Children's Book Week

Children's Book Week is May 2-6 this year, but unfortunately, that's when our state testing starts for our 3-5 grades.  So, we're going to celebrate a week early!  I thought I'd share some of the activities I have planned for the week of April 25.

First, you gotta have dress up days, right?  We've been talking genres in our library this Spring with 2-5, so I thought it would be fun to keep up with that theme!

Also, each day on the announcements, we went along with the same theme and, although some are a little lengthy, I think they're good, if I do say so myself! :)

Also, you gotta have a photo booth, right?  It was so popular during Read Across America Week, I brought it back!  I have a few quotes students can hold up, as well as favorite books from the library and/or stuffed animals based on books!  They'll do this after our lesson during our activity/Makerspace/check out time.

Also, of course, the official ALA poster as well as the bookmarks, both past and present, available.

Then, on Friday, help!  Some of the shadows (ala Peter Pan) got loose from the book characters, and students need to find them!  A fun little scavenger hunt throughout the school.

Also, each day outside the library, I'm having different activities available that students can take as they go by hanging from a hook in a dry erase pocket (I love those things!).

I wanted to not only share the ideas, but also the resources I have gathered and because I don't want to infringe on any copyright issues, just click {here} to take you to my Google Drive folder with all the activities and downloads (not available in any stores!  Hah!).  Have a great week!

Virginia Bloggers Blog Hop: Spring Edition!

Welcome to Virginia!

                     Virginia Bloggers Appreciate Y-O-U!!

A lovely group of Virginia bloggers would like to show our appreciation of you by extending a bit of southern hospitality.  You can follow along the blog hop to visit 10+ Virginia teacher blogs for terrific teaching tips and fun freebies to help get through the last couple of weeks before summer break.  Thanks to Andrea over at Reading Towards the Stars for the button! :)

The end of the year always brings review and end of year tests.  One thing my grade level does this time of year is a China/Egypt rotation.  It's one of my favorite units and there's so much to cover about these ancient civilizations!  So, each teacher takes an idea or concept and teaches it in a 25 minute block.  Each class rotates to each of our five teachers.  To motivate students to behave, listen, and participate in these fun activities (because face it, at this point in the year, they are "done"), we usually gave each an index card with their name on it and each teacher stamps it as they go out the door to the next classroom.

I am the teacher who, always always always forgets to do those darn index cards until the kids are lined up to start!  So, one thing I offered to do for my team this year was to make a passport for each child.  We could have it duplo'ed and it would be something more than an index card that at one point or another, got lost or left in another classroom.  I could add some cute clipart to it and make it more "fun" for the kids!

So, here is my Egypt/China one:  (pretend it's copied double sided)

Now, everyone doesn't do Egypt/China like good ol' VA (or teach 2nd grade).  So I made a "generic version" that we'll use at other times of the year.  This is the one I'd like to share with you.  While you are more than welcome to download the Egypt/China, you might be more interested in this one!

Knowing that each school is different with different numbers, the second page ("stamp page") varies, with anywhere from four to eight stars for stamps, depending on your number of rotations/classes. 

I hope you're able to use this for your reviews!  It could also be used for stations within your classroom as well.  Really, the possibilities are endless :)  I hope you enjoy and find it useful!

Be sure to hop on over to the next blogger for the next freebie/tip! :)

 

Things to Come, Pronouns, and a Freebie!

Soooo.....little hint of things to come.  Please stop by on the 14th and 18th for special blog hops!

We're getting ready to start our last unit for the year, which is pronouns.  Obviously, we've done this around Christmastime, since everything in my folder seems to be holiday-related!  So, I felt that although kids love reindeer and Santa, it might be best to go with another theme.  

I've recently fell in love with task cards and the unlimited possibilities you could do with these - write the room, SCOOT, centers, small groups, to mention a few.  

So, knowing I needed something a little less seasonal for pronouns, I created task cards where students have to apply what they know about task cards, as well as have a cute little story about going to camp!

Click on the pictures below to see more.

Annnndddd....here is the other thing I created this weekend.  I always have my class do a "top 10" that I can post for next year's kiddos at Open House.  It's an old template from Mailbox that frankly, was kind of plain looking.  The last few years, my kids also had trouble either clarifying what they were saying, using complete sentences, or coming up with ideas.  So, why not hit several birds at once, so to speak?  I went ahead and themed it to my room (safari) and revamped the "top 10" so that they had to say one thing about 10 given subjects.  

So, please click on the picture to download from Google Drive.  I've also included a blank template so you can fill in your own subjects, or have your students fill in their own with pictures for the younger kiddos or leave it open ended!

Freebies, Sales, and More!

Have you heard?  Teacher's Notebook is running a surprise sale starting tomorrow, April 16th through April 18th!  Every purchase will be 10% off your total!  I decided to join in on the fun, and my entire store is 25% off (and then you get the additional 10% off!).  This includes my newest product:

Be sure to stop by my store and check it out!

Also, while you're there, be sure to pick up my newest freebie based off the book, Meerkat Mail!  Click on the picture to download! :)

Well, today at 3pm started our Spring Break, and I hope to post some more products by the end of the week, including some major Magic Tree House fiction/nonfiction bundles I've been working on with my kiddos (as well as some additional freebies)!  Until then, happy shopping and have a great week!

Caution: Forbidden Post!

Well, no, not really.  But I AM double posting on the same day (shocker, I know!).  If you read my earlier post, the "best seller" linky is not quite set up yet (whoops)....so be sure to check it out maybe tomorrow or later tonight?

So, in the interest of making everyone happy on a Sunday evening (when we are yawning and trying to finish up those last minute projects), I am linking up with Lucky in First for her "Freebies on the Fifteenth!"

