Currently October with a TREAT!

It's finally October! I feel like the summer months flew by, but September sure made up for it. I know most of that has to do with beginning a new year, but my goodness it seems like it dragged on forever. Do you agree?

Listening: I have FIFTY-TWO kids that I am working with in grades 3-5 this year, so my schedule is jam-packed. When I finally reach break at 2, I'm exhausted. Not to mention today is Thursday. Not Friday.

Loving: The State Fair is in town through Sunday, so we're heading out tonight. I hope the rain actually holds off. Apparently there is a 1,200+ lb pumpkin, and I need a picture with a pumpkin larger than my head for Amanda's Halloween Hunt on Instagram!

Thinking: Yeah...I may start them before I pull kids again. Or maybe not.

Wanting: I love Reese's, but the pumpkins are my favorites. The break between their eggs and pumpkins should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Really, they can come up for something to fill in the gap during the summer. Beach balls? Swimming trunks? Heck, I'll design it for them even. Maybe they'd give me a lifetime supply?

Needing: I cut them out and then start again. It's a vicious cycle. Right now I'm back to drinking one every time I get a chance. It needs to stop.

My treat: Through tonight and tomorrow, I'm putting my Halloween-themed resources on sale for HALF price!

I hope you enjoy them! These are some of my favorite products of the year :-)

Five for Friday - Halloween Style

I'm EARLY!! Well, actually I did this yesterday and then scheduled it to post so I would be on time. Aren't you proud?

I've been meaning to share some of the fun things we do on Fridays in my room. It's my rule that students can have game day on Friday if they focus and do what they are supposed to for the rest of the week. They get excited, and I know that it's really just more reading review in a fun way. One of their FAVORITE games is Plinko. Most of the questions have short paragraphs. I laugh because they always want to land on "Diagrams, Charts, and Tables" because those are "easier" since they don't have to read. What they don't realize is that some of those are harder than any of the others.

I mentioned in an earlier post about how we were doing test-taking strategies. We read about bats, made "headlines" for each paragraph, and then went back to the text to highlight where we found answers. They definitely still need practice, but we're getting there.

Fifth grade continued working with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. On Wednesday, I told them that Ichabod Crane had suddenly reappeared 30 years later. They had to pretend to be newspaper reporters and write a short article about him. Bear with me. I promise these were the best, but we didn't do any real proofreading because of time constraints, etc. I know there are A LOT of things to work on before the Writing SOL in March, but I thought the ideas were pretty decent.

I was excited to be asked to help carve pumpkins in my third grade class yesterday! The teacher had a glyph for animals since they have been studying ecosystems in Science. Each group was given an animal, and they had to decide where it lived (forest, ocean, rainforest, etc), what adaptation it used (migration, hibernation, or something else), and if it was a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore. Then they drew the eyes, nose, and mouth based on how they answered the questions. I carved from there (and thanked God it wasn't whichever would have had a star nose), and then each group used the glyph to try and guess the other groups' animals. Fun!

And I think I did a pretty good job carving (ours was a bear, btw)!

And of course, last night was Halloween! This year was SO much more fun with Keagan because he's more aware of what's going on (although it took him a while to get the hang of things) and enjoyed it! His favorite part was ringing the doorbells, though.

Happy Halloween!

Very quick post to let all of you last-minute planners (like me) know that my entire store is 20% off today! Go grab yourself a quick treat and have a Happy Halloween!

And if you've already spent WAY too much money on candy, costumes, and other fun, I have a great freebie for working on main idea. Plus it's mostly fall themed, so you could even use it tomorrow or next week instead. Sorry, no picture. Apparently when I made this, I just threw it together quickly and was done.

I just learned this morning that I get to help carve pumpkins in 3rd grade. Eek! I'm a little scared of using knives, but maybe I can get some fun pictures!

My plans for the week (and where to find them)

We have been BUSY with some Halloween fun this week, so I want to share a few things I'm doing in my classroom to celebrate while reviewing reading!

