The Joy of Teaching – Page 32 of 46

November 8, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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A Simple 3-Step Method to Build a Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum

I have been a fan of Evan-Moor since I started teaching first grade in 1995. Now, Evan-Moor is my favorite publisher to use when homeschooling my own kids! Evan-Moor is perfect for homeschooling kids of all abilities with all subjects. The kids like the activities and I think the quality is truly unmatched!
I want to share with you a simple and easy 3-step method to help you teach your children and set them up for success. It also reduces anxiety for both kids and teachers!

STEP #1: Teach the new skill — When we are teaching our children new skills, they need to truly understand the skill first. It is best to help them connect the new skill with a real-life situation. For example, using skills to figure out an unknown word in a book they are reading.

Resource tip: If you are ever overwhelmed about exactly WHAT to teach, Evan-Moor’s Language Fundamentals series for grades 1-6 is a complete curriculum to build your child’s language arts foundation! Lessons are clearly organized by language skill to help you teach each skill.

STEP #2: Provide purposeful practice – The next step of our easy teaching method is purposeful practice. While it would be terrific for kids to remember and understand everything we said the first time (right?), we all need practice to really learn the skills for life. When kids see how the practice is meaningful to them, they are MUCH more likely to remember and use the skills too.

Resource tip: Most kids prefer to practice with games. The Take it to Your Seat: Language Centers series provides leveled, hands-on activities for you to do with your children or let them complete on their own. Laminate these full color pages to use again and again! These are terrific for workboxes, too, and the kids really like them.

STEP #3: Assess the skills – The last step of our teaching method is assessment, but it doesn’t have to be a worksheet test! You can make notes as your child is working to see what he or she understands and what skills may need to be retaught.

Resource tip: Evan-Moor has Daily Language Review for grades 1-8. Each day’s activity can be done in about 5 minutes, and it is a great way to check for your child’s understanding of language arts skills. Evan-Moor’s Daily Paragraph Editing and Skill Sharpeners: Spell and Write series are also ideal for this type of assessment.

Need more ideas? Download this Language Arts Curriculum PDF for my top Evan-Moor picks for your language arts curriculum. This list includes a summary of my favorite titles mentioned in this blog, plus additional resources for spelling and vocabulary!

Bonus tip: You can access all of the resources mentioned in this blog, plus lessons across the curriculum with a TeacherFileBox subscription. For the best bargain price ($79 per year), subscribe through the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op.

Amy Michaels is a certified teacher with 11 years of elementary classroom experience who is actively homeschooling her own children. Her mission is share the best teaching methods and resources with all homeschoolers. Amy supports parents through her podcasts, webinars, and online training for homeschoolers on her website www.thrivehomeschooling.com.

October 27, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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Easy Hanging Spider Craft for Halloween

These dangling spiders from Art for All Seasons are the perfect addition to your Halloween and fall lessons. Plus, you can create a simple thematic unit around your spider craft and check off a few of your content standards while you’re at it.

Duration: 20 minutes

Grades PreK–3; Age range: 4-9 years

Instructions:

Follow the steps below or print the instructions with visuals.

Step 1: Fold the 5” black square into quarters. Round off the outside corner.

Step 2: Cut on one fold line into the center.

Step 3: Roll and tape into a cone shape. As you create the cone, slip a string with a paper clip tied on the end inside.

Step 4: Cut and fold 8 spider legs twice using the 3”x6” black paper.

Step 5: Glue the first segment of each leg to the spider’s body.

Step 6: Cut the white paper for eyes. Add a black circle cut from scraps.

Step 7: Add a mouth and other desired details.

Step 8: Tie another paper clip onto the end of the string.

Lesson Tips and Ideas

Instant Halloween décor: Hang these spiders from your ceiling or decorate a bulletin board for the season.
Art and science: Pair this art activity with a study on a spider’s lifecycle.
Thinking skills: Compare/ contrast the differences between a spider and an insect.
Graphing activity: Ask students to take a poll on how many people are afraid of spiders. Have students create a graph with the results.
Visual prompts for writing: Use the spider craft as a visual prompt and have students write a creative story about their spider. A few story or sentence starters could be: How does your spider feel? What is your spider afraid of? Write a spooky story about your spider. What does your spider look like? How many legs does your spider have? What would happen if you spider only had three legs?

These little creatures may inspire endless creativity within your classroom and won’t take hours to prepare!

Fore more Halloween ideas see:

Halloween Fun: Skeleton Art Project and Science Activities

Halloween Activities and Ideas for Your Classroom

Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.

