Halloween-spiration Linky Party!

I really want to get into the Halloween spirit this year and coordinate my classroom lessons to a Halloween theme, but I am having a really hard time coming up with anything...except another themed newsletter! Click image to download. 

So friends, I need your Halloween-spiration! 

This is my first ever linky party so help me out and link up below!

Science Freebie!!!

Well, the time has arrived for me to unveil my fully free and complete Earth Materials Unit with Teacher Resources, Assessments, and Flipcharts! 

It is day 3 of Science week and I have enjoyed browsing all the free stuff over at TBA!! 

Just click each image to download!

This document includes the unit lessons and activities. 

This document includes all of the lesson resources and assessments. Click the image below to access the files on my drive.

To access the unit flipcharts, click on the image below!

Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement or if this is helpful! 

Favorite Science Videos and Websites!

It's day 2 of Science week over at Teaching Blog Addict! Go link up!

Today we are sharing our favorite videos and websites! I just love teaching science! I am very tech savvy so I am always embedding videos and web links into my flip charts! 

One video that I use EVERY year to teach Weathering and Erosion is found on teacher tube. It is a fun cartoon by Study Jams to help students understand the difference between weathering and erosion. If you just search weathering and erosion, it should be the first one. 

 


 One website that I have found really helpful in teaching what fossils are is a simple web quest that helps students navigate easily to find the answers! Click the image below to go to the site.

We actually did this today and it was so much fun! Here is the science notebook tape in that we used with the lesson! If you are interested in the flipchart too, please email me at glauren4556@gmail.com. Click on the sheet below for access to the file!

Check back tomorrow for my FREE science unit!!! 

So thankful!

I just want to say how blessed I am to have all of you as followers! I have grown from 140 followers to 196 in just the last month! I know I kind of fell off the face of the planet for several months, but I have been so inspired by all the wonderful blogs I see out there and that has kept me motivated to post frequently and share all that I can! Everything I create, I try to share with you. I am a firm disbeliever (is that even a word??)  in reinventing the wheel.

I also want to say thank you to Mary Pitner at Pitner's Potpourri for bestowing the honor of Versatile Blogger upon me! I apologize for not getting around to this sooner! =)  

When you receive this award, you must thank the person who gave you the award, tell seven things about you, and bestow this honor on to fifteen other blogs that you think are worthy!

So, here are seven things you may not know about me...

1. I use Pinterest in between commercials on my Pinterest iphone app! Yep...that's addicted.

2. I have a very expensive taste in food! Period! And I will spend my very meager pay check every other week on just that! Grilled Hanger steak in a hunters sauce makes my mouth water! =) Call me crazy...I know. I could be buying shoes or new clothes, but not me. 

3. I read at least one book a week on my Kindle. LOVE it. My favorite genre to read is Young Adult Fantasy. Those Utopian futuristic stories just suck me right in! Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, etc...Holla if you need a reading suggestion!

4. I have a secret dream of going to culinary school and becoming the Next Iron Chef! Wishful thinking, I know.

5. I paint stuff sometimes and sell it on Etsy.com. Check out my store here! =)

6. I play Bunco once a month with 11 other ladies! Each month is themed and it is one of the things I look forward to the most each month! Last month's theme was Bunco Prom. Check out the balloon arch! 

If anyone else plays Bunco and you need theme ideas, let me know! We have done some fabulous ones!!

7. Last, but not least, I am addicted to doing school work. The weird thing is....I actually sort of enjoy it! 

I know I am supposed to choose 15 blogs to share this honor with, but I am just going to choose my top 5. My winners are:

Ladybug's Teacher Files - I love everything she posts and it's always free like mine! 

Clutter Free Classroom - I just adore all of her teaching and organizational/class decor ideas.

Extra Special Teaching - She has so many great free resources and games that are great for my ELL's! 

The Inspired Apple - She is just amazing and has super amazing and cute lesson ideas. 

What the Teacher Wants! - Their stuff is awesome and always inspiring!

Thanks again to Mary Pitner for this great honor! You made my week!

Favorite Science Books! Science Week!

It is science week over at Teaching Blog Addict! Today, we are sharing our favorite science books! Head on over to link up!! Here is an overview of the week!

I love the Magic School Bus novels! They are easy and fun to read! They also go along great with our science curriculum. 

We learn all about Rocks and Minerals so Rocky Road Trip is one that the kids and I really love!

We also learn about food chains so we also do Food Chain Frenzy!

Here are some other fun read aloud books that I use in my class. They are sorted according to the unit!

