TPT Back to School Sitewide SALE!

Hello fellow teachers! For those of you who follow my blog, I'm sorry I've been MIA for the entire summer, but this is what I've been up to:

Yep, that's right...I've been cooking up a baby! My fourth boy, to be exact, so I've been rather busy either taking care of my other three or myself. Looking forward to 2 1/2 weeks from now when my little man will enter this world. So, I will be taking my maternity leave at the beginning of the school year, right when I'm supposed to start a new position at a new school. No stress....right!?!?!?! 

With that said, I will attempt to continue to get some blog posts out to you, as well as new products as much as I can. I'm currently working another Encyclopedia Brown novel unit, and you just can't miss the Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School Sitewide Sale! You can get up to 28% savings if you use BTS15 at the checkout. My entire store is on sale, so now's the time to get ready for the upcoming year! Here are a few items you might be interested in:

Reader's Notebook Starter Pack

Classroom Scrabble Bulletin Board

Star Cards - A Behavior Management System

Wishing you all a wonderful beginning to the school year! I hope you find lots of joy in your new students, your new roles, or whatever you may have going on in the coming months! Hopefully, you will be making a difference! :)

I'm a Featured Shop of the Week?? WHAT!?!?!

Well, I am SO excited, if you can't tell! I received word that I'm a Featured Shop of the Week on Teacher's Notebooks Facebook page. How cool is that?!?! They are also featuring a product of mine: Star Cards - A Behavior Management System. (Click on the logo above to take you to the Facebook post!) I'm totally stoked to be honored this way. I put a lot of work into each and every one of my products. I actually use them in my own classroom, and I really want to share my ideas and save other teachers time as well. I thank all of you for following me, making purchases, and just supporting me in general in this endeavor. You rock!

Don't forget, that I'm still running sales in both of my shops: Teacher's Notebook and Teacher's Pay Teachers. The Teacher's Notebook site-wide sale is all week and the TPT sale ends today.

I'll let you in on a little secret...I'm just finishing up a novel unit for "Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective," the first book in the series. I should have it in both of my stores by the end of the day. So, if you're looking for a novel to end your year, or you're looking forward to next year, you might want to check out this product!!

Thanks again for all of your support! Putting in the effort in my shops and on this blog wouldn't be worth it without you!
Have a great Teacher Appreciation Week! I hope you're getting spoiled by all of your cherubs. :)

Teacher Appreciation SALE!!

It's May, everyone! Can you believe it?!?!?! When we think about May, we think about flowers blooming...

sun shining...

and beautiful spring days...

UNLESS...you're a teacher! Then it's all...

AND...

Am I Right?!?! This time of year is probably stressful for all teachers. Everyone, including the teacher, wants to be outside, enjoying the blooming flowers, the shining sun, and the beautiful spring days. BUT THERE'S STILL SO MUCH TO DO!! I won't continue to post about things you already know, but I AM going to let you in a little secret....You. Are. Amazing. You Rock! You Bring Joy to Kids! YOU Make a Difference! So, as you're stressing and trying to keep your kiddos engaged, Teacher's Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook are both running sales to show how much YOU are appreciated. Head on over to my store for extra 20% savings. And, don't forget to use the coupon code for the website savings too! Hopefully you will find some products to save your sanity! Enjoy! And, remember, you WILL survive. You've done it before, and you'll do it again! :)

Click the banners to take you to my stores:

             

Thanks for EVERYTHING you do!

FLASH FREEBIE!! "Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case" Can Be Yours For FREE!

Happy Spring All! What a crazy time of year! Testing, testing, and more testing...that's what I'VE been up to, and I'm sure many of you can relate. With the adjustment to computer assessments and the Smarter Balanced test in itself, it's been quite an interesting time of year. I'm not going to say more, as I know everyone has their own opinions about Common Core standards, computerized testing, and standardized testing in general.

Since the end of the school year is nearing...it's almost May?? WHAT!?!? I thought I'd have a little fun and offer up a FLASH FREEBIE of one of my newest additions to my online stores: "Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case." This entire novel unit will be available in my Teacher's Notebook shop, Gunderson's Goodies, for a limited time. Beginning today through the end of the month, you can download this novel unit for free.

Been wondering what my novel units are like? Well, here's your chance to check it out! My best selling products in both of my stores have always been my Encyclopedia Brown and Jigsaw Jones packets, so I've been spending some time working on additional books in each of these series. I hope you enjoy this novel unit and come back for more. This novel unit also requires no work on your part, so if you're looking for something fun and engaging to end your year that still focuses on Common Core standards and reading skills, then this product will be a great addition to your reading collection. Hurry and grab it before April 30th!

Keep those chins up! The end of the year is approaching rapidly, and you will soon be on to the next adventure.

Literature Circles and Novel Studies!

Hey All! What have my students and I been working on lately? Reading comprehension strategies and writing in complete sentences! Woohoo! There are pieces of this that my students absolutely enjoy, and there are others that they groan about.

