Thinking Out Loud

Vertebrates and Invertebrate Classification Unit This unit focuses heavily on teaching four vocabulary words: classify, trait, vertebrate, and invertebrate. The teacher is given a step-by-step framework for how to teach these words explicitly. The students create graphic organizers using their knowledge of the words. Students have the opportunity to creating a folding organizer, sort animals, and complete a scavenger hunt. The unit includes explicit lesson plans, graphic organizers, graphi

I Have Who Has is a game that is played as a whole class to review. This game helps students review identifying numbers 0-30. There are two versions - one with beach theme numbers and one with regular font numbers. Common Core Standards Counting and Cardinality K.CC Know number names and the count sequence. 4. Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality. Number and Operations in Base Ten K.NBT Work with numbers 11�19 to gain foundations

Reinforce students' sight word recognition with this Build a Snowman game that uses all of the Dolch words. There are two different ways to play: compete to build a snowman before the rest of the players or compete to build the most snowmen. Players receive a snowman piece when they can successfully read the sight word on the card. Each Dolch list is included. The cards are color-coded by list to make the sorting and differentiation easier. An assessment is also included that can be used p

Reading aloud cultivates the joy of reading and motivates students to read more. Read alouds also are key to developing vocabulary. This packet helps you teach vocabulary in context using the chapter book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. The packet includes: 1. Lesson Plans (one per chapter, with before and during questions, and 2-3 tier two vocabulary words and an engaging activity) 2. Vocabulary Cards (used to create a vocabulary bulletin board) 3. Graphic Organizers (for the vocabul

Crafting Sentences is a lesson plan I used in my first grade class to help my students write a complete sentence. The file includes the lesson plan, blank graphic organizers, and completed graphic organizers (for teacher use). The lesson plan components include teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent practice. I included first grade Common Core standards in the plan also.

Early elementary students need to be fluent in adding and subtracting within ten to build a strong foundation for future mathematical thinking. This product includes three activities and three word problems to help students practice making different combinations of ten. The activities can be used whole group, small group, or as workstations/centers. The activities include: *How Many Ways? Students practice finding the different combinations of ten. A student worksheet for kindergarten and

Samurai Santa: A Very Ninja Christmas is written by Rubin Pingk and is my new favorite holiday book. He is the author/illustrator and the illustrations are similar to graphic novels, which pull many boy readers into the story and are essential to this story. To go along with the book, I have created a packet of before, during, and after reading activities that are aligned to Common Core Standards in reading, listening and speaking, writing, and language. Before reading: background information

Students will play this game in groups of two to four. The goal of the game is to collect all the parts of the snowman before the other players by reading the sight words correctly on each card drawn from the pile. The sight words included in this game are the second grade Dolch words. At the end of the game, students will record the sight words they have in their hands on the recording sheet. This game would be great in a literacy center or for review in a small group setting. To find this

In my winter fact family packet, I have included three activities that can be used in math centers (tubs) or individually for interventions. The first activity has students created the equations to match the three numbers in the fact family (Snowman Families). The second activity has the student find the missing number before creating the fact family equations (Missing Numbers). The final activity has the students pick two numbers and create fact family equations using those two numbers (Snow

This file contains 6 picture writing prompts in two different versions. The first version has background color. These prompts were created with projection in mind. The second version has a white background, which saves ink if you want to print them. Also included are four pages of writing paper, suggested classroom ideas, and list of places to get more picture writing prompts. Everything you need to get started using picture writing prompts in your classroom is included.

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen is one of my favorite read alouds of all time. Outside of the New York Public Library are these massive lion statues. Have you ever thought what would happen if one of those lions actually walked into the library for story hour? Knudsen did! What happened when the lion walked in? You will have to get the book and find out. I feel the same way about libraries that Knudsen does. She says, "Anyone who loves libraries knows that they are special, magical place

Last Man Standing is a review game that can be played as a whole class or during small group time. The file comes with game directions, possible game question pages divided by grade level, pages for students write answers (individual and group), and award certificates. I provided possible questions for K-3, 4-6, and 7-12 in the areas of social studies, English, math, and science.

This is a complete lesson plan to help students learn about nouns. The lesson begins with students watching a free video followed by a noun word sort. Then the teacher models finding nouns in his or her writing with the students doing the same thing as independent practice. Included in the packet: *lesson plan based on Common Core Standards for grades K-3 *noun word sort cards *blank word cards *noun poster *recording page to categorize the different types of nouns Freebie offered under Sc

This lesson plan has two versions. The first version is the lesson plan I used with my examples and the focus skill of verb tenses. The second lesson plan has blanks to write your own example and focus skill. The last sheet is writing stationary that can be used to showcase student work. I use this lesson plan when my students are writing basic paragraphs with no description. I have aligned this lesson with 6th-8th grade CCSS (Common Core Standards). I left lines under standards on the les

This packet of math centers covers a variety of Common Core standards: meaning of the equal sign, adding and subtracting within 20, place value, and counting up to 120. *Specific standards are laid out in the packet in the teacher information. You receive five centers (workstations): *True/False (students have to determine if the equation is true or false by sorting) *Word (story) Problems (student solve a variety of story problems using provided manipulatives) *Place Value Matching (student

Using the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, students use the close reading strategy to analyze the poem with teacher support. This resource includes a step-by-step guide to help teachers through the close reading process and provides activities to complete after the reading (writing and fluency).

The game of Swingo is bingo with sight words. The game includes multiple bingo cards for each season and all of the dolch and fry words on individual cards. The word lists are color coded for easy clean up after the game. The only thing the teacher needs to provide are the objects students use to cover up their words. Pick which card you would like your students to use. Pick the word list you would like to use. Display the words by writing them on the board, showing them using a document c

This file includes four picture writing prompts centered around St. Patrick's Day. With this download you get two versions of the prompts - one with a colored background (for projection) and one with a white background (to save on ink cost when printing). You also get two sets of writing papers for students to write their responses: one set with four leaf clovers and one set without four leaf clovers.