Free Online Resources

Mo Willem Lunchtime Doodle
Fun and spontaneous, but use a PDF downloadable guide for younger kids to follow along.
Day 1 was drawing Pigeon, good for K-3


Starfall
A number of free activities before a subscription is needed.
For K-3, good for literacy activities and songs


ABCMouse.com
Free 30 days free during COVID-19 pandemic. It has all subject areas, including Spanish.


Scholastic Online Learning
Paired Fiction and Non-Fiction books, with a video, and vocabulary with some additional resources. They are grouped by grade levels.

Storyline Online
Picture books read aloud by celebrities. No log-in or email needed!

Teaching the History of North American-Slavery

Such a difficult topic to teach well, thoughtfully, and accurately.  Lately there have been some picture books and young adult literature that describe and depict slavery in a lens that shows the inhumanity, interactions and repercussions behind slavery.

Triangular Trade Route:
Ted-Ed talk overview by Anthony Hazard.  A five minute overview, told with creative and beautiful artwork. Dense but comprehensive.

 

Read Alouds:

Picture Books:

Henry's Freedom Box

Chapter Books:

Sophia's War

Chains

Resources:

Teaching Tolerance: Lies My Bookshelf Told Me: Slavery in Children's Literature- an article that discusses the topic and slavery represented in children's literature.  A good read before planning a unit.

Books to Celebrate Ramadan

This year, in the United States, Ramadan begins on the evening of Sunday, May 5 and ends the evening of Tuesday, June 4.

Some books that teach and depict Ramadan, for elementary school students, include:

Lailah's Lunchbox which tells the story of a young girl from Abu Dhabi who is fasting for the first time and has recently moved to the United States.

Under the Ramadan Moon a beautifully illustrated book that describes a family celebrating during Ramadan.

Hena Khan writes the favorite character of Curious George into a board book for younger children, where George celebrates with his friend Kareem. It's Ramadan Curious George

Another popular author for younger children, Karen Katz, wrote a board book titled My First Ramadan which introduces toddlers to the holiday.

Scholastic members might like this lower level non fiction book with colorful photos from around the world. Ramadan

Gingerbread Houses

Building gingerbread houses with the students is a seasonal activity that also develops oral language, reading and writing, and integrates Common Core Standards of science and technology.  Before we built the houses, we read some books about gingerbread houses (Jan Brett's The Gingerbread Baby) and a few different versions of the Gingerbread Boy.



We have also been writing and reading directions about building a gingerbread house.  For older students, they read a passage from ReadWorks.com and answered questions.  With the younger students, we wrote out on chart paper directions for putting together a gingerbread house.  Later children wrote about constructing their gingerbread houses in an informational piece and wrote a fiction

Materials for house construction:

Non-edible:  paper plates, muffin tin liners (for holding various decorating candies), small cups (Dixie cups work well for icing), popsicle sticks or knives for spreading icing, a bowl for mixing, hand mixer, if you are feeling adventurous- sandwich bags to use to "pipe" the icing


Optional:  a disposable table cloth, paper towels, small (rinsed and emptied) milk or juice cartons to build around

Food items:  egg whites (Egg Beaters are a good bet, they are pasteurized and no need to separate eggs), confectioner's sugar, cream of tartar, and graham crackers.  For decorating- the lighter the candy, the more likely it is to stick- sprinkles, Nerds, M & Ms, chocolate chips, more traditionally- gum drops and candy canes, but they are both heavy!

There are a variety of recipes for Royal icing, the white icing that hardens when it dries, here is one that I used:

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar  
•  2 egg whites, beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 

        Royal icing can be colored with food coloring
        - makes 4 cups
 (*if kids eat the icing, the eggs should be pasteurized)

Process: 
1.) Set up and out all of the materials 
     Each child receives:  a paper plate, a milk carton, a small cup for icing, a popsicle stick or   disposable knife, 6 graham cracker pieces
 
2.) Make the royal icing according to recipe

3.)  Children build the houses around the milk carton

4.)  After 5-10 minutes of drying time (they can read or color after washing their hands) start decorating
 

This was mad with gluten-free graham crackers, so proportions are different.

This is a super messy (but fun) activity-  be prepared!  

William Steig Author Study Overview

We worked on a  William Steig author study unit, reading a number of his books and did various activities with them.
Some of the activities were:

• Venn diagrams comparing two books
• reading information about William Steig and writing biographies
• character descriptions (both physical and character traits)
• class discussions of story elements with story charts
• a writing prompt about finding a magic object, like the pebble from Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
•  discussion of magic in books
• writing about his New Yorker covers

We collected work in folders, on which the children did water color illustrations of one of the characters from his books, which they first outlined with ink.

