Lucky Seven AND another mystery packet!

I mentioned yesterday that I was working on a craftivity that was inspired by my newest linky party, and I was able to put the finishing touches on it this morning! I had to change the hair for the girl option so it would work with the leprechaun hat. Then I was having some trouble with sizing, so I had to keep printing and putting it together to make sure it fit and looked right.

Then I had my helping otter put one together as an example for my students. I need to run out and get some construction paper for them to do it, though, because I have learned that I have some slow and/or lazy colorers. Have you found this to be true in your class? When they did my Valentine craft, I actually had some 1st graders walk by and say, "Those are really ugly! They can't color." That's pretty bad. I teach the oldest kids, and 1st graders think their work looks bad. It did, though. I was a little embarrassed to hang it up, and I only left it up there for a few days. So I think I'm going to make it easier for them to complete this time. I'll take pictures (if they turn out right), but here's my helping otter's example (isn't it cute?):

I posted the craftivity on TN and TPT. Please feel free to pin away! I love finding my items on Pinterest!

TN or TPT

Don't forget to go link up if you haven't already!

Then I decided to make another drawing conclusions mystery after reading a request for more like my Case of the Secret Admirer. This one is a St. Patrick's Day theme as well, and I changed it up a little. This one includes a map of Ireland, and students have to use directional sense to help them solve the crime.

TN or TPT

I bought my clipart to start working on spring literacy centers soon, but those usually take a few days to finish, so I won't have them up until sometime next week. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day, so I think I'm going to head on to bed. I haven't had a full work day since Monday with my meetings and a delay this morning!

Sick day, Fat Tuesday, and Valentine's

Today's a sick day for me. Poor Keagan has had a runny nose and a cough for the past week, but last night he woke up 4 times screaming! I went to check on him the first time, and he had a fever. So I called in sick and took him to the doctor this morning. He has an ear infection, so hopefully the meds they gave him will kick in quickly. I hate seeing him so miserable!

One of the nice things about my new position (well, for me) is that when I'm out, they don't give me a sub. So I don't have to write sub plans. The negative side is for the teachers I work with, I can't push into their classrooms or pull their students out for the day.

Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, and my sweet friend, Andrea, from Reading Toward the Stars created this adorable unit that I plan on using with some of my kids. My favorite parts are the vocabulary cards (since everything about Mardi Gras is foreign to my kids up here in VA) and the main idea game. I think the kids will have fun with it. If I were in the regular class, I would have to also bring in a King Cake to see who found the baby. Mardi Gras is so much fun!

For the rest of the week, I'm going to be doing centers to work with kids on a smaller scale. At the writing center, they are going to work on my Valentine Writing Craftivity. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

You can buy this packet at my TN or TPT store.

I am also going to be using some more of my Monster Valentine centers. We've already done a few of them to go along with skills being taught in the classroom, but I'm going to have some of these out for students to practice with.

You can buy this packet at my TN or TPT store as well.

What are you using to celebrate Valentine's Day this week? And do any of you celebrate Mardi Gras?

New products (I was on a roll!) and a giveaway

Teacher workdays have come to a close, and I feel like I got a lot accomplished - at least for my TpT store. On Tuesday, my sweet hubby called at lunch to say he was going to pick me up and take the family to the Williamsburg Outlets since the weather was PERFECT yesterday. He brought Keagan to the school a little early, and I got to show him off. I'll have to post the picture I took later. He found my rocking chair and loved it!

In contrast, we had those storms move through last night (a few power outages, but nothing major). Well, our school is REALLY old (well, not REALLY old, but in that time where construction must have sucked. Our school needs to be bulldozed and rebuilt) and has a flat roof. Since we've had all this precipitation recently (oh, and snow is in the forecast for tomorrow as well) and last night we had high winds as well, two of the classrooms flooded! Apparently there was about an inch of water sitting, and the kids are in the computer labs for the day because of it. Such a mess! Yet all the other schools in our county are state of the art...

