Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Mentor Sentences Freebie!



Happy SUMMER! :)

I'm sorry I have been so MIA lately. I feel like the summer is flying by...summer, slooooooow down!

I wanted to take a minute to share a FREEBIE with you! I am looking at all of my mentor texts this summer, and one book that I love to use every year in August or September is Cynthia Rylant's The Relatives Came. It is such a wonderful story about a summer family reunion. So, anyways, I decided to make a mentor sentence lesson plan and assessment to go with this text. And, I wanted to give it to y'all as a freebie. Yay!

Just click the link below to download it for free from our Teachers Pay Teachers Store. And, if you like it, please check out our Mentor Sentence Units.  :)


Our Back to School Mentor Sentence Unit is ready-to-go too!

Mentor Sentences Back to School Mini Pack {Sentences with

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you are having a relaxing SUMMER day!



Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Two for Tuesday Deal- Pronouns and Sentences



Hey there!

I am back here to share another grammar half off deal for you all to go with the grammar deal from last week!  Hey, why not, right?  ;O)
First up, is our Pronoun Pirates Pack!  This pack includes notes for grammar notebooks, practice pages, a pronoun game, and a quiz!  All you need to teach pronouns!



Next up, our Camping with Sentences Pack!!  (Can you tell we like a theme?)  This also has notes pages for complete sentences, fragments, and run-ons as well as practice pages, a quiz, and a sentence sort!

 
I hope you can enjoy these deals!  Also, if you do purchase them, we'd love your feedback!  Be sure to check out all of the other deals at The Teaching Tribune!

I am off to enjoy my day with my husband!  We are celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary today!!
Have a great Tuesday!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Worksheet Wednesday {Synonym Freebie}



Hey there!  Happy Hump Day!

Hump Day

If you read our blog last week, I told you our house was struck by lightening and our dishwasher was fried.  Well, happy day, our new dishwasher came today!!  I mean, I'm not so thrilled to have had to buy a new one but I'm super psyched that I won't have to wash dishes anymore!  It's so easy to take something for granted like a dishwasher but when it's gone, wow!  I'm so happy for that machine to be here!

Anywho, I'm linking up with The Teaching Tribune to share a free worksheet that's in our TpT store.  You may have seen it before or maybe not.  Today we are sharing one for ELA.  We have plenty more ELA freebies in our store, so be sure to poke around while you are downloading this one!


Here's our freebie!

Please if you download it, leave feedback!  :O)

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Two for Tuesday- Two Products in our store are half off, including our NEWEST product!!! Read on to find out what they are!!






Hi there!!  I'm excited to link up with The Teaching Tribune today to offer two products in our store for half off {TODAY ONLY}!  This is such a great idea and a great way to get great deals!

So, in 4th grade we teach about progressive verbs.  I'll prove it...here's the standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.1.B
Form and use the progressive (e.g., I was walking; I am walking; I will be walking) verb tenses.

And that is all the common core states for 4th grade as far as verbs.

So in reading this, we would assume that we can just jump in and teach progressive verbs, right?  WRONG!  We all know it's not that easy!  We can't just assume that they remember everything they've ever learned about verbs.  Because they'll tell you with their own mouths that they never learned anything about verbs before.  Ok, maybe they'll remember what an action verb is but from there, things will probably get foggy...and we all know that they've learned about verbs!!

So, this year, I decided to make a unit to help me review (quickly) what they have learned about verbs (even if they think they haven't learned it...they just need a little push) and add on progressive verbs.  I started the product and used it, but never made it TpT ready in order to sell it until now.  So, I'd love to share it with you, and for the first day that it's out, you can get it HALF OFF!!

We pasted the notes pages into our grammar notebooks.

