Fabulous and [a lot of] FREE Non-Fiction Resources for March!

March is basically HERE! I'm not sure why I love St. Patrick's Day so much (am I allowed to say BEER?!) but for some reason the seas of green make me giddy. Maybe it's spring around the corner, maybe it's the cutie little creepy dudes [I'm talking about leprechauns], but for whatever reason, I'm in full on giddy mode.

It's that time of year when my teacher friends are getting a little bit tired and trying desperately not to count the days until summer break, so I thought I'd do some of the leg work for you and collect some fabulous (and lots of FREE) non-fiction resources to go along with your March units!

This list is broken into the themes of my March Informational Text Passages. If you haven't grabbed yours yet, you can get it here! These are a BIG HIT with teachers and kiddos alike. They are perfect for morning work, to add to centers, for literacy groups, or even as your core passage for the week. Plus, each passage is provided with a fill in the blank and multiple choice option to help you modify for different ability levels. And SURPRISE! I'm giving a set away today!

I've recently updated this pack to include interactive notebook pages! Even if you don't download the pack, interactive notebooks are a super simple way to get your kiddos engaged in their reading! They don't have to be fancy either! 

My March wish for you is that you find tons of great material here to get your March plans stocked with interesting and meaningful non-fiction content for your classroom! And don't forget to enter the giveaway below!

St. Patrick's Day

BrainPop Video + Great Corresponding Activities!

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History Channel Videos

Brief, Free videos on St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day Info Text Flip Book

FREE! For Grades 1-5, from Study All Knight

Snakes

Readworks Rattlesnakes 

FREE Passage + Comprehension Questions [Grade 1]

King Cobra National Geo Video

FREE!

Boa Constrictors

Free, From The Teachers Guide - Passage + Questions

Classifying Animals Brainpop Jr Video

FREE. No Login Required! Check out the great corresponding activities!

Daylight Savings

BrainPop Video + Great Corresponding Activities!

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National Geo Kids Article

Free

Spring

BrainPop Jr. Video + Activities

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Spring Differentiated Readers

Amazing, FREE differentiated readers (for THREE levels!) [Grade 1-2]

Spring Into Poetry. 

FREE Informational Text using Spring poems to teach about poetry. [Grade 3]

Rainbows

What Is A Rainbow? 

FREE Passage + Questions [Grade 1]

Rainbow Close Reading

Free Passage, Vocabulary Cards, & Comprehension/Response Activities [Grade 2-3+]

Enter To Win!

In celebration of MARCH, I'm giving away one of my March Informational Text Packs! To get more info on how this pack can TOTALLY simplify your month, check it out here. Then enter to win one FREE below!

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We're Learning to Read through Worship!

Of all of the little activities I've done with Beckett, this last project has got to be the one he's been most excited about. My heart is bursting with how excited he is to sing and learn these worship songs, and to read along as we sing! Make sure you read to the bottom because I'm looking for your ideas, AND I'm giving one set away!

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So in our church, littles can go to the nursery during the whole service, but Brian and I have chosen to keep them in the service with us through the music worship time at the beginning. We do this for a couple of main reasons: mostly we love exposing them to worship time as a church body and to the worship songs we hope they'll grow to love and live by. We also like the opportunity to expose them to "big church" and the chance to practice sitting quietly in small spurts (announcements, etc). However, one new bonus to keeping them with us is Beckett has started pointing to the words on the screen and "following along" as we sing!

This past Sunday, watching him was incredibly precious (and a little bit distracting), but it also gave me an idea! I obviously can't spend too much time during worship helping him know which words we're singing, but I sure can make them accessible to him at home! And so my Sight Word Worship Song Charts were born.

Because we're talking about Valentine's Day this month, we've included books in our book box that relate to love and hearts, including Jesus Loves Me (which is basically just the lyrics to the song, and SO CUTE). So, it made sense that we would kick off the fun with this song!

I chose the two main verses and three sign words. In our case, "Jesus" will be a sight word. I printed them up on card stock and laminated it so we can use it for a while. Beckett was IMMEDIATELY enthralled with "reading along" to a song he know so well. He's asked me to read his poster with him countless times in the last two days.

Then I recreated the poster on a large post it pad. We sang the song repeatedly as I wrote the verses out in pencil. Then we went through and traced the words we were focusing on. Beckett pointed out each time he saw Jesus, loves, or me and I traced it with the color that matched our mini poster.

Then we sat around and sang and colored our poster! This was mostly for fun and so that Charlie had more of an active role in our activity.

We hung the poster in our kids library and have referred to it several times in the last couple of days! I love that it adds to the atmosphere of our little Valentine's Theme we've got going on.

