2+1 Cyber Sale Link Up

Hello, friends! So sorry that it's been more than a hot minute since I last posted.  I've been battling a lingering cold for the past month and we had lots of out of town family in for Thanksgiving.  Hosting Thanksgiving is such much fun but boy is it a lot of work! :)  

Perhaps by now you have heard that TpT is having their annual Cyber Sale on Monday and Tuesday! 

Since I'm not a fan of crowds and lines, I rock the online shopping at Christmas time! I check jane.com and Amazon daily during the weeks leading up to Christmas to find gifts for my friends and family.  Luckily, I've always been able to find some really unique and special gifts. 

TpT's Cyber Sale is a perfect time to stock up on goodies for class to use during the winter months.  We often go days, even weeks at time, cooped up indoors during the winter, so I love using items from TpT to keep things fresh and exciting! 

I'm excited to link up with Jivey today to share the two most wish listed items from my store and one item I can't wait to buy during the big sale!

You can check out the entire link up {here}.

My store's most wish listed item is my Place Value Block Craftivity. 

I always love seeing how creative my students are with their final products of this activity and it's a great way to assess your students' knowledge of standard, expanded and word form.  Many of my store's customers have shared they use them in interactive notebooks or make a place value block town as a bulletin board, which I think is a darling idea! You can check out Place Value Block {here}. 

The second most wish listed item in my store is my Types of Sentences Activity Pack. 

I use this interactive unit during the first few weeks of school to review the types of sentences/punctuation types and I'm always so thankful for the time we spent review with it! However, you could use the activities all year long! :)  You can check out my Types of Sentences Activity Pack {here}. 

There are a lot of items on my wish list that I can't wait to buy but the one I'm looking forward to buying first thing on Monday is Catherine's Winter Break Challenge!

We are off for about 2.5 weeks every winter break, which is AMAZING.  However, my students really struggle with their reading stamina when they come back to school.  My students this year also LOVE reading and I can tell they would love this pack! Catherine's pack looks like a great and FUN way to keep my students motivated with their independent reading over our very long holiday break! You can check out Catherine's Winter Break Challenge {here}. 

I do have several Christmas goodies in my store, which you can check out {here}!  My store will be 20% during the sale and you can save an additional 10% off the sale prices using the code TPTCYBER. Happy Shopping!

Trick or Treat Sale and Halloween fun for the Bigger Kids

Happy Sunday, Friends! I just wanted to stop by the ole blog and little you know I'm having a Trick or Treat sale today and tomorrow!  It's the perfect time to pick up some Halloween fun for the bigger kids. :) 

You can visit my TpT store by clicking {here}!

I have been asked a few times lately to share what Halloween looks like in my fourth grade classroom.  So I dug into the blog archives to share some of the Halloween activities I typically do with my students. :) 

One of things that I always do is make extra copies of my Halloween Graphic Organizers to use throughout the month during their independent reading. 

I keep the extra copies in a binder and tab the first copy of each. 

 Then I put the binder in the tub I keep my seasonal books in for easy access.  My kiddos having been loving the extra practice with various comprehension strategies and story elements, and I have too. :)

On the actual day of Halloween, I allow my students to read a Halloween/Fall picture book with a partner and complete an accompanying Halloween graphic organizer.  You'd be surprised by how excited big kids still get when there is a cute piece of clip art on their graphic organizer. 

Of course, I use them throughout the month during small groups too. In fact, I used the summary graphic organizer just last week!

Several teachers who have purchased my seasonal graphic organizers mentioned that they use my graphic organizers in their listening centers, which I think is a GREAT idea! :) 

My teaching partner teaches math, so she gets to use one of my favorite TpT products this week, my BooHaHa Math Centers pack!

My teaching partner uses math workshop to organize her math block and she already has the BooHaHa recording sheets copied and ready to go this week. She uses centers for the hands on portion of her math rotations. :)  

She also has a math facts rotation and she is sweet enough to use my multiplication roll and covers in this center.  This month she has been using my Halloween Multiplication Roll and Cover set. 

