Flash Freebie! Wringer by Jerry Spinelli

Take advantage of my Flash Freebie Download of Wringer by Jerry Spinelli before it's too late!  All I ask is that you leave feedback HERE in return of your download!

This unit is full of chapter comprehension questions, vocabulary, graphic organizers, and an end of the book quiz.

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!)

Book Fairy

I just got back from an amazing reading conference where I came back to my classroom packed with an armful of books, freebies, and ideas!  And now I am busily preparing to implement them into my classroom!  

One of my favorite ideas, and one of the easiest, is the idea of having a "Book Fairy" visit your classroom!  As teachers, we all know our students' hobbies, likes, and interests.  So finding books for your students is as easy as picking a book off your bookshelf, sticking a book fairy card on top of the book (they will know it's from you), and sticking them on their desk for them to find.  

They may not read every book you recommend, but they will be encouraged to at least try.  And eventually, they will read at least one of the books you suggest!

Click on the picture below to download your FREE Book Fairy cards!

1,000 Followers Celebration!

Can I get a Woot! Woot!?

has reached 1,000 followers so we are having a celebration!

For a limited time, you can get the following freebies!

AUTHOR STUDY UNIT

This author study is for upper elementary level classrooms and includes a banner heading and multiple posters depicting some of our most famous authors!  

Check it out and leave some feedback!

ART  NOTEBOOK

This art unit was created as a way to teach the basics of art to my 4th, 5th, & 6th graders.  It covers the basic elements of art and includes a student interactive notebook and a corresponding Power Point presentation.

Check it out and leave some feedback!

MUNCHING THROUGH MATH FACTS

This is a year long set of math facts - one for each day of the school year!

On each page is 25 math facts that included a mixture of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division!  Give students a minute to finish or have them time themselves to see how long they finish the set! 

Check it out and leave some feedback!

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?

 

Favorite Freebie Sites and a Friday Flash Freebie

Check out these AWESOME sites that offer freebie downloads EVERY teacher can use!

Finding the best sites is hard because there are literally millions of them out there.  Here are my Favs!

Doodle Art Alley offers fun and unique free printables that students can color.  The variety is amazing and goes from the various holidays to different subjects to motivating phrases.

Here is a fun site that offers free fonts that can be used in the classroom!

We Give Books is an awesome site where you have access to thousands of books for free.  Just sign up for a free membership.  The nice thing about this site is you can project the books on your Smartboard and read them together as a class.  There are plenty of books for upper elementary as well as primary grades, so head on over there and check it out!

I am not a huge fan of showing long videos in class.  However, I do think videos can add so much to a lesson.  PBS Learning (also called Teacher's Domain) gives you free access to thousands of educational video clips.  You can search by grade level, topic, and subjects.  

Math-Aids.com is a nice site to go to when you need extra Math practice in a certain area.  I actually do not use this site a whole lot for classroom work, but I do share this with parents who are looking for extra Math practice for their children.  It's free!

I am going to be honest,  I have not been using this next site for  very long.  However, I love it and know I will continue to use it.  A teacher friend recently told me about GoNoodle which is a nice site for 5 minute brain breaks.  It gets students out of their desks and moving which, let's face it, they need!

And....saving the BEST for last is TpT!  I feel like this is an obvious one but I had to list it.  This site is my #1 go-to when I am looking for something.  There are lots and lots of FREEBIES, but there are also bazillions (that's a word, right????) of reasonably priced resources.  And you get them instantly!  Memberships are free so if you haven't been there, check it out!

  

Download this Divisibility Rules poster for FREE a FLASH!

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.

Book Adventure and a Friday Flash FREEBIE!

I don't know how many of you are aware of Book Adventure, but we use it in our school to promote reading and it is wonderful!

I talked about Book Adventure quite some time ago, but I wanted to bring it up again because we use it DAILY in our classroom.

Book Adventure is a FREE online testing site powered by Sylvan Learning.

Each student needs to be registered for an account and from there they can go in and take tests for nearly all reading levels.

If students pass a quiz they earn points.  The goal is to keep earning as many points as you can.

As a teacher, you can go in and see how your students are doing, what books they have tested on, the reading level of these books, and the amount of points they have earned!

Our school uses this as an incentive all year and teachers incorporate it into their classroom accordingly.  

This semester, we are doing a football themed incentive where students move their football across a football field on a school bulletin board as they gain points towards their overall goal.

In my room, we have set a semester goal of 1,000 points by the end of the 1st semester.  (Last year each student set an individual goal instead.  Both ways work well.)

I have a student computer and a student iPad that students can use to take Book Adventure Tests.  Sometimes we will make a trip to the computer lab and take a test as a whole class.  

I have a Book Adventure Leaderboard where I list the top three students in the class and their points.  This gets the competition going for some of your higher readers.  

Click here for a FREEBIE Leaderboard poster.

I also offer prizes for every 500 points earned.

The possibilities are endless! 

Go to www.bookadventure.com and give it a try!

Today's Flash FREEBIE is my Biomes Poster Set.  

This is a Poster Set of the main Biomes. They can be printed out in color or grayscale and can be used as posters in which can be laminated and hung in the classroom or they can be distributed to each student as each biome is studied. I do both when I teach the biomes unit. There are nine posters of the following biomes: tropical rain forest, deciduous forest, coniferous (boreal) forest (taiga), desert, tundra, grassland, savannah, ocean, wetlands, and freshwater.

ENJOY!  And HAPPY FRIDAY!