Tweet, Tweet, Come get your 3 R's Freebie!

 

 

A little birdie told me that Earth Day is right around the corner!  What a great opportunity to talk about being responsible and taking care of our Earth!  Grab my Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Flapbook to get the conversation flowing or assess learning.  Just click on my little buddy or the link below to get your freebie before he flies away!! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Flapbook-Freebie

You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours!

Hey guys!  I have been trying to come up with ways to increase traffic on my TPT store as I approach my two year anniversary on the site.  I thought I might try all you peeps in blogger world.  If you download & vote/comment for three of my free products in my TPT store and become a follower of my store, I will give you 1 paid item of your choosing for free. 

Simply follows these steps:

1.  Visit my TPT store
2.  Download and comment on at least 3 of my free products
3.  Become a follower of my TPT store
4.  Leave a comment here with the following:
     - the name of the 3 products you downloaded and voted/left comments about
     - the name of the paid product that you would like to have
     - your email so I can send you the product

It's that simple!  I will send 1 free item to everyone who completes all four steps by Thursday at MIDNIGHT (3/21/2013)

So, go ahead and do some shopping!

Here are a few of my free offerings:
Non-fiction Reading Response Cards
Filing Cabinet Drawer Labels
Guided Reading Rotation Cards
Number Identification Highlighting Activity Pages

And as always, I APPRECIATE you!!!!

THIS PROMO HAS ENDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

St. Patty's Day QR Code Freebie

Don't you love using technology in your classroom?  I love finding any excuse to get technology in the hands of my students.  
Have you ever tried to use QR Codes in your classroom?  They are a great tool and so easy to make. 

First, you need to go to a site that generates the QR code for you.  Try this one:

http://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/

 

 

Follow the easy directions to create and download your own unique codes.  The best part- it is free!

 

Then, you will need to have a QR Reader loaded on your devices.  These are also free! 

 

In no time at all you, too, can be making your own QR Codes.  In the mean time, why not grab my free St. Patty's Day Riddles QR Code Cards and let your kids have a hand at using them.  Click on the picture below to download.  Please leave me a vote in exchange!

 

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!



Free Font Fat Tuesday

 

Click on the picture above to grab a cute little cherry inspired font for Presidents' Day!  You may use this font for personal or commercial products.  I would love it if you could give me a vote on TPT!   Have a great Fat Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12-12-12 FREEBIE

Did you know that Wednesday is the last time in our lifetime that we will have the same number for the month, day and year as our date?  I don't want to let this day pass by without doing something special.  Click on the 12 for a quick morning work activity to do with your students.

 Have a great day!!

St. Nick Freebie and Flash Sale!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there....

Click on St. Nick to grab my free St. Nick writing page and while you are there check out my St. Nick Flash Sale items.  All Christmas related products are on sale!! 

                                                       I am off to dream of sugarplums!!!!

Griswold Family Christmas

Okay, so we have a 10 foot ceiling in our family room so I was thinking big on Sunday when we went to get our downstairs tree.  We bought this tree when it was all wrapped up, so we couldn't really judge how massive it really is!  This tree was one pain in the butt after another.  First, my husband went ahead and brought it in the house and placed it in the stand while I was grocery shopping with our youngest.  After Sunday dinner, we started to put Christmas ornaments on (luckily we have an obscene amount of ornaments!)  The tree began to tip as I was hanging an ornament.  So I had to stand there holding the tree up while we tried to come up with a solution to keep it from crashing down.  Seriously, is there a squirrel living in this thing!!

So here we have our beautiful tree tied up with string.  We tied the other side as well.  I filled the tree stand to the brim with water and we called it a night.

A lightbulb went off in our heads....maybe we need a different tree stand!  So my husband went out to get one after work today.  I don't even know how to describe the difficulty we went through pulling the tree out of the old stand, lights and all to get it in the new one.  Plus, the dang thing is almost to the ceiling which doesn't leave much room to maneuver!!

So, we got to put our ornaments on together for a second time tonight.  You can see my husband had to cut some of the bottom branches off to fit the tree in the taller tree stand.  Oh well, imperfections are what makes life worth living!  We still have some more ornaments to put up this weekend!

What is your family's Christmas tree tradition?  Click on the Griswolds for a Christmas Tree Writing Prompt!  Happy Tree Hunting!!

Mel

Santa Baby!

I love having my students write a letter to Santa.  It is a fun activity and something kids want to do every year.  Click on the picture to get my cute little Santa Stationary for your letters.  If you would like a little more direction, along with graphic organizers and a lesson plan you can go to my TPT store.  Just click on the link. 

            http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dear-Santa-Letter-Writing-Activity

                                          
                                                               Happy Saturday!!

Identifying Numbers Freebie

Here's a fun little freebie for number identification.  It is based on Abby's Highlight- a- Letter Activity.  Go to this post if you want her incredible free!!
             http://theinspiredapple.blogspot.com/2012/09/rti-kindergarten-activity-freebie.html

If you want my number version just click on the picture! 

