Category: Announcing

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It’s November, let’s be thankful!

Fall is a cozy season. It’s the season of turning leaves 🍂🍁 and curiosity inspired by the natural world, of bundling up with mugs simmering cider for long meandering walks. Can you feel the crisp air? Hear the crunch of leaves? Look up! The blues of fall are amazing! Fall is when we collect pinecones and spy animals readying for the long winter nap. Most of all, fall is the season of gratitude!

There are so many ways to demonstrate gratitude.

Pick up a pumpkin, a Sharpie, and set thankfulness into motion. You have all of November to scribble your messages. Maybe try a white pumpkin and fall-colored markers.

Be creative, but mostly: Be thankful!

 

~Kimberly

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First, Read a Book!

I’ve been asked more than once: Do I have to read the book?

My response? No—you GET to read the book!

Having homeschooled my four children alongside countless other children in my hybrid micro-school, I know “reading a book” sounds like an impossibility. It’s not.

First, read a book!

Ultimately,  to be the exceptional teacher I believed my children and my students deserved, I read some books! MANY books! And you know what? I was WOWed! Great stories are simply amazing!

I’m proud to report, I read alongside my children kindergarten through 12th grade.

I read on the beach in summer while my children made sand castles. I read at the park while they climbed up and down the slide. I read during swim lessons. I listened to a child read aloud here and there while I did dishes. And I enlisted Audible! You can do this!

What I decided, early on, was to become the teacher who is delighted to learn.

Blackbird & Company curriculum is designed to inspire children to read and to write and to think well. During the process of engaging with books, journalling their way through stories, and working through the process of writing original ideas, your students will gain skills and confidence.

So back to “Do I have to read the book? (Yes), ” and on to the the next step: Prepare to be a guide.

Next, pack a knapsack of tools!

The following “support materials” are NOT simply “extras” but, rather, tools designed to help YOU, the teacher, make the most of our ELA curriculum. You don’t need to be an expert or have all the answers tied up in a pretty bow. You need to be willing to teach, mentor, guide. Our support materials are not scripted. When it comes to the art of teaching, we left plenty of room for YOU—the teacher, to teach, to mentor, to guide. We have built into each student guide: pacing, a rhythm of routine, and simplicity that will allow YOU to actually teach.

Always begin at the beginning.

Get to know the student guides—begin with out CORE Literature and Writing units. Once you understand how these work, the APPLICATION materials will be a breaze to navigate. There is valuable information for YOU, the teacher, to implement alongside a mentor built into the scaffolding that will guide your students through the journaling, research, and writing.

Our TEACHING TOOLS are designed to give you space to confidently set learning into motion. Every element of our student materials is designed with purpose, our teaching tools are no exception. The following materials will help you create opportunities for your students to be curious, imaginative, and to develop the tenacity to bring shape to their ideas.

Teacher Helps: For our Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers we’ve created a Hatchling Teacher Helps that will support you through these crucial years. We’ve also created a slim handbook filled with strategies to support you, the teacher, with students utilizing CORE Levels 1, 2, & 3 (3rd grade through 8th grade).  This said, every single student guide contains its own pacing, information, and strategies to support your students well.

Answer Keys: English Language Arts is just that, an art form. As such, the majority of what your student journals and writes about is subjective in nature. Our blog contains many articles to help you edit student writing. We have created answer keys for the small portion of each guide that is answerable, or objective in nature. These can be downloaded and printed for FREE! Or, you can save paper / printer ink and simply access online!

Reader’s Guides and Seven Tips:  Leading young minds through literature can be intimidating—teachers are forced to ask the big questions, like, “What are the themes of this story?” and “How can we learn from these characters?” And that’s not even mentioning the pivoting we have to be prepared for when our students pull questions seemingly out of nowhere! Consider our Reader’s Guides are the helping hand we extend to, your, the teacher and parent-teacher as you read along your students.

