Friday FREEBIE: Poetry Pals

Hey y'all! Happy FRIDAY! Did you hear me? It's FRI-DAY! Have you counted how many MORE Fridays you have this school year yet? I have. I have a countdown!

Since it's Friday, it's time for a FREEBIE!  I've been working on a professional development on Literacy Work Stations at night on the couch and in doing that, I've been creating some new resources to share with YOU!

I'm sharing Poetry Pals with you today!  I've used Poetry Pals for years in my classroom. I had a Poetry Station and this was always a choice along with other things of course!  Kids love it!

If you are a Daily Five person, this would be a perfect choice for Read to Someone! If you are in DC and use the Fluency Work Station- this is for YOU! You can get your FREE copy in my TpT store.

I hope you can use it/adapt it for use in your own classroom! Cheers! keep doing what you do!
Only ___ more Friday's!

Vocabulary Work Station

Hey y'all! I'm posting this on Easter evening. Hope you all had a very HOPPY day with family and friends.   Having that ONE extra day of the weekend really makes such a difference doesn't it?

Let the Sunday-itis begin... but before I go to bed and watch more television that I should (that's always my Sunday-itis symptom) I will give you guys a quick freebie!

Vocabulary has been a hot button topic with a few teachers in my districts lately.  And with the Common Core State Standards, it's something we need to be aware of as teachers and be explicitly teaching to our students.

More about vocabulary instruction and what words to teach can be seen in the document.

But hopefully, this document gives you an idea for a Vocabulary Work Station that will sustain itself for the rest of your school year!

Click here to get your FREE copy!
Cheers!

April Currently

It is APRIL y'all. I was so caught up on the April FOOLS part of it that I forgot all about the Currently side of things.  I did spend the night making some cool new freebies for my blog! Be on the lookout in April...

Vocabulary Work Station

Poetry Pals Work Station

Book Pic of the Week

Now I digress. The reason I'm here is to post a currently... not tease you with FREE things that will be coming.  

Here goes...

Listening: This song is my theme song this week. I may listen to it 20 times today.  "I smile, even though I hurt, see, I smile. I know God is working, so I smile!"   

Loving: It is SPRING in Texas! You know what that means? If you are a Texan you do! It means Bluebonnets! Everywhere! It's truly beautiful to see these wildflowers.  If they grown in your yard, on the highway, wherever, people don't mow! Can't wait for pictures again this year. Happy SPRING Texans!

Thinking: We are moving into research in our curriculum, so I need to do some research on research for my teachers.  My goal is that they teach the specificity of the standards for research, not just research- there is a BIG difference.  

Wanting: For many reasons, that I can't go into on this blog, July 1st cannot get here soon enough! NO- it's not a due date for those of you always trying to hear that from me! HA!

Needing: Don't I say that every month on these blog posts? Sigh.  

EGGS-plain:My maiden name is Douglas.  It's a strong name! And God love my husband, and his family, but Leach... well... it's not as great as Douglas! But, in the blogging world, it did allow me a very cute blog name... LEACHTEACH.  

STAAR TEST FUNK

Have y'all SEEN THIS??!!! OMG! I just love it!

Keep it moving! Share with a friend! I think our kiddos need to see this on Friday!  I put a copy of the lyrics (written by a teacher in Denton) in my Dropbox. You can download them here.

‘Cause STAAR test we’re gonna give it to ya’
It’s testing day and we’ve learned a lot
Don't believe me just watch (come on)

New Website for K/1 Teachers

Oh y'all I just love this new site! It's the first time I've ever seen good examples of leveled texts for FREE READING online! Share this with families for sure. Put this in a work station. Good stuff y'all. Spread the Word!

Unite for Literacy Library

Do You Teach 4th Grade?

If you teach 4th grade... then you know you have TWO MORE WEEKS (one of those may be Spring Break) until the STAAR test!

The KEY to this week is to keep doing what you've done! Hopefully that means mini-lessons each day and time for kids to write every day while you give them crucial feedback in conferences! Sound familiar? Yep- I'm talking about Writer's Workshop. We can give them ONE MORE WEEK of Writer's Workshop!

