Groundhog Weather School | Read Aloud | Listening

Listen to Groundhog Weather School

                    Did you know?  Reading together and listening each day will engage your students in important literacy skills.  Children's literature should be used to teach skills, which help students develop their ability to focus, summarize, and find the purpose for listening.   

 Did you know?  that you can listen to children's literature on my youtube channel.  Well, yes you can!  Many favorite books that are great read alouds in simple format with the main focus being the story and characters in the book.  Close up of illustrations ! and classroom favorite books!   It's free.  Find them here.  

Newest read aloud is GroundHog Weather School by Joan Holub.  Beautiful illustrations by Kristen Sorra.  This story has an amusing tone and a riot of detail.  Children will learn all the important events of the how and why of Groundhog Day.  These winter animals huddle together and apply for an opening at Groundhog Weather School to get an updated report on the weather.  It's fun and educational.  And wait until you meet the Groundhog Professor!  

 Take some moments of your morning to listen to this story on my youtube channel.

You can then peruse some other stories on my youtube channel to entertain young readers at home and at school.  Improve listening skills and give them an appetite for books and story.    

Teacher Tip:  Assign these read alouds for home school assignments, distance learning and substitute plans.  Many of the books I read on my channel also have writing prompts and resources to use after reading the book.

Find story read alouds HERE

Happy Groundhog Day! 

Gail Gibbons is a favorite author in many classrooms.  Students love her illustrations and all the information she presents in her many books.  Read, listen and learn!  

GroundHog Day .....Will he see his shadow?  Will spring come early or late? And what does a groundhog have to do with weather?

Every year on February 2nd, people all across America watch groundhogs come out of their burrows --- trying to figure out if the weather will stay cold or begin to warm up.  

Read Gail Gibbons beautiful text to find out about groundhogs.  What do they eat?  Where do they live? and how they raise their babies?  and learn about all the trivia of the wonderful groundhog.  This book and the teaching resource below is all you need to present an enjoyable and informative lesson about groundhogs and their celebration day on February 2nd. 

Ground Hog Day Writing and Activities

Learn about Groundhog Day! Read and write ... and a Groundhog Day Art activity! This teaching resource includes:

- 2 reading passage with comprehension questions

- writing prompt page

- fun fact pages

- cloze activity

- 16 vocabulary cards for display

- groundhog day art activity

- make a headband for groundhog day

- color and keep bookmarks

- word search

- word shapes

- making new words

The reading passages would be suitable for 1st-2nd 

graders and possibly some Kindergartners with assistance.  The art-craft activity would be fun for primary learners.  This teaching resource teaches about groundhog day and woodchucks and also the fun of

"Will the groundhog see his shadow?" 

There are pages for emergent readers; such as making new words, vocabulary for pocket charts, word shapes and word search. And also pages that will accommodate different reading levels in your classroom. These pages can easily be assigned for distance learning and school-at-home and can also be used for diversified instruction.  You can easily preview this teaching resource by clicking the link above or click HERE. 

Thank you for visiting and check back for more teaching resources that engage your students with interest and joy. 

Presidents' Day Writing Prompts and Graphic Organizers

Writing prompts, graphic organizers and cut & paste for Presidents’ Day. 

Three easy-to-read reading passages about 3 famous Presidents; Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. Also, included is a cover page so your students can make a ‘Presidents’ Day’ Folder.

Writing Prompts and Graphic Organizers Include:

• Reading Passages

• Three Facts about Each President

• Was, Had, Wanted

• Washington was a great President because

• Lincoln was a great President because

• Jefferson was a great President because

• Compare and Contrast [Washington and Lincoln]

• If I were President, I would

• The President’s job is important because

• Lincoln’s Log Cabin [cut and paste] for primary readers

• Famous Buildings in Washington, D.C. [cut and paste]

• A famous Quote from each President [Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson]

• Cover for Student Folder

21 total printable pages to use to learn and write about these three presidents, Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson.

Find this teaching resources for Presidents' Day HERE

The Snowy Day | Ezra Jack Keats | Book Companion | Literacy Lessons

The Snowy Day - Book Companion

Book Companion and Spin-Off Lesson to use with The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, This book companion provides thinking and writing opportunities after reading this entertaining picture book. This book truly is a favorite. Children relate to Peter on the first page and want to know more about his snowy day. These pages make it easy for you to diversify instruction. Assign this book companion for distance learning as an independent reader response or school-at-home.

