5,000 Facebook Likes Giveaway

I am always so surprised and humbled by how my TpT, blogging journey has gone!  Hitting 5,000 likes on Facebook was just one of those amazing surprises!  To celebrate, I am having a giveaway!  You can win your choice of gift certificates - Amazon or Teachers Pay Teachers.  Good luck!

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Show & Tell Tuesday

I am linking up with Forever in 5th Grade for Show & Tell Tuesday.  Just a little peek at some of the things in our lives and classroom!

As you can probably tell from my profile pictures and my blog, we have a lot of boys in our family.  6 of our own to be exact.  We also have 2 nephews, so up until August we were a boys only family.  In August my sister-in-law had a baby girl, and we finally had a girl in the family.  We visited them this past week, and you can tell my hubby is just smitten with his niece!

A few weeks ago, I showed my class the video, Cain's Arcade.  You can watch it below.  They have become so inspired to make their own cardboard arcade.  Here is just a sample of their work.

I will be sharing a more complete post once they have completed their projects, but let me just say, I have been impressed!

Two of our favorite picture book read alouds have been these two:

They are great mentor texts for writing and figurative language!

I love the erasable Frixion pens, so I was super excited when these arrived in the mail on Friday from Amazon!  They are erasable markers!  I am always making mistakes on my anchor charts, so I am looking forward to using these!  You can find them here.

TpT Chat Announcement

I am super excited to be hosting tonight's #TPTChat on Twitter from 8 - 9 P.M. EST!  We will be talking about productivity - because we all want to be more productive when it comes to our TpT businesses right?

What is #TPTCHAT?

#tptchat is a Twitter chat held every Sunday night from 8 - 9 P.M. for Teachers Pay Teachers sellers!  Be sure to follow Erin from ERINtegration on Twitter @Erintegration for the lastest news and info about #tptchat as well as to see the new questions each Sunday night.

How Do I Follow Along?

1. Log into Twitter Sunday night from 8 - 9 P.M. EST

2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #tptchat in the search bar.  Make sure to click "All tweets".

3. Introductions are for the first 5 minutes.

4. Starting at 8:05 I will post questions every 10 minutes using the format Q1, Q2, ect. and the hashtag #tptchat.  (Make sure you are following me on Twitter @kellys3ps).

5. Respond to questions using the format A1, A2, etc, - Don't forget to use the #tptchat hashtag!

6. Follow any sellers responding who are also using the #tptchat hashtag.

7. Like and respond to other sellers' tweets.

Hope to see you there!

Snowball Fight Multiplication

Are you looking for a fun and engaging way to spice up math practice during the winter? Snowball fight is a fun winter game that can be used to help your students practice just about any skill you can think of!

A few years ago, I had my students practice area and perimeter using a snowball fight type activity. You can read about that activity here.  But, for some reason, even though my students LOVED it, I never repeated the activity.  Well, that was until I ran across this post from Teaching Maddeness.  In the post, she talked about using snowball fight learning to help her students practice multi-digit addition.

Well, my students were working on double digit multiplication before the Christmas break, and I wanted a fun way to review what we had learned.  So, I downloaded her activity, but modified it for my class. Amanda has this freebie available in her store here.

Her set comes with pre-made numbers that you simply print off.  Alternatively, you can have your students write the numbers on papers themselves, but I found that her numbers gave a larger variety than what my students might have written on their own.  Besides, I think hers are cuter!

All the students had to do was crumple them up and ...

FIRE!

They were quite excited to hear that their teacher was ALLOWING them to throw things in class.

They each had to grab one snowball and return to meet with their partner.  They each unwrapped their snowball and multiplied the numbers together.  I asked each partner to first solve by themselves, and then check with their partner.  If they both had the same answer, they stood up for the next round.  If they had different answers, they needed to talk about it and figure out who was correct.

I was able to differentiate for those students who are still struggling, by having them add or subtract.

After the activity, I simply collected the snowballs for the next time!

What other variations of this activity can you think of?  Let me know in the comments below.

Before you go, head on over to our giveaway page to enter our current giveaway!  Every week one lucky winner gets a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card! 

New Year's Resolutions Blog Hop

The Classroom Clique is bringing to you a fun little hop filled with some of our resolutions for the New Year and a few freebies for you as well!  Nothing like starting out the new year with a set of FREE resources for your class!

