Students read the paragraph looking for the homophones. When they come upon one, they stop and check to see if it is used properly. If it is the correct homophone, then students continue reading until they come to another homophone. However, if an incorrect word has been used, the student draws a line through the wrong homophone and then writes the correct word above the incorrect one. (In the above picture, there appear to be underlined words along the left margin. However, that is not the case in the PDF format.)
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Digital Homophone Treasure
Students read the paragraph looking for the homophones. When they come upon one, they stop and check to see if it is used properly. If it is the correct homophone, then students continue reading until they come to another homophone. However, if an incorrect word has been used, the student draws a line through the wrong homophone and then writes the correct word above the incorrect one. (In the above picture, there appear to be underlined words along the left margin. However, that is not the case in the PDF format.)
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Digital Vocabulary Treasure

Ahoy, Matey! Just like you, the Pirate Queen has been on lock- down for a while and still attempting to adjust to the "New Normal"! Of course pirates are resourceful and resilient so I'm confident that I'll be able to weather this COVID-19 storm.As you may know, Teachers Pay Teachers has made it possible for sellers to add an interactive layer to their already published PDF resources to create digital activities that students can use on their electronic devices. For schools that are starting online, these digital resources will save teachers valuable time. So today I would like to share with you some of my vocabulary products which have been revised with digital activities.
- matching games
- drawing activities
- practice worksheets available as digital documents
- assessment available as digital documents
For each root, students focus on four words sharing that particular root. These words are introduced in a brief narrative, and students are required to use context clues to determine their meanings. Once meanings are verified, students engage with these words by writing definitions, drawing pictures, completing sentence stems, and listing related words and phrases.
More practice is
provided with games. There are two matching games. One matches words to
definitions. The other matches words to sentences. In addition, there is a
board game in which players attempt to be the first to reach the Root Word
Forest by correctly selecting one of four words to complete a sentence in order
to move along the path that leads to the forest. Although the games are
not digital, the game cards for the board game are available as a multiple
choice digital activity.
Additional word lists are provided along with “Word Parts Activity”, a strategy for identifying word parts such as prefixes, roots, and suffixes. This activity is also available as a digital document.
Thanks for docking your ship at my blog post! I hope you will sail back here when you need more teaching treasure. In the meantime, sail safely!
Monday, May 18, 2020
Distance Learning with Slideshows
Yes, the academic year is nearly over for many schools. However, like the Pirate Queen, you are always on the lookout for treasure! And of course, you are always planning ahead for the next school year! Am I right, me hearty? If I am correct, ye best read on!
Slideshows can be a valuable resource for introducing a concept, teaching critical details, and reviewing. Today I will share a few of my slideshow treasures which are designed for Intermediate grades.
Here is an ideal treasure that can be used early on and throughout the school year. First we begin with identifying sentences. This PowerPoint defines what a sentence is and explains its parts, subjects and predicates. Interactive slides require students to identify subjects and predicates in a variety of sentences. Also the slides are animated so that information is introduced and discussed in bits and pieces.
Each part has its own focus. Part 1 introduces the basic operations order: left to right; multiplication or division whichever comes first; addition or subtraction whichever comes first. Part 2 focuses on interpreting parentheses in an equation while Part 3 focuses on what to do when there are brackets.
Six types of figurative language are explained: simile, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, idiom, and personification. Each type of figurative language is defined and explained, and examples are provided. Students are given the opportunity to practice identifying these writing tools. In addition, they will write their own examples of each figurative language technique and illustrate.
The PowerPoint introduces each homophone with a sample sentence, a photo to illustrate, and a definition. Students are required to make note cards for each homophone to use as references for additional activities. The slideshow also includes an activity and additional partner practice. In addition, teaching tips are included as comments on the slides.
In addition to this slideshow, a sorting activity and an editing activity for this set of homophones are part of a bundle. Also, I have created slideshows for the homophone sets: [its, it's] and [to, two, too]. All three sets of homophones are bundled together as well.
Thank you for docking at my blog today. I hope you found some usable resources for your students. Please visit again for more teaching gems!
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
FREE Teaching Treasures
With school sites having closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I am sharing free teaching resources for teachers and parents.
My most recent Freebie is a Distance Learning resource that contains a list of 20+ websites for PreK, Elementary, and Middle School students. These sources are listed according to subject matter, Math/Science and Language Arts/Social Studies. There is a third list for sites
that are cross-curricular. Most websites include games, puzzles, videos, and articles.
