I am a retired teacher-librarian, mother, and grandmother who values learning for all ages. I want to support learning in schools and homes with my edSelect website. I hope you find it useful.
Reading levels can be a mystery to parents. Strategic assessment of word selection, sentence length, and type determine the levels. Different publishing companies have concocted their own categories. Most Ontario teachers use the Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Levels as their instructional guide. Scholastic has put together a quick Leveled Reading Guide to correlate the different systems publishers use to sort their books.
Leveled Books to look for:
Check your bookshelves at home to find titles for your child to read at their reading level. If you purchase books from the Scholastic program at your school you probably have some of these titles already at your fingertips. The Best Children’s Books
The measured mom has a very accessible description of the different levels of books that are probably on your home bookshelves. Good information for when you purchase books for your child to read on their own.
With the continued lockdowns due to Covid19, parents are looking for good online resources for their children. There are so many resources available that I am sure that you are overwhelmed. I will gather some resources to access for you that can take the pressure off your shoulders. My focus will be free resources. Often sites offer introductory free resources but hook you into subscribing. That is not all bad. If you find a site that you like the fee could be well worth your sanity.
A good site for free worksheets is K5 Learning. The people who put this site together value access to strong curriculum resources. The Comprehension Worksheetsare leveled. Click up or down a grade to find the perfect fit for your child. The perfect fit will support their learning growth. Before long they will be reading at grade level. Go with the flow.
Reading Levels Simply Explained
Reading levels can be a mystery to parents. Strategic assessment of word selection, sentence length, and type determine the levels. Different publishing companies have concocted their own categories. Most Ontario teachers use the Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading Levels as their instructional guide. Scholastic has put together a quick Leveled Reading Guide to correlate the different systems publishers use to sort their books.
Leveled Books to look for:
Check your bookshelves at home to find titles for your child to read at their reading level. If you purchase books from the Scholastic program at your school you probably have some of these titles already at your fingertips. The Best Children’s Books
The measured mom has a very accessible description of the different levels of books that are probably on your home bookshelves. Good information for when you purchase books for your child to read on their own.
An excellent set of resources for grades 5-12. You can share the lessons through a variety of methods including Google Classroom.
This collection of video clips, lesson plans, and primary sources details key figures, events, and regional movements of the decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. Students will encounter activists including Sojourner Truth, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Grace Abbott, and examine key regional efforts within the movement. Primary source documents offer evidence for a study of the chronology of campaign for women’s suffrage, from the movement’s beginnings through the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Highlights of numerous seasons of the popular PBS: Finding Your Roots program with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In this collection you will find: Video (55), Document (9), Webpage (1), Lesson Plan (9), Media Gallery (18) for Grades 5-13+
PBS has a collection of a variety of media to introduce your students to George Washington and the American Revolution. Included this Collection are: Image (2), Interactive (3), Video (3), Document (1), Media Gallery (1) for Grades 5-12
See the progress of the war through the actions and decisions of General George Washington, such as direct confrontation, military strategy, disease prevention, and spy techniques.
Yorktown Now or Never
Yorktown: The French Alliance
Yorktown: The Siege Begins
Spy Techniques of the Revolutionary War: Culper Code Book
Smallpox Inoculation Letter
Washington Crossing the Delaware Painting- Interactive
“Charlie Anderson by Barbara Abercrombie, is about a cat who spends the days in the woods and comes home to sleep with his owner, only to leave again the next morning.”
“It is a parallel story and requires quite a bit of inferring on the part of the reader, ” says teacher Jason DeHart.
Task-Oriented Question Construction Wheel Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy Print this page to have it by your side when you are building tiered activities for your students.
❇️Pixabay: Free image and royalty free stock. Search for images- photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and also videos.
❇️ Emojipedia: Lots of free emojis to add to your google classroom documents. A tip– Use selected emojis on sections of your Google Classroom subjects and documents to help your students stay organized.
Wizardly World is the official Site of the Harry Potter world. You can register for free and investigate everything Harry Potter.
J.K. Rawling has granted open licence to read aloud her books during the Covid-19 outbreak. This means that teachers can post themselves reading to their students. Some teachers never got to finish reading the book they started before the outbreak. Now is your chance to read to your students.
❇️ Daniel Radcliffe reads the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone/Sorcerer’s Stone, ‘The Boy Who Lived’.
❇️ Jamie Parker and the Broadway cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child read Chapter Six: ‘The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters’. Have a watch and listen. This chapter is read as a script with a wonderful casting of characters reading the parts. Enjoy this read.
❇️ Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol read Chapter Nine: ‘The Midnight Duel”. Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol narrate Harry’s first flying lesson, as well as a midnight adventure in the castle, where he meets a rather unusual dog.
During this time of isolation teachers have the opportunity for self-directed professional development.
Many districts are having their teachers reach out to their students using Google Classroom. If you need technology support to learn how to use Google Classroom to your advantage, look no further. You can sign up for free and then view 30-minute webinars to get you on your way to an online classroom for your students.
There is a treasure trove of excellent learning opportunities for teachers here. When I was in the classroom I did pay for the low yearly fee to have access to my learning on-demand. It was worth every penny. I started with the free offerings for some time until I just couldn’t be without what they offered on my timeline. Have a look. You won’t be disappointed.
The webinars are always useful, time-efficient, and presented by teachers in the trenches who offer many practical ideas.
Students can determine land use in cities. Then they can design and build their own city using the building templates provided by the British architect studio, Foster + Partners. The templates included are for skyscrapers and a variety of houses.
Have the students brainstorm what is found in a city. (Include: street names, traffic signs, roads, ponds, parks, government buildings, homes, etc)
Students can alternatively create their own city using boxes, Lego, other building blocks, or found material.
Known for a signature style that brings primary source documents, images, and archival video footage to life on screen, these films present the opportunity to pose thought-provoking questions for students, and introduce new ideas, perspectives, and primary sources.
You can search the resources available by Era or by Film. The target audience is for grades 4-12+. Classroom support resources and National Standards are included with each topic.
There are links to share resources via Google classroom and other social media options.
Each Country Profile provides information on: Geography · Maps · Flag · History · Current ruler · Area · Population · Capital · Largest cities · Languages · Ethnicity/race · Religion · Literacy rate · Economy · Government
Teachers and parents, signup to download free research lapbooks to guide student learning. You will see lots of activity ideas. Look for the Country Lapbook to support your student’s research.
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