Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Free Printable Literature Lessons from Scholastic Book Clubs
Scholastic Books - the Clubs, the Website and the Products Run, don't walk to find your nearest Scholastic Book Fair or catalog or go online to http://www.scholastic.com/ . If you haven't accessed the deluge of great inexpensive and free resources at Scholastic, then what are you waiting for? Review of one the finest companies dedciated to promoting literacy, education and learning. Free Printable Veterans Day, Armistice Day Lessons
Veterans
Day is celebrated November 11. It's also called Armistice Day and Remembrance
Day. We honor veterans, military and those who've died. We remember World War
One, which truce was called on November 11, 1918. Here are free printable
Veterans Day coloring pages. Images include American military, patriotic themes
and WWI history.
Edupics
has free printable
Remembrance Day coloring pages. There are also over 100 military pictures to print and color. There are images of soldiers, weapons,
vehicles, sailors, uniforms and insignia. Pictures are realistic and detailed. They
cover wars from different countries and times in history. There are sections
on printable WWI and WWII coloring pages.
Apples
4 the Teacher has several sections with printable coloring pages for
holidays. Veterans Day coloring
pages are linked here.
Here's the site's free printable Social Studies lesson plans page. There are printable coloring pages
of flags, presidents, famous people, American symbols and history.
Raising
Our Kids has a really nice assortment of free printable
Veterans Day coloring pages. These could be used to make homemade cards for American national
patriotic holidays like 4th of July and Memorial Day, too.
Coloring
Book Fun has a free printable patriotic themed coloring pages. These simple images would make good preschool holiday
activities. Little ones can color them for greeting cards to give to senior
citizens.
DL-TK
has free printable
Remembrance Day coloring pages and crafts. There are also mini booklets to use
as coloring books. There are Veterans Day word searches and puzzles and poppy
crafts. Coloring.ws has more Veterans Day coloring pages to print free.
Here
are free printable GI Joe
coloring pages from Educational
Coloring Pages. 101 Coloring Pages has more GI Joe coloring pages to print free. Print a coloring book for kids to
teach them what Veterans Day is and why we celebrate it.
Free Printable Reading Games, Online Spelling and Reading Games
Parents,
does it worry you how much your kids play phone or online games? Do you worry
that their reading skills will stagnate if they play too many online games?
Well, here's a workaround--turn them on to online word games for kids and
Internet reading games. Here are free online games for kids, including word
games, reading games and spelling games. These reading games can be played on
computers or cellphones. Teachers, use these online games for kids to boost not
only reading skills, but spelling, grammar, syntax, vocabulary and writing
skills. Playing online word games helps visual tracking, perceptual acuity and
typing skills, too.
No
matter how educational free online games for kids are, parents should still
limit time spent gaming. 15-20 minutes of play between tasks is fine. Two hours
sitting at the computer or playing on their phones is too much. Gaming should
also be done in proportion to outside time and physical activity. For every
hour spent on the computer, at play or work, there should be an equal amount of
active time. So, here are the best educational free online games for kids to
improve reading skills.
ABCya
offers Super Word Toss, one of several free online games for kids to teach reading
skills. These word games help children work with synonyms and antonyms to learn
word meanings. Check out the other word games, reading games and spelling games
on this site.
Arcademics
has loads of educational free online games for
kids. Visit the homepage to
find reading games, spelling games, word games, math games and more.
Gamequarium
is another educational site with thousands of free online games, There are over
1,500 reading games and nearly 1,000 ELA (English Language Arts) games,
including reading games, word games, vocabulary games and spelling games.
From
Addicting Games (another free online games site) comes Whizz Words and Whizz Words Deluxe. Kids will learn reading
skills playing these crazy fun word games. These spelling games teach kids
lightning-fast reflexes, quick thinking and super spelling skills. Whizz Words
games combine the concepts of Boggle and Yahtzee. Players have limited time
make words from a set of letters but they can only earn points in one
category-- 3-letter, 4-letter, 5-letter and so on. The trick with these
spelling games is to figure out which letter combinations offer the most of any
given word length and then make only words of that length.
