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10 Animal Research Websites for Kids - The Library Patch

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Kids LOVE animals!! It is the number one "GO TO" research topic for kids, teachers and librarians. Free websites that provide animal facts for kids are one of my most common requests. I have spent LOTS of time searching the Internet for websites that are easy for elementary students to navigate.

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A class-wide sight word recognition game.

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If you follow me on Instagram, you saw me post this picture yesterday.

We played a game I named "Head Hunters" to review our sight words. It's super easy to make and did I mention it's loads of fun too!
To Make (Labels): Type up sight words onto labels (I used Avery 5160 template in Word). Print.
To Make (Recording Sheet): Simply type up a class list with a blank space beside each student's name. Print.
-------------------------------------------------------------- To Play: Now that you have your supplies, stick one label to each students head. Yes, stick it to their head! {They may have thought I was crazy when I walked up with one on my head.} #teachersplaygamestoo
Pass out recording sheet. Students will walk around and read the sight words on each classmates' head. They will read the word to person and then record it on their paper.

Once completed, they may take their sticker off and place it next to their name.
Here we are in action!

This game can be made to fit any list of words or any class size.
Happy word hunting!

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Head Hunters: a sight word game (For the Love of First Grade)

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If you follow me on Instagram, you saw me post this picture yesterday. We played a game I named "Head Hunters" to review our sight words. It's super easy to make and did I mention it's loads of fun too! To Make (Labels): Type up sight words onto labels (I used Avery 5160 template in Word).

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http://thisreadingmama.com/strategies-reading-longer-words/
http://thisreadingmama.com/strategies-reading-longer-words/

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Wonster Words Learning. Download Wonster Words Learning and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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As teachers we share the beloved works of Dr. Seuss with students no matter how small (or large) during Read Across America and in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday.

Here are 31 ideas on how you can celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America in your classroom.

Let's look at some free printables, printable activities, celebration ideas, Dr. Seuss treats and teacher gear.

Seuss-Inspired Printables and Activities

Create your own Cat in the Hat foldable in the shape of the cat's hat you've got yourself an activity to show whatever content you want.

You won't believe the number of free printables in this set of Seusstastic freebies that include word work, writing prompts and poetry. Plus an idea to create an activity based on Fox in Socks.

With two class book templates, your students can create their own versions of the classic Green Eggs and Ham and There's a Wocket in My Pocket.

This Fox in Socks Unit Ideas and Printables collection also has lesson plans and ideas for ABC, Cat in the Hat, The Foot Book, One Fish Two Fish..., The Sneetches, Ten Apples Up on Top and more.

Step by step tutorials to help students learn to draw Dr. Seuss characters like the Lorax, Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and 2 and the Grinch.

Here is another guided drawing tutorial for How to Draw Cat in the Hat.

Celebrate Dr. Suess with a themed bingo activity. This Dr. Seuss bingo was made with boardmaker for SLP's but anyone can use it.

With bulletin border, classic Hat hat and a green eggs and Ham chart this is a great stash of five Seuss classroom decoration printables.

Students roll the dice and determine if the sum is odd or even in this Seuss inspired math game. Making it a a race to the finish with Seuss colors!

Fix scrambled sentences by using cards and a recording sheet. Get practice with handwriting, spaces and punctuation.

Get students recording all of their reading by using this reading log that keeps right in the theme that we are celebrating.

Celebrating school wide? Here are some ideas on how you can create fun events for the entire school and get students reading!

More Seuss Printables

Celebration Ideas for Read Across America

In addition to these 13 Fun and Clever Dr. Seuss Ideas For the Classroom, these ideas are just plain fun for the classroom.

Send students on a search looking for evidence of these characters in Dr. Seuss books.

With a few craft supplies, you've got yourself a clover gift to give every student what reminds them what makes a person using the famous Dr. Suess quote from Horton Hears a Who.