I went ahead and polled my mommy friends for more ideas for posters. As of now, the pack is mostly kids songs, but I'd love to add choruses of songs we hear in church regularly! For a chance to grab yours for free, check out the Rafflecopter & comment below with YOUR favorite worship songs! And make sure you're following my on Facebook and BlogLovin. The goal for 2017 is to host LOTS of giveaways!

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Black History Month Bulletin Board Giveaway!

Happy First Day of Black History Month!! In celebration, today I'm bringing you the deets on my cutie cute new Black History Month Trivia Bulletin Board, AND I'm giving one away! WOO!

If you've been here before, you know that I'm not in the schools anymore. I'm rocking the SAHM life and so grateful for that opportunity. But sometimes I miss being in the schools! Lucky for me, my bestie still works at a local elementary school and she "lets" me do her bulletin boards for her! I say "lets" because I LOOOVE it and it's totally not her thing, plus she has all the - you know - TEACHING to do, so really it's a win for both of us.

Every time I dig into our history of slavery and the Civil Rights movement, I'm awed and honored all over again. The things these people endured are INCREDIBLE. Did you know that at age SIXTEEN, Booker T. Washington walked over 500 miles to college? When he arrived, the understandably apprehensive headmaster asked him to sweep the floors. He did such an incredible job sweeping, mopping, dusting, and washing the walls (all several times), that she admitted him to the school and allowed him to work through college as a janitor. I do not know a single teenager with that much drive.

So! I see it as a big responsibility and incredible privilege to share pieces of our history with our students! While this board is FAR from comprehensive, it is a perfect little peek at simple interesting bits of information that will hopefully pique the interest of our young minds!

I wanted to have a few different types of questions, so I decided on three approaches:

1. "I Statements" in first person, describing an overall descriptive fact about each of my ten historical figures: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Thurgood Marshall, Harriett Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ruby Bridges, Frederick Douglass, and Jackie Robinson. In the packet, the question and answer cards are on the same page for simplicity's sake.

2. Quotes from each individual. These quotes are actually pretty tricky, but some make a lot of sense once you think about them. They are great topics for discussion. Several really got me thinking.

3. Word Scramble. While unscrambling words is not necessarily specific to the individual historical figures of the board, I just couldn't continue to pass over these words during my reading without plugging them into this activity. The question cards have a scrambled word + the definition. The answer cards restate the definition and use it in context, specifically referring to one of our displayed historical figures. Fancy pants!

Finally, of course, the set includes the extra little tid bits you'll need to bring the board together: The title letters, the "black history month trivia" poster, and the Melonheadz "headshots" of each historical figure!

What do you think? Are you ready to win your own?? Simply enter the Rafflecopter below as many times as you'd like. The winner will be announced Saturday!

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Check out more great ideas for Black History Month with my friends below! Feel free to link up your blog post and/or giveaway. [No product posts please.]

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It's FALL YA'LL!

Welcome, welcome!!! I'm so excited to kick off my Fall Y'all Linky Party! This week is dedicated to all the goodness of FALL! I'll be bringing you some fabulous freebies, a fun fall sale, and a giveaway EVERY. DAY!! You're welcome. ;)

I could list a million bazillion reasons why I love fall, but I will not. Instead I will just present you with this loveliness.

This summer, Beckett and I had a Summer Bucket List. It was LONG and we didn't finish EVERYTHING on it, but we did a whole lot and it was a BLAST! I loved having the list hanging in my kitchen, reminding me to be intentional with creative activities for my kiddo.

But NOW. Now we get to go into Fall: The Holy Grail of Seasons. I'm in GO MODE, y'all! Fall soaps and scents are out, decorations are in the making, October's Fall Themed Tot School is planned [and going live TOMORROW!], and now we've got a week of Fall Y'all Goodness coming to the blog! To start this week off with my own little version of a Fabulous Fall Celebration, I bring to you this trifecta of goodies:

1. FREEBIE!

You can download the bucket list (above) for FREE, in my store. Just click here.

Along with the printable bucket list, you'll find this cute addition! Perfect for brainstorming with your preschooler or primary kiddos.

2. SALE!

I have LOTS of fall goodies in my store. I've been working to give all of my fall products a face lift so if you already owned a fall product, make sure you head on over and download the update! If it still looks like the old school version, stay tuned! The update is on the list! I've also added several NEW goodies this year. Every single fall product is ON SALE in my store for the rest of the week! Check each one out below by clicking on the picture.

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3. GIVEAWAY!

I'm giving away ANY fall product from my store! WOO! :) Pick any item from the grid above, comment with that product in the Rafflecopter below, and I'll email you the product when the giveaway closes on SATURDAY!

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Happy Fall Y'all!

Are you a blogger with some Fabulous Fall Goodness to share? Feel free to Link Up! Just grab the button and link back here! For more info on my Fall Y'all Linky, click here.

