HOMEWORK! To Be or Not to Be? That is the Question!

"Homework remains one of the biggest challenges and concerns facing teachers today," author Nancy Paulu told Education World. "Many teachers say they have a hard time creating meaningful and appropriate homework assignments and getting students to complete the assignments successfully."

     The Great DEBATE!  To give Homework or NOT??  What about the idea that kids need some “down time” after spending all day in school?  What do some kids do when the homework is too hard…..or too easy?  It’s  always challenging to plan Homework that meets the needs of each student. 

      Here is an idea we created that helps connect families with school. What’s great about these assignments is that they build classroom community while also increasing oral and written language!  A Win-Win!

How does Write and Share work?

   Each student writes their homework and brings it in to share with their class. Through sharing, they get practice in speaking aloud, other students get practice in asking questions about what they wrote, and everyone learns a little bit more about each other!  That’s why it’s called WRITE & SHARE.

   WRITE & SHARE was created to replace that old familiar Show & Tell. As first grade teachers, we knew our students enjoyed sharing about their own things. But after a few months (ACCK!), we noticed that the items they selected began to look a little ragged and torn. It seemed they had quickly just rooted around in their closet and pulled out any old thing to bring!

      We weren’t seeing any real connection to our curriculum either. Yes, they were sharing but this concept REALLY needed to be expanded to include some family involvement and some academic skills. So.....we put our heads together and developed a year-long homework program....and called it WRITE & SHARE. There is a wide variety of topics that children write and share about....seasonal, holidays, math, science, etc. 

     Parents tell us they look forward to the varied assignments that they do with their child. Teachers tell us how valuable this is for their students. Others liked it and wanted it in their Kindergarten or 2nd Grade classrooms so we expanded it to both those grades also....adapting them to fit the skill levels of those grades and standards. So now there are 3 levels of WRITE and SHARE! The world is a happy place!  

Check out what one of our customers had to say about Write and Share!
"One of my better purchases last year! I loved using it for homework and then letting my students have time on Fridays to share from the Author’s chair. Even my most reluctant writers were sharing by year’s end!"

Here’s a few FREE samples for you to try.  Click {HERE} to link to the free sample at our JK Curriculum Connection website. (P.S. There are some other fun freebies there also!) 

Click {HERE} for the Kindergarten product at our TeachersPayTeachers store.

Click {HERE} for the 1st Grade Write and Share!

Click {HERE} for the 2nd Grade Homework Write and Share!

To 'Bee' or Not to 'Bee'....What's all the buzzzzzzz about HONEYBEES?

Every school year, in the spring, we study insects in depth in our Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms. The children LOVE it! They are especially captivated (and sometimes scared) by all the bees we have 'visiting' our playground!  Well, bee-lieve it or not these fascinating insects are really a hit with students! Chances are they have eaten honey on a biscuit or piece of bread or eaten a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios! But they don't know where this delicious food comes from...honey that is....and no, it's not just "from the store"!! They really become great admirers of bees and not so frightened 'cuz they know how to bee-have when they see them and NOT swat at them!
                Here are some fascinating facts to share with your students.

Click {HERE} to download these pages. 

Here are some of our favorite books for read-alouds. They help build background knowledge. Click on the link bee-low the picture to find them at Amazon.com or check out your school or public library! You might be surprised at what you can find about bees! 

Books about Bees

Here is a song about honeybees & honey we wrote.  It is easily sung to the tune "Alouette" and comes with a song chart, song/poem journal take-home page, pocket chart cards for teaching the lyrics and a mini-writing book called "Yum! Yum!".  Students can create their own sentences based on the sentence patterns.  Ex. "I like  hamburgers.  My dad makes hamburgers." or "I like salsa. My mom makes salsa." etc.  

 Click {HERE} to download it at our TPT store. 

Here is a song by Jean Warren that we have been using for many years. It is a fun active song that gets your busy bees up and moving around. There are also stick puppets provided so the children can place their bee puppet on their toes, nose, and arms etc. as they sing the song.  Click {HERE} to download this FREEBIE!

BEE sure to reward your students' reading with a "BEE a good reader" bookmarks.  Click {HERE} to download this file. It comes in color or B/W so you can choose which ones to print. 

