FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - Reading Comprehension Spinner - Fiction

by Hilary Lewis

2nd & 3rd Grade

Create your own comprehension spinner for your students to use during or after reading a story. These spinners are a fun, simple, and easy tool for kids to use and meet requirements from the new common core standards for telling about a story.

Just copy, mount on tag board, laminate, and attach a spinner and you are ready to roll! The spinner covers main characters, "what would you do if you were a main character?", setting, main idea, problem/solution, important details, and ending of the story. If you have any questions or would like me to modify the spinner for your class, please contact Hilary Lewis at hilary35@mac.com. Please be sure to put TPT in the subject line so that I know it isn't junk mail.   Thanks! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Comprehension-Spinner-Fiction

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 25, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - Author’s Purpose Practice Interactive Powerpoint

by PowerPoint Maniac

2nd - 7th Grade

This 26 slide interactive powerpoint takes the three parts of Author's purpose: to inform, to entertain, and to persuade and turns them into a fun interactive quiz. This is whiteboard ready! Students will love the 3D graphics and custom animations. This goes along great with my best selling Author's Purpose Power Point lesson!    (click on "product description" to see the links)   That can be found here! 

Visit Power Point Maniac's Facebook page and click "Like" to get updates and great resources

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Authors-Purpose-Practice-interactive-Powerpoint-Activity

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 25, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE MISC. LESSON - Irregular Verbs Avoir, Etre, Aller, Faire - Present Tense Worksheet

by Madame Aiello

5th - 9th Grade

Newly Revised - improved layout...

A worksheet of 15 fill in the blank questions to practice the irregular verbs etre, aller, avoir, and faire in the present tense.

Part B on the worksheet asks the student to select a few sentences to translate into English, as an extension of the activity, or to assign as homework.

Created for a 7th grade class, but it would be appropriate for other levels as well.

The product includes an answer key.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Irregular-Verbs-Avoir-Etre-Aller-Faire-Present-Tense-Worksheet

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 25, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - Reading & Retelling Bookmarks

by KindergartenWorks

Kindergarten - 2nd Grade

Give your students the tools to practice focusing on reading for comprehension with these bookmarks. Six different colored bookmarks are ready to print and use. Great for at-home reading or in-school practice.

Features these key questions/elements:

- What happened at the beginning of the story?

- Tell about the characters.

- Where does this story take place? What is the setting?

- Is there a problem? Is there a pattern?

- Did the problem get solved? When did the pattern change?

- What happened at the end of the story? How did the author wrap it up?

Using icons that are repeated in other KindergartenWorks products, these are beginning-reader friendly.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Retelling-Bookmarks

FREE MATH LESSON - Preschool and Kindergarten Math Games Sample - Identifying Numbers

by Teacher Tam

Preschool - 1st Grade

Math games that cover: addition, subtraction, patterns, number identification, place value, counting, graphing, probability, and sorting.

Teacher Tam's Math Games are a set of 11 games for preschool to first grade. The level of each game can be adjusted to fit the skill level of the student using the blank game board. In this game, "Name That Number," students play a fun game while identifying numbers up to 100. In the set of 11 games, color and black and white versions are included. 97 pages. 

The games are: 

Addition Journey - an addition game with game boards 

Count, Count, Count - a counting and estimation game 

Finish My Pattern - a pattern game using cubes 

Hop to It! Math - a subtraction board game 

Mitten Match - a matching game using the count on strategy of addition 

Name That Number - a number identification game using cards 

Roll With It! - a graphing and probability game 

Sharks and Minnows Math - an addition game with cards 

Sort it Out! - a game which has students sort objects 

Subtraction Tic-Tac-Toe - students practice subtraction skills 

Where is that Number? - a number identification and place value game using cards 

Be sure to check out Teacher Tam's other items for more FREE TEACHER STUFF!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Preschool-And-Kindergarten-Math-Games-Sample-identifying-Numbers

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 24, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE MATH LESSON - Multiplication Facts X5 Worksheets

by Jan Lindley

2nd - 4th Grade

When students struggle to memorize multiplication facts, teachers often struggle to find practice activities that are specific to one set of facts. This packet of 9 activities focuses on X5 facts. There is a manipulative activity using picture cards, a concentration memory game, X5 tic tac toe, a practice page of one hundred X5 facts, a one-minute timing, and activities with arrays and multiples. This group of activities provides the explicit practice your students need to master X5 facts. It is one of a series of packets focused on specific multiplication families.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Multiplication-Facts-X5-Worksheets

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE SOCIAL STUDIES LESSON - Political Cartoon Online Analysis Activity

by English/American Studies Goods

8th - 12th Grade

This activity requires access to a computer lab for your students. It makes use of the incredible political cartoon online "warehouse" at www.cagle.com. The activity has students go to the site and explore various current events from a variety of perspectives. It works well as a study in satire as well as giving students a fresh (and easily understood) take on the day's news.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Political-Cartoon-Online-Analysis-Activity

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

VICTORIA LEON’S LESSON - Father’s Day Coupons - 3 Versions

by Victoria Leon

Pre-K - 6th Grade

This 66 page product has 36 coupons per set. Set #1 has space for the students to draw a picture for that particular coupon. Set #2 has the students trace over the dotted letters of each coupon. In Set #3, the students may practice cutting on a straight line, but they do not have to write on the actual coupon.

There are ten covers for Sets #1 & #3 and four covers for Set #2. Blank pages of the three sets are also provided so that students may create their own coupons.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fathers-Day-Coupons-3-Versions

Congratulations to our winners...

Congratulations to Fernley McAllister Smith and Janine Normandia Fernandez for winning the 14 free Teachers Pay Teachers' products. Please contact Shelley at shelley_gray_@hotmail.com for details on how to receive your prizes.

Keep viewing "The Best of Teachers Pay Teachers" for more contests!  

FREE MISC. LESSON - Preterite of AR Verbs

by spanishplans

7th - 12th Grade

4 page packet describing the difference between presente tense and past tense (preterite/preterito) for -AR verbs including the irregular -Car, -Gar, -Zar verbs.

Answers included for partial notes portion.   Completely free packet, ready to use.   Print, make copies, and use in your class today!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Preterite-of-AR-Verbs

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - How to Address a Prompt Using a 3-part Strategy

by Melissa Soeltz

6th - 12th Grade

This presentation addresses the proper way to attack a prompt or comprehension question, and then details the 3-part strategy for answering it. Contains a sample using the movie CARS to do as a class model. I am also selling a handout to accompany this presentation:

**Please note that I have no ownership rights to the Disney images here, but only use them to add interest**

Please leave feedback!
If you like this, please take a look at my other offerings!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/How-to-Address-a-Prompt-Using-a-3-part-Strategy

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - FREE Book Order Form Literacy Center

by Sunny Days

2nd - 6th Grade

Capitalize on your student’s interest in the monthly book club order! Cut apart these cards, fold the direction tent, put out some extra copies of the book order and you have an instant high-interest center! Most activities focus on literacy skills, but there are a few math activities as well.

An answer sheet and center sign are also provided.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Book-Order-Form-Literacy-Center

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE MATH LESSON - Free Probability Powerpoint Game

by Vintage Teacher

5th - 9th Grade

The questions in this PowerPoint all deal with probability. The questions have the players determining the probability using a coin, spinners, determining totals based on options, and using data from a survey. When a correct answer is chosen, there is applause and the spot turns red to show the answer is correct. If the answer chosen is incorrect, you hear a blowing up sound and the square turns blue to signify it has already been chosen.

This lesson is great for a quick classroom review on a white board or on an individual computer to be played between two students. It is also a quick fun review of probability problems while preparing for mandated testing.

To add a sense of fun to the game, students get questions based upon the spot they chose in a game of electronic tic-tac-toe. If their choice is incorrect, the spot on the board goes to the other team. Three of your X's or O's in a row and you win!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Vintage Teacher

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Free-Probability-Powerpoint-Game

Watch and join my blog to learn what item will be put on sale each week from Thursday to Saturday.

http://vintageteacher.blogspot.com/

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

“Test Prep Tournaments For Any Grade and Any Subject”

by Victoria Leon

1st - 12th Grade

I hope you have enjoyed receiving the free products from the best teacher-authors of Teachers Pay Teachers.  I would also like to add my own TpT products to this blog.  Here is my best selling “Test Tournaments For Any Grade and Any Subject.”

