American Symbols Opinion Writing

Our testing this year is 100% different.

In February, we are going to be taking 3 tests in reading, math and social studies

on the computer.  The reading and social studies test will be a writing prompt that the students will type on the computer.

In our training from Cathy, we have been told that our social studies test will mainly be centered around primary sources and the writing will more than likely be opinion writing.

Our writing team decided we needed to see what our students knew and what they could do.

In second grade, they studied in depth the American symbols.

So, we created this packet.

This packet includes the following:

1 color clip art collage

1 black and white clip art collage

1 opinion essay rubric

1 writing scoring sheet

1 color writing page

1 black and white writing page

We had the students look at this collage and answer the prompt below it.

We gave them 15 minutes to write everything they could.

We graded it according to the rubric.

Now, we have something to talk to them about that deals with their writing and where they are right now.

We also have their first writing for their writing folders.

We used this as a prewriting assessment to see where they were and where we needed to take them.

However, this would be an easy way to also assess if they understood the symbols you had talked about in your class. 

You can get it in my TPT store here.

Not in Vegas

I am new to this whole blogging, Instagram, Twitter, TPT world -

as far as a teacher is concerned.

I have had a family blog for 6 plus years.

I have had a personal Instagram for close to 4 years.

I have even had a personal Twitter for a few years.

NOTHING holds a candle to this world of teachers on social media, and I act like I am surprised at this.

I should not be.

For years, teachers have had to have each others' backs because no one else would.

For as long as I have known teachers (all my life), they have craved being around each other, seeing what everyone is doing, and wanting the latest and greatest teacher stuff.

Am I overwhelmed?  YES!

Am I in WAY over my head?  Probably so!

Am I glad I took the plunge? For sure!

With all that said, there was no way I was going to Vegas this year for the TPT conference -

for MANY reasons.

My teacher friend, Belinda, and I have already said we are going next year.

I will probably find a reason not to go.

She will find a reason AND a way for us to go.

(See how we are good for each other!)

I have already found myself NOT wanting to check Instagram and Twitter this week because

of all the eating, shopping, learning and just being together that is going on in that world.

When I saw Kristen having a "I am not in Vegas" linky, I knew I had to join!

I needed to remind myself that this is not my season to go to Vegas.

What I am doing this week in small town USA is just as important as what is going on in Vegas.

So....

One day, I will join the millions of teachers (ok... maybe not millions but it sure seems like it!) of teachers in Vegas.

Until then....

Happy creating!

Happy selling!

Happy posting!

Happy to be right where I am!

TPT Seller's Challenge: Make Your Masterpiece

The latest TPT Seller's Challenge - which ends tomorrow (GASP!!!!) - 

has been hard for me this week.

I am sure it is because we have been out of town and in the middle of baseball

tournaments with my son.

I finally got it finished, but I don't know if I would call it a "masterpiece" yet.

Hopefully, you will see this one with a make over before too much longer.

I have always had a love for history that POURS into my classroom.

This year, I had students who loved it as much as I did.

When we read a biography on George Washington, they began devouring any presidential

biography I had, so I took that as an opportunity to teach some other important skills - 

using different types of text

note taking

placing notes in sequential order

composing introductory and conclusion paragraphs

writing a 5 paragraph informative essay

With this group of students, we also learned the valuable lesson of time management!

The students amazed me at how much they wanted to include in their essays.

I did not have this packet to help them during the time, but knew it was an activity I wanted to carry on in the following years when we studied this text.

That led to....

You can see the packet in my TPT store.

I hope this is something that can help your students as much as it did mine.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Be sure to check out Ashley, Emily, Amber and Jen to see the other AMAZING masterpieces!

Cooking Up Success Calendar

When I decided to do a Cafe/Bakery theme a few years ago,

I quickly realized there was NOTHING out there for this room theme.

Therefore, I was made had to figure out to make different things to fit my classroom theme.

I have always seemed to make things harder than they really have to be.

One of the very first things I made was this calendar set.

It was BAD!

I put it up on TPT for free, and it was still BAD!

So, I decided to spruce it up a bit as well as add some things to it. 

Here are the month cards.

I figure you can use them as headers for your calendars, but could also put them at a center to put the months of the year in order.

 I then decided to add number cards to the set as well.

They were in a separate set, but, again, needed a makeover!

Again, these could also be used at a center to put numbers in order.

 In a previous set, I had some special days cards, but while I was on a roll, I decided to do a little more with them.

I love using these in my room, and can't wait to see how the new set looks in my room this year.

You can get this set here for FREE for a limited time!

