Turkey Day is just a couple of weeks away, and I can hardly believe it! The days leading up to holiday breaks are often filled with excitement— which is fun, but also sometimes translates into extra energy for the kids and extra exhaustion for the teachers (and parents!). Holiday themed activities are always a fun way to engage your students and attempt to wrangle the chaos a bit during those days.
I’ve created a couple of fun word activities you’re welcome to use. These are geared more for upper elementary, but can definitely be used for kids of other ages if they are able to do them! Below you will find a downloadable word scramble as well as a Thanksgiving word making activity.
Print them off and use as a sanity saver on those crazy days, as an activity for the car ride to Thanksgiving dinner, or print them off for the kids to work on while the turkey cooks on Thanksgiving Day! However you choose to use them, have fun!
**Printables are free to download, but may not be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own. For classroom and personal home use only.**
Today is Veterans Day in the United States. It’s a day we pause to honor and pay tribute to the brave men and women who have so diligently served our country and sacrificed so much for the citizens of our nation. Because I have family members who have served in the military, and a husband who works with veterans suffering from service connected disabilities, I understand the levity of this day, and have always done my best to think about and honor military members, past and present.
We can do our part to honor service members by talking about them, their bravery, and their service. Were it not for our brave service men and women, we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms we enjoy. Our lives would be much different than they are. In order to ensure that our military continues to receive the honor and thanks they deserve, we must teach our children and our students to respect and honor this day.
This can look like many different things, but all are appreciated by those being honored. Some ideas include:
Writing thank you letters to soldiers who are currently deployed
Writing thank you letters to veterans who are no longer actively serving
Create a video montage with students expressing their gratitude
Visiting with retired veterans and listening to their stories
Schools can hold an assembly to show pictures of, share memories of, and even hear from service members
Talking to our students about the profound impact that members of our military have made
Every year, I would have my students take some time to make a card or write a letter that would be sent to a soldier currently deployed. It always amazed me how much thought they would put into the words they wrote. There were even a few years we got some letters back, and it made the students so happy! There are many organizations who will collect letters and send them for you— a simple Google search will usually guide you in the right direction.
Not every student fully understood the magnitude of what soldiers do for us. Others, however, did, as they had a parent actively serving in the military. But regardless of their depth of understanding, they did know that soldier are important and that they ought to be honored and remembered, and that’s a lesson I hope they have carried with them as they have grown into adulthood.
If you’ve been in the classroom for any length of time, you have likely witnessed first hand just how mean and destructive bullies can be. It’s a problem that seems to have existed for as long as humans have been around, and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. In fact, it’s becoming more prominent with social media being so accessible. Students need to understand that bullying is never ok and is never the answer. The repercussions of being the target of a bully are long lasting and can be quite detrimental to a person’s health, confidence, and self image.
As teachers, it is crucial that if we see something, we say something, and that we teach our students to do the same. We need to teach our students what bullying is, what it can look like, how it feels to be the victim, and how to address it when/if we see it happening. I found a few picture books that did a great job of teaching these concepts— take a look!
Giraffe is Left Out written by Sue Craves, illustrated by Trevor Dunton
Giraffe, Little Lion, and Monkey are all friends. When Leopard moves into their class, Giraffe is not excited. He does not want to let Leopard join their friend group, and purposely excludes Leopard from any and all activities. Leopard is sad and feels left out. When it comes time to pass out invitations to his birthday party, Leopard gives one to everyone else, but doesn’t give one to Giraffe. Now Giraffe is the one who feels left out. Soon, he begins to understand just how mean it is to leave people out, and he learns that Leopard is actually a really good friend. Giraffe mends his ways and becomes a friend to Leopard in the end.
I liked how this book showed that excluding people is a form of bullying, and that it can be hurtful to others.
Billy Bully by Alvaro & Ana Galan, illustrated by Steve Simpson
When Billy Bully comes to the playground to play with the other kids, he takes over and makes the fun go away. He takes toys, cuts in line, pushes, breaks others’ things, tricks people, and won’t take turns. No one wants to play with him. With every mean thing he does, another kid leaves the playground. Soon, he is left with no one to play with, and he starts to realize that the things he was doing weren’t nice. One by one, he goes to his friends and apologizes and makes up for the things he had done. Soon, all the kids have come back to play together.
The illustrations in this book are so cute, and the story is easy to follow. There is also a counting element as Bully’s friends leave and come back one by one. I loved how it depicted several ways that someone can be a bully to help kids understand that bullying can take on many forms.
