Ruthie's Reading and Writing Connection

After the initial brainstorming to narrow down a topic, the students use this form to brainstorm the topic and "flesh out" their ideas. This web enables the students to develop their ideas without concentrating too heavily on punctuation, spelling, and other mechanics. It also provides reminders for an introduction, main points. supporting details, and a conclusion.

This 75-page packet includes 60 Greek and Latin Roots organizer webs. It is a word clustering activity for 60 common root words. It also includes a chart of root words, their meanings, and examples for each root.

This packet includes book report forms for elementary primary students. It includes a form each for fiction, biography, and informational texts. I have included a photograph of samples done by second and third graders. The students love doing these book reports. I explain to them that these book reports are almost like writing their own books, as you can see from the photograph. I have also included a copy of the parent letter that I send home at the beginning of the year. It is important

Students will select one state and complete the booklet. Students will plan a trip from one location to several destinations in the United States with their final destination being their chosen state. They will keep track of these destinations, along with mileage between each city, number of gallons of gas required and, given a cost per gallon of gas, calculate the cost of each leg of the journey. The students will also locate pictures of several sites to visit within their states and glue th

Suggestions for Use I designed this writing activity as a companion piece for a novel unit I usually teach each year, A Jar of Dreams by Yoshiko Uchida. I chose to teach this book because of its basic premise – wanting to fit in and be like everyone else. This is so important to upper elementary school students. This book also has another theme – that of accepting other races as well as you do your own. It is the story of Rinko, a

This packet is a BUNDLE of all nine of my monthly writing journals. I have also offered each individual journal for purchase on this site. For more thumbnail sketches of this packet, go to each of the journals by month and view these. This should give you about 36 more sketches to view. I designed these journals as an opportunity for my students to write and build their vocabulary in a fun way. I have used the journals with third, fourth, and fifth graders for many years in my classroom.

Suggestions for Use Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and are often pronounced differently as well. Readers can figure out which form of a homograph is being used by looking for its context clues, the words around it that clue you in on the definition. "She shed a tear over the tear in her scarf," the two words are both spelled "t-e-a-r" and are homographs. What is the purpose of homographs? They don’t really have a purpose. They are simply part of

Suggestions for Use I encourage my students to read independently throughout the year. I hold them responsible for one book report each six weeks. Sometimes, this can be challenging at best. My book report forms allow students to be accountable, but in small chunks. Writing a book report on their own often seems overwhelming for many of the students. My form is made up of small amounts of information, while at the same time they guide th

Suggestions for Use Make copies of the first section of this novel unit. Punch holes in the pages. Have students store their copies in a one-inch binder. Before beginning to read The Phantom Tollbooth, hand out the novels to the students and let them browse through the pictures in the book. Based solely on the title and the pictures, let the students have a discussion about the plot of this story. Next, using the drawings as inspiration, the

While teaching writing for many years, I learned one very important thing. The reason why most children fail the state writing test is blaringly obvious. This failure is due to one or both of the following - lack of organization and lack of elaboration. Without the first, the student tends to ramble on without any real cohesiveness or focus. Without the second, the essay lacks explanations, examples, and descriptions. The essay is just a weak blueprint of an essay. Without both, the

Suggestions for Use This packet includes 21 colorful suffix webs for nouns. I have also included a list of the suffixes along with the meaning of each, as well as examples of words for each suffix for you, the teacher. I have included a good web site for you to direct your students to in order to find additional words. In addition, I have given you three blank webs to research other noun suffixes, if you have more than 21 students. However, I have given you at least 12 to 14 words for every

This packet includes 40 different animal covers, research pages with boxes for students to write about the animal's habitat, description, eating habits, behavior, life expectancy, range, enemies, means of protection, means of communication, and a map to show the animal's distribution or range. It also includes pages for students to write a report about their findings. These pages include an organizer web, a rough draft, and a final page to write out the report. I have included a photograph sh

Suggestions for Use This packet includes 23 colorful suffix webs for adjectives. I have also included a list of the suffixes along with examples of words for each suffix for you, the teacher. Included also is a good web site for you to direct your students to in order to find additional words. In addition, I have given you three blank webs to research other noun suffixes, if you have more than 23 students. I have also given you at least 12 to 15 words for every suffix, thus making it possib

I copy the pages and staple them like a booklet. I do this at the beginning of the year. At times I let the kids color the black and white covers, at other times I copy the colored covers for them. I have provided both. These are my directions to the students: “I want you to write down any word that comes to mind when you think of __________.” The entire time required should take about 5-8 minutes. I give the students about 2 to 3 minutes to brainstorm their lists alone. Then, I give them

I have used this writing flow chart for a number of years and have found it extremely useful. I have found that the two major reasons why students fail writing tests are 1) lack of organization and 2) lack of elaboration. And so, I designed this particular flow chart to help with both of these areas. The chart is intended to help students grasp these two concepts. The first, and perhaps most important, way the chart helps is to give the students the structure they need for organizing their t

Suggestions for Use Why teach setting?: The setting of a story greatly influences what the characters do and how they think. It also helps to determine the plot and the mood or tone of the story. A story about two little boys going on a fishing trip with their father would be very different from a story about those same two little boys going to the mall with their father to buy a Mother’s Day gift for their mom. In the first scenario, you would expect to read about fishing, hiking, playing ta

Suggestions for Use I use this project as a research project form for nonfiction independent reading. I not only use it to help hold students responsible for their independent reading, but also to help guide them through their reading selection. Our state reading test usually consists of 60 to 70% nonfiction selections. My students usually do much better on the fiction passages than they do on the nonfiction ones. Therefore, I use these pages to he

This packet consists of 444 positive and negative adjectives in seven different colors for you word walls. They are large and colorful and easy to use. Just copy, laminate and cut apart. I have included a number of different suggestions for using these words along with an Adjective Suffix Chart for you and your students to use. These personality traits cover some third grade level words and words for fourth through seventh grades.

This packet consists of 454 colorful word wall words for your word walls and ELA activities. You may decide to copy all or some of these pages. 1. I laminated these pages and then trimmed off the excess. Next, I cut apart the three words on each page. You may decide to keep the three words on each page together for less cutting. 2. I Placed 100 of the words on one of my long cabinet doors. The rest of the words were also cut apart, but placed in legal-sized envelopes in groups of 20. Peri

Suggestions for Use Preparations: I ran these off on lightweight cardstock. I laminated the sheets first, and then I cut out the large rectangles. Next, cut apart these pages vertically, making sure to keep the adjective and its definitions together. Before I cut the adjectives away from their definitions, I divided them into groups. Be sure to separate the words alphabetically into different groups. I arranged them alphabetically because I c