Teachers Have Class! Issue #10 August and September 2010 Back To School Teaching Resources and Ideas
Welcome to the tenth newsletter of Teachers Have Class from Unique Teaching Resources!
I have combined August and September into one newsletter, as most schools do not begin the new school year until the end of August or the beginning of September. You will find calendar sets and writing prompt ideas for both August and September in this newsletter.
I hope that you have enjoyed your summer vacation. I went home to the U.S. for 6 weeks to visit my parents in Florida and my sister in D.C. It was wonderful to see my family and get to spend some time with them since I live so far away. During this 6 weeks, I relaxed and enjoyed myself. Although I kept up to date in responding to letters from teachers during this 6 weeks, I gave myself a break from working on new resources for my website.
I returned back to Bahrain the end of July to begin working on the new Back to School resources section of my website. You will find these resources located in the holiday and month section of my table of contents. It was great to return back to work feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to start a new year of school. The only negative was that the temperatures in Bahrain during July and August are often around 110 degrees! I hope that your summer vacation has also refreshed and rejuvenated you!
As I enter the second year of dedicating my time to working on the materials found on Unique Teaching Resources, I have a lot to reflect on and be grateful for. Although I miss having my own classroom and students, I have really enjoyed working on posting new ideas and teaching resources on my website during the past year. At the end of this newsletter, you will find a section where I ask you for your help and assistance as I try to expand my website and reach more teachers this coming school year. If you have found some of the free resources and teaching ideas contained in this newsletter helpful, I would appreciate it if you would read my "Help Heidi" section at the end of this page.
The beginning of a new school year is one of my favorite times of the year. I also know that it is one of the busiest and most challenging times of the year for teachers. It doesn't matter how many years that you have been teaching, the beginning of a new school year takes up a lot of our time as teachers.
I believe the first 2 weeks of school are the most important for a teacher. If a teacher is well prepared at this time of the year, it will save that teacher a lot of time and effort later on during the school year. The routines, structures, and expectations that you set from the very first day will save you enormous amounts of time and energy throughout the rest of the year.
To accomplish this: be over prepared, be organized, be firm in a loving and kind manner, and provide your students with engaging learning activities. I hope that some of the resources and ideas on Unique Teaching Resources will provide you with lesson plan activities that will engage your students in learning, and that your students will also find these activities fun and challenging to complete.
As your students come to learn your routines and expectations, you can later relax your structure and firm approach. On the other hand, if you do not start off the school year with being in charge, it can be very hard to capture that later on in the school year. Of course, most teachers will encounter students with behavior issues during a school year, but these will be much easier to handle if you clearly establish your classroom rules and expectations from day one.
This is the best time of the year to spend extra time focusing on the children that you view as being active, or struggling with learning disabilities or second language difficulties.
I start a weekly awards ceremony in my classroom at the end of the first week of school. Instead of awarding high achieving and quiet students at the beginning of the year, I try to find a way to present awards to recognize the students that I feel would benefit the most from positive reinforcement and recognition, and who often have not received this type of recognition in the past. I have found that early recognition and positive reinforcement has made these students feel safe with me, and consequently they tend to work hard in my class during the rest of the school year.
You will find a large variety of student awards on this website. At the beginning of the year, I print out a class set of my Student of the Week Awards and I write each child's name on an award and I leave the date blank. I go through the entire stack of awards before I print out any extras, so that I ensure that each student has received this award during the school year.
I also complete and fill out all of my Birthday Award Certificates at the beginning of the year and put them in order by months. It saves me time to do all of my birthday certificates for the year at one time, instead of doing this task many times during the school year.
One of the awards that I include in my weekly awards ceremony is a Citizenship Award. I give each of my students a slip of paper near the end of the week and they write who they would like to nominate for this award and why. I try to encourage my students to think of a different student to write about each week. Reading these little slips of paper written by my students about their classmates, gives me a lot of insight into my students. I learn about things that happen during recess time and other classes that my students attend during the week. Again, I print out a class set of these citizenship awards at the beginning of the year, write each child's name on an award, and make sure that each child has received this award during the school year.
If I find that I have a student who has not been nominated for this award, I observe this student during a group activity in class and try to find something positive that this student has done to help his or her group members complete their project. Another idea that I use is to give that student a special responsibility that helps me during the week, and I nominate that student for a citizenship award.