My resolution for myself is to sleep more.  I get up super early in the morning (4:30 AM) to get things done, and then no matter how many times I tell myself I am going to go to bed early, I stay up way too late.  The result is a crankier me than I would like.  So, I need to be getting 7 to 8 hours each night - no excuses!

My resolution to my family is to turn off the technology from time to time to connect with each other.  With a TpT store, a blog and a teaching career (Pinterest anyone? LOL), I am often quite connected to the internet at ALL TIMES.  I feel like occasionally my family gets the short end of the stick when it comes to quality time with me, and I want to change that this year.  I also have tween, teen, and adult children, so they also need to unplug from time to time.

My resolution for my class is to enjoy things more.  Because I teach in a tested grade, I feel like I am often stressed about testing and test scores.  I want to just enjoy my students for who they are rather than a set of data.  I want to laugh at their jokes, make time for their stories, and marvel at their curiosity.

I love using cooperative learning strategies in my classroom, so I have created this solve and switch activity for you.  I have included 12 double digit multiplication task cards, but you can use it with any set of task cards.

You can download this freebie here.

Don't forget to visit my other friends in the hop to collect even more freebies! Hope 2016 is your best year yet!

An InLinkz Link-up

January 2016 Monthly $75 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway!

Yes, you read that title correctly!  My monthly $25 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card giveaway has morphed into a $75 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card giveaway!  Why?  Because I love gifting my teacher readers, and I have had a little help from my friends!



Ten of my Teachers Pay Teachers friends and I have come together to make this giveaway even better!  Each month we will be giving away a $75 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift card!!!  What a sweet prize!  You can enter this month's giveaway using the Rafflecopter below.  Then, remember to check back each month for another chance to win!

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January 2016 Pinterest Pick 3 Linky

If you are looking for some inspiration for January planning, you have come to the right place! I am linking up with PAWSitively Teaching, Just Reed, and Inspired Owl's Corner for their Pinterest Pick 3 Linky.  It is a great way to find ideas and inspiration for your January lesson planning.  Here are a few of my favorite pins for January:

I love this writing lesson plan for having your students make New Year's Resolutions.

To find the original pin, click here

In January we honor Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.  I love this door poster, not only for decoration, but also for teaching tolerance.

To find the original pin, click here.

For more Martin Luther King Jr. Lesson plan ideas, visit my Holidays in the Classroom - Martin Luther King board.

We will be working on fractions this month, and I think this "spoons" game will be a fun and effective way to practice equivalent fractions.

To find the original pin, click here.

Please join me on Pinterest to see all of the other things I am pinning!

Visit An Apple for the Teacher's profile on Pinterest.

For more January inspiration, be sure to check out these other posts. If you would like to link up, add to the linky below.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Currently - January 2016

It seems like as I get older, each year seems to go by faster and faster!  Can you believe it is already 2016?  2015 was a really good year for me, and I am hoping for the same this year as well.  It is not just a new year, but a new month, which means it is time to link up with Farley for Currently!

We finally broke down and got a second game system which has helped eliminate quite a few power struggles and fights.  If I could eliminate the fighting altogether I would be a happy Mama!  If you have any ideas I am open to suggestions!

I am sipping my tea from a brand new Disney mug - my souvenir from our Christmas trip to Disneyland. We had so much fun!

We even got to spend some time with one of my older sons and his girlfriend.  They live in Los Angeles, so they met us at the park.

We definitely had a good time, but it was also exhausting!

Vacations are never long enough, are they?

Being a mom of 6 boys, I am always making sacrifices and buying things for them, but I never do things for myself.  That is one of my goals this year, to do a little more for me.  On the top of my wishlist is a new purse.  I have only bought Wal-Mart purses, so I am planning on getting myself a nicer one.  Any suggestions?

I head back to school on Monday, so it is time to get my head back into the game and get some lesson plans done.  I did get next week's plans completed before vacation, so I am hoping to stay a week ahead of myself.

Which brings me to my word for the year.  I need to be more intentional.  I often do things as they come up, sort of like a firefighter putting out fires sometimes.  This year, I would like to be more intentional with how I spend my time.

Hoping you have had a great New Year, and I look forward to sharing with you in 2016!