In addition to this Writer's Workshop time, we can also give kids a little leg-up on the editing and revising portion of the test. First let me say, TEST PREP is not the ticket! But teaching that prepares... that's what I'm all about!

So... in preparing kids for the editing and revision portion of the test, I created the following activities. They are open ended editing and revision questions that will get kiddos looking closely at writing. Better yet- their ideas and thoughts will apply to their own writing too! It's a win-win!

 

Go ahead... get your FREE Editing and Revising passages with questions from my TpT store! There are five compositions for Expository and five compositions for Personal Narrative! Download BOTH!


Cheers!  Happy Writing and may the SCORES (THE FOURS) be with you!

Fun FREEBIE!

Hello out there!

I wanted to share something FUN I found lately! Did you like playing UNO growing up?

Me too! So of course you can imagine my joy when I found THIS free TpT download! 

Get your FREE download at her store here! 

BUT to make it better... I shared the idea with my Kinder and First grade teachers who use Fundations... and one the FIRST GRADE teachers MADE a Fundations UNO!  

  

Hot diggity! You can your free copy of that here!

Have fun y'all! 

March Currently

It's that time again.  I'm linking up with Farley! This may be one of her cutest designs yet. I'm always thankful for the opportunity to link up at the FIRST OF THE MONTH and for a GUARANTEED REASON TO BLOG!

Listening:I love this Pandora channel! Do you know it? It's often popular music, but usually instrumental!  I have told my upper elementary teachers and middle school teachers about it! They love it too. It allows me to stay focused, but also have some jams while I work.

Loving:  My husband gets a bad rap- cause I'm usually talking about him when he's not on my good list. But let it be known- I married a really good guy! And he puts up with SO MUCH from me! So I'm loving on him tonight!

Thinking: Oh it's bad y'all.  I was going to clean this weekend and I wasn't feeling well on Sunday... so there is still dust... still dog hair... and that bathroom counter... yeah... well... hoping some cleaning happens soon!

Wanting: Oh man! Ice cream is my weakness! But going to GET it is not something I am wanting. They really should deliver. I'd pay twice the price if it could just show up at my door...

Needing: Ugh. Don't remind me!

Spring Break Plans:  I'm so excited. I'm able to mix business with pleasure. Two days in a district near LA. It will be my first time there. Then the hubby and I are packing up the car to drive to New Mexico! We haven't been skiing in over 5 years.. and I can't wait to fall in love with him all over again-on the slopes!

Have a great March y'all! I need to believe that spring is coming.  I'm ready for time on the boat. Longer days and no more tights! I hate wearing tights!

Happy spring! Speaking of spring- it's time to change over my blog design too!

Friday Freebie: Transition Words

Google Search transition words- and there are a lot of lists! But, if we are thinking about our elementary writers- that list is not useful! Face it...transition words are so abstract! Kids don't "get" how to use them- let alone which ones to use!

I came home today and put together a FRIDAY FREEBIE  (on Thursday) that may help all my writing teachers out there!

I broke this resource into Narrative and Expository transitions and left a space for students to add their own. This would be a great tool in a Writer's Toolbox don't you think? Not to mention- that's a transition- fuel for a few good mini-lessons!

At the end of the file, I shared a great mini-lesson idea to help you teach these crazy abstract things!

Happy transitioning! Get your FREE file here!

How do you teach transition words? Will this help you? Please leave a comment and let me know your plans for its use! Don't forget to LIKE Leach's Literacy Training if it was my facebook post that brought you here!

What Can Teachers Infer About the STAAR test?

We are deep in data in my district! Sing with me... like Alicia Keys... those spreadsheets are on FIRE! So much to teach and so little time. But one thing we can infer about the STAAR test, is that we have to infer a lot! A lot, a lot, a lot! And there are so many WAYS that the test asks our students to infer.  Did you know? No wonder it's so hard... they don't just say... what can you infer... grrrr!

So ask those kids to infer... in all the same ways that the STAAR test does! Print your poster here!