Pegs to Hang Ideas On...freebies!

"All words are pegs to hang ideas on."  This was said by Henry Ward Beecher, a 19th Century minister, author, and lecturer.  His older sister just so happened to be Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.  I heard his wise words about a month ago at a science conference, and they've been ruminating in my mind ever since.

With my lack of blogging this fall...winter...ok, first semester, I decided to compile a mega blog post of vocabulary resources that you can customize.  I tried to make them self-explanatory and easy to use in Word or PowerPoint.  You can use them by opening the document, adding whatever text you need/want in whichever areas you deem necessary, then print.  Yes, many times we ask our students to create their own foldables from start to finish.  I have found especially with my little second graders, that sometimes with just a little bit of it already filled in, they are more focused on what I want them to remember...THE MEANING!!!  (It is also less intimidating to them if I don't hand them a blank piece of paper and say, "OK, make a foldable with these 6 new words.  Good luck!")

You may have to play around with your printer for any that require printing on both sides.  For my printers at home and school (both HP), I print one side, turn the printed side over so that the blank side then faces up, place that stack in the bypass tray (blank side up), and then print the second side.  Voila...it works!  Play around with yours, and I hope it works for you on the first try!  [fingers crossed]

So, here are some free goodies for you, and I hope you are able to use them and adjust them for your students.  Many of these foldables can be glued into your students' interactive notebooks so they can be used as resources later on.

Oh, one more thing...what you see below are screen shots, but I've hyperlinked everything for you because I love you.  They are all editable documents that you can download for free...again, because I love you.  :)

WARNING:  Sometimes, when you see these documents in Google docs, they look like a hot mess!  In the top right corner, look for DOWNLOAD ORIGINAL.  When you open them in their respective programs, they are totally fine and normal and calm like your students moments after your principal leaves your classroom from doing an observation or walk-through.  If you have any problems, just email me and I'll hook you up...because I love you. :)

Vocabulary Flip Flap Book Title on Top
*print page one first; then print page two on the back of page one
*fold the page in half and cut along each line to create flaps that open up revealing definitions
*you can do without the title
*I made this one with my kiddos, and I scanned a finished product into my computer which I don't have access to right now.  As soon as I get access to it, I'll upload it.   

 Vocabulary Flip Flap Book Title on Side

*Print page one first; then print page two on the back of page one.
*Fold the page in half and cut along each line to create flaps that open up revealing definitions.

Vocabulary 3 Door Flip Flap Book
*Cut on dotted lines and fold flaps in towards middle.
*The solid lines in the middle do not really serve a purpose since anything that is written would be written on the reverse side of the text you see.  However, they would be faintly seen and could serve as a guide for students.  You can also have students fold on those lines so that fold lines are created which would then create more evident boxes for students to write in.
*Definitions can be written (by students) on the inside "flaps" or areas.
*There are two different page orientations for you to choose from.

 
Vocabulary 4 Door Flip Flap Book
*Cut on dotted lines and fold flaps in towards middle.
*The solid lines in the middle do not really serve a purpose since anything that is written would be written on the reverse side of the text you see.  However, they would be faintly seen and could serve as a guide for students.  You can also have students fold on those lines so that fold lines are created which would then create more evident boxes for students to write in. 
*Definitions can be written (by students) on the inside "flaps" or areas.
*There are two different page orientations for you to choose from.

Four Corner Mini Book
*This is so versatile!
*This is another one where you will print on page one, flip it and print on page two.
*Or you can add text to the corner triangles (on page one) and have your students add their ideas to the inside squares/diamonds (on page two).
*Just fold in half and half again first; open up.
*Then just fold your corners down.
*The orientation of this flip book can be more like a diamond...just rotate it so that the corners are at the top and sides.

 Word Family Foldable
* I just love word families especially for primary students, struggling readers/spellers and ELLs

Four-Square Foldable
*I've used this type of foldable for many things.  The Frayer Model is how I've used it mainly, but it can be used in many ways.

Well, I hope I've shared something that you can use to help your kiddos hang ideas on!

Create-an-Animal & Create-a-Plant {freebie}

With the craziness that this school year has brought, my blogging goal for October was to post at least twice this month.  Well, I have just a little more than 24 hours to meet my goal, so mission accomplished.  Yea, me!

One of the objectives in 2nd grade is to identify the basic needs of plants and animals.  And if you've been following me for a while, you know that I am not the type of teacher who likes kids to regurgitate information in the format of a worksheet.  So I designed an activity where my students could apply their learning of the basic needs of plants and animals while being creative.  I also wanted them to include what we've been noticing in nonfiction texts...all of those awesome text features.  Just click on any of the images below to get the free download for this activity.

The border I used came from a freebie from www.traceeorman.com.

Here are just a couple of examples of what my little zoologists and botanists created....

The name of my plant is the Double Bubble.  My plant needs are sun, water and air.  My plant lives in Australia. 

The name of my plant is the polka-dotted plant.  It is found where the oak tree {lives}.  My plants needs water, sunlight, and air.

Snap-a-doodle doesn't need a shelter to live.  But, they have snap mouths to protect themselves.  And that's why they call it a snap-a-doodle.

My kids LOVED creating their plants and animals!  In fact, several of them asked for another blank diorama to create another one!!

Dollar Treats! Oh So Neat!

A recent visit to the Dollar Spot at Target as well as a quick trip to Dollar Tree resulted in a station idea for nonfiction reading and writing.  These flash cards at Target caught my eye...well, these and the Starbucks located at the front of the store.  The reason the cards appealed to me is because some of my 2nd grade monkeys are reluctant nonfiction readers, mainly because they become overwhelmed with the amount of text in a nonfiction book.  These cards have just the right amount of information as well as some great text features.  Of course, I had to think of some {Task Cards} that could be used for these little jewels of facts and information.  I'm thinking I will print these task cards on cardstock, laminate them, cut them out, and store them with these flash cards.  (You can even punch a hole in the top left corner to put them on a binder ring and hang from a wall or cabinet.)  During Work on Writing, my tiny grapefruits can help themselves to a set of flash cards, select a task card, and explore a topic.  And the stackable bins from Dollar Tree were just the perfect size for so many classroom needs.