These following products are mostly designed for intermediate grades and cover language arts and math.
Reading
This resource is an independent reading program I created for my classroom of 4th graders. It can be adapted for any grade level and can be used for summer reading. The book list is designed for grades 3-5. However, below are links to lists that include books for all ages as well as more recently published books:
https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/book-lists-and-recommendations.html
http://www.grandcanyonreaderaward.org/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/texas-bluebonnet-awards/previous-master-lists-texas-bluebonnet-award/_/N-29Z8q8Z1u8k
Other features of this resource are reading logs for recording pages read and graphic organizers for journal assignments.
Writing
Writing a Narrative - Like a Pirate Queen
Although this mini unit is about writing pirate stories, these lesson ideas can be used with most every type of narrative. Included are:
- detailed teaching tips
- directions for creating pirate names
- graphic organizer for narrative elements along with a completed sample
- the beginning of a pirate narrative
- final copy sheets, narrative checklist & scoring sheet
Grammar
Plural Noun Land Board Game
Pumpkin Patch Place Value Riddles
Thank you for visiting! I hope you find these resources useful, and most importantly I hope your students find them to be engaging and fun!
Please sail back in another month or so for more teaching treasures! In the meantime, stay safe.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Word Parts: Searching for Morphology Clues
Yes, besides hunting for treasure, even pirates search for clues to determine the meaning of unknown words! For example, let's take a look at the title of my blog post, "Word Parts: Searching for Morphology Clues". Now, which word in the title will your wee pirates probably not know? I'm guessing it is "morphology".
The remaining words more than likely will be familiar to them and most can be used as context clues.
For example, the first two words in the title inform us that word parts must have something to do with morphology, but what?Intermediate students, particularly 4th and 5th graders, will have some degree of knowledge regarding prefixes, suffixes, and roots. The words, searching and clues, should be relatively easy for our students to define. They will know that searching means looking for something and clues are pieces of information that help us solve a mystery or in this case a word's definition. At this point, students will realize that the word, morphology, has something to do with words. In fact, some may conclude that morphology specifically is related to word parts, but they still do not have a specific definition. So what do they do now?
Perhaps some students will recognize -ology or -logy. They may have seen this suffix in these words, geology or biology. Science units in Intermediate grades often cover types of rocks, fossils, and layers of earth as well as categories of animals and their habitats. During class discussions and related readings, the words, geology and biology, may have come up, and perhaps their teachers or parents may have informed them that -ology/-logy is a suffix that means the study of a type of science or branch of knowledge. If so, now they know that morphology is a science or specific area of knowledge. They're getting closer to the meaning!
But what about morph-? Well, perhaps during the animal study, there was a unit about insects and the word, metamorphosis, was discussed, or perhaps some of the students have read books from the series, Animorphs -science fantasy stories in which human characters change into animals. Now students may conclude that morph- means change.
So where do we go from here? Does morphology mean the study of change? If so the change of what? Here is where we use our context clues. We know we are searching for information regarding words and word parts. Might we conclude that morphology in this context is the study of word formation, how words are formed and how words are changed?
If we look up morphology in the dictionary, we will find that morphology is a branch of both biology and geology. In addition, we will find that it means the study or structure of anything! However, we will also discover that morphology is the study of word formation and the word-forming parts that change words.
Hurrah! We did it! We discovered the meaning of morphology!
Now let's look for some morphology teaching treasure. Here is my most recent resource, an interactive slide show to introduce word parts. These 47 slides define roots, prefixes, and suffixes. It encourages students to create words with these parts and write sentences using their created words. Once students understand the roles of roots and affixes, they define underlined words from well-known children's books.
I have also created resources for prefixes. This product, Prefix Hunt, has a variety of engaging activities that will help students learn the meanings of these prefixes and assist them in determining the meaning of words formed by these prefixes.
In addition, there are challenging resources for what I call Root Families. These are roots that are related by meaning or content such as "Audi/Dict".
For each root, students focus on four target words that share that particular root. These words are introduced in a brief narrative, and students are required to use context clues and root meanings to determine definitions for these target words. Once meanings are verified, students engage with these words by writing definitions, drawing pictures, completing sentence stems, and listing related words and phrases.