Ah, Summer! You'll Flip-Flop Over These Resources!

Happy Summer!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July and is enjoying a well-deserved, relaxing summer break. For those of you who are teaching summer school, who are homeschooling, or who teach at a year-round school, I wanted to share some helpful summer resources. 

Here's just one sample of the poetry-based activities you'll find in this resource. You'll be glad you checked it out!

You'll find the rest of this activity, as well as 8 more student-friendly summer-themed poems and activities in this easy-to-use resource. It will make your summer teaching easy-breezy!

Now for a FREEBIE!

Need a resource that will work year-round? Here's a Freebie that you can use to help your students celebrate inside traits - Selfie Poem and Activities. This free resource includes an original poem and writing activities that encourage students to look beyond physical appearance. After you download it and use it with your students, don't forget to leave feedback to let me know how it was received. :)

Here's the poem you'll share with students:

I hope you find these resources helpful. If you need more fun, student-centered resources and teaching tips, make sure you follow my blog and take a moment to visit my store!

Until next time,

Teaching Poetry With Parts of Speech

 I was sitting outside today enjoying the lovely Spring weather after a week of rain (and even a little snow last weekend). It inspired a poem and a teaching idea that I thought I'd share.

This is a great time of year to get your students outside. There are so many ideas to be found in the newness of spring! It's also a great time to write some poetry - Happy Poetry Month! Finally, as state testing season is upon us, you might want an easy and fun way to review parts of speech.

Getting Ready

Start by having your students make a three-column chart. Label the columns, Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives (or distribute this downloadable printable). Review the parts of speech and make sure your students understand the differences between them.

Head Outside

Find a nice area where all students can sit outside your school building. You might want to let them know in advance to bring in a towel or mat to sit on that day. Spend a short time reviewing using the five senses for observation. Bring their attention to some of the things they can see, hear, smell, and touch. (Remind them that it's not a good idea to taste anything!)

Record Observations

Encourage students to record their observations by jotting down nouns, verbs, and adjectives on their three-column charts. Ask them to make sure they are recording what they can see, hear, smell, and feel.

Read Mentor Poems

This step can come before, during, and/or after the observation activity. A few of the poems I love to share are Langston Hughes' April Rain Song, Mary Howitt's The Voice of Spring, Diane Murray's Silly Tilly's Garden, George Cooper's The Beautiful Spring, and Nature's Way by Heidi Campbell. I recommend sharing a variety of poems, both rhyming and non-rhyming, so that students understand that poetry is not just one thing.  

Here's the poem I wrote today:

Feel free to share it with your students.

Write!

Ask your students to use the words from their three-column chart to compose a poem about Spring. Encourage creativity. Remind them that poems can rhyme, but do not have to. If you've introduced them to different forms of poetry (Haiku, Cinquain, Free-verse, Acrostic, etc.), encourage them to choose a form they feel comfortable with, or conversely, encourage them to step out of their comfort zones. You know your class best, so choose the best way to get them to write. 

Revise

Tell students that the best poems are revised many times. Encourage the use of a thesaurus, rhyming dictionary, or other resources. Ask students to read their poems out loud to themselves and others to find errors in rhythm or syntax. Let students know that the process of writing poems can and should be messy.

Publish and Share

Allow time for students to share their poems, either by publishing and displaying or by sharing out loud. Nothing works better to encourage students to write more poetry!

I hope you and your students enjoy this activity!

If you would like to use more poetry in the classroom, check out my Spring Poems and Activities. It's available in my TpT store.

Have a glorious Spring!

Theresa

Keeping Kids Happy and Learning During Social Isolation

I said goodbye to my class on what we thought was a normal Thursday afternoon. Later that evening, we got the message that schools would close one day early for spring break to allow for cleaning and sanitation due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Sadly, Covid-19 has now caused our schools to be closed until at least April 24th. I miss the kids in my third grade class and I worry about them during this unprecedented global crisis. This crisis is nerve-wracking for adults and can be even more stressful for children. 

