Earth Day Read Alouds

 

Are you looking for some fun and informational read alouds for Earth Day?? My husband is an environmental scientist so Earth Day is a big event in our household!  He has big plans for involving baby Everest in activities once he is old enough to participate!  Here are a few of our favorite read alouds for Earth Day!

Milk and Juice: A Recycling Romance

This book by Meredith Crandall Brown is a fun new take on the adventures of recyclables.  It's all about a milk jug and juice bottle who fall in love, but are separated.  The story follows each item as it goes through the reuse and recyclable cycle to try to find each other again!

Here is a read aloud option on YouTube!

The Watcher by Jeanette Winter

Earth Day is a great day to learn about the men and women who work their whole lives to research nature! Jane Goodall is a great female environmental researcher to learn about! This book is a great way to learn about her career and teach your students about a fun career option!

What a Waste: Trash, Recycling and Protecting Our Planet by Jess French

Teach your students all the best practices when it comes to recycling, trash and learning how to take care of the world around you!

What Does it Mean to Be Green? by Rana DiOrio

I like that this book is simple and fun! It's a great book for lower elementary students and fun but simple explanation of what it means to be 'green'.  Check out this free printable to go with this book! >>>CLICK HERE<<< to grab this freebie!

Why Should I Recycle? By Jenn Green

Another fun read that explains the importance of recycling.  I really like the illustrations in this text.  

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Classic read aloud about taking care of our planet.  I love the rhymes and activities that come along with reading a book by Dr. Suess.  There are more than enough Lorax resources out there to go around! Plus you can watch the movie and compare and contrast the book to the movie as an end of week celebration!

Finally, if you are looking for some reading comprehension activities that teach about recycling, upcycling and conservation check out these resources in my store!

Saint Patrick's Day Reading Activities!

 Do you have time to stop teaching the curriculum and play Saint Patrick's games and have fun on March 17th? I sure don't.  There is a way to keep teaching the curriculum and not lose a day of instruction, especially during March when state testing is upon you! Here are some ways to incorporate the fun of Saint Patrick's Day while still hitting those standards that need to be taught and reviewed before testing day.

1. Learn about the history of Saint Patrick's Day.

Learning about Saint Patrick's Day offers your students practice with reading nonfiction and answer questions about non fiction texts.  Whether your students are in first grade or third grade there are standards on reading non fiction that your students need to master.  

Here is a free reading comprehension activity that you can use with your class! Click the image below.

2. Watch a video and write about facts you learned.

BrainPop and Discovery Education have plenty of videos you can watch with your students and write about what you learned.  You could even do a fact and opinion lesson talking about the video.  What are facts you learned in the video?  What is your opinion about the topic?  Write your ideas on green post it notes and place them on an anchor chart.  The students can work in groups or you can use Kagan strategies to have students share what they wrote down.

3. Practice word work skills with themed activities.

If you are getting ready for testing in the Spring I have created some great digital and print activities to cover some of those word work skills the students will see on the test.  My district uses a curriculum that doesn't leave a lot of room to practice these during normal lesson times so it is nice to have activities for mini lessons, smalls groups or independent work.  This resource covers multiple meaning words, homophones, synonyms, antonyms,  and more! >>>CLICK HERE<<< to check these activities out here if interested!

Hopefully some of these ideas are something you could use for reading in your classroom this Saint Patrick's Day!

Deb Wray @ Ms. Avrick's Owlets

Black History Month Ideas and Activities

February is the month that everyone starts to think about Black History.  However, its a year long topic to study and explore! There are plenty of materials to share with students to explore the history of Black Americans.  More and more diverse books are becoming available.  Here are a few activity ideas that could be useful during February and all the following months!

Books to read!

The ABC's of Black History is a fun book that has 26 pages of information about Black History! You could read a page a day in February and learn something new each day!

The Year I Learned to Fly is a new book in 2022 by Jacqueline Woodson, the author of The Day You First Began.  It's a beautifully illustrated story about a child who dives into her history.  A great story to check out!

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong is one of my favorite stories and is not so much a story of Black History, but introducing diverse characters into your classroom.  This book has some of my favorite illustrations.  They are so beautiful and worth lingering on as you read!

Born on the Water is a story of a little girl who learns about her history for a school project.  The tales are told through beautiful poems! Perfect for classes learning about poetry this month or anyone who wants to learn more about the history of Black Americans.

Mae Among the Stars is another book with beautiful illustrations.  It tells the story of Mae Jemison in a way the students can relate to and understand.  There are many books that could go along with this text.  

Here is a free reading comprehension activity about Mae Jemison!

