Free Summer Picture Prompts for Writing

Hello, Everyone!

The sounds of splashing in neighborhood pools and the smells of burgers and ribs grilling inspired me to finish up and post my Summer Picture Prompts for Writing , a set of 14 prompts that will give your K-3 writers lots of new ideas for writing.

Here's your free sample of 3 prompts...click and enjoy!

Happy Teaching!

Teaching Tallies- a new way!

Hi, Everybody!

Just a quick idea for you today. One of the most fun things in my mind about blogs and Pinterest is to see how different teachers have come up with totally amazing and creative approaches to teach and practice the same topics.

Take tally marks, for instance. Popsicle sticks, little rhymes and songs, lots of ways to teach them.

But take a look at this spurt of creative genius from Marsha at A Differentiated Kindergarten. She has a post about using wind-up toys on a sheet of poster board to practice tallies. And Marsha, good to the name of her blog, even differentiates it for us! Sooo motivating... and my brain won't stop adapting it to other math and literacy skills!

 Can you just imagine the excitement of using wind-up toys in your classroom? What other ways can you dream up to adapt this super idea for your own class? Tell us about them!


Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

I'm Celebrating, with a Freebie for You!

Dear Friends,

I am delighted to be celebrating 2 milestones: My TPT store is just a shade away from 400 followers, and just over 200 of you have become followers here at Primary Inspiration!! (Just an aside: my number of followers has disappeared from view on my main page here. Any of you techies have an idea how to restore it? Thanks in advance!!)

To thank you all for your kind following, I have a little scheme cooked up to deliver a special freebioe to you! Instead of a giveaway with a few winners, how about a treat for everybody? I have just posted a brand new item at my TPT store called Summer Story Cubes and Task Cards for Writing. IT WILL BE FREE FOR ALL OF YOU today (Thursday) through Sunday night, just as my way of showing how grateful I am to you for your support.

The set includes four story cubes with words and/or  pictures related to summer, a story clock spinner,and 10 task cards for writing. Something nice and new for these last few weeks of school!

Anything special that you need to do to collect your freebie? Fill out a form? Blog about it? Like it on Facebook? Nope. Actually, even if you're just stopping by today and not following yet ... hey, help yourself! :)

Just click on the cover to head over to my TPT store and its yours.

Of course, I wouldn't object if you'd leave a comment at my TPT store, or tell a friend about this blog or my store. But am I requiring it? Absolutely not! :) I really just want you to have this little gift, no strings attached.

Thanks again for joining me here!
Happy Teaching!

   

Photo Prompts for Writing, plus Amazing Writing Resources!

Okay, I'm breaking the blogging rules ( you know... never twice in a day), but I'm excited to share this cool resource with you!

WritingFix, sponsored by the Northern Nevada Writing Project, is an amazing source of teacher-created lessons. If you subscribe (free!), they will send you monthly lessons based on outstanding mentor texts. They also maintain archives of all previous lessons. This site aligns well with 6 Traits, and has abundant resources for writing across the curriculum.

Todays email announced the winners of the annual student and teacher digital photo writing prompt competition.

Here's one of the winners. Too cute!!

Can you just imagine the great writing this could elicit?

There are also winners from previous years, like this one, along with samples of student writing in response to the photo.

You could just put these right up on your Smartboard tomorrow morning, but I know that you'll enjoy spending some time this summer exploring  the other great features at Writing Fix.

Happy Teaching!

I'm All About Learning Games!

I'm all about games.
Learning games, that is.

I got a sweet note from a former student, written during Teacher Appreciation Week and so kindly shared by her current (4th grade) teacher. The little sweetie who wrote to me said,

                               "Thank you for being my teacher. You were the best teacher ever.
                                You let us play games. We had some good times together."
            

      

Ah, yes, good times. What's not to love about a note like that?

This little girl had a very tough time getting started in reading and writing when she was in my first grade literacy intervention class. The going was often very rough for her. But I am beyond thrilled to know that what she remembers most about first grade is not the frustration but the fun of learning!

The longer we can keep the learning as natural to our students as playing, the more chance our struggling students will have to build up their self-confidence for tackling the harder jobs as they come along.

And so, I'm inspired to continue creating games!!!