The kids love them and they are so easy to implement. I always put them in a page protector and my students used dry erase markers or math counters as markers.  I got my twelve sided dice from Amazon {here}.  

Fluency is something I always work on with my struggling readers.  I've been working with my IEP students on mastering their third, fourth, and fifth one hundred set of sight words.  They LOVE to play my Trick or Treat Sigh Word Game! 

We have been starting our teacher time guided reading rotation with this game and it's been a great way to get their minds warmed up for reading and have some fun too!

I hope this post helps with your Halloween planning! Have a great week!

My Back to School Lesson Plans

Hi friends! I have received a few messages on my Facebook page from teachers who are moving from the primary grades to intermediate and were curious about my back to school lesson plans.  

So I compiled a post for you guys of my first eight days of school.  Make sure you scroll all the way and down read the entire post for links to the products and freebies included in my back to school lesson plans! 

Our first week of school is a three day week and our second week is a five day week.  

Products featured in my plans: 

• Fabulous Back to School Fun 
• Story of My Name 
• Cooking Up a Great Year Together 
• Types of Sentences Activity Pack 
• School Year Scrapbook 

As you can see, we spend a lot of time learning and practicing procedures, building community, and getting to know each other.  I feel this is SO important, no matter what grade you teach!  You might feel the curriculum crunch, but I promise you WILL make up that time.  Especially if you are doing the Daily Five.  Model and practice those procedures again and again until your students get it right.  Time invested in that now will pay off, I promise.  The years I jumped right into curriculum have been some of my rockiest years.  I certainly teach academics those first two weeks but my main focus is on rules, routines, and community building.  

My school year scrapbook is a new product, and one that I'm SO excited about! I always did a  scrapbook with my third graders and they loved it. However, as the demands of being in a testing grade increased, I stopped doing them a few years ago.  I forgot about them until I ran into one of my former third graders, who is now going into tenth grade, and she told me that she still has her third grade scrapbook and how special it was to her.  So I spent some time this summer turning our messy and time consuming scrapbooks into something more manageable! 

The new version has NO cutting or gluing! All you need to do is select one of the included cover pages and select a monthly page for your students to complete and assemble them before school starts.  I plan on using the stapler setting on our copier that puts a staple at the top and bottom of the page, this makes the packet into a booklet.  One of my coworkers is planning on hole punching the pages and putting them into folders.  

I included multiple options for the beginning and end of the year and for each month. I have options for August-July.  All you need to do is select the pages that best fit your class.  

On the first school day of each new month, I will have my students fill out their scrapbook page for the previous month.  This literally takes twenty minutes tops.  They brainstorm their memorable moments, write about their favorite memory, and color the picture on the page to give it more of the scrapbook feel.  I let them choose memories from home and school, but you can do what works for you!  Here's an example of a completed page:

School Year Scrapbook is a yearlong memory book and makes an awesome keepsake for your students.  I can't wait to show you pictures of our scrapbooks throughout the year. :) 

I also get by with some help from some friends during Back to School!  Our first two weeks in reading are spent on reading strategies and I use Ashleigh's amazing Reading Strategies Unit.  Seriously, go check it out.  Everything you need to get your students really thinking about their reading is in one easy to use file.  It is pictured under reading in my visual plans. I plan on using this fun Finish the Picture freebie from the Thinker Builder as part of our morning work on the first day of school. 

I use the Daily Five to organize my literacy block and follow The Sisters guide for implementation pretty much step by step.  I highly encourage you to read the book if you are thinking of implementing the Daily Five with your students. There are lots of great blog posts about it out there about the Daily Five but the book made it all click for me.  You can find the Second Edition of The Daily Five {here}. 

You can also find a list of the books I use with Cooking Up a Great Year Together to promote a caring classroom environment {here}.  The Toothpaste Words activity is offered as a freebie on my blog {here}. 

Enjoy your day, friends! I hope you found my Back to School Lesson Plans helpful.  