I can't wait to share my new, FREE, science unit this week!! Check back on Wednesday especially!!

Western Themed Newsletter

I had a request from Brenda at Quilting Along Life's Way to make a Western themed newsletter template, so here it is! The graphics are from Scrappin' Doodles!

I really enjoy making these, so just let me know if you guys have any more suggestions!! 

On another note, I can't wait for Science Week!! I will finally be releasing my totally free, completely jam packed Rocks and Minerals Unit with printable resources and lesson plans!  Get excited! 

Vowel Bingo

I teach at a school with a very high Hispanic population and so naturally, they struggle in reading and writing. This really made me rethink how I wanted to teach spelling this year because whatever I was doing in years past wasn't working out for my students. 

I have always struggled with how to handle spelling and this year, I decided to go with a much more focused approach each week. I really wanted to devote the first 5 weeks to short and long vowels (CVe). 

For example, the first week, we did words with short a vowels and words with long a vowels that follow the CVe rule. The next week, we focused on short and long i. You get the idea.

As a culminating activity to review the short and long vowels, I created this BINGO game. I am including this here for all you teachers out there who might be able to use it! 

Click the pictures to download. 

Here is the call sheet. 

Pirate Newsletter Template

I posted a Back to School newsletter a few weeks back and I tweaked that one just a little bit to go along with my class theme. For all you pirate themed people out there, here is another freebie! And it's just in time for National Talk Like a Pirate Day tomorrow!

Graphics are from Scrappin' Doodles and Fonts from KevinandAmanda!

Let me know what you guys think!!

I will be happy to make another themed newsletter for you own classroom if you just leave me a comment with information on what you would like in it and your e-mail!

Place Value Review

Most districts begin every math unit with place value. I was visiting Pitner's Potpourri recently and came across this great idea for reviewing Place Value that she called a Place Value Marathon. See her post here. 

I took this idea and created one to meet my classroom needs. My marathon works on place value through the hundred thousands, so this is great for the upper elementary and can be adapted for lower elementary. 

Click on the file to download!

Free E-books from Scholastic!!

Scholastic has $1.00 ebooks for sale until September 20!

But wait...it gets better!

You can purchase 10 of those one dollar ebooks for free with the code 10thanks.

Why are still reading?! GET on over there!

Techy Time!

It's official...I have the crud. Ugh. Every year when school starts back I have to drug myself with Sudafed, Nyquil, and Afrin for about a week straight.I am living on Luden's wild cherry cough drops this week. Please pray for a rapid recovery! 

Okay, my pity party is over now... Thank you for listening. =) 

Our school's Instructional Technology Facilitator shared some awesome new websites that I had not previously heard of yesterday and I thought I would share!

This website is sooooo fun! You can take any picture that you have saved and make it talk! I thought it would be fun to take pictures of my students and record a message from me to welcome them in the morning. They would die with laughter! 

There are so many other things you could do with this. The possibilities are endless! 

This next website is a great ELA resource. You can use it to help teach all kinds of reading and writing skills and even have your students create their own cartoon comics!

This last website is just an all around great teaching resource. There are TONS of videos and tutorials that can help you teach any subject! Sometimes, it's just nice to sit back and let someone else do the teaching! =) 

The best thing about all of these websites is they're free!! So, go check em' out!

Easy Peasy Partners!

I am a big fan of using time wisely and making transition time smooth and quick! I stole this lovely idea from a colleague at my school last year and it made my partnering/grouping go so quickly! The kids know who their partner is and what part of the room to go to so less time is wasted! 

Click the photos to download. I am linking the word version so you can edit for you own needs. 

Genius. I know... 

Unfortunately, I can't take the credit, but I did want to share with you all in case you haven't seen them before.

I post these on the whiteboard at the front of the room so I always have it right in front of me. 

MAP goals

We do the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Test every year in our district. It is becoming quite the secure test these days! We have so many students that receive oral administration in Math that it literally takes our school the entire month!

Anyhow, before we take the test, I always conference with each student about their goals and how they are going to improve from the last time. At the beginning of the year, you can use their previous years test scores as a jumping off point and take that time to explain the purpose of the goal sheet and its importance. My students are responsible for keeping these in their PIRATE binders and know where they are when testing time rolls around.

Here is the goal shee that I use in my classroom. I have linked it to the word version so you can make changes to suit your own classroom and needs. Just click on the picture to download the file.

Do you use a goal sheet in your classroom? If so, what does it look like? I am always looking to improve my goal sheet!

