HELLO FRIENDS!!!!! It's a HUGE giveaway at Tarheelstate Teacher...but you can enter here!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!! I can't hold back the excitement! I was going to keep this "hush-hush" until tomorrow when I share my Juicy July Updates but I just can't hold back anymore! Brittany from Mix and Math and I have put together a HUGE giveaway!

You could win 2 $10 gift cards from teachers pay teachers

TWO HUGE bundles of resources to get you set for MATH or LITERACY this year (one from me and one from Brittany)!

ALL 4TH AND 5TH GRADE TEACHERS SHOULD ENTER!

And, because we love to share the love, you could also win the RESOURCE PACKS for ONE of YOUR LUCKY TEACHER FRIENDS! Click on the image to enter and tag other teachers in this post so they can enter too!

For each of the questions you answer, you get one entry, so increase your chances by entering information for all parts!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Let's get a little more excited and take a look at what you could win:
Brittany is giving away all of her Real-World Math Projects!

• 1) Adding and Subtracting Fractions Project 
• 2) Measurement Project 
• 3) Multiplying Fractions Project
• 4) Dividing Fractions Project 
• 5) Volume Project 
• 6) Fraction Review Project 

You get to pick ONE of these MEGA BUNDLE BABIES from MY Store!

• 1) Multiply and Divide Fractions Task Cards: Cupcake Shop Theme 
• 2) Multiply and Divide Fractions Task Cards: House Plans Theme (using area) 
• 3) Add and Subtract Fractions with Unlike Denominators: Candy Shop Theme 
• 4) Subtracting Fractions with Regrouping/Borrowing (Three Levels of Difficulty) 
• 5) Comparing and Ordering Fractions (Teach 4 Different Methods) 
• 6) Multiplying Fractions by Fractions and by Whole Numbers (includes visual modeling) 
• 7) Summer Slide: 4th Grade Review/Beginning of Year 5th Graders Summer Themed Word Problems

• 1) Readers Workshop Launch Kit: Building a Reading Life 
• 2) Writer's Workshop Launch Unit Materials 
• 3) Character Traits Adjectives Bulletin Board Set 
• 4) EMOJI Style Character Traits Adjectives Bulletin Board Set 
• 5) Theme Labels for Bulletin Boards and Theme Lessons 

Good luck! Don't forget to spread the love and SHARE with friends! You can double your chances of winning because both of you could win! :) It's like BOGO for your teaching buddy, and who doesn't LOOOOOOOVE a BOGO sale, especially when it's really a GET ONE, GIVE ONE, so we will call it a GOGO and you don't have to spend a dime! Okay, done with the cheese!

I've also been working really hard on my post for sharing how I launch reading workshop (it's ready!!! HAPPY DANCE HAPPY DANCE!). Your going to get some word-for-word lesson ideas for Day 1 and 2 and I'm including downloadable "day by day plan" and a "routines and procedures checklist." So look for that sometime today! Happy weekend friends! 

~*GIVEAWAY*~PREP TOON Math Resources

Last year, I used the 6th grade PrepToon math videos with my 5th graders (4th and 5th grade videos were not yet available.) I loved the real-world math exposure that the videos allowed my 5th graders to experience instantly. They were not simply given word problems on paper, but were able to visualize them with the help of Preptoon's short videos. This was especially helpful for my inclusion students and students who have difficulty understanding what computations a word problem requires them to complete. The CD also includes worksheets that go along with the video questions.

After using the videos, I left this feedback:

{You can check out some of their awesome work with the freebies in their TPT store.}

I'm excited to be partnering with PrepToon to host my first ever giveaway! Math Animations by Preptoon has offered to give away a set of Common Core aligned math animations to one lucky winner. (4th, 5th, and 6th grade video sets are available).

"These story based animation videos which show importance of math in daily life will help you engage your kids and make your math class more fun and lively. Plus these videos are CCSS aligned and come with printable worksheets to follow along video activities."

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Soon, PrepToon will be launching their website with "100's of interactive videos, 750+ critical thinking questions and printable worksheets." The videos will include interactive features where students input answers and receive feedback and data reports for teachers. This week, I had the opportunity to try out the website and it's features and I think it's going to be a classroom necessity!

You can preview one of the videos I watched here:

When the website launches, I will be holding another giveaway for access to it! {Holy MOLY, that's gonna be a great deal!} 

I will announce the winner on Monday April 13th, so submit your entry and stay tuned!!

Don't forget, I'm having a spring break appreciation sale through Monday!

SPRING BREAK SALE~You Deserve it!

Hello Followers!