Free Printable Kevin Henkes Lesson Plans
Kevin
Henkes has given the world of children's literature some wonderfully endearing
stories. Most Kevin Henkes kids' books feature anthropomorphic mice facing
typical issues that children face. Beloved Kevin Henkes characters include
Sheila Rae the Brave, Chrysanthemum, Julius, Owen, Lilly, Chester, Wemberly and
Wendell. His kids' book "Kitten's First Full Moon," won the coveted
and prestigious Caldecott book medal for best illustrations in children's literature.
If
you like this lovable children's literature author, you will want to visit his
website and explore thefree printable Kevin
Henkes book activities he's
made based on some of his beloved characters. The website has free printable
word games, puzzles and coloring pages. These are useful for summer enrichment
activities, day care fun, children's literature lesson plans and homeschooling
activities. Or parents might want to print them just for fun at home.
Kevin
Henkes' publisher, Harper Collins has put some of the free printable activities
on their website. You might like the free printable activity
book for "Lilly's Big Day" Lilly eagerly awaits the best day of her life,
being a flower girl in a wedding. She encounters the usual fears and drama.
This activity book would be great follow-up or preparation for any event that
your child is anticipating. Bibliotherapy, or problem-solving using literature
is especially therapeutic for young or special needs children who struggle to
find their own voice. Seeing a funny little mouse experience similar events and
feelings is tremendously reassuring.
Lilly
is the same mouse who so charmed with her purple plastic purse in the book of
the same name. Scroll down the page here for all the Lilly and Lilly's Purple Plastic
Purse printables Teaching Heart
has free printable
"Wemberly Worried" and "Chrysanthemum" activities. There are lesson plans from the Kevin Henkes
book "Owen" too. Read these books your kids, parents, and you'll see
why everyone loves them so.
Free Printable File Folder Games
March
is National Reading Month. Here's a great lesson plan to teach reading with
file folder games. Students can learn just about any subject using file folder
games to reinforce content and practice skills. Here are free printable file folders games online. Besides reading, teach math,
reading, spelling, grammar, phonics, science, social studies and more. Print
games for all ages and ability levels: preschool, kindergarten, elementary,
special needs, middle school. Use for homeschool, too.
File
Folder Fun has over 100 free printable file
folder games in content areas
across the curriculum. Search by age, grade level, theme and subject. File
folder themes include animals, foods, flowers, weather, ocean life, circus.
Themes teach math, reading, science, social studies, phonics, spelling, math,
ELA (English Language Arts) history, music and other preschool and elementary
school subjects. Click the games you want. The click "download." And
voila, a screen appears with game background, pieces, cards, all materials you
need, free.
File
Folder Farm has gobs of free printable file
folder games for math, English,
reading, writing, spelling, science, social studies and more. Games can be used
with varied ages. Click the game you want. The print, cut out and and assemble.
Or better still, print in black and white. Have students color, cut and paste
and assemble. You get two activities--craft, lesson plan and game--all in one!
Cindy's
Autistic Support has free printable math file folder games. Use to teach counting, addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division file folder games. You can make individual games
for each math fact (times table) family.
To
make file folder games:
Print
game board and glue to inside of file folder. Write instructions on outside.
Laminate or cover with contact paper. Make a spinner by drawing a circle.
Divide like a pie. Label segments with game advancement options. Place
paperclip on paper fastener (brad). Poke fastener through center of circle.
Spin paper clip.
Store
game cards or pieces in zippered plastic bag or envelope stapled to folder.
File folder games store upright in filing cabinet or drawer. Get extra craft
mileage from free printable file folder games by assigning students make them.
Free Printable Handwriting, Cursive Penmanship Worksheets
One
of the lessons that often gets lost in a teacher's busy school day is penmanship. Arguably, cursive is less
important with the advent of computers. Legible handwriting is not nearly as
prized as it was when students wrote more and typed less. Older people remember
spending hours practicing manuscript and cursive writing. And their penmanship
was neater.
This isn't a debate over the validity of teaching cursive or handwriting skills. Teachers should at least look for neatness in
schoolwork. Here are free printable handwriting worksheets, manuscript writing
practice pages and cursive penmanship worksheets. Use free printable manuscript
(printing letters) and cursive writing worksheets.
