Football FANatic

November! 

Where has the year gone? I mean, seriously! I feel like I was just sweating to death in the dog days of summer. But here we are, the air is chilly, the leaves have turned, we've even transitioned from all things pumpkin-spice to a peppermint paradise. 

I don't mind the change though, it actually reminds me of some of the best memories. 

I'm not talking about Thanksgiving dinners, holiday specials, or resolutions never fulfilled. 

I'm talking about...

FOOTBALL SEASON, y'all!

Sure I have fond memories of holidays past, but that's for another time. 

Football is today and everyday until the SUPER BOWL. 

I grew up in a family that L-O-V-E-S football! College, professional, tackle, flag, you name it, we love it. There is just something about the sport that brings everyone to the living room, chips and dip in hand. TV blaring, yelling from the sofa, refuting the calls because obviously we saw it better than the refs. And this passion has only continued down the bloodline. 

Football family 

#4 on the run

!!!CHAMPIONS!!!

He knows just about any stat on ANY player (former or current) in any league...if only he could remember to make his bed. 😏

When looking over his latest report card, I noticed that he really needs to sharpen his focus on reading for meaning. He's amazing at grabbing literal text and committing it to memory, but there are still gaps in his ability to chunk pieces of information together and draw conclusions. 

Oh inferential, we will master you, yet! 

So what does a teacher do to help her son?

Well duh, create a passage that he simply cannot refuse.

...and here we have it, friends, a football-themed text with all things comprehension. 

TOUCHDOWN NONFICTION Reading Comprehension

2 page passage comes in color and black/white and is easily accessible for students in grades 2nd-4th. 

And writing is a MUST, because let's be honest, EVERYONE could use writing practice and it can be a wonderful tool for assessing student knowledge of the topic or skill (i.e. determining facts, writing persuasively, comparing and contrasting). 

Games are wonderful tools for comprehension! I can ask questions until I'm blue in the face, but my students always respond better when the element of F-U-N (and a lil' bit of competition) is involved. I, purposefully, designed some of the vocab, true/false, and reading comprehension cards to require deeper thinking - is the sentence 100% true or does 1 word make it false? Could the word be associated with one football definition or be applied to more than one? Does the text explicitly state the answer or are you inferring meaning by collecting information from several sentences? These were perfect for helping my son analyze information (reading text carefully) to determine validty and draw conclusions!

Nouns and punctuation practice are always good to have on hand. It still baffles me how many students forget a period at the end of their sentences or ask me what a noun is. 

Guys c'mon, we're in 3rd grade!!! 

So nonetheless, we practice. 

Will your students enjoy reading this text and interacting with these games?

Based on my own son's non-stop questioning: 

"Mom, are you done making it yet?" 

"When will it be finished?" 

"Can I read/play it now?"

I'm thinking they might. 

Based on my son's reaction

I KNOW they will!

Download it on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking the link below:

TOUCHDOWN NONFICTION READING COMPREHENSION

I hope this text and these activities help your students TACKLE reading non-fiction text and gain YARDS of comprehension in a fun and engaging way. 

#MCM

I love my husband, honestly, like I think he is the VERY BEST thing in the entire world. He's super handsome and has a personality that if you read his eHarmony bio, you'd think he was too good to be true. (*disclaimer: he DOES NOT have an online dating account) 

And ya'll, he's an avid reader and phenomenal writer...

an author in his profession. 

This ELA gal is L-U-C-K-Y! 

Want to know a lil' secret though? I have another man crush.

A double whammy kinda guy. He's an author; an illustrator too. 

And he writes to my profession...KIDS!

You probably know him already. He's a big deal.

hello, Oliver Jeffers

(don't you just LOVE that name?!?!)

He's written and illustrated some of my favorite books

STUCK, The Moose Belongs to Me, Lost and Found

and illustrated these amazing books by Drew Daywalt

The Day The Crayons Quit, The Day the Crayons Came Home 

Obviously, he's SUPER talented, but he's got some other things going for him too...

But the MAIN reason I think Mr. Jeffers is just superb is because his books speak to children in a way that makes them think critically, even when they don't realize they are. 

Read STUCK and watch how your students analyze the choices the main character, Floyd, makes. Even the youngest readers understand that Floyd's problem could be solved in a much more logical approach. So way back in 2012, I shared the story in my classroom. My students giggled hysterically throughout the reading! They stopped to discuss choices and decision making. They inserted their own opinions. They determined cause and effect. They made connections, detected absurdities, and created solutions. A 15-minute read cultivated an hour long discussion! I knew I was on to something...

I went straight to Teachers Pay Teachers and didn't find much.

Sidenote: That has drastically changed; when searching again last year, I was able to find great products revolving around this book. 

I knew my students needed something. Something fun to drive home the comprehension piece, those ideas we discussed while/after reading the book, those pieces of understanding that could be taken directly from the text and those that needed to be inferred. 

Voila! 

STUCK Comprehension Game was born. 

An interactive game focused on cause and effect and order of events through explicit and inferential questioning of the text. 

