Category: Print Shop

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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!

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The big Print Shop drop is coming up—get ready for The Writing Mentor

Poetic devices can turn prose into poetry.

Sprinkle in alliteration or oxymoron or polysyndeton and all of a sudden, a sentence is more than just a sentence. It’s art. 

But how does one teach the art of writing this sentence? Well, the One True Sentence: Tools of Style workbooks are a great place to start. Each workbook explores twenty devices that skillful writers have at their disposal. 

Sometimes, however, writers need more time to sit with these new techniques, time to contemplate and learn and practice. That’s why we created The Writing Mentor print-outs for our Tools of Style workbooks. Each downloadable 3-5 page worksheet (found on Print Shop) supplements a specific lesson from the workbook. With every lesson, students have a chance to learn, practice, and get creative. 

Zooming in, students will: 

  • Learn from a great writer’s example of the poetic device. We’ll break it down for you.
  • Practice with scaffolded activities where students identify the poetic device and write their own with guidance.
  • Get creative by unleashing their inventiveness, be it through writing beautiful sentences, composing short poems, or drawing imaginative pictures.

What better way to learn about amplification than by writing your own amplified sentences—or to practice anaphora than by writing an anaphoric poem about yourself? 

Download a Writing Mentor: Tools of Style worksheet starting on July 20th to cultivate the writer within!

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!

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10 Days and Counting! 🎉

Soon Print Shop will be loaded with goodies designed to enhance  your primary, elementary, or middle school student’s ELA journey.

Simply click the “Print Shop” link from the orange bar at the top of the landing page of our website and you will discover four new categories: More for Teachers, Writing Mentor, Penmanship, and ABCeDarian Projects.

But not yet!

Brand new buttons will go live July 20, 2026.

That’s TEN days from today…

 

~Kimberly

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!

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On Scarcity

Scarcity is not always a bad thing. Of course, when it comes to natural resources—water and food—scarcity creates a problem. 

But scarcity also might mean that something is unique, precious.

Sometimes scarcity might prevent waste. I work tirelessly to purchase fresh vegetables that will be used completely. Too often, when I was younger, lettuce and celery and carrots would wilt, berries would mold before I had a chance to prepare them for my family. Exercising scarcity has helped me solve this problem.

I have a dear friend, a bonafide artist, who has made a pact with herself to not only work through all the materials in her studio, but to also see what might become of trash combined with a bit of imagination. Trash to ephemera—recycle, reuse, repurpose. Sandra’s “Sunset Clouds Over SLO” (oil on repurposed cardboard, 4 x 4) fits the bill whimsically. 

Beautiful things can be created unexpectedly!

 

Coming this July, Blackbird & Company will be expanding its offering to support primary students (TK, K, 1st, and 2nd) in gaining the skills that are often overlooked in our electronic era.

Cutting, pasting, coloring, painting, folding, and making, actually set the stage for higher learning. More significantly, the activities we are providing will seem on the surface to be toss-able.  However, offering elevated art supplies plus a little nugget of knowledge, and, there is is!

Voilà, ephemera!

I smile remembering the piggy banks of olden times, likening our Print Shop for Primary being pennies and nickels and dimes and quarters that little minds are adding to their fund of knowledge.

Our concept of offering Print Shop for Primary ABCeDarian style, constrains and connects learning to the 26 letters of the alphabet where all of the English language originates. These 26 letters, organized individually or in combination creates the 44 sounds we humans use to communicate. This truly is an awesome example where scarcity is maximized. 

Following in August, right after our July Print Shop drop, we will be introducing our ABCeDarian Activity Box.

This kit will include books and projects across domains of learning—anatomy, animal life cycles, color theory, fine art, craft, the alphabet, and much more. Everything in the box will promote independent learning, fine motor skills, focus, patience, and offer information to build the fund of knowledge. Simply stated, the ABCedarian box is certain to delight!

But here’s the thing: We are only making 50! Yes, FIFTY! Because of the handmade nature of the ABCeDarian Activity Box, we decided to treat it very special. That’s scarcity for you! Watch for the release next month when Print Shop for Primary goes live.

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Print Shop for Summer

Back in January Blackbird & Company soft launched Print Shop! We are so happy about the shape our new offering is taking. In our collection of downloadable Discovery activities, designed to engage students, Kindergarten through 8th Grade, and beyond. Downloads will be FREE through the end of May, so take a peak and download some activities for summer.

ABCedarian Crafts

From D is for Dandelion to P is for Pumpkin, these multi-sensory activities are sure to engage and enrich learning. Primary students from kindergartem through 2nd grade will benefit from these activities that will enrich the fund of knowledge, engage the senses, and grow skills that will transfer to all areas of learning.

Writing Mentor Activities

Designed to support students with pithy activities as they work to create exceptional sentences, to engage in supplemental practice to enhance Tools of Style, or to dive into a study of words and where they come from. Writing Mentor activities will also provide longer activities tied to our CORE Integrated Literature and Writing units. Stone Fox is the very first Writing Mentor 5-week downloadable packet where each week students will explore the use of similes in the novel and practice creating similes in their own unique sentences.

This summer is time to create happy habits through independent work pinpointed on specific academic skills with opportunities to build your student’s fund of knowledge.