TpT: Teachers Appreciation Sale :)

Hello! I hope that everyone had a great weekend. 
I'm cozied up with my pups trying to relax before our state assessments this week. I'm actually about to print off my testing motivational notes for my sweet kiddos. You can find them {here}.

I also wanted to drop you a line to let you know that TpT is having a Teachers Appreciate Sale. :)

You can check on my store {here}!

I LOVE the annual Teachers Appreciation Sale! It's the perfect time to stock up on goodies to finish the end of the year strong and on any materials you would like to prep over the summer for next year.  Last year, I bought my Focus Wall cards and spent a little bit of time each week prepping them and by the time school started, they were all done. :)

My store will be 20% during the sale and TpT will take an additional 10% off, for a total savings of 28%. :) What a bargain!

Here are some of the items I love using in my classroom at the end of the year. :) You can click on the pictures to check them on TpT. 

I LOVE these memory books because you can print two copies to a page. Perfect for the end of the year, when my copy clicks are low.  :)

I always use the following resources at the beginning of the year as well. :) I know some of you start real early. :)

I'll be back before the sale ends with a fun giveaway! :) Have a great week!

3 Million Teachers Strong Teachers Pay Teachers Sale

Teachers Pay Teachers is now 3 Million Teachers strong and GROWING!  I vividly remembering discovering TpT and teaching blogs three years ago when I unexpectedly changed grade levels right before school began.  Discovering TpT took a huge burden off my shoulders.  The products I purchased made my transition to a different grade level much easier and allowed me to stop spending all weekend preparing lesson plans and materials. The resources I purchased gave me precious time with my husband and fur baby.  It also pushed me to give the whole creating and blogging thing a try.  Most importantly, TpT changed my teaching forever.  I am a stronger and more effective teacher thanks to TpT. 

I am so incredibly thankful that everything TpT has blessed me with.  Not only for the opportunity to sell my own resources, but for the ability to purchase high quality, rigorous, and engaging activities to use in my own classroom every day.  

My entire store will be 20% off Thursday and Friday.  You can head over to my store by clicking on the image below. 

Below is a highlight of some of the resources I'll be using with my kiddos over the next few weeks that will be 28% off, don't forget that coupon code! :)

I've already pulled out March's Fry Phrase Fluency Game.  My kiddos LOVE it.  I put it in a fun leprechaun hat I bought at Target and it's a huge hit in my classroom.  

Pot of Gold on TpT

We are doing some close reading with the picture book, Me and Uncle Romie next week and I plan on using the St. Patrick's Day story elements organizer from this my Spring Graphic Organizer Packet: Set One.  I blogged a little bit more about these organizers {here}.  

Spring Graphic Organizers: Set One on TpT

I also have another set of spring graphic organizers that includes bugs, flowers, rain, and Earth Day. It's appropriately named Spring Graphic Organizers: Set Two.  I blogged more about them {here}. 

Spring Graphic Organizers Set Two on TpT

I am departmentalized this year, which means I only teach English Language Arts.  That doesn't mean my students aren't using my math materials though! I lovingly passed on a tub of them all to the best partner teacher ever. :)  My kiddos love roll and cover just as much as last year's crew and were excited to use the St. Patrick's Day version this week as a choice for computational fluency time. 

St. Patrick's Day Multiplication Roll and Cover on TpT

Easter Multiplication Roll and Cover on TpT

I also have an Easter version available and plan on preparing a generic spring version very soon. :)

Spring also means Test Prep Season, which means I review what synonyms, antonyms, similes, metaphors, and idioms are any chance I get. :)

We reviewed similes and metaphors again today with a tic tac toe game from my Similes and Metaphors Pack. My kiddos loved it and I LOVED hearing them talking about similes and metaphors with each other. 

Similes and Metaphors Activity Pack on TpT

I've linked up this blog post to Blog Hoppin' 3 Million Teachers Strong Link Up.  After I hit publish, I'm off to hop around the other link ups to check out everyone's goodies and build up my wish list!