When I Grow Up! {Giveaway}

When I was little the only thing I ever wanted to be was a teacher.  I'm sure many of you can relate.  You might have "taught" your dolls and stuffed animals… perhaps your younger siblings too.  I'm know my sister appreciated it (I'm being totally sarcastic). 

I knew about the teaching profession because my mom was a teacher… and my aunt… and my uncle… I understood what it would take to become a teacher, and the hard work involved after I got my first job.  Was I prepared?  To a certain extent, Yes!  Was it still a challenge, especially that first year?  Of course!  

This year my school implemented College Mondays.  Every Monday we wear our college spirit shirts - allowing students the opportunity to see all the different schools that are out there.  The point is for the kids to see different options, and to let them dream about their futures.  I wanted to take that idea and go further with my students.  I wanted to give them opportunities to dream about their future professions, but give them a realistic view of how it takes hard work to reach those professions.  

I have asked my different student parents to come in and talk about their jobs.  Over the years the students have learned about what it takes to be a fireman, work in an office setting, work at NASA, be a nurse, an EMT, a lab tech, etc.  I always ask the same questions to the parents - What do you do everyday?  How long did your training take?  What skills did you need to have?  Where did you go to school to learn your career? Why do you think this is a good career?  The kids get a good grasp of the hard work, but also why it's a fulfilling profession.  

So I upgraded the binder paper my students usually use and created this journal for students to fill in as they learn about different careers.  

 This journal contains 11 different careers.

 It also contains a student cover.

 Students will research the information (I do it together in class), and record their information into the journal.  A blank journal sheet is included for additional careers.  

I want kids to dream about their futures - just like we did.  I hope this Student Created Career Journal helps you in your classroom too!

Want to win it?  Just leave a comment below with your email address and I will send it to a lucky winner on December 26th.

Have a great day!     

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I Love a Deal

So last night my husband and I were updating our Amazon wish lists, getting ready for some serious shopping.  I absolutely love all the deals out there - have already gone online shopping over at Kohls, Target, Amazon, Toys R Us, Shutterfly, and Snapfish.  I was given the option of a free trial to Amazon Prime - here comes 2 day shipping!

I started thinking of all the things that I want to buy over at TPT during the big sale… more activities, more clip art, frames, etc... there is a problem though… I'll be "stuck" in a staff meeting until late on Monday.  So I'll most likely start to shop this coming weekend.  I usually break up my purchases into a couple of transactions, I buy my larger purchases early on, look them over, give feedback, and then use credits during my 2nd (or 3rd) transaction to bring the cost down.    

So, hopefully this will help others out by opening up my sale all weekend long.  Yep, you read that right - starting Black Friday everything will be 20% off until Tuesday evening.  If you are going shopping on Monday or Tuesday, remember to use the code: CYBER.  It will save you an extra 10%.      

Okay, time to go get out the Christmas decorations, go shopping, and then the refrigerator repair man is coming over… Let's hope we don't need to get a new one of those! 

Have a great day!

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Winter Products (Pin It Giveaway)

Can you believe December is almost here?  I still can't!  It was last December (over Christmas break) that I started up my little store on TPT.  Over last winter I created a bunch of stuff for my own classroom.  I finally accepted the fact that I could actually make stuff for my own students.    

Since some of these things have been buried in my little store for the past 3 seasons I wanted to share them with you.  Maybe something could help you out.  Links go to TPT if you are interested.

**Want to help me spread the word about them?  Pin one of the products from this page (either from here or TPT) and leave the pin in a comment below.  Tomorrow night (Sunday evening) I'll give away 3 items.  Make sure to leave your email!
  

*Mid Year Math Review (Penguin): These task cards include math facts, double digit multiplication, long division, facts, place value, and rounding.  It helped the kids to remember coming back from Winter break and also the week before vacation.  

*Mid-Year Math Review (Snowman) - These are the same task cards but with snowman clip art. 