It is always fun to sample a few bites of delicious honey when studying bees. Try to get some that is locally made (if you can) and spread it on some crackers or small pieces of bread and enjoy!  

Well, we BEE-lieve you will make a BEE-line to 

download our free files!  We also have some 

Bee-themed products we've created.  Click each picture caption to link to the product page. 

 6 Guided Reading books (at 2 levels) with photos & clipart-C & B/W

Fun song with stick puppets, retelling cards etc.

Sight word Game with EDITABLE cards so ANY words can be added!

Path game practicing "ee" and "ea" words     

Song about farm animals (and BEES!) and the food they provide.

We hope you have a great time studying honeybees!  
We bee-lieve you really will!
Jackie & Kylene

Learning with Literacy Center Games!

       

        Children working together in small groups doing centers is an active time in primary classrooms! One GREAT idea that helps children practice and review reading skills is an engaging, fun game!  We have many types of games that our students ask to play again and again!  

     Here is a new FREEBIE of one of our popular game formats, "C-V-C Roll and Read -Spider Friends". The directions are pretty easy! Students roll a die and record the letter they rolled in the first box.They roll 2 more times and record the middle and ending letters to form a C-V-C word. They write the word again in the box to the right on their recording sheet.  Now they must decide if the word is real or make-believe.  If it is a real word, they circle YES and rainbow write the word by writing over it with 2 or 3 different colored crayons. If it is a nonsense or make-believe word, they circle NO and do not rainbow write it. After filling their whole recording sheet, have the students read their rainbow words!  Depending on your time frame, students can roll and record their words individually OR they can take turns rolling the die but EVERYONE in the group records the same letters. This game provides lots and lots of C-V-C practice in a really fun way! The students don’t realize all the important reading skills they are developing!  Click {HERE} to download this FREEBIE. (This also comes in a B/W version with a Parent letter so you can easily send it home as Homework practice!)

      If you like this game, there are 4 additional game boards available at our TPT store.  Click {Here} to view "C-V-C Valentine Friends" at our store.

     














     A lot of our classroom games are open-ended path games where you can add ANY skill cards you want. The 2 Valentine-themed game boards below are made on poster board and allow you to use any Sight words, letter cards, vocabulary cards, math facts or WHATEVER!  If your students are ability grouped you can differentiate their practice by switching the cards for each group (ie. different sets of Sight words).
     By using the same game board but different cards, your students will think they are ALL playing the same game although the skill levels may be differentiated!

For example: Use Letter cards, C-V-C word cards and Sight Words of different levels. 

How to make these games:
Use a 22"x28" poster board.  Cut into 2 pieces to get two 22"x14" pieces. We used clipart and colored stickers to create one LONG path game that all players move on (I'm Buggy For You Game)! We used clip art and colored stickers to create 3 EQUAL paths where 3-6 players move on the paths with each player using their own game marker(The Owl Game).   We placed the "I'm Buggy For You Game on the BACK of the Owl Game so you get two games on one board! If they finish one side, turn it over and play on the other side using the same cards!  

How to play these games:

Each player needs their own colored game piece/marker/token/chip to move on the path. One die is also needed.  Determine who goes first and that player rolls the die and moves that many spaces. They turn over a card and read it.  Play passes to each of the other players. The first player to reach the end of the path is the winner.  

Remember: The object of ANY learning game is to provide children practice with the targeted skill. Regardless if a student knows the answer or not, they still get to move on the game board. If they do not  know the answer, the adult or helper provides the answer, the child repeats it, and takes their turn!   

    Our games are designed to support children's learning and the roll of the dice or the turn of a card determines whether they win or lose...not because they couldn't read a word or name a letter etc. This makes the game fair because it is based on 'chance' and not on their knowledge. Would you want to play a game if you knew you would most likely LOSE because you didn't know the words?

     Once the students have learned the directions to a game format like Sight Word Bumper (played like Math BUMP) or Swipe or Tricky, they know the directions and can easily play games with the same format.  If they are playing Monkey SWIPE in February, and then play Gold SWIPE in March and Pirate SWIPE in April, in their minds those are different games 'cuz one had monkeys, another had leprechauns, and the third had pirates....different! They say, "Wow, this is a new game!"