Anyway, about those TpT items:

First, I made a quick writing craftivity for President's Day. It's similar to my craft for Valentine's Day and MLK, but I changed the writing part to a hat. Students write what they would do if they were President. Cute. Simple. Love it!

My next project was much more in depth. I said I was going to make something to go with John, Paul, George, and Ben. I was thrilled that so many of you love the book as much as I do!

Here's the packet. Don't you just love the name?

I ended up creating a plan that's really a BDA (before, during, and after) on accident. I guess my grad school program rubbed off on me more than I thought. Before reading, I thought it was important to activate their schema (which a big thing with me this year. All of the students who see me at least once a week know that word) about each of the founding fathers. So they will split into groups and list everything they know about each person on a word splash sheet. If they don't know anything, they can do a little research ahead of time to build their schema.

Then they will read the book, and I would have them differentiate fact from exaggeration. After reading, each student will do a biography sheet on one of the founding fathers. This sheet is a little different though. They will focus on the reputation each person had and how they earned that reputation. I thought that was a fun way of looking at it and still have them write what the person was known for. I also think I'll have the students fill out a bio sheet on themselves and do the same. It would be great for making them reflect on what kind of reputation they're building for themselves.

Finally, I included a "Create your own story" sheet. For this, they will choose a different person in history and think about what they're known for. They have to choose a reputation and then imagine what kind of trouble they might have gotten into as a child because of their reputation (for instance, maybe bossy John Smith got in trouble for telling his teachers what to do, or maybe he had trouble making friends because he always told them something like, "If you don't help, you can't play!"). I may add more to it later, but I'm in love with it already. Enjoy! 

And before you go, Lisa from Growing Firsties is having a fabulous 400 follower giveaway where you could win a $25 Erin Condren gift card. Have you seen the adorable stuff over there? I could spend $100 EASY. Go check it out!

Valentine freebie

I have been procrastinating racking my brain trying to think of the perfect freebie as a thank you to all of my wonderful followers that helped me reach the 200 mark so quickly! I wanted it to be something that would be useful for upper and lower grades, so I thought a craftivity would be perfect. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, that was the most logical theme. I have a confession though (please don't unfollow me!): I don't really care for Valentine's Day. There. I said it! Maybe it's the fact that I was single for every one of them until I met Steven in college. Or maybe it's that my parents never did any of the sending flowers or chocolates like my friends' parents in elementary/middle school. Or maybe it's that my heart is two sizes too small. Anyway, I'm not much for the whole cheese factor. But I finally came up with a craft that I could get on board with that was still related to Valentine's Day. Plus it's a little different since I'm sure there are MILLIONS of heart crafts already out there.

So this craft has students think about ways that they can show love to others. Yay for thinking about others and not what their favorite candy is or who has a crush on who! Sorry, Negative Nilly had to poke her head again. I stopped her, though! My helping otter (that's our 5th grade helpers - isn't it cute?) did this one for me to show as an example. I love it!

I'm putting this on TpT as a freebie UNTIL SUNDAY or until I remember to change the price! But I'm also giving my special readers a link here to the Google drive that will always work. (But that's our little secret).

And even though I'm not much of a sap, I really do LOVE y'all and am very grateful for all of your comments and ideas. You've made my short time on this blog great!

While you're downloading my freebie, go check out All Things Upper Elementary for their very first Friday Free 4 All linky party!

MLK Craftivity, more main idea, and squirrels

Today was back to school for me. Boo! Actually it wasn't bad at all. I just love my time at home with my bed Steven and Keagan!

I did some more main idea practice with my 4th and 5th graders today. No 3rd grade because they needed more time to readjust after break (especially since one of the teachers was out the two weeks before break after she fell and had surgery on her arm AT SCHOOL), but that gave me some extra time to finally make my writing craftivity for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It's so cute, and I love that I finally have my own template for kids to use with other crafts later.

