Rebus Readers by Shirley Neitzel

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Shirley Nietzel is a former elementary school teacher and author of rebus books for kids. Beginning and struggling readers will love the repetition of these titles. They are wonderful for interactive read alouds, too! Most of these are a guided reading level J, which is a beginning of second grade level and DRA 18-20 with a Lexile around 420.

The main character is always spunky, which makes for a fun plot. She has written several books that we love, including:

The Bag I’m Taking to Grandma’s

Watch this book read aloud here.

This was our first book by Shirley, and it couldn't have come at a better time. We were discussing how my son's little sisters would soon be arriving, and how we would pack a bag for him to stay with his grandparents while Mom and Dad went to the hospital. He understood that he didn't need to take everything, and his stay went very smoothly.

Our Class Took a Trip to the Zoo

This is a fun book about a boy who gets into some mischief at the zoo. Rebus images include clothing items such as a coat, lunch bag, pants, a button, hat, shirt, and shoes. Animal words in the story are duck, lion, ostrich, bear, and chimpanzee.

click the images above to make a copy of the document

We’re Making Breakfast for Mother

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow

I’m Not Feeling Well Today

The House I’ll Build for the Wrens

I’m Taking a Trip on My Train

The Dress I’ll Wear to the Party

Write your own rebus reader in the same style of Shirley Neitzel! You can download these slides and print them to write and draw on, or you can create your story digitally. I put a spin on a few of her stories here. 

Click the images above or below to download.

One Monday, and Other Days of the Week Books

Today is Monday. That's both a true fact and the name of an Eric Carle book about the days of the week and food. If only getting toddlers to eat was as easy as getting them to sing along with this book!

Snag this free tracing printable here or by clicking the image above.

Here is the read aloud set to music!

We also read One Monday by Amy Huntington.

We are learning to read and write numbers and days of the week, so this book was perfect for that. We see what Annabelle goes through on one week of interesting weather at her home. If you can't grab a copy of the book, here is the read aloud.

We also spent some time last week learning about biomes, including mountains and rainforest, so I added a drawing page for this story's setting, a farm. 

My son has had a good grasp of  "real and make believe" for quite some time now, but I want him to start using the words "reality and fantasy," so I created an activity for that using events in the story (which can be a bit confusing in the book, so I used slightly more clear words here). 

Grab a free printable here, or click the images above.

We'd love to know... What did you think would happen the next Monday? Please leave us a comment below!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This book is an all-time children's favorite. Despite the idea of a caterpillar actually eating the foods listed in the book, the days of the week format is a winner for kids. There are so many printables!

Here is a read aloud video by Eric himself.

When is Saturday? by Deborah Kovacs features the Sesame Street Muppets.

This is another oldie, but goodie that you may have to buy used or check out the read aloud here. Grover is very impatient when he hears from his mother that Uncle Georgie will be coming to visit in a week. She helps him create a calendar countdown and keep busy until his uncle arrives. 

Here is the poem that Grover writes to recite the days of the week.

Listen to a few of our favorite days of the week songs!

Have you ever used Live Worksheets? Kids can do this cool live days of the week word search and send their results to their teacher. If your classroom is paperless, this is a great resource. What's great about it is that some of the already created activities can be done in different languages.

Here is a Google Search for days of the week activities!

Fourteen Monkeys: A Rainforest Rhyme

Do you have students who are interested in monkeys or the rainforest? Did you come across this post while looking for research resources? We came across the book Fourteen Monkeys: A Rainforest Rhyme because it had a number word in its title and my son was interested since we had just visited Rainforest Cafe, where we got a book called Night, Night Jungle. Visit Manu National Park in Peru, a rainforest about the size of New Jersey, where 14 species of monkeys live, through this book.

I wouldn't exactly consider this one a good read aloud story, or even a very good story for preschoolers, simply because it contains a lot of information...UNLESS you only read the short bolded sentence for each set of pages. 

I would, however, recommend it to my fourth graders when we focus on non-fiction text features. I'm happy to have both options for my more curious readers who may want to pick up the book after I've introduced it and read the shorter version.

It's also great for organizing information and taking notes. I created a Google Doc to do this, and you can snag it for free to use for practice. Just complete together as a class, in small groups, or as individuals. It has a bookmarked table of contents for easy navigation as well as answer keys. Remember to make two copies - one for yourself with answer keys and the other to share with students.

Click the image or here to make a free copy of the Google Doc.

I strongly suggest visiting Manu National Park in Peru via Google Earth. The pictures in the book are beautiful, but it's important to actually locate its place in space. At first you'll notice a blurry green screen. Ask your student(s) why! It's the rainforest canopy!

For a challenge, students can create their own games or worksheets, such as:

• true/false statements
• Bingo boards
• board games
• word searches
• crossword puzzles
• Venn diagrams

Want to incorporate math? (included in the Google Docs)

• Graph number of babies
• Graph lifespan

Get artsy! Make these 3D monkeys and create your own rainforest diorama!

Want to learn about another biome? Check out this post about the  Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Interested in more science projects and posts? Look no further.

Searching for more number books or counting books?

