March means MOTIVATION!

My kiddos and I are being Motivating in March!

We have taken a pledge to be motivating to not only each other, but ourselves!  Here is one of my favorite sayings....  I mean who doesn't LOVE confetti?

Last week we celebrated Dr. Seuss and we dressed up, read, and even had the pleasure of the Superintendent visit our class to read to us!  What a treat!

I tried to create as many fun activities as I could to go with our skills during the week and the Dr. Seuss stories we read.  Here are our TRUFFULA TREES!  We have been working on adjectives and we filled the trees with five adjectives to describe our tree.

We have been working on timelines and I pulled out facts from a Dr. Seuss biography that we read to let the kids create a timeline.  Some of the facts had dates and others they had to use the text to put them in order.  We worked in groups and had lots of fun making our timelines.  If you don't have the biography Dr. Seuss The Great Doodler, I highly recommend it.  The kids loved it and it will FULL of interesting things about his life.  I read it as a class read aloud and then we went to WORK!

Here are some pictures of us HARD at work!

Each group had 12 events from the text.   The kids had to work together to sort them into the correct order.  Each group had a copy of the book to use for help.

Then they had to double check their sort using the text.  As they found each fact, they glued it on the timeline.  I bought a roll of blue paper and didn't think about it rolling up while they tried to work.  PLAN B (as I call it when things go wrong) We grabbed some dictionaries to keep the ends down.  That's what I get for being fancy with my paper!

The groups did amazing and even came up with Dr. Seuss Themed titles for the top.  All in all it was a great project and the kids had a blast.  You can see that it was wear red day or dress up like the Cat in the Hat.

So our March is off to a MOTIVATING start!

My teaching BBF and I couldn't decide who would be Thing 2...  we both wanted to be Thing 1.  So we compromised on this.  Lee makes everyday fun and I'm so glad I get to share this teaching journey with her.   Find your teaching BBF and watch how much fun each and everyday will be!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Happy Teaching!

Snow and a MOVE!

Well the last two weeks have been some of the busiest ever!  Here in TN we finally got hit with ice and SNOW!  As exciting as it was it couldn't have hit at a worst time....  my family was in the process of moving to a new home!   Who knew that movers would move your house even with ice coming down from the sky.  So after two weeks of packing and then unpacking my family is finally settled in the home I hope and pray we will stay in for the next 20 years.  As long as the hubbies company doesn't pull something crazy, we should be able to stay put for a long time.  I sure hope so because I truly LOVE this house!

I haven't had a lot of time to work on TPT, but I did just finish something that I have been working on for my kiddos.  We loved our animal projects so much that I decided to do one for countries.  It is the same format, just tailored to hit those Social Studies standards.  Here is a sample of some of the pages.
It has a parent letter to explain the project.  It has two sets of poster cut outs.  One set has lines and the other doesn't.

Click on the pictures to see the packet in more detail.

After we finish ours, I will be sure to post pictures of them.  I know the kids will do great with this!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

Summer time.... lazy time!

Where have the weeks gone?   Sorry it has been a bit since my last post.  I have been teaching for the state of TN this month and it has kept me pretty busy.  I have had the pleasure of teaching some amazing teachers this month from all over the Memphis area.   Teaching teachers is very much like teaching little ones....  they sure love to talk and they all want to know what time LUNCH is!

In the short evenings that I have had at home, I have managed to create a few new things for next year and found some great pins on Pinterest that I just have to try.  Here are some of my newest creations.

Time to learn all about the 50 states!  This packet has everything in it for the students to do an independent research project.  Who doesn't love learning about all of the states?

I had a request to turn my I Can Statements for third grade into a ninja theme.  I was really pleased with how cute it turned out.   Of course the pictures are from one of my favorites....  Scrappin Doddles!  I just LOVE their work!

The Terrific Teacher binder was a HUGE success last summer.  I decided to do an owl theme and also a safari theme.  Here is a snap shot of some the pages in this packet.  Of all the things that I have made over the last few years, this might be a favorite.  Being organized has helped me so much this year.

I hope everyone is finally out of school and enjoying SUMMER VACATION!

Happy Teacher Days!
Tracy

Landforms!

We are a little behind on our pacing guides this year, but we are finally starting landforms this week.  I don't know about you, but when I'm behind on those pacing guides it makes me NUTS!

I really enjoy this unit in S.S.  We are going to make landforms out of a box of all these random art supplies that I had in a tub.  My plan is just to let them pick a landform that they like and let them go to town to create a display that shows their landform.  Then we will try and guess which one they did.  Should be lots of fun for a Friday Project.  I will post some pictures of them over the weekend.

To go along with the S.S. book, I created a landform packet.  It has all kinds of activities like, "I Have.... Who has" Landform game, anchor charts for 17 different landforms, flashcards to help them learn them, and of course a flipbook! Here is sample of some of the activities in it.  You can click on a picture to go to by TPT store to check it out.