35 pages include:

• comprehension questions
• writing prompts
• graphic organizers
• making new words
• thinking about story events
• making connections
• write a story
• sequencing
• templates for art and crafts
• cutting practice

• handwriting practice
• spin off lesson - snow experiment
• ”What is Snow?” reading booklet
• “Snow” read and review
• pages for diversified instruction

This teaching resource provides students with an engaging way to respond to their reading. These reader response pages provide many opportunities for thinking and writing about the text.

*** Spin-Off Lesson*** is a perfect way to engage students in a literacy activity. A spin-off lesson, a science experiment about snow, is included in this resource. In the story, Peter puts a snowball in his pocket and he is surprised later when it isn’t there. The children find this amusing and Peter a bit silly, but it is a perfect place to spin-off to a science lesson about snow, weather, matter, liquid and gas.

What is snow? And why does it melt. Included in these pages are some simple science lessons about snow. Your class can also make a graph. Class discussions about weather and snow come naturally after reading this book. Students start to see the life lessons in literature when you dig a bit deeper into the text. This “spin-off lesson” is engaging and fun; there are several pages to get you started… ask and answer questions, hypothesize, make predictions and conclusions. See snow melt! And if you are not in a place where there is snow… did you know you could make your own? Enjoying literature in this way teaches young readers to read and write with conviction. Thank you for previewing this teaching resource.

Teacher Tip: Place this book companion and a copy of The Snowy Day in a bin. Label this bin "For the Substitute Teacher". Your Substitute and your students will be delighted to enjoy this reading and writing activity.

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Authentic Writing Experience After Winter Break - Christmas Thank You Cards

Find Your Set of Thank You Cards HERE

Say all your Christmas 'thank yous' with these fun Christmas Thank You cards that provide an authentic writing experience. There are 24 cards total. Each card is printed on standard size 8.5 x 11" paper. Print on both sides. Fold in half. Children write, color and say thank you to all the people who made their Christmas merry and bright.

Focus skills include:

writing complete sentences
fine motor skills
showing good citizenship and good will
recognizing community members
showing gratitude

Total of 24 thank you cards with Christmas and snowman theme. Line art and color included. Fun and educational !  Get these today and be ready with an authentic writing experience after your winter break.  

Learning to say "Thank You" shows gratitude in social circles.  It doesn't take much time and makes both the giver and receiver feel better.  This simple courtesy is a skill that will make anyone's day better and peaceful.  Be the reason for someone's smile.  Talk with your students about their holiday vacation.   Give some time at morning circle to share stories of giving and receiving.  Talk about why saying 'thank you' is important.  Download and print out these 

thank you cards with a Christmas theme... play some classical music and give your students the opportunity to show appreciation of all those who make their days brighter. 

Teaching Resources for Christmas

Academic practice pages with a Christmas theme. 

These 7 pages give practice and review for literacy and math ...

Focus skills include:

• capital letters at the beginning of a sentence
• capital letters for proper names
• addition facts
• writing short stories
• writing captions for pictures

All seven pages have a Christmas theme. Fun and educational !

These pages can easily be assigned for distance learning and school-at-home.

Other Christmas Resources You May Want:

Elf Cover Up [Addition Practice]

Reindeer Cover Up [Multiplication Practice]

Christmas Math Center - Write and Spin

Legend of the Poinsettia Book Companion

The Wild Christmas Reindeer Book Companion

Would you like to know when I post new teaching resources? Follow ME on TPT

You will receive notifications of new teacher resource listings at 50% off for the first 24 hours.  Also receive updates on purchased teacher resources.  

Happy Holidays !

Writing About Kindness and Joy at Christmas Time

Choose an environment that fosters an elf-like work ethic .  Work ethic is an attitude of determination and dedication toward one’s job. Those with a strong work ethic place a high value on their professional success. They exhibit moral principles that make them outstanding students in any and all classroom tasks. If you have a strong work ethic, you believe in the importance of your job and typically feel that hard work is essential to maintaining a strong character.

Students with a strong work ethic exhibit a particular set of values and behaviors.   These characteristics make them stand out as highly coveted  members of the class and praise-worthy students.

reliability.   dedication.   discipline.   productivity.   cooperation.   integrity.   responsibility.   professionalism.  

Listen to the Elves and the Shoemaker HERE

You can find writing resources for Santa's elves HERE

get yours today for 50% off !

MrsQuimbyReads

Christmas Door Decoration

                          We decorated our classroom door and got 2nd place in our 

'winter wonderland' door contest!  

                  The key is to guide the children but give them the space they need to create ! 