Spying Shapes

 One thing I've noticed as a teacher is that geometry is an area of weakness for elementary students, and part of that is we don't often move beyond the knowledge and comprehension levels to application and creation. Students learn the basic shapes in preschool and kindergarten and then suddenly they're expected to differentiate between types of triangles and quadrilaterals when many still don't know what pentagons and hexagons are. Adding in types of angles often leads to kids being overwhelmed with a lot of information at once.

As an upper elementary school teacher, I've decided on a plan of teaching my son the standards earlier than expected as well as pointing them out in real life and thinking about their use in engineering and design. We created this Spying Shapes Google Slides presentation that we call our shape book.

We have had a lot of fun taking pictures of shapes we see at home and in public. This is a great project for homework, home school, and collaboration at school. You can assign this project for individuals or groups, or even across grade levels. Students can add audio clips of them explaining what the objects are and why they think the shapes were chosen. 

If you want to differentiate, remove some slides or add others, such as the different types of triangles or  hexagons (regular / irregular), etc. Download it here.

If you plan on using this resource with younger kids, here are two books that can help introduce the concept of shapes around us. 

Round is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Greenfield Thong

This book is great for teaching a small amount of Spanish words, too! Some kids may notice 3D shapes, like a sphere, but call them round, however.

City Shapes by Diana Murray

Beautiful pictures in this book and descriptive prose don't help point out the actual shapes themselves in print, but lead to a discussion of what is seen in each scene.

Interested in more math posts? Click here! 

Want to incorporate more technology into your lessons?

As always, I'd love your feedback! Please leave a comment below and share how you used this resource on Facebook or Twitter.

Virtual Google Classrooms

 

Have you struggled to keep your child or students on track when they're watching an educational program or playing a learning game, and then suddenly they've gone into an abyss of material you'd rather them not access?

Welcome to our virtual PreK classroom! 

This one has been tailored to my son's interests, but all are educational. 

Clicking on the books, stuffed animals, toys, and objects will take you to read aloud stories, songs, videos, and even virtual models to do things like:

• listen to read aloud stories 
• watch videos
• listen to songs
• play games
• learn to write numbers and letters
• learn to draw
• watch some science experiments
• build virtual models

Interested in something a bit more mature for older children and students? This is my fourth grade modern virtual Google classroom, which can easily be used for middle or high schoolers. It will keep students' attention as they explore and view gifs, such as moving plasma, bubbles, and a welcoming skeleton in the STEAM room.

Students can:

• explore geography
• chill out in the relaxation room
• read books in the library
• use virtual math manipulatives
• learn about geology
• examine bones and animal skeletons
• conduct chemistry experiments
• study plants
• access textbooks in their locker

Clicking on the water feature, breathe hand, and sunrise will take you to other sites with resources for a peaceful classroom. Let's see if you can find two other links embedded elsewhere in this room!

Head over to the cozy reading room, where you can listen to books on video and read books, magazines, articles, and newspapers!

The math classroom has all sorts of virtual manipulatives and opportunities for practice. 

My son's favorite part of my virtual "big kid" classroom is the S.T.E.A.M. lab. Can you find the 6 hidden interactive links?

Our school's mascot makes an appearance in the locker room hallway area. Fun fact: our real school doesn't have lockers! It's a fun place to store books and find links to them online, though! You can replace these images with ones that apply to your students.

These are customizable. All you need to do is click an image (such as the clock to add your daily schedule), insert a link, and share with students!

Click the images above or this link to view our classroom.

Interested in something similar for your child or class? Leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do! 

Crinkle, Crinkle, Little Star Activities

 After a recent trip to Liberty Science Center, we left the gift shop with a NASA shirt that says "I Need My Space" for my son and two books - one called This Little Scientist and another called Crinkle, Crinkle, Little Star. He is super into science and my daughters are loving touch and feel books, so they were big hits.

The latter is a rhyming book that extends the well-known song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" by adding information about some constellations and their stories. We also have this one, which is somewhat satisfying for the girls when they fight over the crinkle one.

We watched this short video about constellations:

before seeing One World, One Sky: Big Bird's Adventure in the IMAX theater.

We printed a constellation connect the dots page, which was a big hit! 

Lastly, we came across a StoryBots video about Outer Space.

I cannot wait to see my son's reaction when he gets The Moon in My Room for his birthday. He, like most kids, has been fascinated by the moon since he could look outside. Before he was even two years old, he could point out the moon during the day and tell you when he saw a full moon or crescent.

Now you may not have a child or student in preschool or even lower elementary, but there are tons of great resources out there to get kids interested in astronomy. Here are a few:

NASA Kids Club has lots of fun space activities to do!

National Geographic Kids has an easy to use section of their site just for learning about space.

NASA Space Place is for slightly older kids.

The European Space Agency website is also geared towards grades 1-5.

Last, but not least is Time for Kids, your go-to place for current space events.

Can't get enough science? Read on:

https://alysiabattista.blogspot.com/search/label/science

Read other astronomy posts here: 

https://alysiabattista.blogspot.com/search?q=astronomy

Book shopping? Check out more posts that include books here:

https://alysiabattista.blogspot.com/search/label/books