Class Antics – Inside Elementary Education

Dear readers,

Exciting news!  ClassAntics.com has been nominated for the 2012 Fascination Awards honoring the Internet’s most fascinating blogs in the category of Elementary Teacher Blogs.  It’s an honor just to be nominated, but actually it would be even better to win. 

You can help: please click a Google +1 image to vote for ClassAntics.  Voting runs May 14 through May 21.

The Fascinator Awards editorial team chooses the nominees.  ClassAntics caught their attention with FREE Leap Year Worksheets Part 3.  Special thanks to Kumie and Ramona, whose positive comments impressed the editorial team.

Thank you to the tens thousand readers who visit ClassAntics each month.  Please vote for our blog and have a happy end of the school year!

Sincerely,
Corey Green
P.S. For a ClassAntics Sampler, visit these popular posts.

Classroom Management
All for One and One for All: Whole-Class Incentives
A typical elementary schoolday schedule
A Sample First Day of School Letter Home
Chill Music for the Classroom
Best Practices for Professional Learning Communities (Part 2)
Make your classroom a tattle-free zone

 Literacy
AR Report: What Kids are Reading
Teaching Kids to Write Complete Sentences
Figurative Language with Taylor Swift: You Belong with Me

Resources and Worksheets
Dad’s Worksheets: my favorite math resource for parents and teachers
FREE Equinox Worksheet and More Equinox Teaching Resources
Beat Summer Slide: Where to Buy Workbooks

Civil Rights
Red Tails: The Tuskegee Airmen (Part 1)
Coretta Scott King Book Awards 2012
Teaching the Civil Rights Movement, Part 1
Teaching the Civil Rights Movement, Part 2
Ballad of Birmingham
Ruby Bridges

Academics
New Orleans Halloween
Think Inside the Box
How to Ace Standardized Tests

Idiom-challenged maid Amelia Bedelia has delighted children since 1963.  Who can resist a maid who doesn’t understand how to draw the drapes or put out the lights?  Amelia Bedelia’s good intentions and delicious desserts carry her through.

Interestingly enough, I have noticed that most children don’t enjoy the humor of Amelia Bedelia unless they are taught how to appreciate it.  Like Amelia Bedelia, children are very literal and they just don’t get the jokes.   I think kids enjoy Amelia Bedelia books best if they hear several of them read aloud.  That way, the students can help each other explain the idioms.  If you are lucky, one or two kids will get each joke, and they can explain them to the class.  Once the students understand Amelia Bedelia books, rereading them makes for good fluency practice.

Amelia Bedelia books are time-honored vehicles for teaching children about idioms.  This is especially helpful to English Language Learners (ELL students).  Idioms are hard to pick up—notice I used an idiom to explain the quandary.   ELL kids might like to know that Amelia Bedelia has ELL and international roots.  Author Peggy Parish based Amelia on a maid in Cameroon, Africa, where Peggy spent some time as a child. The maid was known for her vast and beautiful hat collection.  The illustrations of Amelia pay homage to this woman.

In addition to the classic Amelia Bedelia books, your students will enjoy reading Herman Parish’s books about young Amelia Bedelia and her first experiences at school.  The books are charming and will make your students feel like seasoned vets as they chuckle over how confusing school is to young Amelia.  You can read a sample here at the Harper Collins website.

Tip for standardized test prep: it’s tough to answer a question about explaining the idiom if you don’t know what an idiom is.  Your students will face this problem unless you periodically review the meaning of words like “idiom.”  It’s easy to lose sight of vocabulary basics in fun lessons, so remember to bring the kids back to the definition.

Resources for Amelia Bedelia and Idioms

• Your class will enjoy Amelia Bedelia games during computer lab time.
• ABC Teach has a nice collection of Amelia Bedelia worksheets.
• PowerPoint presentations about Amelia Bedelia and Peggy Parish
• Worksheets about idioms
• The idiom site explains common sayings

