I have been a big fan of Scholastic News for many years, so when I was asked to partner with them to share some teacher tips, some big savings, and a great contest, well I jumped at the chance. Teaching a self-contained gifted second grade class, I usually subscribe to the third grade edition. For the purposes of this post, I was sent a set of second grade magazines and I have to say, the extra materials and online resources for this edition has changed my mind.  The second grade version seems to be a much better fit for my students. Even though they're all reading on or above grade level, the engaging format and rigorous text kept them completely interested in the content. In fact, Scholastic magazines are available in 30 different titles from pk-12th grade, so there is bound to be a version that is the perfect fit for your classroom.

Are you already a fan of Scholasitc News? Well then, how does $200 to spend at the Scholastic Teacher Store sound? All you have to do is show us how you use Scholastic News in your classroom. Share it out on social media with #SmartTeachingTips and you can win! As soon as I opened my pack of November magazines, I knew right away what my Teaching Tip would be. Packed in with my student editions was this amazing Big Issue! This is not something I was getting with the third grade edition. It doesn't come with every second grade edition, but it does come a few times a year.


We've already studied text features this year, but I find that if I don't constantly review them or refer to them, the kids tend to forget them a bit. So I quickly wrote some text features on sticky notes and had the kids work together to find them in the Big Issue.


You can always count on Scholastic News to showcase text features in a way that's totally relevant and easily identifiable for the kids. Having the big issue for this was fantastic, but it's totally doable with the normal size edition too.  

Another great feature of Scholastic News is the wealth of printable and online resources that are available for each issue. This week there was a fantastic chart that took text features to the next level. The kids had to locate information from the article and then tell if they found that information solely from the pictures, the text, or from both. I loved this chart so much that I re-created a version of it for my observation lesson a couple of weeks ago, which went over really well! I let the kids work on it in groups, then we reviewed it together using the interactive page from the teacher materials online.



Then we went on to do the questions on the back of the magazine. I loved the thoroughness of this diagram and the fact that all of the questions were directly from the diagram.


And lastly, we used the skills practice game and my kids LOVED it. 
For each text dependent question about beavers that they answered correctly, their dam grew a little bit until it reached the top of the screen. We played the two rounds that were available and they were super bummed when there wasn't a third round!


You can see how much we were able to do from this one issue of Scholastic News! I use it whole class on Fridays and they look so forward to it each week. I could easily break up the activities and use one each day with the whole class or even in my small groups. If you've been thinking about trying Scholastic News, now is a great time. You can save 40% on a classroom subscription when you follow this link or call 1-800-SCHOLASTIC then use code 2905.

I've got one more piece of news to pass along. Scholastic also has a print on demand site with over 20,000 engaging lesson plans and activities. I've also been a subscriber to this site for a few years myself. I pull materials from so many different sites when I'm planning (or many times on the fly!) and Scholastic Printables is always great for skills based, perfectly leveled, professional content. You can dive in and try it free for 30 days by following this link.

So, the three big takeaways from this post:
1. Share your best #SmartTeachingTip using Scholastic News and share it on your social media accounts. You just might win $200 to spend in the Scholastic Teacher Store!
2. Save 40% on a new subscription to Scholastic News using the code 2905.
3. Check out Scholastic Printables free for 30 days!

I can't wait to see your Smart Teaching Tips!

~in partnership with Scholastic Magazines




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