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Building a Writing Centre If you're still planning the spaces and places in your classroom for the new school year, you'll be interested in this week's Freebie - everything you'll need to create a writing centre in your classroom. A great sneak peek at Cornerstones to Early Literacy by Katherine Luongo-Orlando, which just arrived in our warehouse this past week! Click here to download this week's resource. Click here to access the Friday Freebie archive. |
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Ten Ways to Work with Graphic Texts Dramatically If you're looking for some great ice-breaking activities that students will love, try one (or more!) of these 10 great ways to use drama to play with graphic texts. A great sneak peek at the brand-new book Drama Themes, Schemes & Dreams, by Larry Swartz and Debbie Nyman, these simple activities offer some great ways to liven up those first few days of school. Click here to download the activities. Click here to view the entire Friday Freebie archive. |
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School Self-Evaluation: Community Involvement Does your school function well as a community? This questionnaire, from Susan Church's The Principal Difference, will help you and your fellow teachers evaluate your current school practices, and inspire a new outlook on community involvement. Click here to download the questionnaire. Click here to view the entire Friday Freebie archive -- and download anything that you might have missed! |
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12 Steps Toward Literacy Success Do you know what your students need to succed in literacy? This great list, from David Booth & Jennifer Rowsell's The Literacy Principal, 2nd Edition, gives you 12 great points that will help your students along the way to skilled reading, writing, and learning. Get some great ideas that you can implement in your classroom or school this fall! Click here to download the 12 Steps checklist. Click here to view the entire Friday Freebie archive -- and download anything that you might have missed! |
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Bullying and My School As planning starts for the new school year, you may want to take some time and reflect on the community you'll be building. What is the climate like in your school? Is your school an open, caring, safe learning environment for teachers, students, and staff alike? Take this questionnaire, from Les Parson's Bullied Teacher: Bullied Student -- you may be surprised at what you find out! Click here to download the questionnaire. Click here to view the entire Friday Freebie archive -- and download anything that you might have missed! |
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Children's Books for Playful Learning If you are looking for inspiration for next year's classroom library, look no further! This week, we'd like to offer you Anne Burke's detailed booklist of Children's Books for Playful Learning, from her recent book Ready to Learn. From books with humour to books that address identity and individuality to books that encourage play with patterning, this fabulous list will help you build a solid foundation in literacy in all your students. Click here to download the booklist. Click here to view the entire Friday Freebie archive -- and download anything that you might have missed! |
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A Look Ahead... With the school year now drawing to a definitive close, it's really time to start looking ahead! While you enjoy your summer break, you may want to take the opportunity to have a look at what's coming your this fall from Pembroke Publishers -- all the newest in reading, writing, and literacy for the best in teaching and learning. Click here to download our Fall 2010 flyer. Click here to view the entire Friday Freebie archive -- and download anything that you might have missed! |
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Creative Comprehension Children do all kinds of reading in (and out!) of the classroom. Comprehension is enhanced when children start to apply information from a text to a new situation. This songwriting activity, from Jo Phenix's Talking, Writing and Thinking About Books, offers kids a fun and creative way to see something that they've read in a whole new light. Donwload the activity sheet here. |
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A Close-Up Look at a Picture Book Picture books can be more than just a quick, fun read -- they can be a springboard to thinking more critically about all kinds of words, images, and texts. This week's freebie, a survey from The Picture Book Experience, by Larry Swartz, offers 11 questions that demand a closer reading of any text. Challenge your students to keep thinking all summer long by taking a closer look at picture books, and discovering new, deeper ways of experiencing what they read. |
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Reading Response and Comprehension With the start of June comes the thought of summer reading lists, groups, and reports. We thought it might be useful to offer a guide to reading response that will help students get beyond basic "book report mode" and into deeper comprehension and exploration of what they read. Help your students to keep reading and thinking all summer long! |
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Words to Remember As the end of the school year draws closer, it's time to start reviewing what your students have learned. From Betty Schultze's Basic Tools for Beginning Writers, we've pulled a list of some of the more difficult high frequency words that your young readers and writers encounter every day -- a great review of important words to know and remember. A great prep for those summer reading lists, too! |
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Building Visual Arts We've been talking a lot recently about graphica - comics and graphic novels - and how they can inspire kids to read and write. But it's not just graphica that can boost creativity; all kinds of visual arts can enhance and enliven everyday learning. Try something from this list of "building blocks", from The Arts Go to School by David Booth & Masayuki Hachiya, in your class today, and see what a difference the arts can make! |
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Thinking Visually Embracing graphica isn't just about using comics and graphic novels - mapping is another great way to use graphics and visual thinking for authentic classroom learning. This Friday, we're offering you a great introduction to using visual thinking to organize and classify information, from Thinking Visually, by Oliver Caviglioli and Ian Harris. |
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Celebrate Learning with Music! We're sure that many of you enjoyed Music Day with your students this past Tuesday -- but we'd like to encourage you to celebrate with music every day! To help you out, take a look at this list of programming ideas, taken from David Booth's The Arts Go to School, for reminders of all the ways we can bring music into the classroom and make it a part of students' everyday learning. Click here to download the list of musical building blocks. |
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Spending Time with Poetry We hope that you've enjoyed Poetry Month this year. To complete your poetic journey, and keep poetry going throughout the year, you'll love this great timetable from The Poetry Experience, by Sheree Fitch and Larry Swartz. Get all the details you need to spend 10 days with poetry in your classroom, and truly enjoy the poetry experience! |
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Sharing Poetry with Children Ever wonder just what to do with a poem in the classroom? Then you'll enjoy this list from David Booth and Bill Moore, from their classic resource Poems Please!, with 15 great suggestions on ways that you and your students can experience and respond to poetry. |
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Thinking About Poems This week, in celebration of National Poetry Month, we're offering a guide to responding to poetry from The Poetry Experience by Sheree Fitch and Larry Swartz. Inspire your students to think deeply about the poetry they read, and encourage them to read more... and more... and more! |
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It's Time to Rhyme with Bob Barton & David Booth! April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, the next four Friday Freebies will embrace rhyme, rhythm, and poetic learning. This week, rhyme your way into poetry with two acclaimed masters of the genre, Bob Barton & David Booth. |
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This week -- Adrienne Gear's updated booklists! Adrienne Gear has updated the popular lists of children's books that support the reading powers in her bestselling books, Reading Power and Nonfiction Reading Power. The list includes the newest and best books to use to help students think while they read and increase their reading comprehension. |