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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Holiday Activities and a Sale!


Get your wishlists ready! It’s time for the annual TpT CyberSale! Time to stock up on everything you need for your classroom, and save! I don’t know about you, but I have a ton of items on my wishlist, I can’t wait to buy these products and start using them in my classroom.

If you are looking for some holiday activities for your classroom, check out my store. This year I have added a bunch of fun holiday products.


If you are planning a gingerbread unit for the holidays, check out my Work, Work as Hard as You Can! It’s a Unit of Fun with theGingerbread Man!  unit. 




I have included activities for each subject area so it can be used for a day of gingerbread fun, over a couple of days, or throughout a week. This unit contains the following five activities:

1. Search, Search as Hard as You Can! Can You Catch the Gingerbread Man- This activity is played like the game Battleship and reviews using ordered pairs.

2. Gingerbread Story Activity- During this activity students will read different versions of the Gingerbread Man (a book list is provided to help you easily find books). They will compare the different stories, and use planning sheets to help them create their own version of this classic folktale. Gingerbread publishing papers are included.
3. Gingerbread Man Measurement- Students will use a Gingerbread Man cut out to measure different items in the room. A recording sheet is provided for this activity along with extension activities for early finishers.
4. Run, Run as Fast as You Can!- The students join the Gingerbread Man Capture Squad during this science experiment, and explore what happens to their pulse before, during, and after exercise.
5. The History of the Gingerbread Man- This activity goes over the Gingerbread Man's history and has the student practice their map skills.





If you are planning a cultural celebration, check out my Christmas Around the World Packs. I have sets for the following countries; England, Germany, Mexico, The Netherlands, and France. Each set includes: 
-a presentation on each country, and their holiday traditions
-one or two crafts for each country
-carol sing-a-longs-a passport with passport stamps
-a recipe for a traditional dish from each country
-a word search for each country exploring the new words learned in each lesson


If you want all of the countries listed, I have a complete Christmas Around the World Pack.




If you are looking for winter themed math products, check out my Winter Olympics Multiplication and Division Games and Centers Pack, and my Measurement Winter Olympics Activities.







I hope you enjoy the sale and the holiday season!

Monday, November 3, 2014

Fun Fall Freebie!

Time for a fun fall freebie! Right now my third graders are beginning their lovely journey with multiplication. We are working on multiplication strategies, and memorizing our basic facts. In an effort to make learning more fun, I created a fun fall fact practice game called Dress The Scarecrow



In this game, students practice their multiplication facts while dressing their scarecrow. This two player game has students competing against each other to be the first to complete their scarecrow. They get to have fun while working on their basic fact practice. If you would like to add this game to your teaching toolkit, stop by my TpT store to download this fun freebie!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Be a Genre Star!

It has only been a week since I started the Genre Star reading incentive program with my students, and they are reading up a storm! I absolutely love seeing my students so excited about reading. The best part is that they are reading genres they wouldn't normally read! Double bonus!



Why are my students so excited about reading different genres? This program gives the students a chance to earn different badges for the different genres they've read. Once they earn their genre badge they glue it to their Genre Star bookmark. During the school year they have a chance to earn ten different genre badges (nonfiction, historical fiction, realistic fiction, mystery, biography, folktales, fairy tales, science fiction, fantasy, and poetry.)

During guided reading, I have my students fill in a reading log to keep track of the books and different genres they have read. I check their reading logs when I meet with them during small group instruction. After a student finishes reading a book, I ask them a couple of questions to check their comprehension. If I feel that the student truly read the book, I will initial beside that entry on the reading log. To earn a badge, they have to read two books from that genre. Once they earn a badge, they just glue it to their bookmark. They use this bookmark all year during reading instruction. When a student has earned all of the badges, I laminate it for them as a reward. I know that this sounds so simple, but my students are so excited, and I have already had a couple of students each their first badge!


What do you use in the classroom to encourage your readers?

Sunday, August 31, 2014

New Ideas For the New Year

As I sit here with my second cup of coffee, I am in one word EXHAUSTED! The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy. We sold our house in 12 hours, but had to move out in 10 days. That meant packing up all of our belonging, during this first week of school with a 16 month old! I have never been so thankful for Labor Day! I get an extra day to relax! Woo hoo! Since my daughter is down for her nap, it's time for a much needed blog post! I feel like I have neglected my blog with all of this craziness! So here I go...

I love getting my classroom ready for a new school year! Everything is so fresh and clean. You finally get to use all of the wonderful Pinterest ideas and crafts you've worked so hard on over the summer. I added a couple of new items/ideas to my classroom that I wanted to share with you.

The first item I wanted to share is my birthday display board. I absolutely love how it turned out! I made little three-dimensional cupcakes for each month. This display was super easy to make. I used chalkboard foam boards, cupcake papers, tissue paper, colored craft sticks, a white paint pen, glitter pom poms, and a hot glue gun. Each student has a candle with their name and birthday written on it. This display has been a hit in my classroom! My students love the cupcakes and had fun finding their candle.