Problem Solving Words and Strategies

So, I am sure many of you have seen these on Pinterest or The Teacher Wife's page. 

And maybe you have seen this from Oh Boy, 4th Grade. 

Well, I have taken these two lovely ideas and made a perfect marriage! After seeing these two wonderful ideas, I thought it would be a great thing to have glued inside my students math journals! 

Let me know what you think! I hope I didn't break any rules by using these two ideas and combining them into one...

Click on the picture to download! 

Per Request - Friendly Letter

Someone asked about getting the printable of the friendly letter guy and I found who I stole it from! Visit Thriving Third Graders to download the document with the friendly letter guy in it! She also has some great lesson ideas for teaching the friendly letter!

All I did was take him from paper to poster! But he looks so cool hanging on the wall!

I am also working on finishing my Rocks, Minerals, Fossils, and Soils unit! When I am done, I will post for all to have!

Just a few ideas I've stolen from Pinterest...

So, like most everyone else in teacher blog land, I live on Pinterest. I have an app on my iphone and I use it constantly on commercial breaks! This guy, who has yet to be named, was an inspired by someone on Pinterest who I can't think of at the moment! But it really helped my kids remember the parts of a letter!

Isn't he cute!? I mean, he has a big ole head that isn't really proportional to the rest of his body, but who cares! 

I actually did not find this next idea on Pinterest. I actually came up with it all on my own! =)  I gave my kids a learning style survey during the first week of school and then I turned it into a consensogram! 

This idea came to me this week when I was trying to figure out what to do with my students South Carolina landform maps. I decided I would just make a collage out of them and make one large map! 

I will post more from my world later this weekend! 

Now, if you'll excuse me, my glass of wine and I have a date!

Free Teacher Clip Art and Social Studies ideas!

Hold on to your pants! I have discovered the Holy Grail! I was perusing some blogs through a linky party hosted by Kathy at First Grade a la Carte and clicked on Primary Graffiti's link up. She had a Social Studies freebie that included clip art from phillipmartin.com.

Now, I have seen this clip art before all over the internet and just NEVER knew that it was totally free and that there was TONS of it!! I was in teacher clip art heaven! It was all broken down into categories so it was easy to search and find what you are looking for! Click here for a direct link to the page with the clip art. Prepare to be excited.

Please tell me that I am not the only person who didn't know about this or just fib and pretend you didn't because I will feel reaaaaally stupid for sharing if I am! HAHA

Oh, also, if you are interested in some Social Studies freebies, head on over to First Grade a la Carte and link up! Not only are there some great Social Studies ideas, but she is always giving away some freebies JUST for participating! =)

HOLLA!

My Top Ten Blogs

I was overjoyed last night when I checked my blogger account and saw that Mary Pitner at Pitner’s Potpourri had awarded me with a Top Ten award! It makes me feel like all the work I do is for something!

Here they are in no particular order! I tried to pick ones that didn't already have a post about Top 10!

Lesson Plan SOS (I love all her lesson ideas and freebies!) 

Science Notebooking (She has fabulous science lessons and ideas! Totally stole my science notebook decorating idea from her! Check them out here.)

Regurgitated Alphabits (She’s hilarious!! Just read her blog…you’ll be falling out of your seat.)

What the Teacher Wants (She has such great free resources and printables!)

Extra Special Teaching (She has lots of great freebies too that are great for my low third graders.)

iLearn Technology (I have found so many great techy resources and websites for teachers and for students on this blog.)

Mrs. Lewis' Learning Library (I just recently discovered this blog, but she has amazing free stuff for teachers!)

Lory's Page (This is also a recent discovery, but WOW! What cute stuff!)

The Inspired Apple (I just love all of her ideas! I "steal" them quite often!)

Ladybug's Teacher Files (I'm cheating here, because she was already picked, but I have been in love with her site since I stumbled upon it!)

To get your button, head over to Teaching Blog Addict!

Rocks and Minerals

At the beginning of the year, we always do a unit on Rocks and Minerals. Last year, I wrote this post on some activities that we did. I have revamped the unit a little bit and wanted to share with you all! 


I also created the science notebook tape in to go along with the first lesson! You will notice there are two pages of the same thing and then the teacher resource page. When you print for your students, you want to print pages 1-2 only (not the teacher resource page) and choose the option multiple pages per sheet. It will then print both pages on one sheet so you can cut the in half and tape them into the journals.

Click the pictures to download the files.

I will be posting more of the resources soon, but this is a good start! If you need any of the flipcharts or have questions about the unit, please feel free to email me at glauren4556@gmail.com.