Melt February lethargy with mesmerizing activities

Are your students sinking into hibernation mode like the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, does when he sees his shadow?

Is their attention and motivation yawning them into the recesses of their minds for another six weeks of sleep?

Has your Planning Muse become a victim of the February Fickle Flu, that insidious malady where your creativity mirrors the frigid one day, balmy the next weather?

Fret no further. These lessons will have you covered, no matter the weather- meteorological or personal. With each activity in this post, I suggest how you might use the individual lessons throughout the month.

GROUNDHOG DAY - FEBRUARY 2nd

Writing Activities - FABULOUS FIVE PACKET $

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Activities-FABULOUS-FIVE-PACKET-2349040?aref=ghdtrfus

Here are the Fabulous Five activities and ideas for incorporating them into your plans.
Teaching Ideas for the activities
1. Then and Now Prewriting Activity

Use this as a Warm-up at the beginning of the month.Have each student use this information for writing a personal narrative about him/herself later in the month. or,
Follow the suggestion above, but ask students to complete the activity, and later in the month-a personal narrative as one of the characters in the story you are currently studying would do. 
2. Playing With Color Worksheet
On twelve days of February, have students complete one of the activities on this sheet for a Closure activity. Give them about 5 minutes to do this.  After they complete the last activity on the 12th day, explain that they now must write a poem that shows as many aspects of their color as they can.  In the poem, they must use as much information from this worksheet that they need to in order to paint a vivid word picture about this color.3. Brain Bumps: Twenty Writing Suggestions to End Idea Vacuums
February has 20 class days, if  president's Day is a school holiday in your district.  Brain Bumps offers 20 activities, but many, many more writing possibilities as many of the numbered suggestions offers multiple writing ideas. Ask students to choose any one of the ideas as a Twenty-Minute Writing Warm-up topic each day.  Do have students  date each entry and include the topic number, and letter, if necessary, such as 12F.  A good length requirement is 250 words.  For MArch, APril, May and June Warm-ups, ask students to re-visit these entries and then expand on them.  They may choose to stick with one for a few days to fully develop the topic.
4. This is What I’m Hungry For!: Thirty Discussion/Writing Topics for Literature
Choose one of these ideas each day as  the focus for part/all of the discussion for the story that the students is studying.  Some of these ideas are better for individual work, while others work well if the students are in pairs or groups up to four students. 
5. Friend or Foe?
This is a  great topic to hook students attention for a review of the story and to evolve into a lively discussion. Students need to include details from the story that they must analyze to complete the work. It hits on four main core areas-reading, writing, critical thinking and speaking/listening.

SUPER BOWL - February 7th

Comprehension Activity: Score With the Literature Super Bowl  FREE

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Activity-Score-With-the-Literature-Super-Bowl-1058494?aref=lxzcnwns
Use this prior to the Super Bowl on February 7th to tap into the Football Fever that tamper with students' on-task behavior, or use it after the finale by offering it as a review activity for a literature study and as closure to six months of pro-football.

VALENTINE'S DAY - February 14th
All three of these activities offer students a chance to use Valentine's Day as the theme  for an in-depth  study of  a character or characters from the story they are currently studying or those that they have read as a class assignment previously.   Choose one for each student to complete individually or in pairs, or divide students into pairs and give each pair one of the activities, repeating the activities as needed. Note: the activity, LOVE NOTES includes 6 activities, so you have a total of 8 ideas to incorporate into your lessons.  Be sure to set aside time for students to share their completed projects. To really get into the Valentine's Day spirit, and to make sure that all of your students are remembered on this day, if your districts allows, have a Presentation Party. Have students sign up to bring in decorations like red and white lights, red paper placemats, other paper products, food, drinks, etc. This should be voluntary as some students might not have any money to spare on extras.  A few days before the event, set up a table with red and white construction paper, as well as any glitter, glue etc. for students who would like to make decorations.

