Category Archives: Freebies
And the winner is…(Plus Info on Student Blogging)
Thank you to all who hopped on over and followed our blogs and TPT Stores last weekend! Your participation in this little event was awesome! We do have a winner to announce
Drumroll please……
Teachingisagift McKay – your resources and Amazon gift code are on the way! Congratulations! Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!
I want to mention one more thing this evening. My post just went live on Global Teacher Connect yesterday and it’s about student blogging. I’d really encourage you to have a peek if you are currently blogging with your students OR if it’s something that you’d be interested in trying next year. I have a Collaborative Project: Student Blogging Form that you can fill out with your info so that you are able to contact each other and pair yourselves up! So far, there are teachers from Morocco, US, Canada, Ecuador and Bermuda who would like to blog this year or next! How cool is that?
If you would like to be contacted next year for blogging – just add that as a note on the form. We already have two teachers who have posted their info, who would be interested in something for next school year.
I’ve just started blogging with my students in the last month or so and we’re about to collaborate with another school on the Island and one in Ontario, Canada. The kids are trying to “fix up” their blogs a bit more for their audience – which is what we want! We want them writing for a purpose, and with an audience in mind! Anyhow, I can see this evolving into something more for next year. Maybe even a “Blog-folio” type of idea. Regular blogging would be great, but also, having their best pieces of writing displayed for an audience would be so cool. It would also be neat to see their writing abilities progress through the year. Anyhow, I am quite excited about what we’ve done with the blogs so far, although we all still have much to learn!
Check out the post on GTC and even if you’d be interested in having your students READ the student blogs and comment on them – fill out the form! The wider the audience the better! Plus, I’d love for my students to get comments from kids all around the world. That would be a big part of my ultimate goal. (I’ll be working on this next year…so stay tuned if you’re at all interested…)
That’s it for this evening! Please leave a comment here or on the Global Teacher Connect post if you have any tips or questions for me about student blogging.
School’s (Almost) Out Blog Hop and Giveaway
I know what you’re thinking! What do you mean school’s almost out? We have 2 months to go! Well, I wanted to have one more giveaway before it got too close to the end of the school year to use the awesome ideas and resources you’ll find in this event!
So, I’ve teamed up a new blogger-friend, Joey, from Create, Teach and Share. We’ve come up with this fantastic blog hop and giveaway! The participating bloggers are below. Be sure to hop to each of their blogs this weekend, check out their posts and give them a follow. The theme of the blog hop is “year-end” and so I know that you’ll find some great ideas for the end of the school year and because of the timing – you’ll be able to use them this school year. Per-ty smart, huh?
So, for my post in this School’s (Almost) Out Blog Hop, I’ve got three “End of Year” inspired ideas!
1) I am a reflective person by nature and so I made a little Student Reflection freebie for students to think back on the year that was. You can have them fill it out, decorate it and then laminate the reflections and give them back with report cards, or use them as a display for “closing ceremonies”. I know that I would love to have a little memento from my school year and so I hope that they will as well.
2) In my school, the students “graduate” in grade seven as we are currently a grade K-7 school. I always do a slide show presentation for their ”graduation” and so at this point in the year I’m on the lookout for songs that would be useable for the slide show. Just in case you’re in the same boat – here are a few songs for you to consider! (I’ve included the versions with lyrics:)
3) Do you get your students gifts at the end of the school year? I never did, until last year (too cheap). I got this idea from Confessions of a Teaching Junkie last spring. It’s a Wordle! What’s a wordle, you ask? Well, it’s word art. This is how I did it.
In June, I gave the students a class list and told them that I was planning something for them, but that I couldn’t give them any details. I asked the students to put a kind word/compliment beside each classmate’s name (and gave lots of appropriate examples to begin with). Athletic, kind, creative, musical, funny – you name it. I collected and compiled the compliments. Then, I used the Wordle website to make a personalized piece of word art for each student containing their name and all of the kind words that their classmates said about them. I also framed the wordles with dollar store frames, to make them more substantial. The finished product was really beautiful! The kids appreciated them on graduation night – and I think I’ll have to do them again this year because they were so well received!
Okay, that’s just about it from me. Be sure to hop over to my co-host’s blog Create, Teach and Share - you’ll love her! She’s awesome, as are the dozen teacher-bloggers below who have joined in the fun this weekend. Grab a cup of coffee, kick back and enjoy. Oh and of course, don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post!