I will be honest - 

It took quite a bit of time, so they will not stay free for long!

Hope these can help you

Cook Up Success

in your room this year.

TPT Seller's Challenge: Dare to Dream

I will be honest.

I was a bit shocked at this assignment.

I guess one reason is my TPT store isn't huge, 

and I haven't really thought about all I could do with it.

Sure, I have seen what others have done with their TPT store, 

but there was no way I could do the same thing.

When I first began my TPT store, I was just doing it to support my TPT habit!

However, after reading several others dreams, I realize I am selling myself short.

Don't I preach

DREAM BIG

to my kids?

Why am I not doing the same thing?

So thank you, Jen, Emily, Amber, and Ashley for encouraging me to think big and dare to dream. 

1.  PAY OFF OUR HOUSE - This is pretty much says it all.  If I can put extras toward the house payment, later on we can be free to do other things for our home and the family.

2.  TRAVEL WITH OUR KIDS - We love a road trip.  We have been pretty tied down lately due to other things that have popped up in our lives, but I would love to take the money I make from TPT to help our family see the great country we live in and experience it for themselves.

3.  HELP WITH MISSION WORK - We are first and foremost Christians as we strive daily to live for Him.  We have so many we know and love who are out trying to reach others with the gospel message.  Our kids have also mentioned how they want to go on mission trips - especially to Haiti and New Zealand.  With the money from TPT, we could help fund these efforts.

4.  SAVE FOR KIDS' COLLEGE - My husband and I were both extremely blessed to have NO college loans when we graduated from college.  This is not something many can say, and we are so thankful for the sacrifices our parents made in order to see that happen.

Are those big dreams?

Yes.

However, if I don't dream big and don't start somewhere, nothing will ever happen.

I am really looking forward to where this may take me.

I know it will be a lot of work, but I am willing and eager to do the work!

Happily Ever... Madeover

While my kids have been at church camp this week, I have attended TN Core training which I will post about later.  I have been on MULTIPLE dates with my husband! I started working with the TPT Sellers Challenge.

Our first challenge was to do a makeover on one of our products.  I chose one of the very first things I had ever made for TPT - my Preamble unit.  I extended the sale on this one, so pick it up while it's one sale.

I loved how it looked and so I decided to do some more.

My other unit that I enjoy teaching at the beginning of the year is our Happily Ever After Unit.  I love teaching about fairy tales for so many reasons.  Last year, we bumped it up a notch or two and incorporated more writing into the unit.  This unit includes:

our plan for the unit that can last as long as you want it to 

anchor chart ideas 

fairy tale characteristic cards

a chart for the students to record the characteristics they see in each fairy tale

writing brainstorming papers 

fairy tale writing paper

I added some extra pages from this past year of teaching.

I redid the cover as well.

You can buy the unit on sale here.

To go along with the unit, I redid the Fairy Tale Characteristic Cards you can buy separately.  I made them a lot bigger, changed up some of the clip art and added a cover page to it. 

You can buy it on sale here.

I am looking forward to using this pack in the upcoming year. I will be sure to write about it on the blog when I do. 

Unit then.... I hope you live your summer

HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

TPT Seller Challenge Week: Makeover Madness/Monday Made It

What a day!  Both of my kiddos are at church camp this week.  LB went to church camp last week and, then, literally, went straight to Junior High basketball team camp for 2 days.  When she got home Saturday night - after I had been with C at his baseball tournament all day  - she decided she wanted to go back to camp this week.

Had we done any of her laundry? 

Only her uniform that she had needed for Saturday.

Had we any snacks for her to take?

Only what was left from the previous week, and my 13 year old girl can EAT!

Had we even registered her for camp?

Thankfully, we know the lady in charge of that!

I am glad she wound up going because she has an amazing cabin, and I have to be at Common Core training two days this week.  That meant I had today.

Today to sleep in at least until 8.

Today to clean the house.

Today to enjoy myself.

Today to do what I wanted to do.

(after I went and picked her up from camp, took her to soccer practice 

and then back out to camp)

So what did I do....

I was up at 6:00 am WIDE. AWAKE.

My body has NOT been told I am on summer vacation and have been for almost 3 weeks!!

I did my daily Bible reading that our church is all doing together.  I really have loved this program and, sad to say, I have read parts of the Bible I don't think I have ever read. SIGH!

Monday Made It #1

LB had requested me to make muffins to send to camp because apparently one of her friends wrote a silly song about muffins last week.  Said friend is at camp with her this week and she thought it would be hilarious for this friend to get a package full of muffins with a request for her to sing the muffin song in order to get it. (Camp tradition states you must perform some kind of silly song or something when a package arrives for you at camp.)  I bet LB was caught off guard when a package of muffins DID come, but ALL of the girls' names were on the package with the request that they ALL sing the silly muffin song! I am sure I will hear about it tomorrow!

