Elsie, an exclamation point, announces loudly that she's sure she'll win the school Punctuation Bee. But Penny, a period, and her friend, Quentin, a question mark, decide to practice and practice. Penny wants to beat Elsie, who brags way too much!

After reading this book, students won't underestimate punctuation marks! With the ability to change the meaning of a sentence, show enthusiasm and excitement, and organize a sentence, the power of punctuation has never been clearer. Accessible examples and vivid photographs help readers see how punctuation can help ask questions, show emotion, and more. Children will be able to tell the difference in meaning between "A cat?" and "A cat!" and discover how punctuation can punch up a sentence.

"Spelling Bee includes instructions for 100 letter, number, punctuation and picture blocks in two sizes PLUS 18 quilt projects."--Amazon.

Explains and illustrates how question marks function in a sentence.

Schools nationwide are transitioning to the Common Core--our advice to you: Don't go it alone! Our new book, Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, K-5, shows you that teaching the Common Core State Standards in the elementary grades doesn't have to be intimidating! This easy-to-use guide provides model lesson plans for teaching the standards in reading, writing, speaking/listening, and language. Get engaging lesson plans that are grade-appropriate, easy to implement and include ready-to-use reproducible handouts, assessments, resources, and ideas to help you modify the lesson for both struggling and advanced learners. Our Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans are designed to fit seamlessly into your K-5 curriculum. You get practical tips for revamping your existing lessons to meet the standards. Students learn how to read informational texts, write opinion-based essays, and improve their speaking and listening skills. Grammar mini-lessons and foundational skills mini-lessons will help you teach language conventions, phonics, fluency, and more! We take the guesswork out of Common Core lesson plans with this practical, easy-to-use guide. All lesson plans are grade-appropriate, and every lesson plan includes... Common Core State Standards covered in the lesson Overview of objectives and focus of the lesson Background knowledge required and time required A detailed, step-by-step agenda for the lesson, plus a materials list Differentiation ideas to adapt the lesson for different kinds of learners Assessment ideas, including rubrics and scoring guides A place for your notes: what worked; what can improve Bonus! We show you how to extend the lessons into longer units to suit your particular grade's curriculum, and even help you create more of your own lessons!

Essentials of Integrating the Language Arts, Fifth Edition, offers students all the practical tools they need to be effective language arts teachers, supported by the necessary theoretical foundation. Like its predecessors, this edition presents a comprehensive approach to teaching the language arts, balancing direct instruction in the communication arts and integrating the language arts with other content areas such as music, art, mathematics, social studies, and science. It explores the important topics of community and caregiver involvement in education and offers thoughtful coverage of diversity in the schools. Practical teaching ideas are found in every chapter. The 5th Edition reflects current teaching practices, field knowledge, and research. Significant changes include: A more streamlined approach to allow readers to move quickly from learning chapter concepts and related theory and research to understanding how they are applied in classroom practices, activities, and strategies Discussion of standards, including the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), with the goal of showing readers how they can apply standards in the classroom to help meet their students' needs New teaching activities that support the chapter topics and align with the CCSS An appendix with more than 25 classroom assessment tools Discussion of current, quality children's and young adult literature, including informational texts, supported by an appendix of annotated lists of books by genre Key Features "In the Classroom" vignettes, describing real teachers implementing language arts strategies and activities with their students "RRP" (Read Research Practice) boxed features, offering ideas for activities and projects "Teaching Activities," which future teachers can use in their own classrooms "Field and Practicum Activities," which readers can use now in field and practicum settings Discussions of technology and websites, to help readers prepare to integrate technology in their own classrooms

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.