June Dollar Deals and Freebies!

Just a quick post to let you know about some great $1 deals and freebies all month long!

I've teamed up with some TPT Sellers to kick off the summer with some fun!  You can grab $1 deals each Thursday for the whole month.  We will also be promoting some amazing freebies on Friday.

Just search on TPT using the hashtags to find all the deals!  I just picked up 4 products that I can wait to use next year!  Only a $1 each!  Shhh.....  don't tell my husband!

Thursday - #thriftythursday
Friday - #freebiefriday

I picked two of my most popular science products to offer at $1 for TODAY ONLY!  Grab these deals before they are gone!

Just click on the picture to go directly to TPT and see all of the fantastic $1 deals for today!

Happy SHOPPING!  Don't forget to search tomorrow for some FREEBIES!

TPT Wishlist Linky!

It is my favorite time of year!

My tree is decorated, the house has lights, and almost all of the gifts have been purchased.  Not wrapped....  let's get serious!  I can't get all of that accomplished during Thanksgiving break!

Another BONUS....  It's time for the big TPT Sale!  Just click on the picture and use the code CYBER2016 to save on all those items on your wish list!

Just in case you need to fill up that cart I've teamed 

up with some other TPT Sellers to bring you....

Can't decide what to buy during the upcoming TPT sale?  Look no further!  These are my top three wish listed items on TPT by other teachers just like YOU!

Wish List Item #1 is a science packet to help you jump into studying living and non-living things!  It includes printables, word sorts, hallway displays, anchor charts and more!  Here are some of my favorite hands-on activities for this packet.

Students create their own riddles and put them in a pile.  Each student takes a riddle and has to solve it by gluing it to the anchor chart.  You can have them work independently or with a partner.  It's lots of fun and gets the kids "talking" about their thinking process.

My favorite part of this packet is the end of the unit assessment.  Instead of a test, the students create a project showing that they can identify the difference between living and non-living things.  Just take a piece of construction paper and fold it in half.  On the inside the student cuts and sort the pictures that come in the packet.  It is easy to differentiate for higher learners by adding a writing requirement to their project or having them add additional pictures to their project.  The kids love completing this and having so much fun they don't realize it's an assessment.

Wishlist Item #2 is everything you need to make your kids LOVE reading centers again!  And you TOO!  These centers have been a game changer for me!  It includes six different centers that you set up and you are done!  It only requires changing out a few books here and there. Can I say NO PREP each week!  YES, PLEASE!

It comes in 3 different themes to fit any classroom.  If you are looking for another theme, please email me and I can create one to match your classroom!

Here is a look into the Paw Print themed pack.  It has 6 different centers.  Each center has directions and all of the printables that the students would need to complete the center.  The only thing you need are some picture books, tiny stickers, and some colorful crayons/markers.  It's things that you already have in your classroom.   Just organize each center into a folder.  Once you set it up, you are ready to have uninterrupted time with your groups while the students complete their centers.

You can check out the different themes by clicking on the links below:

                  Rainbow/Kid Themed
                  Safari Themed
                  Paw Print Themed

Wishlist Item #3 will help your kids become masters at singular and plural nouns.  It includes an interactive anchor chart, projectables to teach the skill, a matching game, cut/paste activity, and printables to practice the skill.   Just spend a week on this packet and your kids will have this skill down!

Here are the anchor charts to teach the skill.   Just open the pdf file and use your projector to show the slides.  Pick slide/presentation view to use them just like a PowerPoint.  The kids love seeing them on the screen to look back at during independent work time.  I put them up each day when we work and if I forget one of the kids always reminds me....  Where are the charts?

     

My favorite part of the packet is creating a word sort as a class.  It makes an amazing anchor chart and the kids take such pride in their work.  All of the pieces to the chart are included.  Just cut them apart and give each student/group some pieces to glue onto the chart.  It lets them get out of their seats and interact with their classmates.  

Want to see more wishlisted items from other stores?  See what others can't wait to buy!
Take a look at the TPT Wishlist Linky!  I know you will find some goodies you just have to buy.  I know I did!!!!!

You will be glad you read all the way to the bottom!  It pays off to read!!!!!!

Want to win a $70 TPT gift certificate to use during the sale?  I've teamed up with some sellers to do an Instagram Blog Hop.  Just click this picture to go to get hopping.  Hurry the hop will soon!  I really hope one of you wins!

Happy Teaching!

It's Testing Time Already??????????????

Where has the year gone?  I can't believe we will begin state testing in two weeks.  Did I get it all covered?  Are they going to bubble and not get lost in the answer sheet?  I am starting to have those testing nightmares already!  Ha Ha!