Valentine's Day Comprehension Activity: You Sent What??? Cards $

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valentines-Day-Comprehension-Activity-You-Sent-What-Cards-522845?aref=1ozg2lne

          

Valentine's Day Comprehension Activity: Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match $

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valentines-Day-Comprehension-Activity-Matchmaker-Matchmaker-Make-Me-a-Match-199326?aref=pjrfab0g

LOVE NOTES - 6 Activities to show, “I love you,” or “I love you not” $

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/LOVE-NOTES-6-Activities-to-show-I-love-you-or-I-love-you-not-1667231?aref=dsi4zxp0

PRESIDENTS' DAY -  FEBRUARY15th

President's Day Comprehension & Writing Activity: Hail to the Chief $

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Presidents-Day-Comprehension-Writing-Activity-Hail-to-the-Chief-192533?aref=cu2ycbdx
This is another project that ties the characters from books students are studying to the real world. Here, students choose a character from the piece that they are reading together, or from one that they have read independent does this project fit into today's headlines-but it is cross-cultural, especially with Government or Civics classes. Maybe students could earn Extra Credit if they share their projects in their Government or Civics classes.  How do you fit this project in with all of the others in this now filled with lessons month? Introduce it on February 1st, and have it due on February 29th- Leap Year Day. Students would work on it as a Home Assignment or in  class, only if all other class work is completed.

As a final tactic to rouse your Planning Muse from its  desire to burrow under a pile of quilts, here is a February calendar that shows how to coordinate these ideas with those you already devised. Other than hooking in these activities, the agenda items are general so you can adapt this calendar to meet your plans and your students' needs.

You will see that not including the quick Closure Activity, I follow the Rule of Three teaching concept to coordinate lessons and activities with students' attention spans...but more on that in another blog.

All too often, February is a forgotten month, or one to just get through.  I hope that these activities will make it a Fun and Fabulous month in your classroom.

Enjoy a Teach It Now Day Every Day.

Teach It Write - Build Powerful Academic Homes

Lessons For Those, "Oh No! I Need a Sub!" Days

Oh No!  During the night, the cat clawed your washing machine hose and  water sprayed your laundry room until you turned the water valve to Off and duck taped the holes. Your 7-year old daughter chose that moment to throw up last night's beef stew in her bed, and you feel like that tin monkey playing cymbals is marching through your head.

After leaving an EMERGENCY! message for the plumber, bathing your daughter and tucking her into your bed, and then tossing her soiled sheets into the bathtub, at 5:45 AM you crawl to the phone to call in sick. The very, very last task you can bear to consider-even if you wanted to- is to create Sub Plans that will keep your students engaged and on-task with  only a blip  in their learning.

Thankfully, you don't need to worry because here are two packets with lessons and activities that are specific to secondary English classrooms and are easily adaptable to core programs of study that showcase Reading Comprehension, Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary.  With minimum tweaks, you can slip them into your Substitute Folder and also tie them to your pre-planned agenda as you sigh, "Phew! That was simple."

As a firm believer of the Rule of Three, I plan every class period around this triune teaching concept because it focuses on students' attention spans- a factor important to any lesson, but absolutely crucial if a substitute is to avoid classroom chaos.

By including these two packets in your Substitute Folder ahead of time, and keeping plenty of copies of the student handouts available, all you need to do is leave notes for the substitute to follow.

A terrific aspect of these lessons is that you can easily incorporate them into your plans throughout the school year because the concepts they strengthen benefit from continual reinforcement.  This way, if you have students work on the activities with you leading them, when you are absent, they will be familiar with the requirements, offering a smooth transition for the sub.  More importantly, students will not feel that these are "just sub plans," and therefore, "not important".

Suggested Schedule - the class times are for a 55-minute period. 80 minute block times are in the parentheses
1. Warm-up - 15 minutes (25)
2. Main Activity - 30 minutes (45)
3. Sharing/Closure -10 minutes  (10) 

1. Warm-Up

You should introduce the Just Say "NO!" to Dull Writing activities into your plans as soon as possible by handing out the Taboo Words and Phrases List (p.3) and 15 Days to Lose the Taboos (p.5), Whenever you want students to revise their writing instead of writing something new during Warm-Up time, have them choose one exercise to complete, following them in chronological order, using their writings-from warm-ups to full-length essays.  This way, they will be familiar with the activities and can select the next exercise(s) on the list the  day(s) you are absent,

Mark which Teacher Notes directions that you want the sub to follow.
 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Just-Say-NO-to-Dull-Writing-1555338 (FREE)

2. Main Activity Nonfiction Analysis: Reading and Writing Activity

Like with the Just Say "NO!" to Dull Writing packet, you can use this lesson as many times as you like throughout the year.  Just copy and hand out pages 4-5 when you want to introduce it, and instruct student to always have these papers in their class folders. 

