Writing Strategies Book Study Kickoff and Giveaway!

I first became hooked on Jennifer Serravallo's work when I read Conferring with Readers: Supporting Each Student's Growth and Independence.

Since then, I have read all of her books including The Reading Strategies Book which I have blogged about several times.

So, suffice it to say, I was super excited when I heard that she was writing a Writing Strategies Book!  I immediately pre-ordered it as soon as it was announced, and am happy to say that I was glad I did!

Just like The Reading Strategies Book, The Writing Strategies Book is filled with strategies that you can implement right away with your students regardless of their skill level.

The first 33 pages give a pretty thorough overview of how the book is organized, how to use it, and a few tips for planning lessons for whole class, small groups, and conferencing with individuals.

Each section or chapter is divided into "goals". The first few pages of each chapter gives a brief synopsis of what the goal is and how to know if it would be an appropriate fit for your students.

Next, is a list of strategies that can be used with your students to help them achieve that particular goal.  I love that Serravallo has divided this into grade levels, genre/text type, and process to help you decide when to use each one.

Each strategy is explained in detail with suggested teaching prompts and possible supports such as anchor charts.  There are also suggestions for further reading if needed.

Are you a Reading Strategies Book Fan?  Will you be adding the Writing Strategies Book to your library? If you do, we would love to have you join our book study beginning April 6, 2017.  You can see the full schedule along with the hosts of each chapter here.  

Feel free to link up your own blog posts or just comment along on the host blog for each chapter.

If you haven't already bought this amazing book, you could win it now:

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Momma with a Teaching Mission, Kovescence of the Mind,TeachingLife, Tried and True Teaching Tools,

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 4/6/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway

I just may have the biggest TpT wish-list on the planet!  I had 4,895 items on there the last time I checked!  😳

Even if your wish-list is slightly smaller than mine, you will no doubt love the opportunity to make it even smaller with a $25 TpT gift card!  If you haven't heard the news, we give away one every week!  Enter below:

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Trending Technology in Tennessee, Teaching Loving Caring, Teacher Gameroom, Hayley Wood, and Sweet Dee's Science Shop.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 4/3/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teacher Mail

Do you have problems with your students tattling, or just interrupting you constantly to tell you various stories?  Do your students need practice with writing?  If you are having these problems, Teacher Mail may be the solution to both of them!

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  


I found this freebie from Upper Elementary Adventures, and it has saved my sanity!

I printed them out on colored paper to make them a bit more festive and special, but you could just as easily print them on plain white paper if cost is an issue (or your students start writing on them like crazy like mine did).

They are a great way to develop both relationships and writing skills!

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!

 I would love to hear from you! ❤️

Have a question? Idea for a resource you might find helpful?

Be so kind and leave a comment below.

Weekly $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway

My blogging friends and I LOVE to spoil our teacher readers!  It is time again for our weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway!  Just our little way of saying, "Thank you!"

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Mrs Hansens Helpfuls, Trending Technology in Tennessee,  Southern Drawl, and La-Nette Mark. 

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 3/27/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Chalk Drawing Writing Prompts

Sometimes my students have a hard time thinking about what to write about during Writer's Workshop - especially my reluctant writers.  I have found that picture prompts can be helpful to get their writing juices going!  When I found these adorable chalk drawings on Facebook, I knew they would love them too!



I linked up the video to our SeeSaw account so that all of my students could see them.  You could also show them on a Smart Board, or screenshot them to print them out.

My students picked a picture and then started writing!

Can you say engagement to the maximum?  ALL 23 of my students wrote the WHOLE time!  That rarely happens!  They were so proud of their work too!

Would you believe this kid HATES to write?!

I had to share this lesson with you, because I KNOW your students will LOVE it too!


If you are looking for more picture writing prompts, check out my Writing Prompt Pinterest Board here.

And... don't forget to visit our giveaway page to enter our current giveaways!

Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway

Do you have a wish-list on Teachers pay Teachers that is bursting at the seams?  If you are lucky, you might win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Right Down the Middle with Andrea, TeachKidLearn, Patty Rutenbar, Mrs Hansens Helpfuls, Glistening Gems, and kelseynhayes.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 3/20/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

St Patrick's Day Bulletin Board or Door Decoration - Shamrock Shout-Outs

Are you looking for a St. Patrick's Day Bulletin Board or Door Decoration that does double duty as a classroom relationship builder?