Lesson Plans: Because each and every classroom is unique, be it a traditional seated classroom, a  hybrid micro-classroom, or a homeschool setting, our lesson plans are a great place to get started. We have created lesson plans for curated Grade  Level Collections and also for every single individual type of product for those who curate unique ELA collections.

Downloadable Materials: Print Shop is the place to discover some wonderful downloadable resources. From primary ABCeDarian projects to Writer’s Checklists to Cgaracter Trait cards to Reader’s Guides for teachers—the resources are rich.

Videos: We are constantly adding videos to support. From our Hatchling videos for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, to the Leonardo da Vinci instructional videos, to our most recent “How to Edit Student Writing” and more. Explore and check back often.

You don’t have to have all the answers. You simply have to be willing to be a guide, wandering with your students in the realm of wonder.

 

~Kimberly

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Announcing: Reveal 2026 is LIVE

“To create art is to have courage.

“If art is a window to the soul, then artists take a great risk every time they pick up their pencil, throw clay on the wheel, or brush a white canvas with that first stroke. Because to be fully known is to be vulnerable—both to love and rejection. 

“Yet somehow, despite this risk of hurt, you can’t find a time when humans haven’t created art. This suggests that for centuries and millennia, people have found that the risk inherent in creating art is worth taking. Because maybe, just maybe, baring your soul to the world is the only way to become who you are meant to be, the only way to become radically vulnerable and authentic and brave. The only way to become radically human.”

So begins Reveal 2026. 

For those of you who are new to Blackbird & Company, Reveal is our annual student writing and arts journal. We believe writing is an artform that is meant to be read by a reader. Therefore, we aim to get our students’ writing into readers’ hands!

This year’s theme is ideas. In Reveal 2026, you’ll see a collection of writers and artists who dared to share their ideas with the world. Expressing one’s inner, most vulnerable self isn’t easy. It’s a tenacious affair, an affair that sometimes involves dragging ideas onto the page kicking and screaming. I couldn’t be more proud of all of our students who found the courage to share their world with an audience. 

 

And good news—Reveal 2026 just went to press. You can order your copy of Reveal HERE to share your student’s work with family and friends, or to catch a glimpse of what our Blackbirds are up to. 

Lastly, a big thanks to everyone who helped these students take flight, from our teachers to parents, to our supporters and cheerleaders. You’re making a difference!

~ Claire S.

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The Bird Who Sings at Night

While she formally published fewer than a dozen poems, Emily Dickinson wrote eighteen hundred over the course of her lifetime. The main reason more of her work went unpublished is largely because she chose not to. Instead, she left  her lovely poetry to the world in her own way—by hand.

“By hand” has grown scarce in education and culture at large. How many of us sculpt or knit or compose music, sketch in a journal, craft a poem—with pencil on paper? Too few!

Pencil, scissors, needle thread, canvas, fine paper, and a BIG idea. This is how I began to tackle the first page of Six Breaths of Fall—download for FREE here and join the making.

The Autumn Artfest is inspired by ephemera—a wonderful word to get to know. The definition we are looking for is: a publication designed to be short-lived. Here I return to Dickinson whose ephemera persists. Her little made by hand books, her fascicles, are collections of carefully curated poetry written on meaningful scraps, stitched together, and kept safe in a drawer—forty fascicles containing 800 individual poems!  Emily Dickinson’s work elevates the meaning of ephemera. Later in her short life, she began creating poems on recycled envelopes. There are in excess of 50 of these little gems. The prompt this week is a singular image one such envelope poem [A 320 (Fr1478A), ca. 1878]: One note from / One Bird.

Inspired by this nugget, I began stitching a little songbird. As I stitched slowly, the bird emerged and I once again thought of Dickinson, poem 314 (all her poems are numbered as she did not title her poems):

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

 

I started with a sentence: Sun slowly sinking the sky her feathered song rises to greet the gloaming.

Next comes line break:

Sun slowly / sinking into sky, / her feathered / song rises to / greet the gloaming.

