Weather and Climate: Meteorology Handbook

I just completed another "labor of love." You know when I say that, I really mean "It was a heck of a lot of work to put this together and finalize it." Alas though, we are in the midst of launching our weather unit and I thought since my Human Body Systems Encyclopedia and my Force and Motion Illustrated Dictionary are such a hit with students, why not put all of our Weather and Climate vocabulary into one handbook. I know students will love the opportunity to create illustrations.

The download includes 10 Handbook pages and the nifty coverpage. What concepts are included? Glad you asked :)

Pg 3: Coverpage

Pg 4: Left intentionally blank

Pg 5: Meteorologist Photograph (students can draw themselves as a meteorologist)

Pg 6: “Introduction to Weather” vocabulary words

Pg 7: “Weather Tools”

Pg 8: “The water Cycle”

Pg 9: “Types of Clouds”

Pg 10: “Introduction to Climate”

Pg 11: “Global wind Patterns”

Pg 12: “Weather Phenomena”

Pg 13: “Types of Fronts”

Pg 14: “Describing Weather”

Pg 15: “Reading a Weather Map”

  

I hope to check in later this week to share a few more {free}weather resources and ideas with you. Happy teaching!

 

Social Studies through FREEDOM and OPPRESSION

Are you capitalizing on every opportunity to teach your students about theme? Could conceptual lenses raise the level of the work your students do in social studies and help you meet some of your literacy goals? What is the purpose of a conceptual lens?

A CONCEPTUAL LENS NARROWS THE SCOPE AND PROVIDES DEEPER FOCUSES FOR CURRICULUM. It provides a reciprocal relationship between CONTENT learning and CONCEPTUAL levels of thinking. Conceptual lenses provide direction for the kinds of thinking that will be accomplished during a unit of study.

I got super-excited this year as I began teaching THEMES through my social studies instruction. Teaching through a conceptual lens has been the biggest shift in my social studies instruction this year and I believe it has made a huge difference. As students think about historical events through different lenses, they are learning to recognize patterns and make connections that transfer beyond social studies and that specific time period. In addition, this helps me FOCUS the materials I choose to use during the unit. 

One of the beauties of a theme or lens is that these "big ideas" can also be found as important themes in literature. Therefore, by teaching through a focused lens in social studies, you are providing students with opportunities to access literacy concepts and skills across the curriculum.

To begin my instruction with conceptual lenses, I decided that US History (and surely every other history) boils down to FREEDOM and OPPRESSION, and within that, a struggle for power. I decided that freedom and oppression would be my overarching themes for social studies this year.

These posters are currently hanging on a bulletin board in my classroom to remind students of these themes. 

Here's a basic outline of how I launched our yearlong theme and goal for social studies --thinking through FREEDOM and OPPRESSION:

 

Another option would be to use a book like Encounter by Jane Yolen and chart examples of freedom and oppression from both the point of view of the Spaniards and the natives.

I decided to think through the larger chunks of US History and come up with themes that are threaded through those time periods that could be used as conceptual lenses. Here's a peak at some of the other themes/conceptual lenses I came up with: 

 

Not only did I make these theme definitions for bulletin boards or to pull up on smartboards, I also created student journal definition pages. These are 4 to a page, so you can easily copy them and have students glue them into their notebooks. We put our freedom/oppression definitions on the first page so that we could continue to look back and reflect on how our current study relates to freedom and oppression.

I got so excited about conceptual lenses that I decided to also make fold-ables to go with the themes. 

 

(My conceptual lenses include: freedom, power, oppression, change, causes, effects, compromise, propaganda, conflict, perceptions, relationships, assimilation, revolution, independence, government, democracy, ideals, beliefs, advancement, division, discord, movement, equality, injustice, influence, prosperity, crisis, being responsible, wants, needs, educated decision, innovation, interconnectedness, globalization) You can find both of these products on TPT. 

~October Currently~Pumpkin Personalities!~

Yes, it is October...actually, we are almost 1/2 way through October. Where did this month go? Anywhoo--I love love love fall. Something about the leaves and the air and all of the pumpkins, but I don't enjoy the lack of daylight or the yucky weather we have been having this past week. We started our 2nd week back from Fall Break today and it has been nothing but wet and dreary. I believe we have had 1 day where we were able to go out for recess. Boo!

I wanted to do currently a couple of times this month, but I never sat down to get to it! Alas!

Listening: I'm sure you have heard this song, but if not:

This song makes me happy! "Even if the sky is falling down, I know that we'll be safe and sound!"