Eddie the Bully written and illustrated by Henry Cole
Eddie is mean, mean, mean. He says unkind things about his friends, teases them, ruins their art projects, and more. No one likes to play with him. He’s always picked last for teams, left out of the fun, and ignored. When Carla, a new girl, moves into their class, she is assigned to sit right next to Eddie. Everyone expects Eddie to say and do mean things to her, but before he has the chance, Carla compliments Eddie on his sweater and tells him that everyone must want to be his friend! Eddie is unsure what to say to this, because he knows that it isn’t true. Carla asks Eddie to help her make new friends, and Eddie agrees. He quickly learns that it feels good to be nice, so he changes his ways and starts over, this time, being a friend to everyone.
Similar to Billy Bully, this story shows different ways that bullying can happen, helping kids to understand that bullying isn’t just one thing.
Bullies Never Win by Margery Cuyler, illustrated by Arthur Howard
Jessica is a first grader who worries about a lot of things, one of which is Brenda, a girl at school who likes to bully and be mean. Brenda finds a way to make fun of everything Jessica does, so Jessica slowly stops doing all the things she loves to do. Jessica finally has had enough and breaks down crying to her mom. Her mom suggests that she stand up for herself or tell their teacher. Jessica is worried about what she will do or say to Brenda to make her stop being a bully. The next day at lunch, Brenda continues to tease and say mean things. Jessica has had enough, and stands up and tells Brenda that, “… bullies never win!” Brenda is embarrassed and doesn’t say anything else to Jessica. That night, Jessica feels proud of herself for standing up to Brenda.
I loved how this story showed how to stand up to a bully. It was an empowering story!
Bully written and illustrated by Jennifer Sattler
Bully is a bull frog, and he wants all the lily pads on the pond all for himself. He won’t let any other pond friends eat them, smell them, or look at them. Soon, he has chased everyone away and is all alone. There is only one flower left, and he wants it just for himself, so he sits on it to protect it. A bee comes up to him and tries to save the flower by reminding Bully that he’s sitting on it. Bully is mean and asks the bee what he’s going to do about it. The bee has an idea, and buzzes away to gather his friends. Together they reclaim the pond and chase Bully away. The lilies begin to grow again, and the pond is back to its thriving self. Bully moves to a new pond, but is sad to see that it’s just a pond of mud, and he is all alone. Still, all he cares about is that the pond is all his.
This story showed that it can be powerful to stand up to a bully as a group— strength in numbers.
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Bullying is never the answer, and students need to know that. These books do a great job of teaching that and showing that bullying can take on many forms. Bullying is a problem that many kids will face, either directly or indirectly, and it’s important that students be equipped with the tools they need to stand up to bullies and speak up when they see it happening. We may not be able to completely eradicate bullying from our schools, but we can certainly make a difference by teaching our students to respect and watch out for one another.
Last week, while getting my kids ready for school, I checked my weather app to see what the day was going to look like. I was shocked to see that it was a mere 30 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and that it wasn’t going to get warmer than the high 40s during the day. I wasn’t prepared for such low temperatures quite yet, so I sent my husband down to dig out our winter bin. In a frenzy, we began digging through the bin, searching for the appropriate sizes of coats and gloves we would need to keep our kids warm. We were soon met with a pile of gloves of varying sizes and colors. The tags on each glove were ominously labeled with the ever so (not so) precise “one size fits most” sizing. All the gloves were youth sized, yet they were all different sizes, but all labeled that they would fit most kids. The problem with that sizing? My ten year old’s hands are much larger than my four and five year old’s hands. So no, one size didn’t fit most, and it left some of my kids with floppy-fingered or stretched to the max gloves.
At least they had something on their hands, though, right? I guess.
We frequently see a similar problem in education. So often, we deliver instruction and curriculum that is sized as “one size fits all”, when really, it doesn’t fit all in the same way. Our instruction may fit “most” and might serve the middle ground of our classroom, but there will always be students who don’t fit into that middle ground. Teachers will encounter students who are accelerated learners, needing more of a challenge than their peers. On the other end of the spectrum, teachers will have students who find the material too challenging and sometimes inaccessible entirely. It creates a tricky situation.
As teachers, we have the responsibility to see that all of our students are making progress, regardless of their intellectual abilities. And if a student is not making the progress that would be expected, the best practice would be to get that student placed in the most appropriate learning environment with the kind of help they might need.
With upwards of 40 students in a classroom for some teachers, what do you do for those students who don’t fit into the “most” category of your curriculum sizing? Making 40 different assignments wouldn’t be realistic, and you certainly can’t just leave them behind— the repercussions of such an action would be frustrating and discouraging for the students who get left behind.
