Thank You (Parts of Speech Freebie)

Thank you so much for following me, here are these Parts of Speech Posters.  It's over on Google Docs.  Hope it helps someone.  :)  

Tis the Season to Shop!

Have you heard the news?  Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) are quickly approaching!!  I have been so busy this past fall, that I am looking forward to picking up more resources that I know will work beautifully in my classroom.  Before I go on and share my wish list, I wanted to share 3 new things that I just uploaded! 

Yep!  My students need a little extra help working with Contractions, so Contraction Task Cards and Match Up was created over break.

My kiddos also need some more review with Multi-Digit Multiplication and Long Division, so I made up some winter themed task cards for them to use during our December and January math centers.  Then I bundled the sets because why not?! 

Maybe something can help someone.  :)  

On my own wish list, I'm excited to pick up the following products on Monday and Tuesday!

Cooking with Science

Bulletin Board Book Report

Winter Close Reading

Presentations

Fluency Passages

Now, talking about my own store and what people have tucked away... I guess a lot of people do what I do, they tuck freebies on their wish lists.  I do the same thing until I have a chance to download them.  :)  

 

My most wish listed items in my store are my Whole Class Writing Journal Bundle and my Starter Pack.  I've done this now for the past 3 years in my classroom, and every year it amazes me how much I can contribute the journals to helping build relationships in my classroom.  

Here's my picture from 3 years ago.  

The kids share about themselves in the journals and then they learn about each other when reading them during silent reading time.

Here's my picture from 2 years ago.  Now I just have tons more.  

I store them in just a couple of big plastic baskets in my writing area.  This year I actually prepped the journals before school even ended, I had my "future teachers" help me glue them onto the spiral notebooks.  During class time I have the students write in the journals during our ELA workshop, when they are done with their main writing piece of the week, and when they finish early.  Students are allowed to read them during Silent Reading time or during ELA workshop.    

 

My next paid Wishlisted item is my California History Bundle.  This history bundle has everything I use throughout the year with my kiddos.  The first week of school my students get their own California ABC book that has vocabulary words that they will learn throughout the year.  I use my Regions Pack to start out the year.  The kids create postcards and a mini book as they research their region.  We create Salt Dough maps and form the boundaries.  For our Native Tribe unit my students research and create a writing journal, outlining what they would do if they were part of their specific tribe.  After Native Americans, the students learn about our California Early Explorers, and we research and write about the 3 men that are most famous for exploring our state.  California Missions are a huge part of our curriculum, and my students research a Mission a Day and record the information into our Research Books, and then they create a Mission Project.  After missions we learn about the California Gold Rush and they write a historical narrative as if they were a miner during that time period.  We end the year creating our State Symbol Fact Fans, creating our own drawings on the bookmarks that form a fact fan.  

Want to share what you are excited about picking up in the BIG sale?  Or something that has worked wonderfully in your own classroom?  Please link up or comment below!    

An InLinkz Link-up

Author's Purpose

I have this thing with Author's Purpose.  My class will talk about it all year, but we don't do any crafts with it until it's close to Thanksgiving.  Then we make up paper plate pies.  The top is the top crust of the pie, the bottom plate is the different pieces with one of these little notes from Dandelions and Dragonflies.  

This year I also found these free task cards from Rachael Parlett that hit the spot.  Great review! 

Then of course the kids had to add something in their ELA notebooks as well, so I used this freebie from Blair Turner. 

Blair's picture

All in all - they got it!  What do you do to review Author's Purpose?  

Need some TPT cash? {Giveaway}

We are so excited for the holiday season that we couldn't help but spread some love! Lots of your favorite TPT Teacher-Authors and I have teamed up to give YOU some TPT spending money. We love you and appreciate you (and we wish we could give all of our fabulous followers some money)!