LOOOOOOVING: I broke up with my personal trainer. I had to cut the cord (it's waaaayyyy too expensive.) Last week, I joined the local gym--$27 a month. I can handle that. It's been a struggle to get my butt in the gym and kick my own tail...Today, I got dressed for the gym at school and subconsciously drove RIGHT PAST the road that the gym is on. I was really mad at myself for staying too late at school and not feeling the gym...and then passing it on by. Well, I decided I would punish myself with a run around the neighborhood and made it through a 45 minute run! Success today...

Thinking: I have been wanting to tell you about my amazing Fall Break vacations. I took two Carolina beach  trips, one to Charleston, SC and one to Nags Head, NC. I had the best company in the world (sweet bf <3) and we had perfect everything--weather, food, moods, sight-seeing, relaxation, no-work-just-enjoying-life. I got to visit Fort Sumter for the first time (pre-govt shutdown) and enjoyed a few art museums. Best of all, 1st vacation together, 4 days alone, no fights. :)

Wanting: shower (stinky from run), dinner (see "hangry" below :), shopping (new season throwing me off), weekend (self-explanatory :)

Needing: This weekend, I decided that the only things I needed in life were 1) food (I eat every 2.5 hours, and if I don't, I start to get a little "hangry."), 2) affection (I love love right now:) 3) sleep. I was feeling a little philosophical, but I think this list prioritizes life pretty well (throw in a little money, and life is good). In addition, more hours in the day would be great. I would love to have MORE time to "fill my potential" AND just be a lazy bum sometimes that floats around enjoying life!

 Trick or Treat: This would be a great treat for your students. Recently, I put together my "Pumpkin Personalities" Character Traits product for TPT. I've done a fun "Pumpkin Personalities" unit in my classroom since my first year. Here's the basic process you go through:

Unfortunately, I can't find any great pictures of our pumpkins, but I was able to find a few that give you an idea of what the project is like.

 

Happy October everyone! 

I wish you all tons of food, affection, and sleep :) 

 

My Article was Published on a National Blog!!! Resiliency in the Classroom!

Wow! I am so super busy, but I wanted to share with you some exciting news. Recently, my principal asked me if I would like to write an article on resiliency for ASCD. ASCD promotes "whole child" education. The organization believes that "Each child, in each school, in each of our communities deserves to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. That's what a whole child approach to learning, teaching, and community engagement really is."

I hope you will head over to ASCD to read my article titled "Why Resilience is Critical in a Learning Environment." Right now, it is at the top of the main blog page! I just had to pinch myself!

Word Study Routine and Tips~Words their Way

Words Their Way, check out the foundational text by the same name. To see an example of the developmental spelling inventory, check out this tutorial from Pearsontraining.

In the past few years, I have tried different things, but worked to simplify the process of having too many groups, word lists, and activities for students to complete. I have also worked to find routine activities that remind students of the purpose of word study~that the spelling learning should transfer into our actual writing! I have found that students' spelling deteriorates when word study is dropped from the classroom (maybe students think you don't think spelling is important at that point?) and that if I can get my routines together, students actually have a lot of fun during word study.

Keep in mind that the routines and ideas I describe below are from the upper elementary perspective. Of course, modifications and scaffolding may be necessary for lower grades and weaker spellers.

Tip # 1: Stop planning Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri routines and think of your word study activities as a cycle. Students cycle through all activities for each word list. This shift in thinking helped me tons--our schedule gets interrupted, so teaching students "This is what we do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday," was really always an issue. Now, I have a seven day cycle of activities for students, including a few whole group days where we work together. How do I keep up with where we are? I have a chart showing each groups' assignment for the day. We move a sticky note that says "We are Here!" each day. This also gives us the freedom to have "off" days where we do something else with our word study time.

Although we might take a week and a half to cycle through the activities for one word list, we value word study more because we know ALL of the routines are going to happen for that word list. When we are almost at the end of a quarter or a long break, I start staggering groups out of word study.

Here's my current word study cycle of activities (and it feels "successful" most of the time):

Day 1} Complete "Blind" Word Search and try to deduce current word sort rule or pattern. If you are familiar with Words Their Way, then you know that a "blind sort" is an activity where students sort the words into categories (and write them down) as they hear them called out. It's called BLIND because they are not looking at the words. By doing this "blind searching" through a word search, students have a fun way of figuring out their word pattern focus for the word study cycle. The word search WORD searching is an engaging, fun way for students to discover some of their words and sharpen their ability to recognize words that are spelled correctly (a major key to spelling improvement). Students also demonstrate their understanding of sorting by sound and/or look when they record the words they have found into categories. (Students have the word searches glued into their notebooks and MUST record the words as they find them by SORTING the words into categories)

Tip # 2: Once you assess students and decide which lists they will start with, make copies of the word searches they will need for the quarter and spend a session helping students glue the word searches into their notebooks. I save 2-3 pages between each word search for word work and for "Meet with the Teacher." Remind students to keep the word searches in order as they glue them!

