Valentine's Day Freebies for Math and Language Arts {Sharing Sunday}

February is right around the corner, and that means Valentine's Day is too! I love integrating some Valentine's Day activities into my lessons for February.  We've found some amazing FREEBIES to share with you!

We're so excited to be participating in Sharing Sunday at the Primary Peach Blog! There are TONS of awesome resources here to help you plan for February!  :)

Here are some great resources to get your February planning started! Click on the images below to download the PDF. Then, click around on all of the images to visit those resources- clicking on the pictures will take you straight to them!

Make sure to visit The Primary Peach to see other posts sharing amazing resources!

We hope you find some helpful ideas!  :)

Happy Sunday!!!

Gravity and a Freebie {A Must Read Science Mentor Text}

Hi! I'm excited to share a quick Must Read Mentor Text for Science!

It's called Gravity by Jason Chin. It's great for introducing or reviewing the concept of gravity for students in grades 2-5.

I would use this book at the beginning of my unit on the solar system.  It uses simple language and beautiful illustrations to help students understand the importance of gravity and how it affects everything around us. 

At the end of the book, there are a couple pages with great facts about gravity. 

You could have your students make a class book about gravity. I always loved making class books! We would laminate and bind the completed pages and then put it in our class library so the kids could read it anytime for review. To make the class book, put the students into groups and assign each group a different concept about gravity to illustrate. For example, one group could do "more mass, more gravity" or "gravity keeps it all together." After students create their pages, you can laminate them and bind them together into a book. 

I've also created an interactive notebook flip book that you can use with students to record facts they learn about gravity. Students just paste it in to their science notebooks and write under the flaps. Click the image below to download this FREEBIE.

I hope you have a great week!

We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution {Must Read Mentor Text for Social Studies}

Happy Tuesday, Everyone! Sorry I am a day late posting this week's Must Read Mentor Text.

This week's book is a great one for Social Studies! If you teach about United States government and the Constitution, then this is definitely one you want to check out! It's called We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States. The illustrations and forward are by David Catrow. It's very simple- it takes you through each segment of the preamble with adorable kid-friendly illustrations to go along with it.

The Preamble to the Constitution can be tough for kids to understand, and this book is a great way to introduce them to it. As we read the book together, I like to have my students write down what each segment means on sticky notes to help with understanding. Then we compile the sticky notes in our Social Studies Notebooks to reference later. 

After we've read the whole book and analyzed the Preamble, I have the students make posters for each section to explain what it means. Then we put the posters around the room so we can refer to them during our New Nation and Government unit. 

And I always LOVE to play the Schoolhouse Rock song about the Constitution because that reinforces everything we've talked about. And it's so catchy! Your students will have the Preamble memorized after you play the song a few times! :) You can find it by searching on YouTube. 

If you would like more resources for teaching about the Constitution and Government, please check out our articles with flip books and comprehension questions. Just the click the image below. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great week!

Penguin Mentor Text with Lesson Ideas- Where is Home, Little Pip?

Happy Happy Happy New Year! The weather has finally gotten more "Wintery" here in Georgia- we were at 75 degrees on Christmas and now we are down to 38 degrees! Wow!!!

So, for today's Must Read Mentor Text, I thought I would share an adorable book perfect for Wintertime! I love penguin stories, and this is definitely a sweet one.

It's called Where is Home, Little Pip? by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. They are the creators of the adorable Bear Snore On books- Love all those too! This book is geared for the lower grades- first to third grade, and there are lots of possibilities for reviewing important skills.

One skill that this book is perfect for teaching is theme. There are a few different themes in the story- Home is where your family is, Each animal has a unique home, Always listen to your parents, Never wander off...

This is also a great book for introducing or reviewing a couple types of figurative language. There is a simile- "She was as fluffy as new fallen snow..." There's also a lot of onomatopoeia words. I have students keep a list of onomatopoeia words in their notebooks, and we also have a class chart that we add words to as we find them in our books.

The author uses a lot of dialogue throughout the story. You can review how to use quotation marks and have students practice writing their own stories with dialogue. Using dialogue in writing is something my students always struggled with, so it's great to show some examples from favorite authors. 

You can integrate a Science lesson on animal habitats as well. In the story, Pip wanders around searching for his home. He asks other animals where home is and each replies with a short poem describing their unique homes.

You can analyze each animal's poem and talk about why they live in that habitat. It's a great way to start discussing adaptations too! Then, you can have students do a science writing project. Have each student choose an animal and research its habitat. Then, let students write a poem using the facts they learned about their animals. You can discuss rhyme and rhythm and lines and have students model their poems after the author's poems. Or, you can let students write their own free verse poems. I like to include some grammar as well, so I would tell my students to make sure they have four amazing adjectives and two vivacious verbs (or whatever you choose for your students). When students finish their poems, they can share them with each other and compare/contrast the different habitats and adaptations. 

I hope you've gotten a few ideas to use with your class! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Monday!

Have a great week!

Sharing Sunday: January Snowy Freebies and Activities for Grades 2-4

We hope you had a very Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year! Can't believe it's already 2016!!!

It's always fun to integrate some snowy books and activities into January planning. We're so excited to be participating in Sharing Sunday at the Primary Peach Blog! There are TONS of awesome resources here to help you plan for January!  :)

Here are some great resources to get your January planning started! Click on the images below to download the PDF. Then, click around on all of the images to visit those resources- clicking on the pictures will take you straight to them!

Make sure to visit The Primary Peach to see other posts sharing amazing resources!

We hope you find some helpful ideas!  :)

Happy Sunday and Happy New Year!!!