Great Sites! Enjoy A Double Hit of Teaching Propositions

Sometimes, usually on rainy Thursdays - like today,  I can spend hours skimming through my favorite Internet sites for next week's teaching inspiration and find nothing to turn my rain-induced mental frown upside down.

Other times, my surfing strikes my Enthusiasm Jackpot Bell. One of the items that makes my Creative Muse clunk me on my brain and exclaim, "Need inspiration? Check these out for ideas!" isn't even in the Lesson Up! category...until now.

But before I get to it, I just have to talk about this huge Home Run  Planning Double,

Inspiration Ball #1 - Simply Novel's 2016 Spring Catalog.

This catalog is 22 pages of ELA teacher-planning nirvana. Kristen Bowers has long been recognized for her excellent secondary ELA material on her Simply Novel website and in her TpT store Simply Novel Secondary Solutions.    She created this catalog to showcase the abundance of awesome products offered by other ELA Sellers in their TpT stores..Pre-K-2 teachers should browse the

incredible offerings on pages 4-6; Grades 2-5 teachers will find fantastic material on pages 7-10; pages 11-13 offer exciting lessons to those who lead Grades 3-6; teachers in the Grades 6-12 range will sigh blissfully as they peruse pages 3, and pages 14-19; educators whose concentration is Grades 9-12 will find pages 20 & 21 the equivalent of a teacher candy store, and Special Ed teachers' eyes will glow when they see page 12. 

Every product links to its own page in the teacher seller's TpT store. If you want to check out a Seller's complete Store, each ad has a store link for that, too.  Finally, you will find a Seller Index on page 22..

As if this isn't enough to bring out the sunshine, a lucky teacher will win a Flash Drive  full of  ELA plans. Check out the information on the top of page 16, and then click on the Red Arrow in the ad for this cornucopia of Freebies.This offer ends on 7/1/2016.

Inspiration Ball #1 - Amazing Geologist Photographic Bonanza
All of these images are from Amazing Geologist photos

Yesterday, a friend put this picture on Facebook. It knocked the breath out of me, and then followed that reaction by constantly pinging my brain with teaching ideas. The first brain flash I had was to make it my Screen Saver, so I did. My second was to wonder if Chris McCandless from Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer) would have trekked off to Alaska if he came upon this magnificence, Would Meursault from Albert Camus' The Stranger have held onto his existential, "The world is random, chaotic and absurd," views if he gazed upon this design? Those are just two thoughts that I'd mention to my students as I shared these images during their reading.

And then I clicked onto this incredible picture by Ruth Hager offering a close-up of some petrified wood in the Crystal Forest, a part of the Petrified Forest National Park. Now, I'd love Chico's to create one of their flowing-sleeved ponchos with this design.   But what item of clothing would Janie from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God want using this colorful motif? I can't even imagine what kind of firestorm would occur if a character from The Crucible (Arthur Miller) showed up in Salem strutting this colorful skirt.

This Elephant Rock formation in New Zealand makes my mind conjure up a mythological  story for its existence, Was this elephant turned into a rock for defying the GREAT PACHYDERM?

and, I wonder if this rockin' breakfast plate is a relic from  a volcanic eruption, and was discovered by a future geologist searching for the Great American Lost Diner.

Any of the multitude of, "WOW!" photos in this link could be used as 

1. Mental stretches for Warm-Up or Closure time
2. Story Starters
3. Poetry Generators
4. Descriptive writing topics
5. What If ?writings. For example how would a Setting, Plot or a Character from a novel be affected if the author had included the actual place or object in one of the pictures in the novel students were reading? Maybe the picture would set a different Tone/atmosphere, or the location/object would be a major Symbol or the basis for the Theme.
6. Inspiration for a personal essay for college applications, or
7. Stimulus for a song, or a movie or a play or a painting.

Surely, this smoky quartz from the Haramosh Mountains in Pakistan conjures up images of a futuristic city in a dystopian novel, (imagine it without the hand).

Take a moment and flip through these images, and let them spark your Lesson Idea Muse or jumpstart a brainstorming session with your colleagues. Hopefully  these images will offer you some terrific lesson ideas for the following weeks.

To truly save your weekends for the rest of your school year, be sure to check out Kristen Bower's Simply Novel Spring Catalog. Just go to Simply Novel and click on the blue-backed ELA Products Galore *Brand New Catalog* picture like the one I shared in this post.

Enjoy a Teach It Now Day Every Day,

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie

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.

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