National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month, so we've found some fun poems for you to watch with your students. Check them out in the videos below! The last poem is also great for Earth Day :)

Starting Over in Spring

It is hard to believe that April is already here - this year is flying by! We have been seriously lacking in the blogging (and creating) department the past few months. Here at Creation Castle, we've resolved to start over with spring!

We're excited about the upcoming plans we have for this month. Just to give you an idea... we're planning a giveaway, linky party, freebies, and more!

Lately over at the castle, we've been investing a lot of our time with The Magic School Bus. Nearly every child loves The Friz! Who can resist her magic ability to turn any science lesson into fun? One thing we noticed was that students love to watch these videos (and they actually DO watch them) but sometimes they don't pick up on the important pieces of information. We know a lot of teachers that simply tell their students "take notes", but a lot of kiddos haven't fully grasped that note taking ability yet and need a little guidance...

So of course, we couldn't resist making fun and interactive note taking sheets for students. On top of that, we've found one fun thing from each video to create an extension activity students can complete to further their learning on the topic at hand.

Luckily, we have all 52 episodes on DVD. (There are occasional sales on Amazon for the complete series - watch for the sales and snag up these great videos!) Since we plan on covering all the videos we've simply started at the beginning and we are working our way through the series. We've got the first seven videos done, plus the video for weather because that happened to tie into a lesson we did in class.

Throughout the month, we will be adding more to this resource. Each Monday, we will update the item in our TPT store. We've decided to sell these resources as a bundled deal only. This means that once you purchase the item, you will be able to re-download the product to get any updates we make to it!

Included so far...
"Gets Lost in Space" - The Solar System
"For Lunch" - Digestion
"Inside Ralphie" - Germs
"Gets Eaten" - The Food Chain
"Hops Home" - Habitat
"Meets the Rot Squad" - Decomposition
"All Dried Up" - Desert Adaptation
"Kicks Up a Storm" - Weather

We're really excited about this resource and hope you are too! If you know you will be watching a particular video with your class and would like us to cover it for the next update (which will be on April 8th), just leave a comment below telling us the topic or video title and we will do our best to get up for the update!

Have an incredible week! (We hope your students didn't pull any pranks on you!)

We Give Books...

Yesterday, after a long day on our feet at school, to unwind and relax, we of course turned to Pinterest. It doesn't take long to find something new and useful on Pinterest (although sometimes those pins get repetitive!) Anyhow, we came across a website - - We Give Books.

This awesome website lets anyone (who has registered for free) read entire picture books online. While the library is still small at this time, it is still a wonderful resource.

While this website is new to us, based on what we researched, Pearson and Penguin started this initiative in 2010. Not only do these companies allow people access to books over the world, they also donate to books to children in need of literacy.

Surely the possibilities are vast with this website, but our initial thoughts for using the site include

• Guided reading groups
• Independent reading
• Fluency practice
• Give students the chance to revisit a story read aloud to the class

Have you visited or used this website with your class before?

Happy Tuesday!

This is going to be short and sweet.

We've uploaded a quick freebie today that anyone can use! Often times substitutes don't know what kind of notes to leave or simply forget. Check out the latest item in our TPT store - this simple two page (print two-sided) guides substitutes to leave important details about how the day went.

What has your experience with subs been like in the past? Do you have a favorite new substitute this year?

1/2 Way Through February Already!?

We have been MIA for almost two months now - we are so sorry! Things have been busy around here lately and the dusty old blog just wasn't a top priority.

Just because we haven't been blogging doesn't mean we haven't been creating! We'll be uploading a set of fantastic spelling task cards soon and have some great ideas on the horizon.

What is everyone doing for Presidents' Day? Most people get Monday off - or at least with no kiddos. Will you be teaching about the holiday on Tuesday? Throughout the week? How in depth will you be going? We'd love to hear what is going in your classrooms!


Also, we noticed even while we were away we gained some followers. We're six followers away from 200... that means we will be prepping for another giveaway!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Holidays!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that you were able to spend time with those you love. The end of the year came much faster than seems possible! It's hard to believe everyone will be back in school in about a week. We've got some goals for the new year that we will be sharing with you in the next day or two.

Do you talk about resolutions in your classroom? How do you address the new year with your students?

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary