Small Reads for Brighters Days
The holidays may be over, but there are still kids who need mittens to warm their hands. There’s a fun feature in the Statesboro Herald from December that encouraged families to take a field trip to buy some mittens to donate. Give them to a homeless shelter or a school teacher to pass along to […]
January 23-27 is the Great Kindness Challenge, and I hope you’ll read this beautiful article from Bookology about the kind of change this can inspire at your school. You don’t have to go all hard core, of course. Start small if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Maybe a simple bingo card or checklist of things students could […]
December is a rough time of year for anybody who’s feeling sad or left out. That makes it the perfect time to share We Belong, with its message of belonging and inclusivity. You could also print out this lovely mini-poster and display it, using it to jump start a discussion on belonging. [My Classroom Connections […]
It’s a full moon tonight—the Cold Moon, in fact. That’s definitely true here in Minnesota! Brrr! Invite students to look at the full moon tonight and think about how far away it might be. Then tomorrow, gather a basketball, a tennis ball, and a tape measure. Download the teaching guide for If You Were the […]
Well, I had planned to share this book because I saw that National Family Week is coming up next month, but as I read more, I realized that that’s just a conservative political campaign of intolerance. Forget that! I hope in your own unit on family, you focus on diversity and love and support, not […]
Brrr! Winter is well on its way, and the animals have figured out how best to survive it. If you read Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle with your students, you can follow it up with this memory game to help reinforce the ideas of migration, hibernation, and adaptation. Find more resources to go with this book […]
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Okay, friends, here’s another definito to go with Finding Family (coming in March from Lerner). I’m having a blast with these!
Teachers, I’ve got two things for you today. First, here’s a terrific YourClassical Storytime called “Lurkey Is Lost.” It’s a fun take on the “draw a turkey using an outline of your hand” activity. Make sure to have plenty of crayons ready and paper for everyone! Second, it’s the perfect time of year to share […]
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’ve shared a couple of definitos recently, and I had so much fun I decided to write some to go with the challenging vocabulary in my forthcoming books. I’ve written several for Finding Family, which comes out in March. Wouldn’t it be fun […]
I’m so tickled that Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom is including If You Want to Knit Some Mittens on their website for educators! Although this picture book is a funny, fictional, friendship story, it’s also the story of how a pair of wool mittens starts with a sheep’s coat, which goes through many transformations to […]
