Ideas for a spooky Halloween or Dia de los Muertos

Ideas for a spooky Halloween or

Dia de los Muertos

I know! It's around the corner!

Halloween is October 31st and

Dia de los Muertos is November 1st and 2nd.

Your Door

Your classroom door is the first place to

set the mood for your decor.

Here is my pinterest board for ideas.

I love to set the mood with a beautifully decorated door. I use my dia de los muertos decor set

for the interior.

Read Alouds

Here are my favorites...

-Creepy Carrots

-Halloween Hustle

-There was an old lady who swallowed a bat

-Calavera Abecedaria

-Funny Bones: Posada and his Day of the Dead Calaveras

-Just a minute: A trickster tale and counting book

Any of these books would be a great addition

to your classroom library.

Activities

Tissue box monster: One fun activity is to have kids turn a tissue box into a scary monster. Just use white construction paper to make the teeth for the opening. Decorate the rest. Use egg cartons parts to make eyes for the top!

Halloween in France: Take this opportunity to learn about other cultures! Use this book to learn about how it is celebrated in France.

This a fun time of the year to learn about other cultures. Have fun!

You can find me on these platforms (as well as my blog!)

How can I make your job easier this year? Let me know in the comments. If I use your ideas for a blog post, you will win $10 to Teachers Pay Teachers. Even better, if I use your ideas to make a resource in my store, LisaTeachR's Classroom, I'll send you a free copy of that resource!

Latino Heritage Month ideas and resources

Latino Heritage Month

is here!

The dates for Latino Heritage month are September 15th until October 15th. September 16th is on Mexico's independence day.

Museums and Cultural Centers

One good thing about the pandemic is that it made everyone look outward and consider how to share knowledge with the world. Virtual field trips abounded. Two local places (for me) I want you to be aware of are La Plaza and the Museum of Latin American Art. La Plaza focuses on Mexican and Mexican-American culture. Molaa is the only museum in the United States dedicated to modern and contemporary Latin and Latin-American Art. Also, there is a federal site dedicated to this month!

Check them out!

Researching famous LatinX people

What better way to celebrate than to research some famous Latinos? People like Frida Kahlo, Eva Peron and Lin Manuel Miranda! As a matter of fact, there are 34 pennants to choose from in both color and black and white.

Great picture books

I have a lot of favorite LatinX authors I read aloud to my students. Some of my favorite authors and illustrators are:

Yuyi Morales
Rafael Lopez
Gary Soto
Isabel Quintero
Pam Munoz Ryan
Alma Flor Ada
Margarita Engle
Matt de la Pena
and many many more

If you need some help using these books, here is a link to my store. There are a lot of resources to help you this month.

What ways will you promote

this month in your classroom?

Check out these great bloggers!

You can find me on these platforms (as well as my blog!)

Picture Books that Launch STEM Learning

via GIPHY

Kids love science. As a teacher though, sometimes it can be a little overwhelming trying to figure out where to start. Why not start with picture books? Picture books are the perfect hook for the kids

and can spur lots of ideas for STEM.

Here are some ideas.

After the Fall

(How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again)

by Dan Santat

This is a great book to teach perseverance

and getting over fears. Kids are already familiar with the nursery rhyme. This just extends the story.

What are some STEM extensions?

-Design a paper airplane for Humpty.

-Engineer a device to get Humpty up a wall safely.

-Do the egg drop!

(If you want that one step by step, download my Picture Book STEM Unit for some literacy activities and the STEM activity)

If I Built A School

by Chris Van Dusen

This book is so fun. When I read it to second graders, their imaginations went wild! Their only let down was that it wasn't real!!

What are some STEM extensions?

-What new classroom or space would you build?

The sky is the limit!

-Redsign! Look at your current library,

computer lab, innovation lab, maker space etc.

What would you add or change?

I Dissent:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark!

By Debbie Levy

Do you know the story of RBG? It is truly inspirational! She had to overcome great odds and she affected great change.

What are some STEM extensions?

-Have students design bookmarks to teach younger students about the Notorious RBG

-Can your students create their own scales of justice?

-Did you know her jabot had different meanings?

Have students create their own jabots!

As you read picture books, think of ways you can integrate STEM. Your kids will love it.

You can find me on these platforms (as well as my blog!)

What's an Interactive Read aloud? and Picture books to support it for the first day of school

What's an

Interactive Read aloud?

and Picture books to support it for the first day of school

Do you use interactive read alouds in your classroom?

I'm going to go over what they are and how to do it and then suggest some great books for back to school!

Reading Strategies

Interactive read aloud lessons are rooted in the reading strategies.

These strategies are

-asking questions

-accessing background knowledge

-determining importance

predicting

-visualizing

-making connections

-summarizing, evaluating

-synthesizing

If you want posters of the strategies, go to my store.

Structure of the Interactive Reading Plan

Choose a book, read it, and decide on

a strategy to focus upon.

What strategy does the book lend itself to?

Once you have that, determine how and what you will ask and use post its to put them on the right pages.

Modeling:

Be explicit. Tell the students what strategy you are working on and why. In this stage, you model how to ask the question and you answer it yourself.

Shared:

Stop and summarize.

Ask a question and share your thinking.

Then give students time to think-pair-share

to discuss before anyone shares out.

As students share, validate or redirect.

Guided:

Continue asking questions.

Give students time to think-pair-share to discuss before anyone shares out.

Continue validating and gently redirecting.

Independent:

When you ask questions, students can share out without the think-pair-share process.

Remember to circle back around and discuss the reading strategy used.

What books should I use?

You can use any picture book you like.

Just be sure to read it first and consider what strategy lends itself to it.

Some suggestions I like for the

first week of school are:

-All Are Welcome

-The Book With No Poictures

-If You take A Moiuse To School

-Happy Dreamer

-Each Kindness

_The Day You Begin

If you need more explicit support, try my first day of school interactive read aloud lesson plans.

As you read picture books, think of ways you can use them in an interactive read aloud. Your kids will love it.

You can find me on these platforms (as well as my blog!)

Sunday