Tip # 3: You can work with your lower group before they do Word Search day. This gives them exposure to the word patterns they will be working with and hopefully a boost of confidence as they search for their words. If you have younger students and want them to have a copy of the words, just give them the word list from the Word Study books, but I strongly encourage you to consider giving them a few words to get them started and then have them search for the patterns, rather than spoon-feeding them the whole list.

Day 2} Meet with the Teacher (includes sorting words, discussing word patterns/rules and word meanings, etc.)With average/higher groups, I ask what words they found in their word search and we sort them into categories on a white board. Sometimes I will provide them with other words they should have found, but hearing what their group members found gives them clues about what else to look for.


Tip # 4: The lower groups just need practice, practice, practice, and immediate feedback. When these kiddos meet with the teacher, I give them a white board, marker, and eraser and fire off words at them from the list they are on and from previous lists. We often have to focus on short sounds vs long sounds, words with double vowel patterns, and making sure we have represented all of the sounds found in the words.

Tip # 5: For your struggling spellers, try using compound words that still fit the patterns they are studying. This allows them to practice DOUBLE the words and will allow them to feel like they are working on words just as large as other groups in the class.

DIVISION w UNIT FRACTIONS~ Multi-Step Word Problems Around the USA theme

This....
          set....
                 of....
                       task...
                              cards...
                                     is

                                                            ~ FINALLY FINISHED!!!~

Sorry, had to take some breaths there. I had no idea what I was getting into with this brain child. I wanted to make some task cards to connect unit fractions with division (to help students go ahead and make that leap in their understanding and make connections more easily once we get to our fractions unit); simpler cards like those are probably on the way eventually because I know we will need the practice, but I also wanted to take my student work on task cards to a higher level this go round. Hence, I decided to make one paged task cards like my Multi-step Word Problems School Supply Themed Task Cards. Needless to say, I have put in the HOURS on this product, but I am loving it!

Although the inspiration for this set of word problems was division, you will see many common core concepts embedded in the questions. Because I want my students to have to think on their toes and continue using previously learned concepts in meaningful ways. For this set of "Around the USA" task cards I used data for the land area of different states and regions and the length of coastlines. Students will end up adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing while having to use their mastery of different number forms to interpret the numbers they are working with (word form, base-10 expanded form, expanded form, etc).

Here's a sample task card:

These cards will not be the kind of task cards that students can ~zip~ZIP~zip~ through (like mine are used to with other task cards we have worked on this year). I think these will be a good change of pace and I would expect that the average student only completes one of the ten task cards in a 20 minute station rotations. I plan to launch these in a whole group lesson (using one of the cards as a model), then to set aside at least one day for students to get a good grasp on working through the task cards. Next, the cards will move into one of my math stations and small groups for students who need extra assistance.

Here's the nifty Student Recording Booklet and the Teacher Answer Key:

Rather than kicking back and relaxing, I am off to put together my free Student/Parent Led Conferences freebie for you guys and work on some social studies ideas.

Student/Parent/Teacher Conferences and FREEBIE

Since we just wrapped up our quarter, we also had report card conferences. Have you ever implemented Student Led Conferences? I have done a number of conferences where I ask that students are present where we also set 1-2 goals. I'm a big fan of making sure that all involved parties (student, parent, and teacher) are on the same page, having the same conversations when appropriate, but this year I had a totally crazy idea!

What if students and parents led the conference? {I have to admit, part of this idea was PURE selfishness. Conferences take up a ridiculous amount of time, including many late evenings. This idea quickly started to evolve into a way that I could have multiple conferences happening at the same time and potentially finish them in less days and less long afternoons.} I had other great reasons too, including the positive experiences I have had with leading goal setting sessions with students and parents and having students attend their report card conferences.

How did I go about setting this up?
1) I chose 4 evenings that I would block off (over the course of 3 weeks) from 3-6 for parents/students to sign up. (I ended up doing this in only 3 evenings because I was sick one of the days and had to cancel all of those conferences.) I then sent an email to parents explaining how I wanted to do conferences this year.

