How to Catch a Leprechaun- St. Patrick's Day Freebie Activity

Spring is coming!  Tonight is the night we spring ahead on the clocks. Something about walking around the house changing the clocks ahead, when I know it correlates to having longer and warmer days, makes me so happy.  Spring also brings St. Patrick's Day celebrations, inside and outside of the classroom.  Today, I'm here to share a freebie I made last year for my students.  If you are looking for a freebie, read on.  I'm reposting a throwback post from St. Patrick's Day 2015. :) 

Ahhh, the time of year when I celebrate my Irish heritage. I enjoy everything about St. Patrick's Day, especially the stories about sneaky leprechauns. While visiting my own kiddos' school last week, I had the most entertaining conversation with them about leprechauns.  

The conversation actually made me miss having a homeroom and a consistent group of students for the year.  Please don't get me wrong because I absolutely love being a Reading Specialist. Working with flexible groupings of students at a range of grade-levels is a dream come true. However, there's something to be said about about establishing a *classroom family* from year to year. Anyone feel the same way? 

Creating a sense of mystery and magic in my own classroom on St. Patrick's Day was amusing. Watching the students' faces spotting chairs tipped over, papers strewn on the floor and little leprechaun feet all over the room was priceless. Writing persuasive letters to the leprechauns asking them kindly to please keep the room tidy while we were out of the room, and then returning to the read letters *written by the leprechauns*, certainly captivated the students attention. Below is a book that was always a favorite of my 2nd graders. 

Anyway, these are the comical memories which initiated my motivation to create a St. Patty's Day writing activity for my students and for you! So, what does it take to catch a sneaky leprechaun?  Find out what your students think with this St. Patrick's Day freebie.  It can be used with a variety of St. Patrick's Day-themed books and may even spark a little magic in your classroom.  

My favorite response from a little girl: "I will pepper spray him!"
 She then went on to explain what she'd do after that.  Oh, boy! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day and thanks to Little Miss I, Sticky Foot Studio and Teaching Super Power for the graphics and Jen Jones and Kimberly Geswein for the fonts! 

  

Summer Blog Party Kick Off Hop- Book Suggestions, Parent Tips and Reading Contracts

Welcome to the Summer Blog Party Kick Off Hop!  I want to start by thanking Carla from Comprehension Connection for organizing the hop.  Seventeen literacy bloggers from The Reading Crew are participating in the hop to share suggestions, tips and freebies to help prevent the summer reading slide.  The Crew is also supplying two $25 TpT gift certificates for those of you who enter the giveaway found along the hop, so let's get this party started! 

Isn't it wonderful summer has finally arrived?  Students have packed up their belongings and headed home for the summer. Hopefully, they'll continue to read throughout the summer to keep their reading progress advancing in the right direction.  However, we, as teachers, know that is not always the case for some of our students, so we offer tips and resources, then hope for the best! Right?

I think the most advantageous thing we can do for our students is to get parents invested in their child's education.  Don't you agree?  We all know students perform better academically when their parents are involved in their learning, so it's our job to offer parental support. When teachers assist parents in navigating any educational challenges their may child be encountering, everyone benefits. 

Ever heard of the ABCs of Improved Reading?  It can serve as a simple, but informative, reminder of ways parents can engage their child in reading.  Children must have access to literature in order to become avid readers, so the first step is to make sure parents supply various types of reading materials for their child.  Of course, the literature has to be at a just right level for their child because, if it is too easy or too difficult, not much reading growth can take place.  Furthermore, the whole purpose of reading is to gather meaning from a text.  For this reason, it is crucial parents are asking their child questions before, during and after a story or informational text.  You'll find some helpful prompts below and HERE.

Source

I also wanted to compile just a few of my favorite book suggestions containing fun and engaging story lines, but also teach the reader literacy tips along the way.  I figured these stories would be relevant to share with parents, since each book has a lesson in itself. The story titles listed below enlighten readers about some aspect of reading and writing: what it takes to become a good reader, how to choose a "just right" book, writing a story of your own, etc.  Just to give you an example, in the book Wolf!, the main character learns to read fluently to impress his friends, but he finds out he must practice often to get it right.  The moral of the story is Readers need to practice reading to become better readers!  

