Tag: reading

Using Weekly Reading Passages with a Free Pack!

Posted on by smartchickteacher

One of my favorite activities to use in my intermediate classroom has to be weekly reading passages. I have lots of different passages to choose from, many will help build background knowledge for your students!

Click here to check out ALL of the different Weekly Reading Passage Packs and Bundles!

This one is all about Keystone Species. We learn about these animals and plants in science, so this pack is a great way to add discussions and learn some background information. Click here to see this Keystone Species pack!

My students do not want to read back through a reading passage.  I do these weekly reading passages as a way to get my students into the habit of rereading parts of a passage on a reading test, learning to skim passages for the information they are looking for, and answering questions in complete sentences.   

There is a reading passage and five days of questions about the passage included for use throughout one week.  The topics may be familiar or unfamiliar to students.  During state reading tests students often read passages about topics that are unfamiliar to them, so these will help them learn different strategies.

I also have a set of Reading Strategy Posters that are based on these Weekly Reading Passage packs. Click here to check this pack out in my tpt store.

We have a two-pocket, three prong folder we use for this packs each week. I print the reading posters in a larger size at my local Staples to hang up in our room. We focus on one of these reading strategies every 2-3 weeks in our classroom.

Why not try one of these out today? There is a FREE one available in my tpt store! Click here to grab the free pack!

This one is all about Capybaras! We are using capybaras as our theme this year, so we are starting the year with this pack!

Be sure to grab your freebie pack! It may be a great addition to your classroom this year!

Teaching Area & Perimeter with Picture Books – FREEBIE Pack Included!

Posted on by smartchickteacher

Understanding the concepts of area and perimeter can be tough for students. Pairing this issue with picture books is a great way to help students get a real visual about what measuring area and perimeter really mean. In my classroom, we use a few different picture books while we work on these concepts. You can buy the books or find read alouds of them on youtube!

One of the books we read is Spaghetti and Meatballs for All! by Marilyn Burns. This project gets kids cutting out tables for the dinner a family is hosting to fit different amounts of people. The table sizes and numbers change over the course of the story.

There are three pages of worksheets to get through in this pack! The kids really get to see how to find the area and perimeter of each table size as they progress through the book!

Click here for a link to purchase this tpt pack!

If you want a copy of the book, click here to find it on Amazon!

It is a book we read every year in our intermediate classroom!

Another fun picture book to use when teaching area and perimeter is Chickens on the Move by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso. This one has students building different sizes of chicken coops throughout the course of the story!

This book is a little tougher to find a hard copy of, but a read aloud version of the book can be found on youtube.

Click here to check out this pack in my tpt store!

The kids need to build the different sizes of chicken coops using the squares that are provided. I copy the squares on a different color of paper!

If you want to focus in on finding perimeter, then the book Racing Around by Stuart J. Murphy may be a great one for you to use!

Click here to grab this pack in my tpt shop!

It is FREE!

This illustrations in the book really help kids see the way we measure the sides of different locations to find the perimeter.

The locations in the book are not all rectangles, which is an added challenge for students.

If you want to focus in on finding area, then the book Bigger, Better, Best by Stuart J. Murphy may be a great one for you to use!

This book focuses in on figuring out the different areas of windows and rooms in a house.

Click here to see this pack in my shop!

You can grab a copy of this book on Amazon if you are interested in having a hard copy of it!

Collecting a larger set of math picture books is something I work on each year!

Once we have worked through the concepts of area and perimeter, we move on to some fun math projects that focus on area and perimeter.

This alligator challenge has students figure out the pen sizes for alligators arriving to the location!

Click here to see this pack!

Who doesn’t love team projects…with toilet paper???

This pack uses rolls of toilet paper to get team of students to try to make the largest area and longest perimeter! Grab a roll of toilet paper for each group and you are all set! Click here to see this pack!

This last project pack is another engaging team activity! All you need is a large container of animal crackers and some white bulletin board paper.

This activity looks great when students add color and objects to their animal enclosures. We glue the animal crackers onto the exhibits they create! I give each group a certain amount of animal crackers, they will get duplicates of some animals, so the exhibits need to be large enough! Click here to see this pack!