Click the image to Go to the GoogleDoc version that you can copy and modify for yourself

2) Students completed a reflection on all subject areas during class prior to the start of conferences. (**I want to share this with you, but my best version is on my school computer. I will upload it later.)
3) I prepared a list of guiding questions for parents. (This matches the same order as the student reflection)
4) I decided what materials students would need in order to successfully discuss their learning. These items included:
* Readers Workshop Notebook
* Math Workshop Stations Folder and Math Notebook
* Writing Draft Folder
* Social Studies Assignments, including a nonfiction reading assignment

On the day of each round of conferences, I pulled the scheduled students together and asked them to sticky note two places in their reading journal that showed their best thinking. (One had to be a write about reading entry, but the other could be from minilesson and read aloud). Then students pulled all of the materials they would need and placed them in a basket.

Benefits:
* Students are in charge. Students are responsible for sharing what they have learned this year, including classroom routines and procedures.
* College and Career Readiness {baby}: Don't we all have to undergo annual reviews where we explain the work we have done so far this year, explain what we are working on, goals we have achieved, and things we would like to do better? This is such a great, real-world, career-related experience for students!
* I felt that parents received MORE infromation about what goes on in our classroom. Rather than presenting a report card and explaining 2's, 3's, and 4's in each area, they really could get a sense of what their child is accomplishing this year.

Wow! I didn't realize how rewarding this would truly be. First, just taking a look at students' reflections and seeing (in their own words, without any influence from me) how much they were loving 5th grade, how they were capable of recognizing the improvements they have already made, and how they were able to come up with ways to improve themselves was huge.

Second, it was AMAYahzing to hear students tell their parents what we were learning in class. I could not believe how everyone was able to spout off lessons I had taught...HELLoooo! They are listening!

What did I learn?
1) 3 sets of parents/students in the room at the same time is probably ideal. At one point, I had 4 in the room and I was concerned that parents might not have felt they were getting enough attention from me (although I don't think they felt this way, I was a little anxious for criticism of this new way of doing things).
2) Having a set of parents/student scheduled for a time slot ALONE was not ideal. It changed the feel of the conference. Since they were the only ones in the room, I was all to available for them and probably did too much leading of their conversation. These conferences also tended to go on for an hour because there was no pressure to finish or understanding that other groups of parents/students were moving along faster.
3) Some students were able to "blow smoke" when talking to their parents. I allowed the child to explain things from his/her perspective, but I was hoping the parents would probe more. When they didn't, I may have asked a probing question or let it go. In the end, the report card demonstrates a more accurate picture.

All in all, I think this was a great success and will do it again next year. For 2nd and 3rd quarters, I plan to have students complete the same type of reflection and invite parents in to do a check-in on what their child has accomplished with his/her goals that they set during 1st quarter conferences. I will probably offer two evening sessions for this and let it be solely parent/student led.

I've uploaded an editable version of the student reflection and conference questions to TPT. Of course, you will want to modify the questions and directions to fit your needs. If you use these materials or ideas, I would love to hear how it goes!

Are you following my facebook page and instagram? I'd love to have you join me on social media!

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!

September Currently~Remember Me?

Yes, remember me? It's tamaralynn @ lifeloveliteracy.blogspot.com finally checking in to my good ol' blog. It has been a busy quarter, but I won't lie and say I didn't have time to blog...I just chose to spend my free time elsewhere! I have had a million bloggy ideas and now I am on my FALL BREAK!!! CHEER, CHEER, CHEER! Never have I wanted to be on my break so bad as I have for this one. To tell the truth, I think I have the best class in the world right now, but I have SOOOOO wanted extra planning time, blogging time, and creating time that I get when I am on break. Not to mention, I hate to hear the alarm clock go off, and for a few weeks, I can sleep a little later.

What better way to get checked back in to my blog than with a "CURRENTLY" from Farley?

Listening: SILENCE (is GOLDEN? :) Every teacher knows that silence is amazing! It's late and I really haven't watched TV or listened to much of anything today. It's been quite nice!

Loving: ~~~FALLLLLLLLLLL break~~~Nough Said! I'm going on a mini-vacation to Charleston in a few weekends, but hey, the next few weeks are mostly full of vacationing! Cooking, sipping my coffee, blogging, movies, cuddling with my Gracie cat, running, and enjoying slow dinners with good company. :) It's like Saturday every day for the next few weeks!

