Grin and Grab These Friday Freebies!

Grin and Grab it Freebie Day

What is Grin and Grab it Freebie Day? Today only, several TpT sellers are offering one priced product for free. Please see the product cover pictures and links, below, to Teachers Pay Teachers to get your freebies. This promotion ends tonight, but please leave feedback while the products are still free as it can't be added after the products are priced again.

We are having a give away of a $25 dollar gift certificate for Teachers Pay Teacher for our first Grin and Grab it Day! See the Rafflecopter information, below.

2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th,7th, 8th, 9th, 10th	Tiny World of Insects Magnified by a Scanning Electron Microscope This Powerpoint slide show and PDF printable file includes images of insects and insect parts.
7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, Homeschool	Persuasive Speech & Visual Aid Project with Rubric Argumentative Oral Presentation Project, Rubric for Grading, Argumentative Speech
Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, Student PDFs includedThis product is updated each year with more calendar years, so check back and re-download each fall.	Calendar Math, Birthdays 2013-2016 and Printable Student PDFs For 2013 thru December 2016 SMART Board, Power Point, and PDFs
	Breakfast, Lunch, Desayuno, Almuerzo Vocabulary Practice Cloze“Cloze” sentences give clues to breakfast and lunch vocabulary words in Spanish.
6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th,Adult Education, Homeschool	Three Ways Authors Reveal Characters Authors reveal the physical descriptions and the personality traits of the characters they create by using either direct or indirect characterization.

Thank you for reading!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cooperative Learning with Reading Response and Writing Activities

Busy, Busy, Busy...   

I wanted to share some student samples from a couple of cooperative learning tasks involving reading response and writing. 

We are in the midst of our final unit of the year called "The Spirit Within" and I wanted to share some of our work. 

So, here is what we've been up to lately...

 Literature Circles: Sequence of Events Map-

A "During Reading" Group Task for Night...

After reading a section of Elie Wiesel's memoir, students created flow maps in their literature circle groups. These are just two of the creative ideas they came up with to show the sequence of events. I like to have them work in groups because they learn so much from each other. 

Partner Allegory Writing after Reading "Terrible Things" by Eve Bunting...

I gave them the option of working independently or with a partner to compose their own allegories based on the idea presented in "Terrible Things" and, to my surprise, I had a good handful choose to do it independently. Either way, the originality and imagination that came out was amazing. 

Students read their allegories to the class after taking a couple of days to compose allegories and then illustrate them--in the form of a children's book. They really had fun with the project.

We thoroughly enjoyed hearing the different avenues taken to present the same idea!

As you can see, my kiddos have been busy with various hands-on tasks, in addition to getting ready for our upcoming state test! 

(I won't even yap about state testing...lol)

What have your students been doing in class these last couple of weeks. Please share your fun ideas and cooperative learning activities with us.

Writing Prompt Printable Inspired by "Take Your Dog to Work" Day!

I'm a little late getting this posted....Trust me, I was getting it all ready in time, but, one thing leads to another around here, and I ended up working in the yard all day yesterday and spent day on the lake today--and broken down in the boat!!! Experiences!! Next I know, it's Saturday night! 
Anyway, Friday, June 22, 2012, was designated as "Take Your Dog to Work Day!" How cool is that? I guess not very if you don't have dogs or if you are not an animal person, but I am! That's actually the understatement of the century. I have too many pets! Yes, I could tell dog tales and cat tales all day long. 
How about getting your kiddos to write a cat tale or dog tale? Or, any other animal tale for that matter always makes for a good impromptu writing assignment! The designated day inspired me to create a quick printable that can be used whenever! 
Tells n' Tails n' Tales: "The Time My ______ and I....."  AND Let them do the rest. I included a little section for them to illustrate the main event of the "tale" they are "telling"--- :) Here's a free printable to download if you'd like it!

And, why not go ahead and have a quick "homophone" mini-lesson?

TELL 

TAIL 

TALE

                              What's your favorite writing prompt you've ever assigned????

Add Flavor to Your Class Writing Adventures

Everyone likes to have another stash of writing prompts on hand, right?
After recently uploading Part 2 of my Writing Adventures Task Cards, I thought I would share with you the previews for each, just in case you are not a store follower at TpT or haven't visited lately! Both sets (Part 1 and Part 2) contain 36 prompt cards and Part 2 also contains an additional size of the same prompts, each prompt on its own full sized page to project on your activboard or to print for centers, etc. 