This post will be all about test review.  YIPPPPEEEEE!

We reviewed conjunctions with a quick activity.  Each child picked out two sentences that they could join together with a conjunction.  They wrote each sentence on a sentence strip.  Next, they glued a "glue bottle conjunction" to join the two sentence strips.  This really helped them understand that they had to "glue" the sentence together to make it correct.  We still are working on capital letters and punctuation, but they basically have the idea.

I had to share some other Pinterest finds that another teacher on my hall found.  She made this cute replica from a picture she saw on Pinterest.  So cute to help them remember the difference between area and perimeter.  I'm going to made this to my charts for next week.

 They made some "pledges" for testing time.  "OWL" use my BEST Test Taking Strategies.  Adorable!  Each child made their own owl and write their favorite strategy on it.

We made a BRAG BOARD on the chalkboard to show off good work from our review activities.  The kids LOVE to see who's papers got picked and we make a huge deal as we put new stuff up.  Here is a picture of the board from one day this week.

                           

We reviewed magnets and made these flipbooks.  They turned out GREAT!

We have been using several packets from my TPT store to help them review.  At this point in the year I don't have time to spend with a lot of prep.  Most of them are just print and GO!  Which I LOVE!

The first one is no prep to review sentences that don't belong.  It's a project on my board and use product.  No copies at all.

Elapsed time!  Holy cow is that a hard skill.  We have been much more successful since we started putting it on a number line.  Here is something that we will be using next week to review.  It is another SCOOT game that is a simple print and go.  Nothing to put together.

We are also reviewing place value with a SCOOT game.  Can you tell we love to play SCOOT!  My kids LOVE to see the cards hanging up when they come in.  It's so easy and it gets them up and moving.  

It has an answer sheet and key, as do all the games.  Since paper is a little hard to come by this time of year, we are going to just write our answers on notebook paper.

We will also being using one of my newest products for math test prep.  All you have to do is project the questions on the screen.  It comes with answer cards that you can print off for the kids to use or you can use whiteboards.  

I also have math and ELA test prep available in my TPT store for my 1st and 2nd grade friends.  It is aligned to common core and SAT 10.  All of the test prep bundles are on sale right now.  : )

So that's about it for today.  I am getting very close to my first goal with my blog and TPT.  As soon as I hit it look for some very special "thank you" giveaway and a sale to celebrate.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

Making Fossils!

My student teacher knocks it out of the ballpark AGAIN!  He is just wonderful and I can't wait until he has the chance to have his own classroom.  I can't tell you how much fun I have had teaching alongside him these past few weeks.

I told him to come up with something easy to review why/how a fossil is formed.  I figured he might find a book or a video clip to show.  We only set aside 15 minutes for the review....  and yes my class did this in 15 minutes!

He did a real quick review of how a fossil was made and why fossils are important.  I was stunned by how well the kids explained it and they used lots of text evidence terms in their descriptions.  He gave each of the kids a ball of clay that he had already rolled, a paper plate, toothpick, and a wooden leaf.  The kids rolled and stretched their clay until they had it thick enough and large enough to make an imprint of the leaf.  They used toothpicks to add veins to their leaves and he even thought to throw in a quick review of what purpose the veins have in a leaf!  Here are some pictures from this quick activity.

We let them dry for a few days and they turned out stunning!  The kids can't wait to take them home.  We used one tub of Crayola Model Clay - about $7.  You can buy it at Michaels - one of my MOST favorite stores.  FYI - my store gives a 15% off your purchase with your school ID.  

So if you have a few minutes and need a fun activity to review fossils this one was a HUGE HIT!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

Chocolate Cookie Digs!

We had the BEST time in science!  I have a wonderful student teacher this semester and his lesson yesterday ROCKED!  We have been working on identifying evidence that something living had been

there before.  So he came up with a fun fossil lesson.  He filled a plastic tub with sand and chocolate chip cookies.  The kids dug into the tub to "excavate" their rock cookie. 

Once they had their cookies, the had to dig out the chocolate chip "fossils" like real archaeologists do.  They used toothpicks and slow but surely found that getting the chocolate chips out without any cookie or sand on it was harder than they thought.

The activity took about 20 minutes and was so much fun!  We warned them not to eat the cookie and rewarded them all with a new cookie to munch on after we finished.  The student that found the most fossils got an extra cookie!  If you try this make sure that you use soft cookies, not the hard ones. 

All in all it was a great lesson and the kids LOVED IT!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy