President's Day FREEBIE and GAME

Here in Southern Maryland we had a snow day! This meant that I could spend a few hours creating some new products. Since President's Day is coming up, I figured I could focus on that. Check it out!

Who's That President? You can find this for $4.00 at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click here to grab this fun game! In this game, students read a fact about a president and have to match it to one of the six presidents. Ideally, there should be some background knowledge, but this can also be a learning tool that you can use with groups!  

Here is your President's Day FREEBIE! :) After teaching about President's Day, have your students write what they would do if they were president. This would be an amazing writing sample to hang in the hallway or laminate to send home in a portfolio. There is an intermediate prompt and a primary prompt. Click here to grab this one :)

Thanks again for stopping by! I hope you enjoy these products! Let me know what you think :)

Black History Month Part I

Black History Month is approaching quickly. I'm running around thinking, what am I going to do? I have a few good books that I'd like to read (Ruby Bridges and Henry's Freedom Box). What should I do with them? Then I had an idea...we've been cramming the Common Core into our heads and yelling "TEXT EVIDENCE!" So, I decided to create some graphic organizers that focus on character traits so my students CAN determine character traits and use text evidence to support them. A graphic organizer isn't enough, so I added an extended response prompt. The reason I chose character traits for Black History Month is because I want my kids to really get to know these people and understand why they have the character traits that they have. If the didn't go through struggles and perservere through difficult times, would they be the same person?

 

Here are some great resources that I found on Black History Month:

 

NEA Black History Month

 

Scholastic

 

Enchanted Learning

 

Check out my product that you can get here.

This product includes 12 graphic organizers!
Ruby Bridges, Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Sarah E. Wood, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglas, Jessie Owens, Marcus Garvey, Sojournor Truth, and Thurgood Marshall.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear from you and check out your blog. Follow me and leave me your blog name so I can check it out! :)

 

Manic Monday

Happy Monday everyone! I am linking up with Classroom Freebies today for Manic Monday! I'm so excited for this. This awesome graphic organizer bundle is now a FREEBIE! It will be forever and always :) It is located at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I use these organizers all of the time during guided reading and as seatwork. It's a great way to teach the skill as well as make learning fun. My students put on their play glasses and act like detectives while reading. It makes it a lot of fun! Head on over to my store and grab this freebie!

 

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

I don't know about you all, but the east coast got a nice chunk of snow fall! It's been a FIVE day weekend! Super exciting! Only downfall is, is that we have a LOT of catching up to do in school. My reading data was due at the end of this week. Looks like it's not going to be finished in time! What did you do on your few days off if you had some?

 

On another note, I wanted to share a great activity that accompanies Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. This wonderful book is in our third grade curriculum, so it's most likely in many other third grade curriculums. Sadako and the Thousdand Paper Cranes is about a young girl struggling with Leukemia caused by an atom bomb that dropped in Hiroshima, Japan. Sadako attempts to fold 1,000 paper cranes, in hopes that she would get healthy again. After we read this book, I had each of my students write any wish that they had for themselves, the community, their family, etc. This activity got my students thinking about others and also how lucky they were. Some wished for a cleaner environment, world peace, less violence, and for family and friends to be healthy. I posted this bulletin word, titled "I wish..." outside of our classroom. I included the article on the Hiroshima Peace Park in the middle of the board so that students and teachers could read about Sadako and understand why our wishes were so sentimental. If you haven't read this book, you've got to! It's a great read for the intermediate grade levels. If you have read this in your class, are there any other activities that you recommend?

 

 

 

 

Some pictures from my snow day :)

 

Thanks for stopping by! Stay warm :)

 

Long Vowel Sort

I spent several hours on making this super cute center academically appropriate and easy for the teacher and students to use. I'm very excited to have it in my TpT Store. This long vowel sorting center is perfect for both primary and intermediate students! I geared my words more toward third grade because I'll be using it in my classroom. This center can be easily differentiated by using it in different ways and altering it using the extra blank cards that are included. Click here to get this product! Let me know what you think! :)

 

 

All I did was laminate the entire file, tape the cover page and the directions onto the folder, and place the pieces in a bag!

 

 

 

I Have a Dream...

This month we are learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Well, we are at least trying to. In third grade, there's not much time for anything "fun." In my opinion, learning about history is something our students NEED. I'm going to try and squeeze in some time on Friday to watch a short video and have each student write their own "I Have a Dream" speech. Check the video out here. You can download this freebie here! What are you doing in your classroom to celebrate MLK?

 Update 1/28/14

Here is how my students' speeches turned out:

 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I know I've been away from the blog for a few weeks, but hey, it was winter break! I hope everyone enjoyed their break and is ready to get back to reality! It was a sad morning on Monday when I had to tear down my gingerbread house door. I needed something to make my door nice and cheerful. So, Dr. Seuss it is! I drew Thing 1 and Thing 2 on bulletin board paper last year and laminated the pieces. All I had to do was tape it on my door. Thank you laminator!! What do you think?

 

 

Don't forget to check out my TpT store using the tab on the right. Follow my blog to keep up with the latest TpT products and ideas for your classroom. As always, I love reading comments and looking at other blogs so send me your link!