This simple method of having a weekly awards ceremony is a powerful tool that I have used to motivate my students and to recognize their hard work. It is a time of the week that we all look forward to during the last 15 minutes of the school week. We discuss the week, our accomplishments, and set goals for the coming week. We celebrate each other and learn that we all different and have our areas of strength, and also areas that are more challenging for us. Each week I present a student of the week, improvement, and citizenship award. Then, depending on the week, I select different types of awards based on the assignments that my students completed during that week.
During this time, I also talk about myself and areas that have been challenging for me that week and what I want to work on for the next week. I discuss what I experienced as a student when I was their age: that I wasn't good at art, that I was quiet and afraid to give class presentations, that I was not athletic and was often picked as the last player when selecting teams, and that I was likely the worst French horn player our band teacher had ever come across. My students have gobbled up hearing about my experiences as a student, that I am not perfect, and that I understand some of the challenges that they are experiencing. I often use this time to read aloud a book that a has a special message about friendship, bullying, or social issues that I want to discuss with my students.
Through this weekly tradition, my students learn to appreciate the unique characteristics and strengths that each student in our class possesses. I try to set the mood and atmosphere that while my students are at school, we are a family and that we are cheering for each member of our family to be the best that he or she can be. The parents of my students have also appreciated my weekly awards ceremony and this form of positive reinforcement and recognition that their child has received and brought home to share with them.
Below are copies of my Student of the Week and Citizenship awards for you to download for free to use with your own students.
One of the things that I really dislike preparing at the beginning of a new school year is bulletin board display backgrounds. First, I'm 4'11" so it is hard for me to reach high places! I detest the huge rolls of bulletin board paper that teachers often have to use for backgrounds that are heavy and awkward to use and staple onto bulletin boards for a background.
Instead, I have found that stapling the large background paper onto a bulletin board works best with two or three teachers working together. Instead of doing this task alone, I find two colleagues and we staple the background paper for all of the bulletin boards in our three classrooms and hallway areas together. It's also a fun time to chat about our summer holidays and the new ideas that we want to incorporate into the coming school year.
Although it is a bit costly and involves running errands after school, an idea that I have come to love is buying fabric to use for bulletin board backgrounds instead of using the awkward paper rolls. After I measure my bulletin boards, I go to a fabric store and purchase a large piece of fabric cut specifically to those measurements. These large fabric pieces are easy to staple onto a bulletin board by yourself. The other great part of using fabric is the bright colors you can purchase and also finding material that has unusual designs on it for particular themes. When a bulletin board display is finished, instead of throwing away all of that bulletin board paper, you can simply take the fabric off, fold or roll it up, and you have it ready for the next school year. If you purchase two or three fabric sets a year, in five years you will have around 10 different brightly colored fabric backgrounds to choose from for your bulletin board displays.
If the introduction section of this newsletter has bored you to death, or if it felt like I was giving advice, that was not my intention. I have tried to share some of the teaching strategies that have worked well for me and eliminated a lot of the problems that I encountered during my early years as an educator.
In the following section of Teachers Have Class, I have tried to include free teaching display sets that will help you in preparing your classroom for a new school year. There is a reading sticker chart to help you promote reading in your classroom, a stationary set to use for a creative writing assignment, and writing prompt ideas for August and September.
I hope that this new school year is a great one for both you and your students. Your students are blessed to have you as a teacher!
And now, for the Back to School teaching resources part of my newsletter ...
Special Reminder:
Reminder: The links to download the free teaching resources that are found in this edition of Teachers Have Class will only be available for 5 days.
After 5 days, the links to these free Back to School teaching resources will be removed. Then, I will post this newsletter on my website so that teachers who visit Unique Teaching Resources will be able to read old editions of Teachers Have Class.
Although teachers who visit my website can read all of the previous editions of my newsletter, I only provide these free monthly resources to the teachers who have signed up to receive Teachers Have Class. These free resources are my small way of thanking these teachers for their support and interest.
So, be sure to download your free Back to School resources promptly!
Back to School Banner Set
Grades 1 - 8 Customized Welcome Back to School Bulletin Board Display Banners
Are you looking for a Welcome Back To School bulletin board display banner for your classroom that is customized to the grade level that you teach?
This classroom display set contains a separate 5 page bulletin board banner for Grades 1 - 8.
