Fall, Autumn, Thanksgiving, and November Teaching Resources
Teachers Have Class! Issue #2/November 2009 November Teaching Resources and Ideas
Welcome to the second newsletter of Teachers Have Class from Unique Teaching Resources!
I want to wish all of my fellow American teachers a very Happy Thanksgiving! This newsletter, as well as my November web pages, will have a bit of a Thanksgiving theme to them, but I have not forgotten the fact that this is an American holiday and that teachers in other countries are not in need of these types of resources. I have tried to also focus on these teachers by creating teaching resources with a fall/autumn theme for them, and that my November teaching resources are not just for Thanksgiving.
I have taught overseas for the last 15 years, so I have not used Thanksgiving themed resources in quite awhile myself. I hope that the resources that I've created for this month will target teachers in both of these groups.
I feel like I have a lot to be thankful for this month and very grateful for. I began the adventure of starting Unique Teaching Resources in February 2009. I have had some loyal and faithful teachers who have stuck by me through the slow growth of my site. Now that I am finally to the point where I can upload my teaching resources and make them available to teachers, it seems like I can really start to work on the next step of my website, dedicating my time and effort to creating and posting new creative ideas that will help save teachers time and effort in their planning.
This past week I received my first photograph from a teacher, Teresa a fourth grade teacher in New Jersey, using a resource that she found on my website in her classroom. I can not tell you how much this photograph meant to me, it literally brought tears to my eyes. To see that a teacher liked a product that I created enough to display it in her classroom meant the world to me. I've had my days of doubts and wondering if I am pursuing an ambition that is too big, and that photograph just helped to validate that I am going in the right direction.
Earlier this week, I checked my e-mail and was so surprised to find that a teacher named Tiffany purchased my first resource. I found this utterly amazing, and I continue to be amazed with each new purchase that is made by teachers following my website. My October newsletter went out to 15 teachers, and this month's edition is going out to around 75 teachers. I have a lot to be thankful for this month, and I want to thank all of the teachers who have encouraged and supported me along the way. Thank you so very much.
Now that I have finished giving you the latest updates in my life, let's get to the real part of this 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 November and Thanksgiving 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 November and Thanksgiving resources promptly!
The first thing that teachers do each month is change their calendar. Below is my November Calendar Set and the link to download it. The November title is a 2 page banner that should fit in most standardized monthly pocket charts that many teachers use. I have designed large November 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 November Calendar Set.
Next, teachers need thematic worksheets for each month, especially for creative writing. Below is my Fall In Love With Writing 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 Fall In Love With Writing Stationery Set.
Next, I'm including a resource that could be used anytime during the autumn. It is a set of leaf templates that students write inside. If you make a bulletin board with a tree and branches, along with these student response leaves, you will have an eye-catching display.
I use these leaf templates along with a unit I do after I have read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to my students. This book fits well with an autumn theme because of the leaves, but it also fits well with a Thanksgiving theme because students are thinking about people that they are THANKful for and how they can be more GIVING.
Below is the free download of the leaf templates that you can use for your autumn bulletin board. If you are interested in a teaching resource unit using The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, I have created a resource set that contains the following: directions, idea web, first draft worksheet with writing lines, final draft black and white worksheet, color final draft worksheet, grading rubric, 5 page bulletin board display banner, and a cover if you want to make student booklets using this creative writing assignment. You will find more information about this resource unit on my Thanksgiving English web page.
Above is an example of an autumn tree
display that I made using these leaf templates.
A lot of my teaching resource sets contain bulletin board banners in them. I include this banner component in many of my resources because I want to help save teachers valuable time in preparing their bulletin board displays. But, I know that there are other autumn/Thanksgiving bulletin board displays that you will be preparing with your own ideas and resources.
Finally, I am including A-Z fall bulletin board letters that you can use to make your own bulletin board displays. I used autumn colors for this set of letters for the month of November.
When I am making these letters, I try to use large borders around each letter so that they are easier to cut out. As a teacher, I hate cutting out the middles of letters with a blank space in the middle (a, b, d, o, p, q, etc), and I find this tedious. I have placed a black background behind these letters so that I didn't have to cut out the middle sections of those letters. You can still choose to cut out these empty spaces in those letters, but I think that they look fine with a black background behind them, and this saved me time by not having to cut out these small spaces in particular letters.
