FREE E-BOOK FOR TEACHERS: FIVE FINGER PHONICS

Five Finger Phonicsis loaded with proper sound associated with letter/sound, an image for each sound, a physical movement (done with five fingers or less), a list of visuals to show your students, a list of words that either start with the letter or have the letter (vowel) sound in the middle, food items to further engage the kids and to strengthen the letter sound, a story title or two to read to the class, a hook activity to introduce the letter and sound, hands on manipulative activity, and a song or two to sing for that letter/sound.

Download the eBook here.

teach your students how to write a diamante poem

This handout is a great tool for teaching kids how to write a Diamante Poem.  Diamante poems are a great way to teach student about Synonyms and Antonyms and have a bit of fun in the process.  This lesson plan is suitable for students from years 3 - 10 and will easily fill one literacy session. 

You can download my handout here and also learn more about Diamante Poems at Readwritethink.orgnhere.

Writing a Diamante Poem

PRESCHOOL LESSON PLANS FOR PETER RABBIT:

A very quick post for the weekend.  Thanks, Colleen from Devon in the UK for this link to a series of teaching ideas for younger students based on Beatrix Potter's famous series about the adventures of Peter Rabbit. Access them hereand have a good weekend.

15 GRAMMAR GOOFS THAT MAKE YOU LOOK SILLY.

Believe me, the English language is a complex beast.  I teach it and regularly get feedback from readers who point out the errors I make in my blog posts that have been a little too rushed.

This infographic below highlights some of the most common grammatical errors we make.  Feel free to contrubute others below.

FREE E-BOOK: ACING MATH (ONE DECK AT A TIME)

Acing Math (One Deck At A Time!)is a collection of math games ranging from Kindergarten to the upper elementary grades, using only an ordinary deck of playing cards.  There are games covering addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, percents, decimals, patterns, positive and negative integers, as well as many others. 

A very wise old maths teacher who once taught me said that "You can teach every aspect of maths with a pack of cards" and this e-Book goes a long way to supporting that statement.

Download the free e-Book here.

EXCELLENT TOOL FOR TEACHING FRACTIONS, DECIMALS, RATIOS & PERCENTAGES.

This Excel workbook is an excellent tool for using with your interactive whiteboard to explain the mathematical links between fractions, decimals ratios and percentages.

Here are some suggestions for how you might use it in the classroom.

How Many Shaded: Show the students the workbook with no red squares shaded and one or more of the fraction, ratio, decimal and percentage showing.  Ask students how many squares need to be shaded to make 25% for example.  Get one student to come to the board to add the squares to check.  Repeat for different grid sizes and values.

Equivalent Fractions:  Show the students the workbook with no red squares shaded and the fraction showing.  Ask students how many squares need to be shaded to make 1/2 for example.  Get one student to come to the board to add the squares, look at the fraction the click simplify to check.  Repeat for different grid sizes, then for different fractions.  Ask questions such as "Can we shade in 1/3 of the grid?  If not why not?"

Investigate:  In a computer lab, get the students to open up the workbook.  Ask them to show the fraction and ratio cells and to investigate the relationship between the fractions and ratios for various grid sizes and a different number of squares shaded.  Tell them that they can use the simplify button or calculator whenever they want.  Tell them that they will have to write, present or discuss their findings.  Ask the what the simplify button does, etc.  This activity could also be used to investigate the relationship between fraction and decimal, etc. 

Download it here.- Remember to Enable Macros to make it work correctly.

THINKING BLOCKS - HELP KIDS MODEL THEIR MATH PROBLEMS

Thinking Blocksis a suite of learning tools designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently. Using brightly colored blocks, students model mathematical relationships and identify known and unknown quantities. The model provides students with a powerful image that organizes information and simplifies the problem solving process. By modeling increasingly complex word problems, students develop strong reasoning skills which will facilitate the transition from arithmetic to algebra.

When you first visit the website, you'll find that navigation is as simple as it can get. Just click on the type of math problem that you want to learn, and you'll go to that area of the website. For example, clicking on "Addition" in the menu will take you directly to the area where kids can work on modeling math word problems in order to come up with the solution. Access it here.

JENNY EATHER'S NEW MATHS DICTIONARY FOR STUDENTS

Jenny Eather has been a long time contributor to the world of online teaching resources and unfortunately most of them have now gone to the commercial world. This year she has released a great animated maths dictionary which we can only hope will remain free for a little while longer yet.

It has hundreds of animated examples of key mathematical concepts that will look great on your interactive whiteboard.  Be sure to check it outheretoday.