Crossword Puzzles - Be Still My Heart

I love making my kids use crossword puzzles in class to review vocabulary.  There are tons of free websites out there, but I keep finding myself heading to this link.  It makes it easy to input the words, definitions, adding a title, and choosing whether or not to include a word list, answer key, etc.

At the end of the chapter I pull up the site, and type in the information.  It allows me to save it as a PDF for next year.  The kids are actually excited to do it because it is fun!  It's a great way to review! 

Do you use crossword puzzles too?  What other games do you play for vocabulary?

  

Monday Made It: Week 7

It's Monday!  These Summer Mondays are my favorite of the entire year.  I love seeing all the ideas every single week.  Really!  My Monday mornings usually go as follows.  Wake up as early as possible to check out 4th Grade Frolics blog (on my phone) to see if she's posted.  She always has since I'm way over on the West Coast.  Then I stumble downstairs to link my post up to her blog, get some breakfast in me, and start reading all the posts.  Mondays are the day that I tend to pin a bunch of stuff.  Overload on Pinterest!  I do take a break throughout the posts to feed the dog and fish, check in with my boys, get ready for the day, etc... but mainly I'm getting caught up on blog world.

I got so excited on Saturday that I already posted some of my Made Its.  I couldn't wait!  Chutes and Ladders turned into an Order of Operation Game, and all my Math Interactive Notebooks are D.O.N.E.

  

My sons also made up my birthday pencils for next year.  They said they were bored, so I "helped" them to find something to do.  I doubt they will complain again anytime soon.  This time around I decided to do the simple route.  I had picked up these foam stars and some pencils from the Target Dollar Spot.  No offense to my laminator, but I am tired of cutting things out.  The packages of foam stars even came with little adhesive tabs that made it extra easy to stick a pencil on the bottom.  

This weekend has been filled with creating a project that is near and dear to me.  I absolutely LOVE my Morning Math Meeting every day, and I really wanted to do the same idea with Vocabulary.  After searching high and low, I decided to create some headers and activities that I can stick into a pocket chart for my students to work with words every day.

Introducing: Wonderful Weekly Words!

 I made up 25 headings and 10 different vocabulary cards.  I don't have a pocket chart at home but here's the idea on my carpet.  

Each day will have the kids working with a new Word of the Day in addition to another type of word.  The plan (at this moment) is Mondays for Homonyms, Tuesdays for Prefix/Suffix, Wednesdays for Roots, Thursdays for Character Traits, and Fridays for Specials - basically words in other categories.  Friday will also be a review day.  Each week the pocket chart will look like this to start our Monday morning.  Those little activity cards will rotate around throughout the week for kids to do different things with the words, and I'll add specific word cards under each heading.  The kids will write in their notebooks, creating their own dictionaries of words we learned throughout the year.  

To keep everything organized, I took my portable file box and changed it up. 

I printed off the headers and activity cards half page to save ink (and paper).  At the moment they are tucked into the box.  I also have a hanging file folder dedicated to each type of word that I know my students will be using each week.  This will be easy to keep over on the carpet near my rolling pocket chart holder.  

Speaking of file folders... I also ordered a new teacher bag for this coming school year.  My friend is currently having a Thirty One party, so I decided to splurge on a Zip Top Organizing Utility Tote.  Then I had to get the matching bottle holder and key fob too.  The beauty of this bag is that it fits a portable file folder box inside.  Easy way to keep things organized while bringing things home to grade.  

Isn't it pretty?!?

     

Now I know it has nothing to do with a Made It since I just ordered it... I'm just so excited that I wanted to share.  :)  Here's an image from The Nest Effect with the file folder system.  I'm hopeful that mine will be as organized.   

I also made up Ninja Summer Boot Camp for my own boys.  It's over on Google Docs if you want it.   We have 4 weeks until the first day of school, and they really need to start remembering their skills.  A little practice a day for the next 4 weeks and they should be good to go!  

Basically, the kids choose one math, reading, review, and research activity per day from the list of choices.  There's no need to be bored...  

When completed they color in that activity.  If you don't like an activity, just make up your own.  :)  Some activities are on there twice.  Hope it helps!     

Have a wonderful day!  

Spring Break Bucket List, Sunday Store Update & Sale

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  I need to remember to wear green today, don't want to be pinched!!

Today I'm linking up with Brigid to let you in on my bucket list for Spring Break.  I still have 9 school days left until Spring Break... not that I'm counting or anything... ha ha!  Yeah, like none of us are counting!! :)

Okay - here's my plan for break:

1.  Drive to Pismo Beach with the family...

We love to go for part of our break.  We stay at the Sea Gypsy Motel.  It is directly on the beach.  I've stayed at that same hotel my entire life...   

2.  I will walk every morning on this beach and on this pier.  

3.  I will go shopping on this main street... they have a magically delicious frozen yogurt place about 1/2 way down the street.  This is about a 3 minute walk from the hotel.  


4.  I will most likely eat at Splash's Cafe, Giuseppe's Cucina Italiana, and Old West Cinnamon Rolls sometime during our stay...

5. ...and will most likely go with my mom and my sister to shop at the outlets.

 

6.  We will also take the boys to the Dinosaur Park - it overlooks the ocean.  :)

7.  I will also spend a lot of time reading.

8.  I should probably do some laundry... or some cleaning... or some organizing... or some grocery shopping when we get back home.

9.  If I get inspired, I might create some more things for my class and for TPT.

Of course there is a chance that none of #8 or #9 will get accomplished... :)  

Sunday Store Update:

Here are the things I've added to the store since last Sunday.  Thanks to All Things Upper Elementary and Mrs. Wheeler for the adorable buttons!  Mrs. Wheeler is having a linky party - so check it out! Everything is still 20% off the rest of today.    