There
are different methods and styles for teaching penmanship. Zaner-Bloser style is
the older handwriting style in which printed letters are written vertically
with no slant. Then D'Nnealian came into vogue in the early 1980s. D'nealian
manuscript (printed letters) are written at a slant with more rounding of
letters. D'nealian is more comfortable to write and works with the curves of
the hand and body. D'Nealian print also transitions to cursive writing better.
Here are free printable penmanship lessons for both styles of handwriting
worksheets.
Writing
Wizard has many free printable
handwriting worksheets and writing practice pages for manuscript (print) and cursive writing
practice pages. There are upper and lower case letters. You can print pages
with single letters to practice. Kids Zone has really nice free printable handwriting worksheets and
writing practice pages. The
letters are grouped according the movements needed to write them. For example,
there are the "rockin" round' letters and the "up the slide
letters." This site is very kid-friendly. There are gobs more free
printable writing and reading lessons on printing, tracing, alphabet, Dolce
sight words, phonics, poetry and more.
Handwriting
for Kids has a collection of free printable penmanship writing practice
pages and handwriting
worksheets. Look for cursive writing practice pages on this site. Home
Education Resources has a great assortment of free printable penmanship lessons and handwriting worksheets. Each of the
cursive handwriting worksheets has a coloring picture on it. Children love to
color the pictures when they have finished their handwriting practice. Make the
coloring page a reward. When they have shown you their five best examples of the
letter, they get to color the pictures.
Handwriting
may be a lost art, but it will probably always be needed to some extent. Use
these free printable handwriting practice pages as lesson plans, in homeschool
or tutoring.
Free Printable Mystery Writing Prompts, Story Starter Ideas
Are you writing cracker-bland stories that readers only nibble? What defines a story that readers gulp down whole, beg for more before the first even digests? Characters, plot, climax and something else. Learn to write gulp-down-whole stories. A detective story is a branch of mystery fiction with more definitive parameters. Here's how to write stellar detective fiction.
-Write what you know. If you grew up in Michigan in the 1960's or Mozambique in the 1940's, write to that specific knowledge. If you were in a particular culture or religion, use that too.
-Choose a time period and locale: You can set your story in any time period or place, as long as you know enough about it to make your writing credible.
-Choose a primary setting. Where did the whodunit take place? An abandoned mental hospital, a disused school, onboard a ship, in an old lady's ancestral home: tie it to your locale and envision the details. Be precise, especially as the setting affects the mystery.
-Create a detective: Depending on your setting, match an appropriate person. Your detective can be of any age, strata of society, occupation or nationality.
-Determine how your detective will interact with official authorities. Is he a policeman? Does she solve mysteries as a hobby, but assist with investigations? Maybe he hasn't always been on the side of justice. Father Brown's friend Flambeau was once the greatest jewel thief in Europe. Perhaps your detective operates separately from public investigators or is too young to work professionally. Your detective may have a different occupation altogether: librarian, pharmacist, garbage man (I'll bet a trash collector sees lots of dirty secrets).
-Frame the crime: It may involve a celebrated murder, art theft or a simple local incident that affects only certain people. Maybe it's just an odd occurrence that unravels a larger problem. Outline and sequence the problem. Create a timetable for personal reference and draw a map if necessary. These become the plot.
-People the story. Who are the dramatis personae? Fill in characters, witnesses, suspects, accessories and assistants. Perhaps it's a airplane crew, or members of a club or a family in which the crime occurs.
-Scatter some clues. Toss in details that a witness may notice but not understand. General clues are fine, but try to spice them up (tire marks from certain vehicle, unique food). At the same time, don't make them so complicated that only an expert would understand them.
-Identify the MMO: Every crime is based motive, method and opportunity. The motive is the reason a character might have for committing a crime (money, jealousy). The method is how the crime committed (in the old garage with a tire iron). The opportunity means who was available to have committed the crime.
-Identify the alibis (or lack thereof) for characters: According to the timetable, decide who was where and when at the time the problem occurred or crime was committed.
