March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss, is Read Across America Day. Celebrate! Read Reading is the most essential part of Read Across America Day. Many schools have local celebrities come in and read aloud. If that’s not your style, take some extra time for Drop Everything And Read… Continue reading
Valentine’s Day is a great classroom holiday; it might have started as a religious observance of St. Valentine’s Day, but by now it really has no religious connotations and no controversies surrounding it that are relevant to the classroom. It is one of the best holidays for school observation,… Continue reading
Eve Bunting’s book The Valentine Bears is a fun readaloud for young students, with lots of good teaching points. In the story, Mr. and Mrs. Bear have never celebrated Valentines Day before, since they are always hibernating at this time of year. This year, though, Mrs. Bear has planned… Continue reading
John Chapman, who became known as “Johnny Appleseed,” was born on September 26th, 1774. He left home at eighteen and traveled around the Midwest planting nurseries and doing good deeds. There are a number of good picture books for this American legend, including versions by favorites Steven Kellogg and Carol… Continue reading
Pecos Bill is a great example of a tall tale hero. Bill was raised by coyotes and rejoined human society to become a sort of Western superhero. In a collection of stories, he outdid everyone in tales of derring-do that explain the origins of the Rio Grande and the… Continue reading
Do you feel that the guys get left out when you study folk and fairy tales? Here are three lesson plans at different levels of complexity that focus on the heroes of the stories. Let’s hear it for the boys As you read folktales and fairy tales, create character maps… Continue reading
A study of heroes gives opportunities for working on research skills, reading, writing, critical thinking, and more. You can work within the content areas of social studies, science, literature, math, and even physical education. It suits Veteran’s Day, heritage months, the birthdays of famous people, and character education themes. Begin… Continue reading
SpellQuizzer spelling software from TedCo is a very handy piece of classroom technology. It’s a minimalist approach (read, it’ll work on your elderly classroom computer) that does just exactly what you need it to and no more. Here’s a screen shot. Let’s go through the top row first, left… Continue reading
It’s almost time to return to the classroom for the new calendar year — some of us are already back in school. That’s a great time for us all to think about what we’re doing in the classroom, and whether it might be time to make some changes. So… Continue reading
Writing well involves choosing the right words — exactly the right words — to say what you want to say. This is easier if you know more words. For that reason, as well as the benefit for a reader or test taker of having a large vocabulary, it’s worth studying… Continue reading
