Summer or Winter?

In the Northern Hemisphere Winter is well and truly on your doorstep!

These two packs will help you keep those little brains working and focused while waiting for Thanksgiving.











Those of us in the Southern Hemisphere are preparing for our Summer and counting down the weeks until our Summer break. 

These packs will keep those brains thinking until the last day of term. 




Dress Like a Pilgrim


Pilgrims – Clothes they Wore 24 pages 
 This set provides a small reader (2 options), a set of word wall cards and a template to dress. Your students will love learning about this Pilgrim way of dressing by working through the tasks. 

Word wall cards for a Pilgrim Wardrobe - Discuss and display each card. These words will increase the vocabulary that your students use. They will also gain an appreciation of how difficult it would have been to get dressed and how many items the Pilgrims wore every day. 

Little Readers- male and female Pilgrim Outfits - Print and go! Choose which reader you want – there are 2 options. This will give you two books –. One girl and one boy version. Copy and staple together and then cut in half. Use these each day of the unit to consolidate common sight words and the letter/sound relationship. 

Be a designer, make a Pilgrim outfit - Use what you know about the Pilgrim lifestyle and make a set of clothes. Use colored paper and materials to glue onto the template. Explain your choices. Please read the description and download the preview before purchasing. The preview clearly shows you what is included in this pack.




Pilgrims - Chores Now and Then

Looking back into history - there is always more than one side to tell.

This pack - doesn't go into whether the Pilgrims were right or wrong! 
What it does do, is look at the types of chores the children of Pilgrims had. 

Pilgrims – Chores Now and Then 
49 pages 

Pilgrims – Chores Now and Then is a pack that provides a small reader (2 options), and lots of supporting tasks to improve literacy. 

 Your students will love learning about the chores that Pilgrim children did every day. 

Discover what the Pilgrims did as chores and how their lives were very different from ours. 

 A Little Reader - Print and go! 
 Language Vocabulary Cards 
English Tasks - KWL 
Four chores for the day Beginning middle and end of day chores 
 A Pilgrim’s Day 
Word Splash INB 
A Day on the Life of a Pilgrim 
A Pilgrim is-has-can 
Text Connections Compare the chores 
Pilgrim Chores – draw and write 
Make a list of chores 
Recount a day of chores 
Compare then and now 
Questions about chores 
I see, I think, I wonder





Factors - a focus this week

Kids find factors difficult to conquer - they get them mixed up with multiples all the time. 
So this week we worked on factors and getting them clear in our thinking. 


 This is a peg it task - look at the large number in the middle and peg the factor.
You can use counters too.


This pack goes all the way up to 100.
It is a great addition to your math centers.




Talking Turkey Math

I just adore holidays and while we don't celebrate Turkey Season for Thanksgiving, here in Australia,  we do eat a lot of turkey at Christmas time.

So to celebrate a new turkey season that is soon to be here I have put together this new pack.
It is suitable for K-2















Poetry

Here is a post I just posted over on the Australian Teachers Collaborative Blog.


I love teaching poetry - read on to find out why?
I have included some video links and a Pinterest page link at the end of this post. 
(please note the poems by my students are first draft and haven't been edited at all)


A big hello this week from Paula's Place

 

These are my ten reasons why I use poetry in my learning space

Poetry is enjoyable

Children need to develop a love of poetry, they need to enjoy reading the whimsical nature that most poetry has.  Reading needs to consist of all types of texts and poetry is one of them. 


Poetry increases Vocabulary 

Choosing each word carefully is a skill that develops over time. 
It is a great way to explore alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia, metaphors and similes.

Poetry impacts on other writing

Other text types become richer, as we work on the play of words, meanings and how to manipulate what the reader build as a picture. 

Poetry gives children the freedom to explore

Children don't often choose poetry to read and the more we share and explore the more they want to explore. As teachers we need to build up a selection of poetry to share and just for enjoyment. They make great read alouds.

Poetry helps to show the writing cycle in a shorter space of time

Writing a poem allows for planning - drafting - revising - buddy edit - conferencing - publishing all to occur in relatively short space of time. 

Poetry supports struggling and beginning writers

As the finished product is usually only a few lines - it supports success for beginning or struggling writers. 

Poetry allows for differentiation and point of need

No matter what type f poetry or skill level all children can write or recite some form of poetry. 

Poetry allows us to have fun with words

Poetry doesn't have to rhyme, it doesn't have to be punctuated like a narrative, it can be long and it can be short. 

Poetry needs to spoken with intonation 

Poetry is a great way to practise fluency, voices and to be able to experiment with different presentation styles. it is a great way to help assess speaking and listening. 

Poetry helps us track how language has changed over time

Ye olde poetry is fun to share and compare with what we read today. We don't need to over analyse poetry, but we need to be able to understand it - what better way to get across the importance of understanding your audience. 


Here are some great youtube clips to use in your class






These have always been great books and they now have updated covers....



 



Here are some books to motivate you - links from Pinterest



 


Take the plunge and start exploring and having fun with our crazy language. 
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