-Write a climax: Generally, something happens which brings all the events together. It's usually an event of some drama with some element of surprise. You might include some danger or disaster. It is this event that ultimately explains the mystery.
-Write your denouement: This is the resolution of the mystery. This is when secrets come out and loose ends are wrapped up. Some details will reveal themselves and your detective can articulate the rest: the what, who, when, where, how and why.
-Summarize with a short conclusion. Here is the final outcome where we part company with the detective. You might even give a few hints about her next adventures,
Be sure to read a few detective stories for inspiration.
Free Printable Diary of a Wimpy Kid Lesson Plans
Jeff Kinney was
named one of Time Magazine's top 100 most influential people a few years ago.
And I'm going to guess that unless you're in middle school, you've never heard
of him. What has Kinney done to merit such a nomination?
Besides
sharing a last (maiden) name with me, Kinney is the author of the wildly
popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid kids book series.
The Wimpy Kid in question is Greg Heffley and the "diary" is his
personal journal of life in middle school. What makes these books resonate so
with kids? They're graphic novels (educationally correct name for cartoons).
Pictures
poke fun at everyone in Heffley's young life, including himself. We empathize
with Greg's intimidation by tuned-out teen brother Roderick and annoyance at
lisping, ever-innocent younger brother Manny.
Series
includes Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Last Straw, Roderick Rules, Dog Days, The
Ugly Truth, Cabin Fever, Third Wheel, Hard Luck, Greg Heffley's Journal and a
Do-it-Yourself Book. The Long Haul came out in November. Here are free
printable Diary of a Wimpy Kids activities for Children's Book Week 2015, May
4-10.
Fun
Brain has an online Diary of a Wimpy Kid book to read. Parent site Poptropica
has free Diary of a Wimpy
Kid printables. ESL Printables
has free Diary of a Wimpy
Kid worksheets. Here's a Diary of a Wimpy Kid
quiz to print from Quiz
Moz. Ed Helper has a make your own Diary of a Wimpy Kid
word wall.
Teacher
Vision has a free printable Diary
of a Wimpy Kid unit with writing activities, reading extensions,
text to text questions, text-to-life connections and text to self connections
based upon the book series. These sites have free printable Diary
of a Wimpy Kid coloring pages. Here's the other list of Diary of a Wimpy Kid
pages to print.
Free Printable Leveled Readers, Phonics Workbooks
Your
new reader has just mastered her phonics lessons;
she's reading with some fluency. But summer vacation is here. She won't have
access to classroom readers. Do you buy a set of classroom readers to keep up
her momentum? You can but you don't need to; there are free printable reading
books, phonics books, spelling, vocabulary and grade leveled readers right here
on the Internet. Or maybe you need some summer
enrichment writing activities for your reluctant reader. He's not too crazy
about reading to start with, and you are concerned about how the long summer
will affect his phonics and reading skills. Certainly you need some reading and
writing activities that your children will enjoy. You will also want free
printable reading books, phonics books, spelling and writing activities that
are easy to manage.
The
sole reason many people hire a tutor for their children is that they feel
inadequately prepared to teach them. It's important that if you elect to tutor
your child at home, you feel confident and prepared. As a teacher, parent and
former homeschooler myself, I can assure you that you can tutor your children
at home. With the multitude of free printable reading books, spelling, writing
activities and phonics lessons available, all you really need to do is assemble
some materials for your child, spend a few moments each day on the writing
activities, monitor his progress, and most importantly, relax and have fun.
This
link offers over 30 free printable reading books and leveled
readers to cut, color and
assemble. Making booklets will be fun for you and your child to enjoy together.
Print these booklets free of charge by simply submitting a valid email address.
There are no fees. Naturally, Reading A-Z hopes that you may purchase more of their
fine materials. That is your choice. Meanwhile you may enjoy the free booklets.
These books are written according to grade level. There are stories that
introduce science, social studies and other school content, while practicing
phonics, syllables and spelling patterns. Enchanted Learning has more free printable reading books and leveled
readersand booklets. DL-TK has
many free printable reading
books and leveled readers for preschool, emergent reader and early readers.