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Lots of awesome prizes to be won by ONE Grand Prize Winner!
Thanks again to the teachers above for their donations! Both Joey and I are giving you a choice of any three items in our TPT Stores and there’s a $35.00 Amazon gift card thrown in there as well:)
I’ve been super excited for this event, so I hope you enjoy it!
PLEASE NOTE: Just in case you’re new to Rafflecopter, clicking the “Follow Me” link on the widget doesn’t automatically follow the stores and blogs of the contributing teachers. It takes you to the store or blog and it’s up to you to follow once you’re there. If it’s a TPT Store, click on the red “Follow Me” above their name. If it’s a blog, look for how to follow them on the side bar – usually there are a few options. When you “Like” a Facebook link, it is automatic and then you can enter.
Why can’t we make the papers for something positive?
A little stressed here this evening….
We just got news that the three classes of students in the basement of our building must be relocated to other areas of our school immediately. This means that we will lose our Tech lab, part of our library and our staff room and that those teachers will be in make-shift classrooms for the remainder of the school year, and potentially into next year. Awesome.
I don’t really care about losing those areas – as much as it sucks. The health of our kids and our staff is what matters. We have been battling with a few air quality concerns in our school for a while now, and things just aren’t getting any better.
Rather than holding our PLC meetings tomorrow, as planned, our staff will be helping to pack up boxes for those teachers who must vacate their rooms. We got this news today and the kids will be in their new “classrooms” on Monday. With only two months left in the school year, it’s just not the extra stress that anyone wants right now.
I know that there are more important things to worry about in the world, and that in the grand scheme of things, this is not even a blip on the screen. I know that. Rest assured I know how lucky I am -a new/renovated school is planned for us for 2014. However, the pressure and tension in our school today was evident and I hate that feeling!
I’m about to sound worse than one of the kids with my exaggeration, but why are we never in the papers for something positive?
High Radon Levels Found in Souris
Enough of the ”poor me” attitude … Thanks for allowing me to vent. I don’t do it often – but it was just one of those days!
The actual reason that I sat down to write this evening was to let you know about a giveaway and blog hop that I’ll be co-hosting this weekend with my blogger-friend Joey, from Create, Teach and Share. It’s a “School’s (Almost) Out” blog hop and giveaway and is aimed at you awesome middle school teachers, of course! Be sure to check back this weekend to partake in some fantastic blog posts, freebies, and of course to enter the giveaway.
Valentine’s Day “Making Words” Literacy and Math Freebie ~ Plus a February Freebies Link-Up!
Teaching grade 7, I don’t do as many activities with my students for holidays as perhaps teachers in the younger grades. Every once in a while though, it’s kind of nice to break away from the routine a bit, and celebrate a special day.
So, I have a Valentine’s freebie for you! It would be a great bell ringer activity for Valentine’s Day.
It’s a “Making Words” activity for grades 4-7, but has a math twist for the older students. Students must make words with the letters in “Happy Valentine’s Day” but depending on which challenge you give them, they are doing one of five things.
The freebie is below for you to have a look at!
Also, I’ve linked up to an awesome February Freebies Link-up with Laura Candler of Corkboard Connections. Be sure to check out her blog post for TONS of February freebies by clicking on the heart!
Tracee Orman has a Valentine’s Link-up under way as well! Be sure to check her freebies out by clicking on the image below.
Book Club Discussions: Moving Beyond the Text To Make Meaningful Connections
So we’re about half way through our book club and things are going okay. My class is a group of very verbal kids (and then some not so verbal kids). They seem to be enjoying their novels and I know that they’re engaged in the read aloud text: Firegirl
Students are struggling to keep the conversation going for more than 5 or 10 minutes in their book clubs, after their assigned reading. They are finding it difficult to break away from taking turns, …I talk…then you talk…then you… rather than having a conversation.
When I realized that this was going to be a struggle (after the first book club meeting) I modelled a conversation for the class. Basically, after reading the section of our read aloud text, a few student volunteers and I had a conversation in front of the class about what had happened. I tried to model what the dicussion should look like, asking questions, building meaning etc. It was a start – but just not enough! If prompted, they can come up with all sorts of ideas, connections and predictions. However, without my prompting, I am listening to very basic comprehension types of statements without any real excitement!