When we are faced with situations like this, we have to think back to our college days when we were learning all about differentiation and accommodation. We’ve got to pull that mental file out of the back of our minds, dust it off, and figure out ways to best serve our students.
How we do that looks different for each student that needs different instruction. One student might need a reduced number of questions on a test. Another might need questions worded differently and more simply. One might need more rigorous work, requiring a higher level of thinking. Some students may need an assignment that is completely different than the rest of the class, but still assesses the same learning goals.
I recall a time during my first year of teaching when I had a student who had just moved to the United States. Her knowledge and understanding of the English language was very limited. She most certainly did not fit into the “most” category. When it came time to do a class novel study, rather than expecting her to be able to read and understand the novel in English, I was able to find the novel in her native language, and give her assignment that had been translated into her language. This way, she was able to still participate and learn the concepts we were focusing on, but it was accessible to her and what she needed.
Another time comes to mind later in my teaching career when I had a student who was very much academically ahead of her peers. Unfortunately, her schedule didn’t work out to have her placed in my accelerated class. Rather than have her get bored with what I was teaching her class period, I assigned her what I was teaching to the accelerated class. Again, she still was able to participate and learn what I needed her to, but it was at her level and gave her the appropriate amount of challenge.
If a student was on an IEP and had specific goals about test accommodations or differentiation, I would often reduce the number of questions they had to answer so that the test didn’t feel so overwhelming. Sometimes I would eliminate questions on assignments or rewrite them in a simpler way to help my struggling students to be able to access the information more easily.
These things didn’t take a lot of extra time for me to do, but they made a world of difference to the students who needed the help. Some of my other students would see these accommodations being made and would complain to me that “it wasn’t fair” to the rest of the class. At that point, I would remind them of the quote I had hanging in the back of my room that said, “Fair isn’t everyone getting the same thing. Fair is everyone getting what they need to succeed.” They would usually stop complaining at that point and would move on, realizing that their complaining wasn’t going to get them anywhere.
Providing all students with a chance to succeed is our job as teachers. We aren’t there to make students feel like failures. We’re not there to make their lives frustrating and miserable. Our goal is to create a learning environment that is welcoming, safe, and one that leads to success. As you plan your next lesson, unit, assignment, or test, take a minute to think about who in your class doesn’t fit into the “most” category, and see what you can do to help them feel more successful in your classroom. I promise it will be worth your time, energy, and thought.
November is here, and that means Thanksgiving is coming! I’ve always loved this month for several reasons— the cooler weather, the yummy Thanksgiving meal, and time with friends and family. While all of those things are awesome in and of themselves, I think my favorite thing about November is the extra focus on gratitude. Sure, I am thankful all year round, but I love the extra emphasis on it during the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
I know not all families celebrate Thanksgiving, and that’s okay! But regardless of how or if you celebrate Turkey Day, I think we all can agree that it is good to be grateful. As teachers, we can help students understand what it means to be grateful and how to show our gratitude for someone or something. When we teach young children to acknowledge the things they are thankful for, they begin to more easily see the good things in their lives, which leads to better attitudes and more optimistic outlooks.
So as we begin this month of giving thanks, I encourage you to find ways to work mini gratitude lessons into your curriculum. It’s helpful for students to write down the things they are grateful for and to post them in the room for all to see. This helps create a sense of community as students begin to see that others in the room are grateful for similar things as they are, and also to help others find gratitude in things they may not have previously thought of. One way to do this is to create a “gratitude space” in your classroom. You can do this by devoting a wall or bulletin board to thankful thoughts, creating a large tree trunk that students can add leaves to, or by making a line of gratitude thoughts that follows the perimeter of your room. I’ve included a free resource you can print out and use in your classroom. Print the page on different “fall” colors and cut out the leaves. Each day leading up to Thanksgiving break, have students write something they are thankful for that day and hang it up in the designated spot in your classroom.
Everyone will love watching the gratitude space fill up with positive things, and students will begin to recognize things in their lives that they are thankful for. Happy November!
**This free printable resource is intended for personal or classroom use only. It is not to be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own.**
For most teachers, Halloween is the least favorite holiday— the crazy costumes, the excitement and anticipation for a night of trick or treating, and, of course, the never ending stream of candy. For one Utah school, however, Halloween is the most anticipated holiday. The administration, teachers, and staff come together to create a magical experience for students. Every year, they choose a theme to center the holiday around; it’s usually based on a well known animated movie. Beginning in January, they start planning and gathering ideas. As the year goes on, they hammer out all the final details, collect supplies and props, and plan out every detail. The days before Halloween are spent setting up what they can without giving away the theme. Then, the night before Halloween, it’s all hands on deck, and the entire staff (and usually some recruited family members) stay at the school late into the night setting up and decorating so the magic is ready when school starts the next morning.