Download the previews straight from Google Docs by clicking the images below!

If you are interested in the full versions, click here for Part 1 and Part 2!

Reasons for Using Ransom Writing Prompts?

They make perfect...

Bellringers

Exit Slips

Writing Centers

Challenge Activities

Fast Finisher Enrichments

and on and on and on...

NOT TO MENTION, they open minds and get imaginations flowing!

I'll email a set for free to the first 3 followers that leave a comment telling me how they can incorporate these prompt cards into their lessons! 


Just be sure to leave an email for me to send them to and if you'd like Part 1 or Part 2.....
I'd also love to hear your unique strategies for incorporating journal writing or other writing activities in your class!


Regards,

Assessing Comprehension with Small Group Song Performances!

Creativity is KEY in the classroom! I'm certain all of you agree. 

Constantly trying to find new ways to keep students involved in reading and comprehending literature, I've had the best time watching and listening to some rather creative song performances based on our selections we read in class!

The idea behind this activity is for students to recall details and explain perspectives, or explain story elements for example, which displays their levels of comprehension of particular texts we are reading in class or texts we have just finished reading. It's a different and fun approach to assessing comprehension that my students have very much enjoyed. 

An added incentive? Their writing skills are perfected as they work to compose lyrics on the subject matter learned and students gain more exposure in presentations! I try to get students up in front of the class quite a bit in hopes of burying "stage fright" as they approach higher grades and demands in the years to come. I find this most successful since my middle schoolers tire easily of a monotonous routine. Since my students work and deliver presentations as groups and it's a "fun" presentation to deliver, I end up eliminating some of the embarrassments that come with presentations. Variety is the spice of life!

Most entertaining to the students, besides getting to work in groups to create a song they actually sing for the class, are the performances of all groups in the class and even listening to the audio recordings of my other classes! On top of the enjoyment, students don't even realize they are gaining even more details and information from other groups' songs! 

What got me blogging about this activity today was the fact that we (my students and I) all listened to the recordings again yesterday--after the final exam! It was a nice "wind down" moment in which we went back to earlier in the school year to these songs they created and sang for the class. 

I wanted to let you know about the activity I created, Literature Response Activity: Compose Songs Based on Any Text,  with student handouts and teacher rubric, in case any of you are wrapping up, and perhaps finishing a book or story, and need a creative way to assess comprehension! Click cover image at right to read more in the product description at my TpT store, and perhaps grab this fun activity for your students. Click here to get it from Teacher's Notebook.

It can also be a great activity for other subject areas and various types of texts! Whatever the topic is, the students compose writing (songs) based on what they've learned! How much they have learned or comprehended is what we must figure out...so, why not do it with a little fun added?

Question: What is a creative activity you implement in your class to sort of "trick" your kiddos into showing what they know? I'd love to hear more ideas!! I'll tuck them away for the upcoming school year!! Thanks so much for any great ideas you would like to share here!! :) 

Be well and Happy Summer!

Peers Interviewing Peers

Part 1 of today's post: Writing a Biography
A unique idea for getting students to submit a good writing piece is to trick them! (Sort of, anyway!) Students create questions to ask peers, and those questions, in combination with peer responses, make compositions pretty easy to put together! 

First of all, my 8th graders need to learn what biographies are, right? Writing a biography is the ultimate goal of the assignment.


Second of all, they love to talk about themselves to each other! lol...yes, they do!
So, we (my colleagues and I) have the kids compose 10 interview questions ahead of time. Then, we assign each student a partner in the class to interview---making sure they don't interview good friends. That's not too hard because our 8th grade averages about 450 kids. They tend to be pretty spread out amongst all the English classes. The interaction in the interview helps build new friendships in the classroom because they do learn a great deal about their classmates when it's all said and done. Plus, what's the point of interviewing someone you already know about anyway?
After the interviewing is done, students write up biographies about their partners! Minus a few biographies of those that would rather not have their information shared with the class, we get together for sharing time! This is quite interesting to me and the kids. 
The biography is the final draft and the interview questions/answers can serve as the rough draft of the writing process!! The kids learn about each other, then extend their knowledge to classmates with presentations! 

I must say, eavesdropping on the interviews (facilitating, I should say) is very entertaining. I love to hear my students talking one on one. The depth and direction of conversation  always enlightens me. Plus, I love that many of them are in a "comfort zone" with just one other person for the first part. This kind of activity promotes discussion, interaction, and keeps the students engaged while the teacher steps back and acts as a facilitator!
After biographies are turned in, I score them 4, 3, 2, 1. A "4" is an "A"....and so on.


