Earth Day 2018, Green Up Day Freebie

FREE EARTH DAY CERTIFICATE

Hello!
    Earth Day is almost upon us! Every year, it falls on April 22nd. But every day should be Earth Day-- do you agree? But at least we can really focus on doing what's right for the environment on the calendar's Earth Day! This is a certificate for recognizing students for being stewards of the earth!

We are all "care-takers" of the earth, and have ownership in keeping our environment clean and green! Think of some activities you can do with your kids to demonstrate that ownership. An afternoon of cleaning up a playground, or helping the custodian with recycling paper....the ideas are of course, endless! Reward them with a certificate or a special ceremony! Be sure to recognize your deserving students after completing a unit or helping in the community to green up, clean up, recycle, reuse, or reduce! 

If you like the FREE EARTH DAY CERTIFICATE, you might like this: Earth Day We Are the World-A Literacy Mini Unit

Thanks for your interest!  As always, your interest and business are VERY MUCH appreciated. Please leave feedback to let me know how this worked out. Consider following me at my store, too. You'll get updates and flash freebies. If you follow me at Teachers Pay Teachers, you'll get an occasional note in your TpT inbox that goes to all my followers. Often, I will include a free resource that is normally priced in my store...and only available to followers! One more thing,  I usually have a sale each month!

Click here to follow my store and get the latest updates!

Thanks a lot for checking this out! Wishing you a Happy Earth Day every day! ~Karen

ELA Summer Tutoring Materials

Hello!

       Are you already thinking about your summer program? Do you need a bundle for your multi-level classes? This would help you get started, and it may be all you need. Many of the resources are geared to the summer theme. You'll find a variety of language activities, including a progress monitoring resource so your kids can track their reading fluency. This bundle has resources that can be differentiated according to your students' needs. Mix up the learning with some fun. Check it out by clicking on the link below. Thanks for stopping by! 

Have a lovely day, no matter where you are! ~Karen

SUPER SUMMER LITERACY BUNDLE

Hello Spring! Goodbye Winter!

Hello Educators and Parents,

Here's hopping ...I mean "hoping" :) ...you have a wonderful spring coming your way! Or, maybe you already have spring.  For us in the north, it's just around the corner even though the calendar says it is spring. The snow just sticks to us a little longer where we are! Our last snowstorm left us with a whole winter's worth of snow!

I am posting a fun resource that your kids might enjoy. Add it to a literacy center or send home a few pages for them to play with parents at home. This can be a generic game. Use your own word cards, math cards, or the ones included in this file in my store. Black and white pages and lots of cards are available in the complete resource. 

Try out these free sample pages below--- you should be able to download and print. Then, if you're interested check out the game at TpT.

Click to instantly follow Growing Smart Readers at TpT

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Copyright 2018 Growing Smart Readers

For more boards and flash cards...go to:

Fun Spring and Easter Board Games for Kids! Print and Go!





You might also like this!

EASTER SPRING BUNDLE

Copyright 2018 Growing Smart Readers

Baby Animals Accordion Pocket Books

My reading group enjoyed reading these interactive and engaging booklets. Especially appealing to students who are struggling in reading, these little nonfiction booklets may help them feel successful. Kids who struggle in reading feel less stress when they see text on a single page or a mini book. They like to fold their own pages and see how a single page transforms into an accordion book! 

Content specific words are in bold text. Teachers and parents may want to preview the words in bold text prior to reading. Another idea is to create flash cards of the bold text. (I may be adding this to the packet soon!) 

On another note, these little books would be suitable for reading stations or centers during the school year, and for summer tutoring, too. 

If you are interested in this product, please check it out at my TpT store:

GROWING SMART READERS AT TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS

This resource is fun to read as little folded books. 

Easy directions for folding the papers into accordion booklets are included.

I've included the same text in the format of a single page for each animal book. This one is for baby seals. The paragraphs are numbered for reading in sequence.

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY!

FUN with Tongue Twisters, Alliteration, Fluency and Silly Nonsense Words!

Hello Friends,

This is one of my newest single products I have just posted in my store! I'm really excited about this because it is the third tongue twister product that I have now. It was added to create a bundle of tongue twisters that are tempting enough to tangle the tongue of your terrific second and third graders.