It’s sad. All this time is being spent on the book club and the real meat of the club – talking about what they’re reading – is falling flat. Now I won’t be too hard on them (or me, I guess). There have been some glimmers during their conversations, I just find that given the students I have – I expected more! I struggle to shut them up ( you know what I mean) on a good day, having to ask them to put their hands down because we’ll just never get to finish the lesson (sometimes their connections are not always on topic and once that train falls off the rails…).
Well, we had a short after school PD session on Guided Reading for K-8 yesterday, and it got me thinking about how I’m doing things in this book club and what they are actually getting out of it.
I talked to our presenter after the session about the conversation dilemma and she actually directed me toward a great resource that our school has: Teaching and Comprehending Fluency: Thinking, Talking and Writing about Reading (with DVD). I read the chapter on book clubs and got a couple of great ideas from it. The DVD that comes with the book has lots of other resources on it as well! The one that I plan to us is the video modelling what a book club discussion is supposed to look like – with real students discussing a real text. I can’t wait to show it to my students and see what they have to say about it, especially in comparison to their own groups. I’m really hoping that it’s going to put some spark into their book club discussions.
I guess maybe I was a little naive, as this is my first book club. I just thought they’d dive in, like on Oprah and divulge their thoughts and wonderings, building elegantly on one another’s ideas. Ugghhh…What was I thinking?
Oh, one other idea that I got from the book was to have students use a “think mark” – basically just a folded piece of paper - to write ideas down as they come across things in their reading. They can mark page numbers down, predictions, opinions, wonderings, words they don’t understand etc. and then take those to book club to use as they discuss. I’m going to try this one tomorrow.
So, help me out! What other strategies can I try, to make the second half of this book club more engaging than the first? I’m completely open to your ideas!
I’ll tell you what I’ve got so far…
-Students are already expected to have a Reader Response ready and topic of discussion for the book club meeting (completed after they read). And, I’m going to try the think mark idea tomorrow.
-Students have “Guidelines for Book Club” to encourage listening and making sure that everyone has a chance to speak.
What I plan to try…
-Showing them the DVD of the book club discussion as a model and talk about what the students are doing well.
I’m ready and listening…share your wisdom…please!
Middle School Math Freebies
Okay, first of all – I’m so sorry about the typo in the title of my last post! Ugh…made my stomach turn when I saw it. I know that my typing (and my spelling skills) need work sometimes but a mistake in the title? So sorry! Good thing I never claimed to be perfect, huh?
Aaaaaaanyway….
I wrote a post in the spring of last year, which linked up a whole bunch of great middle school math freebies. A few more links have been added and so I decided to post the collection again. If you have a great middle school math freebie that you’d like to add – feel free to link up! You can use the title of your product as the “Name”. I hope to see this collection GROW!
The 12 Days of Gift-Mas Secondary Blog Hop~Day 6
I am super excited to be Day 6 in this middle and high school holiday blog hop! Thanks again to Michelle from Making It As A Middle School Teacher for coming up with this entire idea!
There are twelve of us participating. Each day we’ll be highlighting some of our best freebies! Some teachers are giving away usually priced products for free on their special day, and others are having gift card giveaways! I’m doing a combination of all of the above!
I hope you got to check out Day 5 from Liz’s Lessons and don’t miss For the Love of Teaching Math‘s post tomorrow.
On the 6th day of Gift-Mas, Lessons From The Middle gave to me…
I have a special holiday freebie that I spoke about in a previous blog post. Students speak from different points of view with this improv activity, with a holiday theme. It’s fun and I’ve got some great feedback on this freebie!
FREE FOR TODAY ONLY: A product that is usually priced at $5.00, but can be yours free for today, Dec 6th only is:
And now on to the giveaways!
#1: You can enter to win a $25.oo gift card from Amazon.
#2: $25.00 shopping spree in my TPT Store.
Feel free to enter both!
~Win a $25.00 Amazon gift card~
~Win a $25.00 Shopping Spree in my TeachersPayTeachers Store~
a Rafflecopter giveaway Make sure to come back each day for more freebies and giveaways! We’re only half way through this awesome holiday blog hop! Lots more to be given away and to be won! I’ll announce the winners of the Amazon gift card and my TPT Store shopping spree, on December 13th. Stay tuned!