I hope that you enjoy using these free November teaching resources and that they help you to create a fall harvest classroom environment. I would love it if you sent me a copy of any classroom photographs that you take using any of my resources!
If I post your picture on Unique Teaching Resources, I will send you a free gift as my way of thanking you! To send me your photograph, use my Contact Me Form and write that you have a photograph that you want to share. I will then write you back with an e-mail address where you can send it to. If we have previously been in touch with each other personally, you already have my e-mail address and you can send your picture directly to that address. I can not list my personal e-mail address on this page for obvious privacy and spam reasons.
If you are interested in finding more unique Thanksgiving, November, and Fall Teaching resources, please visit my November page that is dedicated to these types of resources. You will find English and Math activities, powerpoint presentations, numerous stationary sets, and puzzle activities. I will try to have my November/Thanksgiving page posted on my website by November 1. You will find this page in my left hand column table of contents, directly under my Halloween resources.
I will not have as many of these resources available as I did for October because I teach overseas, and we do not celebrate Thanksgiving. Consequently, I had to create these resources from scratch during the past week. I will try to post more November resources during the month, and by next year, I will certainly have more resources available for the month of November.
Recent Updates On Unique Teaching Resources
During the month of October, I was very busy setting up the process of making my teaching resources available for purchase. I am pleased that this process has gone smoothly and that teachers were able to access their downloads without any problem.
I had two teachers contact me with problems accessing their resources. I was able to send them another copy of the resource in a PDF file that they were able to open easier than the ZIP file. Please feel confident that if you have any problems accessing the resources that you purchase on my website, that I will send you the file personally.
During the past month, I added all the resources to my Halloween pages. In addition to that, I started my Book Report Sets web page. On this page the following book reports sets are available:
During the month of November, I plan to add atleast two more sets of book report templates. I am going to be updating my Sticker and Incentive Chart page and adding my resources to those pages.
I will be posting all of my rewards and certificates during this month and I am going to begin the process of uploading my resources for specific novels.
If you have seen a particular resource on my site that you would like to have available, and I haven't posted it yet, please write me a note about that request using my Contact Me form and I will add it to my priority list.
Check Out These Free Samples of Resources That Are Available On Unique Teaching Resources
Here are some free samples of teaching resources that are available on my Thankgiving/November pages. I hope that these samples give you an idea of what these teaching resources are like and what is included in each set. I plan to have my November web page up by November 1st, so please check back then to see these and other November teaching resources.
Thanksgiving Singular and Plural Words Powerpoint Lesson: This is a lesson that reviews 15 singular/plural words in the fun format of a game based on the popular television show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
If you saw my October version (using homophones) using this same game format, then you will be familiar with this concept and how this activity works. My October homophones game was very popular with teachers, so I decided to make another version of this game for November, and I will continue to do so with each upcoming month.
I will do one of these Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Game for each month, reviewing different grammar lessons each time, and using concepts and graphics related to that particular month. By providing a different monthly version of this game, your students will look forward to playing this game once a month. This powerpoint lesson is available for purchase on my November/Thanksgiving web page for $3.00.
Fall Into Math: This is a lesson that requires students to use addition and subtraction to solve a math puzzle. The 5 puzzles included in this set get progressively more challenging for your students. I have provided you with samples of the first two puzzles. This is an ideal math warm up activity to do 5 days in a row prior to Thanksgiving. While your students are engaged solving these math challenges, you can be taking attendance or collecting homework.
If you saw my October version using this same math puzzle format, then you will be familiar with this concept and how this activity works. My October math puzzles were very popular with teachers, so I decided to make another version of these math puzzles for November, and I will continue to do so with each upcoming month.
I will do one of these math puzzles for each month, and by the spring I will introduce challenges that involve multiplication, division, and order of operations so that the level of these puzzles will get higher as your students progress in their math skills during the school year. I will use concepts and graphics related to each particular month. By providing a different monthly version of these math puzzles, your students will look forward to completing these warm up activities one week each month. This powerpoint lesson is available for purchase on my November/Thanksgiving web page for $1.50.
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.
Sincerely, Heidi McDonald
Creator and Site Manager
Unique Teaching Resources
Welcome to the second newsletter of Teachers Have Class from Unique Teaching Resources! 