There are 8 banners included in this set of Back to School bulletin board displays. The Grade 3 banner example is found above and the Grade 6 banner example is below.
Although you will only use one set of these grade level welcome banners this year, be sure to save the entire set of banners to use for the future. As teachers, we are often switching the grades that we teach and you can use this welcome banner with the other grade levels that you teach in the future.
Grade Level (1 - 8) Back to School Classroom Display Set
Are you looking for a classroom and bulletin board display set that is customized to the grade level that you teach?
This classroom and bulletin board display set contains a 29 pages of printable classroom decorations for Grades 1 - 8.
All of the examples that I will be showing you on this page are from the Grade 5 set, and there is a separate set of these resources for Grades 1 - 8.
1. Large Pencils: These two pencils are a vertical two page banner that is glued together. After you have assembled the vertical banner, cut out these two large pencils for grade level pencil accent pieces.
2. Caterpillar Grade Level Banner Display: Cut out and glue these 6 caterpillar templates to form a grade level title banner. This grade level caterpillar display would be perfect to display above your white board, chalkboard, or bulletin board.
3. Chalkboard Displays: These one page chalkboard templates are a great way to welcome your students back to school.
4. Book Bag Displays: These one page book bag templates use fun slogans that have to do with rulers and glue.
5. Color Pencil Boxes: These brightly colored pencil boxes are one page templates that can be used as additional grade level accent pieces for any bulletin board display.
6. 6 Color Pencils: There are 2 pages that contain 6 grade level pencils on these classroom accent pieces.
7. 2 Color Pencils: These two brightly colored pencil templates are two pencil templates that are glued together and then cut out as one vertical grade level display.
8. 3 Road Signs: These three grade level road signs are each one page templates that have phrases written on them that highlight the grade level that you teach.
9. 2 Footballs: Encourage your students to remember the importance of working together cooperatively as a team with these football accent pieces.
10. 2 Megaphones: These brightly colored megaphones are one page templates that can be used as additional grade level accent pieces for any bulletin board display.
11. 3 Apples: These brightly colored apples are one page templates that can be used as additional grade level accent pieces for any bulletin board display.
Although you will only use one set of these grade level displays this year, be sure to save the entire set of classroom displays to use for the future. As teachers, we are often switching the grades that we teach and you can use these classroom displays with the other grade levels that you teach in the future.
Click on the link below to download this free grade level classroom and bulletin board display set.
Creative Writing Bus Stationery Teaching Resource Set
Each month I provide a free stationery and worksheet set in my newsletter because many teachers are often looking for thematic worksheets for each month, especially for creative writing.
Below is my Creative Writing Bus Stationery Set and the link to download it. The title banner is 5 pages long, which you can assemble and use on your bulletin board display. There are color and black and white copies of the stationery for you to choose from. There are 7 pages in this free PDF Creative Writing Bus Stationery Set.
Color Templates, an Award Certificate, and a Bulletin Board Display Banner
The above 5 page bulletin board banner is included in this reading sticker chart set.
Later on in this newsletter, you will see a September calendar set which has matching apple graphics contained in it.
Apple Reading Sticker Charts: These colorful apple shaped sticker chart templates will motivate your students to read 17 times (or 17 books) in a time period that you set for them.
There are 17 boxes for you to place stickers inside of on these apple sticker chart templates.
You can use these incentive charts to promote and encourage your students to read. Your students will be motivated to reach the target of getting 17 stickers on these reading apple sticker charts.
This Back to School reading sticker chart set includes color (red and green) and black and white apple templates to choose from. These reading apple sticker charts measure 7 inches in width and 7 inches in height. There are 17 sticker boxes on these apple shaped incentive charts.
This sticker chart set contains 34 pages of printable resources and contains the following components:
Black and white apple sticker chart template (1 page)
Red apple sticker chart templates (1 page)
Green apple sticker chart templates (1 page)
Matching bulletin board display banner (5 pages)
Student award certificate in color and black and white (2 pages)
Parent letter and reading record sheet to send home in a Microsoft Word document that you can edit to meet your individual needs and requirements (2 pages)
12 colored pages of apple accent pieces for your bulletin board display (12 pages)
12 black and white pages of apple accent pieces for your bulletin board display (12 pages)
You can cut out these reading apple sticker charts along the thick black lines to have unique apple shaped incentive charts. Below are the black and white, red, and green apple sticker charts.
