From: "David Shively" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sun, 5 May 2002 08:37:42 -0700 Subject: TeachersFirst Update - May 6, 2002
TeachersFirst Update - May 6, 2002 Greetings! As the anniversary of Lewis and Clark continues, many teachers are revisiting the American west as a history or social studies unit. TeachersFirst's section "The Movement West" has a wonderful collection of resources about the exploration and settling of the west. You'll also find the site for the recent PBS Frontier House series. This one works well with the British "1900 House" site from the program produced in London with a similar theme. The Moving West resources are at: http://www.teachersfirst.com/ushistory/movewest.html <http://www.teachersfirst.com/ushistory/movewest.html> We get lots of mail from teachers asking about resources for discipline, behavior, and responsibility. We've found a wonderful site - Out on a Limb - designed to teach the basics of conflict resolution to primary age students. If you teach primary grades, this would be a great site to visit as a class. For this week, you'll find it at the top of our guidance listings, at: http://www.teachersfirst.com/tchr-subj.cfm?subject=guidance When it comes to getting middle school students interested in poetry, teachers need all the help they can get. Our lesson, "Music is Poetry" uses student-selected song lyrics to teach the basics of poetic devices and imagery. This is a relatively simple, standards correlated unit that can work in a variety of settings. You can find "Music is Poetry" at: http://www.teachersfirst.com/winners/music-poetry.htm How about a really practical lesson for middle school math or home economics class? Try "Shop 'til you Drop," a teacher-created lesson that lets students prepare a household shopping budget, then use a virtual store to see who can be the most efficient shopper. This lesson is correlated to NCTM standards, and it has lots of options that could make it as entertaining as it is instructive. "Shop 'til you Drop" is at: http://www.teachersfirst.com/winners/shopdrop.htm If you have a few students who need a little extra review on grammar, homophones, or similar activities, remember that the Word Wonders section of our companion site, TeachersAndFamilies, has a great selection of interactive review exercises on these topics. These are designed for use at home, but they could also work in the classroom. The TeachersAndFamilies Word Wonders are at: http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/open/wonders.html This week's featured sites include an introduction to Origami, a Russian Easter feast, a poetry lesson, an elementary introduction to gardens, and lots more. The features are in the same old place: http://www.teachersfirst.com/feature.htm Finally, our thanks to all of you who requested a free family gift membership in our new TeachersAndFamilies site - designed to help families help their children succeed in school - for a friend. Remember that TeachersFirst will remain a free site, and TeachersAndFamilies will have a wealth of free content available in addition to its "members only" pages. We still have a few free memberships available; if you'd like to send one, you can do so at: http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/freereg.cfm That will do it for this week. Below, we're appending a copy of the May TeachersAndFamilies Newsletter. Please feel free to browse through the newsletter and the site, or to pass this information along to someone to whom you think it might be useful. ..and remember that you do make a difference. David Shively Senior Editor TeachersAndFamilies Update - May 2002 May is here, and new TeachersAndFamilies content is springing up faster than the flowers in your yard. Check out these highlights. Mother's Day is this month, and Father's Day won't be far behind. Take your preschooler on a Mother's Day or Father's Day activity spree in our preschool activities section. You'll find lots of engaging activities that two to five year olds can do with Mom or Dad nearby. The starting point is our preschool activities page: http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/open/ps-themes.html We've added a new section to the TeachersAndFamilies content for elementary students. Word Wonders is a collection of interactive practice exercises to build fluency with homophones, antonyms, contractions, vocabulary, and more. This section will grow rapidly in the coming weeks, so plan to check in from time to time to see what's new. The starting point is at: http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/open/wonders.html - and you'll find an expanded selection of these activities in our member's section. Parents often ask about fostering creativity in their children. This month's parent content includes a new article "Creativity in Children" from our colleagues at the National Association of School Psychologists. It offers a series of "do's and don'ts" for parents interested in reinforcing creative problem-solving skills in their children. You'll find it listed in our Parenting Page: http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/open/parent/ Coloring pages! Within the next few days, we'll be adding a large collection of coloring pages to the TeachersAndFamilies preschool listings. These are simple, printable sheets that reinforce the images and themes featured throughout the TeachersAndFamilies preschool section. Watch for the coloring pages link in the preschool section of our main menu. This month, we feature two selections in the parenting content in our member's section. "What's that sound?" is the sequel to last month's article introducing phonics and ways in which parents can help toddlers learn and reinforce basic word sounds. The article includes a series of activities that reinforce specific sounds and sound patterns. We're also featuring "Your Child's Learning Style." Written by an elementary guidance counselor, this article will help parents understand that the learning style that works for one child may be very different from that of another. There are lots of specific parent tips in this primer. For information on TeachersAndFamilies memberships, visit: http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/bemember.html Thanks for reading; we hope you'll visit soon. ******************************************* For digest instead of individual postings, send the message: set k12newsletters digest to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, click and send (no body or subject: required) mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] K12 Newsletters mailing list is a service of Classroom Connect - http://www.classroom.com Archives for K12 Newsletters can be found at: http://www.classroom.com/community/email/archives.jhtml?A0=K12NEWSLETTERS **********************************************************
