I'm Wishing for a Cyber Monday Sale!

I love the first weekend of the holiday season!  Friends, Family and Shopping.  It doesn't get much better than that!  I went out with my sister yesterday and did a little Black Friday shopping before the football game.   Today, I'll be visitng a few local stores before heading out to watch my Gators play, then I'll be gearing up for CYBER MONDAY!  I'm sure you've heard about the quarterly sale at TpT.

...but have you entered to win one of the five $25 TPT gift cards yet? Today is the last day to enter. If you win, that extra cash will come to your inbox just in time for the sale! Click the image below to enter if you haven't already... winners will be announced tomorrow!
Now, let's get down to business! What is on your wishlist? I love seeing what other people are buying for their classroom. As if I need any other excuse to buy products from TPT...
Feel free to grab the banners and link up, too! Share two items that everyone has on their wish list from your store and one item that you have on your own wish list that you'll buy during the sale.
The number one thing people have wish listed from my store is my Expressions and Equations Scoot and Compute Pack.  This set of 120 cards covers Algebra from Order of Operations all the way through Inequalities and Two Step Equations.  There are 12 cards for each topic.  I used them as a review when we took our big Algebra Assessment in early November.  My students used the problems at my small group table with me, so I could watch their problem solving process, and formatively assess where we were with mental math computation. I copied one of each of the 12 sets on to colored paper and put them on rings.  That way I could differentiate as needed.  For some of my students that needed a little extra practice in one area, I combined the same colored cards and had them complete practice in one area before moving on to another skill.   I'll pull them out again before our state assessment.  It will be a great test prep tool.


The second most wish listed item is my Salt in His Shoes Reflective Reading and Writing Pack.

I LOVE using this pack with my class after Christmas.  Salt in His Shoes is a great way to reinforce the character traits of Perseverance and Determination.  I use the story to talk about Grade Level vocabulary as well as academic vocabulary,  we discuss Author's Purpose, and character development.  I use the quotes as a bulletin board where students reflect on their own goals and character traits.  Later, I use the story as a springboard for biography writing unit.  This pack will be a STEAL at $2.40 during the sale, plus you get an extra 10% OFF with the code TPTCYBER.
One of the items I'm going to scoop up in the sale is Diane's Close Reading Pack for December.   Diane's Close Reads are FABULOUS products!  I love that they are full of science and social studies related topics.  My class will love reading about Ice Hockey.  It isn't a popular sport down here, and my class doesn't know much about it.  Plus again, it is a great way to teach them about Grade-Level, versus Academic Vocabulary.



What do you have on your wish list?





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Black Friday Sale and New Math Riddles Task Cards for Christmas

Happy Black Friday Friends!  I'm headed out to join the millions of people scooping up fun bargains and enjoying the start of the crazy shopping season!
I wanted to pop in and let you know that my TpT store is ON SALE today in honor of Black Friday, so if you are staying home, warm and cozy in your pjs, pop on over and pick up a few things that will help you out in December!  I just posted my new set of Christmas themed Hundreds Board Riddles for practicing Number Sense and Operations.

My class LOVES these.  I have many that are trying to use mental math only to solve them, without the visual of the Hundreds Chart.  So fun!
Don't forget you still have time to enter an amazing giveaway!  Five $25 Gift Cards to TpT.. what a great gift!  Go {HERE} to enter!
Happy Shopping!
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Shouting out a HUGE THANK YOU with an incredible Giveaway!

We are so excited for the holiday season that we couldn't help but spread some love! Lots of your favorite TPT Teacher-Authors and I have teamed up to give YOU some TPT spending money. We love you and appreciate you (and we wish we could give all of our fabulous followers some money)!

Enter the Rafflecopter below by simply following our TPT stores, and you will have a chance to win one of FIVE $25 TPT gift cards! Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Squared Away on a Sunday: Book Raffle Freebie!

Happy Sunday my friends! I wanted to let you know what I've  Squared Away on a Sunday, as we head into a short two day week.  Today it's about sharing a way I've motived my students to increase their AR reading.

Accelerated Reader is new to me this year.  The first ten weeks I didn't do a very good job of keeping up with AR in my classroom.  I didn't know enough about it, and I didn't do a good job of keeping on my kids about reading and taking the AR tests.  This quarter, I'm doing a much better job of keeping track of things.  One way that is motivating my students is doing a Book Raffle.
Basically, I used my extra bonus points from my Scholastic Book order and ordered books that my students were interested in, and talking about.  I created raffle tickets for my students, and throughout the week I give them tickets for having all of their homework, or keeping organized.  Then, at the end of the week (or two, or a few)  I hold a Book Raffle.  This worked PERFECTLY for me at the beginning of the month when the latest Wimpy Kid book came out.  I put two in the raffle because they wanted it SOOO badly!

