Category: TeachersPayTeachers - Moffat's Travels

It's National Haiku Poetry Day!

4/17/2016

Teachers pay teachers

This is one of my favorite times of the year (ok, I have many)! My first graders are now independent enough that we have projects going on all over the classroom. In honor of Poetry Month and National Haiku Poetry Day, we will begin our class book of Moffat USA haikus. Above is a sampling of some of the pages in years past created by the students.

I will be formatting the planning pages and accompanying Moffat images soon for my TeachersPayTeachers store so that others may join in in creating one in their classroom. For a very professional look, I then upload my images to Shutterfly and make the book available to my students' parents to purchase. It's a great end of year project! Enjoy!

Happy BIrthday Nellie Bly!

5/5/2015

History Calendar for Elementary Classroom on TPT (Nellie is featured in May)

Happy birthday to Nellie Bly, female journalist and role model! Nellie lived during a period in American history when women were not allowed to vote and one of the only true "suitable" jobs for a woman was that of a teacher (not that that is a bad profession). Instead, Nellie went on to do undercover reporting and eventually went on to break Jules Verne's fictitious "Around The World In 80 Days" calculation. She completed the journey in a record breaking 72 days! She did not like to take "no" for an answer. Nellie's own motto being "Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything." It is such a simple motto, but one that I truly admire and strive for daily. Happy birthday Nellie! You are an inspiration!

Google Doodles has done it yet again! It ALWAYS thrills me to see one of these pop up while researching. I admire the individuals that possess such creative abilities and appreciate the fun historical information.

Nellie Bly Resource Website

Go Google! Happy 113th Birthday to Langston Hughes for the beginning of Black History Month!

2/1/2015

I'm extremely excited to teach in the month of February! Between Black History Month, Mardi Gras, Presidents' Day and Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday, we have a ton of great learning coming up!! I am thrilled every time I go to Google and they post one of their doodles. You never know when they will show up and they never fail to inspire me with the level of creativity in the piece.

I have been working very hard on some new products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store for Black History Month. Please take the time to look at African American History Characters Powerpoint and Timeline and Characters in African American History Timeline, Quotes and Primary Source Cards. Both products are appropriate for all elementary grades and offer information on a wide variety of people. Geography and math are easily incorporated for cross-curricular studies. Both products are on sale through February 3rd.

Happy Birthday Jackie Robinson!

1/31/2015

For as long as I can remember in my teaching career, I have enjoyed quality children's literature. This is still one of my greatest joys and an argument for why we need to be teaching history to young students. History is one GIANT collection of amazing stories and how easy it is to discuss character, setting, problem, solution and sequence of events. I say this now more than ever! The fabulous books on Jackie Robinson are no exception and the diversity of formats is wide.

Below is a Youtube link to my favorite Jackie Robinson book. It is written by his daughter, Sharon, and illustrated by the talented Kadir Nelson. Enjoy!

The Jackie Robinson image above is featured in my History Calendar product on TPT.

Happy Birthday FDR!

1/30/2015

If you have not discovered the Time For Kids Biography series of books, take the time to check them out! There are over a dozen titles easily found on Amazon or the book store. As research shows that students need to be reading 50 percent non-fiction text, these books offer valuable information in a highly engaging layout including many text features. Additionally, for those schools that participate in the Accelerated Reader program, the book has a corresponding quiz. I often use these books on the document camera to highlight important tidbits that we are focusing on.

NOTE: The FDR image above is from my History Calendar packet found on TPT.

National Dog Day

8/26/2014

National Postal Museum

Owney on Teachers Pay Teachers

The timing for National Dog Day happened to be rather perfect. It's the time of year in first grade that we begin our studies about writing and social studies by learning about Owney, the Railway Mail Dog Mascot.

I discovered Owney and his wonderful story by reading a picture book and I immediately wanted to know more. I discovered that Owney now "lives" at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. They have a TON of resources for download including videos, photographs, books and a song. Download it all, it's wonderful.

Two years ago, I created our own Owney to cut and create in class and added his metal tags that are available from the Smithsonian. It is one of my favorite projects!

In honor of National Dog Day, I have uploaded that creation along with some Owney trading cards and other resources to Teachers Pay Teachers and it is FREE!!! SHARE AWAY and ENJOY!!!

On This Day In History...Annie Oakley's Birthday

8/13/2014

Happy Birthday to Annie Oakley!

For three years, I was fortunate enough to study with a TAH (Teaching American History) group of teachers. It changed how I look at history and made me even more passionate.

One year, as we were learning how to use PhotoStory, we had one particular instructor who LOVED Annie Oakley. I, myself, find her very fascinating and love to weave her story in with my tall tales units in my classroom. The image on the upper right is part of my new timeline/primary source trading cards that will be up on TPT soon.

In the meantime, look at some of my favorite book recommendations and other TPT products from other authors to learn more about Annie.

STRONG CHILDREN by Frederick Douglass

8/4/2014

With school starting across the country, we all understand the importance of this quote. Whether your school has already started, you are just stepping back into the bare room or are staring at that empty planner, all of us approach our day with the understanding that we are helping to build strong, curious and productive citizens. We take our jobs very seriously and Frederick Douglass knew the importance of childhood.

This photo is taken from one of my TPT timeline sets. I use a ton of primary source images in my classroom to familiarize my students with how to analyze them and prepare them for intermediate grades when they will be analyzing them for state testing.