*Mid Year ELA Review (Snowman)  - Here is my ELA version: Types of Sentences, Subjects & Predicates, Types of Nouns, Pronouns, and Verbs.  My class used these during workshop to help review.  

*Mid Year ELA Review (Penguin) - Here are the same task cards with a penguin theme.  I mainly used the Snowman in January and the penguins in February.

Regrouping Time!   

*Subtraction with Regrouping - These are the same idea as my super hero set, but in a winter theme.

*Addition with Regrouping - I love the penguins!  They can work all winter long.  

Long Division Practice - I made up 2 clip art versions of the same equations:

*Long Division Winter Version - has snowmen and snowflakes

*Long Division Christmas Edition - has Santa, reindeer, snowmen, and snowflakes

These task cards have helped my students to practice the necessary long division skills.  

*These little penguins had to come back for a multiplication match up/ flashcards.  I used these as part of my math fact stations.  Alone they are flashcards, but with the answers they create match ups.  I keep the different math facts separate (x7's, x3's, etc.) so it was an easy set up.

Have a wonderful weekend!  

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Chocolate Touch and Fever

I can't believe it's almost December. Soon it will be time to cover the house with lights, snowmen, candles... In the classroom that means it's time to read 2 of my favorite chocolate books. Yes 2. I can't just choose one like Jessica said. The beauty of the books is that they are short. Like you can be done with them in the 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break.  

Chocolate Touch and Chocolate Fever are very similar books, but different enough to hold the kids' attention. I like reading them in December because it leads to a great discussion about moderation with all the treats that are out and about (especially with what goes on in the stories).

In class I have a ton of whole class read aloud books.  I know I've mentioned it before, I had a field day a couple of years ago spending bonus points and loading up on $1 books.  We read together every afternoon for about 20 minutes.  Last year I also bought a bunch of Audio books for my read alouds.  Over at Audible they have versions with the authors reading them, it's amazing all the different inflections they use.. much better than I could do!  I have the recordings on my nano (which I plug into my speakers).  

After reading we always do a Venn diagram between the 2. Comparing the characters, the plots, etc.

This summer I also made up these activity cards that go along with Chocolate Touch. I made similar ones for Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and it kept the kids busy thinking more in depth about the story. I would pick a couple a day to go over after our daily readings. 

In addition to the activity cards I have my kiddos use the my mini pack's chapter summaries to write main ideas down, and at the end of the books they write down their favorite parts. Then all the pages are stapled together and they do a compare and constrast between the two. 

Well, that's it! I got nothing else at the moment... Other than reminding you about the blog naming contest going on. 

If your idea is chosen there are multiple prizes to win... Like over 20! 

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Adding, Subtracting, and Parenthesis (Oh MY!)

This week has just been FUN in Math.  

It really has.  I absolutely positively LOVE working in MATH rotations. 

Let me take a moment to say thank you to whoever brainstormed interactive notebooks.  Yes, my kiddos are on their 2nd glue stick of the year (already) but it has been worth it having them so involved (willingly) in the lessons.

I love meeting with my small groups, knowing exactly what each child "gets" every single day.  No guessing at all.  Either they get it or they don't.

In my hands on station, I have been putting review items.  We have reviewed place value and rounding till we are blue in the face, this week was a welcome relief to stick in different addition/subtraction activities.

Then I got to this lesson on Tuesday - 'Solving Expressions' and I knew I had made up some Order of Operation task cards last year... only to find out that they were ones that had multiplication... not what I needed at all to help review & play scoot later on this week.

So I made these new ones up this week.  

Adding and subtracting in the different equations with parenthesis thrown in to help get the kids paying attention to detail.  My kids (I will brag a bit) are so into noticing the difference between the 2 ways the parenthesis could be placed... sometimes I wonder if they are just faking their enthusiasm or if they really do love math that much...

 Anyway - I posted them since maybe they will be able to help someone else too...

... and I always include an answer key since what teacher wouldn't want an answer key.

They are 50% off for a limited time.  :)  

Have a great night!  

