TeachersPayTeachers Gift Card Giveaway!!!!

It has been a CRAZY week.  We started back to school on Wednesday and it has been three days of get-to-know-each-other games, slide presentations over rules and procedures, handing out books, covering books, storing mountains of tissue boxes, hand sanitizer, and clorox wipes...you know the drill!

It's the weekend and we need a WELL DESERVED break!  What better way to relax this weekend than with a Back to School Freebie and Raffle?!?!?

Enter the raffle below by following my blog and commenting on your favorite back to school activity.  

Click on the picture below to get a Book Fair (Reading Fair)project FREEBIE (for a VERY limited time) until Sunday!!!!  
(Please leave feedback!)

Back to School Sale on TpT

TpT is throwing a Back to School Sale!

One Day Only!

My Store will also be on sale for even more savings!

Be sure and check it out!

Still Celebrating...and Planning!

 

 

 

So...it's that time of year when you are getting ready for back-to-school!  Supplies are being purchased, classrooms are being readied, and those calendars for the upcoming school year are being handed out!  I like to fill in my planner right away so I at least FEEL like I am organized and on the ball! (If only!!!!)

 

 

So here is the 2016 Yearly Planner and Calendar!

Free for a limited time!

 

 

 

Just print it, 3-hole punch it, and stick in a binder!

 

 

 

Oh...and if you need the rest of 2015,

click HERE for last year's planner!

 

Happy Planning!

 



Classroom FREEBIES that are a MUST HAVE!

These are some of my new favorite FREEBIES that I think every A+ class can benefit from!

How do you get your students to write A+ sentences?

How do you get your students to turn in A+ work?

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How do you get your students to have A+ reading responses?

 

How do you get your students to treat each other with A+ respect?

 

 

How do you get  A+ student participation?

 

How do you get  A+ test results?

 

Study Buddy and Friday Flash Freebie

Do your students know how to study for tests?  Sure, they know they have a test and they may look over their notes and they may even have a parent quiz them, but do they REALLY know how to study?

This is the question I have been asking myself for the past few months.  How do we expect our students to study for tests if we have never actually TAUGHT them how to study?!?!?

So, that is something my 4th graders have been working on...studying how to study!

We have been doing different activities such as flash cards, acronyms, games, etc that can help them study for tests (and maybe even have a little fun while doing so...who would have thought!  Studying can be fun?!?!?)

I also started using the STUDY BUDDY.  

The kids attach their Study Buddy (printed on bright paper so as not to be missed in the backpack!) to their study guide or review sheet.  They use the techniques we have learned in class and mark off what they did.  If they bring their Study Buddy back on the day of the test with a parent signature, I add 5 extra credit points on to their test grade.

This seems to be working well for my class, but you could be creative and change it up to do what works for you!

This is also this week's Friday Flash Freebie!  

Enjoy!

Celebrating Birthdays and a Friday Flash Freebie

I love celebrating birthdays in my classroom, but in the past, have struggled to stay organized and on top of each student's birthday (especially those summer half birthdays we celebrate in the winter).

I thought I would share how we celebrate birthdays in our classroom!  It is a "can't go wrong" system!  I promise!

Create a bulletin board where each student has two cards recognizing them for their birthday. 

The top card is their "ticket" for a birthday surprise.  When it is time to celebrate their birthday, they get to tear off their ticket and turn it in for their surprise.  

The bottom card stays up all year long.

No one will be forgotten and it makes it easy to remember!

One might say it is foolproof!

Click on the picture for a FREE birthday sign.

Today's Friday Flash Freebie is an early elementary unit on hibernation, migration, and adaptation.

It is a fun "winter is coming" unit!

It includes an interactive student booklet.

It also includes a no prep interactive lap book.

There a fun review activities!

And more!

Page 1 - Cover

Page 2 - Copyright

Page 3-6 - All About the Desert Writing

Page 7-14 - Migrating, Hibernating, Adapting Interactive Lap Book

Page 15 - Hibernating Animals Worksheet

Page 16 - Winter Alphabetical Order

Page 17 - Winter Writing

Page 18 - Winter Words

Enjoy!

DEAR and DEAD Time and Friday Flash FREEBIE!!!!

My absolute FAVORITE time of the school day is DEAR time.  (For those of you unfamiliar with DEAR...it means Drop Everything And Read.)  My 4th graders have DEAR time every single day.  I love, love, love to read books (when I can find the time and lately that hasn't been very often) and I want my students to share the same love for books that I have. 

So this is how my DEAR time works.  Every day after our lunch recess, my students walk in the room, grab the book they are reading, and get comfortable.  They can sit pretty much wherever they want in the classroom.  I have a reading corner with bean bags and pillows they are allowed to use.  They can take off their shoes and sprawl out on the floor, they can lean up against the wall, or they can sit at their desk.  There is ABSOLUTELY NO TALKING and once they get comfortable, they must stay in that spot.  No switching books because that causes a distraction.  And now the stage is set...for the next 15 minutes the students can get lost in their books and think of nothing else.  And they do...  

Click on the picture above to download this FREEBIE poster to display during your DEAR time!

I also do DEAD time (Drop Everything And Draw), but this is much fewer and far between.  We are so busy in 4th grade, but I do think drawing is an important skill to have.  My goal is once a month.  The same rules apply...get comfortable and forget about everything else but drawing.  I do play music during DEAD time, but this is optional.

Click on the picture above to download the FREEBIE poster.

This weeks Flash Freebie is my newly created Literature Unit for SCAT by Carl Hiaasen.  

It includes vocabulary, review questions, a research project, and an end of the book test.

Enjoy it quickly...it won't be free for long.

Friday Flash Freebie and some Long Division Help!

Who doesn't love long division?!?!?!?
The dividing, multiplying, subtracting...we all have to agree that it is the best thing ever!!!
Well...there are some who may not agree with us. (Shocking, I know!)  And some of students may not agree with us either.   So to make division a little more fun for everyone (and easier to do) I created this exercise.

I laminated this for my classroom. 

I also made a smaller laminated version for each student to keep right on their desk as they work their division problems.

Early on in the division process, I give them sheets like this, with grid lines to really help them stay organized in dividing.

They also have a sheet like this to help them multiply to check their answer.

Ahhhh...gotta love long division!

This Monster Division Poster is my Friday Flash Freebie!  Click on any of the pictures above to download this Freebie.  But hurry, it's not free for long!

Along with my Friday Flash Freebie, I am also sharing this Freebie printable.

I found this saying at http://www.theteachertreasury.com/ and converted into a printable poster that we are using for our school's Visitor's Day.

Friday Flash Freebie and Math Journal View

We are already in our 3rd week of school (CRAZY!!!!) and I wanted to share with your our Math Diaries.  

We call them our Math Diaries because they have a theme from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

This diary goes along with our Saxon Math series for 4th grade.  Each day we do some Math review and a page or two out of our Math Diary which is essentially our Math notebook.  Here are some samples from this year.

The students always respond very well to this Math Diary.  They love the Wimpy Kid theme and it gives them a resource tool to utilize throughout the year!

Here are a few upcoming pages!

I am constantly updating and making tweaks to our diaries.  This year my main focus is preparing a Power Point to go along with each page of notes.  I will have this ready to go by the summer!

This product is available for download right now at a discount.

Click on the picture below!

Now on to  Flash Freebie Friday!

For one day only, my newly listed Classroom Library Labels are free!

I use these labels in my own classroom library to organize the books by genre.  Simply get some baskets (I ordered mine years ago from a school supply catalog, but the Dollar Tree has baskets that would work for much cheaper) and attach the labels with rings.  I would suggest laminating for durability!

Enjoy!