300 Follower Giveaway!

This teacher blogging world has been an amazing journey for me!  Recently I hit a big milestone with 300 followers on bloglovin and 333 followers on Teachers Pay Teachers.  While I was amazed, honored, and humbled to have that many people interested in what I have to say about teaching, I was even more humbled when over 60 bloggers and Teachers Pay Teachers offered to donate to this amazing giveaway to help me celebrate!  I have divided it into two giveaways - K-2 and 3rd grade and up so there is something for everyone!  I ALWAYS giveaway a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Certificate each month, but this month I am giving away TWO gift cards (1 for each giveaway)!  Here are a few of the other prizes you can win.

K-2

 

$25 Gift Certificate for Teachers Pay Teachers from Me : D

$10 Gift Certificate to my Store 

 

February Math And Literacy Dice Activities from Kinder My Way

Sight Word Bracelets from the Kindergarten Pod

Winner's Choice from Lessons4Now

Winner's Choice from Differentiation-Station Creations

Winner's Choice from Grasty's Goodies

Long Vowels CVCe Edition: Magic e Strikes Again!  from Jenifer Bazzit

Winner's Choice from K's Kreations

Winner's Choice from PAWSitively Teaching

Alphabet Poems from A to Z from Kelly and Kim's Kreations

Winner's Choice from Kinder Bilingue

March St. Patrick's Day Writing Pack from Work Smarter Not Harder

Pirate Word Work and Writing Prompts from Missing Tooth Grins

Winner's Choice from Brittani Black

Super Bossy E Pack from Cahill's Creations

Winner's Choice from Mrs. Balius

Winner's Choice from  iHeart Teaching

Winner's Choice from Techie Turtle Teacher

Winner's Choice from Creative-Teaching Supplies

Roll, Add & Count On to 20! from Little Learner Toolbox

Time Savers for Literacy Centers 2 from Elina

Harry Potter Math Concepts Review from Bee's Knees

English Winter Vocabulary Cards from Doodles and Kreations

Emergent Reader - Can you See the Shapes from Mrs. Bearfield's Class

Winter Wonderland Kindergarten Math Activities from Ellen Briggs

Winner's Choice from 2- Scoops of Kindergarten

Winner's Choice from Kb3teach

Winner's Choice from The Kinder-Garden

Cookies CGI Word Problems from Brandi Wayment

Winner's Choice from Dynelle Dunn

Winner's Choice from Intentional Momma

a Rafflecopter giveaway

3rd and Up

 

$25 Gift Certificate for Teachers Pay Teachers from Me : D

$10 Gift Certificate to my Store 

Autographed Copy of The Adventures of Bob To Doodledip for Soup

Winner's Choice from Kelli Olson from Tales of a Teacher


Winner's Choice (Up to $10) From Fifth In The Middle



Cupid Shuffle Close Reading Passage & Scoot Activity from Miss Lifesaver


Winner's Choice from Looking From Third To Fourth (AMC)



Winner's Choice from  Janet Rainey



Reading Journal for Any Chapter Book from Sara Oberheide




Winner's Choice from Teaching 5th Grade in Georgia



Winner's Choice from Lessons4Now


Multistep Word Problems from Michelle Dupuis


Don't Write About Your Writing from Literacy Sherri


Making Inferences Mini-Unit from Brain Waves


Close Reading Authentic Literacy Instruction Manual from Melissa Obryan


Winner's Choice from  Mrs. D's Corner




Winner's Choice from Teri and Tiff's Creative Resources



Solar System Posters, Mini-books, Printables, and Projects from Vilena Hamilton



Verb Tense Spinner from Fourth Grade Frenzy



Prime and Composite Number Scoot &/Or Task Card Set from Winner's Choice from Lopez Land Learners



Parts of a Letter from Fun Brainy Days



Introduction to Diamante Poems from Lifelong Learning 



Multiplication Football Scoot from Teach2Love



Multiple Meaning Words Matching Game from Christina L.



Skip Counting Mazes from Vickie Fanning



Word Work Interactive Notebook for Prefixes and Suffixes from Teaching With Simplicity



S-Cubed! Forbidden Pattern Lesson 1 from Music in the Middle With Mr. D



Absolute & Relative Location Assignment: MLB Baseball Teams + Google Earth Tour!



Winner's Choice from  Middle School Math Moments



Winner's Choice from Mrs. Beattie's Classroom



Winner's Choice from The Bow-Tie Guy



Grammar Practice Using Any Word List from Third Grade Galore



Operations with Fractions Matching Cards from Mrs. E. Teachers Math


Classifying Triangles and Quadrilaterals Stations Maze from Mrs. E. Teaches Math




Nonfiction Task Cards  from Jennifer Dowell

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five For Friday - With a Freebie!

