Friday, November 30, 2012

We hope everyone had a wonderful and restful (hahaha) Thanksgiving!

Julie and I are moving through both Reading Olympians and Reading Warriors programs! Julie has finished Reading Olympians-check out her amazing pillars!

After a student completes a set of Greek roots 
(each named after a Greek figure) he/she gets to place a name tag on the corresponding pillar.  Not only are pillars filling up-but so are their 
reading necklaces! 
They are so proud of these necklaces!
This is what Reading Olympians looks like in our classroom, but we also want to give you a peek into other teachers using the program. 



 wrote a fantastic blog post describing how she implements Reading O in her classroom.  

One of our goals for this blog is to share how teachers who implement the program tweak it to make it fit their classroom structure.  We want to share a HUGE thank you to Nicole for sharing how Reading Olympians is run in her classroom!



Sunday, November 25, 2012

Christmas Sweater Synonyms

You are wearing WHAT?

It sure can be hard to keep those kiddos engaged during the holiday season!  BUT the holidays are a perfect time to dive into a study of descriptive language.  The holidays are full of enchanting things to describe such as new fallen snow, Christmas trees, and ornaments.  However--none of that for this freebie!  Let's have some fun describing 
Students brainstorm synonyms for the words used to describe the sweaters.
Once they have descriptive words for the sweaters, they get to create their own! 


Replace the word "old" and "good" with descriptive synonyms!



Now students get to create their own crazy sweaters!



Find many more fun holiday activity ideas by visiting 
The Holiday Link Up!!  


http://corkboardconnections.blogspot.com/2012/11/holidaylearning.html

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Christmasology & Holiday Figurative Language


We are taking a Thanksgiving Break from Root of the Day because it is time for.... CYBER MONDAY-plus Tuesday Sale!

Photobucket
It is time to shop till you drop!
We are excited to share a couple of fun holiday activities with you! Enter the code CMT12 for 28% off all items in our store!  Kick off the new year with a study of roots with our 
Reading Olympian or Reading Warriors 
root instruction programs! 

Holiday activities hot off the press...
As you may know our blog and many of the products in our store are based on teaching Greek and Latin roots (and stems).  The study of prefixes and suffixes are included in Common Core grades K-8. We have created a fun holiday activity to combine root instruction with Christmas cheer!  

The North Pole is in need of Christmasologists!  Students complete the activities to apply for jobs, create an invention to help Santa (such as an autohotcoca machine), and to help revise the North Pole Dictionary (define words such as subaquatic Santa).  The activities are geared towards any level of root knowledge and can even be used as an introduction into roots! There is a glossary of roots used for those students who have not participated in root instruction! 





Not all of our products are based on root instruction!
Have holiday fun with this Christmas themed figurative language pack!  Students find samples of figurative language in Christmas Carols.  After they identify metaphors, similes, etc...they create their own Christmas cards using figurative language!  There are two varieties of cards-one set includes the figurative language greeting and one does not include a greeting so students can create their own!
Students find samples of figurative language in the included  Christmas Carol lyrics.



Below are samples of the greeting cards!  These cards make great Christmas presents while still maintaining instruction through the holiday season!












   This Thanksgiving we are thankful to say that our products are created using the amazing graphics of Michelle Tsivgadellis. She is not only off the chart talented but helpful, supportive and kind!!



 Please link to Michelle's blog to see all the amazing TPT stores participating in the sale!

Photobucket

Monday, November 19, 2012

Check out this AMAZING give away!!! 
Sign up to win an absolute shopping spree from the participating TPT Stores 
Visit:

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

We are very excited to kick off Root of the Day!  We love word study and thought we would share the fun!!  Thanks to our HERO Michelle--The 3am Teacher--we have will feature the Root of the Day in the form of the wonderful graphic below! 


Thursday, November 8, 2012

Check out this article on root instruction!!!   More and more research is popping up about the importance of root instruction! 
education.jpg 


Sunday, November 4, 2012

FREEBIES!!
Our first is a FLASH FREEBIE for a limited time--- our Story of Greek Roots! 
This is GREAT way to kick of your root study in the primary and 
even secondary classrooms!!!


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greek-Latin-Root-Picture-Book

For those of you implementing Reading Olympians or Reading Warriors, you know how obsessed students become with roots!  One component of our program is providing students with a reading necklace.  Based on the color sets in Reading O or Reading Warriors, as they find roots they earn a color coordinated bead for their necklaces.  This is very motivating but as they learn roots, and realize roots are EVERYWHERE--it can get distractive to have them blurting out roots all the time. A great problem to have--but a problem all the same:)  This card will provide structure for their root discovery.  Each time they find or hear a root, they no longer blurt, but silently complete their bead card.  You can distribute beads as you wish, but we have a student leader do it at the end of the day.  It takes NO learning time and it totally student run.  
Please ask us any questions you have!!!  

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Olympian-Reading-Warrior-Bead-Card