Spring is in the Air: Springtime Clip Art

Do you have spring fever? I am more than ready for spring break (just 3 more days for us!) and my newest clip art packages make me even more anxious.


Spring Fever Clip Art Graphics: I created a cute package of spring icons, which include several different birds (cardinal, blue jay, blue bird, robin, black bird, grayish brown bird), bird nest, flowers, a bunny face (white & gray), tree, tuft of grass, four-leaf clover, clouds, every color of eggs, and an Easter basket with eggs.

Spring Fever Backgrounds and Frames: My second bundle of graphics include backgrounds and frames that are in fun spring colors. The frames are the cute curvy frames that can be layered on top of one another (like you see below) for different effects. There are 17 total frames and 17 total backgrounds.

These one-of-a-kind graphics can be used for commercial purposes with no additional fees! View all of my clip art and graphics {HERE}.

HAPPY SPRING!

Green is the New Black

To celebrate ALL things associated with the color GREEN this week, The Lesson Cloud, which consists of 100 teacher authors in all grade levels and content areas, has switched things up and will be posting a ton of lessons for you to use in your classrooms this spring.

Anything related to green--like St. Patrick's Day, Earth Day, spring, bacteria (that's for those science folks!)--will be featured in the posts.

The authors wish to thank you all for supporting your fellow teachers. You can check out the latest "green" posts here:

THE LESSON CLOUD

Celebrate Reading Today & Every Day

In my previous post I wrote about celebrating reading in secondary classrooms. I also uploaded a writing/discussion prompt on my Hunger Games Lessons website that links Dr. Seuss characters to the Hunger Games (yes, what if your favorite characters were reaped? Who would survive?). 

 

These are just reminders that you are never too old to enjoy Dr. Seuss.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Never Too Old to Celebrate Dr. Seuss & Read Across America

This wonderful mural was drawn on my white board today by one of my very talented sophomores.

March 2nd marks Dr. Seuss' birthday and many schools will also participate in NEA's Read Across America to celebrate reading.

This shouldn't be an event reserved solely for elementary students. We secondary teachers want our students to love reading, right? And who doesn't love Dr. Seuss? I can remember buying my first hardback Seuss in elementary at the Scholastic Book Fair: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. It was my favorite and I can still remember reading it as a child. When I became a mother, I loved sharing that book (and so many others) with my son. And I still love reading my favorite children's books every now and then. There's just something magical about them that make you feel young again.

So when I told my students today that I wanted them to think of their favorite Dr. Seuss books (or any books) many of them blurted out a title right away. Their eyes lit up and I could see that many were reliving fond memories from their childhood. I asked them to bring in their book tomorrow, or try to find the text of it so they could read it to the class tomorrow to celebrate the day.

Don't be afraid to take a break from your regular curriculum to allow your students to celebrate this day. Reading is an activity we want our students to love and cherish, not loathe. It shouldn't be a chore; it should be fun! Tomorrow my students will be sharing their favorite books from their childhood, and hopefully creating new memories involving books that they'll cherish years from now.

One of my students is an incredibly talented artist; he drew this tribute to Dr. Seuss on my white board during his studyhall 8th period. He also created some great Seuss figures for Mel D. of Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations. You can see them in her awesome freebie "Free Seusstastic Primary Activities".

Great job, Danny! So proud of you (and wish I could draw like that!).