Each month, we share five things we love as part of our Footnotes Newsletter. Check out some of our favorite English language arts articles for August 2022.
Students are expected to come to every art class with a PENCIL & ERASER. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR ART PROGRAM Even though we do not have an art studio this claymation…
When I was a brand new teacher, I thought the quality of my teaching was ultimately tied to the quality of my resources, so I spent hours searching for great materials. I believed that if I had quality resources, ones that my students enjoyed and were engaged with, then that would make me a good teacher. Well, I still believe that having quality resources is extremely important, but over the years I've also come to realize that being a good teacher is SO much more than the tools in my toolbox. Everyday has a million moving parts that need our constant attention, focus, knowledge and skills of best practice. So even though I now believe that being a good teacher is more than the quality of my teaching materials, knowing that I have a good variety of kid tested and teacher approved resources at my fingertips allows me the time and energy to focus on other aspects of my teaching day. So today, as a follow-up to my original "favorite resources" post, I want to share with you MORE of my "go-to" resources that I consistently use in my classroom with my students! Build a Sentence I love this resource, and so do my students! This resource gets beginning and intermediate ELs speaking and writing! First, a photograph is posted. Then students generate a word bank by telling what they see in the picture. I ask for one word at a time. No matter the level of my ELs, everyone can come up with at least a word or two. I get additional details by asking about colors and quantities of items they see. Once our word bank is sufficient, they use those words to create varying lengths of sentences. They are asked to create a 3 word sentence, then a four word sentence, then a five word sentence, and so on. I'll ask, "Who thinks they can come up with a 4 word sentence?" My students all start thinking and counting on their fingers, then quickly a hand shoots up, then another. They love it! This activity is heavily scaffolded for beginners. Students orally create the word bank and sentences, but I write the words and sentences on the board using correct spelling and grammar. Then they copy. I am a big believer in modeling for beginners, and I model a LOT! This activity is a definite favorite among my students. They practice their oral language skills as well as their writing skills. I do this with my small groups at least once a month. Writing with English Learners I created this resource to prep my students for the writing portion of the annual language proficiency assessment. In Virginia, where I'm from, ESL students take the WIDA ACCESS each winter. Being that writing is the literacy skill that usually takes the longest to develop, I wanted to explicitly teach the skills students needed to be most successful on this assessment. In my lesson plans, I incorporate a listening, reading, speaking and writing focus each week. For the writing focus, I usually pull from these two resources. Whether I am teaching how to stretch out words, write a story, explain a process or analyze information, this resource allows me to choose the skills my particular groups need to work on. For my intermediate and advanced ELs in grades 3-6, I focus on "language formats" found in writing. Whether they are asked to describe, provide an opinion, analyze or compare and contrast, understanding and applying the language with that format is key. 5 Ws and H - A Writing Resource for Adding Details This resource is a new favorite! It teaches students to add meaningful details to their sentences. I often ask students to "tell me more." This writing activity gets them in the habit of giving more information in their sentences by adding thoughtful details. This resource is designed for gradual release. The first set of activities can be done in a whole group setting. A photograph is projected and students are asked to answer the 5W & H questions about the picture. This information is then used to write two thoughtful sentences. As students become more proficient with adding details to their sentences, the next set of activities can be done in either a small group setting or as an independent activity. The last set of activities are writing prompts that students can independently respond to in their notebooks. Posters are included which add a great visual reference for a classroom display. Restate the Question This is a simple, yet effective, activity that teaches students to restate the question or prompt in their answers, both orally and in writing. As a writing activity, either project a prompt on the whiteboard and have students write their responses in their notebooks, or print out the question and have them glue it into their notebook. This takes modeling the first several times, but afterwards should be a quick independent activity. For a speaking activity, pull out a card and ask the question. Students take turns answering several of the questions. This works great in a small group setting. My students often ask if we can keep on "playing." VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! Incorporating videos into my lessons is a MUST! When I plan a new unit, one of the first things I do is to scour the internet looking for fun and meaningful videos. My go to place is YouTube. There are some real gems out there, but it does take some looking. When I find a goody, it goes into my collection and I use it again and again. Here is a blog post that I wrote about using short films to teach reading comprehension skills. I continue to add to the list as I find new films. Click on the image to see the list! Check out my Short Film Bundle here. Monthly Themed Vocabulary This is an great resource to use with primary learners and beginning ELs. Each month contains 20 vocabulary words. I love this because it's relevant to what's happening around students at the given time of year. Along with the terms, which I use as a monthly word wall, matching cards, writing activities, a vocabulary booklet and BINGO games are included. In closing... As I create my weekly lesson plans, these "tried and true" resources are many of the activities that my students use throughout the school year. Having a collection of reliable and engaging materials available frees up the time I'd otherwise spend searching. I'm sure you have your go-to resources too. Happy teaching!! (Affiliate Link)
Trailer, clips, featurettes, images and psoter for the QUANTUM LEAP reboot series
Students are expected to come to every art class with a PENCIL & ERASER. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR ART PROGRAM Even though we do not have an art studio this claymation…
Our very favourite homeschool resource for Art Appreciation for the elementary years is Mike Venezia’s Getting to know the World's Greatest Artists series.
Need ideas and resources for teaching your children art? Dianna Kennedy shares her favorite art resources - and they're FREE!
Students are expected to come to every art class with a PENCIL & ERASER. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR ART PROGRAM Even though we do not have an art studio this claymation…
Kermit was not the first true Muppet "star."
Welcome to the How-To Guide for First Year Art Teachers where I give you my 10 Steps for Success! Congratulations! You got your own classroom. OH MY GOSH, you have your own classroom. Your mind and stomach start racing, both with extreme excitement and panic because now, it all just got real. You will have a lot of students, a lot of planning, and a lot of classroom to keep organized. Figuring out where to even start is a huge stress and will require a tea (or a beer) and a nap (probably some Netflix too).
When I was a brand new teacher, I thought the quality of my teaching was ultimately tied to the quality of my resources, so I spent hours searching for great materials. I believed that if I had quality resources, ones that my students enjoyed and were engaged with, then that would make me a good teacher. Well, I still believe that having quality resources is extremely important, but over the years I've also come to realize that being a good teacher is SO much more than the tools in my toolbox. Everyday has a million moving parts that need our constant attention, focus, knowledge and skills of best practice. So even though I now believe that being a good teacher is more than the quality of my teaching materials, knowing that I have a good variety of kid tested and teacher approved resources at my fingertips allows me the time and energy to focus on other aspects of my teaching day. So today, as a follow-up to my original "favorite resources" post, I want to share with you MORE of my "go-to" resources that I consistently use in my classroom with my students! Build a Sentence I love this resource, and so do my students! This resource gets beginning and intermediate ELs speaking and writing! First, a photograph is posted. Then students generate a word bank by telling what they see in the picture. I ask for one word at a time. No matter the level of my ELs, everyone can come up with at least a word or two. I get additional details by asking about colors and quantities of items they see. Once our word bank is sufficient, they use those words to create varying lengths of sentences. They are asked to create a 3 word sentence, then a four word sentence, then a five word sentence, and so on. I'll ask, "Who thinks they can come up with a 4 word sentence?" My students all start thinking and counting on their fingers, then quickly a hand shoots up, then another. They love it! This activity is heavily scaffolded for beginners. Students orally create the word bank and sentences, but I write the words and sentences on the board using correct spelling and grammar. Then they copy. I am a big believer in modeling for beginners, and I model a LOT! This activity is a definite favorite among my students. They practice their oral language skills as well as their writing skills. I do this with my small groups at least once a month. Writing with English Learners I created this resource to prep my students for the writing portion of the annual language proficiency assessment. In Virginia, where I'm from, ESL students take the WIDA ACCESS each winter. Being that writing is the literacy skill that usually takes the longest to develop, I wanted to explicitly teach the skills students needed to be most