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Read Aloud Mini Book Packs - FREEBIES :)

You all know I love to read with my school kiddos.  Seriously, we have a chapter book read aloud going at all times in the classroom.  In past years I have my students write connections in their journals and they take a piece of copy paper to do main idea summaries for the different chapters.  I wanted to make it a little more organized for them (plus cuter), so I started putting together mini packs for the read alouds I get to during the school year.  I'm not done yet with all of them, but I have finished up Charlotte's Web, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Chocolate Fever, Chocolate Touch, and The Lemonade War.  Below is what is included in a typical mini pack.

Read Aloud Mini Packs (Link is to the custom category in the store.)

 Every pack has a journal cover.  

 The chapter summary pages have room for notes, main ideas, predictions, etc.  

The journal pages have room for illustrations, chapter summaries, connections to the text, etc.  

I'm still working on Beezus and Ramona, Stone Fox, The Tiger Rising, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Old Yeller, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Family Under the Bridge, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan.  If you have an idea for another book pack that you would like me to work on please leave a comment or send me an email.  I'll do my best!

Hope this helps someone!  :)  

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Monday Made It

Tis Monday, time to link up with Tara with this week's Monday Made it.  

 This week I printed a ton, then laminated, and cut it all out during a movie and 2 TV shows.  I also made a ton of new products that I'm excited about, here they are again. :)  

But the newest thing that I "made" I actually have to give credit to my husband for.  I got a new laptop yesterday and I wanted to make it mine... meaning girly.  So I changed out the desktop and screen saver, and then I made a comment to my husband that I would love to change my folders on the desktop into something more "me".  He googled folders for mac, found the directions, clicked some random buttons, and under my supervising eye changed out my initial folders into cute landscape images.  Then we went a step further and color coded the folders with the different images.  So here is how my laptop looks now.

We found the images over at Icon Archive.  Aren't they pretty?  I'm loving the fact that they aren't the basic blue anymore.  I'm also loving that I don't have a screen full of stuff at the moment... I still have to organize a ton of files into all the specific resources, but that will come in time.   

I hope you have a great day!  I'm off to play more on my new computer.  :)  

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5 New Products :)

I feel like I'm getting so much accomplished this month (already) in terms for next year.  I wasn't motivated to do much of anything during June, and then July hit and I had the urge to finish up some items in my Summer To Make Folder.

So between yesterday and this morning there are 5 new things in my TPT store.  Maybe you have seen them already on Pinterest, Instagram, or on Facebook.  I was so excited that I just kept clicking the share button.  :)  

First up I had picked up the fantastic dice clip art from Ashley Hughes.  When I saw them I automatically thought they were the going to make my dice headaches go away.  I made up manipulative cards, printed them out, and they are now ready to laminate.  Each kiddo is going to get a plastic bag with 12 little pieces (2 die).  Instead of rolling, throwing, clinking, etc... they just get to draw 2 pieces from their bag - same concept, less headaches.  

Then I started thinking of making up some task cards and the following 2 products were born:  Addition and Multiplication review cards using dice to practice math facts.  

Both of these sets have the manipulatives included as part of the preview files.

At the beginning of every year my students make up a California ABC book.  This year I wanted to make it cute (instead of it being inside a spiral notebook).  So I typed up the vocabulary found in the 4th grade California Social Studies curriculum.  My kiddos can add definitions and images to the words as we learn throughout the year.

Since I love it when things match, I also made up a blank ABC book with matching subject covers.  This will also fold into a half sheet mini books.  :)  

Finally I did a little light reading this week, got some laughs, and finished up my Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Activity cards.  These are the same format as my Chocolate Touch ones - having kids use higher level thinking skills to answer questions from the text.  This is my first read aloud of the year, and I needed to get these laminated.  

So that's what's new with me.  All these things that I recently posted are included in my TPT sale (it runs through tomorrow).  Click any of the above images to go check them out.  :)

Have a great day!

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