January Freebies and Classroom Resources

 The holidays are over and January is here. As we head into spring - it is more important than ever to engage our students. It is also more important than ever to find turnkey lessons that are easy to incorporate into the classroom, hybrid, and digital models.

Here are some finds.

Morning Work for 5th Grade-7th - January - No Prep - Or Secondary Review

NO Prep Morning Work for Fifth Grade - January THEMED. This 5th grade morning work/ bell-ringer perfectly spiral reviews the 5th grade language arts and mathematics standards. These exercises also work well for middle and secondary review.

More than morning work this resource can be used at any time during school day. Bins, back table work, early finishers, bell-ringers, take home, digital, print - endless possibilities. Great for any upper grade review as well.

Each daily ELA and Math activity is aligned to standards.

Powerpoint digital slides provide your students with repetitive and engaging morning work that reinforces standards and skills. Students can illustrate and write their responses in a composition or spiral notebook.

OR PRINTABLE:

ALSO INCLUDES A PDF Black and White Printable Version if you don't want to project and have students use their own notebooks.

Winter STEM Challenges (January)

This winter themed STEM/STEAM package is perfect to engage your elementary engineers in January! Three STEM challenges and one Bonus Brainbuilder are provided and can be completed as stations or in isolation.

Includes the following LOW PREP STEM Challenges:

• Sledding Ramp
• Hibernation Station
• Snowball Structure
• Bonus Brainbuilder: Snowflake Symmetry

Freebie: New Years 2021 Resolution Activity- January Positive Growth Mindset

My New Year's Resolution Bingo Activity is easy to use, editable and ready to go either virtually or digitally! This product is COMPLETELY EDITABLE and FREE!! Start the new calendar year off right by developing a positive growth mindset with my list of new year's resolutions or create/add/modify with your students! Download my product and choose how you want to use the presentation: Google slides or PowerPoint. Have students create a 4 x 4 bingo card, write out the number and resolution. Call out on students, read out the statement and have fun! 

Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Reading Comprehension Black History January

This passage gives an overview of Martin Luther King Jr's role in the African American Civil Rights Movement. 26 questions (identify, multiple choice, short answer) assess students' understanding.

Thanks or looking!

#teaching #freebies

Non-Fiction Ready Readers - High Interest Low Level AND On Level

Ready Reader Informational Text Packets/Units. These are non-fiction/ informational Text, print-and-go Ready Readers at two levels for turnkey differentiation.

Each reader has approximately FIVE reading passages and 25 pages of activities that include close reading, fluency, comprehension, word work, conventions, informational text skills, writing and more.

The readers are standards-based, engaging and may be used for classroom, take-home packets, online, or a hybrid of any and all combinations. They perfect for whole class, early finishers, centers and more. The "Below Level Readers" may be used for intervention, ESL or coupled with the "At Level Reader" - for all students in your class to access important standards-based activities at their level.Ready Readers are written at two levels – grade level and below grade level. Each reading passage, article, or story in Ready Readers is leveled - so you know exactly which reader to assign to each student. Be sure to check out the preview.

EXAMPLE: In the Kamala Harris Edition, you will find:

25-page Form Fillable PDFs of the Kamala Harris Reader Reader at two levels

• 25-page PDF of the Kamala Harris Reader Reader at two levels for packets

• 2 - 25-page PowerPoints of the Kamala Harris Reader Reader at two levels

• Instructions and Information

• Standards Alignment Chart

• Passage 1: Fluency – page 2 – 1010L - 1200L

• Passage 2: Pages 5-6 – Lexile Level 610L – 800L

• Passage 3: page 9-11 – Lexile Level 1010L-1200L

• Passage 4: page 16 – Lexile Level 1010L-1200L

• Passage 5: page 22 - Lexile Level 810L- 1000L

• Passage 1: Fluency – page 2 – 410L - 600L

• Passage 2: Pages 5 and 6 – Lexile Level 410L to 600L

• Passage 3: page 9 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 4: page 14 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 5: page 20 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

Tik Tok Famous Ready Reader LevelsReadings:

• Passage 1: page 2 – Lexile 410L-600L

• Passage 2: page 5 - Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 3: page 7 – Lexile Level 610L-800L

• Passage 4: page 9 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 5: page 14 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

• Passage 6: page 15 – Lexile Level 410L-600L

Readers - Non-Fiction Units Under $3.00 - GRADES 4-12

Also Available:

FREE: Chadwick Boseman At Level Ready Reader Hybrid, Distance and Packet

FREE: Chadwick Boseman At Level Ready Reader GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Kamala Harris High-Low Reader Reader & Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris High Low Ready Reader & Kamala Harris GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Tulsa Race Riots - At Level and High - Low Ready Readers

Tulsa Race Riots - At Level & High Low Ready Readers GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Frederick Douglas - At Level & High-Low Ready Reader

Frederick Douglas - At Level & High-Low Ready Reader GOOGLE SLIDE VERSION

Marvel Universe High Low Ready Reader - Informational Text for Grades 5-12 - GOOGLE SLIDE

Marvel High Low Ready Reader Informational Text for Grades 5-12

Tuskegee Airmen - Low Level

Maya Angelou High Low Ready Reader

GOOGLE Maya Angelou High Low Ready Reader

And the list keeps growing.

This list will continue to grow as I vet units - and freebies!
On Level Ready Reader:
Below Level Ready Reader:

Classroom Games for the End of the Year

Classroom Games for Maximum Achievement

Games are a great way to introduce concepts, reinforce standards and engage students in learning. There are whole class games, quiz games, projectable PowerPoint games, board games and so many more.

