Take a bite out of shark week!

All teachers know that kids learn more when they’re excited and engaged. Today a team of bloggers have come together to help your students take a BITE out of learning with a theme your students are sure to love!

One way that I keep my students engaged is to allow them to have choice (when appropriate) and explore their interests (again when appropriate). For example, last year, we were outside for recess and I noticed a few of my boys digging into some hole with a stick. I got a little worried and called for them to come over to me. They told me that they had thought there was an animal burrowed in that hole and they wanted to what it was. After me warning them not to put their hands ANYWHERE near that hole (hey- I am not about to be responsible if something jumps out!), I told them they could investigate with a LARGE stick. When we got back inside, this group of boys decided to form their own research group. They even came up with a name for themselves (but for the life of me, I can not remember what it was now). Every single day when they had free time and/or finished work early, they were rushing to the computers to research animals that live underground. They even checked books out of the library. Did it have anything to do with what I was teaching?! Absolutely not. But, they were engaged and working on researching skills, which made me happy.

And while we are talking about topics students are interested in... how about a shark week

For some reason, kids love sharks. (Me, not so much..) and because of that one of the first passages I wrote for my compare and contrast passages was about sharks. If you haven't seen this product, it includes 6 original nonfiction passages that students can use to compare and contrast. And it just so happens that the shark one is FREE!

Click HERE to try it out!

Now- Just keep swimming, just keep swimming... right through the rest of this blog hop! Every blog in the Shark Week Blog Hop features a fishy freebie for you and your students- but hurry! Shark Week only lasts until Sunday, August 17th  :)

An InLinkz Link-up