Free Printable Reading Response Journal Activities and Rubric for ELA (English Language Arts)

Kids get tired of doing the same ho-hum book reports and worksheets. The best way to teach any subject is with hands-on activities. Teach reading and literature study with interactive, personalized reading response journals. Get students interact with books, to take stories apart and live them, to explore characters, themes, symbols. Here are 50 printable activities to do that. They're multi-sensory, and employ HOTS (higher order thinking skills). I've included a template for a student activity calendar to organize response activities. Note. One of the activities is to create Facebook social profiles for characters. Optional Activities for an ELA (English Language Arts) Response Journal Rubric

Free Printable Summer Reading Activities, Book Crafts, Literature Games

March is National Reading Month, kicked off by "Read Across America." Schools abound with reading opportunities. But what about those long summer months? Here are summer reading enrichmentactivities to keep kids' noses in books year-round! Included are interactive reading response activities, ELA (English language arts) lessons, book-based crafts and literature response lessons. Use these multi-sensory, cross-curricular Montessori-based lessons for Readers Workshop, special education students, reluctant readers and divergent learners too.

Entrepreneurial reading. Research, plan and organize summer money-making or nonprofit fundraising ventures: yard sale, babysitting, lawn and pet services, knitting and craft sales, housecleaning. Host a lemonade stand. Lemonade Day shows how.

Book-based crafts. Scholastic has free printable book crafts, games and literature response activities. Access Scholastic publishers' vast data base of children's literature. Get games, crafts and printables from favorite kids' books.

DIY summer reading camp. Have kids start their own summer reading club. Education.com has free printable reading activities. Utilize materials and your local library. Host book club activities in your backyard! Discuss favorite books, make crafts, play games, act out stories and enjoy book-themed snacks!

Book recipes. Make foods described in books. Look for companion cookbooks to favorite books: American Girls, Little House on the Prairie, Haunted America, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs have cookbooks with recipes from the stories. Invent recipes based on books. We made Winnie-the-Pooh "haycorn" (pecan) pie and honey cookies.

Readers theater or puppet show. Make book character puppets. Have kids retell story. Or let them write their own stories using homemade puppets. My kids wrote a puppet show using puppets from Mercer Mayer's "There's a Nightmare in my Closet", Mike Mulligan's steam shovel (from Virginia Lee Burton's book) and "Word Bird" (Jane Belk Moncure).

Reading response journal. Have kids track reading and complete activities. Check my blog Free Lesson Plans 4U and Free Printable Lesson Plans and Kidz Literature for tips to make literature response journals and activity suggestions. Here's a free printable reading calendar from PBS.

Rewards and incentives. Participate with Pizza Hut Book-It program. The first week of March is the "Let's all Read" program, partnered with One More Story. Kids read and get pizza, plus they donate to RIF by reading! Double good! Incent reading with books. Join Scholastic--get free books for ordering. Give as prizes for completed reading.

Free Printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Legend of the Guardians Book and Movie Activities

The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole is a movie based on the books called the Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lansky. The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole depicts stories about the fabled owl warriors, the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a fictitious land. The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole opened in 2010 and featured voices of Helen Mirren, Miriam Margoyles, Hugo Weaving, Geoff Rush, Sam Neill, Abbie Cornish, David Wenham, Richard Roxbourgh, Emilie de Ravin and Jim Sturgess as the protagonist Soren.

This magical, mythical, mystical Guardians of Ga'Hoole book series has many volumes and is still popular in schools. Here are free printable Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole activities. Scholastic has a free printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole activity pack. Author Kathryn Lansky has researched owls and shares her work in games, puzzles and crafts. Play the Battle of Ga'hoole with owls as allied and axis powers.Here are free printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole lesson plans for teachers. There is a beautifully illustrated owl mobile featuring characters from the books. Cut and paste and assemble this mobil while you explore the books. There is also a link to free printable Guardians of Ga'Hoole collectible character cards. Print and collect all the character cards. Turn them over to create a wall poster puzzle.

There are also free printable owl posters from the books and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole movie. There are two free printable owl words games as well. Print and owl word search and an owl jumbled words sheet. These free printable coloring pages on owls. These activities would make excellent resources for a school unit on owls. These printables work well as classroom or bedroom decor, party crafts, party games and Guardians of Ga'hoole theme party. Here are posters and biographical facts on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole--Soren, Digger, Twilight, Eglantine, Glyfie, Kludd, Boron and Noctus. For more free printable learning activities, visit Free Printable Lesson Plans and Kidz Literature.

Free Printable Charlie Bone Book Series Activities and Games

Charlie Bone Book Series by Jenny Nimmo: Review and Free Activities In 2002, British author Jenny Nimmo gave us Midnight for Charlie Bone. The Charlie Bone books series has grown to six and is finding a delighted audience with children and teens. Here are links for free Charlie Bone activities and games. read more