Here's a bigger picture of how the craft looks:

I didn't use colored paper to make mine, but I separated parts where you could print on colored paper for more ease. Since we don't get to do many crafts in my classroom (and I have NO money this year), I only have pink construction paper. But it works to color it just as well if you're broke like me.

*** Okay, hold on! SQUIRREL!! (as Farley would say) ***

I'm watching Mobbed, and the teacher they hired for the kid actors/dancers just screwed up BIG TIME! Is anybody else watching this? A wife is trying to tell her hubby that she's expecting. So right now he's sitting at a table with this "random" girl (child actor) who's mom had to run and check on her son. The wife left him to sign some papers, and they were JUST ABOUT to start this whole dance sequence where they would eventually reveal the sonogram picture. This teacher walks over to talk to the girl and is explaining how she's her welfare worker and she was hired to teach her. 

Whew! Finally back from commercial break. Fortunately the kid listened and has pulled her away. So cute! He's very confused standing in the middle of dancers with baby carriages! I might cry...

*** Sorry, I'm back. I know that's not normal for me, but I couldn't think while watching that and I HAVE to know if anyone else saw it. ***

Anyway, I also made a snowman main idea packet, but my computer at school apparently decided it was time for a break. So it's ready, but I'll have to post it on TpT when I get to school in the morning. It's really cute though, and I'll blog about it this weekend. I plan on using it with my 5th grade class I push into tomorrow, so I'll be sure to bring my camera.

Now it's time to finish watching Mobbed and go to bed!

It's Saturday and another sale!

Tomorrow is the end of September (can you believe it?), so I decided to join a few other bloggers and throw another sale!



You could pick up my Pumpkin Writing Craftivity if you haven't already. It's so cute and perfect for Halloween coming up. Don't forget I also have 2 boggle boards that are great for word work, and I also added two new graphic organizers that are regularly priced at $1!

And I haven't already mentioned my newest item. I finally finished my Bat Research Unit! I'm so proud of it! There's even a Venn Diagram shaped like a bat. :-)

I'm off to school. Did I mention I'm coaching Color Guard for our high school? Well we have 5 band competitions this fall (AHHH!!), so I'm off for day 2. Hopefully it won't rain because that will be completely miserable.

Pumpkin writing craftivity

I'm SO excited about my newest product on TpT! This has been a plan I've been thinking about and wanting to create since the summer, and it's finally here.

Ever since I started teaching 4th grade, I have always done this writing activity with them for Halloween, and it's so much fun every year! Students pretend to be pumpkins in my pumpkin patch, and I am searching for a pumpkin to make my jack-o-lantern. They have to convince me why I should NOT choose them. I have to remind them to not write anything that they wouldn't want the principal to read, but they are usually pretty good about it. I've gotten the entire spectrum from just completely disgusting (one was a poopy baby pumpkin) to stalker-creepy.

After they finish writing, I make a big deal out of reading each one (without sharing names). Then I let the students help me choose the best - as in the ones we would be LEAST likely to pick. I narrow it down to the number one choice, and then I would always publish that one in the class newsletter on the week of Halloween. The kids loved it!

In the past, I've just given students a pumpkin shape and had them color it completely on their own, but I wanted to jazz it up. So I created this activity! The craft includes three sets of eyes and mouths for students to choose from and paste onto their pumpkin shape. Then there is a separate page for their writing. It's kind of similar to my Turtle Writing Craftivity I created for the beginning of the school year. Btw, I need to post pictures of that!

Please check it out by clicking on the picture below! And if you'd like to pin it, I'm not stopping you. Just sayin'.

I'm having to schedule this post because tonight is our first home football game, and I'm coaching the color guard at the high school. Silly me. Like I needed to add one more thing to my plate. I won't be posting on here over the weekend because we're going to be enjoying the beach, so have a relaxing weekend!