Books: (there are others in addition, these were readily available)
Shrek, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Amos and Boris, Doctor DeSoto, Doctor DeSoto Goes to Africa, Brave Irene, The Amazing Bone, Spinky Sulks

Dirt Cake

I used to make this when my fourth graders read How to Eat Fried Worms.  Recently my son made it, it's so easy to make and fun to eat!  You can also tie it into studying plants, life cycles, measurement, etc.

Ingredients:  Instant chocolate pudding, milk, Oreos, gummy worms

(If you can find a flower pot that a bowl fits into, it's a fun way to serve it, as above).

1.)  Make the pudding according to directions and based on how many servings you want, in the corresponding serving container.  I have made this in individual portions in clear cups when doing it for the students at school and in a bowl for parties.  

2.)  Crush chocolate sandwich cookies and sprinkle them on top.  

3.)  Refrigerate.

4.)  Put gummy worms on and in mixture.  (you can do this before step 3, but they get a little hard in the fridge and are more chewy for little kids to eat).  

Read Alouds for Teaching the Six Traits

I don't even remember where I got this list to reference it, and I think I've also added to it.  I use it every year that I teach writing though and love so many of the books on it!

Ideas and Content

• Miss Nelson is Back by Harry Allard & James Marshall

Suspense

• Everybody Needs a Rock by Bryd Baylor

• The Best Town in the World by Bryd Baylor

• The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown

• Take Time to Relax by Nancy Carlson

• The Armadillo from Amarillo  *

• Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney  *

• Goldilocks Returns by Lisa Campbell Ernst

• Thank You Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco

• Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox*

• On the Day You Were Born

• When Jesse Came Across the Sea

• Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story by Ai Ling Louie

• The Three Javelinas by Susan Lowell

• Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

• Kafi and his Magic by Maya Angelou

• Verdi by Janell Cannon

Research to story writing connection

• I Hate to Read!  By Rita Marshall

• A Drop of Water by Walter Wick*

• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters

• All the Places to Live

• Amelia’s Notebook  *

• The Other Way to Listen

• A Chair for My Mother  *

• If You Were a Writer

focus

• I’ll Always Love You

• Fireflies!  *

• Smoky Night  *

moment in time

• The Great Kapok Tree*

• The Beach Before Breakfast

moment in time

• The Paperboy

moment in time

• When I Was Young in the Mountains

moment in time

• I’m in Charge of Celebrations *

• Aunt Flossie’s Hats  *

Memory

• Owl Moon  *

 moment in time

• The Pain and the Great One

everyday experiences

• A Sweet Sound Basket

• The Story of Ruby Bridges

• Home Place

• Lightning

Expository

• Letters from Felix

• Grasper

Methaphors, writing + geopgraphy

• Go Home, River!

Own personal journey

• Benito’s Dream Bottle

Stretch imaginations through language

• Mississippi Beau

Use of research & info to inform and tell a story at same time

• A Street Called Home

• Panther Dream- wc

• Nurse Lughton’s Curtain

• My Mama Had a Dancing Heart

• Pink and Say- Patricia Polacco

• Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky

• The Relatives Came - Cynthia Rylant

• The Squiggle- Carole Lexa Schafer

• Where the Wild Things Are- Maurice Sendak

• Sheep Out to Eat- Nancy Shaw

• Pete’s a Pizza- William Steig

• Say Something- Mary Stoltz

• Jumanji- Chris Van Allsburg

• The Mysteries of Harris Burdick- Chris Van Allsburg

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone- J.K. Rowling

• Dear Mr. Blueberry- James Simon

• Whoever You Are- Mem Fox

• Fables- Arnold Lobel

• Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions- Selby Beeler

• A Drop of Water- Walter Wick

• Tree of Life: The World of the African Baobob- Barbara Bash

• The New Way Things Work- David Macaulay

• Magic School Bus at Waterworks- Joanna Cole

• It’s Disgusting and We Ate it- James Solheim

• Sweet Words So Brave- Barbara Curry

• Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems- selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