Students will have fun reviewing for your state’s standardized tests, district tests, and classroom tests with these 11 test prep tournaments. The 70 pages include football, baseball, and tic-tac-toe game boards & specific directions for 11 tournaments. 

The tournaments may be used for any grade and any subject, but you need to supply the questions you want your students to study. Go to the Internet to access your state’s released questions of past standardized tests. Use questions from test prep booklets or your classroom textbooks. Write your own questions to review the skills you want your students to learn. 

Students may review spelling words, vocabulary definitions, and important events in social studies in whole class tournaments or at a learning center. Students may work in cooperative groups to solve computation problems or word problems. 

These tournaments work! Last year, my students took the 2009 California Standards Test. When comparing my students’ California Standards Test scores with me and how they had done the year before, one student went from Far Below Basic in second grade to Below Basic to Basic to Proficient with me in third grade and went up three levels. Three of my students went up two levels. Nine of my students went up one level. Three students stayed in their same level from second grade to third grade (one student was Proficient and stayed Proficient & two students were Advanced and stayed Advanced.) The final student in my class last year did not have a second grade test score, but scored Advanced in my class. I receive similar test scores each year. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Test-Prep-Tournaments-For-Any-Grade-and-Any-Subject

WIN 14 TEACHING RESOURCES!

Two winners will be drawn next Sunday, May 22. Each winner will receive all 14 teaching resources that are listed below!

• "Fairy Tales" Mix and Match Problem Solving Pack by Shelley Gray
• Using the Hamburger Model to Write Paragraphs and Essays” by Tools for Teachers by Laurah J.
• Literature Worksheets, 24 Ready to Use Pages for Any Book (Primary) by Rachel Lynette
• Sports Theme Classroom Pack by The Teched Out Teacher
• Dog Gone Good Contractions Learning Center or File Folder Game by The Teaching Bank
• Story Cubes for Reading and Writing by Lisa Frase
• Primary Math: Center Six-Pack by Sunny Days
• “Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots”  Book Study by Ashleigh
• Fabulous Fairy Tales Unit (Ideas for 10 Fairy Tales) by First Grade Brain (Mrs. Magee)
• Test Prep Tournaments for Any Grade and Any Subject by Victoria Leon 
• Poetry: The Music Of Our Hearts by One Extra Degree
• Book Clubs Made Easy by Hilary Lewis
• Simple Steps to Sentence Sense for Elementary Grades and ESL Students by Charlene Tess
• CVC Whirly Word Wheels by Nyla's Crafty Teaching

You can enter by completing any TWO of the items on the following list. Place one comment below this note for each entry (for example, “I now follow Sunny Days’ TpT store and Shelley Gray's FB page,” or “I already follow Rachel Lynette’s FB page and I am now following her TpT store," or "I already follow One Extra Degree's FB page and First Grade Brain's FB page.") Make sense? 

Here is how you can enter. Remember, you can enter up to 15 times (one entry for everyTWO items that you complete from this list):

1. Write about this contest on your blog. Include a link to this page.
2. Share this contest on your Facebook page. Include a link to this page.
3. Follow Shelley Gray’s TpT store. 
4. Follow Shelley Gray's FB page.
5. Follow Tools for Teachers by Laurah J’s TpT store. 
6. Follow Tools for Teachers by Laura J's FB page.
7. Follow Rachel Lynette’s TpT store.
8. Follow Rachel Lynette's FB page.
9. Follow Teched Out Teacher’s TpT store. 
10. Follow The Teched Out Teacher's FB page.
11. Follow The Teaching Bank’s TpT store.  
12. Follow The Teaching Bank's FB page.
13. Follow Lisa Frase’s TpT store. 
14. Follow Lisa Frase's FB page.
15. Follow Sunny Days’ TpT store. 
16. Follow Sunny Days' FB page.
17. Follow Ashleigh’s TpT store. 
18. Follow Ashleigh's FB page.
19. Follow First Grade Brain (Mrs. Magee’s) TpT store. 
20. Follow First Grade Brain (Mrs. Magee's)FB page.
21. Follow Victoria Leon’s TpT store. 
22. Follow Victoria Leon's FB page.
23. Follow One Extra Degree’s TpT store. 
24. Follow One Extra Degree's FB page.
25. Follow Hilary Lewis’ TpT store. 
26. Follow Hilary Lewis' FB page.
27. Follow Charlene Tess’ TpT store.
28. Follow Charlene Tess' FB page.
29. Follow Nyla's Crafty Teaching's TpT store. 
30. Follow Nyla's Crafty Teaching's FB page.