What muffins did I make?  Only the East Chester Third Grade Team's most favorite muffins this year:

3 Ingredient Muffins

1 package of cake mix 

(Anything that says chocolate or triple fudge is really the best)

1 can of PURE pumpkin

1 cup ( or half the bag works well, too) of chocolate chips

Mix well.  Spoon into muffin liners in a muffin tin.  Cook at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.

Done.

You're welcome.

After making the muffins and running LB to and from camp and soccer practice, my mom texts me to see if I wanted to go to Aldi (35 minutes away).  SURE.  Why not?  A chance to grocery shop without children throwing things into the cart.  

So I went.  

I shopped.

I ate at Jason's Deli.

I came home exhausted.

I decided to do my TPT Seller Challenge for the week.

Monday Made It #2

Because of my new role at school, I knew I needed to get with the program and jump into the 21st century before it leaves us all.  When Third in Hollywood said she and some other marvelous ladies were doing a challenge, I knew I had to get in it.  This week's challenge was to makeover something in our TPT store.  I chose to makeover my biggest seller - The Preamble Unit.

I enjoyed going back and looking over what I had made almost 3 years ago, and realized it did need some updating!

And so here is the new look of my Preamble Unit.

I really am glad I did this and, hopefully, after training, I can do some more makeovers on old projects.  I am including this in my Monday Made It because I feel like I really did make a lot of it over again!  Click here to get it on sale until Thursday, June 18.

Thanks to 4th Grade Frolics for the Monday Made It! 

I think I am going to like this blogging stuff!

Have a great week!

FREEBIE: Junkyard Wonders

As part of our first few weeks of school, we put aside math and reading to concentrate on character education.  Each third grade teacher (there are 6 of us) chooses a book to read and do an activity that correlates with the book.  Then, each third grade class rotates over 6 days to each class to hear their story and do their activity.  This is wonderful in a lot of ways and we really enjoy getting to know all the third graders in the school.  The books that were chosen this year were;

The Giving Tree

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

How to Fill a Bucket

You are Special

Owen and Mzee

The Junkyard Wonders

I read The Junkyard Wonders and love reading it for so many reasons.  The kids are amazed it is a true story and have a ton of questions after reading it.  However, I love the lesson it teaches.  Many of my students feel like they are junk for different reasons.  As I read this to them, I see the light come on in their eyes as if they have never seen themselves as a wonder before.  It also teaches them to FIND the wonder in each person they meet in their lives.  I made this quick little activity for us to do after we had read the book.  It was very sad to see that most of them could not come up with a reason as to why they were wonderful. However, once we got started and friends shared with them why they were wonderful, some filled up every line and would have done more! Now my kids have been introduced to a fabulous author and know what makes them the great kid they are! I can't ask for anything better!  Next year, I want to have a whole unit made for this book because there are so many wonderful things about it! What do you do to instill character and self-worth in your students?

Getting Ready for a New Year

As I type, I am sitting in Nashville, TN, in my brother-in-law's house enjoying family time, but really wishing I was at the baseball field watching my 8 year old son's All-Star team playing baseball in the state tournament.  However,  because of a monsoon that decided to hit Middle Tennessee in mid-July (which I really am thankful for because we needed the rain) we have not played a game in two days! YUCK!

Now, I am NOT worried ONE BIT about when I am going to get things done in my room.  I mean, really, kids DON'T come to school in less than 3 weeks, and I am NOT sitting 2 1/2 hours away from my room.  However, I know that family and friends will pull together if I need to and things will be wonderful!

I have been able to get a lot of work done on my classroom - just not IN my classroom - while I am sitting watching the monsoon happen.  I am excited about my classroom this year.  After my 9 year maternity leave, I am anxious to have my own room this year. Anxious . . . excited . . . nervous . . .you name it, I am probably feeling it.  I can't wait to share with you the progress the room has seen, but for now (since there has been no progress made IN the room), I will share with you what I have been creating for the room.

I am doing a chef/bakery theme in the classroom.  It was inspired by the Sisters and their CAFE book.  That is how I plan on doing my reading this year, so I thought it would be a cute yet "grown up" theme for the third graders that get to be in my room.

Check out my TPT store to see the calendar headings I have made as well as the calendar numbers I have made to go with them.  I am super excited about it and can't wait to show you pictures of them actually up on the board!!!!