April GIVEAWAY!

Happy Tuesday everyone! I am in the "springy" mood today and feel very giving :) I'm trying to build up my shop on Teachers Notebook, as well as my new Instagram account. Follow me on IG @theelementarylife to see how I run my classroom, new products, activities, and other exciting things going on in the life of this teacher + wife + mommy <3

Head on over to my Teacher's Notebook shop HERE and enter in my giveaway for a Sentences and Fragments Bundle! There will be FIVE winners so don't miss it! It will run from tomorrow until Sunday. Please follow my shop on Teachers Notebook and get more opportunities at sales and giveaways!

Veteran's Day Freebie

Hi everyone! I'm back in the classroom with all its hectic glory! I was nervous about coming back after maternity leave, but I got into the swing of things quickly! Veteran's day is coming up this week and I wanted my students to have a few writing prompt choices. Have your students color the borders and clip art, too :)

 

Click here to head to my TpT store and grab this freebie!

Creative Writing Center

I have a few weeks of summer break left, so I'm cranking out some new TPT products! Be on the look out for some cool stuff! This week, I'm showing off my new creative writing center that you can also see here at my store. I really try to motivate my third graders to write. And they will, if it's what they want to write about. That is totally fine with me because that's step #1.

This center is super easy to set up and use in the classroom! Cut and laminate the cards. Place each set in a bag or an envelope. Have students pick one from each bag and begin writing! The crazier the combinations, the more their imagination needs to work :)

The center includes:

-a set of plot cards

-a set of setting cards

-a set of character cards

-a pre-writing sheet

Charlotte's Web Novel Study

I hope everyone is having a nice and relaxing summer! Since I've got a few minutes of extra time, I wanted to prepare some things for the study that my third graders do of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. I've got two products on Teachers Pay Teachers so far!

My first product is a set of vocabulary words from Charlotte's Web. You can display these in your classroom or use them as a center! Click here to check it out!

 

My next product is a set of response questions by chapter. You can use these as a seatwork packet, quizzes, or homework as needed. Click here to check this awesome product out!

 

 

Writing in the Classroom

Happy Hump Day everyone! It's been a couple weeks since my last post...a lot has been going on! On top of MSA, snow days, and grad school, I'm overwhelmed to say the least. I wanted to do a quick post about writing centers. I love writing and I want my students to enjoy it as well. I'm even writing my 40 page graduate paper on the attitudes of students towards writing!

During the Daily 5, students are able to work on writing. It is a requirement to work on writing AT LEAST twice a week. I've created a writing table where I store their writing folders and the class writing journals. At the beginning of the year I bought a folder for each student to last the entire year. They are stored in the bins shown below. This way, students won't lose them and I can see the progress that they make throughout the year. My students can write whatever they want in these folders. I have journal cards, story ideas, creative writing cards, etc. In addition to the folders, I have spiral notebooks and composition books with labels on them that I created. You can grab these for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here! These journals have broad topics on them so students can write creatively.

How do you promote writing in your class?

 

St. Patrick's Day Freebie

Hey everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your Tuesday! Over here in Maryland, we are on our second snow day this week. I'm bummed that we'll be losing some days of spring break, but happy that I've had time to work on my grad paper and my TpT products! Today I created a new St. Patrick's Day writing pack, which includes two graphic organizers to help your students develop a "Leprechaun Story." In addition to the graphic organizers, I've included a publishing paper and cover page in both black/white and color so your students may color themselves or use the colored copies.

 

 

                                                            Click here to snag this freebie!

Sentences and Fragments

Happy Hump Day everyone! I hope you all are having a great week so far! I have a new product to share with you, which focuses on developing sentences. Many of my students have trouble developing sentences, as they are writing fragments. What a perfect way to get rid of this habit...a few printables and a center that focuses on sentences and fragments! These activities could be used from 1st  grade to 4th grade, depending on the needs of your students. I teach 3rd grade and I created this for my class, although it can be differentiated. This awesome bundle includes 3 printables and a center! Click here to grab this at my TpT store!

 

 

 

 

 

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! :)

 

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:

 

Entire Store 20 % Off

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. It snowed a little bit here in Maryland, so we went into school two hours late and left 90 minutes early! What a nice surprise! :) As a little Happy Monday gift to you, my ENTIRE STORE is 20 % off! Click here to check out all my products, or click a photo to go directly to one of these products!

 

 

 

Thanks!!

 

Holiday Freebie!

Happy Monday everyone! This Monday actually feels great because it's a two day week! I am so ready for Thanksgiving break. I will actually be working on a fall snack for our class' fall festival tomorrow! I'm so excited to share it with you when I'm done. I promise I will post pictures of this cute AND yummy snack! For today though, I have a new TpT product from my store.

Since I am in the holiday spirit, I thought "Why not make a holiday center!?" Check it out!

 

 

This center is so great because it can be used for multiple grade levels and differentiated for every learner! Have intermediate students? Make it a grammar lesson on subjects and predicates. Primary kids? Focus on forming sentences and illustrating a picture. Maybe a creative writing center? You can really go any direction with this. Check out my store to download this awesome freebie here or click the photo above! I included ideas for how to use this cute center. Do you have any super cute centers that you use during the holiday season? Please share and don't forget to follow my blog and other social media sites to keep up with the latest news @ The Elementary Life!

 



Freebie @ My TpT Store!

Happy Friday everyone! After such a long week, I decided to dedicate my Friday night to uploading a freebie product to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Before I began creating my own products, I came up with the idea of journal labels and simply typed my topics in Word. HELLO, BORING! I mean, my kids enjoyed writing in the journals on topics they

liked, but it wasn't an eye catching writing center. My kids love word work centers, but it's like pulling teeth to get them to write. Adding a creative and colorful label not only looks nicer, but grabs kids' attention. In my classroom, we use The Daily 5, so I need lots and lots of centers because they get bored of the same ones. This center can last all year long. What do you do in your classroom to promote creative writing?

Head over to my TpT store and download it here. 

Interested in some different labels with the same or similar designs? Let me know because I would love to make more!