List of Amelia Bedelia books
Available at Amazon.com

Amelia Bedelia (1963) – Wiki link
Thank You, Amelia Bedelia (1964)
Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower (1966)
Come Back, Amelia Bedelia (1971)
Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia (1972)
Good Work, Amelia Bedelia (1976)
Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia (1977)
Amelia Bedelia Helps Out (1979)
Amelia Bedelia and the Baby (1981)
Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping (1985)
Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia (1986)
Amelia Bedelia’s Family Album (1988)
Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia (1995)
Bravo, Amelia Bedelia! (1997)
Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor (1999)
Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia (2002)
Amelia Bedelia and the Christmas List (2003)
Amelia Bedelia, Bookworm (2003)
Happy Haunting, Amelia Bedelia (2004)
Amelia Bedelia Goes Back to School (2004)
Be My Valentine, Amelia Bedelia (2004)
Amelia Bedelia, Rocket Scientist? (2005)
Amelia Bedelia’s Masterpiece (2007)
Amelia Bedelia Under Construction (2007)
Amelia Meets Emilie Castro (2007)
Amelia Bedelia and the Cat (2008)
Amelia Bedelia’s First Day of School (2009)
Amelia Bedelia’s First Valentine (2009)
Amelia Bedelia Makes a Friend (2011)

Original poem, FREE poetry worksheet!

In honor of Poetry Month, here is a FREE poetry reading comprehension worksheet written by a National Board Certified Teacher’s…little sister.  The worksheet and poem are very good!

My sister wrote “Ode to Kermit” to help my students with their poetry reading comprehension.  It is a fun poem in the voice of Miss Piggy, who is quite exuberant in her love for Kermit.  It’s a real problem for him, actually.

I hope you and your students enjoy the imagery in the poem.  You might want to explain to them about moi and vous— and why Miss Piggy says “Kermie” for “Kermit.”  Miss Piggy loves the French language because it is très chic!

 Click here for the worksheet and read on for the poem!

Ode to Kermit (in the voice of Miss Piggy)

Kermit, oh, Kermie,
Your name sends me floating through pools of algae.

Just the sight of you sends my heart into thralls
Like the pitter and patter of two ping-pong balls.

Kermit, with your mouth of red felt
And hemispherical eyes that cause me to melt,

Every time I think of wonderful vous
I wish that I could grow old with you.

My precious Kermit, my affection is no mistake,
Yet you still cause moi’s heart to break.

As you can see, the Green family loves the Muppets!  Here are some of the greatest hits from Class Antics Muppets posts:

Muppets in the Classroom Part One: How to integrate the Muppets into your curriculum
Muppets in the Classroom Part Two: More on how to integrate the Muppets into your curriculum
School Garden: John Denver sings “The Garden Song (Inch by Inch)” with the Muppets
Winnie the Pooh Day (A.A. Milne’s birthday): Kermit’s nephew Robin sings “Halfway Down”

Take some time this weekend to teach your kids about Jackie Robinson, the brave man who broke the color barrier in baseball.

Every team in baseball has retired Jackie’s number, 42, and on Sunday every team will celebrate Jackie’s legacy. You might enjoy the special Jackie Robinson Day section on MLB.com. It has a biography of Jackie, interesting pictures, and videos about Jackie and his legacy.

Read some interesting books about Jackie. My favorite is Teammates by Peter Golenblock. It focuses on Jackie’s relationship with white teammate Pee Wee Reese. The moment when Pee-Wee put his arm around Jackie Robinson is one of the most memorable in baseball, up there with Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech.

You will also enjoy Jackie’s Nine: Jackie Robinson’s Values to Live By. This book will help your students apply the lessons from Jackie’s courage and wisdom to their own lives. It is written and compiled by Jackie’s daughter, Sharon Robinson.

I paid tribute to Jackie Robinson by making him the hero to Connor, the baseball-loving protagonist in my newest children’s novel, Double Switched.  Every time Connor faces a difficult decision, he thinks about how Jackie would have handled it.  Connor knows he does not always live up to the example of his role model, but ultimately he finds his personal strength and makes things right.  I hope you enjoy reading about Connor’s (hilarious) misadventures as he learns to follow Jackie’s example. (Available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle editions. Read Chapter 1 here.)

Happy Jackie Robinson Day and Play Ball!

Writing tips from Corey Green, National Board Certified Teacher;
use them in class or for fun! 

When creating characters for your story, remember that the relationships between characters will drive your plot.  Here are tips to help you create those relationships.

Writers will tell you that it’s important to know your characters well, especially your main character.  You should develop your characters’ strengths and weaknesses, habits, likes and dislikes, fears, hopes for the future, and favorites.  When I first began to write the Buckley School Books, I developed profiles like that for every kid in Mr. Hoker’s class.