Have stacks of pages 6-8 on hand in a location where the substitute can easily find them.  In your Substitute Folder, keep a complete copy of this packet. On the cover page, leave a note as to where the page 6-8 handouts can be found. On the Teacher Notes pages (2-3) highlight /specify which Lesson Option(s) you want the students to follow (see Bullet points 4 &5). 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Activity-Nonfiction-Reading-and-Writing-Analysis-706269 (FREE)

3. Sharing/Closure 
The sub should select students to share a Warm-up revision or a summary of the article they read for the main activity. After that, he/she should collect students' work according to your directions.

With these sub plans and all of the others in this valuable blog hop, you will never stress about any day that you cannot be in your classroom-planned or when fate sends you tumbling into the Emergency Zone.

Thank you Pamela Kranz http://desktoplearningadventures.blogspot.com/ and Darlene Anne Curran http://meatballsinthemiddle.blogspot.com/ for  creating this awesome blog hop. Colleagues, as Pam and Darlene say on the image, "Need sub plans?  We've got you covered".


Enjoy a Teach It Now Day- Especially on  a Sub Day.

For more program-specific lessons and activities that will keep students learning on a sub day or any day, check out the Custom Categories in my store https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie


An InLinkz Link-up

product links:

An InLinkz Link-up

First Day Tried & True Linky Party

Ahhhh! As these lazy, hazy days of summer wrap most of the country in humidity,teachers are enjoying a few days to a few weeks of sleeping in, basking in the luxury of traveling to the tick tock of their own clocks, and catching up with months of saved TV shows.

The first teaching-related stress/frustration dream has yet to invade their restful sleep with images of Joey who can't sit still, of Zelda who can't stay quiet and of George who won't wake up. 

That perennial,"What will I teach the FIRST DAY?" question has yet to fuel the first of many Decision Conflicts that will crop up before students strut, shuffle or slink into the classroom. 

And after weeks of flip flops sandals, shorts and tee-shirts, the annual end-of-summer closet Search, Sort, Purge and Shop has yet to happen.

But, as surely as each and every mattress store in the country will hold continual sales, as surely as a good donut will never be local, and as surely as Downton Abbey will fade to black after the last episode of Season 6  in 2016, school bells will ring and teachers must have their alarms set, their lessons finalized and their clothes ready.

Here are 6 Tried and True Tips  to ensure a smooth transition to the 2015-2016 school year

1. As you fill your carts with pens, pencils,  paper (lined, unlined, construction etc.) and push pins, remember to toss in some presents for yourself: Kleenex, paper towels, spray cleanser and hand sanitizer. You will be glad you did about a week into the year when two-thirds of your students are suffering from the Back to School Germfest caused by too many breathing bodies in an enclosed space and the back of your nose is teasing you with its pre-cold tickle.

2. Create detailed plans for the first month- yes, the first month before the Starting Bell.  Why?
Because PLC, department and faculty meetings will consume a good deal of your contract hours.

Because Back to School night information and edicts will start filling your email and snail mail boxes before Labor Day (some BTS nights start as early as the second week of school). These will sap your planning energy with thoughts of how to prepare a welcoming and engaging presentation.

Because your students will demand your full time and attention, which is what teaching is all about in the first place, as they adjust to the new term, and because administrators will want to see how you plan to ensure each one’s proficiency.

3. Ladies- no matter how incredibly chic those new gray Zigi Soho Tasmin Peep Toe Pumps are, or how sophisticated they look with your new dove-gray pencil skirt and purple silk blouse- DO NOT WEAR THEM! Your feet will hate you until December.

4. Gentlemen-do not don your Cool Story Bro tee-shirts until your students and colleagues get your droll sense of humor.

5. Be firm but fair. If you want your charges to join you on the Learning Path, it is more important for them to view you as challenging than easy. The former means that you are poking at their minds and teasing their brains to actively respond-verbally or in writing. The latter might be construed as “I don’t care” when you want it to be interpreted as academically open-ended.

Remember no conflict exists with happily ever after. That’s why Julian Fellows had Matthew die at the end of Season 3 in Downton Abbey. Challenge leads to conflict of the positive or negative variety which leads to thinking and doing which ends in learning.

6. Create First Day activities that engage, inspire and energize discussing, thinking, and writing.  Here are two FREE lessons that have walked the walk and talked the talk of those criteria.

First Day Writing Activity - Four Corners ~ FREE 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Day-Writing-Activity-Four-Corners-45528 

Students love to offer their opinions on just about any topic, to move around and to debate pros and cons with their peers. Getting them on their feet where they can share their thoughts on a variety of contemporary topics is crucial in creating an atmosphere that promotes evaluating ideas and supporting their own assertions with valid points. The Four Corners Activity covers all of those bases.




