Integrate Science with Reading and Writing {FREE Activities Included!}

Hey, teacher friends! It's Jivey from Ideas by Jivey, and if you know me, you know I am PASSIONATE about integrating with mentor texts as much as possible! In this post, I will be sharing how to use a great book for reading and writing while teaching about animal adaptations or attributes:

**The above link is an affiliate link. 

The few pennies I earn on each purchase goes towards future giveaways!**

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page is a fantastic book to use to expose students to animals they most likely have never seen in real life. It's a great book to use across K-5, but the activities I'm going to share with you in this post are perfect for grades 1 and 2. 

As you read the book the first time, allow them to make a guess at the animal that belongs to the features shown on each page. When you turn the page, it shows the whole animal and describes why that feature is important for the animal. This would be a great opportunity to allow them to write down something new they learned about some of those attributes, or animals. 

There are also SEVERAL animals in the book that have some similarities, as well as differences. Use this book to compare animals, not just with the text, but the pictures of the animals, too!

You will find a video below of me walking you through the book and the comparison activity. This was originally posted as a Facebook Live video, so ignore when I talk about links in the description. :) You will find the "links" below this video instead!

As promised, you can pick up free activities for this book for first and second grade below!

If you teach about animals in first or second grade, you might also love this Animals Reading and Writing pack that provides activities similar to the ones I've shared in this post, and you can even integrate grammar with those same fabulous nonfiction mentor texts in the reading and writing pack by using mentor sentences:

     

Women's History Month: Read-Alouds and Mentor Texts

This month is Women's History Month! I am going to share some fantastic books you will want to share with your students this month to empower and amaze them. **This post includes Amazon affiliate links. If you choose to use the affiliate link, the couple of cents I earn from Amazon per purchase goes to fund future giveaways!**

If you haven't heard about the amazing Malala Yousafzai, this will be a great introduction for you AND your students! Many of your students may not realize that school is not a "normal occurrence" for people worldwide. The corageous Malala spoke out for education for every girl and was almost killed by the Taliban in the process.

With the popularity of the movie, get the young readers' edition of Hidden Figures to teach students all about the four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program.

This book about Rosa Parks is not the glossed-over version you might find in other stories. The book is a tribute to Rosa, and the images in this book are gorgeous!!

Here is a great book to share about the famous woman aviator, and is sure to inspire your students to do what they love, even when the odds are against them.

Yet another inspiring book- Wilma Unlimited is the story of Wilma Rudolph who overcame polio and paralysis to become the first American woman to earn three gold medals in the Olympics!


Ready for some amazing women who took a stand in politics? Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an awesome woman to share about when discussing how disagreeing CAN be done respectfully and CAN make a difference. 



Elizabeth Cady Stanton was another woman who stood up for what she knew was right, and wouldn't take no for an answer. She fought for women's rights and changed America forever.


This is a great book to pair with Elizabeth Leads the Way! The book is from the point of view of a little girl, Bessie, who learns that small actions can lead to big changes.



Players in Pigtails is a great book to share with students to show that girls and boys don't have "girl" and "boy" activities. The book is about the All American Girls Professional Baseball League and celebrates the girls' love of the game.


Last, but not least, share the book about one of the world's most inspiring women, Jane Goodall. Jane's life has been all about empowering people to make a difference for all living things, and in this book, as a little girl, it will help children realize they truly can make a difference.

PIN FOR FUTURE REFERENCE:

Integrate Content on Groundhog Day!

It's SO much fun to incorporate the holidays into the classroom whenever possible, but of course, it's also important to ensure you are teaching the standards. Here are some fun activities you can do on (and the week of) Groundhog Day, February 2nd, that will integrate the holiday into your content areas!

Start off the day with an explanation of Groundhog Day. You can grab the free passage below which explains where the day originated in a simple way, and it has a vocabulary/context clue question, a genre question, and two questions where students must apply the text (use evidence) to draw the situations. 

Click above or click here to download!

Of course, the last two questions will also lend to a great science mini-lesson on light and shadows! Have students take turns practicing being the Sun (hold a flashlight) and being a groundhog (sit on the floor for better position of the light above them). Which way does the groundhog need to come out of its burrow to NOT see its shadow? (Facing the sun or with the sun directly overhead!)

You can integrate a quick graphing lesson by having students take a tally of their peers, then graph results- will the groundhog see his shadow? Do you want a longer winter or early spring?

Next up, share a fun (and INFORMATIVE) mentor text with students to get some ELA skills in, too!

Click here or on the book above to purchase the book using my affiliate link on Amazon.  The few cents I make from purchases add up to fund awesome giveaways!