I do a book talk about each of the books that are in the Raffle, and then I give my students an opportunity to be the first student  to read the book.  They love this!  They are eager to get extra tickets, and are blowing quickly through the books they win.  What I love best is they are TALKING about the books, and they are EXCITED about the the books, and it makes other kids want to pick up the books are read them!  I try to include a new popular book and a graphic novel as well.  The latest raffle included a graphic novel of The Red Pyramid, so between that and The Long Haul, they were really interested in winning.


So far I have done two raffles, and I plan to do another in the early part of December.  Then I'll have to spend a little time over Christmas break building my stash up again.  But I'll take it!  If you are interested in doing a book raffle in your classroom, you can download these FREE BOOK RAFFLE TICKETS to print and use.  Feedback is always appreciated.

I created a colored version as well as a black and white copy if you need to save ink.  Just print them on colored paper, and they will be equally festive!
ENJOY!  and Happy Thanksgiving!!
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Interactive Lessons for Number Sense using a 100s Board

I love interactive math lessons!  I love when my students are so involved that the hour I spend teaching math goes by in an instant!  I love when they DON'T WANT TO STOP learning and practicing math!
First, I want my students to be familar with the hundreds board, and how it works.  I copy a hundreds chart and we use it in our Interactive Notebooks.  Then we Hop' Round the Hundreds Board.  Basically I give them a series of 4-6 directions and they move a bingo chip, or their finger around the board following the pattern I've established.  The cards basically look like this:
I start out super easy, using only addition and subtraction operations.  I want them to learn to listen, since I will not repeat my directions.  I also want to practice our Talk Moves, one of which is Wait Time.. for both them and ME!
Next, I up the anty and include directions that involve all four operations, and words that could be used with them.
Finally, I include phrases that contain math language such as squared, cubed, sum of the digits, product of the digits etc., to really get them thinking.
After each activity we continue with our Talk Moves, and discuss how people "got around the board." Even in sixth grade, I still have students who don't recognize that the numbers on the board go up by 10s, and they count up 17 spaces singly.
I love this type of activity because everyone is engaged in the puzzle.  After we play it as a whole group, I put Task Cards in my Math Rotation for them to play on the Smartboard.
My cuties have been so excited over these riddles, they are even making up their own to stump the class!

When every group has gone through a math center rotation, I pull the game out when we have 5 or 10 minutes and we are waiting on something.  Since the hundreds chart is already in the math notebook, it is easy to grab and go!
This activity is a perfect set up for looking at prime factorization and then on to GCF and LCM. It is also great to review common operations terms, exponents and prime numbers.
If you are interested in this activity, and want something quick to use, you can go {HERE} and find a set of 30 differentiated task cards.  There is also a set that is not themed for Fall {HERE}.
Let me know a few ways you use the hundreds board with "Big Kids" and how you keep things interactive!
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What I've Squared Away on a Sunday! America's White Table for Veterans Day


I've loved being able to spend a little time today catching up with some of my favorite bloggers!  I haven't had a lot of time to blog or read blogs lately, and I'm so glad I could find an extra hour today to focus on my bloggy friends and read their posts.
My family and my job have been keeping me super super busy.  I know I'm not alone in that crazy feeling. I can't wait to be off on Tuesday to just have that one relaxing day!
Here's what I've got Squared Away as far as lesson plans for the week: I'm going to continue my work with my Smarties about Veterans Day.  We are using an amazing book from Margo Theis Raven called America's White Table.

  The story is all about the small white table that is set for a single soldier in the American Legions and mess halls of American military bases around the world.   Each item symbolizes the American soldier, freedom and peace that is so important to us.  I chose my mentor sentence from this text, and we are reviewing simile and hyperbole using it.   It is also a way that I review symbolism before it gets too hefty in our literature.  I have a pack for Veterans Day using this book, along with the Mentor Sentence suggestion {HERE}.  Of course, I am ALWAYS an advocate for having a mentor text in front of you that children can read, and refer to, but if you want to learn more about this story, or you are in a pinch, you can watch this video which retells the story.

In Math, I'll be finishing up inequalities, and giving an assessment on equations and inequalities.  I am almost done with my Algebra unit.  It has been a long, long haul, but we are getting there!  In my guided math groups, I'll be using my Inequalities Task Cards from this {PACK}.  I've already done the foldable and interactive lesson.  My smarties really get the idea of reading and graphing the inequalities quickly using this.  I'll have a few other stations running, including my Hoppin Round the Hundreds Board activity.  They LOVE using the hundreds chart for this, and I can tell that mental math skills are improving.  Look at these cuties using their notebooks to check the operations words! LOVE!
I've noticed over the past few weeks, my students are not really picking up on having meaningful conversations when they are working in their math groups, so I'm going to start emphasizing more Math Conversation.  I made a few conversation writing prompts that we are going to put into our interactive notebooks as a reminder.  You can get this FREEBIE {HERE} if your students are needing a little prompting as well. I'd love a little feedback on it as well, if you are feeling generous.

So what do you have Squared Away for the week?  Leave me a comment or two and let me know what your working on!

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