Two for Tuesday: 6/24- Stop! Grammar Time

It's Two for TUESDAY!  YAY!  I have gotten so many great deals from this linky!  My smarties are going to LOVE the school year next year.  I'm linking up with The Teaching Tribune and offering two of my grammar/word work products at 50% off for today!

The first is my Greek and Latin Roots Packet.  This was awesome because I focused on Greek and Latin root words when I was teaching Ancient Greece and Rome, go figure a little cross-curricular activities!  I love the clipart because it was pretty authentic, and we used the root words as I was teaching a social studies DBQ as well.  It was pretty cool to see my smarties searching out which roots were Greek versus Latin and who could use the most and still make a cohesive story.

The second product I'm offering is my Vocabulary Word Wise Analogies.  This is a set of 16 word cards to help your students make word connections.  The pack is differentiated, so you can pull out the more difficult cards as needed.  Two printable worksheets are also included for further practice.
As always, feedback is appreciated.  Stop by The Teaching Tribune and check out what other friends have linked!
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Monday Meet Me!

I had to take a little blogging hiatus over the weekend and have a yard sale...
Not my favorite thing when my children keep EVERYTHING... and I do mean EVERYTHING!
But today I'm linking up with The Teaching Tribune for Monday Meet Up!



Stop by and visit and meet a few other bloggers. 


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Graffiti Wall Project is FINALLY FINISHED!




“The rain is coming down as hard as regret… This ain’t rain, this is God’s tears.”---Day of Tears by Julius Lester

What an amazing way to hook a reader.  Julius Lester knows exactly what to say to get a reader to leap into this story and read about the largest slave auction in history.  I read this book when my class was reading group novels for Multiple Perspective.  We couldn’t get over the amount of amazing quotes we were reading in these great novels. That is what led us to create:

Students chose:  Legend, by Marie Liu,  Wonder by Rj Polacco, because of Mr. Terupt by Rob,  Turn About by Margaret Peterson Maddox, The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordin, Schooled by Gordon Korman, and A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements.

During our novel unit we met about once a week as a “singles” group, which meant everyone reading the same novel met.  We reviewed story elements, and focused on character traits, setting, and theme.  Then we also met in “multiples” groups.  This meant each person that met in the group was reading a different book.  This type of grouping allowed us to practice our text connections and summarizing skills.
Other days we had independent reading time, or had whole group lessons that reviewed the story elements, or perspective.

As a final project, my class created a Graffiti wall.  We each chose an important quote from the our novel, and put them all together.  My class was really into the whole project.  Many found out the novels were part of the series, and groups finished their first books and started the second by week 3! 




Wondering where I got the brick wall?  It was this product:

Kudos to my Smarties!

Read on Friends, Read on!
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Worksheet Wednesday! Read, Roll and Retell Freebie

Today I'm linking up with The Teaching Tribune again for an ELA Freebie!

You can go {HERE} and grab my Read, Roll and Retell Freebie.

I love using this with both my novels and mentor texts.  Feedback, as always, is appreciated!
Happy Hump Day...


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Two for Tuesday: June 17th 50% off Two Great Book Packets

Today I'm linking up with the lovely ladies at The Teaching Tribune and putting two of my favorite ELA products at 50 % off.

My first product is my Salt in His Shoes Pack.  This is based on the book by the same name which is about the childhood of Michael Jordan.  The pack contains work for inferences, character traits and reflection writing with quotes.  I usually use this when I introduce our biography writing unit.

The second is my Esther Morris Gets the Vote pack.  This is book is about Esther Morris, who did an amazing job with Woman's Rights in the West.  This pack contains inferences, character traits work, citing text based evidence with a thesis statement, and letter writing.  I've used this book when I was introducing citing text evidence, and during Woman's History Month.

I hope they can be helpful to you!  Feedback is always appreciated!

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Happy Birthday to our Berner!

Just a quick post today.. I'm still recovering from the weekend.  I've been cleaning out our garage, and found a mound of papers that need to be shred.  One fun thing we did this weekend, was celebrate the birthday of our Bernese Mountain Dog, Mater.  He turned 5 late last week.  By far, he is THE BEST DOG we have ever had!
Have a great Monday friends!

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A Peek at My Week- Last Full Week of School!

I hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!
I have eight school days left.  My smarties have to take two exams this year.  On Wednesday, I'll be proctoring the social studies exam.  My smarties will have to evaluate and write an essay based on a DBQ.  Fingers crossed, we have been really practicing this!

We will also be playing my Algebra Cool Down game this week to review our Expressions and Equations unit.  I'll be back to post later this week with hopefully a lot of pictures.
Lastly, we are working on our Reflections Writing Project.  My students are putting together their Writing portfolios.  This is one of my favorite projects of the year.


I'm linking up with the awesome Jen over at Laffin's Laughing for a Peek at My Week.  I can't wait to see what people are doing both IN and OUT of school.  I'm almost there!

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Book Blowout Reminder

I just wanted to remind you of this super sweet deal that is going on right now.


There are so many great products in this package.  I just finished up my multiple perspective books, and my Reader Response Rectangles really came in handy when I had to leave plans for a sub unexpectedly.  There are easy for your class to use with little direction.
My sub could ask the whole class these questions, and they met as groups to come up with the best answer.  I guess it became quite a competition for "Who could most impress the sub! " I'll take it over behavior problems any day!
This bundle is only $19.99 for 18 instant downloads and over 700 pages of materials.  There are a ton of things you could find in these products.  What a way to differentiate your novel learning, and find new mentor texts to teach from!
Have a great weekend!
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Five for Friday!

Morning all!  TGIF! I only  have one more full week of school, and then three short days... I think I can... I think I can... I think I can!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs to share my 5 for Friday!

1) Softball Galore!  Softball season is in FULL SWING!  My "24" spent the weekend playing with her 16U team.  She did a great job catching, and really added to the team.  I'm impressed because she is playing in a division higher than her age level. AND she is holding her own!  It was also the school Softball Banquet.  Very fun way to send off our senior girls!

2)  My Little Man had an awesome soccer game this week too!  It has been really humid, and it feels like we are running through molasses!  Speaking of my Little Man, did you read my Monday Post?  My little sixth grader wrote about a book he read, and asked me to do it again when he has finished another book he's loved. YAY!  Do I have a new budding blogger in the family?

3)  We had so much fun working on our Geometry lab this week.  I had to share more pictures.  You can read about the work we did in Surface area {HERE} if you teach the subject, and grab the freebie I created for my smarties.


4)  In ELA and Social Studies we have been studying World War II.  In our Scholastic SCOPE magazine we read a play about The Book Thief.  I wish I could show my students the movie.  Unfortunately, it is rated PG 13.  Look at us though plugging along and review theme and doing some serious critical thinking with just 8 more school days to go!

5) Lastly, my Dad is here for a visit!  YAY us!  I'm looking forward to spending a little time with him, and he is going to help me get a little more organized.

Have a great weekend my friends!  Don't forget to check out all the Five for Friday Posts with Doodle Bugs!

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Geometry Surface Area Lab and a FREEBIE

We have about TWO WEEKS of school left.  I'm finished with my curriculum, and we do not give a final exam in Math because of the rigor of our state assessment.  I'm spending these last few weeks reviewing a few topics that I felt I had to cover too quickly with my students.  One topic is Surface Area in Geometry.  We have spent the last few days doing a math lab with boxes of everyday products that I've gathered.  I did this lab last year right after the state assessment.  You can go {HERE} and read the original post.  I think my students had a lot of fun doing the lab, but honestly, they were BURNT OUT!  Plus I spent 8 days out of the classroom grading state assessments, and I missed out on the fun. I was hoping for better results this time!
I mean how cool is this big TOBLERONE BOX for triangular prisms!

We spent the first of the three lab days reviewing three dimensional shape basics.  I used a set of nets for this from a module on Engage NY.  I thought they were better than the digital nets I can get from our math series.

Then we spent two days working on the lab.  I differentiated the assignment by having students take exact measurements, measure to the nearest half, quarter and full inch.  This allowed everyone practice with the calculator and ruler.  More importantly, everyone felt successful and had fun!





I made a fairly generic worksheet for my students to use when completing this lab.  If you are interested in doing something similar, the lab sheet is FREE in my TpT store.  You can click{HERE} to pick it up.  I hope it helps.  I'd love feedback if it works for you.

Do you have to teach Surface Area?  I'd love a few new ideas to add to my stash of boxes.


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Wordless Wednesday: Ingredients of a Good Day



I posted this picture on Instagram last week, and I just keep thinking about it.

What are your ingredients for a good day?




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