My spring break is coming to an end. We go back on Monday! As I'm planning for our upcoming units, I'm having to make a few purchases of resources on TPT, so I thought, maybe you are planning too and YOU DESERVE A SALE!

My Teacher Appreciation Spring Break {you deserve it} sale runs now through Monday April 5th and everything is 20% off! It's a great time to grab my Multiplication Intervention Bundle or my Morning Meeting bundles at a super duper deal!



I'm also spending some time today updating my geometry files. I plan to put together a bundle by Sunday of all of my Geometry products, so be on the lookout! It's gonna look something like this {and if you already own some of my geometry products, be ready to download the new files!}

Also, I'm announcing a GIVE AWAY on Sunday for a FREE Year-Long Common Core Curriculum for Math from Prep Toons! Animation products for grades 4-6 are currently available. The set costs $20 on TPT but its over 35$ worth of value! Later this year, I will be hosting a giveaway for Preptoons newly launched website! You don't want to miss any of this fun! You must be following my BLOG, FACEBOOK page, and TPT store in order to enter. Please follow Prep Toon on TPT as well. Go ahead and do it now to get ahead of the game! :)

~*Worksheets and Dendrites*~Ch 1 & 2

Allowing students to brainstorm and discuss is something I feel I do all day long! My students have journals for every subject. This provides the perfect place to brainstorm ideas for questions that I pose. I learned early in my career that choosing one student to answer questions was not my style (mainly because it bugged me that the disengaged students constantly got out of doing the thinking). I think it is important to give everyone "thinking time" and my students quickly get in the habit of jotting ideas and responses when I pose questions, especially in reading and math.

This year, I have increased partner and group work to capitalize on my students' love of talking. (Look on the bright side!) Early in the year, I realized that my students loved to talk. The first week of school, I was really unsure of how I was ever going to get them to be quiet and work. I find myself often saying "How can I do this where they get to talk?" My students have multiple opportunities throughout the day to discuss and work in partnerships and small groups; we are often engaged in a group project where they have to work with the same classmates long term. With small group and partner activities, engagement and participation increases to nearly 100%.

With our recent Ecosystems Museum Exhibit (project based learning), I have fallen in love with using art in the classroom. Project-based learning is a perfect reason for incorporating art, and I not only included it in my students' culminating project, but their research pages contained multiple opportunties for them to draw what they had learned. I'm definitely on the look out for more ways to allow my students to sketch, draw, and paint in the classroom and have plans to increase my use of art next year. I had to put this strategy under the "sometimes" category.

During the first week of school, I was going back and forth about whether or not to have my students create Heart Maps. Holy-moly, teacher-friends, am I glad I did!?! I have little artists in my classroom. They worked so hard on these things and took their time. {I should have known then that drawing was the way to their hearts.} And, doesn't art often allow certain students to shine?

I have greatly increased my use of sketching and drawing in math with our fractions unit. Students have drawn and colored pies, pizzas, cookies, chocolate, and cake! I found an amazing set of math resources from Georgia from their Common Core performance standards. I modified their handouts a few times, but if you want something hands-on with a little bit of art incorporated, go to this website immediately. I used the 3rd and 4th grade materials, but they have them for K-6.

In my previous post, I reflected on my use of the 20 strategies discussed in Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites and categorized them as "I already do that-A LOT," "I already do that SOMETIMES," and "I hardly ever do that." I am enjoying the reflection that this book is putting me through. Even if you are not reading the book, I encourage you to look at the strategies and see which new ones you might implement more often. 

~*~Book Study~Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites~*~

Have you heard about this book study? I bought Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites as soon as I saw the announcement from Amanda at One Extra Degree. I thought it would give me some PLC (professional learning community) time that I am missing these days (I'm at a one person-per grade level school, so I am the lone 4th grade teacher). I'm a pretty reflective teacher {have you noticed?}, and I thought this book would push me through some reflection.

I have been reading the book and thinking about my own classroom, but I have yet had time to post. Tonight I was thinking about the title...WORKSHEETS (pencil and paper, sit at your desk for an hour and do this) "don't grow dendrites." When I think of dendrites, I think of synapses and neurons, and one idea connecting to another like our veins running through our body or tributaries leading one river into another, into the ocean. I've had many experiences as a teacher where I could literally feel my dendrites branching off and connecting to other things I knew and experiences I have had--I bet you have too. We constantly have those AhHa! moments when we are teaching--oh, that connects to that thing we are doing in another content area--oh, that's a new way to teach that--oh, I'm out in the world doing my thing, and that reminds me of ____ that I teach.

I believe that finding ways to get kids OFF of the worksheets WILL grow more dendrites than constant pencil-paper-pencil-paper-sit-at-desk.