It was a hit! A HUGE hit! Not just in my classroom, but in my friends' classrooms and with my own son (once he hit elementary school). It went on Teachers Pay Teachers and it was a hit there too. 

My creation was good.

...Or so I thought. 

Years later and awareness of copyright laws came about. I couldn't ignore the fact that my original product was infringing on my man-crush's creative property (I had copied unsecured images from Google). I couldn't do that...I couldn't "steal" from another person, a creative person, a person who I admired. And let's be honest, as a teacher, it's my job to be a role model for kids...stealing in any form is WRONG! 

So I had to fix it...and fast...before my conscience ate away at me or worse, Oliver (or most likely, his people) called! That is NOT the way I want to meet this man. One day, I want to look him in the eye and tell him how much I appreciate his work without that gnawing feeling that I was taking his artwork and making money on it. NOT COOL! 

I got to work and made an overhaul of the product. New images (with credit given to artists) and improved game board. And to make it worth the redownload for my original purchasers, I added a rebus reader. SAME PRICE...no bump. And my heart rests in knowing that I've done the right thing. 

Here are some tips/highlights: 

- give students the book for 

  reference if you think they 

  could benefit. 

- game board is easy to set up:

  print, snip, tape, laminate!

- plethora of questions! 

  55 questions in all. 

With my love of STUCK reworked and completed, I knew I had another project to attack. 

NEXT UP: My love for Oliver Jeffers' talent was cultivated when I first opened The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. I couldn't get enough of the text and the amazing illustrations. I created this Response to Literature/Comprehension Game for TDTCQ; now that my creative juices are following again, I knew I needed to bring fresh life to this creation. 

* No copyright infringements in original version, just wanted to give it a facelift. 

Updated version of original product

So go check out the updated version...more writing format options, added thinking maps, & rearranged graphics. Same great craftivity and game! 

1/2 off Week : A half way through OCT sale

We're half way through October...can you believe it?

I feel like we should celebrate that fact!

So this week is 1/2 off Week at The Take Home Teacher's TPT store!

This week, I've slashed the prices of 3 BIG (lots of pages!) products.

#1

5-Alarm Fire Activities 

(normally $7) 

SALE price: $3.50

#2

The Day the Crayons Quit Response to Literature & Comprehension Game 

(normally $8) 

SALE price: $4

#3

Put Me In Coach ELA, Reading, & Math pack 

(normally $20) 

SALE price: $10

Now, go half-way celebrate with your half-priced product(s)!

Oh! Don't forget to ENTER the Apple Pickin' Giveaway too.

You only have a few days left!

This girl is on FIIRREE! (you can thank Alicia Keys)

It's finally here...my favorite time of year! 

FALL

Apple pickin', cool breezes, lattes in hand, and my neglected scarves are seeing the light of day. 

I'm sooo excited for an apple orchard field trip. 

I actually get to go on my son's first field trip to Rocky Brook Orchard. 

What a wonderful experience for both of us. 

Want to know another great thing about FALL [other than apples, Halloween, and all thing associated with cooler weather]?

October is officially FIRE SAFETY month.

Ok, well actually it's Fire Prevention WEEK, but I like to make sure my kiddos spend a good bit of time on the subject since it's uber important to their well-being. 

So, here's the jist:

Fire Prevention WEEK is the 2nd week of October (Oct. 5-11 this year) and while most fire departments are VERRYY willing to host field trips and/or do classroom demonstrations, I'm a big advocate for incorporating fire safety into everything we do in the classroom (at least for the first half of October). 

In my last post, I mentioned that, in the past, I've used several fire-safety themed resources from TPT sellers which have been AMAZING! But due to my limited funds and time restrictions, I had to come up with some "rough draft" letter and sight word recognition activities as well as some math games. They were super ROUGH, ya'll. I mean, I was a bit worried that if any other teachers asked for copies of these activities, I'd have to admit that I didn't have any written instructions or aligned standards. 

Lucky for me, my kiddos LOVED the games and activities I created to supplement those awesome resources I found on TPT and I vowed to come back to them and clean them up so I could share them. 

And that's just what I did...

( Click on image to purchase from TPT)

I've gone over these ELA and Math activities with a fine-tooth comb to make sure they're as clear as water to anyone who wants to use them. 

I'll give you a brief run-down of what you'll find in this HOT (get it?) pack:

Here's a real quick independent activity for students to do individually while you get the games distributed.

Students use the word bank to cut & paste vocabulary words to the picture. (Color & B/W options)

I've always have a few artists in my ranks, so I like to give those friends the opportunity to let their inner Picasso out. Well, within reason. There are still standards to address.

Each student is responsible for giving his/her dalmatian black spots and then using 1:1 correspondence to count the dots in order to tell his/her dalmatian apart from other dalmatians in the class. 

** I do let those budding artists add flare to their puppies, because who am I to restrict their creative sides. **

Want a number recognition and 1:1 touch correspondence game?

Here it is...