successful on this assessment. In my lesson plans, I incorporate a listening, reading, speaking and writing focus each week. For the writing focus, I usually pull from these two resources. Whether I am teaching how to stretch out words, write a story, explain a process or analyze information, this resource allows me to choose the skills my particular groups need to work on. For my intermediate and advanced ELs in grades 3-6, I focus on "language formats" found in writing. Whether they are asked to describe, provide an opinion, analyze or compare and contrast, understanding and applying the language with that format is key. 5 Ws and H - A Writing Resource for Adding Details This resource is a new favorite! It teaches students to add meaningful details to their sentences. I often ask students to "tell me more." This writing activity gets them in the habit of giving more information in their sentences by adding thoughtful details. This resource is designed for gradual release. The first set of activities can be done in a whole group setting. A photograph is projected and students are asked to answer the 5W & H questions about the picture. This information is then used to write two thoughtful sentences. As students become more proficient with adding details to their sentences, the next set of activities can be done in either a small group setting or as an independent activity. The last set of activities are writing prompts that students can independently respond to in their notebooks. Posters are included which add a great visual reference for a classroom display. Restate the Question This is a simple, yet effective, activity that teaches students to restate the question or prompt in their answers, both orally and in writing. As a writing activity, either project a prompt on the whiteboard and have students write their responses in their notebooks, or print out the question and have them glue it into their notebook. This takes modeling the first several times, but afterwards should be a quick independent activity. For a speaking activity, pull out a card and ask the question. Students take turns answering several of the questions. This works great in a small group setting. My students often ask if we can keep on "playing." VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! Incorporating videos into my lessons is a MUST! When I plan a new unit, one of the first things I do is to scour the internet looking for fun and meaningful videos. My go to place is YouTube. There are some real gems out there, but it does take some looking. When I find a goody, it goes into my collection and I use it again and again. Here is a blog post that I wrote about using short films to teach reading comprehension skills. I continue to add to the list as I find new films. Click on the image to see the list! Check out my Short Film Bundle here. Monthly Themed Vocabulary This is an great resource to use with primary learners and beginning ELs. Each month contains 20 vocabulary words. I love this because it's relevant to what's happening around students at the given time of year. Along with the terms, which I use as a monthly word wall, matching cards, writing activities, a vocabulary booklet and BINGO games are included. In closing... As I create my weekly lesson plans, these "tried and true" resources are many of the activities that my students use throughout the school year. Having a collection of reliable and engaging materials available frees up the time I'd otherwise spend searching. I'm sure you have your go-to resources too. Happy teaching!! (Affiliate Link)
Students are expected to come to every art class with a PENCIL & ERASER. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR ART PROGRAM Even though we do not have an art studio this claymation…
Part of teaching art is dealing with concepts that can be "boring" for kids. By this I mean all the guidelines for composition, color th...
Deborah Baldwin -
Cluster Maps Cluster Maps are a great organizing tool. They help to break down a topic into "bite size" pieces to turn a hard to understand topic into a picture! This is a tool that works well for visual learners. This cluster map looks at the MyPlate Food Groups and Foods that belong to each group. Find the activity on the KidZ Learning Connection Store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kidz-Learning-Connections LESSON PROCEDURE: This lesson can be an individual, small group, or large group activity. 1. Introduce the lesson by telling students that eating foods from each of the 5 food groups everyday helps them stay healthy and well. 2. Ask them to list foods they ate yesterday. Write their responses on the board. The list will become quite long. 3. Go back to the top of the list and ask students to categorize each food listed by one of the 5 food groups - fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy.. 3. Ask students to complete the Foods and Food Group activity. If time permits, ask students to share their responses with the class. 4. Use the books and/or video below as a follow up activity. Books and Videos: The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To5kCUKMxAo Book: http://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Much-Junk-Food/dp/0394872177
On Jan. 16, we celebrate the queen's 57th birthday by watching her never age.