When I skimmed through the book and saw the strategies mentioned, I thought, "Man, this is all stuff we all already know," and "I already do that."
And then...
      ...I remembered that "I already do that" is my PET PEEVE of professional development. We always have something to learn and I believe that even if we think we "already know this" and "already do that," we {I} always have tons of room for improvement in utilizing strategies routinely, consistently, strategically, and with FINESSE. The 20 strategies suggested in Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites include:

When I look at the list of strategies, I have to admit "I don't already do" all of that :) I'm sure we all lean on certain techniques more than others. Maybe we find what works for us and our kids and maybe we are in a rut sometimes and forget to include things we've already learned. So much to do, so much to think about, so much, so much! I also think that I put a lot of pressure on myself when thinking about how I'm doing and making improvements--I don't feel like I'm using these strategies if I only use them in one subject area or as a once a year kind of thing. In my mind, "doing" these strategies means that they are embedded in my classroom throughout the year. Being an elementary teacher with 5 subject areas is tough!

I decided to put the 20 strategies on a chart (One of my favorite strategies--always, sometimes, rarely :) )

If you haven't started following along with the book study, here's the schedule. Each of the bloggers listed are hosting a linky party, so if you have a blog, you can link up your reflections too. Click on a blog and catch up!

Kickin it in Kindergarten- Chapters 1 and 2 (February 28th)

Mrs. Wills Kindergarten- Chapter 3 (March 7th)

Queen of the First Grade Jungle Chapter 4 (March 10th)

Fabulous in First Chapter 5 (March 14th)

One Extra Degree Chapter 6 (March 17th)

Mrs. Jump's Class Chapter 7 (March 28th)

The First Grade Parade Chapter 8 (March 31st)

In April, you will be visiting these girls for the remainder of the study:

Mrs. Ehle's Kindergarten Chapter 9 &10 (April 4th)

What The Teacher Wants Chapter 11 (April 7th)

First Grader At Last Chapter 12 (April 11th)

Erica's Ed Ventures Chapter 13 (April 14th)

KinderGals Chapter 14 &15 (April 18th)

A Rocky Top Teacher Chapter 16 (April 21st)

Mrs. Wills Kindergarten Chapter 17 (April 25th)

Little Warriors Chapter 18 (April 28th)

Falling Into First Chapter 19 (May 2nd)

Kickin' it in Kindergarten Chapter 20 (May 5th) 

{And stay tuned for my "catch-up" posts of my reflections from each chapter}

Hey, Teacherheroes...

Yes, you. Teacher friends, TPT is launching a 2015 Teachers are Heroes sale on February 25th. Go ahead and load up your carts to save cash on classroom necessities and fun stuff! I'm already going through my wishlist and filling up my cart with goodies <3 I have to say, I love the support I get from other teachers as a blogger and a teacher seller, and it is just as good of a feeling to spend my money on classroom resources created by other teachers. {I love the thought of them hearing "cha-ching"! and getting that little happy feeling no matter how hard of a day they are having}.

I have made a ton of purchases this year, so I thought I would link up with Gena at Speech Room News for "What's in Your Cart" to share what should be in every 4th/5th grade teachers' carts--these are stores and products that have made my world so much easier this year as I transitioned to a new school and back down to 4th grade. (I really want to title this post Can't Live Without!!! resources!)

Anything from The Teacher Studio makes me happy these days, but I have especially found her Fraction Concepts Sorting Cards helpful. I have used these cards to launch our fractions unit--they are perfect for collaboration (I had students work in groups of 3); by listening to students' conversations and asking questions, I have really been able to see the depth of their understanding and heard misconceptions. As a bonus, students have been fully engaged! 

Today I picked up one of her latest products {Fractured Fractions: A Set of Puzzles to Teach Decomposing and Composing}, and am so excited to use it tomorrow! When I saw this activity (differentiated and all), I couldn't wait for a sale, I had to have it today!!

Of course, I can no longer run a math class without task cards. They make learning so engaging, and most of all, I find that students are more willing to ask for help when working with task cards versus a worksheet. Some of my go-to task card stores include Chili Math and Dennis McDonald (and my own of course ;) I find that Chili Math and Dennis McDonald's task cards ALWAYS provide a variety of levels of challenge. Chili Math is especially good at asking questions that require interesting applications of seemingly *simple* concepts, while Dennis McDonald always has extra goodies with his task cards like student handouts or smartboard displays, accompanying worksheets that can be used for fast finishers or as assessments, and the last product I bought also contained a spinner game!

