Something New with a Sneak Peek for You!

I've just wrapped up a set of holiday themed homework passes!  Homework passes are a huge motivator and reward for my 3rd graders and I know they will L-O-V-E getting them as surprises with their holiday goodies from me!

The pack is on sale at TpT... click the pic to check it out!

There are 81 different passes for...
*birthdays
*Halloween
*Thanksgiving
*Christmas
*winter
*Valentine's Day
*St. Patrick's Day
*Easter
*and a page of random passes too... just for fun!

...with cute sayings and KPM Doodles' AH-MAZING clipart on every page.  Each page comes in color and black and white to save on the ink!

And... just because I love you... you can click the pic below to get the Halloween passes for free!  Please please drop me a line if you download them... I'll give away a set to one lucky commenter later this weekend!  My blog's been lonely for a few weeks so I'd love to know you're still here!

What We've Been Doing... in Pics!

We are working on our opinion writing unit using Opinions: Order Up!

Find it on TpT!

The students were given copies of opinion paragraphs and had to find the opinion, reasons, examples, transition words, and then the re-stated opinion.  They had so much fun and LOVED being able to highlight the info they needed!  We are so close to being able to write our final opinion paragraphs and I can't wait to see their progress!

We just finished up our state testing, so it was time for my favorite Halloween project...

We are also working on predictions and character traits.  We did lots of the activities out of my Character Traits pack.

Find it on TpT!

I loved reading Woolbur and Harriet, You'll Drive me Wild! and having students write character traits and then PROVE them for Woolbur and Harriet!

If you don't know either book, click the pics below to learn more... they are GREAT books!

We just read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane {and I did not cry when I read the last page, for the first time EVER} and studied his character growth.  Now we're reading The Chocolate Touch to study John Midas' character and work on our predicting skills.  The predicting cards in the pic below come from my Chocolate Touch pack.  The first page of each chapter has a picture that has some significance in the chapter.  We're using the predicting cards to predict what might happen in the chapter!

Do you read The Chocolate Touch?  Find the extension pack on TpT!

That's it!  Next week it's main idea and detail practice... always a toughie!

Loren Leedy Winner and my Reading 100 Club First Member!

Congrats to Abby! You've won an autographed copy of Loren Leedy's newest book...

Thanks to all who entered!  I hope you'll check out Loreen's amazing books which are all perfect for the classroom!

I got the first member of my 100 Club in class today!

If you haven't been introduced to my 100 Club, it's a "club" kids can be a member of once they have read 50, 75, and 100 books outside of normal reading time at school.  We've been in school about six weeks and one of my sweeties read his 50th book this morning!

I put his name on a sticky note on my banner!

Here's how the 100 Club works... you can click the pics to see more!

Students were given a parent letter and recording sheet in the 2nd week of school.

Find it on TpT!

The students read {outside of normal reading time} and record the titles on their sheet.  It is each student's responsibility to let me know when they have read 50, 75, and 100 books and, believe me, they keep me posted!

When a student reads 50 books, they become a "Bronze Member", receive a special award, and get to eat lunch with me in the classroom on Friday during my regularly scheduled "Lunch Bunch" that I do every Friday.

Find it on TpT!

At 75 books, the student is a "Silver" member and at 100, they are a Gold member!

I also give out special bookmarks when they achieve each level too...

Find it on TpT!

My students are so excited about this motivator and I love that it gets them reading outside of their comfort zones!

If you want to check it out on TpT, click the link under any of the pics!

Updates, Enter to Win, and What I Did Yesterday!

Updates...

Don't forget that you can get an extra 10% off at TpT until MIDNIGHT tonight!

Enter to win this book!  Click the pic for more info... it ends TOMORROW!

And what I did yesterday...

I shared about a month ago that I had been doing Couch to 5K.  And I have found out that I actually like running!  I know, right?  Who knew?!  So, last weekend I ran the Color Run with my friends and yesterday I did a 2nd 5K with my mom!  My mom cracked the whip throughout the run and kept me running... so we hardly walked at all.  She figures less than 1/4 of a mile was walking... woot woot!

Here she is... my awesome mom and best blog stalker!

I've already got a 5K lined up for November and one for December too!

TpT FLASH Sale!

TpT just announced that they hit 100,000 Facebook fans so they are having a FLASH SALE!

I'm putting my shop on sale to celebrate along with TpT so if you use the code FB100K, you can get 10% off all your purchases... and mine are going on sale too so that will be 30% off at my shop if you use the code until 10/14.

File Update!!! {if you have the CCSS daily review packs!}

On Sunday {as the Lions were sadly getting their behinds kicked by the BOO!  HISS!  Packers...}, I shared one of the ways I'm using my ELA CCSS checks in my classroom.

I use them in lots of ways...

*for quick CCSS reviews during morning meeting
*as a "game" during transition times {students can get 1 NERD candy if they get the answer correct}
*as exit slips

And last week I used them to assess understanding about finding lessons/morals in a text and then proving your thinking by highlighting parts of the text.

I shared this pic on Sunday...

I used the text search feature to find the sheets that contained the word "lesson" and printed those out.  I printed out all of the "lesson" pages from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade packs so I could differentiate for my differing reading levels.

I cut the out and taped them onto a page with directions for students to write the lesson/moral of the story and then to go back to the text and highlight specific information that helped them understand the lesson.

It worked very well and was a great way for me to differentiate while checking for understanding.