Below is an example of the matching student award certificate that is included with this Back to School reading sticker chart set. There is also a black and white copy of this award included in this resources set.
Below is a letter that you can send home to parents that explains this home reading program, along with the worksheet for parents to sign each time their child reads at home. This parent letter is in the form of a Microsoft Word Document so that you can edit it to your own word choice.
The title in the letter currently says September Reading Program, but you can easily change that in this Microsoft Word Document. Although I have included this resource in my Back to School lesson plans, these apple sticker charts could be used anytime of the school year.
To help you decorate your bulletin board with a reading apple theme, I have provided a 5 page bulletin board banner (see above) and apple accent pieces for you to use in preparing your bulletin board display.
Because I feel that it is important for students to learn to appreciate literature and love reading at an early age, I encourage my students to read all year long through monthly and seasonal reading sticker charts.
If this Good Apple Reading Sticker chart set has helped to motivate your students to read at home during September, please check out some of my other monthly and seasonal reading sticker chart sets.
Fall Into a Good Book Reading Sticker Chart Set
Winter Penguin Chill Out With a Good Book Reading Sticker Chart Set
March Leprechaun Reading Sticker Chart Set
Spring Umbrellas It's Raining Books Reading Sticker Chart Set
Thank you to Teresa for sharing her reading sticker chart photographs with us. Teresa is a 4th Grade teacher in New Jersey.
September and August Calendars and Monthly Writing Prompt Ideas
Each month I provide a free calendar set in my newsletter. These free calendar sets could be displayed on a bulletin board or placed inside a pocket chart. Below each calendar set, you will find a list of writing prompts for that month that may spark an idea that you could use with your students.
Below is my September Calendar Set and the link to download it. The September title is a 2 page banner that should fit in most standardized monthly pocket charts that many teachers use. I have designed large September days of the week that you may find useful. The calendar number dates also fit in pocket charts, and I have included a blank square and a birthday square to use. There are 11 pages in this free PDF September Calendar Set.
Below you will also find some ideas for writing prompts to use during the month of September.
September Writing Prompts: Are you looking for a creative list of writing prompts and journal ideas to use during the month of September?
Below, you will find a list of general September writing topics and a list of specific calendar dates for September with corresponding creative writing ideas and topics.
I have created this list of September writing prompts and ideas for elementary school teachers and students, but many of these creative writing ideas and topics would also be appropriate for other grade levels.
You will find September writing prompts below that contain underlined links. If you click on an underlined link:
You will be directed to another page on Unique Teaching Resources that contains detailed lesson plan ideas for this writing prompt idea.
You will be directed to another website that contains useful information related to this writing prompt idea.
General September Writing Prompts:
My goals for this school year: See this web page for an activity that involves students writing their goals for a new school year inside pencil templates. http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/pencil-writing-templates.html My summer vacation: See this web page for a summer vacation writing template that involves students writing a text message about their summer vacations inside fun cell phone templates. http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/cell-phone-templates.html Last school year I improved in …. The best thing about my class Interview a classmate: See this web page for an activity that involves students interviewing their new classmates and writing about their classmates inside circus themed megaphone templates. http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/classmate-interview-megaphone-templates.html How did you feel about the start of this new school year? How do you feel about it now? Create a venn diagram comparing how you felt on the first day of school to how you feel today. Write a paragraph about how your feelings have changed. Pretend that you are packing your lunch and you may pack anything you want. What would you pack? Why? What is your favorite part of the school day? Why? Imagine that you are a student 100 years in the future. What do you think school be like? What would you study? Where would you study? Write a story about it.
September Celebrations, Events, Holidays, and Dates in History:
First Monday of September Labor Day is celebrated the first Monday in September and recognizes and honors American workers and their achievements. The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City. Labor Day is recognized by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer and the holiday is often regarded as a day of rest.
What profession do you want to enter when you finish school?
Write about a profession whose work you admire and respect.
First Sunday after Labor Day Grandparents Day is celebrated the first Sunday after Labor Day. This day is devoted to honoring grandparents and to help children become aware of the strength, information, and guidance older people can offer. In 1978, the United States Congress passed legislation, which was signed by President Jimmy Carter, proclaiming the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. September was chosen as the month for this holiday to signify the "autumn years" of life.