 Here is the first notes page after we pasted it in.  They totally remembered what an action verb was and wanted to add their own.  (And, you can see that they found a typo-  a student raised her hand and told me I put two of the word run...I think it's cute they automatically assume I made it.  They always look for typos so they can "help me" make something better for when I share it with other teachers!)
 Here we worked on linking verbs.  We highlighted based on be verbs, senses, and then "other".  We also labeled on the right side the nouns (there is an N written in yellow highlighter) and then showed how it was linked to another noun or an adjective.
For progressive verbs we separated the be verbs from the action on the left and then highlighted (with different colors again) the linking verb and the action.

These are just some examples.  You could also use the note page as a poster!  Here is more from the product:




Ok, so our second product is also along the grammar lines!  It's Stacia's super cute Adjective Ant pack!!  It's so cute!!  I used it this year as well!  The adjective unit is more interactive as far as having flipbooks and it also includes the cutest posters!


These are all of the posters (which are even more adorable in color) made into notes sheets that can be pasted in and used as a study guide!

Here's more about the unit:
 

 

 

There are flipbooks, posters, AND task cards!!  Not to mention the writing aspect that is also incorporated!  And, it's HALF OFF TODAY ONLY!  Go check it out and don't forget to check out all of the other Two for Tuesday deals going on over at The Teaching Tribune!

Also, there is only a three days left for this excellent deal from Educents!  We have teamed up with our friends and Educents for 18 instant downloads for you! It includes activities for so many of your favorite stories you will be reading this summer (or next year) and even a few downloads you can use with any book!  You have to check this out!  It's a steal!!



Happy shopping!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

What's been up and Worksheet Wednesday {A Freebie!}



Hey friends!!  How are you???  I am much better now that our internet has been restored!!  While we were at the beach last week, lightening hit a tree near our house and probably our house as well because weird, random things wouldn't work...like our internet.  And our dishwasher.  And our garage.  But all has been repaired except the dishwasher.  Let me tell you, I am not a fan of washing and drying dishes.  It takes so much TIME.  Between washing the dishes by hand and trying to do all of the laundry from our trip I've done little else!  Okay...no more complaining!!

We've been out for summer for about two and a half weeks.  We've been doing a little of this:

Ok, I haven't been doing belly flops but I've taken pictures of my kids doing them.  ;O)

And some of this:
I did try this one, but not the aaargh pose!
Anyway, we are trying to get in the swing of summer.  It hasn't been that hard!  ;O)

If you haven't hit summer break yet, don't be too mad.  We go back July 29th.  And, actually I go back on the 20th and have different staff developments that whole week too.  So, we jumped into summer with two feet and are going to enjoy EVERY bit of it!!

I have also joined up with so many other bloggers on the 3 Weeks No Cheats train.  What is this you might ask?  Well, you may know Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants?  Well, she has an amazing story of getting healthy!  She set up a blog called For Blogness' Sake and she is inspiring many to come and get healthy with her!  3 Weeks No Cheats is a goal setting chart that helps you exercise EVERY DAY and not cheat on the food (or drinks) that you know aren't healthy and may be adding unwanted weight (along with all kinds of other unhealthy side effects!)  Well you can definitely find out more by going to her description HERE.  There's been a party on Instagram about this and I (of course) wanted to join the party.  When my sweet friend Tara was about to start her second set of 3 Weeks NO Cheats, I asked her if I could come along for the ride.

So, I started on Monday.  Let me tell you this was not as easy a commitment as I thought it would be!  I really do like to go to the gym and I love being healthy and feeling good about myself, but I was really in a lethargic state.  The problem is, I do really well in the summer when I have time, but once school starts back, I just can't keep up with everything.  My hope is that I will really get to feeling better about myself and be REALLY motivated to keep it up during the school year.  I forget sometimes that it's OKAY to do something for myself.  Being healthy and going to the gym is for me, but it's really going to be for my kids and my husband too.  I have to make myself be ok with that!