 

My freebie is an oldie but a goodie.  Lately on Instagram, we've been discussing spelling and word study.  One of my teammates also was asking me what to do (she moved from a SPED position to classroom teacher), especially when you have kids that are low (you have to do activities in group) and kids that are high (you can have them do activities independently).

So, my freebie I'm offering today is my "Word Study Games."  I'd LOVE to be able to show you a sample, but alas, my hard drive has fried (grrr) and my laptop apparently has a burned out backlight (????).   So instead, head on over to TpT and check it out with the link above.  I hope you'll be able to use it! :)

Busy Week and FREEBIE!

Whew!  We just finished our first FULL week of school (we started on Wednesday the 14th).  I have quite the crew this year - I am slowly remembering my high school spanish (phrases and words) for my nonenglish student, implementing whole brain teaching with my class, and surviving changes, switches, and all that comes with the beginning of the school year!

That being said, I am currently planning for next week.  As most of you know, we follow Investigations here at my school for K-2.  Of course, if you know that, you know how un-fond I am of that design, but I am trying my best to push it into small groups (how else can you teach math???) and fit our state standards.  

That being said, it does have its merits in some of the games that they have created.  

One of my current class's favorites right now is "Guess My Number."  They love it so much, they've requested it as a BUILD center!  Gotta love that as a teacher!  It focuses on choosing a "secret number" and you basically narrow it down as students guess.  It's a great way to become familiar with the hundreds chart, with number sense, as well as greater than/less than.

Sooo.....I usually use a hundreds chart and dry erase markers (or a number line if we're playing it whole class), but knowing my kids this year, they might need a "refresher" with the rules, so I created a template for the game with some "reminders" of what to do.  Knowing I was offering it to my followers, and how brain-dead I am on a Friday :) I threw in a couple of extra pages with a sample game and sample dialogue, as well as an explanation!

You can click {here} to download it from Google Drive.  If you share it with others, that's fine.  All I ask is that you give me credit and send them to my blog to follow me if interested!  You can also find it in my TPT store as a freebie as well!

Happy Weekend! :)

VA is for Bloggers - Southern Hospitality Freebie Blog Hop

Welcome to Virginia!

Virginia is for Lovers Bloggers!

A lovely group of Virginia bloggers would like to help usher in the new school year by extending a bit of southern hospitality.  You can follow along the blog hop to visit 20+ Virginia teacher blogs for terrific teaching tips and fun freebies to help get your new school year off to a great start.

 For my freebie, I decided to share what I've created for my unit on Citizenship, since I know a lot of teachers like to start the year with that unit!

Click on the picture to go get your freebie!  It includes scenario cards appropriate for K-5, where students have to decide what is the "right" thing to do!  I hope you find it as useful as I do! It's part of my Citizenship Bundle at my store, so if you like this, be sure to check it out! 

I'm also holding a BACK TO SCHOOL sale this week (today - Wednesday) as well, to commiserate celebrate the teachers' return to school in our district this Wednesday!

The next stop on the hop is 

Flash Freebie, Celebrations, and a Sale!

Sooo excited to be part of Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes Facebook Celebration!  Please be sure to hop on over (no pun intended) to check out her freebies each day! Woo hoo!  My day is Sunday, so check out my flash freebie that day from 10-1 CST.

 

I'll let you in on a little secret - since I am in VA on EST (and it's a church day), my "flash freebie" will be available from 10am EST (or as close to it as possible) till probably about 2-3pm that day!  

In addition, I'm throwing a 25% sale off my entire store Sunday and Monday!  Be sure to check it out!

On another note....

So, I've been in my classroom a couple times, in between meetings and such, and have been working hard.  I envy the pictures I see of other classrooms where they have bulletin boards started and things hung on the wall.  Nope, not me.  No *sigh* every year I go in during the summer to ORGANIZE.  (I'll get to the hanging and such later on).

I've come to the realization that by the end of the school year, I am dog tired!  I cannot for the life of me even attempt to organize at that time of the year, other than to hope my counter holds all my stuff that doesn't fit in the cubbies and cabinets!

I don't know why every year I have to organize - again.  Well, yes, I add more things during the year and over the summer, but that can't be the only reason.  Anyhow, today I found myself working on my math/science cabinet and math manipulatives.  Somehow, by changing containers and regrouping things, I actually had some extra space!  Wow - it makes me wonder if I have something hiding somewhere that's supposed to be in that space.  Why can't this ever happen at my house????

I also had to come to terms with a few things.   For example, years ago, my mom gave me her collection of buttons she had inherited from a neighbor.  I decided to use these as counters.  Well, I have to admit - other than 1 student in the past couple years, no one has used these.  We've moved on to hundreds chart, number lines, etc.  I have other items that I can use for 1-to-1 correspondence.  

So, thankfully, that's when a brainstorm hit.  I didn't want to get rid of the buttons and they don't take up a TON of space.  Why not use them for identifying attributes?  One of the concepts my students always have difficulty with is identifying faces, vertices, edges, etc during the Geometry unit.  Why not give them extra practice identifying attributes with the thousands of buttons that I already have?  Throw them into a BUILD center for practice the first month of school, and most likely, beyond that?  

So, tonight, feeling all "gung ho," I created this:

I have it at my TPT store (there's something wrong with Teacher's Notebook tonight, but it's on my list to add it there, too) for $1.00 (teachers will have to provide their own buttons!).

But for you, dear reader, since you've made it this far, if you comment with your email by Sunday evening, I'll send it to you for FREE!  My only request is that if you like what you see, please consider following me at my store!  I am soooo close to 100 followers and would love to be able to throw a "celebration" of my own! :)