Part 2: The Five Star Blogger!
The "Five Star Blogger" is a blogger challenge Charity Preston has going on to stir motivation! The great thing is that it is a reminder to me not to stray from the true reason for this blog, which is to share ideas and connect with others also willing to share great ideas! You can see all other blogs' postings of helpful teacher information, tips, tricks, and more by clicking on the "Five Star Blogger" badge below! Those participating have linked up there. 
Are you a "FIVE STAR BLOGGER" too? If so, take on the challenge!


AND, back to my BIOGRAPHY post...Please, share one of your engaging activities for students interacting with each other that requires you to serve as facilitator!I would love to read them in comments below!

Points to Ponder and Remember

1st: I just joined an awesome WORD WALL link up at The Teacher's Cauldron! You should see some of the ideas! Click image to the right! Thank you Jen R.!!!

Now, today's post is about:

Quotes focusing on education...

I found these on the internet as I was searching for inspiring writing springboards:

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”  ― Mahatma Gandhi

“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” ― Oscar Wilde


"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." -Robert Frost

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”   -St. Augustine of Hippo

Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

These are great for upper grades to reflect on and write about in any class! Perhaps you need a writing prompt for a monotonous Monday to spice things up a bit? Happy Day!

What is your favorite quote? Please let us know so we can add it to our points to ponder!! 

A Series of Educational Sites: "C"

Wonderopolis!

http://wonderopolis.org/

By the National Center for Family Literacy!

I am an email subscribed reader and enjoy the “Wonder of the Day” on this site…it’s pretty cool!

For Example:

4/26/12   #571

Should You Believe Everything You Hear?

4/25/12   #570

How Fast Can a Nose Run?

Some of these daily wonder posts come with  pictures, videos, etc. Many "Wonders" are quite informative and most useful, and others are totally unique in that they include cool points to ponder or interesting tidbits to learn! I love the Wonder "Why is it so fun to monkey around?" (I adore animals if you didn't already know!) It’s like a small dose of “Get your brain exercising…” that never hurts any of us to get on a daily basis!

There’s even a Twitter Wonderfeed: @wonderopolis

So, Question: What is something (maybe bizarre or truly mysterious) that you have always wondered? 

Imagine all of the journal prompts and creative writing activities you could do in class just with this as a springboard! 

You can download this printable for FREE in my TpT Store or directly from GoogleDocs! 

Wonderopolis Writing Prompt PDF

Please tell us in a comment below! I’m sure someone will either have wondered the same or become entirely curious too!

Have a great day! 

Teaching Allegories by Writing Allegories

"Using Picture Books to Teach Allegory..." post on March 21st promised a follow up with student samples. I've finally gotten a chance to take pictures of some of the allegories my students wrote. Then,  I had to email them to myself, etc. You know the drill-as far as getting pics on your computer! 


I have tons of great student work, but here are 5 snippets. After I'd taken pictures, one of my students brought in a POP-UP Children's Book---Allegory with Waffles as characters! How stinkin' cute is that?  He spent hours, and it showed! I will have to be sure to get a picture of it too! 

Poster Display with Allegory Attached

Poster Display With Allegory Attached

                           

                                     

This one is a page in the children's book one of my students created.
Crayons were her Springboard!

Poster Display with Allegory Attached.

                                                                                  

Snippet of Cover for Another Allegory!

Hope you like these! Quite of a variety of approaches were taken for this activity, and I was impressed with the results. 

Regards,

Wise Owl Factory's Video Gives a Shout Out to Teacher Resources...

I am soooo grateful that Carolyn Wilhelm of Wise Owl Factory featured a product of mine, found on my blog and in TpT and TN Stores, in her you tube video about the Pinterest board "Featured on We Teach!" Various other bloggers/teacher-authors' products are mentioned as well! It's totally worth your time to view video and check out the products!

Visit the "Featured on We Teach" Pinterest board here!

If you are not yet a member of We Teach, it is a great place to connect/collaborate with many teachers and bloggers, and other great people!
Thank you so much, Carolyn Wilhelm!
Check out the video below and feel free to comment to tell me what you think!

The product of mine she mentions in the video is my free Persuasive Essay Research Organizer Pack! Please download it and use as you see fit!

Have a great rest of the week!!