• The Disappearing Alphabet- Richard Wilbur

• Motel of Mysteries- David Macaulay

• The Secret Knowledge of Grown Ups- David Wisniewski

• The Story of Ruby Bridges- Robert Coles

• Snowflake Bentley- Jacqueline Briggs Martin

• The Flag We Love- Pam Munoz Ryan

• My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother- Patricia Polacco

• Twister- Darleen Bailey Beard

• Messages in the Mailbox- Loreen Leady

• A Porcupine Named Fluffy- Helen Lester

• Officer Buckle and Gloria- Peggy Rathmann

• Today is Your Birthday- P.K. Hallinan

• Rotten Teeth- Laura Simms

• David Goes to School- David Shannon

Organization

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day- Judith Viorst

ABC Structure

• Old Black Fly- Jim Aylesworth

• Alphabet City- Stephen Johnson

• Q is for Duck- Mary Etling & Michael Folsom

• Tomorrow’s Alphabet- George Shannon

Back and Forth Structure

·            Meanwhile Back at the Ranch- Trinka Hakes Noble

• When I Was Little- Jamie Lee Curtis

·            Fortunately- Remy Charlip

Circle Stories

·            If You Give a Moose a Muffin- Laura Numeroff

·            If You Give a Pig a Pancake- Laura Numeroff

Cumulative Structures

• Hey!  Get Off Our Train- John Birmingham

·            There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

Series of Snapshots

• It Looked Like Spilled Milk- Charles Shaw

• Look!  Look!  Look!- Tana Hoban

• Animals Black and White- Phyllis Limbacher Tildes

Voice

• I’ll Fix Anthony- Judith Viorst

• I Am the Dog I am the Cat- Donald Hall

• Whoever You Are- Mem Fox

• Rain- Manya Stojic

• The Night I Followed the Dog- Nina Laden

• Peach and Blue- Sarah Kilborne

• The Tenth Good Thing About Barney- Judith Viorst

Word Choice

• Sports Page- Arnold Adoff

poetry & sentence fluency

• Yeh-Shen, Cinderella Story

• My Mama Had a Dancing Heart

• Dancing in the Kitchen

• Night in the Country

• Brave Irene

verbs, vibrant images

• The Polar Express

descriptive language

• Owl Moon

descriptive language

• Stellaluna

descriptive language

• Teammates

• In November

Sensory details, to carefully observe the world around them

• Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World

• Crow Boy- Taro Yashima

Character’s coming to life

• Hey World, Here I Am

Character’s coming to life

• James and the Giant Peach (chap. book)

• Maniac Magee (chap. book)

• The BFG (chap. book)

• Wrinkle in Time (chap. book)

• Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughter

• A Wonderful Day to be a Cow

descriptive language

•  
• Sarah Plain and Tall

Figurative language

• Old Devil Wind- Bill Martin Jr.

• Top Cat- Lois Elhert

• Peace at Last- Jill Murphy

• A My Name is Alice- Jane Bayer

• Tough Boris- Mem Fox

• The Ghost-Eye Tree- Bill Martin Jr.

• Quick as a Cricket- Audrey Wood

• I Love You the Purplest- Barbara Joosse

• Night Noises- Mem Fox

• Things That are Most in the World- Judi Barrett

• The Magic Fan- Keith Baker

• My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch- Graeme Base

intriguing words

• Double Trouble in Walla Walla- Andrew Clements

• Today I Feel Silly and Other That Make My Day- Jamie Lee Curtis

• Some Smug Slug- Pamela Duncan Edwards

• Feathers and Fools- Mem Fox

• The Lotus Seed- Sherry Garland

• Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse- Kevin Henkes

• Antics!- Catherine Hepworth

• Bug Off!- Catherine Hepworth

• Amber on the Mountain- Tony Johnston

• The Giant Jam Sandwich- John Vernon Lord

• Swine Lake- James Marshall

• Edward and the Pirates- David McPhail

• Hallo-Weiner- Dav Pilkey

• Kat Kong- Dav Pilkey

• The Whales- Cynthia Rylant

• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs- Jon Scieszka

• Where the Wild Things Are- Maurice Sendak

• Caleb and Kate- William Steig

• Shrek!- William Steig

clever phrasing, vivid details

• Solomon:  The Rusty Nail- William Steig

• Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia- Peggy Parish

• A Series of Unfortunate Events- Lemony Snicket (chap. book)

• Voices of the Heart- Ed Young

• A Cache of Jewels- Ruth Heller

• Many Luscious Lollipops- Ruth Heller

adjectives, word choice, creative

• Hoops!- Robert Burleigh

• Up, Up, and Away! A Book About Adverbs- Ruth Heller

• Insectlopedia- by Douglas Florian

• Jazz- Morgan Monceaux

Crafted phrasing, wonderful choice of details on every page

• Duke Ellington- Andrea Davis Pinkney

• Possum Magic- Mem Fox

Rhyme, some alliteration, engaging rhythm

• Ashanti to Zulu- Margaret Musgrove
• Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma

Sentence Fluency

• Crocodile Beat- Gail Jorgenson

• Possum Came a Knockin’

• Nocturne- Jane Yolen

• Night in the Country- Cynthia Rylant

• Fireflies, Fireflies, Light My Way- Jonathon London

Conventions (this trait can be modeled with all books)

• Yo! Yes?- Chris Raschka

Teacher Resource

• Teaching the Youngest Writer- Marcia Freeman

     Maupin House (800) 524-0634

Cinderella Stories

·            Yeh-Shen

   

Read Aloud Children's Books

For new readers, or to assign for home.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear?

A collection of books

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Cat in the Hat

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

George Mixes it Up

Here is a bulletin board illustration I use.  We usually read George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl in reading groups, I have a whole unit I have built around it.  I use George on a bulletin board to "spice up writing" collecting adjectives or vocabulary words throughout the year.