With that concern on my mind, I've been sharing ideas for fun family-centered activities on my Instagram account. Here is a round up of some of the ideas I've shared. 

Family Game Nights

Family game nights are a great way to have some fun and keep kids learning at the same time. In this picture from December, my great-niece(age 4) and my great-nephew were playing Shut the Box. It’s a great game for little ones to practice counting, number sense, and simple addition. For older students, Monopoly, Rummy, Yahtzee, or Scrabble would all make for a fun family game night. Best of all, no technology is allowed!

Get Outside! 

Take a nature walk. Encourage your children to act like scientists. Have kids bring a camera and/or a journal to record their observations. Point out signs of backyard wildlife. Look up information online about the things you see.

Or you can create a Springtime Scavenger Hunt. 

You don’t need a commercially produced form to go on a scavenger hunt with your kids (although there are many available online). Before going for a walk, sit down together and make a list of things people might see in the springtime. Then, grab a camera or a journal and see how many of those things you can find on your nature walk! Activities like this encourage careful observation, categorizing, and a growing knowledge of the natural world. You can easily incorporate art, writing, reading, and math activities, too. Ask kids to draw or create one of the things they saw. Ask them to write a story or poem about the their walk. Encourage them to ask questions and then research the answers by reading non-fiction books online. Before going on the hunt, assign numbers to each item (10 yellow flowers, 15 trees with green leaves, etc) so they can practice counting, using tally marks, or adding numbers. This is a great learning activity that the whole family can enjoy! 

Try Something New!

Being stuck at home is a good time to try something new. For me, that was making bread! It didn't turn out exactly like the recipe, but I think it was a pretty good first attempt! It looked good and it tasted pretty good, too! There's nothing like warm, fresh bread with butter to satisfy a need for comfort food.

Go for a Drive

Remember when people used to go for “Sunday drives?” It’s a good time to revive that tradition. Take your kids on an exploration while staying safely isolated in the car. Make sure to keep the DVD player turned off and put away all phones. Encourage little ones to find letters or words on billboards and signs. Play the license plate game (how many states can you find?) or the alphabet game (Find words in alphabetical order on signs - who can get from A-Z the quickest?) Go down roads you’ve never traveled before just to see what’s there. Point out livestock or signs of spring. Or, just talk and enjoy each other’s company.

Start a Journal

Writing in a journal can be a healthy outlet for you or your children during times of stress. It’s a great place to express emotions or figure things out. It’s also a creative outlet! Journals can be a great place to brainstorm ideas, to write poetry, to sketch pictures, or to outline a novel. You’ll enjoy surprised at how much better you’ll feel after journaling!

As my friend Crystal at Primary on the Prowl pointed out, "Also journals that are kept now will be considered primary sources in the future!" Can you imagine your journal informing historians 20, 50, even 100 years from now? It's mind-boggling!

Begin a Family Read-aloud

This is a good time to start a new tradition - the family read aloud! Reading together provides not only a shared experience, but a sense of comfort and escape from current troubles. There’s also ample opportunity for conversations that strengthen reading comprehension! Your child will benefit from listening to fluent reading, making connections, predicting upcoming events, evaluating character choices, and visualizing settings or events. That’s a lot of learning for just ten to thirty minutes a day!

Two More Things

I'm trying to do my part to help. With that in mind, I've recently posted two new freebies in my Teachers pay Teachers store.

The first one contains more ideas for family activities during this crisis (or for any time kids are out of school). You can download your Family Friendly Activity Calendar by clicking here. 

My other freebie is about helping children stay mentally healthy. I wrote this poem and added some conversation starters/writing activities so adults can help kids process their feelings and develop coping strategies during this scary time. You can download The World Can Be So Scary here. 

I hope everyone stays healthy and safe. Keep busy and stay positive! We're all in this together.

Until next time,