However, my stories really gelled when I realized that the relationships between characters are as important, if not more important, than knowing every tiny detail about each individual character.  The relationships between characters should create conflict in the story.

Here are some common threads between characters.  Weave these phrases between your characters’ names for some great plot ideas!

Ideas for relationships between characters:
> Loves
> Hates
> Envies (Is jealous of)
> Admires (looks up to)
> Rivals (competition between characters)
> Fears
> Protects
> Defies (goes up against, challenges)
> Owes
> Upsets

The Hunger Games is an excellent example of how complex relationships between characters can create a compelling story that captivates millions of people all over the world.  Suzanne Collins created a complex web of characters as she wove her plot.

Now, use this information to create your own story!  Create three or more characters for your story and develop the relationships between them.  You can also practice by figuring out the relationships between characters in stories you love.  Harry Potter, Twilight, Percy Jackson—these are few bestsellers with complex relationships between characters.  Can you list them all?

Use the popularity of The Hunger Games to interest your class in dystopias.  Teach your students how to write a dystopia using tips from Corey Green, writer and National Board Certified Teacher.

People are eternally interested in dystopias.  A new one comes along for each generation.  Fahrenheit 451, 1984, The Hunger Games—these books address issues in our society and imagine a world where the solution takes the problem to its opposite extreme.

A dystopia seems like a difficult and complex genre, but it’s really just another genre in the field of fiction.  That sounds manageable, doesn’t it?  Your students can learn a lot about literature, society, and their own personal beliefs as they create their own dystopias.

Use my printable dystopia planning guide to help your students create their own dystopian story.  Help your students focus on the issue they want to address, create a dystopian “solution” that takes the problem to its opposite extreme, and decide how they want to address oppression.

> What is the problem or issue?
> How does the solution take the problem to its opposite extreme?
> How will the system of oppression work?
> Will the main character overcome oppression?
> Will it be on a large or small scale?
> Or will the character fall prey to the oppression, becoming another victim or even a perpetrator?

Big questions, but your students can handle it if they use my story planning sheet.  After all, a dystopia is really just a story with a beginning, middle and end—students simply need to address the conventions of the genre as they craft a satisfying story.

Good luck to you and your students as you create your dystopias.  May the odds be ever in your favor.

The Hunger Games provides many opportunities for classroom discussion and analysis. Taylor Swift’s haunting “Safe & Sound” gives students yet another opportunity to study her clever use of figurative language, symbolism and rhyme.

 ”Safe & Sound” is a perfect theme song for The Hunger Games. Message boards are full of posts by fans arguing over which story situation the song fits best. I believe the answer is that Taylor Swift penned the song to apply to many, many characters and situations in The Hunger Games. To avoid spoilers, I have listed the characters but not situations. Fans will know!

> Primrose & Katniss
> Katniss & Rue
> Gale & Katniss
> Katniss & Peeta
> Mrs. Everdeen & Katniss

The song is heavy on symbolism and imagery, but actually lighter on rhyme than most of Taylor Swift’s songs.  (No constant internal rhyme like in “Hey, Stephen“.)  Taylor uses a subtle rhyme scheme to create a song that is haunting, not sing-song and catchy.  You might say that she “tailors” her message to her intended audience and purpose.

I hope you enjoy the pdf download of my literary analysis of the song “Safe & Sound” by Taylor Swift from the soundtrack to The Hunger Games.  Click here for two Behind the Scenes videos from TaylorSwift.com. 

This is Part 7 of my series about Fun with Literacy: Taylor Swift.

1. You Belong with Me
2. Love Story
3. Hey Stephen
4. Mean
5. Speak Now
6. Our Song

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland
by Tomie dePaola
Available at Amazon.com

With Tomie dePaola’s signature illustration and simple writing style, this book tells the story of Saint Patrick, from his roots as a Roman slave to the height of his powers.  At the end of the book, Tomie shows myths and legends about Saint Patrick.  My favorite is driving the snakes from Ireland—but I also love the picture of him cruising across the water on a rock.

Activities and tie-ins:

Color Celtic Designs: Your children will enjoy the Celtic design elements in the illustrations.  Click here to print Celtic designs and alphabets for your students to color and  here to print Celtic knot patterns.

Learn about Celtic Designs: Your class will get so much more out of coloring Celtic designs if you take a few minutes to teach them about the history.  This website is perfect for a quick study.  I particularly liked learning about Celtic animals.  Kids love animals, so you know it’s a natural fit for the classroom.