Woo Hoo!  Friday, Friday, Sweet Friday!  It has been a looong week for me, so I am happy, happy, happy that it is finally Friday!  And... time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

I started my week with this awesome Dollar Tree Haul.  I have a lot of great ideas in store for my kiddos next week.

Of course I will post about them as we use them!

And speaking of the Dollar Tree, while I was there I found these great writing process and editing posters (it was a 2 pack for $1).  I normally make a lot of my own posters (or buy them on TpT), but for $1 and a lot less hassle, I thought why not?  Plus the kids Loved them! (They are actually poster size even though they look small in the picture).

Our reading responses are getting a whole lot better thanks to our What Does Good Work Look Like lesson.  I will be sharing how the pictures translated to their writing next week.

And, fractions got a whole lot sweeter when we practiced Finding Equivalent Fractions with Hershey's Kisses.

I simply wrote fractions on the undersides with a sharpie, and they had to find the match.

I posted this picture of my students using their multiplication factors on Instagram, and they were a huge hit!  With my students and the teachers who follow me on Instagram! Here is the link to print them out - and it is a FREEBIE! They are pretty self explanatory to use, but I will be writing a full post about them on Tuesday along with a few other ways we have worked on those pesky multiplication facts!

And.... I am super excited because tomorrow I will be having a 300 follower giveaway!  Over 60 amazing bloggers have gotten together to help me celebrate, so there are tons of prizes.  I am overwhelmed by the fact that I have 300 followers on both Bloglovin and TpT - but I was even more overwhelmed by how many people offered to help me celebrate!  Don't forget to stop by tomorrow to celebrate with us!

Teaching Students - What Does Good Work Look Like? Thursday Throwdown

One thing that I have really struggled with is getting my students to edit their work and to edit the work of their peers.  They want to glance over it and tell me how wonderful it is.  Then they turn it in and the errors are basic and glaring!  Usually sentences started with lowercase words, horribly spelling, run-on sentences galore - you know what I am saying? Right?  Please tell me I am not the only one who has problems with students not able to improve their work.

Well, I may have found the solution!

I ran across this video awhile back, and decided to show it to my students to see what their reaction might be. They were amazed to see what a six year old was capable of as an artist.  I asked them, what things stood out to you?

Their thoughts:

                       "He made six drafts."
                       " He kept working until it got better and better."
                       "He persevered."
                       "His friends helped him to make it better."

My thoughts,
                    "If a first grader could do this couldn't fourth graders?"
                    "Could we translate this to our writing as well?"



 They were up to the challenge.  We decided to add some scientific pictures to our animal reports. Once they learned how to critique each other's drawings (and how to use that feedback to improve) we would use those skills to edit our writing.

Some of the students were clearly inspired by the video to research butterflies.

I was blown away by the amount of care that went into their drawings (some even pulled out their cell phones to match details).  Their feedback was amazing and clear too.  No one said, "It's great." and no one said. "That's awful."  Instead the feedback was clear and direct, "You need to angle this a little more, look at it carefully."  No one took offense to the suggestions (not even my most sensitive souls) - they all reacted by saying things like, "You're right, I'll go try that!"

And they did!

Here are a few other animals in progress:

Sugar gliders

Coyotes

Scorpions

Jaguars

We are still working on the drawings and reports, so I will share more as they progress.  I just wanted to share what happened so far in case it is something you would like to use with your students. 

 I am linking up with Erin at Loving Lit for her monthly Thursday Throw Down.  I get some of the best ideas and inspiration from these posts - I hope you do too!

How to Determine Student's Prior Knowledge

I found this info-graphic and I just had to share!  I love all of these ideas!  I already have used a few of these, but there are definitely a few new to me ideas that I am going to try out!


Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

Tokens For Behavior - Tried It Tuesday

I have been loving learning about all the ideas other teacher's have tried in their classrooms (as I hope you have as well!), so I am linking up again this week with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.

This year we have a new Vice Principal and she has been FABULOUS!  I may be a slightly bit bias since I worked with her at another school a few years ago, and she did write one of my letter of recommendations for my current position, but really having her at our school this year has been amazing!  When she first started at our school she asked us to complete a survey to see what our concerns and needs were.  What was already working and needed to stay in place thank you very much, and what we desperately wanted to change.  I really loved that she asked our opinion before making widespread changes as can sometimes happen with new admin.  Anyway, one thing we begged to change was school wide behavior.  Most of us had no problems with classroom management INSIDE our own classrooms, but, when the little sweethearts traveled through the school outside of our watch (cafeteria, hallways, bathrooms, recess, etc.) they did not always follow the rules or listen to other teachers or staff.  So, she shared an idea that she had used at our prior school and we agreed to try it, so this is my Tried it Tuesday share:

When students are out and about and caught following the rules a teacher or staff member gives them one of these tokens.  The trick is, we are only allowed to give them to students in classes that are not our own.  The student then brings the token back to the classroom where the teacher keeps them until they accumulate 100 tokens.

