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.

   

Eco-Friendly Classroom Fun for Earth Day

How can you celebrate Earth Day in your classroom?

Do you know about seed paper? It's recycled paper with tiny embedded seeds. When the paper is planted, so are the seeds. Students can do this as an experiment, planting them in recycled milk boxes or used plastic bottles that have been cut open. Seed paper in general comes in different forms: gift cards, celebration tokens, even business cards. The hope is that one day, all paper litter could help the environment rather than harm the environment if they were made from seed paper. This one on the right is the Earth Day themed seed paper.

Using recycled paper is a great way to do this. An easy project is for students to make their own recycled paper by mixing bits of old paper, dried flowers and tissue, soaking the mixture, blending it to a pulp, (dye can be added), then rolling it out onto a flat sieve and leaving it to dry. The dried flowers gives it a bit of color and plant texture.  After making their own paper, your students can use them to make Earth Day cards or posters. They can also make recycled newspaper beads for an Earth Day bracelet. By using less tree based material in your classroom, students can save a tree. Speaking of recycled newspaper, there are pencils made from recycled newspaper!  Did you know that the newspaper protects the graphite better than wood pencils? You can read more about these here and here.

Use inexpensive, earth day themed, and very useful everyday tools that students always need like pencils and erasers, etc. Most of all, students like to have a little incentive to stay on track and behave well. Again, the recycled paper pencils would make great tokens (these on the right are peppermint scented). Earth Day candy is also good idea. They make for great reward tokens. 

Don't use batteries if you don't have to! Solar power is clean energy. Just for Earth Day, your students can see how a solar phone charger can power the classroom kindles or tablets. Solar chargers are meant for emergency use and not to be used everyday but they can be used for phones and other devices with the USB port. Now for some old school technology... calculators.  Most student calculators are now solar powered - these can be large and colorful for younger students or pocket sized and as sleek as a credit card for teens. You may already have these in your class and students like to see the numbers fade away then reappear by covering the solar area with their hands.

You may also be interested in my St. Patrick's Day Activities...

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