I love a good spooky story, and one of my favorite to do with fifth grade is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I got this pack from forkin4th last year which includes a version that is more level appropriate for my kids. I like that it still has a good amount of words that they are unfamiliar with. We read the story yesterday, and then split into groups to do a character analysis for Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane. Today, I had them compare the two men and predict what happened to Ichabod after his encounter. I read over them today and made comments. Tomorrow, they will actually work on a sequel to the Legend and focus on giving details. I can't wait to see what they come up with and will try to remember to take pictures!

For fourth grade, we're doing test-taking strategies this week with a GREAT freebie I ran across from the 24/7 Teacher. This packet has some great questions for review, and the kids enjoyed learning some new facts about bats!

First, I had the kids make headlines for each paragraph. Since there wasn't much space on the paper and they take their benchmarks and SOL tests on the computer anyway, I showed them how to record the headlines (or stop and jot) on a separate sheet. They did a pretty good job overall, but I have a good idea of who needs more practice on this.

I took a picture of the headlines up close, but it didn't work for some reason.

Once they finished reading and making headlines, they answered the questions provided and highlighted it in the article. I'm making a big deal about proving your answers because these are the kids who need to the MOST!

We've already been doing a lot with bats for third grade in the past few weeks, but tomorrow I will be reading Nightsong! They're learning about animal adaptations in class, so we will discuss how this relates to factual information about bats we have read in other books. Then we'll talk a little about the author's craft. I can't wait to share this book with my very first group!

Finally, I want to leave you with a picture of my door that I finished when I didn't have my camera phone. I finally took this picture last Friday. I think it's fun!

Science Mentor Text: Nightsong

I've been waiting to link up with this book for TWO weeks now, and I'm so excited to share it! Last year, someone posted about this book, and I had to check it out because it just looked adorable.

So when I got some money to spend at the end of the school year, I added this one to my cart (along with Stellaluna, which I also love). This one is all about a little bat, Chiro, who is scared to venture into the darkness on his own. His mother tells him to use his "good sense" and his special song will light the way. Not only is the language in this story beautiful (and I may be using it with my 5th grade to talk about the author's craft), but the pictures are equally lovely!

I chose this book for science because it is a GREAT way to teach younger students about how echolocation helps bats "see" at night. Obviously their voice doesn't actually work as a flashlight, but students can picture it helping the little bat find food as he "sings his song".

I think Stellaluna may still by my favorite bat book, but this one definitely wins a spot on my list! I'm very glad I made the purchase and can use it this year.

Also, don't forget to check back by Friday for our big Super Sleuth Blog Hop! There will be tons of great reading freebies that you won't want to miss. Speaking of, I need to get to work finishing mine...

Halloween Must Read Mentor Text: The Widow's Broom

I was so excited to see that the topic for today's must read was Halloween/Fall because there are SO many fantastic books! I saw that Amanda and Stacia already wrote about Stellaluna, one of my favorites, but fortunately I had already planned on a different one for this week.

I have become a big fan of Chris Van Allsburg in the past few years because his books are great for older kids, and they usually haven't already heard them when they come to me.

This particular story is about a witch's broom that loses its magic and falls from the sky. A widow finds the broom and begins to use it, but one day she wakes up to learn it is no ordinary broom. They begin to keep each other company, and she trains the broom to help her with everyday chores. When the neighbors learn of the broom's unusual powers, they get scared and demand that it be burned.

I think this book is a neat way to remind students that "different" doesn't necessarily mean bad. Allsburg did a fantastic job of portraying a difficult subject that has been repeated multiple times in history. This could lead into a comparison lesson for older students with other "misunderstood" groups who were persecuted in various ways. However, it's also a great story for the younger ones to lead discussions in how to treat others fairly.

I also used this book to work on predicting last year. We would change our predictions as we read and learned more information. It has been almost a year since I did this, but I also believe that we practiced questioning with this book. There are SO many questions that they students will have as they read, so I will be doing that this year for sure!

One quick word of caution: please read the book ahead of time, especially if you teach early elementary. The story is a little scary, and you need to make sure it's one that you and your students will be comfortable reading. As an upper grades teacher, my students and I love it. However, I've seen mixed reviews on whether it should be read to K and 1.

Now I can't wait for Keagan to wake up. We're headed to the state fair! It will be his first trip, and I can't wait to see how much he enjoys it!

Happy Halloween and a sale!

