it! This year' incoming sixers will not NEED this activity; however, I think I'm going to use it anyway. Here's a little FREEBIE if you decide to do Quiet Hour Journals with your class. I made it to match all the cute Polka Dot/Monster themed decor I made this summer. You can download the cover HERE or by clicking on the graphic. ENJOY!

Before you leave hop on over to my sweet bloggy friend Jamie's 200 Follower Celebration at Sixth Grade Tales. She's got a really nice giveaway package waiting for a lucky blog visitor!

And also stop by my bloggy friend Heather's 300 Follower Celebration at Peacocks and Penguins. She's got a HUGE giveaway going on. You won't believe the prizes!

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Time Travelin' on Throwback Thursday

I'm linking up with Jess at I {heart} Recess for her fun Time Travel linky and with Mrs. Carroll over at The First Grade Parade for her Throwback Thursday linky.

I never thought to share my sixth grade picture with my sixers as Jess does with her fourth graders. However, the more I thought about it, the more I really like the idea. I'm gonna do it this year!!!  I knew I had a picture of me in sixth grade somewhere. Before my mother passed away three years ago, she had gone through all her photos, separated them into piles, and gave each family member the photos she had of him/her. In her pile to me were all my school photos she had kept in her wallet ALL those years, and I mean a LOT of years. It's taken me three days to find it... ta da... here I am in all my sixth grade glory!

grade: 6th
school year: 1969-70 (gulp!)
school: State Road Elementary
teacher: Mr. Frank Knudsen... my favorite teacher and the reason I became a sixth grade teacher!
favorites: cable TV (just became available in our city), The Addams Family (on TV), The Muensters, Monday night ABC movies, Little Kiddles dolls from Mattell, super balls, Barbie, and Spirograph (still have mine)
Memories: being able to finally ride my bike to school, wearing culottes to school... this was a BIG thing back then since girls could NOT wear pants to school and culottes were like shorts, wearing fish net stockings with saddle shoes (what were we thinking?). One of the most vivid memories I have of sixth grade is of writing a puppet show script based on The Addams Family, making the puppets from milk cartons, and getting to perform it for the fourth and fifth graders. I was sooooo proud of my group's script and puppets but didn't one of the boys act up royally and we were not allowed to perform ours. I'm still mad after all these years. I had the boy's child in school about ten years ago and took great pleasure in telling her stories about her dad in sixth grade... revenge is sweet! LOL!

Continuing with the theme of traveling back in time, I'm sharing a post from the very early days of this blog  for Throwback Thursday wherein I talk about being a Language Arts teacher for quite a long time...

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March 1, 2013

I've been a Language Arts teacher for a LONG time! I've seen many changes in teaching methods, philosophies, best practices, Common Core, etc., etc., etc. Some of the old becomes new again, and some of the new becomes quite old. What hasn't changed is that a good teaching activity is still a good teaching activity!

I've been sorting through The Desk lately and have come across many good activities that I've been using since my early days. One file I found was titled NOVEL RESPONSES (one of the first ideas I posted on my original website in 1996). In it are numerous ideas for having students respond to the novels that they read. I still use most of these in either my fifth or sixth grade classes. I'll be sharing many of these novel responses in the coming days.

Here's a sampling with which to begin:

• Write a letter to one of the characters in the novel. Ask him/her questions as well as tell about yourself. Pay particular attention to letter format.
• Create a newspaper page for one of the novels. Summarize the plot in one of your articles. Cover the weather in another. Include an editorial and a collection of ads that would be pertinent to the novel.
• Summarize the plot by creating a cartoon version of the novel. Use about six to eight frames.
• Rewrite a chapter or section of your novel from another character's point of view.
• Pretend you are a newspaper reporter whose job is to interview one of the characters. Write your interview.
• You have become a character in one of the novels. Describe your experience during a conflict.
• Write a poem about one of the novels. Touch on the characters, setting, plot, and theme.
• Rewrite a portion of the novel as a play.
• Choose a familiar melody, such as "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and change the lyrics so they pertain to the novel.
• Develop a mini matrix for your novel... more about this activity in a later blog post
• Create a mini story wheel for your novel... more about this activity in a later blog post
• Create a story chain for your novel that consists of at least ten links... more about this activity in a later blog post
• Compare and contrast one of your novels with another that you have read for class this year or last. Remember to include how the novels are alike AND how they are different. Create a Venn diagram to show your findings.
• Redesign the front and back cover of your novel. Include the pertinent information as well as a blurb on the back.
• Develop an award for your novel. Explain the criteria for the award and why this particular book was selected to receive it. A good place to start this project is by reading about the Newbery and Caldecott awards. Notice, too, the other awards particular books have been given.
• Create a triorama for your novel that depicts the most important scene. Write a summary of this scene, explaining its role in the storyline.
• Design a story map for your novel. Include important information such as characters, setting, and the plot. Write a brief explanation of your map.

As I read through the list, it dawned on me that even though these ideas had been posted almost 20 years ago, most of them align nicely with the current Common Core State Standards. Sounds like another project for me to work on!

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And now back to the present.... There are always projects to work on for us teachers, aren't there? I still have tons of laminating to cut out and I'm still making classroom items to match my new theme for this: polka dot monsters. Yesterday I finished up my sentence signs. I really like how they turned out. There are nine signs in all and are available in my TpT store.


Today I'm making Literature Circle Job posters. Next will be genre posters and figurative language signs... gotta get it done... I go in next week to "cute-ify" the room. The kiddos will be back before I know it!

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

Lovin' and Pinnin' Wednesday

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I LOVE WEDNESDAYS! I get to blog about Pinterest and talk about things that I love. What could be better?

This week I am LOVIN' my new home laminator. I took the plunge after reading so many of my bloggy friends extol the virtues of their machines. I really didn't want to spend the money, but the laminator at school is on the fritz and it doesn't look like it will be fixed anytime too soon. I dug in my drawer and found a slew of Barnes and Noble gift cards... we used to have a B&N store in town before the recession and e-readers became popular. I had over 200 hundred dollars worth of certificates so I ordered my laminator and 100 sheets of film and didn't have to spend a dime! LOVIN' that especially!

The laminator arrived last Saturday and has been working hard ever since. So hard that there are only 30 sheets of film left. I ordered another 300 sheets with the rest of the gift certificates today. Here is my new toy working away at laminating my monster/polka dot themed word wall cards and CCSS "I Can" Statements. LOVIN' it!

I'm LOVIN' this idea from Pinterest. I think it is one of the easiest and most clever ideas I've seen. I'm working on customizing a mini-office for my 5/6th grade Language Arts students in my polka dot/monster theme.

You can visit the original site HERE.
I'm LOVIN' these behavior beads from Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera. My sixers would go WILD over them!
You can visit the original site HERE.

I am LOVIN' that I got many TpT items completed this week.




You can view the original site HERE.
I'm also LOVIN' that so many of my bloggy friends are celebrating giveaways this week. Please stop by their blogs for chances to win some awesome teaching resources and terrific gifts.

Kristin over at Teach n' Tex is hosting a 3x3 Giveaway. What you see here is just part of it!

Desiree over at Kinders on the Block is celebrating her second blogiversary.

Jessica from Joy in the Journey has a blogiversary in the works as well!

Happy Wednesday,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6