The two book collages found below consist of the thirteen titles geared mostly toward early primary students.  Each title is linked to Amazon, if you would like to take a closer look at any of them.  The books are How to Read a Story, Wolf!, The Best Place to Read a Book, The Best Book to Read, Wild About Books,  Goldisocks and the Three Libearians, Charlie Cook's Favorite Books, How Rocket Learned to Read, Rocket Writes a Story, The Plot Chickens, Little Red Writing, Pick a Picture: Write a Story and Tell Me the Day Backwards.

Last, but not least, I created a couple of freebies to help kids continue good reading habits throughout the summer and school year. The images below are linked to my TpT store. If you download the freebies, ratings are always greatly appreciated. The first freebie is a handout offering literacy tips for parents on how they can support good reading and writing habits at home. 

The second freebie is from a previous post.  It is a set of summer reading contracts for both students and parents, along with some reading logs. The logs can be valuable motivators for students because they serve as documentation of a child's dedication to read.  The contracts help secure a commitment between a parent and child to work together to keep reading growth soaring throughout the summer.  :)

Well, that's it from me!  I hope these book suggestions, literacy tips and reading contracts with logs help keep students reading all the way through the summer and well beyond!  Thank you to Paula Kim Studio, Kimberly Geswein and Whimsy Clips for the fonts and clipart in this post.  

Before you go, I'd love for us to stay connected!  Check out any of the social media buttons on the blog to follow along on Literacy Loving Gals' educational journey, or feel free to link your blog to the Blogs tab above, so others may find you when they visit Literacy Loving Gals. :) Now, head on over to Allie at The Positive Teacher for some more suggestions and freebies!

Happy Summer!

Help Prevent the Summer Slide! FREE Summer Reading Contracts and Logs

I'm linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for another edition of Freebie Friday to share a resource I created in hopes to help prevent a slide in my RtI students' reading progress over the summer.  If you're looking to send a little something home with your students, this freebie may be for you.  Color and black and white versions of child and an adult contracts have been created, along with reading logs, so students and parents can work together to help the reading continue throughout the summer.  

CHILD READING CONTRACT

PARENT/GUARDIAN READING CONTRACT

Don't forget to link up your freebie over at Teaching Blog Addict!

Happy last Friday in May! 

***Disclaimer: This is NOT a reading log, but a Reading Contract. Now that I have read a handful of professional books and tons of research on reading logs, I no longer use them with my students. Mistakes help us learn. (May 2016)  

Calling All Teachers! Want FREE Sight Word Resources for Students and Parents?

Looking for a site that provides amazing, FREE resources to support your students' sight word fluency?  Well, I'm here to share with you a site called sightwords.com.  Ever heard of it?  

This site encompasses a variety of tools for you to use in your classroom with your little readers and parents to use at home with their children.  According to the site, the available resources "combine the latest literacy research with decades of teaching experience to bring you the best methods of instruction to make teaching {sight words} easier, more effective, and more fun."  How can you go wrong?  

If you're in need of quick and easy, printable sight word flash cards, look no further.  You may choose from Dolch or Fry sight words, the most common Dolch nouns, as well as customizable words your kids need to practice.  Depending on your needs, the cards are available in different sizes and formats.  They're so easy to implement with individual students for independent practice or in small groups.  I printed and laminated Pre-primer through 3rd Grade Dolch Words, then placed them on rings for an easy-to-grab tool.   

My students enjoy using The Reading Speedometer  
 with the flash cards to practice their sight word fluency. 
Thanks Playdough to Plato! :)

In addition, there are a variety of games available for students to play, including Snakes and Ladders, Sight Words Parking Lot, Sight Word Bingo and more.  Each game board is customizable.  You can choose Dolch or Fry words from any and all levels to make the games differentiated for your groups.  You also have the ability to create game boards with your own selection of words to practice vocabulary from various stories.  If you are in need of support, video tutorials for each game are available for teachers.  My little ones especially love Snakes and Ladders. :) 

In my opinion, here is the best feature of this site: videos explicitly demonstrating sight word lessons and strategies.  When parents ask, "How can I help my child at home?", you can share this site with them!