Individually or in a game setting, students use 1:1 correspondence to count the number of black dots on each fire hydrant card and then determine if they have the matching number on their 9-square flame game board. If they do, the player(s) covers the number with a water chip. Covering all nine spaces wins!

8 different 9-square flame game boards

31 dotted fire hydrant game cards for 1:1 touch counting

(I do 31 to reinforce calendar numbers)

100 water chip pieces to cover up numbers on flame boards.

 You may want to make more than 1 copy depending on how many students are playing.

As we're talking about fire safety, I do use a lot of idioms with my kiddos...

"I'm on fire!" is one my friends have REAALLY loved saying in the past. 

So what do you do when your bunch of 20 lovelies won't stop saying "I'm on fire!" when you praise them? You roll with it and make it a part of their learning!!! 

Ta-da!

I present On Fire for...

3 different playing mats

Letters, Letter Sounds, and Sight Words

4 sets of cards

Capital letters, lowercase letters, DOLCH Pre-Primer sight words, and DOLCH Primer sight words

These games can be played individually, in partners, or in a group.

Students select letter or sight word cards to identify. Using 1 of the 3 playing mats (On Fire for Letters/Letter Sounds/Sight Words), correctly identified cards are placed on the left side (I’m on FIRE for…) while incorrectly identified cards are place on the right side (I need to keep up the FIGHT) for future practice.

I really like the idea of students self assessing and creating two stacks of cards: 1 stack for secured knowledge and 1 stack for areas of needed practice. 

I'm feeling much better about these activities now than I was this time last year. 

I hope you're prepared for Fire Safety Month Week too. 

Instagram, Fire, and a FREEBIE!

Are you on Instagram?

If you are, come follow me @thetakehometeacher! 

I've been on "Insta" (as one of my best friends calls it) for awhile but all my posts are private to protect my family. 

But...I love connecting with people so I thought having an "Insta" for The Take Home Teacher would be a perfect way to do that. 

- FIRE SAFETY ALERT -

I'm gearing up for Fire Safety Week (October 5-11) by making a reading and math pack for the little ones (read: Pre-K & Kindergarten).

We had such a great time last year learning about fire safety and while I used a good number of resources from TPT sellers, I had to fill in the blanks with sight word recognition, number recognition/touch counting, and some other skill standards. I put together some ROOUUGGH draft activities to hit those areas, but vowed to come back to them & clean 'em up.

Currently, I'm doing just that...
cleaning up those standards-based activities and wrapping them all up in one reading & math Fire Safety Pack. But until I get those all nice and neat, here's a preview of what you can expect to see:

- NOW GO GRAB UP THIS FREEBIE! -

{CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD}
* * * ONLY AVAILABLE ON BLOG * * *
Here is what you're downloading:

Crayons...have they "quit" yet?

Fun Fact : "The first two crayons in a box to be worn down to nubs are usually the black followed by the red." - Not Another Apple for the Teacher by Erin Barrett & Jack Mingo

So, it's mid-September...how are those crayons holding up? For me, they're usually broken in halves and worn down to an inch long. Those poor crayons! They sure do get abused in elementary classrooms. 

Which brings me to one of my most favorite books in the past few years...

(Buy here)

Now, if you've been following me at all over the last couple of years, you KNOW that I'm a big (and I mean BIIIGGG) fan of author/illustrator Oliver Jeffers. I mean, I'm talking Facebook Fan so I know what he's working on and what to expect from him in the coming months. 

I knew that he collaborated with Drew Daywalt a few years back to illustrate The Day the Crayons Quit and I was highly anticipating it's release (June 2013). So what if I pre-ordered the book the moment it was put on Amazon...it's not like I was really "stalking" him...I stalk his stuff! 

So...

It's only right that I create a RTL and comprehension game based on this magnificent book!

(Click on image to purchase)

Drew did such a fabulous job of writing this outstanding picture book...each crayon's plight is very believable. Which makes responding to this book sooo much FUN!

For the younger kiddos, there is the writing/drawing template The ______ Crayon Quits!

With every crayon color (from the book) represented {12 crayons + a BW template},

students are able to pick a color to draw and write about. I ask students to tell me why a particular crayon color quit...they can either give me a reason stated from the text or make up a reasonable one on their own. 

For slightly older students, there is a more detailed writing activity: Give Me One Good Reason...

Students are asked to convince one crayon color to stay in their crayon box. 

 On the graphic organizer, they are given space to write out their 3 reasons with details and draw for visualization.
Additionally, "Openers" {First Sentences} examples are given to help kick-start their writing.

For those crayon fanatics, a craftivity is included.
Making your very own crayon to go along with your writing.

(Please excuse poor quality photo)

Templates are provided for students to color and cut as well as simple directions on what to add (pipe cleaner arms & legs and googly eyes...pretty easy).

And top it all off is a fun comprehension game with easy to read question cards.

Print, cut, and (possibly) laminate...
all you need to add is a kitchen timer and you're set!

Reading this story to my students is honestly one of my favorite books of the year!
They really enjoy the text and illustrations
and I love watching them come up with funny reasons why crayons would quit!