Seasonal Short Writes Bundle

I have bundled up my short write products. Since they are bundled, they are selling for a lesser price! If you are looking for a quick activity where students are independently practicing their writing skills, you will appreciate my short writes. Prompts are included on each page to make it easier for students to know how to respond. I based the prompts on Higher Order Thinking Skills. A picture is included with each page so if they get done early they can color. The pictures are labeled with some nouns and action verbs to help facilitate their writing.

Each set has Writing Rubrics that can be posted on a wall for student referral.

Each set has a writing model to give students an example of how to respond to a prompt. Teachers you can use these as a part of your lesson.

You can see how the pictures are labeled. I chose keywords for each picture that will help your ESL students.

Each page was carefully thought out. Each picture was carefully chosen. I used the HOTS to write the prompts. For the labels, I used the essential nouns and the verbs that would make this writing experience a good one for your students.

My goal is to make your job just a little bit easier!

Froggy About Teaching

Amped Up Learning        Teachers Pay Teachers

K-1 Product Review by Christy Gandara, Homeschool Holiday

Christy Gandara is a teacher-author I met on Amped Up Learning. Her store name is Homeschool Holiday. She wrote a wonderful review of one of my teaching resources!

Product review.

Interactive lessons are NOT just for older students! This week for the next installment in the Happy Hive Homeschooling product review series we are going to take a look at curriculum from Froggy About Teaching that is designed specifically for learners in Kindergarten and First grade. This interactive curriculum is off the page! Not your traditional pencil and paper assignment – the K-1 Coins Pack is designed for use with Smart Boards, Google Classroom, Seasaw or other similar virtual learning platforms.

The K-1 Coin Pack asks our young learners to recognize pennies and nickels (both sides), count them and assign value to items using these coins. In the Google Classroom/PowerPoint option, learners are required to slide the coins into place as well as type values into pre-designated text boxes.

If you would like to use the packet in a more “traditional” manner, you can easily print the pages as a PDF file and have your learner work on the pages using the pencil paper method.

Regardless of the method chosen, with 30 jam packed pages, your learners will have a solid understanding of both the penny and the nickel when they finish these activities. Froggy about Teaching is following up with Set Two, using other coins as well. Be sure to follow them on Pinterest as well as their Froggy about Teaching Blog. I am confident you will love their primary level activities as much as I did.

Until next time – Be blessed friends! 

Homeschool Holiday, Christy Gandara

Product Review: Literary Genres: The Informational Nonfiction

Product Review: Literary Genres: The Informational Nonfiction Subgenre

The teaching frames explain and describe Informational Nonfiction. It tells what “it is” and what it “is not”. The text features and text structures are defined. Examples of information nonfiction passages are provided. The teaching frames also gives the purpose for writing the informational nonfiction.

Students get to choose what “does not” describe this type of text. They will identify, match, and choose their answers. They will show they know the text features; text structures; what literature and what descriptions go with this type of text. They get to choose “what it is not”! This will show that they really understand the concept.

You can’t go wrong using this deck of Boom Cards with your middle school students!

Literary Genres: The Fiction Genre

The teaching frames define and describe the prose characteristics of fiction. Fiction subgenres are listed and explained. The elements of fiction are added to the frames. Such as the role of the Narrator and the types of Narrators.

I know what Point of View is, I certainly know what my point of view is. But did you know that there are different ways of telling a Point of View? Your students will learn what these are!

Students will identify the parts of a plot; the features of graphic novels; types of nonfiction; features of Fantasy and Romance. They will show what they have learned in several ways that will show you that they have learned all this well.

Teacher-author, Matthew Forman has created a digital resource that is thorough. The students get to enjoy playing with these boom cards while learning! You can get these boom cards in his store, ELA in Middle School on Amped Up Learning!

Don't pass up an amazing product!

Froggy About Teaching

Product Review: The Poetic Genre: The Poetic Forms Boom Cards

Product Review: The Poetic Genre: The Poetic Forms Boom Cards

This deck of boom cards is focused on the different types of poems. Can you imagine that there are so many types of poems? Matthew takes 15 basic types of poems and defines and describes each one in the teaching frames.

Matthew knows much about poems because he is a published poet.

I have read some of his poems. To say that his poems are deeply moving and beautiful means little until you have read them yourself. He has a blog where he has some of his poems. Take some time and read them, then you will understand what I mean. Selected Poems by Matthew E. Forman.

What were we talking about, oh, Boom Cards. Then, the teaching frames go into the different poem patterns and give examples of these patterns. Then students practice choosing, matching, identifying patterns, poems samples, descriptions, and definitions.

A positive benefit of the Boom Cards are that it is self-correcting, so students know if they are choosing the correct answer.

Product Review: Poetry Genres: Characteristics and Most Commonly Used Figurative Language Boom Cards

The teaching frames in this deck takes the characteristics and figurative language and defines and describes what each is. Then students will show what they have learned in a variety of ways. They will choose characteristics that go with the poem description, the figurative language to the characteristic, samples to poet types, and more. The students get the opportunity to learn characteristics and figurative language.