I also wanted to share an organization idea I had for my classroom library. Every summer I reorganize my classroom library, and every year my students mess up that organization. So, over the summer I was trying to come up with some ideas to stop this annoying cycle. The books in my library are organized by genre, and the books are placed into genre baskets. I found great baskets at Wal-Mart that are intended for CD storage, but they work perfectly with chapter book. I have used these baskets for years, but my students always put the books back in the wrong baskets. So, this year I have a new system in place! 


Behind each genre label, I placed a library book pocket that you can find at the dollar store or any teacher store. I then labeled small craft sticks with my students names. Each student has two sticks, so they can check out two books from my library. Whenever they take a book from my library, they have to place one of their sticks into the pocket in front of the genre basket. When they finish reading their book, they will know where to place their book, and they can take out their stick and check out another book. I keep the extra sticks in a container on the top shelf of my library.


So far this system has been working really well in my classroom. I hope that I have finally broken the library organization cycle! What new ideas are you trying in your classroom this year? 

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

TpT Back-to-School Boost Sale


Get all of your back to school essentials with the TpT Back-to-School Boost Sale. For one day only you will be able to get all of the items in my store for 28% off. When checking out, use the promo code BOOST for the extra savings.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Free Back to School eBooks!


The TpT Back to School eBooks are here! The best part is that they are FREE! These books are loaded with freebies, teacher tips, and great products to help you begin the school year. Plus they introduce you to some fabulous TpT authors! I don't know about you, but I am downloading all of these wonderful books!

There are different books for different grade levels. Find the links for your grade level below, and start downloading!

Grades K-2 Back to School eBook
Back to School ELA eBook for Grades 3-5
Back To School eBook Math, and Science for Grades 3-5
Back to School Math eBook for grades 6-12
Back to School English eBook for Grades 6-12
Back to School Social Studies eBook for Grades 6-12
Back to School Science eBook for Grades 6-12

**The K-2, and English 6-12 eBooks will be up soon!**

Look for my page in the Math and Science eBook for Grades 3-5!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Back to School Sale


It's that time of year again! Time for the annual TpT Back To School Sale! Time to stock up for the upcoming school year. I don't know about you, but I have a bunch of items on my wishlist that I can't wait to buy! All of the items in my store will be 28% off, so stock up and get ready for the new year!

Remember to enter the Back to School Prize Pack Rally by August 10th for a chance to win one of the seven AWESOME prize packs!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Back to School Rally Prize Pack


It's time for the Back to School Rally Giveaway! Once again, I would like to thank Hope at Teaching with Hope.Without her this giveaway would not be here! Thank you, thank you! So much preparation and hard work have gone into this giveaway and these products. 

I won't go on and on for too long- I promise, but I think it is important to tell you how this giveaway came to be. There are incredible TpT creators out there. There are the BIG ones who we all know, love, adore and go to again and again to fill our classrooms with love and learning. I am so thankful to have resources literally at my fingertips no matter where I am. 

I have spent a lot of the summer creating and collaborating with other teachers and have come to find some "hidden treasures" in stores with very few followers. So what better way to showcase these incredible teachers and all their work than with one of the most enormous giveaways we have ever seen? 

 Over 100 TpT sellers and Etsy creators have donated these products. There are 7 prize packs and each are grouped by grade level. You can enter to win them all! The more entry tasks you complete the better your chances of winning. Plus you can share this giveaway on your Blog, Facebook or Pinterest once a day for an additional 10 entries each day! So without further ado.....


Prize Pack #1 includes 18 products from TpT sellers, a handmade "welcome" banner for your classroom from M Paper Designs and a personalized teacher cup from Sugar Stitches Designs!
Click any of the pictures below and a link will take you to the listing for each product. 


a Rafflecopter giveaway






Prize Pack #2 includes 19 products from TpT sellers, a teacher planner  from The Nifty Planner, and a  personalized teacher sign from Blended Creations Inc.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



                                                          Product of your choice!



Prize Pack #3 includes 17 products from TpT sellers, a handmade classroom garland from MPaper Designs and a pencil door sign from Details in the Design.
 Prize Pack #4 includes 18 products from TpT sellers, a handmade classroom garland from MPaper Designs, and a personalized pencil door sign from Bows and Bells Hangers.


 



Prize Pack #5 includes 15 products from TpT sellers a personalized sign from MACInspired Crafts plus a personalized teacher block sign from Blended Creations Inc!




Prize Pack #6 includes products from 16 TpT sellers a personalized door sign from Cara's Southern Designs and a personalized teacher cup from Mommy's Latte Fund!



Prize Pack #7 includes 16 products from TpT sellers, a teacher planner of your choice from Little Drop Designs, a personalized door sign from MACInspired Creations plus a personalized teacher cup from Mommy's Latte Fund!