Simple Timeline of Human History: This simple timeline of human history was produced to coincide with my Primary School Prehistory (Stone Age to Iron Age) school workshop. This timeline briefly charts 300,000 years of human history. We start in Prehistory, including the age(s) of stone (there were at least three, depending on where in the world you are) and continue through the Bronze Age and Iron Age in to... History (when people started writing things down) with the Romans, Saxons & Vikings and so on... The timeline has a UK focus and contains a selection of key notes and dates along the way, plus visual summary of the proportion of human history for which, we have relied on stone tool technology (hint: more than 99%)! This timeline is based on an image which is 5174 x 7306 pixels and a density of 96dpi. It is printed on high quality A3 Canon matte photo paper (170 GSM).
One of my favorite things to do is go to Half Price Books and scour the clearance section for good resources to complement our studies. Over the years, I've curated quite a library in my home, which means we have resources at our fingertips when we get curious about our Classical Conversations memory work. In…
Occasionally here in Calgary we can see the Northern lights. This is the second project I'm working on with Kindergarten. I fo...
Welcome to the How-To Guide for First Year Art Teachers where I give you my 10 Steps for Success! Congratulations! You got your own classroom. OH MY GOSH, you have your own classroom. Your mind and stomach start racing, both with extreme excitement and panic because now, it all just got real. You will have a lot of students, a lot of planning, and a lot of classroom to keep organized. Figuring out where to even start is a huge stress and will require a tea (or a beer) and a nap (probably some Netflix too).
~This post contains affiliate links to resources we love. Any purchases you make through our links help us continue to share absolutely free art tutorials with you! Please see our disclosure policy. On this, the final day of our You CAN Be An Artist series, I am arming you with resources. We’ve made the progression […]
After a decade of teaching high school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It's a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded
My favorite 20 minute or less stress relievers and a worksheet which will help you keep track of what works for you! What's on your list?
I am linking up today with Elizabeth at Organized Chaos for a linky party with other music teacher bloggers. Here are 18 favorite singing games along with sources and all other info. Send me an email at [email protected] and I will send them your way. Here are a few examples to get you excited: My kids love these and beg for them, especially the "slap games" like Ama Llama! My kids also love Mac 'n Cheese.. it's a camp song but they could play and sing this for HOURS
Welcome to the How-To Guide for First Year Art Teachers where I give you my 10 Steps for Success! Congratulations! You got your own classroom. OH MY GOSH, you have your own classroom. Your mind and stomach start racing, both with extreme excitement and panic because now, it all just got real. You will have a lot of students, a lot of planning, and a lot of classroom to keep organized. Figuring out where to even start is a huge stress and will require a tea (or a beer) and a nap (probably some Netflix too).
ONE. MORE. TIME.
Photos from Celebrity Deaths: 2011's Fallen Stars
Welcome to the How-To Guide for First Year Art Teachers where I give you my 10 Steps for Success! Congratulations! You got your own classroom. OH MY GOSH, you have your own classroom. Your mind and stomach start racing, both with extreme excitement and panic because now, it all just got real. You will have a lot of students, a lot of planning, and a lot of classroom to keep organized. Figuring out where to even start is a huge stress and will require a tea (or a beer) and a nap (probably some Netflix too).
![Art Room Handouts [Round 2]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/03/34/be/0334bef882aecadc6fc1fd8d83d05858.jpg)
I have had quite a few people ask me about the handouts I used to do this color value lesson: So here you go...