She got these tokens at Oriental Trading Company here.

We use this token jar in our classroom (to match this year's Peanuts theme). 

 I have added my own little spin by having the student share with the rest of the class what they did to earn the token.  Some examples might be:

                                      "I was walking quietly in line."

                                      " I cleaned up my place in the cafeteria"

                                      " I picked up trash on the playground without being asked"

I feel like this allows the other students to hear ways that THEY can be caught being good.

We also add some mental math practice by figuring out in our heads how many more tokens we need to get to 100.

When the students reach 100 tokens in a class, the class as a whole earns a special party with the Vice Principal during lunch where they sit at a decorated table and have a special dessert (ice cream, otter pops, hot chocolate, etc).  They also earn 15 extra minutes recess (that the teacher also earns extra time because the VP is taking that duty time! Woo hoo!).

I don't know if this idea would work at your school or not, but I could also see using it in the classroom as a rewards system.  I have seen Brownie Points ideas and this might work in place of that as well.

February 2014 Currently, Big Sales, and Big Giveaways!

Where is this year going?  I can't believe the school year is more than half year and that it is already February and time once again for Farley's Currently!

I think most of these are self-explanatory, but which one of the three things do you think is a fib?  Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see if you were right!

Did you know that Teacher's Notebook is having an amazing sale for SuperBowl Friday??  I have all of the items in my store marked down to celebrate.  I'm not a huge football fan myself, but I do Love a football sale!

(This adorable sales banner is from Teaching in The Tongas and she is having a sale at her store as well.  I LOVE her clip art!)

Teacher's Notebook is also having a HUGE giveaway where they are giving away 40 $25 Gift Cards!

The only thing better than a sale is winning a sweepstakes!

And speaking of Sweepstakes and Giveaways- I have donated one of my favorite items (Kicking It Math Multiplication Facts Fluency)  

for this giant giveaway from Rosie's Rambles and Joy in the Journey!

In addition, I am also hosting a giveaway soon in honor of reaching over 300 followers, if you would like to donate, please complete the form below.

And now, the truths and a fib - the fib is that I was the Student Body President in High School.  I did not start my political career until my 30's and I really am on the City Council in Fernley, NV! I was the youngest person (and the first woman) ever elected :D

5 For Friday January 31, 2014 - With A Freebie!

Can you believe January is already over?  This year is already flying by!  Time for another Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

If you give a 4th grader your cell phone to practice their math facts, they are going to want to take their picture.  And.. if they want to take a picture, you are going to end up with a few of these:

Maybe a book idea?  LOL!  Maybe not, but, I definitely got a laugh out of it when I saw these a few days later!

Last week was Luke's birthday, and we celebrated this weekend with cake at his aunt's, fun at a fun center, Dave and Busters, and shopping at the mall.

Too much fun!

I got happy mail this week with our newest funded project from Donor's Choose.  This project was a class set of How to Steal a Dog.  I love Donor's Choose!  Have you ever submitted a project there?  What did you get?  I am looking for new ideas for my next project.

I am also linking up for Freebie Friday with Teaching Blog Addict.

I have posted a new freebie, this I Have, Who Has, Groundhog themed mental math activity.  You can download it for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here or at my Teacher's Notebook store here.

I am super late posting this (it is actually Saturday!) but I have good reason.  I spent most of my night at Urgent Care because Cody has an ear infection and my hubby did this:

He tripped over some weights in our bedroom, and twisted his ankle pretty bad - luckily it is just a bad sprain, and he didn't break anything, but it wasn't a fun way to end the week :(

Don't forget to enter to win an Arc planner from Staples here.  You have a little less than 2 days to enter.  I absolutely love my planner!

And speaking of giveaways...

I am close to 300 followers on Teachers Pay Teachrs, bloglovin' and Teacher's Notebook, so I will be having a celebration giveaway.  I know that participating in other blogger's giveaways has had a big impact on my own follower growth!  In keeping with that, I would also like to collaborate with other bloggers and teacher stores for this giveaway.  If you would like to contribute, please fill out the form below.  As a THANK YOU for contributing, I will be giving everyone who contributes $10 worth of products of your choice from my store.