Let's start with the 5th graders. We are currently reading "No Talking" by Andrew Clements. This book is perfect for my little group of 5ths because this particular group LOVES to talk! This is a story about a group of 5th graders that loves to talk. The boys and girls start a competition to see who can talk the least over a two-day time period. It's a fun book with a great message at the end. I'm using a novel unit that I created:

My novel unit contains vocabulary for each chapter and comprehension questions too. The comprehension questions are both multiple-choice and short-answer. Of course, the packet is the least favorite of my students' tasks. They actually would love to listen to me read the entire time, but I take turns reading with them and then we answer the questions together. On the short-answer questions, we are working on using part of the question in our answer and writing complete sentences. I'm kind of a stickler for this skills, as I know many teachers in the future will require them to write this way, and I want them to be prepared for that.

With my 6th graders, we are reading "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix. This book is a science fiction novel based in the future. The government has made a rule that families can have no more than two children. Luke is a third child, and he has to spend his life in hiding. He begins to wonder if there are other third children out there. This is the first in a series. Kids usually can't wait to read further into the series after reading the first book with me. I'm using this packet from Lovin' Lit:

Lovin' Lit also has vocabulary, multiple choice questions, and more in her TPT store, but I've been using this packet because it focuses on text evidence. I can also keep working on writing complete sentences, using part of the question in the answer, with this group as well. 

If you're interested in either of these books and the questions that go along with them, just click on the picture of the novel unit you'd like, and it should take you directly to the product for purchase. 

Reading novels is one of my favorite things to do with students. I love choosing books that get them excited about reading. The 5th grade teacher asks what I do in my room because her students can't wait to get out the door to my room. All we are doing is reading, and they can't get enough of it. Their next choice is "Holes" by Louis Sachar. This book is one of my favorites, so I'm really excited to share it with my 5ths. However, I'm a bit worried that they won't understand the content since they are all struggling readers, which is why I'm saving it until the end of the school year. I'm hoping that if we take it slowly and spend a lot of time discussing, they will pick it up just fine. 

Thanks for tuning in! Hope you've all been having a wonderful spring break. I know I have! :)

Teachers Are Heroes SALE on TPT!!

Just a quick post to let all of you know about the sitewide sale on Teachers Pay Teachers! On February 25th, you can get all of my products for 28% off by using the Promo Code HEROES. Whoop! Whoop! So, if there's anything you've been eyeing, now's the time to buy it!!

Thank you to all of you amazing teachers out there! You truly are heroes, whether you feel like it or not. This is truly a time to appreciate yourselves and all of your phenomenal colleagues. We ARE making a difference! Each and every day we stand in front of those kiddos, we make a difference. Whether it be big or small, life-changing or not, it's a difference. Those little faces are why we do what we do. Why we walk into that school each morning. Why we put in the extra hours. Why we know in our hearts that this is what we were called to do. Teachers Are Heroes!

Valentine's Day Fraction Activity and a GIVEAWAY!

Are you looking for something for your students to do for Valentine's Day that's fun AND educational? Well, I have this great little product that uses candy hearts to help students work on fractions. Students make fractions and equivalent fractions. They also add and subtract fractions! There's an introduction to multiplying fractions and finding fractions of a whole number. So, it touches on a variety of Common Core standards for both 4th and 5th grade! The best part? Kids are playing with candy, eating candy, and learning! Whoop whoop!

So, all you need for this activity is a group of students, this product, and some candy conversation hearts. I'm going to do this activity with my 5th grade math students on Friday. It's perfect because we've been working with decimals and fractions recently so it will be great practice.

Would you like to win a copy of this product? Simply enter the Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of this page and I'll choose a winner on at midnight Thursday so you can use the product either Thursday or Friday in your classroom! Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

SUPER Sale Weekend!

Just wanted to write a quick post to let you all know I'm saving a SUPER Sale this weekend on both TeachersPayTeachers and Teacher's Notebook! My entire store will be 20% off and, if you shop at Teacher's Notebook, you can get an additional 10% off everything with the Promo Code sb2015. The sales are running from 1/31-2/2 so clear out those wishlists and do some shopping!

Have a SUPER weekend!

Novel Units Galore!

Since my elementary students have been spending the past few weeks on assessments (AIMSWeb and NWEA), my classroom has been pretty quiet. In my downtime between testing, I've been working on another of my novel units per customer request.

Novels units are one of my favorite products to create. I've created them for years, prior to posting them on Teachers Pay Teachers. I knew what I wanted for my students, and I just couldn't find it anywhere out there. When completing literature circles or read alouds, I think it's important to devote most of the time to actual reading, but it's also important to review key concepts and work on comprehension skills and vocabulary. So, in my novel units, I always pull vocabulary words and use them in context to help students hone that strategy. Then, I use a combination of short-answer and multiple choice questions to focus on comprehension. My favorite part of each chapter is, of course, the chapter activity. I try to keep these fun, interactive, and educational. These activities push my students to think a little more about the reading, to make connections to the reading and the world around them, and to have a little fun. So many of the novel units I've found out there look great and work on thoughtful and important concepts, but they are so time-consuming. I want something that's a quick review, so we can get on to the rest of the story.

I know I should probably spend more time discussing and talking about the story, but I've found that if I've chosen a good chapter book, my students are excited to read. They don't want to stop to do the questions because they want to know what's going to happen next. They don't want me to stop reading...they want MORE! So, I use my novel units to work on key reading strategies, but I bring the love of reading to my students with my read alouds and literature circles.

So, with that said, I'll post a link to some of my most popular novel units. Maybe you'll find something that works for both you and your students. Bring them the love the reading!

Have a terrific week!