Enter the Rafflecopter below by simply following our TPT stores, and you will have a chance to win one of five $25 TPT gift cards! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Comprehension Cootie Catchers

This week I wanted to share what I'm thankful for in the classroom.  One thing I tried this year are these cootie catchers from Runde's Room.  She has them for both Math and Reading/ELA.  My kiddos are at the age that they love cootie catcher anything, so it's a win win. 

My kids use them on a weekly basis on Thursdays to help review whatever skill we are working on.  The reading comprehension ones I copied on colored paper, and passed them out the 2nd week that I introduced the concept (the first week we are writing about them in notebooks and making anchor charts).  The colored paper helps me to keep them organized by strategy, and I can easily tell from a distance that kids are using them (instead of pulling out their own ones from their backpacks).     

I reuse them too.  They go into a labeled plastic shoebox, all 16 of them (1 per partner group) fit inside.  I'm sure that I will need to eventually make more copies of them, but in the meantime they are working out great - and since we don't use every single one every single week they are lasting.

Great motivation!  I highly recommend them!

Have a wonderful day!

Food Chain Turkeys

This year I decided to have some fun using turkeys to have the kids wrap up our Ecosystem unit.  We are done.  Really done.  

Don't you love assembly line projects?  I cut up 6 colors of construction paper, making 2 inch strips. Kids went down the line and grabbed one of each color, a turkey head (similar to a bowling pin), a black piece of construction paper, and a bottle of glue.  

The kids took each one of the construction paper strips and labeled them with what they mean.  

Purple = Prey

Yellow = Sun

Orange = Scavenger

Green = Producer

Brown = Decomposer

Red = Predator

Of course I didn't write it in order on the board.  It's not my first rodeo.  :)  The kids had to put them in order from beginning to end.  I did tell them the beginning and end steps - well really they told me, and I wrote it on the board with the numbers.  Then they got to work.  

We had to have a talk about what direction the feathers needed to point, but then they were off to prove to me that they knew which order to put them in.  

Here's my example (which I didn't show them when they were creating theirs).  I had to show them how to turn the construction paper into feathers, not really a big deal though.  

Do you keep papers on the ground to dry?  Then do you have to step over them until the glue dries?  Gotta love glue projects!

I think they came out so well, the kids really understood it!  Before they could glue it down, they had to show me their feather and the color order.  I was able to check it and tell them if they needed to try again.  I will definitely be doing this again!

Turkey Art

I like to remind my students to be thankful for the everyday constants in their lives.  Some years we make mini books, and I give them a couple of minutes every day to brainstorm gigantic lists.  This year I decided to pass out a Melonheadz clip art freebie and they used it to brainstorm turkey feathers.  It was such a nice display the past couple weeks of school, students were reading other papers, and wanting to add to their own thankful turkey feathers.  

I'm thankful for MelonHeadz and all the freebies on her blog.  Her freebies were definitely my jumping off place when I started creating 2 years ago.  

I know it's been a while - almost a full month since I last posted, but this past week I finally remembered to take pictures of everything we have been up to lately.  Stay tuned over the next week as I post everything.  :)  

Hope you had a great week!

Reitz Adoption Bundle

Last call for this amazing bundle!  My blogging buddy Nicholas Reitz and his wife are in the process of adopting their first child.  It's an exciting time, a stressful time, and a budget draining time.  This bundle was specifically created to help with their adoption costs.  It is a mixture of a little bit of everything fall related - a total of 19 products for only $25!  It will be available through mid November, then it's gone for good!

Here's a glimpse of what's included:

  You probably recognize many of the sellers, we all just wanted to do something to help Nick raise some of the adoption costs.  Here's who else donated:  

Elementary AMC

Ideas by Jivey

Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans

Fifth in the Middle

Head Over Heels for Teaching

Pinkadots Elementary

I Love My Classroom

Fourth Grade Flipper

Sweet Rhyme - Pure Reason

Collaboration Cuties

I {heart} Recess

Teaching with a Touch of Twang

Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road

Where the Wild Things Learn

Hurry before it's too late!