Christmas Math Facts Practice!

December is a very busy month in the classroom!  With so many fun and exciting things going on, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the fact that you still need to tackle those basic skills!  Here's a fun way to make sure students are getting their math fact practice in during those busy December days!
Click on the picture to get your own copy of my Santa Target page.  You can write any number you want on Santa's beard and students can practice their multiplication facts.  Slip the page in a plastic pocket or laminate it so students can use it with dry erase markers in a center. 
This activity sheet is part of my Christmas Math Facts Activity pack which includes addition, subtraction and multiplication pages.  The pack also has cute little covers to transform your flash card packs into special Christmas flash cards! If you are interested in the entire activity pack with 70+ pages click on the link! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Christmas-Math-Facts-Activity-Pack

Kentucky Derby Day 2012

I am a Kentucky girl and I don’t know if you have heard, but we have a little horse race going on here this weekend.  No biggie- just the most exciting two minutes in sports! 
If you have some free time this Friday, why not get into the Derby Day action!  I just made a quick little pack filled with three activities.  I am posting it to my TPT store, but my loyal followers can grab a copy for free!  Just leave a post telling me how you will be spending your Derby Saturday. Make sure you are a follower and don’t forget to give your email address.  I will send the pack to you ASAP!  All posts must be made by 8:00 PM tomorrow evening.   Click on the picture if you want to preview the pack.  Thanks for reading!

Post-it Freebie

We have been reviewing fact and opinion. This week in guided reading groups, I had my students look for facts and opinions in their leveled readers. They marked some examples with my fact and opinion post-it strips. Then we wrapped up our session with a share-out. Click on the above picture to get a copy of my fact & opinion post-it strips. If you have never printed your own post-its before it is simple! Follow these steps:

1. Print the document normally on your printer.

2. Lay a clean white sheet of paper over the printed document and lay a 3 by 3 post-it over each printed area.

3. Feed the paper through your printer upside down and top first (this works for most printers).

4. I have never had a jam! (knock on wood!!)

Don't forget to cut the post-its into strips!! Have fun!

Thank you, Public Library!

This weekend I ran into the library with my kiddos to find a good movie (just didn't want to spend that $1.00 at Redbox!) and stumbled upon something great in the children's section! I can't believe I hadn't noticed this wonderful tool sooner- but I am grateful I found it when I did. Have you ever heard of a Playaway View (The All-in-one video player)?? I hadn't until just now.
It is this remarkable little gadget that houses preloaded videos. It is about the size of a cellphone, so your students can hold it in their hands while viewing.

It comes with a jack for headphones.
I was so happy to find this amazing piece of technology! Each of my little ones checked out one for themselves and I snatched one up for my classroom. I couldn't believe my luck when I was able to get the "Great Places and Faces" video. The very first video (it has over an hour of watchable video) was Thank You, Sarah. How perfect for Thanksgiving and for my Turkey Task Centers that I had planned for Monday and today. My listening center promptly changed into a video center!!
Let me tell you, my students were so excited about this new piece of technology. Of course, a couple of them who are frequent visitors of the library had already checked one out and knew all about it.
The icing on the cake was when I read a comment on one of my posts from Elizabeth over at Fun in Room 4B. She shared some great printables from another blogger for, you guessed it, the book Thank You, Sarah! Could things get any better!
I hope you have a great public library like mine that has wonderful resources! If they don't have these yet, maybe tell them about them! I can't wait to check more out for my Listening/Video Center!!

Making Time for Thanksgiving!

Whew!! What a busy time of year this is right now! I have parent- teacher conferences coming up and I am NOT ready! So, of course, here I am talking to you guys. Can you say, Procrastinator!!?? I am looking forward to my two day week that is coming up the week of Thanksgiving. Since we only have a two day week, it is really hard to introduce new concepts, so I spend Monday and Tuesdsay doing a lot of reviewing. I use my Turkey Tasks to keep my students busy and engaged. These are low prep activities or centers that your students can do independently. Take a look at my Thankgsving Making Words activity. Your students can do this in a center or you can assign it to the whole group. Grab it here by heading to my TPT store. If you are interested in more great Turkey Tasks, head on over to my TPT store! Gobble, gobble!!

Making a good impression!

We have been studying fossils this week and spent some time discussing the definition of a cast, a mold and an imprint. As a culminating activity each child made their own imprint of an object found in nature. Before they made their own imprint- I shared 3 different examples: a ring, a key and a fork. Then I asked them to record what each imprint will show future people about how we lived. You can get the recording sheet by clicking on the picture.

Here is the recipe to make your salt dough if you want your students to try this activity:

• 4 cups of all purpose flour


• 1 cup of salt


• 1 and a half cups of water


• bowl

Mix the above ingredients in the bowl until dough forms. Add extra water a little bit at time if needed if the dough is too dry.

Give each student a small ball of dough and have them flatten it on wax paper. Students will gently press their object of choice into the dough. Have your students carve their initials into the dough before collecting. Place the creations on a cookie sheet (take off the wax paper) and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes. This will harden the dough and make the lasting impression! Have fun!!