October 25, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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10 Thanksgiving Activities That Don’t Require Worksheets

November is a busy month for teachers. Between assessments and fall conferences, it can be difficult to factor in Thanksgiving arts and crafts. Here are some fun ideas to inspire you that don’t require a lot of time in front of the copier. 1. Thanksgiving word find: Use Thanksgiving-themed words and see how many words students can make out of them before a minute (or two) is up. For example: Mayflower: may, flower, flare, fly, wear, and lay.

2. Draw the Mayflower: Using chalk, have your students draw a life-size version of the Mayflower on the playground blacktop. Incorporate math and measurement skills to give them an impression of how small the boat was in comparison to the number of pilgrims. The deck length was 80 feet and the width was 24 feet. 3. Turkey hunt: Choose a student to be the “hunter” and have the class decide where to hide the turkey (stuffed animal). When the hunter is getting close, rather than yell “hotter” and “colder,” have the class gobble. 4. Pin the wattle on the turkey: Draw a turkey on poster paper (minus the wattle). Blindfold students and see who can get close to pinning the wattle correctly on the turkey. 5. Persuasive writing: Have students write from the point of view of a turkey and persuade the farmer to have a meat-free holiday.

6. Create a gratitude tree: Explore the concept of thankfulness in your class by having students write what they are grateful for on autumn paper leaf cutouts (brainstorm with the class first). Display the leaves on a gratitude tree pinned to your wall. 7. Play chicken, chicken, turkey: Change the game of duck, duck, goose for the holiday. 8. Feather the turkey: Create a cutout of a turkey without his feathers. Have each student decorate one feather and paste it on the turkey. Celebrate the diversity! 9. Graph favorite foods: Create a graph with the class of students’ favorite Thanksgiving foods. Compare the findings.

10. Capture the turkey: Divide students into two teams on opposite sides of the field. Each team must protect their turkey from being snatched by the other team (altered version of capture the flag.) For more teaching ideas, sign up for our monthly education e-newsletter.

Strategies for Social and Emotional Learning, kids with super hero costumes

October 21, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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Strategies for Teaching Social and Emotional Learning: Create a Classroom of Superheroes!

The problem-solving skills that students use on the playground are valuable later in life. As educators, it is our job to help students navigate social and emotional waters and develop these important life skills.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) also play an integral role in students’ success. SEL teaches students to handle their emotions well, make positive decisions, problem-solve cooperatively, and practice empathy and caring.

How do you promote social and emotional learning in your classroom?

Focus on these three strategies to create “a classroom of superheroes”:

Regularly promote your school’s character program, as well as your classroom’s motto.
Describe real-life issues to your students and demonstrate ways to resolve them. For example, discuss a scenario involving sharing the paste or taking turns. (Have students act out appropriate classroom behaviors.)
Involve the class in activities that model ways to handle specific situations, practice empathy, and make positive decisions. (See my favorite activities and books below.)

Classroom Activity Ideas

Ants on a log game: Students get into a line and are numbered 1–10. Then they must change positions so they are lined up 10–1.
Ro Sham Bo Rockstar game: Also known as rock/paper/scissors: students play in pairs around the room. The loser must become the winner’s cheerleader for the rest of the game.
Incorporate bucket fillers: Students give daily positive written feedback to peers.
Daily student greeter: Encourage personal connections with a daily student greeter.
Weekly class meetings: Discuss, encourage, and highlight positive behaviors.

Books to Read

How Full Is Your Bucket? Author: Tom Rath	The Invisible Boy Author: Trudy Ludwig	Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a Big Deal: A Tale of Tattletales Author: Jeanie Franz Ransom
My Mouth Is a Volcano! Author: Julia Cook	What If Everybody Did That? Author: Ellen Javernick

Support students throughout the school year with easy-to-incorporate cross-curricular lessons and activities from Social and Emotional Learning Activities for grades PreK–6. These creative activities are fun for students to do, and they provide real-world examples to help children learn positive solutions to manage relationships and emotions. The cross-curricular lessons help teachers fit SEL instruction into the busy school week. Each book includes activities that incorporate:

Real-world scenarios
Mindfulness activities
Communication activities
Creative writing
Mazes, puzzles, and games
Art projects
Critical thinking and problem-solving

Download these free SEL printables from Evan-Moor’s Social and Emotional Learning book! These creative and cross curricular SEL activities keep children practicing important skills all year long.