Still in search of a costume for Halloween? It’s been a tremendous year for horror so far, including the return of horror icons Ghostface, Leatherface, Predator, and Pinhead. But it also means a broad range of new and contemporary characters that provide plenty of Halloween inspiration. Considering the holiday is just around the corner, we’re […]
Frédéric François Chopin was born in Poland over 200 years ago, but his works--especially those for the piano--continue to influence music today. We've
Shakespeare can be so much fun to teach in your homeschool. I love creating my own Shakespeare unit studies instead of using a set curriculum for it as we like to tie it into our fine arts studies.Are you wanting to teach your children about Shakespeare? I remember learning about Shakespeare when I was in highschool and assumed it was only for highschoolers because of the adult themed content in some of his plays. I was suprised when I joined a Charlotte Mason style co-op and they were teaching Shakespeare to their elementary aged students! Shakespeare isn't just for highschool. Obviously there are some plays that you won't want to teach your younger students quite yet, but there are others that are well suited and enjoyable for all ages.
Did you know that Google has a patent search? Here I've downloaded curated some of the best patent art images for your home.
Kids love Halloween. As a kid, it was my favorite holiday. I loved getting to dress up and go trick or treating. Here are some of the tricks and treats from my music room this week: Skin and Bones is so fun to play with any age! I turn the lights off, students sit in a circle and I go around the outside of the circle singing the song and I use an egg shaker to shake on the "oo's" just for a fun sound effect. On "boo" the whole class is usually scarred. I have best success with this game around 3rd grade, but it's fun all the way up through 5th grade. I've seen lots of fun variations on games for skin and bones on facebook recently. My favorite (though a little creepy) was to have the kids all lay on the floor and rise up to a sitting position on to "oo's" then lay back down. I will have to remember that for next year. This song is perfect because I am about ready to present low la! It is a really easy repeated part to play on the Orff instruments too. This morning I did rhythmic dictation using Q tips as "bones" with my fifth graders. After a few practice rounds, they got to create their own four beat bone rhythm pattern. It was a little difficult to get the tiri-tiri's to stay so some are falling down, but you get the idea! They loved it! Monster Mash Freeze Dance has been a big hit today. I play the song Monster Mash, but you could use any spooky dancable song. When I pause the music the kids have to freeze like the picture. This activity is fun way to get them moving and isolating different parts of their bodies. They have to think creatively for some to figure out how to make their bodies best match the pictures: They have to really think creatively for some to figure out how to make their bodies best match the pictures: These are available on my TPT store here: We are busy practicing ta rest: During prep, we may just play a singing game. I play this one kind of like Closet Key. My students sit in a circle. I put a witch had in the middle and select a student to sit by the witch hat (they don't wear it because you just never know about head lice). I go around the circle with a penny and hide it in one student's hands. The witch has three guesses of where the penny is. The kids really enjoyed playing this game. Reviewing high low in prep for sol-mi: I found these great Halloween erasers at Target in the dollar bins to use on our high/low staff: Pitch matching: The students would not see this. Teacher sings "What will you be on Halloween night?" (s mm s m ss m s) Students answer in their singing voice with whatever they will be (ex. I will be a black cat - ss mm s m) I cover a mallet with Kleenex and drew on eyes and a mouth and now have "Spooky the Ghost". The kids love to sing to Spooky. He can only hear us if we use our singing voices! :) If you have a different Halloween puppet that would work too, but this is so easy to make! Children's Literature: The Halloween House can be sung to the tune of Over in the Meadow. Instead of counting forwards, it counts backwards, which is a lovely skill to work on with kindergarten. Here's a little video of me reading a portion of it so you can get the melody I use. What's going on in your music room? Share some ideas in the comments! Lindsay
@adkap58 @RobertWealleans GOODNIGHT ROBERT, ADDIE
All the resources you need to save money, one new baby leaf at a time.
This activity promotes the the importance of a home fire escape plan. Students draw a basic floor plan of their home, indicating the locations of windows and doors. Smoke alarms, fire drills, and an outside meeting location are all covered. A home fire drill would be a great follow up to this activi...
One of my favorite art movements is Pop Art and I love it! I love the artists, I love what came out of it! As well, I think teaching art lessons that are inspired by the Pop Art Movement is a great way to engage the learners in your classroom. Let's look at 5 Pop Art Lesson ideas for Kids in your classroom!
