ON THE EDGE

by Laura Rodley

Abenaki Indian Pictures. Abenaki Children. Image source: Indians Pictures.

In the back edge of the forest

are stones piled up one on top the other

in a horseshoe shape facing

the quartz vein outcropping

perhaps built by Abenaki Indians

before colonial men sent their servants

to take stones from Indian burial mounds

to build their stone fences,

unknowingly disturbing the peace,

and here my husband and another

man named Jim lift beds of moss

off the stone structure, reveal it

to be as tall as a horse, facing the sky,

the midnight sky when the Big Dipper

hangs low and this is what my eyes

feasted on before the election,

how it is time for the Indian spirits

to walk our land, to look

to the Big Dipper and the old spirits

caught in her cup

for our answers, for forgiveness.

Laura Rodley’s New Verse News poem “Resurrection” has won a Pushcart Prize and appears in The Pushcart Prlze XXXVII: Best of the Small Presses (2013 edition). She was nominated twice before for the Prize as well as for Best of the Net. Her chapbook Rappelling Blue Light, a Mass Book Award nominee,  won honorable mention for the New England Poetry Society Jean Pedrick Award. Her second chapbook Your Left Front Wheel is Coming Loose was also nominated for a Mass Book Award and a L.L.Winship/Penn New England Award. Both were published by Finishing Line Press.  Co-curator of the Collected Poets Series, she teaches creative writing and works as contributing writer and photographer for the Daily Hampshire Gazette.  She edited As You Write It, A Franklin County Anthology, Volume I and Volume II.

A Peek at Thanksgiving....

Gobble, Gobble, just a peek into the turkey happenings in my Speech Room this week! 

I made a Sensory Turkey. My preschool friends and I described it, felt it, smelled it, and jingled it. My elementary kiddos and I described it with adjectives and then make a big adjective list.  Feathers contain: cotton balls, googley eyes, velcro, tongue depressors, noodles, feathers, buttons, crushed red pepper flakes, and pipe cleaners.

 We added feathers to this Turkey! The kids said 5-10 words before they earned a feather.

We did paint dauber Turkeys.

Of course - most of our learning is coming from my Thanksgiving Language, Articulation and Social Skills packs. Here's a picture of our acorn synonyms. So fun!


What's been happening in your speech room?

Thanksgiving Middle School

November is creeping up on us so I wanted to share another Turkey Day activity for you! I don't teach middle schoolers or high schoolers but many of you do. So I thought I'd try my hand at making you something for Turkey Day! 

The download is 24 pages in length and includes 5 games targeting language, pragmatics and grammar. Included games are: Literal/Rhetorical, Active/Passive Voice, Sequencing, Main Idea & Multiple Meaning Ideas. 

Literal/Rhetorical Questions (16 cards) Each card contains a statement. Decide if it’s a literal or a rhetorical question. 

Active/Passive Acorns (12 cards) Cut each acorn apart. Have students match the acorns and decide which acorns are active/passive voice. 

Sequencing (12 cards) Students read the sentences and the underlined word. Identify the general meaning of each sequencing word (before, during or after.) 

Multiple Meaning Turkeys :( 18 cards) read the word. Provide two definitions for each word. If you draw the runaway turkey cards, put all your cards back. 

Main Idea/Details (16 cards) Students draw a card. Read the paragraph. Have the student give the main idea and details. 

Find the item in my TPT Store! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think! Do you want to see more middle school activities?

Thanksgiving Articulation

Over the weekend I shared my Pragmatics, Language and Grammar packets for Thanksgiving. I'm hoping this will give you (and ME!) plenty of time to get everything printed and laminated before November. Today I'm sharing my Thanksgiving Articulation packet.

The download  is 67 pages in length and includes articulation game for the sounds R, S, S blends, and TH. I started with a variety of clipart games, but realized my mixed groups couldn't all play the same game! So you're looking at my revised Thanksgiving Articulation games. This game is for your readers, so the target sounds are later developing (and my most commonly targeted!) I also included blank turkey cards in case you need to make another sound. 

The pack includes 189 /r/ and /r/ blends, 81 /th/ cards, 126 /s/ blends, and  108 /s/ cards. That's a total of 504 game cards! 

Each game comes with a title page (this is what I place on the outside of my ziplock storage bags!)

The sound cards each have turkeys on them. This /r/ set includes vocalic r, prevocalic r and r blends.

While you play, watch out for the Turkey Trot! If you draw a run away turkey card, all your other turkeys follow and you need to start over!

You can find the download in my TPT Store. Let me know what you think!

Turkey Categories

Just a week or so until Thanksgiving. Here's a free printable for you. This  receptive language activity is great because it works for non-readers! We've been playing with it in preschool - 2nd grade!

Download HERE!

First your students can sort turkey feathers onto the correct category bird.  Next, I have them use the word in a sentence too! 

Have fun! 

Gobble Gobble Pronouns

Here's a quick print and go activity for students working on pronouns. I made this one for those kids who have difficulty with confusing subjective/objective pronouns in sentences.

Students read the sentences on the feathers and fill in the blanks with the correct pronoun. They match their feather to the correct turkey. This works well if you make it into a file folder game or attach magnets and let students complete it on a white board.


Download it free HERE!

Leave a comment and let me know if you used it!

Snow & Thanksgiving Hours!

WEDNESDAY

Regular hours at the News Stand and at the Espresso Bar. 

Our baristas were here at 6:30 this morning with your coffee!

Cafe closes at 7pm, News Stand closes at 8pm. 

THURSDAY

Happy Thanksgiving!  We will be closed.

FRIDAY

Weekend hours.  Cafe and News Stand both open at 8am. 

Espresso Bar closes at 7pm.

News Stand closes at 8pm.