Write a letter to your grandparents.
Interview one of your grandparents, or ask your parents to tell you about your grandparents. Then, draw a venn diagram and compare your life to one of your grandparents when he or she was your age. How was your grandparent’s life similar or different to yours?
September 5 Today is Cheese Pizza Day. Pizza originated in Italy, but it is now one of the most popular meals in many countries around the world.
Write a letter to your parents explaining why your family should have pizza for dinner tonight.
Using the 5 senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste), describe your favorite type of pizza to eat.
Write a recipe for how to make your favorite pizza. Include the ingredients needed and the directions for each step in the recipe.
September 8 September 8 is International Literacy Day. Illiteracy is an overwhelming problem in developing nations. Reading and writing are tools for eradicating poverty, a means of reducing child mortality, and the key to gender equality. September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and it was first celebrated in 1966. The purpose of this day is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities, and societies. On International Literacy Day each year, UNESCO reminds the international community about the status of literacy globally. UNESCO estimates that 20% of all adults, or 774 million, are not literate and two-thirds of these people are women. There are 75 million children who are not attending school, and there are many more children who attend school irregularly or drop out of school.
Imagine what it would be like growing up and not knowing how to read and write. Describe how you would feel and what this would be like.
September 13 Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916 in Cardiff, Wales. Roald Dahl is one of the most popular and best-selling children's book authors of all time. Many of his books have been adapted into successful moves.
What is your favorite Roald Dahl book?
Have you seen any movies based on one of Roald Dahl’s books? If so, which did you like better, the book or the movie version?
I use this date to read a shorter book by Roald Dahl to my class. One of my favorites is The Enormous Crocodile.
September 16 We celebrate Mayflower Day on September 16. In September 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England to America. There were 102 passengers and a crew of 25–30 on board. Their destination was the New World, where they could have religious freedom, and continue using their native language, culture, and customs. Every Mayflower Day, we commemorate these brave, early settlers. They were the very first immigrants, and helped to pave the way for millions more to follow, in search of freedom and the dreams and promises of a New World.
Imagine what it would be like to leave for a new land thousands of miles away.
What 5 things would you bring with you if you were moving to a new land and could not bring everything that you owned with you?
September 17 Constitution Day is celebrated in the United States on September 17 and it is also known as Citizenship Day. This day celebrates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine men on September 17, 1787.
Design a Classroom Bill of Rights. What kind of freedoms would you include in your Classroom Bill of Rights? Would these rights make it easier for your teacher to conduct lessons, or would some of these rights get in the way of learning in the classroom?
The Constitution states that a person must be at least 35 years to be elected president. Do you think this is a good idea? Why or why not?
Explain what you think it means to be a good citizen of the World, the United States, your state, your town, and your school.
Pretend that you have a pen pal from another country and he/she is moving to the United States. Write a letter to your pen pal and tell them what you think are the best parts of living in the United States.
September 21 The International Day of Peace, also known as World Peace Day, is celebrated on September 21. This day is dedicated to peace, or specifically to the absence of war. It is observed by many nations, political groups, and military groups. The first year this holiday was celebrated was 1981. To recognize the beginning of this day, the "Peace Bell" is rung at UN Headquarters. The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents.
Write a P.E.A.C.E. acrostic poem.
Write a speech that you will present to the UN representatives from around the world on World Peace Day.
A book that I have read with my students at this time is Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. This book is set after World War 2 and is about a young Japanese girl who develops leukemia from the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. This book is based on the true story of a Japanese girl named Sadako.
4th Week of September National Dog Week is celebrated the 4th week of September. National Dog Week was founded in 1928 by Captain Will Judy, who was a well known dog judge and a publisher of a dog magazine. The purpose of National Dog Week is to educate dog owners about their responsibilities to their pets and to recognize organizations that are dedicated to caring for unwanted or lost dogs.
What are the responsibilities involved in having a dog for a pet?
If you have a dog, how to you help to take care of your family pet?
There is a saying that a dog is man’s best friend. How do you think this saying came to be?
September 25 Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born on September 25, 1930. He is better known as Shel Silverstein and was an American poet, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and cartoonist. His books have sold over 20 million copies and his most famous children’s book is The Giving Tree.
This is a wonderful opportunity to read one of Shel Silverstein’s books or poems to your class and have them write about this book or poem.