Illustrate & Write: Tomie dePaola’s deceptively simple style is enticing for children to imitate—your class would love to illustrate their favorite part, writing a short paragraph underneath the illustration.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, we’re all Irish!  Have some fun with your class.

Preparation: get a class shamrock plant.  (Bonus points if you can convince a parent to donate it!) 

Ask the kids to save their milk cartons from lunch.  Use them to take home a piece of the class shamrock plant.  Students can repot a piece of the shamrock plant and grow their own at home.  Learn how to grow a shamrock plant at ehow.com

If you are learning about immigration in Social Studies, tie the Irish immigrant experience in with your Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations.  You could talk with your class about how Irish immigrants were treated and compare it to immigration today.  The countries of origin have changed, but in many ways, how people view immigrants remains the same.  Read Eve Bunting’s Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story.

Grownups, take this opportunity to read a book by a wonderful Irish writer, Maeve Binchy.  Her books immerse you in Ireland, and you know her characters better than you know your own family.  Tara Road is her magnum opus, and her newer books all feature that Dublin neighborhood.  Every single book by Maeve Binchy is wonderful.  I read them over and over again.

Here are some fun ideas for Learning with the Lorax from a National Board Certified Teacher.  

The Lorax, the latest Dr. Seuss movie adaptation, stars Zac Efron and Taylor Swift voicing Ted and Audry.  Kids will demand fan activities for these two popular actors right away, so here are some ways parents and teachers can be really cool.  Don’t tell the kids that these activities also tie in nicely with NEA Read Across America Day!

Lorax Games

> Don’t Whack the Lorax: a game tie-in with the movie
> Ted’s Scooter Dodge: a game tie-in with the movie
> Dodgeberry Blast: a game tie-in with the movie
> Hummingfish & Swomee-Swan Survival: a game tie-in with the movie
> The Lorax Quest Game at Seussville: You are in charge of truffula seeds. And truffula seeds are what everyone needs! Gather the truffula seeds from the characters and help the Lorax grow a whole new forest! To reach the game, go to the Seussville Games Page and click “forth” until you come to the Lorax game.

Lorax Worksheets from Random House:

> How Many? A fun counting worksheet—count how many you see in the picture! Your students will need a good working knowledge of The Lorax to complete this worksheet.
> Dear Mother Earth: Write a letter to Mother Earth stating what you will do to help preserve her. The worksheet is basically nice Lorax-themed stationery.
> Lorax Maze:  Help the objects find their way to the recycling bin.

Lorax Writing Contest: Every Inkling Makes a Difference. The contest opens March 2nd. Your students can write an online story describing one creative idea for living sustainably. The grand prize is a $10,000 scholarship. There are 3 prizes in two categories: grades 3-5 and 6-8. Click here for the student printable explaining the contest.

Read The Lorax, Available at Amazon.com

Leap Year Idioms

Teachers, here is a FREE Leap Year worksheet written by a National Board Certified Teacher. I hope you and your students enjoy it! Here is the Answer Key.

This worksheet helps you teach students about idioms—a commonly assessed concept on state standardized tests. Have some Leap Year fun with idioms based on the word “leap” or “year.”

If you haven’t seen them already, check out Free Leap Year Worksheets Part 1 and Part 2.

Part 1: Leap Year Reading and Writing

Part 2: “Fun with Leap Year and Leap Day” reading comprehension and Leap Year Math

Fun Reading Comprehension and Leap Year Math

Teachers, here are FREE Leap Year worksheets written by a National Board Certified Teacher. I hope you and your students enjoy them!

Here is an enjoyable reading comprehension worksheet called “Fun with Leap Year and Leap Day.” The passage and questions are indeed fun. What other worksheet challenges you to figure out what Pope Paul III and Ja Rule have in common? (Answer: they were both born on Leap Day.)

You and your students will enjoy learning about Leap Year luck (or lack thereof), Leap Year marriage proposals in Ireland, and the quandary posed by a Leap Year birthday in The Pirates of Penzance. The questions are all opinion based—and in my opinion, you shouldn’t grade them! Give students credit for completion, then go home and kick back to enjoy the rest of Leap Day.