Here's a free bingo game for you, posted at my TPT store. It's a different kind of bingo, because the kids make their own boards (and therefore get more practice in the skill being practiced). Click on the cover picture to go directly there.

This game is part of a set of 6 math bingo games. The games are ideal for small group instruction or for your math tubs or math centers. They make for great review activities at this time of year in first grade. You could even set them up in your classroom for a bingo day in math with groups of students rotating to the different games, since each game takes less than 10 minutes to play.

Skills covered are addition and subtraction facts through 18, adding doubles, 10 more and 10 less, place value, and coin combinations (your freebie, above!).

 

Click here to go to Math Bingo Bundle.

Games: Because happy learners (just like happy teachers) are the most successful, confident, and motivated!

Happy Teaching!

                   

                                                  

Soccer Sentences - Freebie!

Hi, Friends!

It is a totally gorgeous day here in NJ, and that means the soccer fields will be buzzing with activity.
Kids have so much energy and enthusiasm for soccer... it's great exercise, but also so good for following directions and working as a team.

Here's a little freebie for you to capitalize on that enthusiasm in your K-1st students. This is a set of 18 word cards and sentences to build with them. It's easy to differentiate, with 2 levels of difficulty. Click on the cover to get yours at my TPT store.

This sentence-building activity is part of my newly-updated soccer unit. It's designed for students who are finishing first or in second grade. The complete unit includes 11 soccer-themed math and literacy activities - cards for alphabetizing, sentence scrambles, a cvc Bingo game, syllable sort, rhyming game, attribute cards, addition facts game, and more. I'd love it if you'd take a moment to look at it while you're over at my store downloading your freebie.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Happy Teaching!

            

           

                     

Reading Outside

Hi, Teaching Friends!



                                   


Such a simple post title for a simple idea, but one that can lead to an activity your students will love and long remember! Plan some time before the end of school to take your class outside to read. It's a joy to watch the fruits of your year-long labors, and likely to be something you'll want to make time for several times at the end of the school year.

Just have your little readers each grab a small stack of books and something they can sit on (more on that below!). As they finish their books, they can quietly trade with someone near them.

Remember to take out a book of your own to enjoy. There's nothing like modeling your enjoyment!

For our little reading fests, we park ourselves on a shady patch of grass right outside the front door of the school. Passing school visitors have often stopped to tell us wistfully that reading outside with their class is one of their fondest memories of early school years.

Sometimes we start out with a read aloud, sometimes it's our independent reading time, sometimes a combination of both. Whatever - it will definitely be a special and memorable time!

Here's a letter you might want to send home to parents to ask for mats for your little readers to read on. Just click on the picture to download it!

The days left in the school year are passing quickly. Plan to spend some time outside together enjoying the pure pleasure of books!

Do you spend time reading outside with your class? Tell us what you do to make it special!

Happy Teaching!

                        

Memorial Day Flags

With Memorial Day very quickly approaching, it's time to plan some projects to nurture patriotism in our young students. Although I'll admit I'm not a big fan of painting (yes, I know how good an experience it is for kids, but I'm really not a huge fan of the afterschool clean-up, floor-scrubbing, etc. that it always seems to bring), I always like to paint American flags at this time of year. Needless to say, the kids absolutely love doing this!

Here are two of my boys from last year's class, hard at work on their flags.

Because I was blessed to be working with a literacy intervention class, we had a small group and so were able to spread out on the floor.

I like to give the children a choice of painting tools: foam pads, which give more control and are probably easier for many kids, and large paint brushes, which are preferred by others because they are simply cool.

We use tempera paint for the red stripes and the blue field. I love reusing the little dishes from frozen lunch entrees as paint dishes - hard to tip!

After all of the painting is done and dry (usually the next day, for some it might have taken more like two weeks without the benefit of a fan to speed the drying!)) , the children have a choice of two ways to add the stars: rubber stamps in white paint or drawing stars (or star-like things, which is fine!:) with white chalk. We even have a mini-lesson on star-drawing for those who want to participate! Although of course we talk about the number of stars and the reason for the number, I assure the children who worry about such things that it's not likely that anyone looking at their flags will actually count the stars, so precision is not that crucial! I cruise the room while they're painting and if anyone's star count looks crazy low, I just tell them they need more. More often than not , they're having so much fun making the stars that it seems like the USA has gained some new states! :)

I've done this project for a number of years and although I'm all for artistic license, it seems that most kids benefit from some structure in this project. I pencil in the field on each flag ahead of time, and the children align their papers with the field at the top left. Next they paint the field blue.