This year, I wanted to implement Poetry Workshop again. I had a folder of poems (and tons of anthologies) that I planned to pull from. Planning for these lessons each and every week started to feel like I was spending way too much time trying to find poems using different literary devices. I decided to search TPT and boy am I glad I did! I found this set of Mentor Poems for Teaching Poetry compiled by Lorrie L. Birchall. This has helped me keep my poetry Friday's care free when it comes to planning. I just search  through the poems and print the section I want students to have for their poetry journals. 

In hopes of creating more accountability around our read aloud book and the discussions we have, I decided to implement written responses to open-ended questions. Through these questions, I am teaching students to tease out what kind of thinking the question really requires, how to decide on an appropriate graphic organizer for planning out their response and collecting evidence, and in turn improving their ability to respond to open-ended questions in written form. We are reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, and this packet (HUGE) of questions and language arts focus activities for Maniac Magee has been a LIFE-SAVER for me! It's from Secondary Solutions. Secondary Solutions will be my go-to-store for future book studies! The sale is a great time to pick up one of their book sets; I fortunately had a parent gift card when I bought mine!

What's in my store that I can't live without?
My Morning Meeting Made Easy series have made my morning meeting so much easier! With everything planned out (linked resources, picturebook ideas, student journal pages, and the bulletin board display), morning meeting has never been easier for me! And, my students LOVe having these moments to connect and have conversations about the "real" stuff that matters in life!

Happy Shopping!

Cyber Monday and Tuesday~SAVE 28% on TPT and FLASH Fractions FREEBIE!

Cute clip art from Ink n Little Things 

Time for a sitewide TPT sale! These only happen a few times a year! You can grab everything in my store for 28% off by using the code CYBER!

I just uploaded a new Fractions Skills product~Methods for Comparing and Ordering Fractions. This is a freebie through the CYBER Monday/Tuesday sale, so grab it now! It goes up to 2.25 on Wednesday!

Facebook Fan Page~~What? What! So Excited!

I just made a facebook fan page for Lifeloveliteracy. I hope you will HOP ON OVER and click LIKE to follow along with all things Life, Love, Literacy and Tarheelstate teacher. I'm excited about the fan page because in addition to the ways you can already follow along with me, a facebook page gives me a fast way to share resources that I find and may not have time to write an entire post about. Come follow along. Come on, I know you wanna :) Just click the image below!

Seriously, thanks for your support!

Newish Logo!

I am so excited to unveil my new logo. It merges the old "lifeloveliteracy" logo with a North Carolina design that represents my teacherspayteachers store name. When I first got into this blogging and TPT gig, I didn't really think about having both my store name and blog name be the same. The pressure of coming up with a store name and a blog name was sooooo challenging for me, but I wanted to get started, so I jumped right in with the best I could think of.

Over the past year, I have went back and forth about changing my TPT store name to lifeloveliteracy so that it matches my blog, but I know so many other seller-bloggers have different names and I have more followers on TPT than my blog, so I decided to figure out a way to merge the two names.

I hope you love it! This was one of my *few* accomplishments today on my first day of fall break!

TPT Back to School and a SPECIAL ELA BUNDLE PACK DEAL

Wow...it's that time of year again. For me, it means progress reports went home today and I am 4 weeks away from FALL BREAK! (For one of the first times ever, I feel like I am counting down.) I can't wait to have some free time to blog about all the amazing learning experiences we have had this quarter, work on my year's worth of morning meeting themes, create a few new sets of Around the USA math task cards that have been on my mind, and read a decent stack of new Holocaust books that we may incorporate into our upcoming book clubs. Wow! I've got plans to be busy over break (and relax a little, too)!

Oh yeah.....and it's time for the TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS SITEWIDE Back to School Sale! Everything in my store will be 20% off on Sunday and Monday. With the TPT code, you can save an additional 10% for a grand total of 28% off of the teacher items you purchase.

I'm linking up for the 2 + 1 Back to School Sale and sharing two of my top wish listed items and 1 item from my wishlist that I plan to buy this weekend.

Teach students to become active readers of nonfiction and guide them in how to glean the big ideas from informational texts, respond personally, question, answer, and summarize what they have learned.

This teaching set contains 14 different nonfiction/informational templates, graphic organizers, reading strategies, and bookmarks.Normally $4, you can get it for 2.88!

 

Help students access vocabulary for describing characters with these 48 character adjectives definition cards with colorful clip art. The file contains a 50 slide powerpoint with each word, definition, and clip art on individual slides, a word file with 6 vocabulary words on a page that can be cut apart and made into a vocabulary ring and a packet of 9 vocabulary/reading activities and graphic organizers that can be used to help students internalize word meanings, apply character adjectives to their independent reading or class read alouds.

