April is one of my favorite months at school. The students are in the groove, independent, and blossoming. Plus, there are just so many fun things to do in April. Oh, and it really does help that May/June are right around the corner, ha!
April is National Poetry Month. We always have a lot of fun with poems. I teach several different types and give my students lots of opportunity to write and create. Last year I compiled my favorite types of poetry writing into my poetry unit called We're All Poets. It's full of ideas, writing pages, and crafts!
My students always love round poems. You can grab this freebie HERE! They choose a round object to become, follow the pattern shown below, and then create themselves as that object!
Katie and I also used the book Old Elm Speaks as one of our Rooted in Reading books for April. It has a lot of great poems and different types of poetry included. In our unit that pairs with Old Elm Speaks we focus on reading/analyzing poetry, learning about famous poets, and completing activities for poetic devices! You can check that out HERE!
I also love reading silly poems to my class. Here are some great websites to check out:
www.poetry4kids.com
www.fizzyfunnyfuzzy.com/
www.gigglepoetry.com/
I'd love to hear your ideas for teaching poetry in your class! Leave any helpful tips and hints in the comments below :)
This is an example of an ADORABLE sensory poem written by one of my first graders a few years ago.
All year long it's about punctuation, sentence structure, capitalization, editing, revising, etc. This is the time of year where I let it all go and let my students just flyyyyy and enjoy writing poems. Poetry writing isn't a standard of ours, so I don't critique it the way I do other writing genres. Instead, I spend a couple weeks teaching all sorts of poem types and model how to write them. Then, I give my students plenty of paper, we brainstorm ideas... and boom! They write, write, write!
I love how excited they get about writing poems and it adds such a spark to our writing block!
Throughout the weeks we learn how to write:
Sensory poems
Feelings poems
Acrostic poems
Cinquain poems
Shape poems
Color poems
Haiku poems
All of the templates and teacher examples can be found in the unit I created a few years back:
Elizabeth here from Kickin' it in Kindergarten! Oh my word...we had the BEST weekend last weekend in French Lick. Some of us Blog Hoppin' ladies were able to see each other and Holly Ehle put on an AMAZING weekend. She is a rockstar planner and host!
This was the theme for the weekend!
I just can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it was! Here is a picture of the Blog Hoppin' girls that were there!
We got there and got to spend time talking about our craft with one another and sharing our favorite teaching tools!
We had an epic 80's party!
There were so many AMAZING sponsors for this event.
Teachers walked away with so many wonderful prizes.
Such a fun weekend and I can't wait until next year! You can read more about this fun filled weekend from other bloggers by heading over to Holly's blog and checking out everyone's posts!
Hey everyone! It's Ashley from The School Supply Addict! Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Not only am I dressed in green today, but I have my blue laid out for tonight. Tis the season... for basketball! I am so excited that the March Madness games start today! My husband and I both went to Kentucky (and met there), so our household bleeds blue. Today, I've rounded up some great basketball-themed resources that I use in the classroom.
My kids are OBSESSED with this game. It's an ABC Ya! basketball game where students solve a series of problems and earn shots on a goal. Students can choose from addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There are three levels within each skill (easy, medium, and hard). Although I teach kindergarten, we can still use the easy and medium addition and subtraction. We play it as a whole group where students use mini white boards to solve the problem independently, then we answer as a class. They also have the option to play this game during center time... and they do. It's such a fun game to practice math facts!
3. $ Mini Basketball Hoop
Those cheap mini hoops are also fun to have in the room! I think I got mine from Target a few years ago. Not only are they perfect for indoor recess, but we use them for some active learning games and review! There are a bazillion ways to use them, but we usually just split up into two teams, have students answer questions to earn a shot, then award points (and use that to practice our tallying, addition, and subtraction.) I also use it as an opportunity to teach sportsmanship and cheering each other on. You can totally adapt it to your class and needs, but that's how we use them. They are stored in my closet and I'm so glad I have them! Cheap investment... lots of fun.
You can't go wrong with anything by Deedee. I am obsessed with these writing resources... I have ALL of them. Her March one has resources to make a basketball writing station/center! Perfect!
I have never used this before, but have plans for it next year (I'm on maternity leave right now, so I'm having my own tournament of diapers, throw up, and milk). This photo is from The Brown Bag Teacher and uses upper-level books. You can totally do this with any books... Dr. Seuss would be perfect for March! It's a perfect way to integrate literacy, opinions, and a little March Madness! Check out her blog post to see tons of photos and see how she does it.
6. This. Hilarious. Video.
If you've never seen Kid Snippet videos, then you're missing out. Basically, these parents record conversations their kids have, make a video, then use the kid voices as the script. I LOVE them all. This one is one of my favorites and I feel like this is what it's like in my classroom somedays. I have no idea how you'd use it in the classroom, but it was too good not to include.
This is a freebie I created a few years ago. They're colored chevron frames with basketballs in the corner. Use them for center pieces, name tags, labels, task cards, and more!
I also have some fun basketball graphic sets if you're in need! Click the images to check them out!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy March Madness!!!
So I am going to start this post by saying... I am not an expert and I am so far from perfect that I'm not even sure where they line the cars up for the race.
Here is what I do...I research it, try it, revise it, and then try it again. I am a practitioner.
Handwriting... ugh! It is not my favorite thing. The Perfect Son has imperfect handwriting. It was not my passion when he was 5 years old, it is not my passion now. However, the purpose of writing is to make our meaning known, so we work a little on handwriting. When I say a little... I mean a very little.
What we do actually do is write... ALL. DAY. LONG.
We start every morning with a version of these. The kids love them, they make me smile and in this super simple warm up everyday, we can address so many skills in a creative way... Letter formation, spacing, capital letters, ending punctuation, illustrating, reading simple text... the list is long. We do these as our "morning work." I can quickly instruct them if there is a letter out of whack.
Someone asked me if I address handwriting during writers workshop. The answer is VERY RARELY. Writers workshop (my belief) is about composing. It is about getting our thoughts out and conveying meaning. If their writing is confusing because their letters are not clear, then I might say something like. "Wow! I love the story you just told me". (Then offer a few more genuine compliments) "I wondering if we could make this story a little easier for your reader to read?" Then I would try to support them in that process. No red pen!
So... when else do I work on supporting
handwriting?
And when I set out to make my monthly Math and Literacy Stations unit I had a few goals in mind:
1. Meaningful work
2. The task must take more than 3.2 seconds to complete... hello! I have groups to meet with!
3. It needed to support my classroom goals (increase writing and illustrating).
4. It HAD to be easy to prep... we are all busy!
My final thoughts on handwriting. Some students are not ready for it. That's okay. I just take it where they are and nudge and guide them towards improvement. I sing their praises and celebrate every step in the right direction. I am not sure if that is right or wrong, but it is how I roll.
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