After that, here's the structure I follow. Kind of controlling, I know ( okay, very) , but the results are often quite good approximations of the flag that still retain the charm of first grade artwork.

Obviously, the red and white stripes on the diagram are out of proportion and ideally will be approximately the same width.

Now, I've had children in my class who had trouble painting the alternating red stripes on a white candy cane background even though the stripes had been penciled in for them!  But a few months later, every one of those children was successful when we used this strategy. Give it a try!

I'd love to know how this works for you, or if you've got another strategy for flag-painting that you'd like to share. Please leave a comment!

Happy Teaching!

                                 

Summer Vocabulary Four in a Row Game Freebie!

From what I read on FB and the blogs, it sounds like many of you have finished school or will be finishing very shortly! Those who aren't yet finished will shortly be entering that crazy span of time when you still have teaching to accomplish but your students have basically checked out. Warm days, late nights, baseball games and flipflops vs. reading strategies, two-digit addition and book reports... which will win? Hmmm?

Don't give up the fight! Remember, if your school year is 180 days long, like it is here in NJ, and you have 18 days of school left, that's a whole 10% of your school year! And there's a lot that can still be accomplished in that 10%!!

That being said, we all know that it's so hard to keep some of our students motivated and focused, which pushes teachers to be super-creative. Games, projects, and more small group activities than ever! Stuff your centers with old favorites brought back again for some right-to-the-end review and with a few new items to keep interest high. I love to bring the old ones back out, just to hear those kiddos who'll exclaim about them in a loving voice like they're greeting long lost friends. :)

Do you have old favorites?  Some kids just beg for math games all the time! They're not fussy, and I can't blame them! Games are an awesome way to practice and review learning! I think it's interesting to notice which kids choose certain types of games as their favorites, and whether the same favorites get chosen from one year to the next.

Four in a row games are often perennial favorites. I think the simple directions make them a great choice for ...

     * Beginning of year practice, because the simple and repetitive directions will hopefully keep you from having so many interruptions when you're struggling to squeeze some one-on-one testing in.

     * End of year review for pretty much the same reason! Also, those simple directions are less likely to cause "he said/she said" squabbles than more complex games tend to do at the end of the year, when some students are just DONE. They're also great for review that doesn't leave you with a big stack of papers to mark, because seriously, who needs that at the end of the year?

So, I have an ABUNDANCE of four-in-a-row choices in my TpT store. {Truth: I created one of the sets because I actually forgot how many I already had.  Almost 600 resources ... these things happen!}

Here's one! :) This set of 10 four-in-a-row games includes games for sight words, short vowel CVC patterns, question words, seasonal words, and even addition and subtraction facts. 

Here's a little freebie that might help out in your literacy centers, keeping kids on task while expanding reading vocabulary and decoding skills. It's a nice activity for summer school, summer camp, or at home practice, too!

Click to download this free summer vocabulary game!

If you're a REALLY BIG fan of four in a row games, you'll want to check out this $$$ saving bundle of 38 first grade games!

Hang in there, summer vacation's coming!!

Happy Teaching!

                           

                       

A Thank-you Graph Freebie

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Thank you note - check.
Thank you letter- check.
Thank you email - well, sure!

Thank you graph - huh??

Well, giving you all a free graph as a thank you just seems like the right thing to do! After all, your kindness and support here and at my shops just added to the *specialness* of a lovely Mothers Day yesterday. I appreciate your purchases, but I'm especially grateful for your kind and encouraging comments!


And so, to say thanks, here's a "thank you graph" to add it to your collection! This one is about ways to play in the sand - building, digging, and burying. Click and enjoy!

You can find 24 more bar graphs and tally mark charts for summer in this collection at my store. Think of the fun they'll bring to your end of year and summer school activities ... lots of math, and lots of great conversation, too!

*  Write about a time you ate a popsicle. Be sure that your story has a beginning, middle, and end.

*  Make a list of tools you would take to the beach to build in the sand. Share your list with a friend. Compare your lists.

*  Draw a picture and write a description of your favorite food to eat at a barbeque. Make your description so good that everyone will want to try this delicious treat!