If you are looking for reading comprehension texts that are print and go AND digital here are some passages, comprehension questions and close reads available in my TPT Shop.

Happy Teaching!

Deb Wray

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 17th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Are you ready to teach about the legacy of this great man?  Well here are some resources that could help make planning a little bit easier .

Read Aloud: Martin Luther King Jr.

I am Martin Luther King Jr. By: Brad Meltzer

Martin Luther King Jr (National Geographic)

The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. By Johnny Ray Moore

Martin's Big Words By Doreen Rappaport

You can't teach about MLK Jr. without questions about segregation in America.  Here are some read aloud stories that tell about segregation in America and what is is. 

Read Aloud: Segregation

White Water By: Michael S. Brandy

Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey

Sit In: Four Friends Stand Up by Sitting Down by: Andrea Davis Pinkney

Here are some videos that are great for introducing information about MLK Jr.

Who doesn't love the entertaining videos by Kid President or BrainPop?  The middle video is an informational video.

Are you teaching virtually this week or next week?  You never know when you will go virtual these days! Here are some great remote teaching options.  There are informational texts, comprehension questions and writing prompts about Martin Luther King Jr. and The Selma to Montgomery March.  These activities are available for Google Slides, but also come with a printable and Easel option on TPT.

The activities are printable options as well.

Here are some other resources you may enjoy or find useful when teaching about MLK Jr. 

Fairytales

Happy New Year Teacher Friends!

Are you ready to jump back into the classroom?  We are beginning to learn about Fairytales.  Fairytales are a fun unit to teach because they are full of fantastical animals and lessons that author is trying to teach you.  What are some of the goals of teaching fairytales?  

• Retelling and comprehending what happened in the story.  The students should be able to identify the characters, setting and at least three major events in the story.  Most students do not have a lot of trouble with these tasks.  If you have an inclusive classroom, you may have a few friends who need some extra support.  Here are some ways to help all students succeed.
• Read the book several times (Read aloud or Epic! Books has several read aloud options for fairytales).
• Read a familiar text (The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs, etc.)
• Stop after each part (B-M-E) and ask what just happened.
• Give the students verbal, visual and tactile options for retelling the story.  If you have a nonverbal or selectively verbal student in your classroom they are not going to retell the story orally. Think read aloud and retell, video and card sort, retell with puppets or acting. 
  
  
  

Here is a free activity for retelling The Three Little Pigs to get you started.  

You can also find picture retelling and passage retelling activities for The Three Little Pigs, The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man and more in my TPT store.  Here are some pages from those resources.  All activities are Seesaw Compatible, printable and include a Google Slides version for easy use!

Don't forget to follow my TPT store here for updates on new resources and freebies! 

Activities for January BTS Part Two

 

    If you're like me, you don't want to think about school starting until it begins again in the beginning of January.  Well, I hope I can I can make it a little easier for you to breech that first week of school after a long, relaxing Winter Break.  Here are some things you can do to calm the chaos after your students have been fulling indulged with cookies and grandparent love all break.

    The very first thing that I do when going back to school in January is treat it like the second 1st day of school.  Reteach all of those rules and routines that you spent weeks teaching at the beginning of the school year.  Although not everyone will need to be retaught, it will definitely benefit someone in the classroom.  It only takes a week for me to forget my email password (in other words I forget it every January) so forgetting how to rotate from station to station or what to do in the morning before the bell rings may be what your students have forgotten.  

    Secondly,  find some activities that get your kiddos moving.  Especially for those younger elementary kids.  They have been moving all break (hopefully) and will be falling asleep at their seats that first week.  Using Kagan Strategies™ in each lesson will help get those guys up and moving.  Add a center or two that involve kinesthetic activities, like read the room or using the smart board to sort things (they will have to use big sweeping motions to move items around on the board).  Here are a few activities that will get your students moving.

    If you don't have a reward system or haven't used it with fidelity, NOW is the time! Give the students extrinsic incentive that will motivate the intrinsic need to succeed.  Even if it is as easy as a star chart and every month you let them spend their stars on an activity it will work.  Some ideas for free incentives are:

• extra recess
• pick a brain break
• lunch bunch
• teacher for the day
• line leader
• use a pen for the day
• show and tell
• lunch with the principal 

Finally, get planned ahead of time if possible.  All of these things can be implemented into everyday lessons and activities.  Choose your battles. What is really important that first week back to school?  If your looking for homework that is ready to go (at least for first grade) check out these easy to use homework calendars.  

Here are some other fun Winter based educational activities you may want to use with your kiddos come January.

  

Have a fun and successful  return to school!