Create a DIY McElligot's Pool to be a reading nook with your Seuss books for students to choose from for independent reading. Have those stuffed characters? Give them a place to live too while celebrating in the month of March.

Keep students motivated by using this whole group incentive Oh the Places You'll Go incentive jar for the month of March. What would you have your students earn - would you do this for a reading challenge or behavior?

What creativity can come from these brightly colored tufted creatures? Have your students draw Tizzled Topped Tufted Mazurkas.

Allow students to pose with their favorite book. Turn these favorite book photo shoot pictures into book recommendations or book report pieces.

Bring your favorite images from a compilation of Dr. Suess books (perfect if any have been slightly damaged or been worn out) and create a fun chair that is perfect for a library section of the classroom.

Create yourself a special set of pencils for students to use when students are working on writing pieces (writing those sparkling adjectives) or as a reward for accomplishing a task.

Read Across America Treats

Yummy chocolate faces on healthy snacks make these Grinch party poppers a delicious way to bring a recognizable character into the mix.

This one will take a little time to prepare, but the payoffs will be huge. A Suess-inspired treat in the form of Cat in the Hat Jello Snack cups.

With a free printable included, making the paper slips for these yummy cotton candy covered cupcakes will be a cinch.

Who can create butter the fastest after reading the Butter Battle book? Students can explore liquids changing into a tasty solid and see if they prefer their toast butter-side up or butter-side down.

Teacher Gear

Celebrate a day of reading with by hosting an "I love to read!" day in your classroom or school-wide.

A free I Heart Dr. Seuss printable that can be transferred onto a canvas tote that you can purchase at a big box store.

What a fantastic collection! Thanks to everyone who shared their ideas to begin with! I hope you can find at least two ideas that will work for you this year.

What are your favorite books to read or have on hand? Do you have good stash of Seuss books?

More Dr. Seuss

Get creative and free teacher articles - delivered to your inbox weekly.

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31 Ideas for Read Across America - Teach Junkie

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As teachers we share the beloved works of Dr. Seuss with students no matter how small (or large) during Read Across America and in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday. Here are 31 ideas on how you can celebrate Dr. Seuss and Read Across America in your classroom.

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Kid friendly research sites

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This blog has fun comprehension and sight word ideas. More

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Ask and you shall receive! This Go Fish game is part of both my First Grade and Kindergarten Guided Reading Bundles {links below}. This activity is in my Level E pack, as well. Many of you have seen them and asked for them as an individual purchase.

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CVC Words fun where students grab a card and look at the beginning sounds of the pictures to figure out the secret CVC word! There are 10 words included for each short vowel sound (short a, e, i, o, and u) for 50 words total. Great practice for beginning sounds AND short vowel CVC words!

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Fluency Practice- Letter Names, Letter Sounds, and CVC Words

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Fluency practice probes. Includes 12 different practice sheets that can be used for timed fluency practice for letter names, letter sounds, nonsense words and simple CVC words. Great to send home for extra practice or to use in the classroom to practice for Aimsweb or DIBELS

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Keep fun reading tools on hand to encourage kindergarten readers. Here are my must-have reading tools that are fun and were used regularly!

Over the years I've changed what I've kept on hand in at my teacher table for guided reading. But, I've always liked to keep manipulatives we use regularly on hand as well and tools that make reading fun!

Must Have Fun Guided Reading Tools

Here are some of my favorite guided reading tools and some ideas of what we used them for.

Carabiner Flashlights

I've had lots of mini flashlights over the years - they are a huge hit with any kinder. I liked mini flashlights like these carabiner clip ones.

Now, I tend to throw them out and buy new rather than find matching batteries once they're dead, but that's just me.

What surprised me was how much they helped my students with ADD or ADHD stay laser focused on tracking print.

Finger/Thumb Grips

Anything grippy that can attach to fingers is a perfect novelty item to encourage tracking print 1:1 and focusing on reading words. Think of these as fun mini-pointers!

