It’s Wednesday, and time for Language Arts . I would like to let you know for me Language Arts is a class I have trouble teaching but through these websites I know Charlie and I will be fine.
Age Range: 10-18 (Grades 5-12, with parental supervision) This website offers a free, unique and engaging tool to inspire creative writing and poetry.
The idea here is to:
- Select a background picture from an array of beautiful, striking, and surprising images. (Parents, as always, should preview to determine suitability.)
- Drag-and-drop word tiles displayed below the background picture to create a short story or poem inspired by the image in the photograph.
- Edit the story or poem to create a satisfying literary work of any length.
This gadget is modeled after the magnetic word tiles that many people have on their refrigerators. As explained at the “The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.”
When you get to the site you’ll see a picture with word tiles below it. You can dive right in – or, if you would prefer some instruction on how to use this tool effectively, click on “Lesson Plans” on the horizontal menu bar at the top of the page, then click on the tutorial. Also check out the lesson plans:
- Types of PIC-LITs – Get some basic tips along with ideas on how to use the word tiles to write a simple caption, a compound sentence, and a paragraph.
- Parts of Speech – Nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns and more with links to YouTube videos on how to use PIC-LITs for each.
- Poetry – Explore a series of “advanced” lesson plans on how to write poems – including the use of figurative language such as metaphors, similes, allusion, personification, irony, imagery and more.
You can post the finished work in the public gallery, save them in your own free account file, e-mail the results, or link to them on Facebook – a clever way to inspire the young writers at your house!
Recommended Website:
Interactive Sites for Education – Language Arts
Age Range: 5-10 (Grades K-5 approximately, with parental supervision) We found quite a treasure on this website that describes themselves as a conglomeration of “all of the best K-5 online, interactive, educational games and simulations in one place!”
When you get to the page scroll down to investigate the games listed by skills like:
- ABC’s
- Alphabetical Order
- Capitalization
- Compound Words
- Conjunctions
- Parts of Speech
- And so much more!
This website has much more to offer in addition to Language Arts. Go to the home page to see a full list of their offerings including Math, Science, Social Studies, Brainteasers, Art, Music, Typing, Holidays, Teacher Tools and more!
Please keep in mind that each of these selections are links to individual websites. These interactive games, sites, and activities were not created by the owner(s) of this site. The content of the linked resources is the property of their respective creators. As always, parents should preview the content and supervise the use.
Recommended Website:
File Folder Fun – Social Studies
Age Range: 6-8 (Grades 1-3, with parental supervision) This site offers free, printable file folder games and activities that help young children learn about topics in Social Studies.
When you get to the site, scroll down to the grade you are interested in and click on the link for the Social Studies related activities. Or to make it easier, we have listed the links below:
- First Grade Social Studies – The Oregon Trail, U.S. symbols, Shadow Statues
- Second Grade Social Studies – National Landmarks, History of the Oregon Trail, continents and oceans
- Third Grade Social Studies – Founding Fathers matching game
Read the explanation and/or instructions, then download the game/activity you are interested in. There are also skill building links and supplementary resources.
The activities at this site are for younger children, but older children may enjoy preparing them for their siblings.
(While there are a variety of free file folder activities at this commercial site, there are many more available for sale.)
When you are through exploring the Social Studies activities, check out the Language Arts, Science, and Math activities for grades PreK-3. There is so much at this site, so bookmark it to return often!
Recommended Website:
MyVocabulary.com – Autumn
Age Range: 8-16 (Grades 4-10, with parental supervision) over 2,500 pages of a variety of free, interactive vocabulary development and enrichment activities including lesson plans, word searches, crossword puzzles, and quizzes.
Today we focused on the Autumn Vocabulary Word List. When you get to the site, you’ll see an “A-Z” list of 169 words all related to fall including:
- Acorn
- Bounty
- Chestnuts
- Football
- Harvest
- Leaves
- Migration
- Nuts
- Pumpkins
- Raking
- Scarecrows
- Thanksgiving
- Voting
- Weather
- and more!
Use the list to help students learn the definitions of new words, or as story-starters, or to identify parts of speech.
The extensive content at this ad-free, self-paced website is a great resource to supplement vocabulary and language arts studies. It is based on state standards and is printable for use offline.
Recommended Website:
National Wild Turkey Federation
Age Range: 5-18 (Grades K-12, with parental supervision) Read all about wild turkeys at the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) site. There are illustrations, photos, and sound clips to help you learn about wild turkeys. Then try the puzzles and worksheets from various sites below.
Discover:
- The Science of Gobbling
- Life of a Summertime Gobbler
- Life and Times of a Turkey Nest
- 4 Great Wild Turkey Habitats
- and more!
And check out what a wild turkey sounds like.
Once you’ve read all about turkeys, test your knowledge by printing out and solving these puzzles:
Then, try these Thanksgiving-themed Language Arts worksheets:
- Find the complete sentence.
- Practice spelling the plural form of Thanksgiving words by printing out
- Unscramble Thanksgiving-themed words. Print out Worksheet 1
To write an acrostic poem, use one word (such as “turkey”) as the subject of your poem. Write the word vertically on a sheet of paper. Use each letter of the word as the beginning letter for a word in each line of the poem. Each line of the poem must connect to the subject of the poem.
Recommended Website:
Thanksgiving-Themed Language Arts
Age Range: All (All grades; children with parental supervision) Here are a few Thanksgiving-themed Language Arts websites.
The first one is Thanksgiving Writing Prompts for Grades K-12. There are many ideas at this website to encourage children to think and write about Thanksgiving. Other special days in November are also included.
And here are a couple more Thanksgiving related sites:
Free Thanksgiving Worksheet for a first grader – The friendly turkey is feathered with words – also a coloring page
Glencoe Literature Library Age Range: 11-18 (Grades 6-12, with parental supervision) This website is a great place to get free and comprehensive literature study guides for a variety of notable books. When you get to the site you’ll see an alphabetical menu of book titles. Simply click on the book of interest to you and a new page opens containing a brief synopsis of the book, related readings, and a link to the downloadable Study Guides (about 25-35 pages) in PDF format. |
Some of the book titles are: Animal Farm, Beowulf, The Call of the Wild, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, To Kill A Mockingbird, Where the Red Fern Grows and many more!
Click on the “Study Guide” and the PDF file opens (it may take a minute to fully download). The Study Guide is comprehensive for each book and includes classroom activities that can be easily tweaked for individual use including: A Focus Activity Vocabulary Preview Notes for Character Summarizations Questions that Prompt Literature Analysis Writing Assignments Interdisciplinary Connections to Science, History, and Social Studies.
All of this is neatly formatted so that you can print out the activity pages separately or as an entire unit. The beauty here is that you can pick and choose the items that help your students get the most out of their reading experiences.
| Thank you, Glenda, Charlie and David Cates |