Children were so happy to create, draw, paint,  make snowflakes;  and then a bit lucky to win.   It was great fun....first, we used green and blue inks mixed with gesso and sponge-painted the background... next, we looked at some real-life cardinals in nature.  Easy to find on the internet. Each student received a block of mixed-media paper to draw and color their birds.  Just colored with red crayons and a bit of black for beaks and eyes.  We talked about covering every white spot everywhere.  Dark, dark, red, red!  Then they made a branch for their cardinal to sit upon...  we placed the cardinals on our background of blue-green white sponge painting.  

And lastly, we made our snowflakes, so many.  This was snow-much fun!

It was easy to cut out individual blocks of cardinals, snowflakes and branches so each child could bring home their artwork to hang in a window at home.

Merry Christmas from Lucky Room 13!

How to Draw a Cardinal

Easy step-by-step directions to draw a cardinal... 

yet they all come out unique to the artist which makes your door perfect!

 Our cardinals were drawn on white paper, colored in and then cut out.  Background is the door backdrop which was painted before making the cardinals. Measure a sheet of white paper from that big roll for bulletin boards.   This backdrop was painted and made a couple days before.  

You can find these step-by-step directions on ArtProjectsforKids.org

and so many more drawings to do, too!  

Children's Stories for the Holiday Season

 

Bear Stays Up for Christmas, by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. Book Companion to write about your reading. In this story, the forest animals tell Bear he must stay up for Christmas. Bear is sleepy but he says he will try. Read this book to discover how Bear finds the best gift for Christmas.

This book teaches the life lesson of being kind to your friends and the gift of giving.

This book is entertaining and these reader response pages can help young readers write about books and stories. There are pages for beginning writers as well as more challenging pages for those writers who need the challenge.  Find a book companion for this book HERE

Reader Response pages for the wonderful book, Trouble with Trolls, by Jan Brett. This book is truly a wonderful book to read aloud. Teach story elements and character traits, new vocabulary and word study. 33 pages to use with this picture book. These pages can easily be assigned for distance learning and school at home.

Reader Response Pages Include:

• Comprehension Questions
• Vocabulary Word Cards
• Writing about Trolls
• Finding evidence in the story about character actions and traits
• Drawing the story characters, Treva, Tuffi and the Trolls
• Make a sequencing booklet to order story events
• retell the story
• Study root words and endings, ABC order
• Illustrate the wonderful characters in the book
• make beautiful borders 'just like Jan Brett'
• complete a T-map about Trolls - "can, have, are"
• 30 word cards for your pocket chart
• Tips for teaching, introduce the book and ideas for this book

Find the book companion for Trouble with Trolls HERE

The Legend of the Poinsettia retold by Tomie dePaola is a fabulous book to read aloud when teaching the genre of legends and the value of giving. Enhance the reading experience and provide writing prompts and pages to write about reading. These pages can easily be assigned for distance learning and school at home. Teaching literacy and life lessons with children's literature.

Focus skills included are:

• writing prompts

• comprehension questions

• theme [giving]

• character illustration

• beginning, middle, end

• before and after

• favorite part

• what is the lesson of the story?

• word study pages

• compare and contrast

• retelling the story

• word study and vocabulary

Do you want the book companion for this book?  Click HERE

Christmas Resources for the Elementary Classroom

20 riddles for the month of December for your students to read, think, write and solve. These riddles are a great writing activity for morning seat work. Students settle right in with reading and writing. It is motivating because the children love to guess what today's riddle answer might be. You can easily assign these riddles for distance learning and school-at-home work.

Each riddle is a December - Christmas theme idea and contains many high frequency words. Your students read the riddle, think, and write a sentence that answers the question. Next, they illustrate the sentence that they wrote. This is a motivating writing-reading-thinking literacy activity that you may use for morning seat work, homework, for fast finishers or anytime. This resource includes teacher directions, bin labels and an answer key.

Also there are covers if you wish to make an 'December Riddle' booklet.  It is appropriate for grades 1 -2 and homeschoolers.  Find your Morning Riddles for Christmas HERE

Solve and Color Christmas pages for Holiday fun.... Learning Multiplication. These pages are NO PREP and give multiplication practice while coloring in fun Christmas pages. Students solve the multiplication fact and color the products using the code on top of the page. This math assignment can easily be assigned for distance learning and school-at-home.

You can find these pages HERE

Read on to find more teaching resources for the 

Holiday season. 

Create some merry and bright Christmas math stations