Hope you find this site as useful as I do.  If you're looking for multi-sensory techniques to help your students learn sight words, click HERE.   

Thank you to EduClips and Emily Education for the clipart in my photo collages and happy Tuesday! :)

Spring is Here! Blog Hop: Follow the Path of Poetry Freebies!

Welcome to the Spring is Here Poetry Hop!  I want to start off by thanking Carla over at Comprehension Connection for recruiting and organizing over 20 literacy bloggers to participate in the hop to share poetry freebies with you and for creating the adorable hop buttons. 

April is National Poetry Month, so to celebrate, my students have just begun listening to, reading and writing poetry, even on their computers!  Reading poetry is another fun way for students to practice becoming more fluent readers.  If you're a follower of mine, you know I love getting the kiddos to become fluent readers  in a variety of ways.  Novelty seems to be the key to student motivation! (Click HERE to read more.)  

I've shared my love of poetry with students for almost 20 years.  It all began with a gift from my cooperating teacher during my student teaching days.  Below is my original copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.  After reading it hundreds of times to the students and allowing them to read it themselves, the binding fell apart.  I have a new version, but will never get rid of the old! ;)

I have off of school this week, but was able to catch a few snapshots of my students writing poetry before our Spring Break started.  They are thoroughly enjoying being poets themselves! 

  

Here are some of my favorite read alouds to heighten my students' interest in poetry.  Crack open these books to hear some giggles out of your students!   

Okay... are you ready for a poetry freebie?  The first image below will link you to my TpT Store for some Acrostic Poems your students can enjoy, which includes a poster example of an Acrostic Poem.  I also made sure to offer an open-ended version of the poem to allow students an opportunity to brainstorm a word they associate with Spring!  As you know, a rating/feedback on the freebie is always greatly appreciated! :) 

The second image is my Spring Poetry Pack, which includes a poster example and differentiated student recording forms for each of these forms of poetry: Color, Cinquain, Acrostic, Haiku, Couplet and Diamante.  Want to add it to your poetry collection for free?  Head on down to the Rafflecopter to enter a giveaway! :) 

Looking to infuse technology into your poetry lessons? Check out these online poetry resource sites to use with your students during poetry month and well beyond.  There are a great deal of entertaining, interactive and easy-to-use poetry activities for kids.  

ReadWriteThink Poetry

Students create their own poems!

Rainy Day Poems 

Links to numerous poems for kids organized by themes!

Poets.org

Poems curated around themes for young people!

Poetry4Kids

Poems, lessons, activities, podcasts and so on!

Poetry Writing and Analysis Guide

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to Paula Kim Studio, Teaching Super Power, Hello Fonts, EduClips and Epiphanous Owl for the clipart and fonts used to create the blog hop buttons and the picture collages above!  To continue on the poetry path, click the Next Stop button below for a week's worth of 5th grade Poetry Unit lessons created by the talented Michelle over at BigTime Literacy! 

I appreciate your visit to Literacy Loving Gals.  Don't forget to link your blog under the Blogs tab above, so others may find you when they stop by Literacy Loving Gals. Happy Spring!

Spring into a Good Book! Spring-Themed Graphic Organizers- FREEBIE

Happy Spring!  I'm loving the warmer weather and longer days.  Aren't you? :) Spring is one of my favorite seasons.  Even though we get lots of rain, I stay positive knowing the rain brings gorgeous flowers for the Summer.  (Come on, Summer!)

Once again, I'm linking with Teaching Blog Addict for another Freebie Friday.  I created simple Beginning-Middle-End and Comparing Characters Spring-themed graphic organizers for my 2nd grade kiddos to use when responding to their reading.  A few of my little ones need lines when writing, while others prefer no lines, hence the two versions of each organizer.  You can grab them as a FREEBIE in my TpT Store.

Hope you find them useful in your classroom.  Enjoy!
Thanks again for hosting, Teaching Blog Addict!  Don't forget to link up your freebie. :)