A random draw will be made on Sunday, May 22 and the announcement will be made here!

If you have any questions about this contest, please contact me by emailing shelley_gray_@hotmail.com.

Thank you for participating. Good luck!

~Shelley

CONTEST ON MONDAY

Win 14 teaching resources!   The directions will be posted tomorrow on "The Best of Teachers Pay Teachers."

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - "Live & Learn" Life Lessons Class Activity Anytime or End of the Year

by Tracee Orman
1st - 12th Grade

Excellent inspirational, fun, and rewarding activity!

Several years ago I was inspired by a little book called "Live and Learn and Pass It On" by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. His idea was to have others jot down the lessons they have learned in life. He compiled all these lessons into a book, identifying each only with the person's age. 

I thought it would be neat to see what my students could come up with at the end of the year. It's been such a positive experience that I wanted to share it with other teachers. Each year I read examples from the past to my students (who always want to know "Who wrote that one!?") before they write their own. Year after year I get funny ones, sad ones, and some shocking ones, too. It's a great way to wrap up your semester, year, at any age or grade level!


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Live-Learn-Life-Lessons-Class-Activity-Anytime-or-End-of-the-Year

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - Writing: Playing With Color

by Constance Casserly

4th - 12th Grade

This worksheet encourages students to stretch their thinking in regards to color. As they fill in the categories with their thoughts, feelings and mental associations regarding the color they will create both concrete and abstract associations that they can use in future pieces. It also helps them to use specific instead of general words. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Prod … With-Color

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FEATURED ARTICLE - The “WOW” Factor of Nature

by Amy Brown

This past week in my biology class was spent on a unit on classification and taxonomy.  This is one of my favorite topics to teach because the diversity of life on Earth is so incredible and amazing.  Just now, I am sitting at my kitchen table looking out over our large back yard.  The evidence of adaptation to our current environment astounds me.  I am making a list to share with my students on Monday:

1.   A hummingbird is at my feeder.  (Yes, in the deep south, we already have hummingbirds back from the winter.)  Its beak is perfectly adapted to extract the nectar from any flower.

2.   The bees are very active this morning, buzzing in and out of every flower in sight.  Flowering plants take advantage of the bee, and cover its body with pollen every time it lands on a flower.  What a perfect way to deliver a sperm cell to an egg cell of a flower a block away.

3.   The birds are singing like crazy this morning!  What a perfect way to find a mate and establish behavioral barriers between the species.

4.   I can see beetles who are perfectly camouflaged to blend in with their surroundings.

5.  The fruiting bodies of mushrooms are poking up from the ground to take advantage of the deluge of rain we have had this week.  Water will spread their spores to great distances.

6.  A great blue heron is wading at the edge of our shallow pond.  Its body is perfectly adapted for wading and grabbing up the small fishes it sees.

It is an amazing time of the year to be a science teacher.  Nature is packed full of examples that we can share with our students.  I certainly hope that my students come away from this unit with the same "awe" as I have when considering how natural selection has brought us to this point in Earth's history.  Every organism in our sight is adapted to this particular environment.  All we have to do is to look carefully at our surroundings and we will see a multitude of examples of adaptation.