Thinking: It's WAYYYYYYYY past bedtime and I think I have already messed up my sleep pattern, but I spent the day being pretty lazy! (I give myself a PASS on this "technically" first day of my break!)

Wanting: I have a lot of products on my mind, like my Morning Meeting theme set, some new "Around the USA" math task cards, and other random ideas. I was able to get my Words Their Way Word Searches for Letter Name Alphabetic Spellers finished and uploaded today (so I wasn't SOOO lazy, was I?)

Needing:  Did I mention I teach in North Carolina? I feel like the entire public is tired of hearing teachers complain about pay, but I feel like I am stuck under a glass ceiling that will never move! It has been a tough month with an air conditioner breaking and a trip to the ER (which will cost a few hundred with my fantabulous insurance). I'm tired of struggling, I love teaching, but I need a RAISE!


How I'm Going to LOVE Myself: My personal training membership ran out a few weeks ago and I decided not to re-new. Now I am on my own. I need to run, run, run, and make sure I don't gain. I will be joining a cheaper gym near my school when we return from break, so that will help.
Ummm, did someone say PSL? You know, pumpkin~spice~lattes? How about some PB? pumpkin~beer? I will say that in the past few weeks, I have had two PSL and lots of PB. I LOOOOVE fall, especially the temperature drop, the blue jeans, and the boots!

Yes, I want to blog more, so here's hoping that I can check in at least once a week when 2nd quarter begins.

Head on over to Farley's blog to link up for your own currently or find out how {nearly} every other blogger in the universe is doing! 

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!

Morning Meeting: Goal Setting

I love love love morning meeting! I feel like during this 15-20 minute block, I get to teach to change the world, the reason I became a teacher in the first place. This year, I decided to devote a few more minutes to morning meeting and to focus my morning meeting on one theme all week. I even decided to have students keep a "Morning Meeting" marble notebook for our lessons. Focusing on one concept all week has worked out well to develop a better understanding, and I feel like the themes we have touched on so far--kindness, belonging, legacies, compassion, and goal setting--have really stuck with students.

I began with themes that I thought were critical for kicking off our year, use them to piggyback on things we are learning in readers' workshop, and to focus on issues we are having in class. (In comes "conflict" as a theme this week because it became evident that we needed to have a "classroom community" and how to deal with conflict conversation).

Last week, our morning meeting lessons focused on personal goal setting. We discussed how important it is to take our dreams beyond "wishes" by learning how to set goals, develop strategies and plans to achieve them, monitor how we are doing, and adjust course as needed. It is important to remember that goals can be achieved by asking for others to support us (I think we sometimes forget this). It is also important to believe in ourselves and to make sure FEAR does not hold us back from pushing ourselves forward.

We watched the video titled Finish Strong earlier this year. It contains many inspirational quotes and a great message about persevering through adversity and challenges.

During the viewing of Finish Strong, we decided the Anatole France quotation was our favorite.

This quote reminds us that when setting and achieving goals, dreaming is as important as action, believing is as important as planning. Keeping faithful and continuing to work towards our goals is important no matter the adversity we may face.

Each morning meeting focus includes key words. Goal, Accomplish, Strategic, and Intentions are our key vocabulary words for Goal Setting.

To come up with two goals to focus on, we brainstormed ideas for four different categories: academic, character, personal, and behavioral. Students then chose the top two goals that they felt were critical for their success this year.

I believe that in the journey of being human, the true goal of any individual is to work on ourselves to the point that our inner self shines through on the outside--that our actions represent who we believe we are on the inside. I love having morning meeting each day because it gives us time to talk about how to help our true selves shine through. I think goal setting is a crucial classroom conversation that needs to happen on a regular basis. It is embedded throughout my classroom routines and language and we reflect on our goals (just two) once a week. Students write about what they have done so far to work on their goal and their plan for moving forward. I encourage them to believe that just because you did nothing to work on your goal last week does not mean you should quit. (This is true for weight loss, exercising, giving up smoking, and more!--just because we fall off of a wagon for a few days DOES NOT mean we should stay off of it for the rest of our lives. We have to learn to release any guilt so that we can move forward.)

What personal goals are you working on? Can you share your triumphs and struggles with your students so that they can see how a "goal setter" thinks? What strategies help you through the hard times? My students have followed me through the journey of National Boards and my "work-life" balance goal of being more healthy by exercising more and achieving teacher-weight loss!

I am working on a pretty extensive set of morning meeting focus materials. I hope to have these ready soon! Keep following along as I share more of our morning meeting lessons. Our next morning meeting theme is another great one...CONFLICT!

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!