Teachers really appreciate that most of our games are EDITABLE so ANY words or letters or math facts etc. can be printed on the game cards so YOUR students get the practice that THEY need.  Note the red arrow on the covers above.  When you see that, you'll know the game is EDITABLE! 

If you are interested in viewing our Learning games click {HERE}

Have fun with learning games!

Jackie and Kylene
Visit our store! 
JK Curriculum Connection

Down on the Farm!

Hey there, farm folk! It’s spring and it’s time to go to the farm.  We always enjoy learning about farm animals this time of year.  Here are some of our favorite activities.

An easy but fun center is pictured here. Put out some small plastic farm animals. (We got ours at Michael's Crafts).  Children can add a pond by tearing a small piece of blue construction paper and maybe a mud puddle for the pigs.  Add a bale of hay from the craft store, too.  Allow the children to construct some corral fences by gluing together craft sticks.  We found a cute box at the craft store that looked like a barn but the children can build one using wooden blocks. Ask the children to bring in any additional items from home that would fit in this center.  This activity center sparks LOTS of conversations about farms.  Use it as a springboard for writing activities before or after visiting a local farm (if you are lucky enough to teach near one that allows field trips!). 

The Little Red Hen story has been around for a LONG time but it never fails to delight. Many authors have retold this classic tale and it is fun to read and compare several versions. There are even some “twists” on the classic such as The Little Red Hen and the Pizza and With Love, Little Red Hen. Here are some pictures of books that we use every year. Create a comparison chart for several traditional books or use a Venn Diagram to compare a "classic" version with a newer "twist" version. See how the authors used parts of the original tales to create their "twist"! 

Here is a simple but cute way to display student writing. Add some wings that "flap" and the head of the Little Red Hen at the top. Have students write summary sentences that retell parts of the story. 

We created a retelling of the Little Red Hen in SONG!
Click {HERE} to link to it at our TPT store.

After learning about (and maybe visiting) a farm, provide some themed writing paper for your students to use. Here are two students' writing using the paper we have for you at our FREE DOWNLOADS page. The paper comes in 3 variations for differentiating levels of writing. Click {HERE} to link to it. 

We LOVE to sing so we created a Pocket Chart song and the cards to go with it.  It is easily sung to the tune Are You Sleeping (A.K.A. Frere Jacques) Click {HERE} to download the words and picture cards shown above.

Be sure to read LOTS of books about the farm, especially Non-fiction. Here are some of our favorite titles.  Did you know Joy Cowley wrote several books starring Mrs. Wishy-Washy?  Be sure to look for Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm as well as the original Mrs. Wishy-Washy! After you read some books aloud, provide the students with some Beginning Readers of their own!  Here is a FREE Little Reader called "The Farmer and His Goat".  It comes with several extension activities that include an INTERACTIVE project your students will enjoy. Click {HERE} to link to it at our TPT store. 

Click {HERE} to link to all our Farm-themed products! 

Learn to Spell with Music!

        How many of you can remember the lyrics to an old camp song or your high school alma mater but can’t remember where you last put your keys?  Brain research supports the connection between music and memory. Students will retain information and/or facts by being engaged in musical activities! 

      We use several different songs to teach the spelling of 2-7 letter words in our classrooms. Children easily transfer the correct spellings to their writing and recognize the words when reading. 

2-Letter Word Song

For 2-letter words, we use the song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".  
Here is a pocket chart showing the lyrics using the word "at".  

 This can easily be turned into a Center Activity.  Other 2-letter words you can use are: 

 be my in go me is it to on   

Prepare letter and words cards as follows:  NOTE: Use a different color ink for each word!   

1) Make 4 sets of letters of word    
Ex. m   y  m   y   m   y   m   y

2) Make 2 sets of each complete word   Ex. my      my  

3) Put these in a baggie and label it with the word

Click {HERE} to link to this FREE file

A student selects a baggie with a focus word.  They put the pieces in the pocket chart before singing. Then they record the focus word on their paper. 

 3-Letter Words
The song "London Bridges" works well with 3-letter words. We first use it when introducing the sight word "the".  Another memory-making activity is to celebrate with "THE" Day!  

