Throw Back Thursday! {K-5 Freebies!}

I would like to welcome all of my new followers! This move to blog lovin' has been an exciting time. I've found so many great new blogs to follow too, it's just been terrific!

Today, I am participating in "Throwback Thursday" to highlight a popular post for those of you who might not have seen it. Last year I was a K-5 special education teacher. When Teaching Blog Addict had a freebie hop for their birthday that I participated with items that fit a variety of grade levels. This coming year I will be a general education ELA teacher in 4th grade, but don't be surprised if some primary posts get thrown into the mix. Enjoy!

 Happy Birthday Teaching Blog Addict-- Freebie Loaded Post from April 5, 2013

I'm helping to celebrate Teaching Blog Addicts 2nd Birthday with a post full of my freebies to date. I am currently a K-5 special education teacher, so hopefully, no matter the grade level, you can find a freebie here to take! I've linked up to both TPT and TN so you can download from either one. Be sure to check back at TBA where hundreds of freebies are being posted in celebration!

Assessment sheets for alphabet

Download at TPT and TN

Game for short A and short A nonsense words game. If you'd like the rest of the vowel, I've got a pack for sale as well. 

Download on TPT or TN

I used this game during Valentine's Day for long and short nonsense words but they could be used any time of the year!

Download on TPT or TN 

A hidden numbers activity for numbers through 20.

Download on TPT or TN

Foldables for common prefixes and suffixes

Download on TPT or TN

Rounding coloring activity to the nearest 10,000. 

Download on TPT or TN 

QR book summary that could be used for students in grades 3-12. Fun activity and a different way to give a book report/summary.

Download on TPT or TN

4th grade Math Standards that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN

4th grade Reading Standards that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN 

4th grade reading standard shorthand that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN 

4th grade math standard shorthand that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN 

Hundreds of goodies are already linked up. Click the button at the top to see more.  Be sure to link up and help TBA celebrate!!

 

Again, so thankful for each and everyone of you! Thanks for bopping by!

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Freebie, Sale, & Celebrating

Not to toot my own horn or anything but, it's my birthday! {whoot, whoot!}

So to celebrate I've got a couple of things going on...

First, thanks to some inspiration earlier this week, (I'm Lovin Lit) I bought myself an early gift and have been tinkering with it a bit. As a result I have a small batch of frames made up to share with all of you!

Click the picture to go to TPT to download. Just be kind, leave feedback please & thank you! :)

These frames can be used for personal or commercial use. Each of the three designs has both a thick and thin frame, as well as a white or transparent fill. They are currently a freebie in my store at least through the weekend, but I'm kind of attached to my first frame creation, so get them while you can for free :)

Whilst your there I'm having a sale through Sunday at both my TPT and TN stores. So if you've been waiting for a sale there is one going on now!

Thanks for helping me celebrate!! Have a wonderful day!

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Fabulous Day!

Update. I don't know why I said it was Friday in the title. I know it's Thursday, but jeans days always feel like Fridays. (Whoops!)

Today was a great day!

• State Reading Assessments are O-to the V- to the E-R, OVER! (My kiddos pleasantly surprised me as well, so that's a double bonus!)

•  A student who took on a challenge of a book of much greater length, and slightly above her reading range, finally finished her book. No reviewing. Rocked her AR test with confidence and got every question correct (and the 5 points the book was worth too). Such a great moment, seeing a kid realize that they can do it!

• Enjoying the 65* temperatures! Took my small skills group outside for our intervention time to soak up the sun.

• I know we just got off of spring break... but I'm super excited for the 3 day weekend that starts tomorrow. Maybe it's the actual spring weather that was lacking most of last week, but I am super pumped!

• Finally, I have my new spring centers all ready to go! {You could win them too!}

  

Over the last couple of weeks I've enjoyed trying to "Pin it to Win it" so I thought I'd try here too. Just pin one of the pictures here (or from TN or TPT) and copy your pin URL on a comment along with your email address. Tomorrow evening I will use the number generator to pick a winner.

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Manic Monday & Give Aways

I still cannot believe that it's already March! This year has absolutely flown.

Something almost as crazy is that, including today, there are only 14 instructional days in March...say what??? With those oh so wonderful {no sarcasm whatsoever...} tests looming, and several standards I still need to cover/want to review; there is just too much to do in so little time!!