Student-Teacher Relationships

In addition to student relationships, SEL also influences the student-teacher relationship. As educators, we greatly influence our students’ development and attitudes toward school. So take the time in your week to nurture relationships within your classroom. You may just be the teacher that students never forget.

October 7, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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Batty for Bats: Educational Bat Activities for Halloween

Help dispel common myths about bats with engaging bat art projects for kids. You can embrace these mysterious night-flying creatures and solve your Halloween project dilemma by creating a thematic unit about bats. Engage your students with bat facts for kids and bat art using fun books, discussions, and projects. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

KWL Chart The KWL chart is a good method for beginning any unit of study with students because it visually guides them through their learning process. Begin by filling out the chart as a class in the beginning of the unit. Find out what students already Know about bats and what they Would like to know. At the end of the unit, students can fill in what they Learned. Books Books about bats are a wonderful resource to provide students when they are studying something new. Whet their appetites for discovering interesting things about bats by reading bat themed books as a class. Then, create a library corner in your room where students may read on their own during free time. Here is a list of some of my favorites. Fiction Titles

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

Nightsong by Ari Berk

Magic School Bus by Cole and Degen

NonFiction Titles

Amazing Bats (Eyewitness Junior) by Frank Greenaway

Bats: Hunters of the Night by Elaine Landau

The Life Cycle of a Bat by Bobbie Kalman

Writing Opportunities

Don’t pass up this opportunity to get students writing. Depending on the grade, you can have students write informational paragraphs (or sentences) about what they learned about bats. Another option is to ask students to compare and contrast two fictional books such as Nightsong and Stellaluna. (You can fill out a Venn diagram as a class to help younger students.) Alternatively, you can ask students to compare and contrast one fictional book such as Stellaluna with one nonfiction books such as Amazing Bats.

Bat Art

So many activities, so little time is my reaction when I think of all the glorious thematic additions I could add to this unit. There are wonderful bat art projects for students of all ages online. Check out our Pinterest board for bats for a variety of bat art project ideas. We have pinned our favorite bat art and included some fun activities that correlate to bat units of study.

If you are looking for creative and engaging lessons but don’t have the time to craft your own unit, here is the ultimate resource for you: Bats, Complete Thematic Units E-book, $9.95

October 3, 2016
by Evan-Moor
3 Comments

How to Get Your Child to Write: Tips for Reluctant Writers

shutterstock_368296496 If your child doesn’t jump at the chance to write stories, this post is for you.

I understand this issue firsthand because my daughter was a very reluctant writer. She was an avid reader and very expressive in her vocabulary, so I expected writing to be a natural extension for her. Boy, was I wrong.

She flat-out refused to write for me in kindergarten. In first grade, it was her most dreaded activity in our homeschooling. She didn’t want to write anything if she was going to misspell it. She didn’t feel free to just write her thoughts and THEN come back and edit later.

How did I encourage my daughter to write?

First, I quit asking her to write. As in, I really told her that she was taking a complete break from writing for a while. She was relieved!
Instead of having a writing lesson, I began role-modeling writing for her in various ways: shopping lists, thank-you notes, and sharing my thoughts in our family journal.
I didn’t use my best handwriting on the shopping lists, and I used abbreviations (like P.T. for paper towels).
I made mistakes in our family journal so that she could help me edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I drafted my thank-you notes quickly and then took my time writing them neatly on the actual thank-you card.

Once she had seen that writers are just sharing thoughts, even when they are not in perfect form, she removed the pressure she had put on herself. She began to write…and write and write.

Resources for reluctant writers:

If you have a reluctant writer, I know a terrific resource that uses a secret that good teachers know about writing. When we give kids a blank piece of paper and ask them to write, it can be overwhelming. However, if we give a little inspiration, writing becomes much easier.

Evan-Moor has a series called Draw Then Write (grades 1–3, 4–6). It teaches kids how to draw something (like an animal) in quick and easy steps. Then simple questions get your child thinking (and writing – GASP!) about what the animal might be doing. There are no wrong answers, either! It is just a place to let your child’s imagination be free to think and write without being overwhelmed. Check out THIS SAMPLE ACTIVITY and use this free download with your child (from Draw Then Write, grades 4–6.)

Prefer digital? Try the Draw Then Write app, available for iPads for only $3.99. This app is recommended for children in K–3.

Once my children are comfortable writing, we start working through the Daily 6-Trait Writing series. I also adore this series because the lessons are fun, focused, and quick to share strategies that good writers use in their writing.

Until 10/1/18 receive 20% off Daily 6-Trait Writing with coupon code D6TW20!

