The Mighty "IF"

    

The word IF is small but powerful.  Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about it (which, IF you haven’t read it since high school, read it again – it is meaningful even today!).  IF can be a conjunction with several meanings or a noun with only two meanings in Webster’s dictionary.  But to teachers who want to enlarge their students’ world of possibilities for creative writing, I offer you the “Educational IFs” for your students to ponder.  Combine these with my prompts (links below) and you will have a fun time reading a wide variety of stories, essays, and articles from your little learners.  

Ask your students to use one of these IFs in their assignment

• The “Curious IF” – What IF…?  (Example: What IF the snow was green instead of white? How would that change the world?)
• The “Conditional IF” – IF….. then…..  (Example: IF my dog gets into the garbage, then __________- fill in the blank with the many things that could go wrong.)
• The “Dictator IF” – No IFs, ands, or buts! (Example: When my mom told me to clean my room, she told me there would be no IFs, ands or buts.  How would you respond to that?)
• The “Regrettable IF” – IF only…. (Example: IF only I had tied my shoe before I got on my bicycle.  What happened next?)
• The “Sassy IF” – As IF! (Example: When my sister told me she was going to make a million dollars selling lemonade, I said, “As IF!)
• The "Simile IF" - As IF (without the exclamation point) (Example: My notebook fell to the floor, as IF it had a life of its own.)
• The “Sorting IF” – IF any…. (Example: IF any flowers bloom in my garden, I will be pleasantly surprised.)

So, offer your students the possibilities below for their writing assignments, while using one of the IF statements above and watch their creativity soar, as IF their words took wings!

For Middle and High School:

FUN Writing Prompts - Nonfiction - This collection of prompts is in the form of clickable images on PowerPoint interactive slides. Your students will enjoy exploring all the possibilities. (Also available on Google slides HERE)

FUN Writing Prompts - Fiction - This collection of prompts is also in the form of clickable images on PowerPoint interactive slides. Your students will enjoy exploring all the possibilities. (Also available on Google slides HERE)

Valentine's Day Story Starters - No lace or Disney characters in these prompts!

For Elementary and Middle School:

Weekly Visual and Verbal Story Starters -  A set of 40 story starters that will keep your young authors busy all year long with a variety of topics to explore and develop. Each picture also contains a question for your students to answer.

For Elementary School:

180 Picture and Sight Word Prompts - Grade 3 - This collection of 180 picture prompts are arranged on an Avery 30-label template, so you can stick them to your students' journals, or simply print them on plain paper and glue into the journal. They are based on a Dolch sight word list.

180 Picture and Sight Word Prompts - Grade 2 - This collection of 180 picture prompts are arranged on an Avery 30-label template, so you can stick them to your students' journals, or simply print them on plain paper and glue into the journal. They are based on a Dolch sight word li

180 Picture and Sight Word Prompts - Grade 1 - This collection of 180 picture prompts are arranged on an Avery 30-label template, so you can stick them to your students' journals, or simply print them on plain paper and glue into the journal. They are based on a Dolch sight word lists.

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FREE digital activities for The Very Impatient Caterpillar

Whether you are a parent doing homeschool lessons, a teacher assigning digital lessons, or we're all back in the classroom, a digital picture book challenge will keep your students learning and practicing many literacy skills in an engaging way.

The Very Impatient Caterpillar is a laugh out loud story about a little caterpillar who doesn't know much about metamorphosis. Here's a link to the story on Storytime with

 Ryan & Craig: 

This FREE digital challenge for The Very Impatient Caterpillar has 4 challenges for students to complete. They'll need a piece of paper and a pencil to write mystery words and letters they'll discover as they solve each challenge.

The story video and challenges #1 and #2 are Google Slides with moveable pieces.

 The video link is filtered through SafeYouTube so there are no ads or any other distractors.

For challenge #1, students put the story events in order. When they finish, they go to the next slide and move the magnifying glass around to find a hidden message. The message tells them that the letters in red make a word from the story. 

Challenge #2 is a nonfiction passage about metamorphosis with questions. The letters of their answers make a word from the story.

Challenges #3 and #4 are Google Forms. Students must answer correctly before moving on to the next question. For challenge #3, they determine if the statement is a fact or an opinion. They are given the mystery letter when they finish.

For challenge #4, students answer multiple-choice questions about the story. After the questions are answered, they are given the mystery letter to write on their paper.