I'm back at school (for today only - I'll be out with Keagan the rest of the week), and I checked my TpT stats this morning only to make a frightening discovery! My total as of this morning for the quarter so far is $66.60! Of all days, on Halloween. Anyway, I HAVE to make a sale. Plus I thought it would be the perfect time for teachers to start buying up items for Thanksgiving. 

Like my button? Feel free to grab it!

Maybe even by the end of the day I'll have my Thanksgiving literacy centers. After all, most of my teachers are playing catch-up, so I've got most of the day for planning. It's benchmark time here PLUS we've been out for two days PLUS it's Halloween, so today's just going to be craziness. Oh, and did I mention I got an email from my AP saying he needed to observe me this week. For me, that means TODAY! Eek!! Good thing I have a plan, now he's just got to be able to come in one of my few time slots for the day!

Btw, what do you think of my new design? I love Leelou blogs, and I just HAD to make my button match my new design. Feel free to grab it and my sale sign! I'm so proud of them!

Halloween Sale!

It's been a great month for sales in my store, so I thought it would be perfect to end with a little sale! 

Thank you for creating this adorable button, Abby!

Fill up your cart with plenty of treats! Apparently there are a lot of great bloggers joining in on this sale, so be sure to check your wishlist. This could be a great time to stock up on last minute Halloween items, or you could even start preparing for Thanksgiving. I've already got two of my Thanksgiving units up (still working on my literacy centers I'm SO excited about - I even purchased some cute clipart from KPM Doodles today).

My Halloween bundle complete with the bats unit, pumpkin main idea/supporting details, and a pumpkin writing craftivity

Two Thanksgiving units - both brand new this week

And be on the lookout for my literacy centers. I wish I could finish them before Monday, but we might lose power over the weekend with this "Frankenstorm". Have you heard about it? Apparently it's a hurricane wrapped in a Noreaster with a winter storm wrapped up in it somewhere else. Eek!! My school is in a VERY rural county, so we could be out for a few days.

Happy shopping, and if you live anywhere close to me (although that could mean the entire east coast), stay safe!!

Huge Halloween Giveaway!

Who loves Halloween? If so, you've GOT to check out this giveaway hosted by Antonia from Forkin4th! This is an especially great giveaway for those of us who work with the older kids because there are 19 products from upper grades teachers! Oh, and did you see the $25 Amazon gift card? Who couldn't use that?

I'm giving away my entire Halloween Bundle with this giveaway, so go check it out!!

I've been BOO-ed, and another giveaway

Yay for the bloggy love! I've been BOO-ed TWICE!!

My sweet friend (and fellow VA Reading Specialist), Andrea from Reading Toward The Stars included me in this fun game. Then before I had a chance to make my post public, Caitlyn from Fourth Grade Lemonade (and another sweet VA blogger friend) BOOed me too! Once you've been BOOed, link up with Tori's Teacher Tips to see who else has been BOO-ed and what their favorite fall resources are.

If you've been booed, copy and paste the above pic and these "rules" into your post.

1. Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!
2. Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (yours or someone else), or freebie(s) that you love!
3. Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers - make sure you check this link to see that you don't boo someone who's already gotten the love:  http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/2012/10/ive-been-booed-fun-october-linky.html And don't forget to tell them that they have been BOOED!
4. Link up {here} so that others can find you and read about your October ideas! And while you are there...check out the other great blogs!

So here are 3 of my favorite fall resources:

I loved this writing craftivity even before I jazzed it up a little this year. The students are always so creative with it, and it's just a lot of fun!

Last week, I bought Amy Lemon's Fall Literacy Centers and LOVE them! I still need to get them laminated and ready to go though...time is not something on my side right now.

This Witch Crash activity is from Valerie Young, and it could be a fun lead in to Chris Van Allsburg's The Widow's Broom.

I'm BOOing:
Katie at Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans
Jessica at Mrs. Stanford's Class
Brittany at Underpaid and Overblessed
Stephanie Ann at Sparkling in Third Grade
Allie at The Gypsy Teacher

I also have another giveaway that I wanted to share. Caitlyn, one of my friends who just BOOed me, is celebrating 100 followers with a giveaway. Go check it out!!