Today I am linking up with Manic Monday to share a copy of St. Patrick's Day freebies.

The first is for upper elementary.

My kiddos still struggle with rounding. This coloring sheet works on rounding to the nearest 10,000. Student's color the shamrock a certain color based on what it is rounded to.


The second freebie is for primary students.

This center helps review missing numbers. Students pick a card and figure out which number is hidden by the shamrock. Students record their answer on the recording sheet by coloring the shamrock on their recording sheet the same color as the square on the card they drew, and filling in the box with the missing number. 

I hope that these festive freebies are enjoyed by you and your students!


While your here, I hope you will stop by some AMAZING giveaways that are going on that I'm contributing to.

First up, Where the Wild Things Learn is having their 100 follower giveaway. The drawing ends in just a couple of days, so hurry and join in by clicking their name or the picture below.

Next, Diane from Fifth in the Middle is having her March Madness Giveaway. So many prizes tied to great tournament action. Check it out!! {Oh, and if you haven't already linked up by state you should... what a wonderful way to connect with others, both near and far!}

Joanne from Head Over Heals for Teaching is also celebrating 100 followers! She has an amazing give away going on too! Check them out!

Jessica from Joy in the Journey is also having her 100th Follower Giveaway.... what a great time in blogland! She's such a sweet blogger, you need to check out her blog and giveaway too!

Last but certainly not least, the wonderful gals from Collaboration Cuties, Amanda & Stacia are celebrating 300 followers!! They are having a mega giveaway of prizes for primary, upper elementary and a surprise giveaway too, so be sure to read their whole post!

Whew...so many freebies and giveaways. What a wonderful way to start the week, even if it is a bit of a manic Monday!

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QR Code Book Recommendations UPDATED FREEBIE

I was observed yesterday. I hate being observed. It's not that I do bad. I'm just a perfectionist at times.... and nothing ever goes exactly according to plan, so I just get a wee bit anxious.

 {Here's a spoiler... things did not go according to plan!}

Lucky for me, during this second observation my supervisor wanted to see me during a co-teaching session... double lucky for me, this veteran teacher is AMAZING!

Our school uses Accelerated Reader, and with today being the close of the 3rd nine weeks, a new 9 weeks begins as a final chance for students to meet a new reading goal. My teaching partner and I put our heads together for away to stir things up...book summaries/recommendations via QR codes.

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It was suppose to work where students would fill out a graphic organizer with notes and then type them into a QR code maker. Unfortunately, when doing this on an iPad, the resolution couldn't be formatted to work. Thank goodness I wanted to try and show my teaching partner how the scanner worked this morning. Unfortunately, that discovery sent my morning tail spinning out of control. In the end, our iPad guru's got our project set up through Educreations {an app I already enjoy} and we overcame, were flexible, and the lesson went well even considering the lack luster internet service we were getting throughout the morning, change up in all morning plans, and making the first few hours seem like an eternity on an already long day {our long night of conferences was yesterday, all the way till 8 p.m.}

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Back to the lesson itself:

First we introduced this quick project. Think movie trailers for books. I showed my QR code book report example. Which had the cover picture from the book I chose and a voice-over describing the book and why it should be read.

Then we lead the students step by step in setting up an Educreations account. Gathering an image of the book they wanted, and students were off. {I was so glad that they were actually engaged and not still on the post-blizzard crazy alternate lifeforms that they were Tuesday when we returned to school. Whew!}

The students then  filled out a quick organizer to help them get their ideas in order. Then, step by step instructions were included on a PDF  {those directions were Plan A. We gave our much better Plan B instructions verbally and with reminders on the board of how to use this app.} The students record their voices, telling their summary/recommendation using Educreations. Then they grabbed the link from their video, put it into qrstuff.com, and viola a book report on a 1 inch square was made.

We are now ready for them to print their QR codes, book covers, and make a poster to hang in the hall to give other students book recommendations. Overall the students worked well, and mostly independent due to the explicit instructions. I hope that the book recommendations catch on and that maybe our library staff can run with it.

Click the picture to open the graphic organizer, and get teacher/student notes on how to complete the project for free! :)

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Sunday FUN Day, Flash Sale and Give Away!

Some days are just good. Today was one of those days for me.