Take a moment to check out these sample pages. I had a blast coming up with nonsense words like tippytots and blabblerblast. These silly nonsense words are just right for giving your students practice with phonemic skills and syllabication. 

The plus with this type of resource is that it works for kids who need to practice reading AND speech. My other two tongue twister resources usually get positive feedback from SPL therapists.  This is brand new, so I am hoping to see some feedback soon on this one.

I'll admit, this one is the most challenging. I recommend this for grades 2-4 because it really can get their tongue in a twist! Click on the link below to find this is my store! 

Thanks so much for checking this out. Please stop by my blog again soon!

TONGUE TWISTERS-TRICKY TONGUE TICKLERS

Why play with cards during reading class?

With the holidays around the corner, getting sixteen 4th and 5th graders to get along without arguing and being cranky was growing more and more difficult. The days have been getting colder and darker earlier, and it seemed like they were just plain irritable with each other. (Can I blame it on the change of the seasons?) I needed to come up with some ideas to get them back on track. 

I figured what better way to build relationships and social skills than actually building a house of cards--or any structure. So we started with a circle discussion about what it means to be a team, a team player, and collaborate.  I tried to drive home the idea of working as a team...a simple concept. Several examples were discussed, but the one that we were able to relate to the most was the game of basketball. They all agreed that a game cannot be won with just one player scoring. Everyone on the team had a role...no one was more important than the other. Then, it was easy for them to bring up other examples of games and instances in which being a team made the game.

I split up 2 decks of cards and divided the kids into 4 groups. I told them to build a structure...any structure. It could be a house, a bridge, a tower, anything that you and your team wanted to create together. No one person could do all the work. They had to decide among themselves what to build, and how to build it. They could further their quest with whether they wanted their structure to be sturdy enough to hold up a book or other object. 

It was the simplest, and most open-ended task...and yet, they created a set of norms on their own. In the beginning, all I cared about at the time, was just seeing them work together without quibbling and one trying to out-do the other. Well, they figured it out...and sooner than I expected...that they HAD to work together, to communicate clearly with each other, and to value each other's suggestions and ideas. 

I was amazed at their questions, their conversations, and the respect they had for each other. No one talked over the other; no one tried to be "in charge" (and if they did, they did not show it). Even some of my more seasoned students who tend to jump up and quit, did not do so! When 20 minutes was up, each group stood up and walked around the room to view the other structures. This was a 3-minute walk. When we returned to our circle, I was thrilled to hear a sophisticated discussion about arches, trusses (well, I helped them with that word to go with their descriptions), and ways to shape the cards so that they would be stronger. One student said, "I noticed that Trey's group made a strong structure with the least amount of cards--compared to everyone else."  His group had figured out how to make strong pillars out of the cards. More discussion continued until every group shared. 

This is not a stem activity...or is it? If it is, I'd like to come up with an acronym that would include collaboration. This was a simple activity with a goal in mind, an old-fashioned one from many decades ago, (more like hundreds of years, really) and yet, the rich language, vocabulary, the sharing of ideas, active problem solving, and collaboration were all happening at the same time! I would say it was one of the most rewarding teaching moments I had experienced in a very long time. 

By the way, I'm a reading interventionist. Did I mention that this was our literacy block? So, we did not carve out a lot of scientific knowledge out of this....and yet, they walked away with a little of that anyway....and a lot of teamwork.  Now, maybe we can communicate a little better. 

So why play cards during reading class? Our speaking and listening skills shape our reading and writing skills. This is just one activity that requires communication and collaboration. I think we're going to do more of this. I haven't figured out what yet...I'll be checking out some old fashioned, simple stem-like activities that require communication, collaboration and teamwork. Maybe those are all synonyms.....Hmmm. 

Can they tell you what teamwork really looks like now? Definitely. Will they transfer some of this into their other work...um...like reading and writing...or on the playground? I hope so.

Summer...summer...summer!

Shadows fascinate me still. They can be so much fun to play around with... whether on a sunny day, or by a late night campfire. My kids loved to play with flashlights, making crazy silhouettes, and puppet shows. The stage, of course, was the ceiling when they couldn't sleep on hot summer nights. 

Here's a favorite book for preschoolers (an ageless classic) on shadows-

https://www.amazon.com/Moonbears-Shadow-Frank-Asch/dp/0689835191