So, here's my sheet and what I'm working on!  No soda (I mainly only drank Coke Zero), no bread (WHOA, that's a hard one!) and no sweets (not as hard when I'm not in school, but definitely my go-to when I'm stressed- and there's a whole bag of Reese's Pieces on my counter that a student gave me...but I'll be fine without it!  I know this!  I'll probably throw them away but I hate to waste a bag like that...)

I've crossed off two days, which feels really good!  I wanted to cross off today, but it's not over so...I won't.  I'm also really trying to eat clean.  Rachelle also has a great blogpost about THAT HERE.  It's amazing when your grocery cart is full of fruits and vegetables!  A totally different glance at my cart!  I felt so good pushing this around!

It's choc-full of good eatin'!  And, no worries, those are organic corn tortilla chips!  Don't judge that I bought bagged spinach...baby steps people!  ;O)

So, that's what I've been trying to conquer so far this summer...no big deal, right?  ;O)  Actually, I feel really good right now.  I'm eating better and working out.  I actually worked out and then came home and cleaned my house (vacuuming, mopping, etc) and I felt really good.  Not at all like I usually do where I want to just sit on the couch!  Now, off to make a clean dinner of roasted chicken, potatoes, and asparagus!  (Shhhhhhh, don't tell my husband it's healthy!  Last night I made spaghetti with ground turkey and whole wheat noodles...my entire family loved it!  SCORE!  They couldn't tell a difference!)

I also wanted to link up to The Teaching Tribune for Worksheet Wednesday!  This week it's all FREE math worksheets that are being linked up!  You need to go check it out!
We are sharing one of our first freebies, our perimeter and area worksheet!
Just click the picture and you can download it from our TpT store.  If you download it, please leave feedback!  And don't forget to check out all of the other freebies linked up!

Do you have any good, healthy, clean recipes or advice for me?  I'd love to hear it!
PS- Don't forget we have teamed up with our friends and Educents for 18 instant downloads for you! It includes activities for so many of your favorite stories you will be reading this summer (or next year) and even a few downloads you can use with any book!  You have to check this out!  It's a steal!!


Saturday, June 7, 2014

Book Blowout!! Our I Wanna Iguana and The Umbrella packs!



We have some great news for you today!!  Two of our mentor text packs are included in an amazing bundle from Educents!

 We have teamed up with our friends for some instant downloads for you! It includes activities for so many of your favorite stories you will be reading this summer (or next year) and even a few downloads you can use with any book!  You have to check this out!  It's a steal!!


Our first pack that is included in this bundle is our I Wanna Iguana and I Wanna New Room Persuasive Writing/Language Arts Pack!

Surely you have seen these two books?

 

I used this pack this year as a fun introduction into persuasive writing and friendly letter writing.  I know this book is used on multiple grade levels, but my fourth graders still love the book.  Also, I Wanna New Room is still sometimes a new book to many of them.  I like to use this as an introduction to our overall opinion writing unit because most students think of opinion writing as persuading someone to give them something.  In 4th grade, we are moving away from that type of writing, but it's still under the umbrella of opinion writing.  This is just a fun unit to kick it off!

And, lets face it!  All kids usually have SOMETHING they want from their parents, so we can practice our friendly letter writing to their parents asking for whatever it is they want, using evidence as to why they deserve it in the letter!

Also included in this bundle is our The Umbrella Language Arts Pack.

Who doesn't love Jan Brett?
Her stories and illustrations are beautiful!  This book shows the habitat of a rainforest and Carlos as he walks through it.  It's a great book to use when working on habitats or ecosystems!  We love when we can integrate science into LA!  This book has onomatopoeia in it as well, which is always a fun aspect of figurative language for students!

This pack includes work with retelling the story, vocabulary, verbs, adjectives, and more!  

For a limited time our packs are a part of this bundle that is $19.99 from Educents, which is about 78% off!  
18 instant downloads with over 700 pages of materials perfect to accompany your summer reading list!


You can also take peek at some of the other products included in the bundle at any of the links below!  This is a great deal!!  We hope you check it out!