Next is my fun “Was it a Leap Year?” worksheet that lets students apply their knowledge of divisibility by 4. Hints for determining divisibility by 4 are at the bottom of the page. The worksheet teaches a special case: century years. Because a revolution around the sun does not quite take 365.25 days, only century years divisible by 400 are Leap Years. The worksheet gives a student-friendly explanation and challenges them to determine if a century year was or wasn’t a Leap Year.  I also have provided an Answer Key as a separate download.

Don’t forget to download the other two worksheets in Free Leap Year Worksheets Part One.

Happy Leap Year!

Reading Comprehension and Writing Nonfiction

Teachers, here are FREE Leap Year worksheets written by a National Board Certified Teacher. I hope you and your students enjoy them!

The first one is a reading comprehension worksheet about Leap Year.  It’s a good, basic introduction to the concept of Leap Year that is appropriate for third grade and up.

Next is a writing worksheet about how and why Julius Caesar created Leap Year and rearranged the calendar. To shake things up a little, this worksheet challenges students to write a newspaper article about the event. The article gives “notes” our fictitious reporter took at the press conference—in a handy who, what, where, when, why format.

Stay tuned for Free Leap Year Worksheets Part Two: Leap Year trivia reading comprehension and Leap Year math!

Read the Most from Coast to Coast!

Here is a neat idea for celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2.  Help set a record for Accelerated Reader quiz taking!

Renaissance Learning is sponsoring the program and offering free kits for teachers.  Click here to register your class and claim your planning kit which includes a poster, student bookmarks, and downloadable support materials.  Register by February 14th to ensure that you receive your materials on time. Get event information here.

For extra fun, all participants will be registered for daylong prize drawings.  You could win an iPad, a signed copy of a book from the popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series by Jeff Kinney, and more.

Teaching Tips

Get ready!  Have students set goals or make book recommendations to each other.  Check out stacks of books from the school library so kids have plenty to read.  If you teach at a school where students have home libraries, ask kids to bring in books to share.

Prepare for state testing!  If March 2 is near your state testing window, you might want to challenge your students to read NONFICTION on March 2^nd.  It’s excellent preparation for the test and corrects an imbalance since most students tend to read much more fiction than nonfiction.  If all day of nonfiction is too much for your gang, set a timeframe during which your class reads only nonfiction.  The students will get into it.

Make a day of it!  Set up blankets, have snacks, make forts, and read as much as you can!   It doesn’t all have to be silent reading.  The kids can read in pairs.  Parents can read to the class.  You can read to the class.

Fun data analysis!  Use AR’s reports to show your kids how much they accomplished.

> Print up a word count for your students the day before the event and compare it to their word count after the event.
> Compare class points earned before and after the event.
> See how much fiction versus nonfiction you read during the event.
> Break your class into teams on AR and see which team can read the most.
> Use the quizzes taken report to see which books were most popular that day.

January 18 is A.A. Milne’s birthday.  Celebrate with Winnie the Pooh Day!  You can adjust your activities to suit your students’ interests and reading levels.  Pooh is not just for little kids!  The books are actually quite challenging—AR levels Winnie-the-Pooh at 4.6. 

Disney has a great Winnie the Pooh site where your class can play games, watch episodes, and print pictures to color.  (Veteran teachers know to NEVER let students print without permission!  Print the pictures yourself ahead of time.)

Print Disney’s downloadable Winnie the Pooh activity book.  It’s excellent for students up to grade 3.

Extend your students’ learning by going beyond Disney’s Winnie the Pooh.  Visit the charming UK site for A.A. Milne.  You can teach your students about the author and delve more deeply into his life and books.  He wrote much more than Winnie the Pooh!  He wrote really charming poems, for instance.  They are excellent for your students to study.

I love “Halfway Down,” Milne’s poem about a place of one’s own.  It comes from his book When We Were Very Young.  http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/mmilne-halfwaydown.htm   Check out this awesome Muppets video of Kermit’s nephew Robin singing the poem as a song.

Click here for the text of several of A.A. Milne’s poems.  You can use them for reading comprehension, reader’s theater, fluency practice, or just to color and decorate.  Whatever suits your class!

Your students would enjoy listening to you read aloud from the original Winnie-the-Pooh book.  Have fun comparing it to Disney’s movie and TV versions of the story.  Just-Pooh.com has a nice gallery that lets you compare original illustrator Ernest Shephard’s illustrations to the Disneyfied Pooh. 

 Happy Winnie the Pooh Day!