My challenge to you is this:  When Spring hits your particular area of this beautiful earth, take a class period and go outside with your students.  Give them a magnifying glass.  Have them make a list of the living organisms they see, and have them describe how they are adapted to the environment.  Yes, some of them will be "off task" and some of them will misbehave, but some of them will get hooked on nature for life!   I teach high school students, and I am stunned each year at how few of them have ever planted a seed, taken a walk through the woods, hung a bird feeder at their home, thrown "helicopter" seeds into the air and watched them spin, watched a spider spin a web, the list could go on and on!

These children will be responsible for making decisions about our planet in just a short number of years. We better get them excited about nature.  We better make sure they understand how their actions impact our planet. Our students are the future caretakers of this beautiful planet and there is not an "app" for that.  I hope that when they are adults we have taught them enough about science and nature that they can make informed decisions about how to take care of it.

I hope that you will visit my blog and become a follower.  My blog is called "Science Stuff" and can be reached here:  http://sciencestuffbyamy.blogspot.com/.   

You can also visit my TeachersPayTeachers.com store here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Science-Stuff

My blog has links to quite a few FREE products that can be fun activities for both middle and high school science students.  I hope to see you there!

Amy Brown is the author of the blog called “Science Stuff”.  Amy has 27 years of teaching experience in high school biology, chemistry, and AP biology.  Her blog is about ways to make your class more engaging and exciting for the students.  You can find her blog at:  http://sciencestuffbyamy.blogspot.com/

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 30, 2011...Curriculum Development...I would love to share this blog article...

FREE MISC. LESSON - Test Taking Tips: A Recipe for Success!

by Teachers Unleashed

2nd - 12th Grade

This free product is an animated 22-slide presentation which will help to give your students testing taking skills to prepare them for their upcoming state standards test! With host chef Lemeril Spagasi, students are sure to learn a new tip or trick to help relieve their test taking anxiety! Use this presentation to boost your students' confidence and make test taking seem fun! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Prod … or-Success


To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - Would You Rather Questions for Kids!

by Rachel Lynette

2nd - 9th Grade

Use the 20 “Would You Rather Questions” in class discussions, class polls, or as a journal prompt.   

• Would you rather be the best player on a team that always loses or be the worst player on a team that always wins?
• Would you rather be banned from all computer use for a year or not be allowed to eat any desserts or sweets for a year?
• Would you rather be able to fly or be able to turn invisible?

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Prod … s-for-Kids

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE SCIENCE LESSON - Use of Lab Equipment and Data Analysis Skills

by Science Stuff

6th - 12th Grade

This lab covers the proper use of basic pieces of lab equipment and the data analysis skills of tabling and graphing.

This lab can be used with any type of science class that does lab work and with students in grades 6 through 12.   Use this free product to insure that your students will learn or review how to use basic pieces of lab equipment: a graduated cylinder, Bunsen burner, meter stick, thermometer, and quadruple beam balance. Students will work with this equipment and answer basic questions.

Basic data analysis skills are also included. Students will construct a data table, line graph, bar graph, and circle graph.

Your download will consist of 17 pages: a 7 page lab handout, 4 page student worksheet, 5 page answer key, and 1 page teacher preparation sheet. The lab handouts include: Title, Introduction, Purpose, Materials, Procedure, and Questions.

The pages are set up so that you can choose to have your students write their own lab reports or you can use the enclosed student data worksheets.

Your download will include two versions of this lab: a pdf file and a Word document. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Use-of-Lab-Equipment-and-Data-Analysis-Skills

To only teacher-authors on the Teachers Pay Teachers' Seller's Forum:  Feel free to cut and paste this submission to your blog, website, and/or promotional item...you just cannot sell it for profit.  Permission was granted on the Seller's Forum on April 23, 2011...Selling Tips...Freebie Promotion = FREE ADVERTISING!

FREE LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON - Literacy Worksheets For Any Book

by tchrBrowne 

1st - 5th Grade

These four literacy worksheets may be used with any picture book.  

1. Word Detectives - Draw and color four things you saw or heard about in the story.  Label each picture.
2. Fact or Nonfiction - What are four things that make the story real or not real?
3. Unique Yet Similar - Choose two characters from the story and compare and contrast them in a Venn diagram.
4. Dare to Compare - Compare two stories by the title, setting, main characters, story’s problem, solution to the problem, how the main character felt at the end, and genre.