Sun slowly

sinking into sky,

her feathered

song rises to

greet the gloaming.

Of course this little poem is a nod to wonderful Emily and I will copy its final draft in pencil as my first entry into the Six Breaths of Fall tiny chapbook.

Now it’s your turn to get started. I can’t wait to see what you share. Send photos via our social media or to our email.  Let’s create together ephemera for the 21st century.

“Let’s strive together to part with time more reluctantly, to watch the pinions of the fleeting moment until they are dim in the distance & new coming moment claims our attention.” ~Emily Dickinson from the Preface of Envelope Poems.

 

~Kimberly

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Autumn is in the Air—and so is Autumn Artfest!

September 22nd is a big day. It marks the shift from lounging in a beach chair to sitting up straight at a desk, from catching whiffs of sunscreen to enjoying pumpkin spice. In other words, September 22nd is the first day of Fall!

One of my favorite parts of Fall is the art associated with it. This might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think “Fall,” but for me, Fall is inextricably tied to the National Arts and Humanities Month of October. I remember drawing each day of October as a high school art student, when art enthusiasts across the country unite to create art every day of the month. October offers us room to slow down, take a deep breath of every-crisping air, and create. 

So, starting today, we are launching our own Blackbird & Company twist on National Arts and Humanities Month. We’re calling it Autumn Artfest!

For the next six weeks (starting on September 28th and running through November 9th), we will shape an art chapbook full of Autumnal ideas. Download this free Print Shop template HERE to create a miniature chapbook with an envelope, titled “Six Breaths of Fall.” Although a chapbook is usually a little book of poetry, we’re using all kinds of mediums—because isn’t all art a kind of poetry?

Each Monday morning, we will post on the blog a prompt for you to ponder and respond to, along with one of our artist’s renditions as an example. Every prompt is a quote or homage to a published poem, painting, or musical piece about Fall. Embrace the Autumn spirit!

Feel free to vary artistic mediums each week. Here are some art forms to consider:

  • Poetry
  • Painting – watercolor, acrylic, etc.
  • Drawing
  • Microstories
  • Embroidery
  • Beadwork
  • Music composition

Lastly, submit a picture of your favorite Autumn Artfest creations for a chance to win a featured post on the blog! We’d love to highlight your hard work and creativity. (Submission link coming soon!)

Here’s to Autumn Artfest!

~ Claire S.

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Summer Bingo closes August 31st….so cross off your last boxes!

Quick! Before summer thumps shut like a dusty book, one more deadline approaches: the end of Summer Bingo! 

Summer Bingo submissions close August 31st (Click HERE to submit). Finish off the season strong by journaling about your day, lending a book to a friend, or making a craft—all with the chance to win some wonderful prizes! 

Here’s a reminder of the prizes you can win with a Bingo submission:

With every bingo you get (which means you’ve completed five activities in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), you’re entered into a raffle to win the Corduroy book and stuffed animal set or the Matilda book and pencil pouch. The more bingos you submit, the more entries you have! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But that’s not all: If you get a blackout (which means you’ve completed every activity on the bingo square), you’ll be entered into a raffle to win ANOTHER Solo Stove—this one being a Mesa Tabletop Fire Pit. With a blackout also comes a 20% off coupon code for one item!

Download Summer Bingo for free on Print Shop. Let’s soak up these precious days of freedom!

~ Claire S.

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Let’s Edit Together.

Many teachers and parents hit a wall editing student work—it can seem so subjective! The last thing any of us want is to discourage our budding writers. But editing doesn’t have to loom large like a specter of educational despair. YOU are equipped for this task, and we are here to help with some quick online resources.

Earlier this week, we took a look at the Blackbird & Company Writer’s Checklists, which detail what to highlight in a 5-minute editing conference. But today we’re going one step further.

Drum roll please….

Introducing our new Editing Tutorials!