Main Idea Caterpillar

Gnome Activity Templates

California Regions

ELA Review Example Book

Have a great day.  

Game Board Templates = End of Unit Fun!

We finished up the end of Unit 4 this week in reading - so it was time to review vocabulary. I gave the kids the option of how to review by letting them choose what game template they wanted to use. Everyone had the same 15 vocabulary words (we did this over 2 days - so 30 words total).

The options I gave them were playing GNOME (like bingo), 

scrabbling the words, 

creating a hide the word drawing, 

making a board game, and creating a word search. 

They chose their specific activities and after they created their templates, worked with others (switched papers to complete the activities) to review the meanings of the specific words in the templates. They had fun!

This is over in my store if you are interested.

Welcome and Word Walls

Yesterday was fun!  I enjoyed talking to so many of you through the comments, email, and on Facebook.  If you grabbed a freebie, I hope it will help you in your classroom.  

Welcome to the new followers of this little blog!  Before I dive into everything I wanted to show you around on here... Over on the right side there is a lot of stuff to help keep me hopefully organized and to hopefully give you resources you need - Labels/Lists from the different past posts, Buttons to my Pinterest, Facebook and TPT store, Different pages that I have posted pictures, and Buttons/Blog Links to the places I like to head for resources.   

Last night I couldn't sleep because I started thinking of my plan book.  You know - the one that I've been avoiding for the past 13 days.  I was thinking about how we just started the Medicine unit right before we left for vacation and how I really want to create a Word Wall in my classroom to house all the words - not just the 5 or 6 from the week.  I didn't have a clue where I could put it because I'm really out of space on my walls, but it's important to me to find room.  

Now at the beginning of the year I had every intention of using this cursive alphabet for my word wall - but it didn't work!  I mean, it started to work, but then the spaces were all off and the words were tiny.  Ultimately, it didn't work the way I thought it could.  Now that entire board has been redone to include both my FACE of a Reader and VOICES strategies.

I'm thinking that I will either take the squares that I normally put the 6 vocabulary words (and all the other vocab), and instead hang fabric in that area to create another bulletin board - or I will post them on my cabinet doors (since I moved the stuff off of those to put on the actual Reading and Math boards).  I won't be back in the classroom until the morning before the kiddos walk in the door, I'm almost guaranteed that it will be pulling teeth to get my own boys up and ready for school that day, so I'm expecting this project will have to be tackled after school or during prep.  

Like I said - I couldn't sleep - so I created Word Wall Vocabulary and Definitions for my new board in the different units that we study for Reading.  They are based on the stories that we go through.  Maybe you study the same units?  I posted them as a 5 unit bundle as well as individually over at TPT.    

At present, I am dealing with 3 boys having 3 different tent/forts set up all over the downstairs of my house.  Tonight is the last of the Christmas celebrations - I think this is #6???  I did open up my plan book and had more planned for next week than I remembered.  Isn't that always a good sign?!  Hope you have a great day!

End of Unit Review, Ordering Owl Pellets, and I WON!

This week we are finishing up the end of Unit 2.  Every Monday the kiddos write their definitions and draw pictures that go with each of their vocabulary words for that week's story.  They each have their own composition book.  It's nice and neat.  It's a routine.  
This week is the end of the Unit and they are getting ready to take their Reading Lions vocabulary test tomorrow.  Yesterday they created vocabulary cards for the entire unit - all 34 words - this was to reinforce for those visual learners that really need to see the definitions one more time.  They did so willingly because of the promise of using them for a game today.   Now, I tend to become indecisive at times when it's "game" time.  I really couldn't make a decision between Charades, Pictionary, and Hangman - so I let them choose how they wanted to practice.  It was organized chaos, but it was wonderful to watch.  One side of the room held the kiddos using their cards and their whiteboards to draw pictures with a partner.  They took turns going back and forth.  The other side of the room also had kids with their cards and whiteboards and partners, but they were guessing with the typical hangman fashion.  Then in the front of the room, there were groups of 3's and 4's acting out the words.  They also had their cards.  Each child could be heard guessing the words, and then they had to say the definitions for their partners to hear.  Small groups allowed the students to have numerous turns.
Sometimes it pays to be indecisive.
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Okay - onto the next thing... Last year I bought Owl Pellets and my class loved them.  This year the money has been extra slow rolling in, so I used it as incentive to have students try to donate something to help our class.  Since we now finally have enough for our field trip, it was time to order.  Since I bought from the company last year, and it was a great product, I wanted to share it with you.  
www.discountowlpellets.com 
There really is a website for everything out there.  This is a family owned business that operates out of Washington.  I bought the Individual Bargain Bags (16 packages of them - $1.05 each) instead of buying standard or premium pellets (more $).  It's a bag of a lot of "stuff" and each bag has a ton of different bones to sort.  Last year I had 4 students share a bag and it worked, though it was a lot of hands in a small area.  This year I want them to work in partners and each have their own amount to take home.  Shipping is very reasonable.  They have a ton of pictures on their website, as well as bone sorting charts, and FAQ.  Check them out!
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Last for today - I WON Tara's giveaway.  :)  That made my day yesterday, and it kept me smiling throughout today.  What did I win? Then, as if life couldn't get any sweeter, she surprised me  with her "Be Merry" banner!  Super cute!    
      
Life is good!  I've laminated about 80 sheets of all my goodies from TPT, and just bought 3 more packages of laminating sheets from Amazon.  They are on sale for $9.88 each at the moment.  
  Yay!