For Valentine's Day, I created a door display, Reasons Why I Love My Class.  My students absolutely ate it up!  

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love. 

I wanted to do a similar idea for March - this time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Here is what I came up with:

I made a sign that said "Shamrock Shout Outs".  Then I printed a shamrock template on several pieces of card stock and cut them out.  I wrote various shout-outs for my class including:

Our reading stamina is improving.

Our behavior is improving.

We are so engaged in our Number the Stars Unit.

On March 1st, I hung up the Shamrock Shout Out sign and the first shamrock.  Each day I add a new Shamrock.

My students were racing to the door to read what the new shamrock said.  


I printed out all of my shamrocks ahead of time on colored card stock and will be hanging up a new one each day until St. Patrick's Day as a sort of countdown.  I am even letting my students add shout-outs to our door as well.

I have made a freebie for you just in case you wanted to try this project out with your own students. You can download it here.

You can start a few days late and add shamrocks as you go, or put up the whole display on St. Patrick's Day instead.

If you do decide to do this project, I would love to see pictures!  Please email me at kellys3ps@sbcglobal.net or tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!

If you would like to see the other months' projects you can find them here:

February

April

September

And... before you go, make sure to visit my Giveaways page to enter our weekly giveaway to win a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card!

$25 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway

If you are anything like me, you like a little Starbucks as a pick me up after a hard day, or a treat to reward yourself for a great day!  Well, we wanted to chip in towards that cause with a $25 Starbucks gift card!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Starbucks Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, MM Bilingual, Simone, Special Inspirations, and Kindergarten Is Crazy.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 3/17/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teaching Theme With Sorts

My students were REALLY struggling with theme.  No matter how I taught it, when I asked them to name a theme of the story, they would either rattle off the plot or give me a general theme with no evidence from the text.  Frustrating!  Here is how I finally got them to understand.


This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

I made a list of books we had read this year as a class, along with a list of common themes in literature.

I gave groups of 4 students these lists and had them cut them out.

I asked them to sort the themes with each of the titles we had read.

At first, they tried to place certain themes under certain titles, but they quickly realized that some themes fit multiple texts.  They decided to talk about one title at a time.

Here is one group's sort for Harry Potter.

And another sort for Number the Stars.

They posted their finished sorts to SeeSaw and were able to check out work from other groups and to comment as well.

And... just because I am so proud of my kiddos and their hard work... here is a little video of them in action.  (They love seeing their work on YouTube)!

Teachers' Pot of Gold Giveaway

They say March is lucky, and it must be, because I am participating in TONS of giveaways this month, so many of you are bound to be lucky!  This one has LOTS of BIG prizes, but your time-frame to enter is short, so don't delay!  Enter Now!

Once you have entered, be sure to click on my Giveaway tab to enter all of the other giveaways this month!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monthly $75 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway - March 2017

Every month we give away a $75 Teachers pay Teachers gift card, and today is the day!  Extra special because it is also my birthday! :)

Once you have entered, be sure to click on my Giveaway tab to enter all of the other giveaways this month!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Prize: $75 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher), 

Co-hosts: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher),  Teach with Hope, Amanda's Little Learners, Reading and Writing Redhead, The Literacy Garden, Teaching Biilfizzcend, Miss Pentagirl Kinderpuzzle, Heart 2 Heart Teaching, Mrs Hansens Helpfuls, A Place of Story, Kathryn Watts, A Plus Kids, Planet Happy Smiles, Ms. K, It's a Teacher Thing, Teachers Caravan, The Chocolate Teacher, Samson's Shoppe, The Corriganite Nation, Teacher Gameroom, Peas In A Pod, Patricia Hudak, Mickey's Place, Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten, MM Bilingual, Little Smarticle Particles, and Jackie Crews.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter form to enter.  Giveaway ends 3/13/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a blogger who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your blog?  Click here to find out how you can join a totally awesome group of bloggers! 


a Rafflecopter giveaway