Teachers, the benefit of allowing your students to use this deck of cards is that you can track student progress. Yay, save some time!

Teacher-author, Matthew Forman, ELA in Middle School, has created a digital resource that is a deck of Boom Cards. In fact, it is several sets of Boom Cards that he has bundled together, Literary Genres: The Prose and Poetry Bundle of Boom Cards. 

Product Review - Literary Genres: The Basics of Literary Genres: Poetry and Prose Boom Cards

Have you thought about how you are going to teach Literature and Poetry, especially to Middle School students? It is not easy! The Common Core Standards for Middle School says that students are to analyze a poem’s/literature’s form or structure. They are to do this analysis with evidence from the text. You see this and you think, this is way too hard! That is what I thought when I saw the standards. It gets you thinking more about how to teach these skills. To do this, the students should be able to identify the different literary genres and poetic forms. Okay, this is a good start. Once they can recognize the different types, then you can move them on to the breakdown of style – analysis.

Teacher-author, Matthew Forman, ELA in Middle School, has created a digital resource that will do this. This resource is a deck of Boom Cards. In fact, it is several sets of Boom Cards that he has bundled together, Literary Genres: The Prose and Poetry Bundle of Boom Cards. Thank you, Matthew!

I am going to take each set that is a part of this bundle and give you some insights.

Let us begin with Literary Genres: The Basics of Literary Genres: Poetry and Prose Boom Cards.  

Matthew breaks down this set with sections. Each section has teaching frames, students then show what they have learned by identifying, matching or fill-in-the-blanks.

The students begin with the general level identifying prose and poetry in several ways. Then it takes them to the next level of subgenres. It is followed up with the students identifying text features, text types and descriptions. Then all is tied together (reviewed) and students show what they have learned by identifying, matching, or filling in blanks.

It is thorough, but what is even better is that this is all done with Boom Cards. The students will have fun learning and practicing the forms and structures of poetry and prose!

I'll be reviewing the other sets in Matthew's Bundle. Stayed tuned for more!

Froggy About Teaching - Debbie

Teacher Author: Matthew Forman with ELA in Middle School

 Matthew Forman is a teacher-author that creates teaching resources. His teacher store name is ELA in Middle School. He sells them on several platforms, Amped Up Learning, Teachers Pay Teachers, and The Wheel. He is a great guy and a resourceful teacher-author. 

So, let me tell you a little about him. 

He is a veteran of Desert Shield/Storm. Matthew, thank you for your service. He also did a variety of jobs before he became a middle school teacher.  He was a former investigator for the courts in New York and Pennsylvania. So, be very aware (of his products)! Then he became a truck driver when . . .  he realized his true calling was to go back to College and become a teacher. Smart guy! His wife Suzanne is also a substitute teacher and creates teaching products, as well. Pretty cool! They have 13 grandchildren. What a blessing! One grandchild is in College (yay!), one is in pull-ups, and the others are scattered somewhere in between!

Matthew is on his seventh year of teaching and his wife has completed her second year.

I asked Matthew why he became a teacher. His response was, “To make a difference in the world and in the lives of young people.” He has been teaching English Language Arts to Middle School students. This coming year he will be a Reading Intervention teacher to 8^th graders. Teaching students in Reading Intervention has been a privilege that I have enjoyed. Suzanne will also be a Math Intervention teacher for 7^th and 8^th graders.

Let us get back to talking about ELA in Middle School! I asked Matthew why he became a teacher-author. He told it like it was, “To help pay bills! The fact that it also helps other teachers is a bonus!”

Take the time to check out his teaching resources. His focus is Reading and Writing at the Middle School Level. He also has some Grammar and Novel Studies. This grandpa and his wife homeschool three of their grandchildren in the PreK through 4^th grades. Watch out! Some potential products in the making.

Now we get to the real reason I am writing about Matthew and his teaching resources. He is now making Boom Cards. I have reviewed a bundle of his Literary Boom Cards. I will be sharing the benefits of using this bundle.

There is more to come . . .

Distance Learning Teaching

Distance Learning Teaching Resources

I shared with you some teachers' views of what they were having to do to adjust to the pandemic. Even though states have begun to lift the stay at home orders, we now have a new norm and have precautions that need to be used. This pandemic has changed the way we are educating our students. Virtual rooms are being used to connect with students, digital resources are being used to teach, review, and assess our students. Teacher authors and teacher contributors who create teaching resources for educators have begun to sell Distance Learning resources to meet the needs of teachers and students who continue to teach and learn from home.

I have been on a learning curve to be able to create some of the digital resources teachers are needing. I have learned how to make Google Slides and how to make a resource for digital use. I am now learning how to make Boom Cards-another digital resource.

These resources are available on Froggy About Teaching on both Amped Up Learning and Teachers Pay Teachers.

Amped Up Learning

Distance Learning Beginning Sounds

K-1 Coins Pack 1

Kinder Distance Learning

Teachers Pay Teachers

Beginning Sounds Set 1 Google Slides

Beginning Sounds Power Point

K-1 Coin Pack 1 Power Point

Kinder Distance Learning Bundle

Be safe, stay safe!

Froggy About Teaching