You can find a whole bunch of these in the sewing section or sometimes with stationary supplies at your local big box store, like Walmart.

Another fun alternative is to use themed slip-on fingers covers/pointers that often show up at Halloween or sometimes in card/party supply stores.

Magnifying Glasses

Little magnifying lenses that are shaped like credit cards from the Dollar Tree or even grab one from your science kit.

You can easily ask students to find something in their leveled books that illustrates what concept you are working on.

Show me a period.

Find the word 'at' on your page.

Where is a little bit you know hiding in a larger word?

Plus, I always have them on hand for when we do an I-spy activity for reading sight words or cvc words!

Slap Bracelets

I'm not sure over how many years I've collected a variety of slap bracelets - but they are my "Do Not Disturb" signal.

When I am wearing a bracelet, it reminds those who try to interrupt my reading groups that it's not a good time.

Bingo Daubers

These bingo daubers or dot makers, as I like to call them are always on hand. It ends up being really random what we use them for, but I like how fast they are to use.

Pencil Caddies

I usually stashed away materials in pencil caddies to make it easy to grab off a shelf and put away.

Dice

We were always using games to warm up before reading together, or sometimes just to work on a skill in isolation.

I just bought extra dice to keep on hand so I didn't have to go digging into my math materials and make sure they got back there.

Because that would've never happened.

Bingo Markers and Linking Cubes

We'd play a variety of games that would need markers or playing chips. I always kept a couple handfuls at close reach.

Linking cubes come in handy for lots of different reading games, like this easiest sight word game ever. Plus, students can use them to keep track of points by building towers for other games.

Craft Foam

You only need to pull red, yellow and green from your stack of craft foam that you purchased from the Dollar Tree (or you can use cut construction paper too).

Use one of each color for a student or partners to use to play flash card flash when you need to work on quick recognition.

I used them for letters and letter sounds at the beginning of the year (targeted students had their own set of cards based on what they needed) and then sight words later in the year.

Dry Erase Boards and Markers

White boards and markers are such a great tool for a variety of reasons. I liked small marker boards that fit into the pencil caddies.

I kept enough on hand for each student in a group to have one.

Students would use them for sight word mini-lessons modeling after me. Or they would use them for word solving (chunking and finding word bits) while reading independently (just-above grade level books and beyond).

Dry Erase Erasers (or Baby Socks)

If you're going to use dry erase markers, you probably need erasers. Just sayin'

Of course, mini-erasers are just more fun and I snagged them from Target's dollar spot one year - but baby socks are a great alternative too!

There you have my list of 12 fun guided reading tools with some ideas how to use them in your classroom!

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

Want to see my most used tool ever? These handy guided reading mats are what I used daily in my guided reading groups.

More Guided Reading

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12 Must-Have Guided Reading Tools to Use in Kindergarten | KindergartenWorks

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Keep fun reading tools on hand to encourage kindergarten readers. Here are my must-have reading tools that are fun and were used regularly! Over the years I've changed what I've kept on hand in at my teacher table for guided reading.

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5 Tips for Teaching Vocabulary | That Teacher Life Ep 23

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This could be used for a grammar practice of collective nouns.  Open in the drawing app.  Then let students color and learn about groups of animals.

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Possible?? Audio QR Help

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Imagine students' artwork hanging in your school's hallway and beside each masterpiece is a QR code. When parents, students, and other teachers scan the code using a mobile device, they hear the student telling about themselves and the relevance of their art... Or what about a QR code in the back of a library book that allows you to hear a student's review of the book? Or a QR code sent home to parents that allows them to listen to their 1st grader reading or telling a story? Sounds difficult, doesn't it? Well, don't worry - it really isn't hard at all! I'll give you two options for recording the audio files and will show you a couple of ways to "embed" them into QR codes.
Two Options for
Recording the audio file and generating a URL:

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1. Go to: recordmp3.org
Note - The first time you use this site, you will need to click a couple of buttons to set it up. Just follow the on-screen directions.

