Coniferous Forest Food Chain Puzzles

If you are teaching about coniferous forest habitats, then you may also be ready to move on to food chains and food webs. This is a hands-on activity for introducing and practicing making food chains. This one is specifically for a coniferous forest and it takes the form of a puzzle. It is perfect for group work and stations. Use it to introduce terms like 'producer' and 'consumer' and also to show how energy passes from one organism to another. In a traditional food chain, this is done with arrows, but with this, the arrows are built-in because puzzle pieces are arrow shaped. 

The producers in this set include: pine tree, pine needles, pinecone, log, fern, berries, plant, grass, and moss. The consumer organisms in this coniferous food chain set are: moose, bear, vole, owl, beaver, cougar, mushroom, flying squirrel, deer, man, mouse, weasel, shrew, owl, beetle, skunk, rabbit, bobcat, caterpillar, bird, turkey, elk, wolf, squirrel, fox, snake, coyote, mole, raccoon, and porcupine. The cards are placed in chronological order on the first six pages.
 

Tip: After this activity is done, the cards can be cut in small rectangles and used to make a food web. Students can work on this in groups. The one in the picture below only used about half of the consumers in the set. So the food webs can be as big or as small as your students can make them.

My Coniferous Forest Food Chain Puzzles are available here at my TpT collection. 

 

Fall themed Compound Words

These are Fall themed compound word puzzles. The cards are perfect for group work and stations. Each puzzle card has the compound word at the top with a picture and the two cut-apart words below with matching pictures. This set has 20 closed compound words.                                                                                                                                                               The compound words in this set are: sunflower, scarecrow, football, haystack, cornfield, applesauce, armchair, thanksgiving, meatloaf, wheelchair, cupcake, doughnut, windmill, noontime, dinnertime, pinecone, cornbread, sunset, farmhouse, and horseshoe. They can also be used as compound word flashcards.                                                                                                                                                                               The size of these cards may be right for you but if you would prefer to have them smaller, you can always set them to print on a smaller scale such as 4 pages per printing page. As long as you print the files from your already saved files, these instructions would work because if you print straight from the downloaded page on the web, the printing settings of the web page would be limited. In Adobe Reader, go to print, under page sizing and handling, select ‘multiple', then under ‘Pages per Sheet' select 4. It will also give you the option of choosing landscape or portrait orientation. You can play with these to see which layout optimizes the space on the paper the best.                                                                                                                                                                                               See all of my other compound word resources here.

 

Free Teachers Appreciation Week Cards

Teachers Appreciation Week Cards - Free! To let the other teachers on your team know that they are valued by you and your students, this free assortment of Teachers Appreciation Day cards can be just the right way to say 'Thank You'. There are cards in here for male teachers, female teachers, and principals. They can be given to other teachers on your team, or your assistant teacher. If you have kids at home, your kids can print them for their teachers. Some of the cards have Teachers Appreciation Week and others have Teachers Appreciation Day on the front. You can choose the ones that suit you. Get your free download here and teachers have asked for a black and white version which has exactly the same format, fonts and pictures that you can print on colored paper. Most of cards have 'Thank you' typed on the inside.

 

Earth Day Word Wall

This is an illustrated word wall of 30 Earth Day words and terms. Each word card has a matching picture to depict the word’s meaning. It can be used as headers for doing ‘word of the day’ focus walls or it can be used as a stand alone word wall. Thirty-six (30) of the most common Earth Day terms are used in these cards.

The terms are: biodegradable, compost, reforestation, renewable, April 22nd, Earth Day, environment, greenhouse effect, ozone layer, ecology, recycle, planting, reuse, reduce, clean up, car pool, conserve, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal, hydro energy, tidal energy, global warming, pollution, plastic waste, glass waste, metal waste, paper waste, carbon footprint, and resource.

Word wall cards can be laminated and mounted in a clear standard pocket chart for easy access and display. Each page has three word cards and they are to be printed on 8.5” x 11” (letter) sized paper.

For more Earth Day fun, please check out this blog post of ideas for celebrating Earth Day in your classroom!

   

How to Use Posters to Encourage a Learning Environment

Classroom posters are are great way to have a literacy rich classroom with print in eye catching forms that encourage reading. They do not always have to be strictly content based. The first poster that is seen at the entrance of the class must be large and welcoming. This could be as simple as a large welcome sign or as complex as a bulletin board jigsaw 'we fit together' kind of poster. I like to include posters that teach the softer skills of making friends and self monitoring, and posters that spread awareness of issues like bullying and the importance of classroom kindness.  Every classroom has its own motto or mantra. This can be printed on a large sentence strip and posted up to remind students of the value system. Encouraging, motivational posters are my favorite. Below are pictures of a few to give you an idea of the types of posters that can be used.

 

   

   

   

   

Summer themed Compound Word Activity

This is a Summer themed Compound Word puzzle. The cards are perfect for group work and stations. Each puzzle card has the compound word at the top with a picture and the two cut-apart words below with matching pictures. This set has 28 compound words (closed compound words) and they can also be used as compound word flashcards. The compound words in this set are: clothesline, barefoot, sandcastle, sunburn, sundress, firefly, firework, fishbowl, goldfish, heatwave, lifeguard, skateboard, speedboat, treehouse, summertime, sunshine, watermelon, surfboard, swimsuit, suitcase, hotdog, jellyfish, starfish, waterpark, sunbathe, sunflower, footprint, and underwater. It is available here at my TpT collection. These pictures show most of the cards in the set.