What other things do you do to teach area and perimeter in your own classroom?

Using Informational Texts in the Classroom

Posted on by smartchickteacher

My intermediate students often need support as they navigate informational or non-fiction texts. These types of texts require a different set of skills to get through successfully. Students often see these types of texts on their state and district assessments. They also really enjoy reading informational texts! Including them in my reading instruction is important for many reasons.

I post non-fiction text features posters on a bulletin board in my classroom as we read these types of texts. These posters are a great way to show students the different features of these informational texts.

Click here to purchase these text feature posters!

My students are really engaged with the different informational National Geographic readers. I try to read one of these books each quarter with my students. I choose the titles that match best with my social studies or science curriculum. There are quite a few titles available in my TPT store and more are being added all of the time!

One of the titles related to science my students like is Wolves by Laura Marsh. Most of the National Geographic titles can be found for free on the Epic Books website. You can also purchase them on Amazon for about $5 a book.

Click here to buy this Wolves Informational Text Unit! At a cost of $3 this is an easy way to teach informational texts to your own class!

Other informational text unit titles that can be found in my tpt shop include:

Mummies by Elizabeth Carney

Planets by Elizabeth Carney

Bats by Elizabeth Carney

Butterflies by Laura Marsh

Owls by Laura Marsh

Prehistoric Mammals by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

Vikings by Libby Romero

Titanic by Melissa Stewart

Penguins by Anne Schreiber

Alligators and Crocodiles by Laura Marsh

Each of these informational text units is just $3! Grab any that work for your classroom if you need some informational text resources! I am always working on adding more of these units! Click here for access to ALL of these informational text units in my TPT store!

Using LIVE Jumping Beans to Learn about Insects!

Posted on by smartchickteacher

Bringing LIVE animals is one way to increase the excitement and engagement of the classroom experience for your students. These jumping beans are something we used to have as kids, and it is fun to bring them back to today’s kids. These jumping beans do take a little time and work to get hatched, but it is rewarding when it works! We do these labs in May and I send the jumping beans home with my students. They have usually hatched by the end of the summer. I also tell me kids they should keep the moths as a PET and not release them into the wild as they are an invasive species.

This pack will guide you through a bunch of different lessons as your students learn about insects and jumping beans! Click here to buy the pack!

We set-up a bulletin board of the vocabulary words included in the pack.

I order jumping beans from Amazon! They are inexpensive and arrive quickly.

Click here to grab 30 jumping beans from Amazon for around $20!

There are many different activities included in the pack. The kids were AMAZED by the jumping beans and how they moved.

They were able to do a lot of research on-line and we figured out the best ways to keep the larva alive as they are developing into moths.

Storing them in a cool, dry place and spritzing them with water a couple times a week seems to be the best way to get them to hatch!

There are lots of materials included in the pack I developed for my own classroom!

The pack linked above includes:

1. Jumping Bean Vocabulary – There are 15 vocabulary cards with definitions and pictures and an interactive notebook page for recording these definitions.

2. What is a Jumping Bean? – There is a pocket for recording the definition of a jumping bean and an information page. We also read the book, Not a Bean, by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez. There is also an Observe a Jumping Bean Lab (we use a real jumping bean for this observation).

3. Life Cycle of a Jumping Bean – There is information about the life cycle of the jumping bean. Students need to create their own life cycle chart for their notebook. Copy the front page on cardstock if possible.

4. Prediction/Recording Sheet – Complete a sheet making some predictions about the jumping beans and record some data about the beans you have in the classroom.

5. Science Lab for Temperature Reaction – Find out how the jumping beans react to different temperatures by completing this lab.

6. Science Lab for Water Reaction – Find out how jumping beans react to water by completing this lab.

7. Science Lab for Touch Reaction – find out how jumping beans react to being help between two fingers by completing this lab.

8. Make a Game Board – Make a game board for the jumping beans to be placed on. Record observations. A completed game board is included on a second sheet of the pack.

9. Fun Facts about Jumping Beans – Do some research using books and/or the Internet. Find 6 fun facts about jumping beans. Make a mini-poster with your findings.

Keep your students engaged at the end of the school year with LIVE animals! There are many to choose from, but my class really enjoys learning about jumping beans!