Shel Silverstein’s web page contains information about the author, his books, as well as fun games for students: http://www.shelsilverstein.com
September 26 John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was born on September 26, 1774 in Massachusetts. Johnny Appleseed Day is celebrated on March 11. John Chapman was raised on a small farm on Massachusetts. His favorite place was his father's apple orchard because he loved apples and this inspired him to introduce and plant apple seeds through the frontiers of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Johnny Appleseed was an American pioneer and is best known for roaming the countryside planting apple seeds from which many apple orchards are said to have begun.
As your students are writing their prompts, bring in an apple for each student to eat.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” What do you think this popular saying means?
If you could choose the seeds from one fruit or vegetable to carry around and plant, which one would you choose? Give reasons for your choice and where you would plant these seeds.
September 28 September 28 is National Good Neighbor Day. On this day, people should remember how important it is to be a good neighbor and that people should recognize and appreciate their neighbors. In 1971, Becky Mattson of Montana petitioned and was granted the idea of National Good Neighbor Day. This day was originally celebrated on the fourth Sunday of September, but it is now set as September 28.
What can you do to be a good neighbor to the people that live around you?
What can you do to be a good neighbor to your classmates?
For those of you that begin the new school year in August, I am also including my August calendar set in this newsletter.
The August title is a 2 page banner that should fit in most standardized monthly pocket charts that many teachers use. I have designed large August days of the week that you may find useful. The calendar number dates also fit in pocket charts, and I have included a blank square and a birthday square to use. There are 11 pages in this free PDF August Calendar Set.
Below you will find some ideas for writing prompts to use during the month of August.
Describe your favorite summer holiday See this web page for a summer holiday writing template that involves students writing a text message about their summer vacations inside fun cell phone templates. This activity could also be used for the two Back to School writing prompts below. http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/cell-phone-templates.html I’m glad summer vacation is over! Where did summer go? The case of the missing summer vacation If it were summer every day My August holiday (August is the only month without a major holiday so create one!) Getting ready for a new year See this web page for an activity that involves students writing their goals for a new school year inside pencil templates. This activity could also be used for the next writing prompt below. http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/pencil-writing-templates.html Planning for the best school year ever A book that I enjoyed reading over the summer Five things I love about school I like learning about … 10 things every ______ grader should know Before this year, which teacher was your favorite teacher? Write a short letter to that teacher.
August Celebrations, Events, Holidays, and Dates in History:
First Sunday of August Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in the United States in 1935 when Congress proclaimed the first Sunday of August as National Friendship Day. In 1997, the United Nations named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship.
Write a recipe for friendship explaining how to be a good friend. Include the ingredients of a friendship and the recipe (steps) for being a good friend or how to make new friends.
What qualities do you look for in a friend?
How do you try to be a good friend to others?
August 18 Paula Danziger was born on August 18, 1944 in Washington, D.C. She was raised in New York and as early as second grade, Danziger knew that she wanted to be a writer. She is a well known children’s author and wrote more than 30 books. Her most famous books are The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, The Divorce Express, and her Amber Brown series.
Paula Danziger based some of her ideas for her first Amber Brown book on her 7 year old niece.
Describe a family member or a friend that would make an interesting main character for a new series of books that you will write for children.
August 25 The National Park Service was created on August 25, 1916 by an Act of Congress and signed by President Woodrow Wilson. The National Park Service manages all the national parks and many national monuments in the United States. The Nation’s first national park was Yellowstone National Park and it was established by an Act signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. The National Park System includes national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House.
Why do you think it is important to have national parks?
Have you ever visited a national park? Write about a national park that you have visited or a famous national park that you would like to visit.
The National Park Service’s Site for kids can be found at: http://www.webrangers.us/ This website contains games, activities, and information about the National Parks.
August 26 Mother Teresa, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was born on August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Serbi. Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who dedicated her life to humanitarian causes and she brought global awareness to the poverty in India. In India, Mother Teresa devoted herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work for the poor and helpless. At the time of her death in 1997, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity operated 610 missions in 123 countries which included hospices and homes for orphans, HIV/AIDS patients, and people with leprosy.
Mother Teresa dedicated her life to helping the poor. What are some things you could do to help the poor in your own community and in other countries around the world?
Write these two quotes from Mother Teresa on your board and have your students write what they feel each quote means.