Does your child like to write? Let me know in the comments!

Amy Michaels Profile Amy Michaels is a certified teacher with 11 years of elementary classroom experience who is actively homeschooling her own children. Her mission is share the best teaching methods and resources with all homeschoolers. Amy supports parents through her podcasts, webinars, and online training for homeschoolers on her website www.thrivehomeschooling.com.

September 27, 2016
by Evan-Moor
1 Comment

A Lesson A Day Keeps Grammar Groans Away

When I was a first-year teacher, a very dear veteran teacher bought me Evan-Moor’s Daily Language Review. After glancing over my students’ writing wall (…sigh), she surprised me with the new book. I’m forever grateful for her kindness!

The quick and simple lessons helped my students master grade-appropriate spelling, vocabulary, and language conventions in very little time. The method of instruction offered a continual spiral review, which is difficult to find embedded within district- mandated curriculum.

Here are 3 reasons Daily Language Review became my no-fail method to teach Conventions of Standard English skills:

Students like it

Quick and simple lessons are not overwhelming for students.
It’s review, which builds students’ confidence.
Who doesn’t like pointing out someone else’s mistakes?

It’s easy and flexible to use

You can use the daily activities for morning work, lesson warm-up, informal assessments, and/or homework packets.
The Scope and Sequence helps you see the skills covered at a glance.
Each day’s activity only takes 10 to 15 minutes, so it’s easy to incorporate centers, games, and other activities to extend the lesson.

There’s a writing component (yes!)

My favorite aspect is the full-page activity on “Day 5.” Many language lessons stop at corrections and do not make the leap into writing. Students must be given the opportunity to transfer their skills into their own writing. The Day 5 activities ask students to use the skills they have practiced all week to write their own sentences. This is the ultimate “tell all” for teacher assessment. Can students transfer their learning into their writing?

Bonus tip: You can easily extend your lesson. Daily Language Review complements the skill practice found in these Evan-Moor resources:

As a novice teacher, I approached grammar exercises like a strike team. Get in fast, deliver the lesson, dodge the complaints, and move on. Needless to say, my success rate in student understanding left a lot to be desired. If you can relate, try Daily Language Review. (And you won’t be ashamed of your writing wall!)

Check it out for yourself. Evan-Moor is offering free downloads of Daily Language Review units for your grade level. Use this link to get your free lessons.

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September 21, 2016
by Evan-Moor
6 Comments

How Many Words Per Minute Should My Child Read? A Guide to Reading Fluency.

Teachers throw the word “fluency” into parent conferences, but what does it mean, and why is it important? Fluency leads to increased comprehension. And increased comprehension matters, because in grade 3, the shift goes from learning to read to reading to learn. At this stage, reading a certain number of words per minute at grade level becomes the main focus of the curriculum.

What Is Fluency?

Fluency is not about reading as fast as you can, but about reading at an appropriate rate with accuracy and inflection.
Every time your child is reading, he/she is decoding the words carefully in her head.
The more exposure children get to new words, the faster their young minds can remember words and recognize them without sounding them out. This is called automaticity.
As students transition into fluent readers, they are able to focus on the content of what they are reading rather than the words.
Students who are not fluent readers by 4th and 5th grade have a more difficult and stressful time completing assignments in all areas of the curriculum.

How Is Your Child Doing?

A words-per-minute grade level chart is an easy way to see at a glance the most common fluency reading levels for each grade. Remember, accuracy and reflection are the main emphasis when looking at the number of words read per minute.

Listed below are reading level recommendations for students to read grade-level-appropriate texts by the end of the year. Experts’ opinions vary, but these are some good baselines to monitor your child’s fluency.

Reading Fluency Recommendations

Keep in mind that a reading words-per-minute grade level chart is a simple gauge and just one measurement tool used to identify students’ readiness. Every student learns in a unique way, at his or her own pace. If your child is not at grade level, focus on increasing his or her current score by 10 to 15 words by the end of the year, and then celebrate your child’s successes!

If you would like to test your child at home, pick a grade-level-appropriate book and time your child reading for one minute. Count the number of words he/she reads correctly within that time frame. (Added words and incorrect words cannot be counted.) Please do not ever make your child feel deficient because he/she cannot read the correct number of words per minute. Children do best when given positive words of encouragement. Use some strategies listed below to help your child improve automaticity.

How Can You Help?