Head over to Print Shop and download activities for FREE through the end of June. Simply click through, print, and let the Discovery begin!

 

~Kimberly

 

P.S. Dont miss out! During the month of May we are hosting another Giveaway! A wonderful set of Just Right Readers by Kate di Camillo. Enter below daily to increase your chances of winning!


Just Right Readers Giveaway

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Collective Nouns and Poetry

We are proud to announce our very first Collective Noun lesson on Print Shop. Click through to download and get the lexicon growing!

Now, let’s craft a poem!

First we need fodder:

You might think a group of rhinos is called a herd. Not so! A group of rhinos is a crash. Rhinos are really fast animals, can run up to 30 miles per hour. But rhinos have really poor eyesight and can only see about 30 feet ahead of their nose! A problem, right? Immediately we understand the humor in this collective nouns!

Now craft some sentences:

When I stroll along the shore of the Pacific Ocean, I see all kinds of footprints, of birds and dogs and humans. Not once have I come across a three-toed rhino footprint. But when I imagine the near-sighted CRASH of rhinos far from their swampy home, chasing the gulls just for fun as waves crash upon the California coast, I revel at the wonder of words!

Next, break the sentences into lines and stanzas:

When I stroll along the shore of / the Pacific Ocean, I see all kinds of footprints, /of birds and dogs and humans. // Not once have I come across / a three-toed rhino footprint. // But when I imagine the near-sighted / CRASH of rhinos far from their swampy home, / chasing the gulls just for fun / as waves crash upon the California coast, / I revel at the wonder of words!

Lay out the Collective Noun poem:

When I stroll along the shore of

the Pacific Ocean, I see all kinds of footprints,

of birds and dogs and humans.

 

Not once have I come across

a three-toed rhino footprint.

 

But when I imagine the near-sighted

CRASH of rhinos far from their swampy home,

chasing the gulls just for fun

as waves crash upon the California coast,

 I revel in the wisdom of words!

 

~Kimberly

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“Cache” is a Mighty BIG Word

“A word that means a collection of things, like a CACHE of jewels for the crowns of kings…or a BATCH of bread all warm and brown, is always called a COLLECTIVE NOUN.”

 

 

Join Ruth Heller as she guides young readers through an exploration of what collective nouns are in A Cache of Jewels: And Other Collective Nouns. With charming rhymes and striking yet simple illustrations, Heller turns this grammar lesson into a breeze. Children’s Literature praises the book as “a great way to help allay fears and to remove potential boredom from a grammar lesson.” Students will delight in these remarkable words—take “a bevy of beauties,” for instance, or “a parcel of penguins”! Between alliteration and rhyme, Heller crafts language that is a joy to read aloud.

Here is one more sneak peak from this wonderful little book:

 

~Claire S.

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The Wonder of Collective Nouns

Collective nouns name a group of people or things.

Whoever came up with the concept of collective nouns had some serious fun! From an army of frogs to a zeal of zebras, these aren’t ordinary-performing nouns. For each group of animals from A to Z, An Erst of Bees: A Wild Alphabet of Collective Nouns features a gorgeous illustration and a sweet, poetic verse to make the creatures come alive. 

For example, did you know that a group of kittens is called an intrigue? Or I bet you can’t guess what a knot refers to—a group of toads! The collective noun for peacocks seems especially fitting: an ostentation. 

Language doesn’t have to be boring. When we take time to examine its quirks, English can dazzle us! So take the time to be dazzled and read An Erst of Bees!

 

~Claire S.

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Safety in Numbers

In the case of collective nouns, we might more aptly title this post Wonderment in Numbers!

Believe it or not, collective nouns are rooted in medieval sport! It all began with the hunt, the animals encountered, and a woman named Juliana Berners.

A scurry of squirrels.

A bouquet of pheasants.

A rangale of deer.

Back in 1486, she was the first woman in the English language to publish a book, The Book of Saint Albans. This particular book confesses her thoughts on medieval hunting, hawking, and heraldry—hobbies of noble men. Included in the book is an appendix of over 150 collective nouns for animals encountered during the hunt. These nouns tickled the ears of her readers and, over time the list grew.

The thing about a name is that it reveals something of the very nature of what is being named. Some are named for a behavior characteristic, like a “watch of nightingales,” birds singing long into the night. Some collective nouns are determined by the nature of the work performed, think “a yoke of oxen” and “a burden of mules” and you will see what I mean. Still others are named according to a personality trait, “an unkindness of ravens” and “a murder of crows” are infamously applicable.

Collective nouns caught on in the Middle Ages, but it didn’t stop there. James Lipton, published, An Exaltation of Larks back in the 90s, at the tail end of the 20th century. He reminded us to look back at the origin of this special type of naming, but to also carry the activity of naming forward. The very nature of  the English language is like clay in the potter’s hands. Twenty-six letters enable us to transcribe the 44 sounds that make up all the words in the English language we can possibly imagine. Put those words together to form phrases and sentences and paragraphs and poems and essays and novels and songs! But also, consider inspiring your students to use words in new ways to carry on the sport of naming.

I’m thinking right now of Great-grandma Garnet’s boxes of unorganized photographs—the “whisper of photographs”—and just like that, voilà, a collective noun.

 

~Kimberly