If you love these two products, you might want to consider purchasing my ELA Back to School Bundle Pack. My bundle pack contains 7 of my top ELA items (6 reading and 1 writing). Individually, the products total 27.50, but with this bundle pack marked down to $15, you save over 45%. Add the TPT Code (BTS13), and you get the bundle for $13.50. This download totals over 365 pages. I believe each of these products are "high utility" in the classroom and will benefit you and your students yearlong! 

What's contained in this bundle?
1) 48 Character Trait Definition Cards, Powerpoint, and Graphic Organizers
2) Nonfiction Informational Reading Strategies
3) Theme in Literature Common Core Bulletin Board Labels
4) Building a Reading Life Response Journal Pgs/Quotation Posters
5) Penciling in a Worthwhile Writing Life
6) Love of Language Common Core Vocabulary Acquisition Program
7) Comprehension Minilesson Cards

 

I've had my eye on these cool 3D animations of situational math problems from Preptoon Common Core Math Animations. Although the animations are based on the 6th grade Common Core standards, I think these would be really engaging and challenging for my students. I think I will grab this baby up to add some extra energy to my math classroom...Keeping math REAL and RELEVANT is always my goal, and I think these situational animations will fit my mission perfectly. (Preptoon has some great freebies that you could test out to see if you like these :) 

I hope you have a great weekend, GREAT new SCHOOL YEAR (I truly mean this--mine is going amazing!), and keep that "love of teaching fire" going ALL THE YEAR LONG.

Credits:

Linky Button by the talented Diane at Fifth in the Middle!

The wishlist graphics by the wonderful Amelia from Where the Wild Things Learn!  

Carolina {girls} Blogger Weekend in Greenville SC

Friday, I was so excited to bust out of school at 11:30 with my good friend Ashley @ Primary Teacherhood. Have I told you about my work-life balance goal? I'm not sure I have, but I have started calling it my "LIFE-work" balance, and missing a little school time to head to Greenville this weekend for a Carolina Blogger meet up was definitely in line with this goal :) Coming from a teach-a-holic, I hope you also are focusing on some LIFE-work balance along with all of your other goals for this new school year. 

Anyway, Ashley and I left school early so that we could get on the road for our nearly 4-hour drive. I started to go a little nuts in the car, but believe me, it was worth it! Amanda Madden @ Teaching Maddeness put together the meet up, including planning our fabulous itinerary. We were a group of nearly 30 teacher-ladies taking Greenville by storm! We ate at the Lazy Goat and headed to Jack and Diane's piano bar for some ruckus, dancing, and all-out fun! 

 

Here's me and Ash! Wish we had pictures of us dancing, but it must have been that bad! :) Unless some of my bloggy friends took a secret pic!

 

After a good night's rest, which was much needed, Ashley and I headed out to explore a little on our own before our fabulous lunch at Chicora Alley. Afterwards, we went on an awesome scavenger hunt around the city created by the awesome Ginger @ Gingersnaps Treats for Teachers. Have you been to Greenville? It's a beautiful city with lots to do and tons of places to eat. I love a city with open green spaces along with all the busy-ness. Just walking around and finding so many surprises was enough to make me want to come back real soon! 

It was a great weekend of teacher-talk. We learned a lot about NC vs SC vs Georgia. Not all good, but I'm thinking this legislature and governor soon will pass in NC and someone will come to their senses. It was also fun to hear about everyone's different school settings and experiences. I felt great to be in the presence of such amazing teachers who truly enjoy the job and go above and beyond all the time. Today, this little saying popped into my head again. (Actually, I think about it all the time, but wanted to share so that you too are reminded.)

jodisaccessories.net

I'd like to add, "I teach, dance, inspire, spread love, kindness, literacy, curiosity, perseverance, and aim to change the world. What's your superpower?" Want to catch up with all of the Carolina bloggers (and some from Georgia?:) Check out their amazing blogs. I'm following everyone on bloglovin' so why don't you do the same? 

Brooke from Whooo's in Second?

Sarah at Education Electrification

H

Diane at Fun in Second Grade

Heather at Room 4 Imagination

Elisabeth at Twins, Teaching, and Tacos

Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

Natalie at Teachery Tidbits

Kim at Thanks to a Teacher

Kris at The Poole Pages

Brandee at Creating Lifelong Learners

Courtney at Second Grade Snapshots

Ginger at GingerSnaps

Rachel at The Tattooed Teacher

Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B

Ashley from Primary Teacherhood

Emily AND Kerry at Third and Goal

Lauren at The Sweetest Thing

Jeannie at The Second Grade Surprise

Lana at 4 The Love of Teaching

And our host, Amanda at Teaching Maddeness