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Using Post Its to guide the Peer Revision Process

Welcome to our final week of our Building Back to School Linky! Today, we're rounding off our Tools with some Tools, Tips, & Resources for Writing! :) I'm keeping it simple today with a super quick and easy tip that I really loved implementing in the classroom!

My last year teaching ELL, we implemented writer's workshop. I loved it SO MUCH. At the end of each workshop, we had a fabulous share time. During conferences, we invited individual students to share their writing, and if they agreed, they got to sit in this adorable chair and share their current draft.

Afterward, we designated a small amount of time for providing positive feedback, and a small amount of time for asking meaningful questions intended to guide the author's revisions. During this time, we wrote down the questions that the students asked on a post it note! The note stuck directly to their draft, so that when the author went to revise their work, they had specific guidance for improving their piece! We taught each step of these processes in individual mini-lessons. And of course, this process meets common core standard W.5.

What do you think? Is this something that you could use in your classroom? What processes do you use to help your students through revisions?

This week, in celebration of our Writing Tools theme, ALL of my writing centers, non-fiction writing packs, writing paper packs, and MORE are on sale! You can check out the goodies in my store here or by clicking the individual links below!

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I'm also giving away my FALL writing center this week! This set is jam packed with tools you can use for a fabulous fall unit, or to supplement whatever units you already have in place! For your chance to win this and other goodies, just enter the rafflecopter below!

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Building Reading: Making the Most of Your Non-Fiction Passages

Welcome back to our Building Back to School Linky Series! If you’ve missed any of the previous weeks, you can catch up with them here:

Tools for Teachers

Tools for Classrooms

Tools for Language

This week, I’m linking up with some fabulous bloggers to bring you some Tools for READING!

This year, in response to the still new Common Core Initiative & in an effort to meet teacher needs for convenient & CCSS aligned materials, I’ve put a huge focus on planning and creating informational text practice.

I know that, particularly in primary classrooms, informational text is often still on the back burner. It can be overwhelming! Where do you start? What does a lesson look like? What are our goals?

Below is a list of simple, no-prep ideas to assist you as you guide your students OF ANY AGE through your next informational text!

Before you read:

• Preview the Questions. Discuss with your students what they already know. Read the questions, predict answers and discuss why or how they came to these predictions. If you’re using my primary texts or any other half page spreads, it’s easy to fold the page in half backward & focus on the question side.

• Circle or highlight key words for identifying information. Clarify what the questions are asking and what type of information you are looking for.

This page is from my September Informational Text Pack

• Consider voting on predictions. You might ask a student to share his prediction and why, then use a show of hands to count how many students agree with his thought process or conclusion. Allow another student to make a contradictory opinion and explain his reasoning.
• Make a KWL for the topic. You can do this as a whole group or in small groups. Discuss what the students already know and what they hope to discover during their reading.

Passage from Abe Lincoln Comprehension & GO pack; KWL from KWL pack.

• Have students {individually or in pairs} indiscreetly mark their predictions. Using your questions in this manner is similar to an anticipation guide and helps engage your students in the reading.

While you read:

• Highlight important key words identified. Encourage your students to pay attention for words that remind them of a question or indicate important information.
• Make a game of identifying the key words circled before they read. Possibly explain to the students that if they see one of these key words, they should stand as fast as they can!

This page is from my September Informational Text Pack

• Stop every couple of sentences and summarize or clarify what you’re reading. Ask the students what they’ve learned so far or if they’ve discovered any important information. For very low students, you may even ask the previewed comprehension questions verbatim. Using the exact same language repeatedly will trigger their memory & help make connections.

After you read:

• Re-read the questions. Then go back through the passage and highlight/underline specific evidence to support their answers.

Pages from Abe Lincoln Reading Comprehension & Graphic Organizer Pack

• Discuss what was predicted vs. learned. Celebrate correctly predicted answers as well as information learned! We should make a big deal out of attaining new knowledge!
• Make a list of follow up questions or comments; note things the students wonder now that they have some information.
• Complete your KWL if you started one.

Easy as that! I hope you found a new idea or two for attacking informational texts in your room!

And now for our weekly deal & giveaway! WOO!

I JUST put the finishing touches on my September Primary Informational Text Pack. This pack has 6 informational texts on: Labor Day, Football, Johnny Appleseed, Rosh Hashanah, Apples, & The Constitution! To win this pack and some other fun goodies from some generous TPT bloggers, simply enter the Rafflecopter below!

Don’t want to wait for the giveaway? That’s fine too! This week, in my store, ALL of my reading comprehension, informational text, & literacy packs are on sale! Most of these are on the list to receive a face lift (or recently have) so don’t miss out on the deal! And make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and BlogLovin’ so you know when packs have been updated!

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