These are some areas you can focus on to improve your child’s fluency.
Phonics (letter and sound rules)
Phoneme awareness (blending and separating sounds)
Phonic word patterns such as oy, ow, ou, sh, ch
Appropriate pronunciation
Repeated readings (reread books)
Choral reading (read aloud together)

As a former primary teacher, I know how important reading fluency is to your child’s success in school. Please leave a comment if you have a question for me about my recommendations.

If you are looking for fun reading activity books for home, be sure to check out Skill Sharpeners: Reading for grades Pre-K to 6th.

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September 8, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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The Ultimate Back-to-School Resource for Your Homeschool

I wanted to share the easiest and most economical resource for homeschooling. It is Evan-Moor’s digital lesson library: TeacherFileBox. Today, I am sharing FIVE reasons why it is beautiful and brilliant to use TeacherFileBox in your homeschooling.

You have access to ALL grade levels of resources (PreK–6+). You can search for the exact subject and grade level that is right for your child right now. As soon as your child is ready for the next level, you already have access to the materials you need.
You save money. Say “Goodbye!” to paying for grade-level resources separately. With your TeacherFileBox subscription, you don’t need to buy more and more resources each time your child completes a grade-level resource.
There are thousands of activities available to give your child more practice, and to make sure your child isn’t getting bored doing the “same ol’” practice pages again and again. Yes, full-color activities that are perfect for workboxes are included in your subscription, too!
Evan-Moor’s quality activities set your child up to think beyond basic skills and apply the skills in new ways. For example, your child might be combining a new skill with a previously taught skill to complete a task. This sets your child up to use and remember the skills for the long term.
TeacherFileBox is digital, so I don’t have stacks of materials to store or look through every time I am planning lessons or preparing for homeschooling. We can go green and complete most of the activities from the computer screen! You may print any unit or activity, so the choice is yours!

Bonus Tip: Look at www.evan-moor.com to find titles that you want to use with your child. Then, use the “Browse by Title” feature on TeacherFileBox to access all of the activities in an entire Evan-Moor book! Cost: Your wallet will be happy, too! For $13 a month, you get access to ALL grade levels of over 450 Evan-Moor publications to customize your homeschooling curriculum! You can also try it for 30 days for FREE. Click here to get started: www.teacherfilebox.com. TeacherFilebox is saving me tons of time and money in my homeschooling curriculum. In addition, TeacherFileBox provides unmatched quality activities that allow me to adjust my homeschooling to my child’s individual learning needs – even when working on more than one grade level at a time! I can adjust the skill level quickly to meet my child wherever she is right now in the developmental ladder of skills. To me, this is vital to setting my child up to thrive as a learner. If you would like to learn more about using TeacherFileBox to create a homeschooling curriculum, leave a comment to share how I can help you get started today!

September 1, 2016
by Evan-Moor
1 Comment

Fall Fun with Apples! Apple-themed classroom activities

Students everywhere are settling into their classroom routines and falling (pun intended) into the rhythm of the school day. As I walk through the produce aisle in the grocery store, I rub my hands in glee. It’s apple time! Apples are a time honored theme for engaging students with fun learning activities. Here are a few ideas to start you off in your autumn resolutions.

A is for Apple is a creative writing lesson that incorporates adjectives with letter writing. Students are asked to think of words to describe an apple and write a letter to Johnny Appleseed. This activity is for grades 2-5. (Here is a free printable.)

You can find these lessons on TeachersPayTeachers:

Johnny Appleseed is an entertaining read and combines your social studies and reading comprehension lesson into one. (Hooray, one month in and still on track with the pacing guide!) This passage was created for grades 4-6 but can also be used as an extension for 2^nd or 3^rd grade readers.

The Case of the Missing Apples provides a two-page story about when Granny was a little girl and met the famous apple man who gave her some apple seeds. The unit includes five activity pages on making inferences, understanding similes, adding “ing”, using pronouns, and recording information.

For those of you with large class sizes and few helpers, here is a management tip. It’s simpler to assign a task to the class while inviting small groups to complete an activity with the teacher. (The art projects always turn out better with small group instruction.) The reading comprehension passages listed above are perfect for students to complete on their own while you are occupied with the craft. The beauty of Evan-Moor reading comprehension packets is how they follow a linear pattern that is simple for students to understand and complete.

Additional resources to partner with apples:

Apple Art is an art project that incorporates patterns with paper apples. Students create their own paper apples and build a repeating pattern.

Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish. This book is introduces the different varieties of apples with an engaging story. You can always pair it with a taste test and a compare and contrast writing assignment. Be sure to have your students incorporate scholarly adjectives when describing the differences.