Groundhog Gets a Say is a very entertaining nonfiction text. Students love it because the creatures in the book have funny, sarcastic comments (in speech bubbles) to say about each other. I love using this book because it teaches students all about marmots (I've even learned a thing or two from the text!) and also is written in a persuasive way! We know that writing genre is always tricky!

If you'd like to get print-and-teach activities for this mentor text, you can get it here from Ideas by Jivey's TpT store. It includes a tally page, fact-recording sheet, turning facts into opinions activity, a brainstorm page to use for opinion writing about another animal, and a quotation marks and tags practice page. 

Happy Groundhog Day!!

Pardon that... TURKEY?!

Each year around this time, your students read about the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and Native Americans, maybe even about Sarah Hale saving the holiday. But....

Officially, since 1989, it is tradition for the President of the United States to pardon the White House Thanksgiving turkey. It happened several times before 1989, too.

Each year, in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the National Turkey Federation presents a turkey to the President. The turkey is pardoned, and spends the rest of his days on a farm in Virginia (some even participated in the Thanksgiving parade at Disney!).

Here is a fun video you can show your students of President Obama pardoning the turkey...

And you can also grab this free sample of my mix and match assessments all about the Turkey Pardoning!

In the sample, I have included the same passage about turkey pardoning on four levels (2nd-5th) with three levels of standard-based questions (3rd-5th). You can use this as an assessment or independent practice which you can differentiate, or use it in small groups to practice close reading! 

Happy gobbling!

Fabulous Fall Mentor Text: Scarecrow

I absolutely LOVE the author, Cynthia Rylant. She has so many fantastic books to use as mentor texts! One of her gems is perfect for this time of year:

WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK:

Cynthia Rylant uses fantastic figurative and poetic language to bring this scarecrow to life. Students get to "see" what a scarecrow sees and "feel" what he feels. It's definitely a great book to use when teaching about point of view. Best of all, it's a book that's great for ALL ages! 

READING IDEAS:

These activities are perfect to use as whole group mini-lessons when using the book, Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant. 

SUMMARIZING

This is a very simple book to summarize, so it would be great to introduce the concept for lower grades, or to review summarizing in the upper grades. 

USING EVIDENCE TO PROVE AN INFERENCE

Students can find many pieces of evidence that the scarecrow enjoys his life, as Cynthia does such a great job of showing life from the scarecrow's eyes. As you do a second read of this short book, have students listen and note evidence in the book that shows the scarecrow enjoys his life. 

VISUALIZATION

Cynthia Rylant uses such beautiful language in this book- allow students time to draw what some sentences from the book help them visualize. This will help them see her craft and will link wonderfully to a writing lesson as well: use "Show Don't Tell" style in your writing!

WRITING IDEA

As I mentioned above, use this book to help students see great examples of "Show Don't Tell" writing style, and then try it out in their writing. Students can imitate the book, Scarecrow, by writing a story as though they are a scarecrow.

Would you love to use all of these ready-made activities for this fabulous fall mentor text? Grab the freebie below! :)

Enjoy! Happy Fall!

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Finish the Year with a Bang (and a SPLAT!)

At the end of the year, once testing is over and kids have lost their minds are ready for summer, it's the perfect time to pull out the messy science experiments to review all the fun skills you've learned this year!

One of my favorite activities to do with kiddos of ALL ages is to make OOBLECK! If you've never made oobleck, you are in for a treat. It can get a little messy, but it is the BEST sensory experience! Oobleck has properties of a solid and a liquid (great review of matter!) and it's easy to make (measuring skills review!) and actually easy to clean up- if it gets on the carpet, let it dry completely and then it can be vacuumed up easily, as it turns into a dry powder. 

To start the lesson, read the great book by Dr. Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

*affiliate link to the book on Amazon*

Then, allow students to make the oobleck! (If you want to make it ahead of time yourself as one big batch, that is okay, too! Remember, it is two parts cornstarch to one part water. One year I accidentally flipped that conversion and OOPS- we did not have oobleck that day.)

You can download this free directions page to help your students make oobleck on their own:

As I mentioned above, oobleck has properties of a solid and a liquid: it will take the shape of its container like a liquid, but with force (like a hit, poke, or squeeze) it acts like a solid! It can be rolled into a ball, but it can also flow and drip like a liquid. Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid.

And make sure to show them this awesome video of people walking, and even DANCING, on a pool of oobleck!! (HERE IS THE SAFESHARE LINK)

Your kids will LOVE all the oobleck excitement! It's a great way to finish the year with a bang- and a splat! :) Have fun!