I started off the morning by getting some free fonts from Marcia at Learning in Bliss.  By being one of the first to comment on her post. I have a slight major obsession with fonts so I'm always on the look out for something new.

Then as the day wore on, I decided to finally be productive with lesson planning and graduate class work. I haven't been in school since Wednesday due to snow. Well, I just happened to keep blogger up in the background and caught a post just in time to win a product from Kristin at Haute Off the Printer. I chose this adorable cursive alphabet printable. I cannot wait to put it up in my room! If you need a copy for your room too, you can purchase one here!

Later Jivey had a wonderful freebie, that you can get too through tonight only (click on the picture to go to the download)! A 4th grade math reference. Love! My kiddos need all the review materials they can get, and this reference is simple and easy to read.

Exciting things with the blog are coming soon. A new design is in the works with Megan. I seriously cannot wait to work with a fellow blogger who has a Kansas connection. I cannot wait till my blog is beautified!

Finally, my place value centers are finally done! These bad boys are the reason I had to crunch this afternoon on classwork and planning, but they are worth it. My pullout math class continues to struggle with concepts if they aren't constantly reviewed. So I'm adding some place value centers to the rotation. These 6 centers are aligned to the 4th grade Common Core, as this is the level where my students are working at. This is not a full unit or lesson plans, but rather a set of centers to review concepts.

Since today has been so great, and I got official word of ANOTHER snow day tomorrow as I'm typing this... I'm going to give away a copy of these centers to the first person who comments with their email address! Or if you'd like to purchase them, you can find them at Teachers Notebook or Teachers Pay Teachers I will be having a flash sale today and tomorrow in both stores for 20%.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

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Hall Pass/ Snow Day!!

We were suppose to have parent teacher conferences tonight, but there is a snow storm a brewin' (though not as fast as predicted) so the next two days we are off without conferences or inservices!! {Going to sleep tonight with no alarms in the mornings, an amazing thought!} Even though conferences are pushed to next week, I'm looking forward to this mini break. Besides, we live in Kansas. We have four wheel drive vehicles. We know how to enjoy a lot of snow.  :)

While I'm all cozy on the couch this evening {delaying productivity until the morning} I stumbled upon this fun linky from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits and I had to link up! It's all about taking a little break from the classroom...which fits into my current place of mind perfectly!

A fun acronym of questions.. what a fun theme!

 P- Product: The product I'm enjoy the most right now are my "Going on a Camp Out" centers {check them out at TPT or TN}. Several of my students are very into Cub Scouts and one just transitioned into Boy Scouts, many of the girls are in Girl Scouts as well {as you can tell from my few boxes hoarding of thin mints and caramel delights}. These centers review several concepts we've been working on and covering: addition/subtraction with and without borrowing and regrouping, comparing decimals, 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication, rounding, and analyzing basic multiplication products.

A-Area: My student's favorite area {and a few students from down the hall} enjoy reading in my room. Since I'm a resource teacher, there aren't all the student desks so my room is very open. I have a love for children's literature so it makes my heart happy to be able to share my books and have students want to stop by just to read.

Poor picture....but over a 1,000 books in my room... and I love it!

S-Signal: I vary the signals used in my room. A combination of theme songs {ba-da-da-da-da... I'm lovin' it...thank you McDonald} and chants. One that worked really well, was to say "Hey fourth grade!" They would reply, "Hey, what?" Repeat. They would have the time of the chant to stop and give me their full attention. It's usually spirited, a little sing-songy, and the kids respond to it well.

S-Sanity: Most days I'm sane, but then there are those days. If days are going rough (all of the core classes are taught in the morning) by noon, I will eat my lunch in my room, with the lights off, just listening to the church bells across the road, or Pandora. I look forward to plan time everyday. Our principal is great...and has made sure we have a long plan time during elements... and hour a day! With the ability to work with our grade level team during that hour. This hour reprieve is great to get paper work, grading, and IEPs done. My teaching partner also helps keep me sane. She's a veteran teacher with a fun personality and a listening ear. She gives me advice, laughs, and gentle reminders that "this too shall pass."

So that is my "Hall Pass." Please join in with the linky, I'll need something to read up on {besides my grad school class work} over my long weekend!


Happy Wednesday/Snow Day!!

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