Ms. Cuddy is Nutty - Literature Circle Resources

Literature circles are my favorite. Each time I put students in groups to read a "real" book they are SO excited. They talk about the book constantly and then even ask me if they can read their book if they finish their work early. It makes me so happy to have students love reading as much as I do! 

Ms. Cuddy is Nutty is my latest literature circle resource. It includes spelling lists, vocabulary lists, book club pages, and writing prompts to give you exactly what you need to launch this activity in your classroom (even if you haven't read the book)! 

Check it out in my TpT store! It's on sale for 20% off until the end of the week. 

Biography Lap Books

Is it just me, or do your students cringe when they need to complete a nonfiction writing project? It seems like they just want to write about princesses, jedi knights, themselves, etc. Going back and consulting the text when writing is the last thing they want to do! 

Well, with the new standards being what they are, there is a greater emphasis on writing. This writing needs to be "College and Career Ready", and elementary students are being asked to write at a higher level of rigor than ever before. As I've heard people say, "Nobody cares what you did over summer vacation; students need to write effective expository writing." And of course, this type of writing is the last thing our students want to do.

Until.... you tie it into a lap book! 

For whatever reason, when students use "teacher" supplies they are immediately interested. File folders, pens, post it notes, you name it. Let them use something like that and you've got their attention!

I had my students write biographies about famous people. I selected books at their reading level from Reading A-Z, and had them write a biography about what they had learned. We really stressed going back to the book to look for information, after all, the book is there to help!

We had three headings: Early Years, Adult Life, and Fun Facts. Guess which one was their favorite to write about? 

Fun Facts, of course!

This was an in depth project, and some students needed much more time to complete it. I had early finishers complete their person's "Claim to Fame" and a timeline of important events. The main focus was really on writing the biography. 

The front cover was decorated with their person's name, and pictures that represent things they read about in the book. 

You could even take it a step further, and have students give presentations about what they learned from their famous person. That was the original plan, but we just ran out of time!

Click the image to check it out in my TpT store. It's on sale for 20% off until the end of the week!

Learning is a Buzz.. All About Bees!

Oh, bees. I LOVE teaching about bees! I didn't know anything about bees until I started teaching 2nd grade and we had a nonfiction story about bees in our basal reader. I thought the kiddos would be bored stiff and that it would be like pulling teeth to get through, but boy was I wrong! They are so interested in learning about bees and looking at the real pictures of bees. The engagement is there so what better time for a research project? 

We do a lot of research about bees, and end up making a bee portfolio to show what we have learned. The paper bag stores all of the completed papers and the students get to take it home when the project is completed. Something about writing on a paper bag instead of a regular piece of paper is so engaging to the kiddos. Hey, I'll do whatever it takes to keep them interested in learning!


This project covers several writing standards - Narrative writing, Acrostic poems, Expository writing (not pictured), Letter writing, and life cycles (also not pictured). 

Narrative Writing - You are the Queen Bee of a hive. Write about a day of your life as queen bee. 

Narrative Writing - You are a worker bee. Write about a day in your life as the worker bee.

Acrostic Poems.

Several different acrostic poems are included.

Letter Writing - Write a letter to a beekeeper.

We bring in a beekeeper that does this amazing presentation for all the 2nd grade classes, which makes the letter writing more interesting. The kids love her, and they think it's especially cool that she knew she wanted to become a beekeeper when she was in 2nd grade - and then she did! 

This fun project is on sale for 20% off until the end of the week. Click the picture to check it out!

Big Bad Detective Agency Literature Circle

I love reading "real" books with my students! That sounds so weird to say, but teaching from a basal reader makes this even more important. 

I remember when I was in elementary school I hated reading for the longest time. I thought it was so boring to read from the basal reader, round robin, blah blah blah. The stories were boring, and I hated "following along" with the other kids who couldn't read. It was the absolute worst!

This is why I love love love Literature Circles! Students are doing "real" reading and *hopefully* reading something that they enjoy. They can read on their own so they don't have to "follow along" with students who read faster or slower than they do. 

This resource includes 2 spelling lists, a vocabulary list and activities, book club pages, and a writing prompt at the end. Everything you need to get started with this literature circle in your classroom! AND it is on sale for 20% off until the end of the week! Click the image to check it out in my TpT store. 

Test Your Friends

I get sick of hearing my own voice sometimes. I talk all day while teaching, and I do try to get the kiddos talking more with partners and in group discussions, but they still need teacher support and guidance for the most part. We work so hard all the time, it's time for the students to work just as hard, if not harder, than we do!

Well, I was at a training about a year ago where I learned that whoever is asking the most questions is doing the most learning. Guess who asks the most questions in school? The teacher! 

As soon as I heard that I knew I needed to change. I needed to do better. Why not teach the students how to ask really good comprehension questions while reading? 

I do this with all of my students - it just varies by the group. I do this verbally with my struggling readers for most of the year, and boy do they sure love asking questions and choosing someone to answer - just like the teacher! My higher students practice with me a few times and then they are off to complete this on their own. They pick up the routines quickly and then they can usually run this on their own, most of the time anyway. Usually I have them read the book on their own first and write the questions, and then they can choose a partner to partner read the book with and ask the questions they already wrote as they go along. That way they already have the questions written so they are prepared and they know the answer that they need to find. Hopefully, they won't goof around when they are prepared with questions and answers ahead of time!

This is good for any grade level and any text. I have it on sale for 20% off in my TpT store until the end of the week! Click the image to go check it out!

Learning Contracts

Gifted students. Early finishers. We all have those students who sometimes need that extra push, another challenge that they can conquer. The question is – how do we challenge those students with

meaningful work, without having the teacher do a ton of extra work?

I use "Learning Contracts" with my students to challenge my gifted students, and also any high achieving students who can handle an enrichment project. These contracts are a simple solution to keep the high achieving students engaged and challenged, AND they can be used for any grade, any subject, or any standard. It takes the current objective to the next level for the students who have already mastered or have some level of proficiency with the topics you're teaching in class. 

You choose the learning objective, and how the students will show what they have learned. I usually include a few activities, but this could also be one larger project. There are "checkpoints" where you meet with the students and review the work they have completed so far. This keeps you updated on where your students are as they complete the project, and if you see a student is very behind then it will let the students who are behind know that they need to use their time more wisely. This is probably the most important part of the project because the students need timely feedback so they can complete the project correctly and finish by the due date. 

This year I have used learning contracts a lot with phonics. In the past I have used contracts in math, science, social studies, and reading. I have a lot of strong readers in my class this year who don't need as much of the "word work" when learning new phonics patterns, and get bored easily when working through centers. Instead of having these students write words various ways, they have done tasks such as reading through the decodable to highlight the words with the pattern, rewriting them, and sorting into categories when applicable. Many of my other reading groups complete this, but this is done at the end of the unit after teacher directed instruction. The students who complete the contract do this independently without the targeted phonics instruction in small groups. Now I am having my students write their own decodable with words with the phonics. 

This is not intended to be a whole class project. It is designed to challenge the few students in your class who constantly finish early and need an additional challenge. There is no way you could manage 30 learning contracts and keep your sanity at the same time!

This product is on sale in my TpT store for 20% off until Friday. Click here to check it out!