Want to Win a Nook?
I just found this great giveaway and so I thought I’d write a quick blog post to share!
Tips For Teachers is having a holiday giveaway. There are many resources to be won, donated by teachers (which is a whole lot of awesomeness) but what I’m really hoping for is the Nook that they’re offering! I can just imagine curling up with a new read over the holidays and also sharing this fabulous piece of technology with my grade sevens in the new year. I hope I win…but I’m just so thoughtful, that I had to share the giveaway with you guys too!
Good luck, and of course, let me know if you win…
Add Improv into Your Classroom with This Holiday Freebie
My students are very vocal and energetic this year. Many are hands-on learners as well, and they love activities where they can get out of their seats. Rather than fight this, I’ve been trying to embrace it and to draw on those strengths and learning preferences.
Well, Christmas is quickly approaching and you know what that means! The holidays (for me, anyways) mean more chatting, more restlessness, and energy levels reach a new high. Monday mornings are like Friday afternoons, if you know what I’m saying. So, knowing that this is what lies ahead for the next month, I’ve been trying to think of some activities that I can do with my students to incorporate their excitement for the upcoming holiday, while still covering the curriculum that I am responsible to cover.
Not too long ago, I posted about an excellent book that I found (CCSS aligned) about teaching literary elements with picture books. I mentioned in that post about a “Point of View” improv activity from the book, that I was excited to try with my students. Since writing that post, I have done the activity and as expected, they ate it up! So, I decided to take the idea and add a holiday twist.
For this improv activity, students put themselves into a character’s position and speak from their point of view. It helps students identify point of view in what they read and to take on different points of view in their own writing. It also builds their skills with the writing trait of “voice”.
Adding Improv Into Your Classroom…
Improv is not for everyone and it’s definitely not for all students. However, if you think this would be up your students’ alley, this is what you need to do!
Create some scenarios for students on cards, much like in the game Charades. These scenarios can be as creative as you like (this is where you add a holiday twist) and call the student to speak from a unique point of view.
A volunteer chooses a card, reads it out loud and then speaks from the point of view dictated by the card.
Here are two examples:
Most of my students love being in front of an audience and so activities like this are perfect for them. I know that they are not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. However, with the Christmas season upon us and energy levels on the rise, I’ll be saving this holiday version of the improv activity that they loved, for a time when they need to get out of their seats and be a little silly.
Following this improv activity, students can work with a partner to create their own improv scenes for Christmas. They could act out these scenes or even choose one to inspire a short creative writing piece. I have a freebie in my TPT Store, if you have a class like mine, that would thrive on this type of kinesthetic activity and I’ve done all of the work for you. 
Laura Candler of “Corkboard Connections” is hosting a Holiday Learning Link-Up. This is an awesome collection of holiday teaching ideas, tips and resources to make your holiday season the best yet! Christmas is just a month away, now. Be sure to check out this link-up if fresh ideas for your classroom is on your Christmas wish list!
Thanks for all of your hard work in putting this link-up together, Laura.
For more freebies- check out TBA’s Freebie Friday!
Cyber Monday…Plus Tuesday…Don’t Miss Out!
It’s that time of year again – the TeachersPayTeachers Cyber Monday Sale. This year it will be even better, as it is actually Monday AND Tuesday. That’s two days to stock up on some essentials for your classroom.
Teachers Pay Teachers is offering 10% off of all purchases – just use the code CMT12. In addition to that, many store owners (myself included) are also putting their items on sale for those two days. All items in my TPT Store will be on sale, at 20% off. That’s 28% off overall.
You really don’t want to miss out. Head over to TeachersPayTeachers and join the frenzy! People have already started filling their carts and crossing items off of their wish lists.
As if that wasn’t enough, The 3am Teacher has set up a link-up for your viewing pleasure. Hop around to everyone’s blog – see what they’re offering in the way of sales and score yourself some deals. Thanks again for setting this up, Michelle!
Enough talk – let’s get to the good stuff! So many savings…where to start?
This is one of my newest products. It’s for grades 5-8 and students work to create either a math themed game, poster or rap. Rubrics are included and students really enjoy this math project. It’s also generic, so that it can be used with multiple grade levels and math concepts.