Free Printable Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Activities
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a
wonderfully whimsical children's story written by Judi and Ron Barrett in 1982.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a modern tall tale. Here are free printable Cloudy with
a Chance of Meatballs activities and lesson plans. There are reading lessons,
writing activities, literature extensions, lessons in hyperbole, genre study
and even a weather unit based on the book.
Ed Helper has several free printable Cloudy
With a Chance of Meatballs lesson plans.
Check here for more free printable lesson
plans based on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This site has free printable Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs weather science activities.
Click here for free printable vocabulary and reading lesson
plans from Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs. Here's a site with free printable vocabulary lessons based on Cloudy With a Chance
of Meatballs. And last but not least, for a little
fun from all that study, free printable Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs movie coloring pages!
Explore this blog for free printable lesson plans on other favorite kids books!
Free Printable Series of Unfortunate Events Activities
A
Series of Unfortunate Events, is an endearingly popular children's literature
series. It's penned by the mysterious and elusive author Lemony Snicket. Despite the gloomy author's grim predictions
that no one will like these kids books, millions
of children and adults continue follow the Baudelaire children, Klaus, Violet
and Sunny. Why not read this wonderful children's literature series with your
students or homeschool kids? Here are free printable Series of Unfortunate Events
worksheets and activities to
supplement.
Lemony
Snicket has over twenty different free printable Series of Unfortunate Events games, activities, coloring pages, word games,
trivia, ciphers, crossword puzzles, fill-in-the-blanks, anagrams and activities
based on works of children's literature. You'll love the activities using Sunny
Baudelaire's baby talk to translate messages. Harper Collins, publisher of
Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events free
printable 20 page literature guide and activity
book based on the Series of Unfortunate Events kids books. The illustrations
come from the book and can be used as coloring pages. They lesson plans are
called Lamentable Lesson Plans.
This
site has free printable Lemony
Snicket activities and games based on ASoUE kids books. Notably, there is a link for a free
download of the complete Series of Unfortunate Events game for PC. There are
also complete free printable Series of Unfortunate Events reading guides for
the 13 kids books (of course he had to stop at unlucky number 13!) Lemony
Snicket (Daniel Handler) is one intelligent dude. This link to Quiddich show
that despite being children's literature, there are many adult allusions to
history, literature and world events in the Series of Unfortunate Events kids books. These volumes of children's literature
make excellent classroom literature for read-aloud and reader's workshop and
teen novel study. The vocabulary is challenging, plots are complicated,
characters are engaging and the concept riveting. Explore them in your school,
library summer reading club, homeschool or book discussion group. The movies
have been quite popular too.
Free Printable Shel Silverstein Printable Activities
Shel
Silverstein is a beloved poet, children's author, musician and artist. He's
given the world of children's literature dozens of books, poems and funny
illustrations to enjoy. Shel passed away in 1999, but children's literature
will never forget his charming, silly poems and books. A Light in the Attic,
Where the Sidewalk Ends, Runny Babbit, The Giving Tree, Don't Bump the Glump,
Lafdacio, the Lion Who Shot Back, A Giraffe and a Half, The Missing Piece,
Falling Up are just a few of his delightful works of wit and whimsy. InSilverstein's
poems, animals talk, grown-ups are silly and children rule the world from
cardboard pirate ships. If you would like to play in his wonderful world, here
are free printable Shel Silverstein activities, coloring pages and lesson plans.
There
are free printable Shel Silverstein lesson plans,
games and poetry writing prompts and activities for National Poetry
Month in April. There are online Shel Silverstein games you can play.They each feature the funny characters from
favorite Shel Silverstein poems. He's made free printable poetry writing prompts and
activities booklets as
well. These poetry writing prompts are perfect for classroom lesson plans,
homeschool and library reading clubs But you don't need to be a teacher,
librarian or even an adult to enjoy free printable lesson plans. His website is
devoted to his favorite people: kids!
For
young artists, cartoonists and poets, Silverstein designed a free printable
poetry writing prompts and activities for children to illustrate. Kids will
love creating their own poetry prompts and activities book about "Kate's
Scissors" and all the funny things Kate cuts with her scissors. There's
another poetry writing prompts activities booklet called "Eight
Balloons" for children to make. There are Shel Silverstein themed crafts
too. Here are free printable Giving Tree lesson plans. This Sweet Life is a blog with a free printable
Shel Silverstein activities packet. Print crossword puzzles, word search,
coloring pages and more. Teacher Vision has free printable Shel Silverstein activities, too.
Free Printable Calendars, Lesson Planners, Grade Book
Print
Free has gobs and gobs of free printable calendars in tons of different views and
configurations. There are monthly calendar printouts, weekly date planners,
year-at-a-glance, two-month calendars and online organizers. Choose from
different patterns and themes. Select vertical or horizontal style personal
planners. Opt for major holidays to be included. There's nothing to download.
Just choose the style you want, point and shoot (or click and print, in this
case).
Print
2016 Calendars has a vast array of free printable calendars in month styles. Fonts differ by bold,
large-print and outline design. Print your online organizers as in grid,
bookmark, year-at-a-glance and other styles. These calendar printouts open in
PDF or Microsoft Word format (you have to have those software tools installed
and enabled to open and print).
Here
are tools for online organizers and personal planners to create free printable calendarsfrom Calendar Labs. Add in religious holidays
from your specific faith--dates for those are included. Perhaps your religion
follows a different calendar, like Hebrew, Islam or Indian. This tool will help
you generate and customize a (western year) calendar.
Here's
yet another link for free printable calendars to customize. Win Calendar has a really
nice, easy-to-use layouts for online organizers. Design personal planners and
calendar printouts in the style that works best for you.
Free Printable Inkheart Activities, Lessons
March is National Reading Month, and what better time to explore
best loved children's literature classics? The movie Inkheart was based on a
trilogy of books by Cornelia Funke, including Inkheart, Inkspell and Inkdeath.
This wonderful set of medieval type fantasy literature continues to thrill
readers as the film did in 2009. Destined to become a children's literature
classic, here are free printableInkheart lesson plans, fantasy coloring pages and activities based on the Cornelia Funke
collection. Check EdHelper for free printable Inkheart book activities. Scholastic has a free printable Inkheart literature guide for Cornelia Funke books Inkspell and
Inkdeath and companion movies.
The movie website at Warner Bros. has downloads including a free printable Inkheart activity booklet. Keep the Inkheart magic
alive with beautifully illustrated word puzzles, word games, crossword,
mad-libs, maze, hidden messages, design a fantasy butterfly and more. Each
activity page can be enjoyed as a coloring page as well. The drawings are
intricate and whimsical and will help readers respond to Inkspell and Inkdeath
as they read them.
Beyond that, there aren't too many Cornelia Funke Inkheart,
Inkspell or Inkdeath coloring pages available online, so here are general fantasy and medieval coloring pages. Here's a page of free printable Inkheart activities and lesson plans as well. Here are a few Inkheart lesson
plans that cover
Inkspell and Inkdeath, too. Cornelia Funke has written a literary classic which
became a much-loved movie with Brendan Frasier, Andy Serkis Helen Mirren, Jim
Broadbent and Paul Bettany. Lovers of fantasy books will love joining Mo,
Meggie, Dustfinger, Farid, Resa and all the fantastical characters of Inkheart.
And maybe filmmakers will make Inkspell into a sequel?
Free Printable Reading Lesson Plans, Writing, Literature, ELA Activities
Here are free printable reading worksheets, online reading
activities, phonics lessons, English Language Arts or ELA activities and online
reading games
Educator
Adrian Bruce has a website loaded with free printable reading activities, phonics lessons, ELA activities and online
reading games to
The
Teacher's Corner provides free printable reading worksheets on spelling, decoding, phonics lessons,
comprehension, vocabulary, ELA activities
Ed
Helper is literally jammed with thousands of free printable reading worksheets, phonics lessons, spelling and ELA activities
and online reading activities.
Free Websites for English, Essay, Report, Composition, Writing Help
Top 10 Websites for Free Printable English Lesson Plans Review of websites that offer free English or writing homework help. Great sources for assistance with report writing, creative writing, essays, personal narrative, poetry, composition and technical writing. read on
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