*  Write a description of a colorful surfboard. Include lots of details! Trade papers with a friend and use the descriptions to draw the surfboard.

Happy Teaching!

           

Silly Skip Counting by Fives!

Hello, Everybody!

We all know that integrating movement throughout the day is crucial to keeping students engaged. By incorporating movement into our teaching, we activate the vestibular nerve which allows our students to focus on learning.

Here's a silly favorite of my students that really keeps kids up on their feet.  It's called "50 and You're Out!", and it's a fun way to practice counting by 5's.  This was one of those games that just "happened" one rare afternoon when lesson plans were actually completed and there were 10 minutes to spare at the end of the day. How did THAT happen? :) It was early in the year and a few of my little guys were still really struggling with counting by fives. And so, here's how it goes...

Everyone stands in a circle. Go around the circle with everyone counting aloud by fives together as the teacher or a leader points to a new child for each number. Whoever is "50" is out (sits down right where they are) and (here's the fun part) everybody else says "Good bye" - or "Sayonara", or "Arrivederci", "Aloha", "Ciao", "Auf Wiedersehen", "Bon voyage" or the most favorite of all, "Hasta la vista, baby!"  Who decides how to say good-bye? Well, it could be the teacher, but randomly choosing one of the kids already sitting down is also a great way to keep everyone involved in the game. Everybody (sitters, too) keeps counting around the circle until just one child is left standing.

This is a noisy, giggly, totally silly game that the kids beg to play for the rest of the year. Best of all, by the time you're finished, everyone has had lots of practice counting by 5's. You could also change it up by counting by 2's , 10's or 25's. And you're even tossing in a bit of foreign langauage/diversity- nothing like a bit of double-dipping to increase your teaching efficiency!

To bring the volume back down after the game, you might sometimes want to have a bit of practice/assessment. Here are a few variations on worksheets for you to use; two of them supply the numbers to be sequenced, and the other two require the students to supply the missing numbers.

I've also included number cards for the multiples of 5 up to 50. If you holepunch these and add about 24 inches of yarn, it's fun for students to wear them as necklaces, line up across the front of your room in random order and have another student come up to rearrange them in correct order. As a variation, have the students rearrange themselves - but with no conversation! It's really interesting to watch!

Click on the picture to download it all!

Happy Teaching!

                        

Silent E, Magic E, How About a FreeB E? :)

Hi, Everybody!

Pinterest has introduced us to so many clever new ways to introduce long vowel/silent e words - magic fairy dust, chants, foldables, etc.   If you haven't seen them, you really should head over and take a look! 

I just put the finishing touches on a packet of silent e task cards and games, all with a picnic theme.
The set has 36 pairs of word cards (like can/cane, bit/bite, etc.) and task cards for 8 games and activities.There are activities for individuals, partners, and small groups. Take a look here at my TPT store !

Here's a little freebie for you from "Time for a Picnic!". It includes 12 sets of cards and one task card.

Hope you'll enjoy it! Click here or on the picture to download from Google docs.

Do you have a special way to teach the silent e pattern? I'd love it if you'd share it in a comment!

Happy Teaching!

 

                           

Word Wall Partner Games - Freebie!

Hello, Teaching Friends!

It's that time of year when all of your Word Wall words have been introduced, danced, chanted, stomped, clapped, rainbow-written, and all of those other fun and wacky things we do to get them (hopefully!) stuck forever into those sweet little heads! So, it's time to look for some new ways to review.

One of my very favorite Word Wall "variety" books is Making Your Word Wall More Interactive by Trisha Callella. It's an excellent go-to source of whole-class, small group, and individual fun ways to practice. The activities are reproducible and directions are clear and thorough. I'm sure you'll find some that you and your students will love!

My freebie for you today is a set of two partner activities for your Word Wall. For that matter, why not use them for your spelling words, word analysis skills (contractions, compounds, etc.), or even content area vocabulary. As soon as your students have a list of your "objective" words (whether they're on the Word Wall or listed on your Smartboard), they're ready to play. Reproducible student pages in this set are in grayscale to save on your ink. Common Core standards are included. Click on the image below to go to my TPT store and get yours!

These two games are part of a set of seven games (below) also available at my TPT store. I hope you'll click and take a look!

Happy Teaching!