Terri Browne

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Prod … r-any-book

FEATURED ARTICLE - Final State Standardized Test Preparations

by Victoria Leon

Whether you agree with it or not, your state’s standardized tests are becoming more “high stakes” each year.  How well your students do on “the big test” may determine your salary, if you get a “bonus,” or if you are fired.   In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the teacher’s name and value-added rating on how effective they are is reported to the entire world via the Los Angeles Times‘ website.

So rather than debating if “teaching to the test” is helping or hindering our students, here are some practical tips to think about as your students are getting ready to take their state’s standardized tests. 

• Be sure to read your state’s standardized test directions to make sure you can use these test preparation tips.
• Move your students’ desks in long rows so that they are not touching each other a few days before you begin standardized testing.  Changing your room environment will signal to your students that the tests they will be taking are different and more important than all of the chapter tests and quizzes they have taken throughout the year.  Be sure to not change the desks on the morning of the test.  You want to give your students a few days to feel comfortable in their new testing environment.
• I strategically place students according to their ability and demeanor in their new testing seats.  In my class, two students sit side by side at each desk.  I know which students are able to sit next to another student and which students should have their own desk for the test.  I place my more able students in the front of the class.  Since I watch the class take their test from the back of the room, I can easily get to my less able students seated at the back of the class.
• I write my students’ names on a map of their testing desks.  I use this map to pass out materials and I can cross out the student’s names once they have finished the test.  
• The day before the test, I pass out name cards and put them on each student’s desk.  Then I am able to pass out all of the test materials in the morning before my students enter the classroom.  I have all of my students raise their name cards in the air and I can quickly take attendance and find out who is absent on testing day.   In California, every minute I save will allow my students to have that much more time to take the test.   We don’t have a set time limit, but my students are able to take the test up until recess.  Those students who have not completed the test may go to the library and continue to take the test during recess.   I would rather have my students be given plenty of time to take the test in my classroom than spending fifteen minutes passing out testing materials. 
• I put a cardboard divider on the side of each student’s desk.  On top of the desk is a pencil, scratch paper, and test booklet.  On the floor by their desk are seven pieces of scratch paper and two pencils.  If your state’s standardized test is timed, every second counts.  My students have learned through the year to automatically get a new scratch paper or pencil from the floor and they don’t have to waste valuable seconds raising their hands for supplies.   
• Before the test, I ask students if they need tissues.  It is hard to concentrate on a test if he or she has a runny nose. 
• Right before I begin the test I tell my students, “Breathe in...breathe out...breathe in...breath out...shake your fingers and hands...SMILE, you are more than ready to take this test...put your divider on top of your desk...you may now open your test booklet...”
• After a few minutes, I walk around the classroom to make sure that everyone is on the right page and working on the test.  I pat them gently on their back for a quick second.   Do not do the “pat trick” unless you have done it throughout the school year.  If it is the first time you do it on the day of the standardized test, it will more likely make your student jump than calm him or her down during the test.  If a student is getting agitated during the test, a calm reassuring pat may be just enough to refocus your student.  
• I know it is a balancing act, but at the same time, do not continually walk up and down the aisles.   Stay at the back of the room and watch all of your students.  It is hard for a student to concentrate on the test if the teacher is hovering right behind him or her.  
• Teach your students throughout the school year that they must check their entire test a second time.  My students easily use eight pieces of scratch paper as they check their answers over and over again in their quest to get 100% on the state test.   
• Do not have a fun activity for your students to do after they have taken their standardized test.  Sure the room is quiet, but some of your students may rush to take their test just so they can do the fun activity.  
• Do not have your cup of coffee near the test materials...accidents happen...

You may want to purchase my “Teaching Tips From an Award-Winning National Board Certified Teacher.”  It has 100 teaching tips and 28 forms.  You may also want my “Test Prep Tournaments For Any Grade and Any Subject.”   It has 11 tournaments to help your students review for your state’s standardized tests or your classroom tests.  

Wishing you the best during testing week,

Vicky Leon  

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