The is a hard sight word to learn to read and spell. We have found that having a fun day introducing this word helps students learn this important sight word.

Pin a 3" by 5" card with the word the on your shirt or hang it around your neck in a plastic "pocket".  

As you walk around the room, point to your word and ask children to read it. If they know the word, give them a High 5 or a small sticker.  We do realize that they might know that word  AT THAT MOMENT but may forget it throughout the day.  Still, this creates excitement about learning a new word.  

       The best poem to use to practice the word “the” is The Itsy, Bitsy Spider.  This poem has 8 stanzas and EVERY stanza has the word "the" in it. (You know you want to check it out!) 

Write the poem on sentence strips and place them in a pocket chart. Have students search for the word "the" in the poem.  As you sing the poem, clap every time you come to the word "the"!  Later, make a Class book entitled......wait for it.....The Book.  Students draw something and then label it.

Example:

Draw a cat.  Write the cat.  
   Here is a picture of The Book.

Other Sight Word “books”  might be a  "My Book" or a "His and Her Book".  

Student pictures & writing examples might be:   My Mom   My  bike   OR  His dog    Her cat   His bike   Her coat 

4-Letter Words

They is a difficult word to spell so this song helps them remember to put an e and not the a as it sounds. Use these spelling songs to practice ALL the words on your Word Wall.  One day, sing some of the 4-letter words.  On another day, sing some 3-letter words or Word Family Words or Weekly Spelling Words.  Mix it up and have fun! Music is a great memory device!

5-Letter Words

We found the tune "Bingo" is very successful in teaching 5-letter words.  We have even taught nieces and nephews to spell their own names using this simple song.  We created a spelling song Shared Reading packet called "Sammy the Moose Loves to Spell".  Check it out by clicking this link. 

6-Letter Words  and 7-Letter Words

Two of the most frequently used but also misspelled words are friend and because. 
Students as young as Kindergarten can learn to spell these two words correctly the first time so they don't have to unlearn the wrong ways as they progress up through the grades! 

TEACHER RESOURCE CARDS

We prepared a set of cards with ALL the songs on them showing the tunes and lyrics.  Click Spelling Songs to link to the file at our website. 

Print and cut the cards and punch a hole in upper left hand corners. Connect them with a metal ring for easy access. 
Flip to each song as  you practice the words.

We hope you give these spelling songs a try!  They really work!  

Click here to visit our TPT "store" for LOTS of learning songs and FREEBIES!

Spiders and Bats…Imagine that!!

Spiders and bats are fascinating and some children might be afraid of them...until they learn some interesting facts about them. Fall seems to be the perfect season in which to engage in the study of these interesting creatures!  

Spiders

Spiders are often confused with insects..the 6 legs vs. 8 legs, 3 body parts vs. 2 body parts etc.  Here is a poem, sung to the tune “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, that will help your students learn a little bit about spiders. Download the file to get the pocket chart cards and words. 

Click {HERE} to download the free file

                    Here are some great books to use when studying spiders. 

"There's a Spider on the Floor" Song is an old favorite that children enjoy. It is fun to use a fake spider (Get one now since we are so close to Halloween!) or use a hand puppet. Go around to the children as they are singing and put it on their heads, stomachs, legs etc. as the song progresses. (The words to the "classic" version are below.) There are a lot of videos on Youtube.com with various renditions of this song but click this link to this version and has children singing it during a mini-concert. Children love watching other children!

Make these spider headbands and wear them as your class performs their own "There's a Spider on the Floor" song! 

Click {HERE} to download the free file with all the templates and directions. 

Bats 

Bats are fascinating creatures of the night that are often misunderstood. We LOVE studying about bats in our classroom and the more we learn about them, the more we appreciate what they do for us! Bats eat so many pesty bugs and mosquitoes that without them, we would probably be covered in bug bites! Here are some of our favorite books to enjoy and provide information on bats. 

We like to use our Bat-theme throughout the classroom, in centers, during writing, and in math. Here is a Math booklet entitled "How Many Wings on My Bats?" that is a cut-and-paste activity to do whole class or in a Math Center.   

Click {HERE} to download the file. 

Visit us at our website for more ideas for Bats and Spiders! 

Check out our TPT "store" for Bats and Spider products, too!