1. “Peace begins with a smile.”
2. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
August 28 On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In his speech, he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. This speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in human history.
Why do you think that this speech is considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in human history?
Beginning with the words “I Have a Dream,” write your own speech about your hopes for our world and its people.
Describe someone that you admire who shares Dr. King’s beliefs. Tell what you admire most in this person.
Have your student complete a Biography Newspaper about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These newspapers could be done as individual or group projects. Click here to go to my web page that contains ideas and teaching resources for a Biography Newspaper Book Report: http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/biography-book-report.html
Have your student complete a Character Body Book Report about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These reports could be done as individual or group projects. Click here to go to my web page that contains ideas and teaching resources for a Character Book Report: http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/character-body-book-report.html
Recent Updates On Unique Teaching Resources
Since it was summer vacation, I spent quite a bit of time visiting my family during June and July. During the month of August, I have worked on adding a new set of Back to School themed resources to my website.
You can find this new set of resources on my home page table of contents (left side of the web page) under the months and holiday section of Unique Teaching Resources.
Below are examples of some of the Back to School teaching resources that you will find on these pages:
Student Information School Bus Display
Meet the Stars of Our Classroom Creative Writing Set
My Summer Vacation Text Message Creative Writing Activity Cell Phone Templates
Crayola Color Pencil Box Templates: We Are Colorful Students Grade Level Specific Teaching Resource Set (Grades 1-8)
Introducing Our Class: Interview a Classmate Megaphone Templates
Helping Heidi
I hope that you have found some teaching ideas and free resources in this Back to School edition of Teachers Have Class Newsletter that you can use with your students and in your classroom for the beginning of this new school year. If you have, and you are willing, I am going to ask a favor from you.
During the first year of my website, I was focused on creating and posting resources on my website. If you visited my website in 2009 or early 2010, you will have seen the slow birth and development of my dream to build my own website and to be able to share my teaching ideas and resources with other teachers from around the world. Although I still have a lot of work to do and hundreds of more resources to post on Unique Teaching Resources, I now feel ready to start trying to advertise my website.
I am an American, but I live overseas in Bahrain in the Middle East. There are not many schools here for me to visit and spread the word about my website. I would appreciate it very much if you would download the color flier that is found in the link below, and then print the flier and post it on the bulletin board in your staff room. If you are able to print multiple copies of the black and white flier and put them in your colleagues’ mailboxes, that would be fantastic. If you have teaching colleagues and friends that you are in touch with through e-mail, and you are willing to take the extra time to send this flier and information about my website to those teachers, I would be very grateful for help in this form of advertising Unique Teaching Resources as well.
You could also help spread the word about my website by sharing this newsletter with other teachers that you know. I would like for it to reach as many teachers as possible, so that they can sample some of the free resources that are found on it. Although I stated above that the free resources in this newsletter are available for 5 days as I normally do, I plan to keep the free resources posted in this Back to School newsletter available until September 10. The web page address for this newsletter is:
Although I have a variety of different types of materials on Unique Teaching Resources, the main goal of my website is to provide reading response activities that emphasize written expression and that students find engaging and fun.
Each school year, I had the opportunity to teach 25 students and help bring life and excitement to the books that my students were reading in class. If through my website and the resources that are found on it, I can help more than 25 students each year enjoy a reading a novel, this is a goal that I will work very hard to achieve. If you would help me by spreading the word about my website, maybe my dream and goal could become a reality.
Thank you very much for your help and support! Sincerely, Heidi McDonald
Thank you for your interest in subscribing to my newletter. Remember to download your free resources within 5 days of the date that it was sent.
Please be sure to check out the other pages on my website for a large variety of other teaching resources that will engage your students in learning and save you valuable time.
I hope that this school year is fantastic for both you and your students. Sincerely, Heidi McDonald
Creator and Site Manager Unique Teaching Resources
P.S. My next newsletter will be my October Issue.
I plan to send out this newsletter around September 25, 2010.
Welcome to the tenth newsletter of Teachers Have Class from Unique Teaching Resources!
Imagine what it would be like growing up and not knowing how to read and write. Describe how you would feel and what this would be like. 
Pretend that you have a pen pal from another country and he/she is moving to the United States. Write a letter to your pen pal and tell them what you think are the best parts of living in the United States.
