Leonardo’s Flying Machine
Campfire Tip #12: Be like Leonardo Leonardo Da Vinci was a polymath (someone whose knowledge spans many different subjects and has an enormous body of knowledge.) Look • Imagine • Create Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci was not…
Struggling Writers: Filling the Gaps
Campfire Tip #11: Remediate to Read & Write Does your student struggle to spell well? Stumble to decode simple words and phrases? Does your student struggle with lingering ELA COVID delays? Or do you have a student who just needs…
One Bite at a Time: Long Research Writing
Campfire Tip #10: One Bite at a Time “The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time,” or so the saying goes. That’s also the mindset one must adopt when tackling the year-long research essay, known…
Books: FUNding Knowledge
Campfire Tip #9: Read Books! I’ve had a taste of what it’s like to grow up in rural Virginia because I’ve read Bridge to Terabithia. I know how veterinarians assist cows giving birth because I’ve read All Creatures Great and…
Pencils Are Magic
Campfire Tip #8: Pencils are the Best Technology Sometimes, I get a piece of student writing that sounds a little off. No misspellings, perfect punctuation, stays on topic—but something doesn’t seem quite right. No matter where I look amidst the…
Gems of Art and the Section 5 Project
Campfire Tip #7: Encourage Creativity If you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want some syrup to go with it—but if you give a girl an octopus book and some thread, she just might make the most gorgeous pillow you’ve…
Print Shop for Elementary and Middle School
Campfire Tip #6: Offer Independent Writing Skills Practice Print Shop is a Blackbird & Company New Year Resolution! Print Shop downloads offers an awesome opportunity to set your students into independent writing activities. We are building a collection of downloadable…
Print Shop for Primary
Campfire Tip #5: Inspire Independence Print Shop is a Blackbird & Company New Year Resolution! So what is Print Shop for Primary? It’s an awesome collection of downloadable Discovery activities designed to engage students, Kindergarten through 2nd grade, in focused,…
Blasting-off an IDEA
Tip #4 IDEAS Motivate Writers Writing is an art form achieved via a series of steps: 1) It all begins with an IDEA. Without an idea, the writer will simply stare at the blank page. 2) Once there is an…
Why We Publish Student Work
Campfire Tip #3: Writing is a Gift Hopefully you’ve heard about Reveal by now, Blackbird & Company’s annual anthology of student work. But do you know why Reveal is so important? Why we talk about it every chance we get? It…