First Day Writing Assignment-Revised ~ FREE

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Day-Writing-Assignment-16312 
This activity offers teachers a baseline of each student’s writing skills. After analyzing each piece of writing, teachers will have the basic foundation for their year’s writing program.  The ideas are student-friendly, and offer a smooth transition from summer to the classroom because it  awakens students thinking, analyzing and writing skills.

For all of you who will be leading classrooms this year, revel in these last few days/weeks of your time- your way.

And when those school bells ring...

Enjoy a Teach It Now Day, Every Day.

Thank you to Chrissie Rissmiller http://undercoverclassroom.blogspot.com/  and
Sarah Tighe http://educationelectrification.blogspot.com/ for organizing this Linky Party.

An InLinkz Link-up

Light up your nonfiction studies this fall with H.G. Bissinger's book - Friday Night Lights.

“I can't wait for high school football to start
'Cause Friday Night Lights will get to play a part.
This is the book that students will cheer

When teachers choose it to begin the school year.”

 (adapted from the song, “I’ve Been Waiting All Day For Sunday Night” sung by Carrie Underwood

and set to the tune "I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett.)

Okay, okay, my colleagues. I hear your sighs and know you are rolling your eyes. 

I realize that some of you left your buildings a mere week or two ago.

I realize that most of you are thinking vacation plans and not lesson plans.

I realize that most of you are not ready to witness the zombie-like shuffle of teenagers at 7:20 A.M.

But...but, I know many of you would love to find a page-turning nonfiction read that could roll right into the first literature study of your autumn term. And, I think that when you find a book that will engage your students and match their fall football fervor, you would be very thrilled to obtain some ready to use lessons that would allow you to continue to relax for the rest of your summer.

from en.wikipedia.org

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is the perfect match. Let me explain how my scoffing at a book about high school football turned into 14 years of, "Just say 'Yes! to the book" enthusiasm.

One July Saturday in the late '90's, my husband, Tim, and I were driving through Virginia on a clogged Route 95. We were on our way to Hatteras Island's Kinnakeet Shores, a resort area in North Carolina's Outer Banks.

To keep me from groaning about the lines of traffic, Tim began to enthuse over a book about Texas high school football.  Trying to hook my teacher brain, he explained that this book was not just a paean to football, but was a social commentary on how so many towns allow high school football to dominate their whole lives. The author, H.G. Bissinger chose Permian High School's 1988 football season (Odessa, Texas) to focus his study. 

Tim iterated a list of issues developed in the book, such as the special treatment of athletes, athletics over academics, racism,  gender, class, entitlement, etc.  He offered anecdotes about how the black football players were considered equal on the field but separate off of it, and how some of the girls felt that  their sole purpose was to take care of their football players with gifts of food and  pigskin-themed decorated homes. He regaled me with stories about little kids who wore jerseys with their favorite high school and not pro team player, and how athletes weren't expected to accomplish much at all academically.

Yada, Yada, Yada. I was not impressed and fell asleep.

Fast forward to a week later, our last day on the beach. As I lounged on the deck eyeing the ocean for dolphins, my husband's and son's animated conversation about the book, which my son had devoured in two days, wiggled its way into my attention span. Once again, I soon found myself caught on the Football Express. This time, after just a few pages, instead of wanted to get off, I bought a reading round-trip ticket.

Starting right then, and during the 6-hour drive home the next day, I read. After filling the washer with salt and sand encrusted clothes, I read.  As my husband slept and my dog snored, I read.

By the next day, I had finished H.G. Bissinger's iconic classic and was ready to subscribe to the Odessa American newspaper so I, too, could follow the Permian Panthers football season. 

The first thing Monday morning, I explained my desire to teach this book  to an the local HR manager for a national chain bookstore. She contacted whoever she needed to, and within the hour, I was the ecstatic recipient of two class sets of Friday Night Lights-in softcover. Next, I swung by the high school and begged, pleaded and generally pestered the principal until he gave me the thumbs up to teach it that fall.

The rest of the summer, I developed my Literature - Friday Night Lights Unit Plan. This complete unit plan includes: Common Core standards which you can easily adapt to your state's benchmarks, the grade level and time frame, assessments, and detailed daily plans as well as writing journal openers, essay topics, chapter by chapter discussion questions, a project, a review sheet and a test. Ten analyzing the elements of literature activities go hand in hand with the lessons and follow Bloom's Taxonomy.

Reading this book along with viewing the movie is sure to generate some terrific analytic discussions.

Make a touchdown with your students this fall and Download this 24-page plan Literature - Friday Night Lights Unit Plan, from 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literature-Friday-Night-Lights-Unit-Plan-1558 ($).

As the July sun continues to warm your body and relax your soul, immerse yourself in the book that spawned a movie and a television series, and then check out the unit plan. Before you know it, you'll catch Bissinger's football fever and will be singing,

“I can't wait for this fall's school term to start
When Friday Night Lights will win my students' hearts.
This is the book that they will certainly cheer,

'Cause it speaks in such depth to all that they hold dear.”

Enjoy a relaxing summer and a Teach It Now Fall,

Need a FREEBIE review product that continues this football theme?  Try

Comprehension Activity: Score With the Literature Super Bowl.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Activity-Score-With-the-Literature-Super-Bowl-1058494

Teachers, Parents and Students - for a No-Bummer Summer, Try This Bucket List

Twas the Night Before Summer Vacation

Twas the night school ended, and in all the houses

Not a child was stirring-all alarm clocks were doused.

The backpacks were stored in the closets ‘till Fall

While children slept soundly - no reason to stall.

Moms and Dads tossed in their sheet-rumpled beds

While visions of chaos caromed through their heads.

Facing weeks with no schedules, nor essays to write,

Joey and Jane would probably just sleep, eat and fight.

When from their computers there rose such a clatter,

Parents clicked on the Net to tune into the chatter.

Facebook pages, Twitter and Pinterest flowed

With kudos for a Bucket List they just had to download.

The URL they copied, then they clicked on the link

Hoping for ideas so their worries would shrink.

When what to their grateful eyes did appear, but

A Summer Bucket List with awesome choices to cheer.

The thirteen suggestions would spawn stimulation,

Chasing away boredom which breeds during vacations.

Their kids’ minds and bodies would be active and aware

Even without homework and school lessons to bear.

“We must call the Timms, the Taylors and Turners!

We can’t let this wonder crouch on any back burners.”

Dads grabbed their Smartphones, their fears now abated,

While Moms sent emails and social statuses they’d updated.

As the sun rose announcing a school-free June day,

Refrigerators, world-wide, this List did display.

Not summer assignments, Oh no, not this list,

But propositions to tempt, to engage-not resist.

I offer this Summer Bucket List on TpT for free

To parents, to children, to teachers - what glee!

When asked in the Fall, “What did you do this summer?”

‘Cause of the List, no kid'll reply, “Mine was a bummer.”

(I adapted the format for this from Clement Moore’s Twas the Night Before Christmas.)

Every summer, parents worry about how to insure that their children will not morph into the Abominable App Creature.

Every summer, kids become bored with sleeping until noon, lounging around and texting their BFFs, and crave some mental and physical stimulation-those not taking classes, working or attending various camps, that is. No, they don’t want summer assignments heaped on them, but they do want to think, to be inspired, to go places and to see people. And they want these experiences to be fun.

Over the years, I have been a teacher, a parent and a child. In all three roles, I endured the same anxiety, concerns and lethargy as summer rolled from one steamy day into the next. I remember all too well tossing around my parents’ bed while my mother ironed the family’s 100% cotton clothes. Bored to tears, I chose to irritate her with my howls of, “I have nothing to do!” And it wasn’t even the end of June, yet!

Although my two children are now grown and I no longer have to deal with the Summer Doldrums, I do have two granddaughters - ages 8 and 11- who visit me often, so I always need ideas to make our time together fun. And although I have retired from teaching, I will never turn my back on learning- no matter the season.

That’s why I created A Summer Bucket List. This FREE product offers young people from 6-16 opportunities to think, to sing, to write, to be physically active, to read, to use basic math skills, to experiment, to get involved in their communities and much more, but without the constrictions and restrictions of school. They choose, they do and they have fun. Check it out and maybe tape it to the fridge…just don’t tell your children that they will be practicing comprehension, computing, critical thinking and writing skills that they associate with school. Leave that to their teachers next fall.

Download this Free list of activities from 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Printables-A-Summer-Bucket-List-253658

Have a relaxing, restful and rejuvenating summer. You all deserve it!

ELA Teachers- Yes, I took a May vacation, but I am back at least once a week with musings, ideas and lessons on everything teaching from my side of the desk. Come on back-often.

Happy Summer,

TEACH IT WRITE - BUILD POWERFUL ACADEMIC HOMES