If you have these packs, which are some of my favorite things I've ever made for TpT, you can re-download them to get this updated PowerPoint file that will allow you to create pages similar to the picture above so you can use the CCSS cards as assessments or extra practice pages!

If you don't have the packs and are interested in them, they are available for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade CCSS as well as in a 1st/2nd and 2nd/3rd bundle.  Click HERE to check them out on TpT.

Jack and the Hungry Giant Review and Giveaway!

I was so excited when Loreen Leedy, the author of many super fun non-fiction books for children, sent me a copy of her newest gem, Jack and the Hungry Giant to review on my blog!

She's written several books that I LOVE... I'm sure you know them too...  Click on each book to learn more!

She's got loads more and I LOVE her math books!  I used them in my math workstations when I taught my split class.

Her new book is so much fun!  I love that it uses a familiar set of characters {a la Jack and the Beanstalk} to talk about healthy eating.  It's full of fun words that my 3rd graders loved... rustling, squinched, and grub!

Loreen has a TpT store with fantabulous resources including a FREE goody to accompany this book and some of her others.  I LOVE her "Falling for Symmetry" pack... it's perfect for this time of year!  I have it on my TpT Wishlist and think it will be a great "thinking break" for my kiddos after we take our MEAP tests next week.  You can learn more about her and her books at her website by clicking HERE!

Here's the best part... Loreen is going to send a lucky winner a signed copy of Jack & the Hungry Giant!  Enter using the Rafflecopter below!  The giveaway runs from today until next Monday, October 14!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winner, Anchor Charts in a Departmentalized Classroom, and My Accomplishment!

I'm here!  And finally blogging!

First up...

The winner of the Snapshots! Critical Thinking Photo Cards from Learning Resources is the lovely Tattooed Teacher Mrs. Rachel Lamb!  Yay!!!!!  If you missed the giveaway or just want to learn more about the photo cards, click the pic below to check out my review and see some pics!

Second... anchor charts in a departmentalized classroom... 

I love making anchor charts and just creating charts together as a class.  But I teach ELA to two classes and don't like using twice the paper and feeling like I can't make the charts fun and interesting looking because I have to make two.

Crisis solved!

Here's what I do...

I create the charts and we use sticky notes to write responses!  Then I can peel off the sticky notes for the first class, add new ones for my class, take those off, and re-apply the ones for the other class when I see them the next day so we can review!

The top picture is my small group area.  The kids write on sticky notes for this chart.  The second chart is at my whole group instruction area and I do most of the writing.

Do you know the website http://www.readworks.org?  It's amazing.  I've been using the passages from this site for my small group instruction.  They are expertly leveled and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you can search for passages that target specific comprehension skills.  The site is free and is seriously amazing.

The pic below is of one of my small group kiddos making a prediction (on a specially made Vistaprint sticky note!) so that we can stick the prediction on one of our anchor charts.

Sneaking in something that wasn't in the blog title...

Have you bought the 100 Days to CCSS *ELA* Success that I have for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades?  I wanted to show you one of the new ways I used them this week...

I made a quick written response page with a large space at the top.  We were working on proving the lesson of a text so I searched the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade for the word "lesson" and printed out the pages from all of the packs that asked students to prove the lesson.  I cut them out, taped them in the black space on each response page, copied, and... voila!  A CCSS aligned, perfectly differentiated activity for students to write down the lesson from the story and then highlight the info in the story that led them to understand the lesson.

It went so well and gave me a great idea of who understood what... and my lower readers read the 1st grade passages which still assessed their understanding but allowed them to read independently!  Yay!

If you click the pic below, you can check them out on TpT.  I am adding a page similar to the one I used above to each packet as you read... so re-download if you have each pack to get the update!

Last... my accomplishment...

Yesterday my two best friends and I ran a 5K together.  BFF #1 and I started training about 8 weeks ago and we seriously could not run for one minute.  We did C25K three days a week.  We ran twice a week at 5:30am and on Saturdays at about 8:00am.  BFF #2 and I got together a few times after work to train but none of us could run 1 minute in the beginning.  I am so proud to say that yesterday we finished the Color Run in about 35 minutes... we walked a teeny tiny bit, but ran almost the whole thing and crossed the finish line arm in arm together!  I love these girls and had so much fun running the 5K with them!

Thanks to my #1 blog stalker for the inspiration and for coming to cheer us on!

Last Chance Giveaway!

Check out this post to enter to win some amazing writing/reading cards from Learning Resources... it ends TOMORROW! Click the pic to head over to enter!

Bucket Filling... How It Works for Me

I shared some classroom pictures over the weekend and got a few questions about my Bucket Filler pocket chart.

Here's how it works... each student has a "spot" on the chart.  I printed numbered slips and used Modge Podge to affix them to my chart.  The chart is one of my secret hoard of $1 pocket charts from Target.

I have some business cards that I printed at Vista Print that say "Dear ___, Thanks for filling my bucket!  From your friend, ___".  Kids can fill out the names and then must write a brief message on the back of the card.  Then they put them in their friends' spaces in the chart.  I have a list of student names and numbers hanging next to the chart on the wall so students can look up which number belongs to which student if they do not know.

Students know when they are allowed to fill these out- and they cannot be filled out during instruction or working time.  They can fill them out in the morning, after lunch during my read aloud, or at the end of the day after we've packed up.

It works out well.  It's quick and easy and they love seeing the cards pile up during the week.  We check these on Fridays... unless this girl forgets about it!  I usually have 25 little people reminding me though!

If you click HERE you can head to that blog post to download the "Bucket Fillers" sign for free!