Games can be excellent informal assessments, project culminations, and center activities. 

There are 100s of studies regarding the benefits of games in the classroom.These studies showed that, on average, using academic games in the classroom is associated with a 20 percentile point gain in student achievement. This is a relatively strong finding (Robert Marzano, 2008).

How to get the most out of games:  

• Don't make the stakes too high. Students like to compete but don't like to be embarrassed. Create teams to ensure equality in answers. 
• Switch teams up during the year so that everyone experiences their share of winning and losing.
• Target academic content - like the games below - from literacy to social studies to math - make sure the games you use are learning opportunities.
• Debrief after play. Since the whole point of games in the classroom is to provide students the opportunity to examine content in an engaging environment - don't forget to recap - allowing students to highlight what they've learned. Take the time to reinforce important elements.
• Have students journal after gameplay. This provides them with meaningful opportunities to reexamine knowledge.

Games are a powerful tool to examine difficult content - any content - while engaging students and raising achievement.

Know more great classroom games - share them in the comments below.

10 Answers - 20 Questions Only Better US Colonial History - Board and PowerPoint

Fast-paced quiz game - 2 versions: paper "board game" for groups, center or whole class play.

Students are given 10 answers - one at a time. With each clue students have the opportunity to guess the person, place or thing related to the topic. Gameplay generates maximum participation for students at all levels. 10 Answers is engaging and super fun with learning happening almost by accident.

The Clickable PowerPoint version is great for assessment or to team up your students and have a fast-paced quiz round. Perfect for bell-ringers, filler, assessments, to learn facts, to reinforce content, as a center activity, for distance learning practice and more.

This unique game is ideal for any age students who study US History – from 5th to 12th grade.

It is fun, engaging, provides fact-testing and reading practice. Critical thinking is a must as students use clues to determine answers.

Group play and individual play instructions are included.

End of the Year Activity Mystery Game for the Whole Class

The end of the year is the perfect time to pull out this mystery activity game. Students use the detective skills of listening and the process of elimination to solve the mystery of who took the test. Perfect whole class game, let the fun begin.

Games 4 Learning

Games 4 Learning has 100s of games for all ages - from math to brain teasers to puzzles to board games  - there is something for everyone.

Multiplication Freebie

Free End of Year Math and Literacy Games: Summer Activities Packet

Summer Freebies 

1  Haystead, M. W., & Marzano, R. J. (2009). Meta-Analytic Synthesis of Studies Conducted at Marzano Research Laboratory on Instructional Strategies. Englewood, CO: Marzano Research Laboratory.

Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti

FREEBIE + Play Plus Engagement Equals Effective Instruction

Play + Engagement = Effective Instruction 

David St. Germain is an advertising guru. His client list includes Coca-Cola, Burger King, TCBY, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Marriott and about 70 other mega-brands.  He said that: “Play is one of the most misunderstood concepts anywhere.  We do know a few things: We seem to have played a lot in the classroom in elementary school, some in middle school, a little in high school and very little when we get into life” (Schools of Fish).

Play is the primary ingredient in any atmosphere, it is essential when a teacher is trying to set a positive feeling tone or otherwise motivate students.  It is a way to actively engage all those bodies staring up at you - in active participation.

The FISH! concept of Play taps into our natural way of being creative, enthusiastic and having fun. Play is the spirit that drives the curious mind, as in “Let’s play with that idea!” It’s a mindset you can bring to everything you do.

Engagement begins with active participation – engaging most of the students, most of the time.

Put them together and you’ve developed the perfect formula for student success.

Learning through play is essential when our goal is engaging most of the students most of the time. If active participation equates to the consistent mental involvement of most of the students most of the time…then by its very definition…play is key and could very well be the missing link to student engagement and achievement.

But let’s talk about play as it is often an extremely misunderstood concept when it relates to the classroom.  There was a teacher in a training who could not get past the word “play” and how she defined it.  She could not hurtle the notion that her class would be out of control and wild if she let them play…when in fact the opposite is true. A classroom at “play” is a classroom of learners actively engaged; because play is the primary ingredient in any atmosphere where students are relaxed, enthused and able to give their best and where students feel safe to try new things.  Any place where creativity and critical thinking flourishes – some form of play is happing.

Albert Einstein put it this way: “Play is the greatest research.”  Play is hard work you love to do.  As teachers, it is incumbent upon us to make instruction something students love to participate in - to do that we must keep student mentally and/or actively involved in each lesson most of the time.

Play is not what you say and do so much as how is said or done.

Engage Students with Read Along Stories

The internet is full of webquests and read along stories you can download or run on

computers, ipads, notebooks, tablets - any technology. Great FREE read alongs include:

• Pancake Batter: Does it Matter?
• Teachnonogy - 100s of Webquests
• Make your own Webquests with this Webquest maker
• Another Webquest maker at Eduscapes
• Many Read alongs at Pink Penquiny

Teacher Assignment

Stop and Take a Minute: Close your eyes and think of one way that you can actively engage your students in play in your classroom through play.

Teacher Assignment: Print these out - either now or later - think, draw and write your answers -  and then share in the comments sections if you are so included:

Link for: Assignments for all ages that are "Playfully" engaging.

References

Strand, Phillip; Christensen, Halper, Andy. (2006) Schools of Fish!. Hyperion. New York, New York.

Thanks -- and be sure to follow this blog for more Freebies!

Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti
#ChapinPinotti