It’s really quite a feat. Students make their guesses, but the teachers and staff stay tight-lipped. The magic that is created is palpable, and it’s always an unforgettable experience. Last year’s theme was Toy Story— you can read about it and see pictures here.
I didn’t think last year could be beat, but was equally amazed at this year’s theme: Cars. Every detail was included— even real cars (including a Mac semi truck and school bus) parked in front of the school, made to look like characters from the movie. Come along as I take you on a virtual tour of the magic that was created this year!
I think it’s safe to say that those teachers deserve a three day weekend to recover from all their work to pull that off! What an incredible job they did!
Have you ever sat down to write something, only to find that you just can’t think of any ideas? Or maybe you start off with lots of ideas, then hit a road block part way through your piece. Either way, it can be really frustrating when the ideas just aren’t flowing. Students can have this happen to them, too. Teaching our students to use the writing process can equip them with the tools they need to ensure their writing is the best that it can be, and can also provide them with the skills they need to keep their thoughts and writing organized.
The general structure of the writing process begins with brainstorming or prewriting, where ideas are written down, research is gathered and organized, and the overall plan for the piece of writing is laid out. Next comes drafting— putting the ideas into sentences and paragraphs. Editing and revising come next. Here, the piece is proofread for errors, flow, and consistency, then the necessary revisions and corrections are implemented. This step, along with drafting, may be done several times during the course of writing a piece. The last step is finalizing, polishing, and wrapping up any edits or changes and making the final draft ready for readers. While all the parts of the process are essential, today I will be focusing on brainstorming and prewriting.
The way a person brainstorms might differ depending on what kind of writing they are doing. If they are writing a fictional story, they might begin with outlining the characters, setting, and conflict. If they are doing a research paper, they might start by choosing their topic, then picking a few key points or areas to cover, followed by researching their chosen topics. If they are writing an argumentative or persuasive piece, they first would choose which side of the argument they are going to defend, then generate their supporting arguments. Regardless of the kind of writing being done, prewriting is an important step in the process of writing.
There are many ways to brainstorm ideas, and, as noted above, the method changes with each kind of writing. Below are some methods that can be effective as students begin to generate their ideas prior to writing.
Bubble/Spider/Cluster Map
With this method, students begin with writing their central idea in the middle of the page. Then, they draw lines connecting to other bubbles, which would contain the sub-topics they are going to cover, with additional lines and bubbles drawn to accommodate any other ideas. This method is particularly effective for research or argumentative papers.
If writing a fictional piece, a writer might begin with the story title or idea in the center, then devote individual bubbles to characters, setting, conflict, and plot.
Outlining
Here, students would begin with their main idea at the top of the page. Next, they would focus on one sub-topic or section at a time, writing down key elements, quotes, or facts that they are going to use. This is a great tool for research or argumentative papers as well. It can also be effective for narratives. Students would begin with their story topic/title, then outline the order of events, the conflict, characters, and so on. In the case of writing a story, sketching out ideas on a simple plot diagram would also be an effective way to outline.
Free writing
Free writing is the process of setting an amount of time, then writing about the chosen topic for the duration of that time. Writers can write down what they already know, what they want to know, questions they have, and so on. It is a great chance to just kind of brain dump onto a piece of paper (or computer screen). The free write can then be used to facilitate a more organized prewrite, such as an outline or cluster map.
Listing
Listing is a great way to generate ideas when doing a compare/contrast paper, research paper, or even an argument piece. It’s effective for listing pros and cons, story ideas, ideas for character names, potential settings or conflicts, or any other number of things that might need to be included in a piece.
Timelines
Timelines can be helpful when writing a research piece. It can be useful to map out events in chronological order so that when drafting the piece, the writer has a clear idea of when things happened so as to ensure that they get their facts right in their writing.
Researching
In addition to this type of prewriting being effective for research papers, this form of prewriting is also extremely helpful for argument pieces. Students can combine researching with outlining or cluster mapping to organize their findings as they search for information. One very important thing to note here is to make sure that students remember to record where they find their information and research so that they can properly cite their sources, and, in the event that they need to revisit the source, they will know right where to look.
The writing process isn’t something that only Language Arts teachers might use; it can (and should be) employed by any teacher who is having students write papers or pieces. It is a very effective way for students to get their ideas down, organize their writing, and prepare for the drafting stage of writing. Think of it as “preheating the oven” when you bake— you’re getting things ready for the final product. Check out the resources below if you need some ideas for getting your students started!
** Please note that these resources are for classroom or personal use only. They are not to be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own. **