2. Record the audio.

3. Click the "Save Recording" button.

4. Copy the provided URL.

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Audacity/DropBox

1. Use the free recording software, Audacity, to record the audio.

2. Export the recorded audio file (use the default .wav format) and put it into your public DropBox folder.

3. Right-click the file (within DropBox).

4. Choose the DropBox option from the pop up menu.

5. Select "Copy Public Link."

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Use an online QR Creator

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Batch-Generating Codes in a Google Spreadsheet

The following was recorded using RecordMP3 and the code was generated using www.kaywa.com:

The following was recorded using Audacity and placed in the public DropBox folder. The code was generated using QRHacker:

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Imagine students' artwork hanging in your school's hallway and beside each masterpiece is a QR code. When parents, students, and other teachers scan the code using a mobile device, they hear the student telling about themselves and the relevance of their art...

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Guided Reading Binder for Upper Elementary {Free Forms

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Guided reading has always been a staple in my reading instruction. But, as much as I love guided reading, it is so easy (like scary easy) to have a jumbled mess

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Techie Teacher has great ideas

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Padlet is one of my favorite collaborative web tools to use with students that I have used for years. I love how versatile it is and how one can access a Padlet wall on laptops, Chromebooks, iPads and Android devices! If you are not familiar with Padlet then click HERE.

This week I helped a 5th grade class incorporate technology into their novel study groups. The teacher wanted to use Padlet for each team to gather ideas and brainstorm the events that they read about each day. I mentioned how anyone can MAKE a background for a Padlet wall to help students organize their digital sticky notes. She was so excited about this possibility! I whipped up these graphic organizers for the teacher to choose from each week and I wanted to share them with YOU:

We ended up making four different Padlet walls--one for each novel study group. Thank goodness for the remake feature that allowed us to quickly and easily make four different walls! Press the button once and BOOM the new board pops up in your dashboard.

Once the students worked together on their individual devices to add their ideas to the graphic organizer, the teacher printed the wall, deleted the post-its and uploaded a different graphic organizer for the next assignment. That way she didn't have to keep recreating 4 different walls each time. Honestly, creating a wall takes NO time and she may have spent more time deleting the post-its. However, this worked for her because she didn't have to print out different QR Codes to get to the new Padlet walls (for those who were using iPads) and didn't have to post new urls in her Google Classroom.

Note: We learned the hard way. The sticky notes will appear in different locations on the graphic organizers IF the students use different devices but work on the same board. Therefore, we had one group use iPads while the other three groups used their Chromebooks.

Here is a quick video tutorial I created to show how you can upload these graphic organizers to be the background of a Padlet wall:

Note: As I indicate in the video, you will most likely need to expand your browser window so the graphic organizer doesn't appear cut off.

I created these graphic organizers in PowerPoint and saved them as a jpeg. I did have to play with the formatting a bit. After a little trial and error, I finally had the size that fit perfectly on the Padlet wall. Give it a try!

Other ideas for customized Padlet wall activities include:

Having students label a diagram (parts of a cell, parts of a plant, layers of the Earth, maps, etc.)

Digital Board Game

Sorts (words, shapes, math sentences, etc.)

Exit Cards

Graphing

What are some other ways we could customize Padlet activities for our students? Leave your ideas in the comments!

UPDATE: Since this post was written, Padlet has had a major facelift! If you are having trouble moving your sticky notes, go to the three dotted icon in the upper right hand corner and click Change Format. Select the green Canvas option. This will allow you to move the stickies anywhere on your screen.

If the graphic organizers are not fitting to your screen then you can try zooming out of your browser or dragging the corner of your browser until it comes through. Several people have contacted me about this issue and I have passed on the information to Padlet and hoping to hear back soon!

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How to Customize Padlet Walls: Plus FREE Graphic Organizers!

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This blog is intended to give helpful tips and tricks for incorporating technology into your classroom.

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.