Stick it to 'em!!

I just had the most fun ever with my guided reading groups! I have an obsession with post-it notes. I have all sizes, colors, designs, stickness strengths....too many by far! My obsession seeped into my instruction awhile back and I love coming up with new ways to use the little magic pieces of paper with my kiddos.

Today I used my Non-fiction Text Feature post-its with my guided reading groups and they loved it! I love being able to find hands on activities during reading and what a way to keep them engaged. My students worked in pairs to find various text features in their leveled readers about penguins. The discussions that were taking place were focused on investigating the text and learning about each feature. After the pairs had ample time to search the text and slap their post-it labels (which by the way is a text feature!-just saying!!) we spent time letting them share their findings. It was such a worthwhile mini-lesson. I can't wait to do it again.

If you would like to try your hand at this guided reading activity, click on the post-it picture and head on over to my TPT store and grab your FREE copy of my post-its! They will be free until next Friday, October 14th. I'd love to hear from you all if you use this activity with your kiddos!! Have a good one!

Melissa

Guided Reading Rotations Made EASY!

My third grade team has 4 guided reading groups that we meet with 4 times a week. I meet with my groups on Tuesday- Friday. Each Monday I front load with a lot of whole group activities, so we don't meet on that day. I also share the centers that students will be working in that week on Mondays so I do not take up any whole group time explaining on Tuesdays before our rotations.

I wanted a way to have my guided reading groups leveled but then let my students work with students outside of their guided reading groups during the other rotations each day. My system is pretty simple and the kids caught on right away! We practiced one day the first week of school and then they were ready to do it "for real".

My third grade team has also jumped on board and I think they are seeing great results with management during reading. They used to have each group rotate as a whole and the entire group would do one center each day. This meant that 6 students would be at one center together. Management nightmare!

I have 4 different rotations (since I have to meet with 4 Guided Reading Groups). They are Guided Reading (with me), Read to Self, Seatwork and Centers. During the seatwork rotation students are practicing skills that we have been working on during whole group or guided reading. During the Centers rotation the students visit one center per day for a total of 4 centers each week. My centers change from week to week but include: technology, word work, listening, spelling, art, science, social studies, math. It really depends on what stories/genre we are working on and skills we are practicing.

Your Reading Rotation Cards should be posted in a centers chart. I leave all of my student cards where they are and just rotate the center cards each day. Be careful to make sure that you are spreading out your students so that they are not more than 2 students at a center per rotation.

Check out my rotation cards for free at my TPT store! Click on the pic of my center chart to snag your copy. Let me know what you think!

Organization is the key!

In my quest to become more organized and to have a fabulously attractive classroom, I have created some cute little labels for my filing cabinet. Head on over to TPT to grab your free copy. I have also created some cute little "locker fairy" cards (in the spirit of my new sports/team theme) to keep my kids organized. Click on the pics and head on over to TPT to grab your free copy of each!!

I day down, 186 to go and a WINNER!!

Hey blogtastic friends! I had a terrific first day back with my tremendous thirdies! They truly are a great bunch!! I am quite exhausted after a full day and a trip to the ballpark for the ALS Awards banquet to celebrate a great walk in June. Now I am ready to crawl into bed- but alas, I remembered that I have a promise to keep to all you faithful followers. So here it goes! The winner of the Graphics Factory Membership is..... comment number 46- Debbie! Congratulations to Debbie! Her first day back to school with kids is not until September 6th. Debbie, I hope you can enjoy a little time fiddling around on the Graphics Factory website before then. Please email me with the following info so I can get you registered:
your email
a user name
a password (you will be able to change this after you logon the first time)
your address
Thanks!!
mcurrin@insightbb.com

Graphics Factory Giveaway!!

August is right around the corner and I spent the entire day yesterday (except when I stopped to watch my two little ones in a play at Theatre Camp and take them out to dinner) from 7:30AM-9:30PM in my classroom working. I don't even think I made a dent in it!!
So, this morning I decided to check my emails and I had a great offer from Graphics Factory for a 2 year membership for $39.95 and a free companion membership for a friend. Well, of course I thought of all my bloggie friends first!!
So I will be giving away this awesome membership to one lucky follower on my first day of school, August 17th!!! The giveaway will end at 8:00 PM. Hopefully I won't be too exhausted to get on and post a winner. Here are all the ways you can get entries:
1. Leave a comment on here telling me the date of your first day back.
2. Become a follower of Life's a Teach!! and leave a comment telling me you follow.
3. "Like" my Life's a Teach!! facebook page and leave a comment here telling me you did it.
4. TWO ENTRIES-Go to my Life's a Teach TPT page, download a freebie and leave me some feedback. Then come back here and tell me you did! (don't forget to do it twice!!)
5. Follow my Life's a Teach!! TPT page and leave a comment telling me you follow.

Thanks! and Good Luck!!