Now it's time to crack the final codeword. Students should have two mystery words and two mystery letters on their scratch paper. 

Answer keys and directions for assigning via Google Classroom and Google Drive are included.

These activities are for 2nd and 3rd graders. 

This digital picture book challenge can be downloaded from my TpT store:

The Very Impatient Caterpillar Digital Picture Book Challenge

If you like this free challenge, check out more picture book challenges that each have six tasks.

I Wanna Iguana

Stuck

My Lucky Day

Chrysanthemum

Can I Be Your Dog?

Officer Buckle and Gloria

Three Hens and a Peacock

Thelma the Unicorn

The Giving Tree

Diary of a Worm

Easy-to-Implement Home Instruction Ideas

When I was in college a bazillion years ago, we were asked to develop a learning packet for home-bound students.  It included readings (which can now be a link to an online source!), activities that could be completed at home with readily available materials, written assignments, and miscellaneous other methods for evaluation (which today can be an online test).  It took several weeks during my methods class to develop that device and I wondered when I would ever use it.  Well, as it turned out, I did have a student who was put on home instruction during my first year teaching.  The work I had put into the learning packet in college, sure came in handy when I was overwhelmed with first-year worries like brand new lesson plans, grading (by hand!) all of my students, and preparing what I needed for the day's lesson.

Many schools now are planning for ways to provide home instruction as a reaction to the coronavirus.  While that's certainly an effective way to prevent the spread, it places an additional burden on already-overworked teachers to come up with lessons that their students can accomplish at home for days or even weeks until the crisis passes and the students can return to school.

Here are some ideas that may help you:

1. Look for online versions of your textbooks that are provided by the publisher.  You may already have that possibility in place.  If so, great!  Use it to list daily readings, activities, and assignments that they can return to you by email or in a packet when they return to school.  Some companies are offering free subscriptions during the coronavirus crisis: FREE subscriptions.
2. Search for prepared projects that encompass your curriculum.  This will be easy for your students to complete because they would probably have been completing them on their own in the classroom, anyway. No, these are usually not free, but they can come at a minimal expense for the ease of implementation in your remote classroom! For example, I have a few social studies packets at my Teachers Pay Teachers store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/All-american-Teacher-Tools  
•  I have a packet for every state in the union plus the District of Columbia.  Each PowerPoint presentation and accompanying activities can be done individually or as a team (in class or at home with friends).  They are appropriate for grades 3-6.  Here is one example (look for your own state): Ohio History and Project-Based Learning Packet
•  I also have a complete learning quest for each of the ancient civilizations: Rome, Greece, and Egypt.  These, two, can be done individually or with a small group and are appropriate for grades 5-9: Ancient Civilizations Bundle
3. Look for explanatory PowerPoints that make learning fun and easier for students who need that extra help.  Math is particularly difficult if there is no teacher present to steer the wayward student in the right direction.  I have developed PowerPoints for each of the topics in the 6th grade Engage New York math modules. Here is the first one on ratios, which is free to show you how I simplify the topics for your students: Ratios.  Engage New York does have their own explanatory videos, but I found that they can be as confusing as the topic which was presented in the text.
4. Use Google docs to coordinate grades, groups, and assignments.  Your district may not have this already in place, so encourage everyone to participate in this easy way to communicate with students and their parents.  Speaking of parents and other caregivers, make sure they understand that their children absolutely need to complete the assignments you offer while you are separated from them or they will fall seriously behind in their work.  
5. Learn from the Homeschool network how to present the curriculum without a brick and mortar school as a base of operations.  Here is one link to get your creative juices flowing: Time 4 Learning.  I'm not saying you need to buy into their expensive system, but you can get some ideas from them on possible themes, projects, and independent learning.
6. Finally, coordinate with other teachers, either in your school or around the country who are teaching the same topics as you are.  Look on Teachers Pay Teachers for free resources and download them for you students to access using whatever at-home platform your district is using.  

Above all, make this a fun learning experience for your students and keep in constant contact by providing feedback on the assignments they may be returning to you every day.  They probably don't want to be stuck at home, either.  And they won't be motivated to participate in a learning program where there is no teacher to direct them back to the task at hand.  Offer them interim rewards for finishing an assignment.  Show them what might be waiting for them when they return from "quarantine" to offer completion incentives.  And remember that your students rely on you for their education, whether you are standing in front of them, or offering remote assistance through written assignments or even a Skype-like platform.