These videos look at real samples of student work and model how we would edit them with the Writer’s Checklists. Check out our first batch of tutorials centered around Level 1 edits on all our social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest). Our first five videos explore how to edit:

  1. Hook and Indent
  2. Mechanics
  3. Supporting Ideas and Adjectives, Example 1
  4. Supporting Ideas and Adjectives, Example 2
  5. Twist

 

With examples of dos and don’ts for each checklist bullet, we’ll give you practical tips on how to edit student work. And stay tuned for our Level 2 and 3 tutorials—they’ll be following shortly.

Every teacher edits differently. No matter your editing style, however, the most important part of a red-pen edit is (1) to help our students’ ideas shine, and (2) to empower them to keep writing. We don’t edit to crush their spirits or to force them to conform to an outline. No! We edit because our students’ ideas deserve to gleam and shimmer in the sun like a cracked geode. We edit because we believe that our students are capable of so much more than they know. 

Browse these editing tutorials for a little inspiration and direction. YOU are more than ready to pick up that red pen!

~ Claire S.

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Announcing: The ABCeDarian Journal

ABCeDarian Journal

We’ve created a wonderful journal with hand drawn pictures—yes, hand drawn with dip pen and ink—to guide little ones into the wonderful world of phonics. The alphabet is so much more than that catchy tune we learned as youngsters. I don’t know about you, but when I reach the end of the song, “…now I know my ABCs, oh how happy I will be,” I chuckle because something doesn’t quite add up! Singing the song is fun and all, but the English alphabet is so much more than names of letters. Each letter makes a unique individual sound, and in combination, well the possibilities are magnificent!

The 26 letters of our alphabet make the 44 sounds that, in combination, comprise every single spoken word! Let that settle in for a moment! Not so simple, right?

For this reason we’ve created the ABCeDarian Journal for your TK and Kindergarten students to move deeper into the wonder of the alphabet. The will learn to recognize each letter’s shape as they learn to form the letters.

 

More importantly, they will begin to learn about the sounds that each of the 26 letters make while strengthening fine motor and creative skills!

There are colorful stickers included, and, of course, we have all the add-ons you will need to engage your student—sand tray and alphabet stamps! Click through and get ready for fall!

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You aren’t teaching literature alone: Introducing Reader’s Guides

Leading young minds through literature can be intimidating—teachers are forced to ask the big questions, like, “What are the themes of this story?” and “How can we learn from these characters?” And that’s not even mentioning the pivoting we have to be prepared for when our students pull questions seemingly out of nowhere!

This is why out of all our wonderful Print Shop materials, the More for Teachers: Reader’s Guides are my personal favorite. 

What is a Reader’s Guide, you may ask? Great question!

Our Reader’s Guides are a helping hand we extend to teachers and parents, supplementing the guidework students complete in our CORE Literature Discovery  guides. We do the research on the book so you don’t have to!

Each guide includes:

  • Stats (like reading levels) and themes
  • About the Author
  • About the Book
  • Section Synopses
  • Seven Tips for teaching the story!

For example, in the Seven Tips for The Iron Giant, we highlight repetition, figurative language, symbolism, philosophy, and genre in a few pages so that teachers can point these elements out to their students. We aim to make complex literary ideas accessible, to give you some food for thought as you take on the challenge of educating.

So far, we’ve released Reader’s Guides for:

  • All 6 titles from the 3rd Grade Level Collection (Woohoo!)
  • 4th: Charlotte’s Web
  • 5th: Grayson
  • 6th: The Wanderer
  • 7th: The Folk Keeper
  • 8th: Bridge to Terabithia

Think of this as a sampler platter. More is on the way.

So the next time you crack open a literary book, don’t forget its Reader’s Guide. May you be empowered to teach with confidence!

DON’T FORGET TO PLAY BINGO!

Download your Summer Bingo for free on Printshop HERE and submit a picture of your completed bingo sheet below to enter the raffles. Bingo will run June 1st through August 31st—so print out your bingo sheet and get to crossing off squares!


Summer Bingo!