Sunday, November 30, 2014

Have you heard about the CYBER SALE??

I have ALL of my products 20% off during the sale so when you enter the promo code, you get a combined savings of 28% off. Pretty sweet deal! :) 

Check out some of my Holiday items....










It's a FREEBIE, too. Simply place into an 8 X 10 frame and use a dry erase marker to countdown the days until Christmas. Super cute in the classroom or the home. There are 16 different designs to choose from. 

ENJOY! :)




Happy Holidays and enjoy the SALE!!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Stellaluna Literacy Activities & Lapbook project

Wow, can't believe it has been almost a month since I have posted on my little blog here! But today is the day. I had to go back in time for this one. I totally meant to post about this back in October when our class actually read the wonderful story of Stellaluna, but time certainly got away from me! I just uploaded a new product, my 50th product, actually! : Stellaluna Literacy Activities and Lapbook Project!



What is a lapbook, you ask? Well, I didn't know either until just a few months ago when I read Mrs. D's blog post about Lapbooks. After reading her post, I thought I could easily incorporate a lapbook project with Stellaluna. See more about the lapbook later in this post!

My class had so much fun with this that I thought I would bundle it up for TpT and share our week long unit of Stellaluna literacy activities!

We began the week by reading Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. 

If you do not have access to the book, it is available on Storyline Online!

The first activity we did was create a Story Map as a class. I had the kids get in groups to write a sentence on a sentence strip for each story element. 


Then when the groups were ready, they glued on to our class story map. 



The groups worked well with each other and we left this posted on our board all week. 

If you would like to make your own using my labels, it is included in the file on TpT. The following printables to help with summarizing are included as well!

Glue this one into the lapbook!






The next day, we revisited the story to work on sequencing and put the story events in order. 



(This is an image for the TpT file, where you can find the printables)

I just wrote the events on sentence strip for our class activity but I've included them as printables in the file. You could have them sequence as a small group or independently. 

Here is the sequencing sheet for the lapbook!


Simply cut out, sequence and glue on other side. This goes great on the inside flap of the lapbook. :)

I also created a couple of Flow maps...




Here's a peek at the lapbook, as my example. 



Refer back to this picture to see how our class made it. :) 

Another literacy activity we did with the story was Cause and Effect. This can be a challenging skill for little ones so we actually completed the following flip book together as a class. 

And why not have a cause and effect printable to go along with it??




Ok, so my class LOVED this part! They were so interested in learning more about Bats that a mini research project was highly engaging. We completed this K and the W of our class KWL chart before we started researching. Then I let the kids have some guided research time. (By "guided" I mean, I had saved the approved links to bat websites to my teacher website for my kids to access. I wanted to be time efficient in guiding them to good sites)

Here are a few KWL sheets included...



And here is what we LEARNED!

Not entirely accurate with the "90,000 different species of bats"! Lol, we fixed that later!


The SmartBoard lesson is included in the TPT file! Your students can complete an interactive venn diagram on bats and birds. :)

I made some compare/contrast printables to go with the literacy pack!



These could easily be shrunk down on  your copier to be included in your lapbook!

Here are a few of my student examples!







 These students were so proud to show off their completed lapbooks!

Oh, and I almost forgot, I also have a comprehension test included in this little bundle of activities! 


Get this fantastic literacy activity pack with the lapbook project HERE!

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back soon...I promise more activity on the blog in the coming weeks!!




Sunday, November 2, 2014

Currently November



I'm linking up with Farley over at Oh Boy 4th Grade for Currently November. This is my first Currently and I am glad to actually catch this at the beginning of the month! I've seen this floating around the blogging world for the past few months but am just now joining along!

So here goes....



LISTENING
So who has time to watch TV live?? I'd really like to know. Not this mama. Recorded TV is the only way I catch up on my fave shows. Scandal being at the top of my list....currently. :)

LOVING
It was just an all around great weekend for some quality time with the family. Trick or Treating with my sister, mom and niece and nephew and my own little Elsa and Olaf, Fall Festival in our amazing community, church this am, and lunch with the in-laws....love my family time BUT missing my family on the west coast! Love you Dad and Cindy!

A few pics from the weekend...

Yes, we went as the Frozen crew...along with about 543 other families! (side note...I actually already had this costume that my mom made for last year's Chili Cook-off Event. My team went as Frozen and won first prize! Had to recycle this awesome get-up!)

My sweet "Elsa" with her daddy

Love these two!

Meeting up with the cousins!

Next day....
My little man caught a nice size catfish at our town's Fall Festival!

Face painting is always fun!


THINKING
"How is it November already?" Seriously...it's almost 2015.

WANTING
After wearing my fleece-lined leggings and boots today, I'm realizing that I really need , ok...want some more leggings. But must have some longer sweater tops to go with them. Kinda thinking about getting some of the funky patterned leggings, just not sure I can pull those off. 

NEEDING
If you are a teacher mommy like me....don't we all need this? Like, every weekend. Imagine if there were 4 day school weeks with 3 day weekends!? Hmmm...

READING
Slightly embarrassing but brutally honest....I just don't have the time to really READ during the school year. Too many other things filling up my day and early evening. And before I go to bed? I can get maybe 2 pages in before I pass out. Summer is glorious for many reasons but I really enjoy (and miss!) my leisure reading. Read the Divergent series this summer and loved it! OOOhh...wait! I am READING a book...to my students, yes! That counts, right?? We are reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. :)

So that is ME...Currently! 

What are you currently up to? Join the fun and link up with Farley at  Oh Boy Fourth Grade for her November Currently!